<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9a/ac/13/9aac13acec7d0c12801da6ae61f4ab48.jpg)</div><strong>Character Name:</strong>Arik Soong<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Starfleet Academy, his old office<br/><strong>Tagging/Mentioning:</strong>N/A<br/><strong>NSFW Warning:</strong>None<br/><br/>Arik was still having trouble somewhat coming to terms with the figure in front of him. It was like a legend, come to life. How many times had Picard saved the Federation? Yet here the man was, and furthermore there was just something... calming about the man, something that even Arik could feel like an odd sort of familiarity. It was like he knew the man from everything he had done in the public light, and almost like Picard knew him, or at least thought he did from his interactions with Data. Either way, it did quickly put the android at ease in his chair as he watched the man.<br/><br/>"Of course. Jean-Luc," he said, testing the name on his tongue, "I am very happy to finally meet you." For almost his entire life the man had been someone he knew of, who was higher rank than him. Yet here they were, technically equals though once had a mountain of experience under his belt and the other had none in his current role - or nearly done, Arik reminded himself, his trial by fire had already happened, after all.<br/><br/>He then listened as Picard spoke about why he was there, his eyes widening just slightly at the talk of pairing up Captains and the like, and the fact that Picard had apparently specifically chosen this.<br/><br/>"I am honored, Captai-..., Jean-Luc," Arik said, quickly correcting himself. His speech patterns always seemed to sometimes drift between something very human and something more like previous Androids might have sounded. Arik found that attempting to sound perfectly human took up a good bit of processor power, but if he let his subroutines integrate with the emotion chip things became much easier, if not a big more unpredictable as well, including occasionally stumbling over his words like anyone else.<br/><br/>"And I am glad to hear that the Enterprise is being repaired," he added, "She is a fine ship. I've perused nearly every one of the public Starlogs on her and from her crew, and I believe she is definitely highly valued by all who have served onboard."<br/><br/>"As for the Redemption," he continued, "I must say that I am quite looking forward to it. A new ship is a big responsibility, and the capabilities certainly far exceed those of the<em>Thomas Paine</em>. I am... excited to put the Redemption through its paces." Arik looked over Picard's face, still pondering the man's timely arrival. "Do you have any advice?" he asked, realizing the question was rather open ended considering their crews, ships, and missions had a million different possibilities.