Awakening?

Posted on 17 Jun 2023 @ 1:49pm by Lieutenant Commander Harva Taliborn & Ensign Kat Walker & Lieutenant Callisi Veera

1,795 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Deus ex Machina
Location: Fighterbay

(This takes place after the majority of Odin's systems are back online)

"Cargo transporter reading online, bay cleared, looking good. Lieutenant, I know you're - not a fan, so to say, of Ensign Walker and don't fully trust her," harva's basso profondo rumbled, as he poured over a PaDD. "And in this case, I'm with you. We know that - artefact thing - could affect computers, and we know the Ensign shut down under - less than perfectly clear circumstances. Are there any specific safeguards you want to put in place before we beam her airframe up?"

Not a fan. Don't trust. This case.

"I'll reinforce the firewalls and set up a dummy server. I'll be closing all ports of access from that bay except to lead into the dummy partition." and with that, Callisi turned to her section second in Operations. "Jacobson, find out whatever bay they're dumping it in and set that bay to the ghost partition."

"It, ma'am?" he questioned hesitantly. She shook her head, "Kat." she used the construct's name to describe what she was referencing, and Jacobson gave a nod. "Aye. My task is bay isolation." he confirmed. Things in Starfleet were soft, yielding, but Callisi accepted that. Her team was trained in both the Starfleet way of doing things, and to a point the Ts'usu way of doing things. Confirming an order was part of her world. Now, it was part of the department.

She returned her attention to the comm. "Is my presence needed?"

"It would be greatly appreciated. Two sets of eyes see more than one, and you're more familiar with the Ensign's systems than I am," came Harva's rumbling, resonant reply.

"Then expect me presently Commander." things transitioned to the formal quickly. This wasn't a friendly call to observe something innocent. This was a collaboration to safeguard the ship. She turned to her appointed second. "Jacobson. Alert me the moment anything breaks routine." and he gave her a nod. "Aye."

True to her word, she arrived in Bay 2 with all due haste, stopping in her trek only briefly to don most of an EVA suit. She held the helmet tightly in her off hand.

Harva was waiting when Callisi arrived. A nod in greet "Good to see you, Lieutenant. I've taken the liberty to set up an emergency beam-out to space when either of us says the code word, being Refrigeratorlight. Just a precaution, of course. We are after all dealing with an armed combat platform possibly compromised by a hostile entity," he rumbled. "Thought you'd approve."

"I appreciate that someone either takes my distrust of a heavily armed unknown construct of unknown origin with unknown motives a little more seriously then others. The Three Dawn Accord may seem untrusting to the Federation, but we'll recall them with fondness." she offered. She didn't dare speak the command phrase again, but acknowledged it. "Hai, kill code acknowledged." what a silly word. Must have been Terran. They had the silliest words.

"Ready on your say." she said, gripping her helmet tighter. "I've had Jacobson route the local network through a ghost partition. Will it stop an AI? No, certainly not one with faster response times than mine." ... Did she hold a grudge there?

"But... by the time it realizes it's in a ghost drive, we can respond accordingly."

"by the time she realises it's a ghost drive, we can yeet her into space," Silly terran words indeed. "Alright, beaming her up in three .. two .. one .. Energize."

The familiar blue shimmer of the transporter filled Ensign Walker's designated parking bay - behind forcefields, of course. The fighter appeared into view, gently deposited by the translocation beam, materializing in sight. She looked untouched, undamaged, just - powered off. A moment of silence, as the Starfleet officers observed the combat airframe.

"Reading ... zero AI activity. Zero power signature. She's inert," opined the Sirran.

Callisi gave the moment some thought. One on hand, a big threat was just possibly removed off the board. On the other hand, there were duties and expectations. "Low level energy pulse through the power feed. Gentle, like a cardiac massage. Except we're massaging something that doesn't exist." she offered, pulling out her tricorder to observe the craft.

"Hm. I'm reading it too. Not enough to account for AI activity, though," Harva furrowed his brows, doublechecking his readings. "Comparing this with baseline readings from a healthy system, at least," he added, flicking an ear. "I was thinking we physically disconnect weapons, communications and engines, then try to coax her into a boot cycle, see what happens. What do you think?"

"I think disconnecting the weapons, defenses, and well... essentially isolating the core would be a marvelous idea." Callisi offered, a nod to the Sirran. "I'm impressed you're demonstrating a proper level of concern in regards to this. I expected the Starfleet standard response of seemingly non-concern."

"The standard Starfleet response - I'd more consider it one of 'sufficient concern', but I see your meaning," he rumbled. "In this case, we know she has been compromised by a hostile entity. What we don't know is what it has done to her. I'll monitor from here if you want to disconnect the systems, if I recall there's a general breaker and fuse block accessible through a hatch at the port side, right behind the cockpit."

Callisi gave a nod, and once again found herself shoulder deep in the inner workings of a Federation fighter craft on loan to an alien synthetic intellect. She investigated the panels within, searching for ... "Huh, that's unusual." she intoned, poking her head back out of the access hatch. "The breaker here is already tripped. Must have been quite the surge of power flow prior to the shutoff." she returned to the task at hand, tracing power feeds until they lead back to the systems that fed the cube. It was just her, she could let this thing cease function. But, in the eyes of the Federation, that'd make her a killer. She'd rather not.

"There. Power conduit breakers feeding into the core alone are active. Try to re-establish a boot sequence. I'll stay here in case the system needs to be tripped again manually."

"Reading a power spike, within parameters for a full hard boot. reading activity - but it's - .. Strange. Stilted. Limite - oh!" Harva exclaimed. "This is - fascinating. You should come see this, Lieutenant," In front of the combat airframe was a holographic projection, but not like Kat's normal chosen avatar. This was a very simple screen with text on it. The text read -

"Weapons - unavailable
Engines - unavailable
Shields - unavailable
Communications - unavailable

When my AI core was being attacked and I realized my systems were being compromised I tripped the breakers for primary systems and performed an emergency landing, then shut down completely. Please keep the systems listed above physically disconnected while I thoroughly scan and rebuild my software from an untainted back-up and verify checksums and operating system integrity. This process will take approximately 9 hours and is automated. Main AI core will be offline during this procedure."

Callisi joined Harva on the outside of the unit, then paused and read the display. Crossing her arms over her chest more and more as she read. "Can't argue with that chain of logic. Keep the other breakers off, feed the core power. Make sure whatever tripped the physical breakers gets a medal." the cyclopean rabbitess mentioned, before bringing up a readout of her own to trace and track power flow. "I'm curious what could compromise its system, but even without language similarity, pull enough bricks out of a fortress and it falls regardless."

"Something like that, yeah. I'm more into the hardware end of things rather than software, but whatever that artefact down there was, it showed a remarkable ability to compromise systems alien to it. From what I gather it got pretty close to shutting down Odin as well." the Sirran mused.

Callisi mused, "A universal worm." she muttered to herself, unpleased with the existence of such before returning to the here and now, "Correct, the intrusion did a number on our systems. Nearly disengaged several life-vital systems before we got the system under control. Which was less 'we dealt with the problem' and more 'we kept shifting the system to force the intrusion to constantly re-attack'." Not her proudest moment.

"Hm. I've never enjoyed the feeling of running around, putting out proverbial fires. Just give me one fire to concentrate on, with a definite solution," Harva rumbled, leaning against a bulkhead and folding his arms over each other. "In your opinion, what kind of threat was that intelligence? Was it trying to understand and take over the ship, or just trying to shut it down? Did it seem intelligent in its attacks?"

"In my line of work, in my lines of work, I was never given the option. Though I used to be the one STARTING the fires so..." she offered with a shrug. "As for what it was, I couldn't say. If there was an intelligence behind it, it never bothered once to change its tactics. Proverbially if it turned left instead of right a number of times during the operation it could have dealt us serious, long term damage. It didn't. So either it didn't recognize vulnerability, didn't know TO recognize vulnerability, or it was automated. A defense... or the cause of whatever devastation was down there."

"As for its goal, another mystery. It started by shutting down maneuverability and denying us our capacity to leave. After that it seemed to prioritize communications and life support. If the goal was to steal the ship, not a bad way to go about doing it." she offered with a shrug, arms crossed over her chest. "No idea what would have happened when it came to magnetic containment."

"Either it never got there, or got there and decided not to fuck with it," Harva rumbled. "I'll take your words into accound when I put in my report. Speaking of which, I've got things under control here for at least the next nine hours. You're welcome to stay if you wish, but I imagine you don't enjoy working with our Ensign over here," he offered in a voice of sympathy.

"You could also put my report into account, if you need a copy." he did outrank her, he could just simply request to see it. This was a formality. "And, I appreciate the notion. I'm certain I have somewhere to be right now." she offered, not enjoying spending time as Kat patched her digital wounds. "Contact me if I'm needed, if you please?"


"Sure thing. Thanks for coming down," he offered a smile.

 

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