Second Trial of Woman and Machine

Posted on Mon May 6th, 2024 @ 7:50pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Commander Dean House

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Current-ish

Together they passed the time mostly in silence, finishing their Deanwiches and chatting off and on. Bonnie had her mind elsewhere as she looked forward to the services and what she would be charged with dealing with after, namely her father's house and possessions. He didn't have a lot, not that she knew of at least. Needless to say she wasn't looking forward to going threw all of his things. Little did she know he had held memories of her mother left untouched for Bonnie to find.

Dean had finished about the rest of his two around that point. Given that Bonnie was being quiet, he already figures she must be in thought about different things. Given it certainly looked like they were going to make it. There was something else nagging at him about just how quiet she actually was being. Something she could get distracted with, oh! He could bring up them trying to upgrade Bouncing-Betty.

They were discussing the Bouncing-Betty when the console chirped, signaling an incoming transport signal. Bonnie's whole face lit up with excitement and she stopped what she was saying and doing mid-sentence. The signal was on an automated return so she had little to do with the console but wait, which she did with tricorder out and ready to scan.

"Well, yeah, but.." Dean stopping mid sentence also, turning his head from her to the console. Standing up from where he'd been sitting on the deck.

Within seconds the transporter lit up in a haze of blue and gold shimmers only a moment later to be replaced with a perfectly intact Deanwich. The smell of freshly cooked meat with all the trimmings permeated the air. Bonnie moved closer, her excitement and anticipation growing with each passing second. She scanned.

"The bio marker matches down to the micron. Tachyon traces are dissipating but initial results show only a time displacement factor of 0.0025. By all intense purposes it's as if it hasn't left the room." The smile on her face was evident. The hairs on her nape were energized with the possibilities.

"Do you know what this means?" She asked, her voice filled with emotion. But she didn't wait for him to respond, instead she turned and jumped at him, wrapping her arms around him in a big hug. Her body weight alone should have moved him backwards, but like Dean, he stood firm as if he had anticipated her reaction, so it was like hitting a brick wall. But she didn't care.

Dean just waited, not saying anything. Letting her read it all out as he walked over to where she was. He may or may not have noticed the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Actually, he was temped to step closer and reach out to play with them. That didn't happen however, nor did getting a word in edge wise. Smiling brightly at her new demeanor. Catching her up and hugging her back just as excitedly. He really was that excited as well.

"Right. We can go home, er I can go home, and face..." her tone shifted. "Burying my father."

His head motioned up quickly, "Hey, chin up." Dean did note her slip of 'we' and that was kind of a nice thought. Be it, say, with her, or just the thought of it. Could been one or the other, or both. "As much of a killjoy the reason is, you get to be there to say goodbye. Not everyone gets that gift."

She sniffed back a tear, he was right and she knew it as she lifted her chin, "Right." She stepped up on the transport pad, sort of pulling Dean with her. Reaching over to the controls, "What do you say, 24 or 48 hours?" She asked as she started plugging in the location information for the site controls. "We'll need a ship wide notice to make sure they don't leave without us, or... well... freezing to death would not be fun."

"Umm...I think 48 hours probably would be the better idea to go with," moving with her on the pad. "Oh yeah, we might want to let someone know."

Nodding to show she understood, Bonnie quickly added into the console a time for return, locked the doors and sent a Priority notification to the Senior staff of what they were doing, why and how long they would be gone. Most of which she had prepared in advance minus the details. She then pressed the last set of buttons to activate the console, stood with an excited squeal and grabbed Dean's hand. "Here we go!"

The machine pooled it's energy building momentum until the familiar sound of a transporter engaged. Bonnie and Dean disappeared in a haze of blue and gold leaving behind a silent room.

After an exceedingly longer than usual transport, the two finally rematerialized in the living room of Bonnie's fathers home. Dean gave a look around to get his bearings.

She blinked as her eyes adjusted, but what struck her first was the smell. Her father liked an occasional cigar, coupled with his love of old things, relics mostly, the house always had an old musty smell. She looked around and noted the silence in the space. The lack of his voice welcoming her home struck a chord.

She looked around and noted the time. "Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. Mi casa es tu casa. I'm going upstairs to change for the service. We have about an hour. " Her mind had left behind the machine and how they had arrived and was now focused forward on getting through the ceremony, the act, of saying goodbye. It was all she could do to put her head down and keep moving forward.

Since she was going to that, Dean took it upon himself to start slowly walking around looking at everything. Trinkets, pictures, books, heirlooms and the like. The decor, influences on that and who might have done the influencing.

TBC