Engineering 1st Assistant Ami Ursal
Posted on December 2nd, 1997 by Akira

Ami stumbled down the corridor toward her quarters. Today had been busy. Aside from her duties she was given the first assistant position in engineering. It was around 0300 hours in the morning. They had most of the damage repaired. Her eyes were bloodshot and she felt a bit sick. She stopped in front of the door and wobbled a bit on her feet. She blinked several times. The pictures were bleary, but she figured that it had to be her quarters. She motioned her arm and opened the door. Sure enough it detected her presence and she was able to walk in.

She had been sleeping in Engineering for the past several days. She hated her line of work, but she made every effort to do it as best she could. At least do it well for Mr. Akira. She stumbled over to the bed and ended up crawling up onto it. With a sigh she closed her eyes. This was not how she dreamed things to be, but she could not help it in this stage of the game.

* * * *

She stood next to Claude. That was his first name. He was her superior officer in a way even though they shared the same rank. She stood by him.

“Why would the tractor beam go out like that?” she asked suddenly. The question echoed in her mind.

“I dunno, Commander Akira will be down shortly to investigate. Go and check the engines for me, kay?” said Claude. She nodded and walked over to another set of consoles. She looked over the consoles everything seemed to be in order. She started to hit the keys but nothing happened on screen.

“Ami, help! He’s planning on hurt me!” it said suddenly on the computer.

“What?” she replied. “Who is?”

She looked around. Smoke was canvassing the room. The room was dark and the red emergency lights illuminated the smoke. The scene was ominous. She felt afraid suddenly. She did not realize it before, but in her hands she held a phaser rifle. An officer ran toward her.

“Come on!” he called.

“What’s happening?” she asked. She was yelling above the siren.

The next thing she knew Claude was yelling, “Someone ejected the warp core! Someone ejected the warp core!”

The doors were coming down. In a fit of panic and fear she shoved her way through the smoke and knocked several officers down. She was not about to give up and die, and she did not care who was going to die in her escape. She rolled under the door as the coolant tank burst sending out more gas and hissing noises. She rolled under and got up.

Immediately she was in the hallway outside of engineering. Officers were running in a direction. She remembered this vividly. They were all running to their deaths.

“Stop!” she called. She could see their dead bodies. “Stop!”

Suddenly bolts of light were streaming in from around the corner. Several officers screamed as their bodies were torn to pieces. Others were running back. She watched in horror as the corpses piled up along the hallway. For a moment she thought she had killed them in hysteria, but she could not tell. She blinked.

The smoke had disappeared. The bodies were rotting on the floor. She still head the phaser. She did not quite remember things correctly. She knew she had fired shots. She walked down the corridor. The bodies were being eaten by rats and maggots were growing all over. Fluids soaked the carpet. A symphony of eerie silence played in the background. The hum of the ship could be heard. It was not uniform and steady as she remembered it, but it jittered a bit and squeaked. It sounded like the conscious of the ship. It sounded like the ship was crying to her. The sound continued to amplify. She hated the sound. She had this overwhelming urge to heal its wounds. She needed to get to work.

The corpses were bubbling and rotting in front of her. She hated the smell of death. It sent waves of fear to her. She looked at the corpses. She looked at the walls. She did not remember this much blood and death. It could not be…

On the side of a computer terminal lining the wall it said, “Ami, help me. I’m hurt.”

She looked back to the corpses and they started to move and slither toward her. She was paralyzed and wide eyed with fear. They were coming toward her. She looked back at the message it changed again.

“I’m dying.”

* * * *

Ami jumped up. She held on tightly to the bed covers and she was sweating.

“Computer, what time is it?” she called out.

“Zero-seven hundred hours.” it replied, emotionless as always.

She sighed again. The nightmare had been plaguing her for the past week or two weeks. She could not remember. It was if the nightmare always existed. She knew that the events were exaggerated and distorted. She could see Claude’s face and the dead officers. She saw all kinds of messages written on the computers.

“Only a dream…” she muttered to herself. She walked over to the replicator.

“Computer, coffee.”

The computer did not respond.

“Computer, coffee.” she asked again. She would be miserable if she did not get her morning dose of caffeine, and after a dream like that she needed her coffee.

“Computer, coffee!” she yelled after it did not respond. She waited. Nothing. She decided to fix it at that moment and opened the hatch.

“AAHHH!!!” she fell back and scrambled away. “AAAHHHH!!”

She looked back in absolute horror. Inside, instead of isolinear chips and the regular hardware inside a Starfleet replicator, there was a health beating human heart connected to the fiber optic cables and arteries. She looked up at the computer screen without the notice that she was.

“Thank you, Ami. You are a kind friend.” she read.

“Ami.” it wrote. “Ami.”

She moved back away from the computer.

“AMI!” it wrote.

She could not say a word.

* * * *

“Ami! Wake up!” yelled Akira.

She jumped. She was staring at her computer console.

“I’m sorry, Commander, I fell asleep.” she said.

“That’s okay, I did also for a moment.” Akira said smiling back. He looked at the computer screen. “‘You’re welcome’?” Akira asked reading the contents of the screen.

“Wha?” asked Ami still uncertain of what happened. She looked at her console screen. On the screen the words, ‘Your Welcome’ were written.

“Well, that’s okay too. I talk to computers, but I usually kick and punch them along with my cursing. I get really pissed over these dumb things some times.” Akira started to walk away. “But you know, you seem to be very gentle. You seem to be very motherly toward this ship. I dunno, that’s what I’ve picked up in the last forty-eight hours of working with you. You never complain about a computer error and always try to fix something. I used to be like that to. Good work, number one.” Akira meant that she was his number one assistant.

“Thank you sir.” she called back. She looked over and repeated to herself, “You’re welcome, Atlantis.” she said looking a bit ashamed.