Miranda...

[knightgrace]

The Ensign, Grade 2, was working in the Biology Laboratory onboard the Light Cruiser, he was very good at what he thought of his actual job assignment actually was.
He had completely missed the point.
He was failing, and badly at that. For he was stuck on a problem since gradschool... the life cycle of a particular Vulcan equivalent butterfly. He was very good at this study, but really nothing else.
His immediate superior an Andorian, was also a science technician, but grade 3, for he had flunked the Lieutenant test twice!
He had to knock on his friend shoulder twice to get his attention from his friend's attention to his latest attempt to recalibrate his Tricorder to finer discrimination.
The problem was, he was an indefferent computer user, as well, he barely qualified as a class C 2 computer user.
Most people in the Federation by his age, three years out of the Academy, were at the least C 7s... if not B 3s.
The Andorian was B 4. A little behind, but not very for his time in service.
The Andorian knocked him again.
Come, on, he said, we have to get ready for the ceremony.
What said, Tomas Zeus!?
The ceremony!
He started working on his Tricorder, again.
What most people fail to understand is the exact nature of Duotronics, Tomas continued to himself. It is a system with only two circuits, which, individually are totally chaotic in nature switching from being one type of circuit to another, in a very rapid sequence, forming over time, by going from one circuit to another a very powerful computer system.
Been there done that said the Andorian. The Andorian continued saying that twenty plus years ago, that this is why the communicators were transparent...to let out the radiation emissions, which was the equivalent of heat. The old style hand scanners, had much larger Duotronic circuits in order to handle the needed response times. Which in why the Duotronic Computer banks looked like something out of the twentieth century. But each only had two Duotronic circuits. Why due to the inability of handling more interference than with more circuits.
But by having individually wrapped circuits, Tomas, said, you have to switch out the individual crystal cards. Each one specialized to one job...

 

[knightgrace]

The Miranda class Light Cruiser and the Avenger class Heavy Frigate, were virtually identical in looks, and capability...but! It was the Duotronic IIs computer systems in each class example, where the actual difference showed up... The Duotronic circuits in each were different, very different, and that made all the difference in the Galaxy.
The Killer Bee support craft were in the same numbers, but release protocols were more suppressed than on the Heavy Frigate. Meaning that due to the operational distance of the Light Cruiser, deployment was more difficult at best. That is, that the possibility of having to replace the Killer Bees via Transporter based manufacturing, scarce use of Killer Bees, was the operational recomediation. And the Science Staff complement was different too. More science staff was the usual reason given...True that in a few instances Light Cruisers had more Science staff, but only when going out much farther than a Heavy Frigate wa general supposed to go, there were however at least two Heavy Frigates, always on the Science prowl. Hunting after possible threat forces that could be out there. Klingons did the same. Some kind of early warning is always required. Only two? Yes, due to the size of their patrol volume. But why Heavy Frigates? Nobody expected, especially from the Federation aggressive exploration.

 

[knightgrace]

The Ensign was studying his Tricorder, again, and even worse, not getting anywhere, but at least for a different reason, this time. He worked from 0:00 08:00, usually, this time he went from 0:00 to 10:00, and therefore was unusually tired, after a long shift. When he bumped into her, a civilian, a very beautiful one at that, he was just too exhausted for his Galante reflex to be active, his mental barriers were down far more than usual in a human... She read him throughly from that moment, no pretense. For once he was totally himself, and obviously totally exhausted too. He was unusually not being double minded, for a human. She saw his mind coming awake at her presence, something that she had never experienced before. No, she wasn't that innocent... she recognized the signs of true interest in her, undisclosed, instead of the usual out and out lust, that controlled the usual male response. No, this wasn't the usual, but as her attention started to focus in on him, she broke contact, and asked the Captain of the Ship for an immediate meeting, with him, and the chief medical officer.
What is this about consel? Asked the Captain.
It is about Ensign Zeus, Captain, he has a parasite, at least one, maybe more. There're killing him.
What?
Somebody exposed him, to a particularly nasty one, at that.
?? Looked the Chief Medical Officer.
There're not native to Beta Zed, Doctor, but we do know about them.
There is no Latin name for them either, because there aren't talked about, and most especially not thought about.
It's part of their nature...
All Beta Zed children are taught about them, via reading, under very controlled circumstances.
Why?
Because of the way they move, a telepathic encounter, is considered to be quite dangerous to both the infected party, and the telepath, involved.