It was with no minor amount of relief that Katriel delivered the motion capture suit back into the arms of Doctor Lake’s aide, who wordlessly rushed it off to a console to process. Katriel watched for a moment longer, trepidation increasing.
“How utterly fascinating,” Kkovug’s fluid baritone sounded out. The Betazoid glanced over to see the Kindred’s Chief Medical Officer inspecting her hologram with wide, fascinated eyes. He leaned forward, with his hands clasped behind his back, as he paced around the still form of photonic-Katriel. “They’ve quite captured your look, I think.”
Katriel suppressed a wince at the thought, but held her tongue as Kkovug and principal surgeon Emryd Kjorr carried on with their intense inspection of holo-Katriel’s flaws.
“I don’t know,” Kjorr temporized in his teasing tenor, as he retreated a step and craned his neck backwards, as if distance would provide a better lens. “She looks less … something. Overworked, perhaps?” He snapped his fingers. “That’s it. Your hologram looks far better rested. And her hair might not be blue enough. They do know your hair is blue, right?”
Whatever rejoinder Katriel might’ve made died in her throat as Doctor Lake pushed her gently towards one of the desk consoles. Her collected soprano began to explain. “While we’re parsing through the motion capture data, we may as well get started on the next step: voice print.”
Katriel was personally quite impressed by how quickly it seemed that her voice fled her at that instant, as the Doctor maneuvered her into position and set up the recording mechanism. She had to clear her throat a bit in order to get out her question. “And how does this work, exactly?”
“As with the motion capture, we will not be satisfied with anything but the most complete sample and record. You will need to speak uninterrupted for some length of time, so monologue only, no conversation. The program will assess if you’ve covered the entire gamut of samples that we will require, at the end.”
The Counselor nodded once. “Does it matter what I talk about?”
“Not in the least,” the Doctor reassured. “It should be in a speaking voice, however, no tonal singing. That comes later.”
Katriel shot the Doctor an alarmed look and was only somewhat mollified by Doctor Lake’s apologetic relax-I’m-joking smile. She internally sighed as she turned over subjects in her head. Talk uninterrupted?
“You could totally talk about the Maestro,” Emryd cheerfully volunteered. “Or maybe the time that you and Brian were late to that one fencing tournament because he forgot the --”
“THANK you, Kjorr, I’m sure I can come up with something myself,” Katriel grumped as she leaned a palm against the console, tapping her fingertips on the surface with a veiled irritation. Talk about herself, in front of this audience? Not likely. Summary of a Vulcan novella? An Andorian parable, or three? Her glance shifted over to the two Kindred crew members who had accompanied her to holodeck-A in their curiosity. She paused, then cleared her throat.
“Once upon a time,” and she had to keep her lips from twitching just a bit, as Kkovug shot her an amused glance for her whimsy. “… There were two sisters. Or half sisters, actually. The older one was dark haired and quiet, while the younger was fair haired and cheerful.”
Katriel wondered, briefly, if this was even an adequate method for obtaining a voice sample. She’d noticed that a person’s voice tended to modulate widely, depending on who a person was speaking with. Even the slightest amount of tension or unfamiliarity could make a person’s voice rise a notch in pitch. Katriel shook her head a little and tried to think of what to say.
"Out of the two of them, the younger sister tended to draw more attention. She possessed a naturally sunny disposition and everyone enjoys being around someone who is happy. But not only was she a pleasure to associate with, she was also intelligent and clever and tended to have opportunity handed to her on a plate.
"Much to the older sister’s dismay. Lei, as she was sometimes called, was a little more … prickly. More formal, a little more blunt. She was hardly unpleasant to be around, but her younger sister definitely tended to steal the show, so this was grating for Lei, who felt less and less sisterly affection as the years passed.
"Lei, in an attempt to distance herself and make her own way, went to Starfleet Academy. She did well enough, but her sister chose to join a few years later and seemed to excel just as much. Lei felt that no matter how well she did, her sister always seemed to be better. So blinded by her unhappiness and her jealousy, Lei and her sister rarely spoke to one another in their young adult years, though this was mostly Lei who couldn’t bring herself to be very courteous.
"Years later, Lei was offered a posting above the U.S.S. Poenari, as first officer. There were those that had considered it to be an ill-advised decision, as the Poenari had gone through two first officers already, both who had requested transfers after short time periods served. But Lei was ready and eager to take on new responsibility and to prove herself more able than her sister, who had achieved XO on a science vessel elsewhere in the quadrant. And whenever the Poenari’s Captain made a questionable judgement call, Lei ignored her instincts and continued to serve him faithfully.
"But during an escort patrol, the Poenari came under fire by True Way. The Captain was almost immediately killed in the battle, leaving Lei the commanding officer. They managed to repel the attackers, but when she gave the order to pursue as the former Captain would have done, the crew refused. The Poenari was at half strength and the civilian freighters they were escorting were also in need of attention.
"It was mutiny, Lei realized, and though she railed and ranted, the bridge crew refused to cooperate, Lei’s judgement called into question and ratified by both the Poenari’s CMO and head counselor. She was interred in the brig until the crisis was over, until Starfleet retrieved her to ESD and she awaited tribunal.
"In the end, Lei was cleared of any real wrongdoing, though her choices were ruled as poorly considered. It was argued that so quickly after assuming a role that she was not yet ready for, her decision to default to the actions of what her former commander would have done was really quite logical in some ways. But no commander would take her now, due to the stain on her record. The Poenari was ascribed a fresh Captain and it was not her.
"And then Lei’s sister came to see her. She had achieved Captain rank and was ready to assume command of a new science vessel, doing research for Starfleet Medical. Lei was both angry and disarmed when her sister asked Lei to be her first officer.
"‘Why would you want me, when I’ve been nothing but horrible to you?’ Lei wondered. And Lei’s sister just said, ‘because you are my sister and it would make me happy if we could serve together.’
“Lei had no other choice, even if she wanted to refuse, there were no other opportunities for her. But the two sisters appeared to work together well, even if they bicker constantly. Perhaps in time, Lei will have earned enough credibility to obtain her own command, but for now, they seem to be happy enough as they are.”
Katriel took another breath to continue but halted when a large section of the console lit up green. Doctor Lake stepped over from whatever corner she had been standing in and nodded a bit, reaching a hand forward to turn the recording off. “Very good, Commander. That’s all we need.”
The Betazoid made a slight face, but nodded. One of the aides helpfully handed her a glass of water, of which she took a brief drink while ignoring Kkovug’s speculative gaze. Emryd was less circumspect.
“Pretty tough luck for Lei, there, whoever she is,” he commented. “Not one of your patients or anything, was she?”
“Of course not,” Katriel’s tone was completely deadpan. “Just a little digging I did into Starfleet history, one night when I was curious.”
She brought up her glass for another sip but paused with the glass half-raised when a searing flash of anger brought her up short. Someone else’s anger, faint but distinct. Her head tilted towards the holodeck’s door, she listened as the feeling flickered in intensity. Someone’s getting chewed out.
… She’d have to look into that later.
