(Backdated) New Clothing

[tasha_yar]

Tasha stood in front of the mirror, her mind frozen in place. The mustard colored tunic covered the waistband of her black pants. Two brass colored pips on her neck reflected the light of the room dully. She was back. This should be making her happy, but she felt oddly numb and distant from herself.

Before she started examining why, however, there was a noise that was utterly alien to her coming from the other room.

"Aggie!" she called.

Comments

[agathaheterodyne]

Aggie... was completely focused on what she was doing. Was the noise her machine? Or maybe it was her, heterodyning. Since she was doing that as she worked on the large pizza making maid clank, not knowing that Percy would never come to claim it.

Dingbot Prime was dashing about, helping her build and work.

[tasha_yar]

Tasha enters the room filled with gears and metal. Her security instincts say she could be making something dangerous. The rest of her just marvels yet again at the tinkering. It's like some giant toy or set piece being made for some kind of indeterminate play. Yet again, she finds herself lost in thought, marveling at the handiwork.

[agathaheterodyne]

Aggie... didn't notice her coming in, intent as she was on her work, on the building. There was a madness in her eyes, a Spark in full fugue.

The Dingbot noticed Tasha, however, and stopped to blink at her. It waved, then resumed carrying the tool it was hefting to Agatha who took it with a quick barked order that sent it scurrying for another part.

[tasha_yar]

She turns to the Dingbot, figuring an answer might be more forthcoming from it than from her roommate. "What is she building?"

[agathaheterodyne]

The small eye opened and closed again, looking back at her, then it turned and went back to helping Agatha. It had no clue how to explain this to Tasha so didn't bother trying.

Thankfully Agatha, who was currently standing on the table to reach the top of the thing... seemed to be nearly done.

[tasha_yar]

Tasha considers getting her newly-issued type two phaser, but figures the type one concealed on her arm should be enough if this turns out to be over Aggie's limits.

"Wait. Got it," she replies equally to all parties; herself included.

[agathaheterodyne]

"Good," Aggie said, still working, "hand it to me? I need the three quarter inch heterodyne wrench."

Welcome, Tasha, to the role of minion.

[tasha_yar]

Tasha's a little too amused to take offense. Besides, this uniform means at some point the rolls will likely be reversed. With eyebrows entering her hairline, she hands Aggie what she thinks is the right tool and angles herself a bit more to see what may be inside this...

...She thinks the right word is "contraption."
A little archaic, but so is Agatha.

[agathaheterodyne]

She took the tool and lowered herself head first into the thing's chest cavity, though the open neck. There was a lot of banging as she Heterodyned inside the clank.

After a long moment, the front opened. "Three quarter inch cogs," she said, her hand sticking out for the required part, legs still kicking out of the thing's neck.

[tasha_yar]

Earth left behind the standard system centuries ago, and what ancient science education she had was on Vulcan. The first one was easy, because the wrench had been right there, but she's ankle deep in a sea of cogs.

She turns to the Dingbot and exaggerated a shrug, not wanting to ask, to Aggie, would be a stupid question.

[agathaheterodyne]

The dingbot dug around and pulled out the cogs, handing them to Tasha solemnly.

[tasha_yar]

Which, after a nod of thanks, she hands to Aggie, not realizing she's holding in a breath as she does so.

[agathaheterodyne]

She takes it, seeming unaware there had been any tension. "Hepler wrench."

[tasha_yar]

"Is this going to be awhile?" she dares herself to ask, handing over the wrench.

[agathaheterodyne]

She took the wrench, and there was a lot of banging around, a lot of loud noises, then Aggie squirmed out and grabbed the head from the floor, where she had left it.

Her eyes were lit with the madness.

[tasha_yar]

Tasha looked for the necklace Aggie warned her about. Yup. Still there. She takes the engineer's shoulders.

"Agatha, what are you building?"

[agathaheterodyne]

"Welding torch!" she declared. It was hard to tell if she was answering the question or demanding the next tool.

She pulled free and climbed back up with the head.

[tasha_yar]

Not good.

"Agatha Heterodyne, stand down or be stunned!"

[agathaheterodyne]

"Yes yes, you'll be stunned by my creation," she said, affixing the head onto the neck. "Wielding torch," she repeated.

The small dingbot gamely tried to fetch it for her, despite it being far too large.

[tasha_yar]

She warned her.

[agathaheterodyne]

The blast hit her, and she fell back, tumbling off the chair, knees hitting the back, tipping it, taking it down with her in a tangle of chair and limbs.

She lay on the floor, eyes wide, head spinning but... she was still in the madness place....

"IT NEEDS TO BE BIGGER!" she declared, seeing how large it looked from that vantage.

She struggled, trying to get to her feet to improve it.

[tasha_yar]

One blast on setting one normally causes simple disorientation in humanoids. Two blasts? Unconsciousness.

See the madness is still there, Tasha fired once more.

[agathaheterodyne]

Her hand raised weakly. "Welding torch...." she said before her hand fell and she knocked out.

The dingbot spun to face Tasha, and dropped the torch, reaching for a spanner.

[tasha_yar]

"New order, Dingbot," she replied, checking Aggie's vitals. "Help me get her to Sickbay."

Damn. First day on the job and she has to shoot her roommate.

She looks back at whatever colossus she was building and hopes this isn't going to be some repeat of Kosinski's warp engine.

[agathaheterodyne]

The dingbot disagreed with that order. It approached her menacingly, holding the spanner like a weapon.

[tasha_yar]

It's going to be one of those days.

She tries a new tact, dropping the weapon and putting her hands up because she doesn't know what will knock out a Dingbot rather than destroying it. She still can see a half dozen ways to fight back around her, but she won't if she doesn't have to.

[agathaheterodyne]

The doors hissed open, the vent cover fell in and... a number of other dingbots flooded into the room. All about the same size, more or less, some rectangular, some square, most round, some made no sense at all. But they all grabbed tools and started advancing on the one who had hurt their creator.

The one that had been there the whole time was at the head of the (literally) small army.

[tasha_yar]

Okay, the good news is she didn't shoot. Bad news is they may or may not know the word she's indicating. "Surrender," she noted, with some emphasis on the hand gesture this time.

There was still plenty she could use in a fight in here if it came to it.

Also, where was Aggie getting the materials to build all these?

The stun was going to ware out soon. Tasha just hoped Aggie took to reboots well.

[agathaheterodyne]

At the word surrender a ripple moved through the crowd of dingbots, then half of them held the line, lowering weapons, but watching Tasha. The other half flooded over to protect and check on Agatha.

[tasha_yar]

Crisis managed for now.

"Dingbot, if you open that top drawer approximately 1.25 meters to your left and hand me the device there, I can see if Agatha is all right. It's called a 'tricorder.' It's a device for scanning material for scientific analysis."

[agathaheterodyne]

The dingbot in charge stared at her blankly for several moments, then a copter blade came out of the top of it and it flew up into the air, then headed for the drawer.

Yep. At least one of the dingbots can fly.

It pulled on the drawer. And pulled. And pulled.

And it is ultimately too small to open the drawer. The others made way, clearing a path so that Tasha could get to it.

[tasha_yar]

Which she does - while also noting the army of giant potential security flaws already in front of her.

The tricorder reports an odd difference in what she was expecting.

"It's like she's in REM sleep," she mutters. It's an odd REM sleep, but it's the closest comparison. Sensing the dingbots likely won't let her shake Aggie's shoulder, she asks one of them to try it for her.

[agathaheterodyne]

Instead, oddly, they cleared away to let her. They went from defensive to trusting really quickly, it seemed. Simple devices, simple programing.

[tasha_yar]

They don't understand the command, but seem willing to let her try. She shakes Aggie's shoulder, calling her name as she does so hoping to rouse her.

[agathaheterodyne]

She mumbled and tried to roll over. Something about chocolate cake.

[tasha_yar]

Tasha walks over to the same drawer and fishes out a dermal regenerator which she then uses to treat Agatha's mild burn wounds. She makes a mental note to have one of the regular security team check in on her and the Dingbots in 30 minutes after a second scan shows nothing has changed.

This assignment is going to make the old one look routine. she concludes before heading out into it.