[Investigations into the ALF]

Lawrence swung his way down the main corridor of the ship, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a smoke. He whistled a jouncy tune as he congratulated himself on his recent expedition and subsequent survival. Not only that, but he'd managed to pull off what turned out to be some decent detective work worthy of a cheap holobook while at the same time

All these space pirates with their space training, he thought. Oh-ver, ray-ted.

The trip was turning out to be far more interesting than he initially considered.

Entering the cargo bay, Lawrence tossed the smoke onto the floor in hs path and stepped on it while sauntering over to the large pod they'd taken on from the derelict ship.

"Okay," he said loudly, clapping his hands and rubbing them together with anticipation. "Let's get this little show on the road. I'd like to identify Ms. Freeze here and then get back to some serious wasting time."

Jacob looked up with irritation as Lawrence came in. He did his best to hide it, although he frowned at the cigarette butt on the floor. "Mr. Bourne, if you can not refrain from smoking those things, please at least dispose of them properly. We have enough trouble keeping the ship clean without having to pick up after you as well." Jacob didn't expect the young man to actually care or respond in any positive way, but he had to try.

Lawrence looked back at his crushed cigarette butt and then turned back towards the large mechanic. He put his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath.

"Yes, of course," he replied without irritation. "I'm used to being places where they actually pay people to pick up after me, so forgive me if old habits die hard. Perhqaps an ashtray or two around here might be in order, I suppose."

"I guess we forgot that in the rush to get off the station before someone killed you, Mr. Bourne." Jacob mentally shook his head. Ashtrays, in the middle of everything, he was thinking about ashtrays. "Until we can remedy the oversight, I would imagine the waste receptacles would work fine."

Leeda rushed in, not quite running, but walking quickly enough to send the ends of her wrap fluttering behind herself. The overall effect was of an overlarge, slightly ragged butterfly, found incongruously in the sterility of space. "I apologize, I stopped off at my quarters, I needed to review a bit of information... I think I should be able to upload some more accurate files on the science behind this thing when we swing in closer to... well, in any case, I see you're waiting, Mr. Lawrence, so lets get this identification business out of the way." She moved to the unit and reopened the case lid, which had simply been resting on top of the rest of the enclosure, shifting it sideways to allow Lawrence a clear look at the face of the ALF inside the cryo chamber.

For his part, Lawrence just stood there, hands still in his pockets, staring at the doctor with a highly bemused look on his face.

The cryo liner was completely clear. Inside, suspended in a pinkish fluid that seemed almost iridescent in the bright lights of sickbay, was the ALF. Very female, very beautiful, very naked, and very familiar.

Lawrence looked down at the figure in the case and turned his head sideways as he performed a visual inspection. The figure, the breasts, the legs, the facial features, the hands...the hands... He sighed as if remembering something regretful and then looked up at the doctor.

"That's her," he said simply. "At least, it looks identical to the woman I knew." His brow furrowed. "Come to think of it..."

The playboy reached into the vat and dipped his hand into the pink goo, trying to get a handle on her right leg. He quickly withdrew his hand in shock, however, before his fingers could sink in all the way.

Lawrence shook the goo from his hand and remarked with surprise, "It's hot! That's not a cold storage unit at all. It's a heating unit."

Leeda looked up, surprised as Lawrence jerked back, then back down to the unit and back up to Lawrence. "Oh! Well, yes, its not really a cryo unit, its obviously been repurprosed, but it has undertaken the task of keeping this being in a suspended state, so I just called it... well, you know. I apologize if you were startled." She made a couple notes on her data pad, frowning as she thought of something. "I do rather wish you hadn't put your hand in there. There is no telling what kind of immune system the ALF has been equipped with, and if she should fall ill I might have no choice but to extract her. I'm sure you can tell how upset that would make our inestimable captain. Well." She shrugged, checking the readings and comparing them to the baseline she'd already established. "We'll have to hope the heat of the suspension liquid serves to kill off bacteria as well as maintain her core temperature." She looked back up at Lawrence, a quizzical tilt lifting one eyebrow. "Whyever did you reach in there to begin with, Mr. Bourne?"

Jacob could have answered that question. He reached in there because Lawrence was an idiot. Of course that wouldn't be the most diplomatic of answers, and certainly wouldn't promote unity among the crew, so the big security specialist kept his opinion to himself and waited for Lawrence's answer.

Lawrence paused in the act of beginning a sentence and raised a finger while cocking an eyebrow. He looked at the doctor, then back down at the ALF, then back to the doctor with a curiously annoyed expression on his face.

"Did you just call me dirty?"

He shook his head quickly with closed eyes and waved a dismissive hand at the issue while his other hand rested it's fingers on his temple, which began to throb with impatience born of suffering fools.

"Never mind, just please arrange her so that I can see her artichoke, if you please."

Leeda blinked, nonplussed for a moment. "I..." She hesitated, but she had always been the first to admit when she didn't know something, and in any case, how could she? The study of Duranaki physiology had always been a sketchy proposition. "I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean."

Lawrence rolled his eyes, and kicked himself for forgetting he was dealing with an intellectual.

"Her genetalia. Please arrange her so that I may inspect her genetalia."

Suddenly the control unit began to emit a beeping sound and a red light began to blink in time with it.

"Cryogenic fluid contaminated" A computer voice said from the control unit.

"Cause: Unknown"

"Type: Analysis incomplete."

Then a verbal record of the response poured forth in rapid fire succession:

"Initiate: Emergency over ride."

"Initiating emergency over ride."

"Emergency over ride inititated."

"Initiate: Core c connect."

"Core connect initiated."

"Core connect established."

"Initiate: Auto immune startup."

"Auto immune startup initiated."

"Neural response received."

"Core: Neural net online."

"Core: Boot sequence commencing."

"Core: Immune system startup commencing."

"Core: Boot sequence complete; Immune system active."

"Core: Idle."

"Initiate command."

There was a pause in the stream.

"Initiate command," the control console repeated after a few seconds. The unit continued to beep in time with the flashing red light.

A semi-confused Lawrence looked from the console to Leeda, then back to the console, then back to Leeda. Finally he turned once more to the console, shrugged, and said to it, "Show me her genetalia."

Jacob quickly moved to the control console, trying not to block Leeda. He ignored Lawrence as he tried to get a handle on what the unit was doing. It seemed to be reacting to the contamination Lawrence had caused, but exactly what the reaction was, he wasn't sure. So far it just seemed to be initiating some kind of immune response. Jacob just wanted to make sure it didn't get any more aggressive than that. "Doctor," he said as he examined the controls, "Any ideas? It doesn't seem to be waking her up, but it's reacting, and that might be a logical step." He hoped Leeda was more familiar with the system than he was.

Leeda startled when the unit came to life, surprised by the sudden whir of noise in what had previously been a hushed room. She quickly moved to look at the ALF, but she didn't seem to be in any distress; despite the sequence of commands cascading out of the speaker panel, the figure didn't move at all. Leeda listened carefully to what it was saying, moving to one side as Jacob came over but not taking her eyes off the control panel. She frowned when the sequence halted, then shot a dark look at Lawrence as he repeated his request. "If you please, Mr. Bourne." She returned her attention to the unit. "It would seem that some sort of automatic protocol has been triggered. Neural net online... and an immune system... literally, I suppose, some sort of command tree that triggers antibody release, that sort of thing. And a mind, she definitely has some sort of coherent programming, this proves it." She paused and leaned in closer. "It seems to be waiting for us to... do something." She looked up at Jacob, then back down, clearly torn. "We could wake her up, right now. The command protocol is open, we'd just have to figure out how. I'm not sure if I could get us back to this point again, without tearing the whole console apart." She smiled, a not entirely happy expression. "I almost feel like its cruel for us to leave her here like this. All that obvious potential..."

Jacob looked at Leeda with alarm. His usual calm demeanor had abandoned him somewhat in the face of her suggestion. "Whoa, Doctor. I don't think we should do anything like that. We still don't know exactly what this thing is. She may have potential, but for what? She could be some kind of assassin or living weapon or something. We need to shut her down, at least until we learn more." Jacob took a deep breath. When he continued, his voice was once again soft and calm. "I don't really think this is the time or place for experiments, Doctor."

Leeda made a sharp gesture, picking up her pad again with a subvocalized note of annoyance. "But it doesn't have to be an experiment... I'm such a fool, in all the excitement, I forgot that I can just get the information I need from the network... the Meridian net, we're finally in range, and I can access whatever they have on the ALF." She punched away quickly, cursing herself for letting Lawrence's antics distract her from her goal, to discover the true purpose of the woman... the ALF in the cryo unit. "Just give me a minute... there might even be a way to access her programming without turning her on, so we *could* know what she was... built for." She didn't look up at Jacob, not wanting to see the concern or disapproval on his face.

Jacob was nervous. He was an expert in security and knew a little about electronics. That gave him a basic understanding of what Leeda was talking about, but not much more than that. The idea of making a person and programming her like a computer was too strange for him to follow. The big man realized his only option was to trust the doctor and do what he could. While she looked for information, he carefully monitored the power flow and other systems of the unit, watching for any information.

Whether a survival instinct or something else, Lawrence did something he almost never did: he reacted physically. His hand reached out and quickly grabbed the PDA in the doctor's hand without snatching it away, merely bringing her activity to a halt.

"No...wait..." He was clearly still trying to figure out his own actions himself, but he thought them through out loud while retaining his holding action on the doctor's PDA.

"Consider...we're involved in a war, for all intents and purposes, involving factions of the most powerful order with unlimited reach and resources. This thing in the case is beyond secret. A family was murdered for reasons we're still not even sure of. You start poking around a public net asking questions...no, that's bad."

He looked at Jacob. "That's bad, right?"

Leeda rolled her eyes and moved her pad out from under Lawrence's hand. "You obviously think me far less intelligent than I deserve. I have no intention of poking about looking for information or asking questions about *this* ALF. For one thing, yes, that would be bad, there's nothing in the way of security protecting my or this ship's identity, and, again, I'm not stupid. For another, I highly doubt I'd find anything in any case." She glared at Lawrence, daring him to stop her again. "What I can do is research, which, as a scientist, really shouldn't raise any red flags for anyone. Whoever came up with this technology was also a scientist, and scientists publish their findings in the theoretical sense, no matter how sensitive the material. Its one thing governments the universe over have never been able to prevent." She smiled, though her eyes held a sarcastic edge. "Equations, broad technological specs, information on advances in ALF suspension techniques... these are the sort of things I'm looking for. Even something abstract would provide me with enough information to make the connections I'd need." She glanced up at the container for a moment, a small line of concentration appearing between her eyes, and slowly, the ALF shifted in her container. "There. If you can't keep your hands to yourself, find whatever it is you were looking for..." she shot another faintly scornful look at Lawrence... "and be on your way." She turned back to her data pad, typing quickly and muttering to herself.

Lawrence shook his head with regret at how such a smart person could act with so little real thought. As if anything to do with ALFs or science related to this thing wouldn't already be flagged. Any scientist which published findings even remotely related to the science represented in the tank next to them was probably under heavy data surveilance and she couldn't fathom it. This young foolish child was going to endanger them all. He sighed and turned to lean in close and study the ALF's privates.

"I hope your bad attitude improves, Madame Curie. Condescension and derision directed towards everyone who dares disagree with you is not exactly the best way to make friends, and this is going to be a long trip. Frankly I'd expect a scientist to have an open mind," he said as he looked, and then found what he was looking for. He leaned forward to study the small, snowflake-styled tattoo placed just east of her femininity. It was...no...it wasn't.

He leaned back and away from the unit, standing up straight again. He looked down at the smaller doctor with what now amounted to amusement as he looked a bit further ahead in his mind. He shook his head again, now with a wry suggestion of unfortunate circumstances.

"And I thought I would end up being the one everyone on this crew grew to dislike." He shrugged and swaggered off with a chuckle, adding over his shoulder, "I pray for this crew that your naivete doesn't get us all killed. She's all yours, Jacob."

"Um, weren't you supposed to tell us if she looked like the princess?" Jacob asked as Lawrence turned to leave. "That was why you came in, correct?" In the interest of diplomacy, and not getting into a fight, he didn't mention that Lawrence had already nearly gotten them all killed once, and that no one had to grow to dislike him, it just came naturally to most of them.

"It's not her," Lawrence replied as he passed out the door. From somewhere beyond, his voice rising louder the further away from them he got, he called out, "If you want my opinion, she's not half as dangerous as the other unconscious female in that room."

Leeda simply sniffed in his direction, restraining herself with great patience, she thought, and not tweaking his trousers so they fell about his knees, as she had been almost overwhelmingly tempted to at his ungracious words. One of these days, if they continued together on the crew, she and Lawrence were going to have a reckoning, and he was going to realize she was not the child she appeared to be.

Jacob shook his head, bemused and annoyed. Had Lawrence actually thought this was the princess? All Jacob had wanted to know is if it looked like her enough to pass for her. Apparently he had missed something. Or Lawrence was being his usual, helpful self.

The big security specialist turned to the doctor. "OK, it isn't the princess. Not too surprising, since I didn't expect to see her pretending to be an ALF. Now, can we shut down whatever our wealthy remora caused? I'd still rather have it as dormant as possible."

Leeda sighed and gestured to the unit. "I don't know how to shut it off, but it doesn't matter. I suspect when it goes a certain amount of time with no input, it will simply turn itself off. It certainly won't do anything else on its own, as long a we don't change any variables, like sticking filthy hands into unknown substances." She huffed, trying to regulate her breathing and calm herself. "In any case, I've found a couple of promising articles on advances in ALF technology, the sort of thing I was expecting to see in any case. I had a bit of an interest in Artificial intelligences at the University." She smiled here, her expression softening. "Something about that combination of life and technology. In any case, they're telling me some interesting things about ALF capabilities. Seems that these sorts of biological constructs have been theoretical for some time now, and some small scale testing has been done in various research institutions. Maybe even at my school, which is a subtle sort of irony, when you think about it!" She chuckled and waved her hand dismissively. "The point being that as far as any of those small scale tests could determine, there really isn't any way to increase tensile or muscular strength of the beings without obvious physiological changes as well, or mechanical augmentation." She glanced at Jacob. "In other words, if this girl was going to be anything like a physical threat, she'd either have to have far more in the way of metal, or she'd have to be scaled more to your size." She smiled kindly, to make sure he didn't take any offense at her words.

Jacob grinned at her, somewhat shyly. "That is one advantage to being a big fatso. Big muscles underneath. What about some kind of combat training? Could she be some kind of super-martial artist or anything?" He turned back towards the unit as he spoke. "Either way, we should probably close her up, just to keep contamination to a minimum.>

Leeda smiled and moved to help Jacob replace the cover."A wise idea. Wouldn't want an errant piece of lint getting in there and causing any more unscheduled program initiations." Her smile spread into a grin. "Besides, with these specs and tech info I've retrieved so far, I'm pretty sure I know how to hook into the system remotely. Or, I can figure it out." She waved a hand negligently. "I won't have to be here to examine the program matrix so why be here at all? Its not the most charming corner of our little ship, though the doctor in me weeps to admit it."

"Well, maybe next time we have a break I'll hang some streamers or something to liven it up." He carefully replaced the cover, then checked the computer to make sure everything was locked down again, at least as well as he could. He then turned back to Leeda. "Anything else I can help you with?" he asked.

Leeda smiled. "No, I think all that can be done at the moment has, so we should get back together with the others and relay our findings. I wouldn't want to keep you if you have other tasks to accomplish before the crew meeting."

OOC: I think we're about done here! Let me know if I missed something vital, GM guy.