Di-Agnosticism

[Tachyon 0]

“Di-Agnosticism”

Stardate 0506.23

Ensign Tandaris Admiran

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As soon as Tandaris got aboard Excalibur, clearly no time was wasted getting him involved in the middle of things. He had barely met his colleagues and some other crew members before the Excalibur was sent off on “tactical maneuvers.” Considering their course and the Excalibur's real purpose in the Gamma Quadrant, these maneuvers were significantly more than training exercises.

 

Tandaris busied himself by making sure that the cloaking device was working within optimal limits. One of the most important pieces of technology aboard the Excalibur, the cloaking device was absolutely essential to their present mission—the Romulans would not take too kindly to discover the presence of the Excalibur. And of course, according to what humans may call “Murphy’s Law,” the cloak was therefore the most likely piece of equipment to be fickle of temperament. The minor power fluctuations revealed by the last diagnostic were enough to show that its controls needed some adjustment at least.

 

Never having the opportunity to work on a cloak before, especially not a custom-built model such as this one, Tandaris had to work slowly as he grasped its concepts. Luckily, Admiran knew a thing or two about cloaks from some previous experiences that . . . well, they ended up with a large synthehol tab and two very unhappy Romulan prison guards. Suffice it to say, Tandaris was able to figure out the basics of the system. He was confident that as he spent more time working with Excaliburand getting to know her systems, he would become better attuned to her quirks and quarks.

 

While the cloak itself was working very nicely, Tandaris did discover that its secondary systems were in need of minor adjustments. For example, parts of its secondary cooling system had simply worn out and were in need of replacement. The urgency surrounding the matter was not high, as the secondary cooling system was rarely put under much strain and even then its components would withstand such strain for sufficient amounts of time. Tandaris made sure to compensate for the malfunctioning hardware, however, and make a note in the log to get the system repaired or replaced at their next maintenance layover—whenever that would be.

 

Having finished with the cloak, Tandaris once more doubted his ability to remain focussed on a single task. As a child, he had constantly demonstrated his transient tendency to walk away from something that became uninteresting. After joining with Admiran, the trait had become less pronounced, but on some days it was clearly evident. As Tandaris thought about this, he went to work on the lateral sensor array.

 

Doubt crept into his mind like the first drops of dew on a crisp spring morning. It crystallised, allowing his thoughts to be refracted through the prisms of doubt and fractured into thousands of mental shards that turned on their progenitor and pierced him. Nevertheless, Tandaris decided that so far, life was going pretty well. He was out of the Academy, he was on a fine ship with a fine crew, and no one had tried to kill him.

 

Yet.