Caroline Trueman's Journal

27 August, 2435 - 21:05 OT

"The away team found a couple of occupied bio-stasis pods in the ancient city.  I took a shuttle with Dr. Macaude to provide medical assistance."

Caroline paused in her dictation, gathering her thoughts.  "There was some concern that the sleepers might encounter complications as a result of being revived from stasis.  Fortunately, that wasn't the case."

She remembered surreptitiously gazing at one of the forms in stasis, a beautiful woman with a bronzed complexion and tousled red hair framing an aristocratic face.  The stasis pods had created a sort of frosting effect against their clear hatches, but it was clear that neither of the occpants were clothed.

Naked aliens.  Should make a comment about that for posterity, she thought with a smirk, but eventually decided against it.

"In fact one of the sleepers demonstrated an ability to interact with us using the city's holographic interface while she was still in stasis."

Caroline had almost jumped out of her skin when an unfamiliar voice had spoken close to her ear.

Rather than greet Caroline and the away team with a simple hello, Isamura had said with a hint of amusement, "I'm glad that you find me so fascinating."  Then there was the pleasant sound of her laughter.

"Like us, Isamura is an explorer.  Somehow she managed to make her way into the city on foot, using a smaller version of the dimensional portal.  She is a resourceful individual."

She's also a bit of a risk-taker, Caroline mused as she thought about what to add next.  The stasis pods kept them from slowly dying of starvation, but there had been no guarantee that the Orion would return, except of course plain old human curiosity on the part of its new crew and captain.

"Commander Ford thinks that she's a liability.  I tend to disagree, I think that seeing as we are all far from home, we need to use all the resources at our disposal."

The way Dr. Macaude had explained it, Isamura had the ability to naturally interface with the alien technology without requiring a neural transceiver.  That was a very handy ability, considering that there were only a handful of officers or crew on the Orion mission who could successfully interface.

"I believe that with training, Isamura could fly one of the shuttles.  For now, she's making herself useful assisting Dr. MacNeil with her research."

Dr. Andrea MacNeil was one of the team that had investigated the Orion's computer systems during its repair.  Isamura was helping her to investigate of the city's functions by activating them safely.

One of the early drawbacks identified with the neural interface was a danger of sensory overload, but Isamura's natural talent apparently allowed her to regulate the flow of information.  In turn, Andrea could make some adjustments to allow safe usage of those functions.

"Dr. MacNeil informs me that she is making good progress.  End log."

Caroline smiled to herself as the log recorder saved her entry.  She slouched back on the sofa and picked up her book, reflecting on the day's events.  Isamura seemed to vaguely remind her of the book's main character - a young wizard named Tara Morgan - but older and more experienced.

Isamura's technomancy put her in a class far beyond a wizard.  Caroline found it intimidating to be in the presence of someone with such power, but Isamura admitted to only having an anecdotal knowledge of the machines she could operate.  She also had a disarming smile and sense of humour.