Why Do I Need Permission To Access A Relay??
Posted on Thu Sep 7th, 2023 @ 7:57pm by Ensign Evanora Drei & Lieutenant Njalia Sayffier
Mission:
Shakedown Shake-Up
Location: Jefferies Tubes
1210 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure
Njalia stood and stretched, it was easy to forget to move when one was doing system work. Doug looked up. "Lieutenant, there is a request for help coming in. Engineering."
Njalia kept at her stretching. "Put it through." As soon as the tone indicated the connection had been established, she said, "Sayffier here, how can Operations be of assistance?"
Several decks lower, Eva was on her back in some Jefferies tube, taking what was decidedly a worthwhile break from her current struggle to stare at the very low ceiling. After wasting about five minutes trying to bypass this silly access lock, she gave up and called Operations once she decided that her break was over. "Ensign Drei here. So I'm in..." She craned her head to glance at the wall, where the tube designation was printed. "Junction 4, section 6 of the Jefferies tubes, trying to fix some relay connections, and I keep getting 'Access Denied' when I try to access things. I'm a recent transfer, so maybe something got messed up in the transfer process?"
"You are braver than I to venture into those access tubes," said Njalia calling up information on Ensign Drei. "You are in the system as a crew member, all checks green. It should not be giving you trouble. Is there an error code?"
A brief smile made it onto the half-Betazoid's lips at the comment. She didn't mind the tubes and sometimes preferred to be in them. There was nothing like being left to her devices and her own creativity to solve a problem. "Call it orientation," she joked, before sitting up a bit to read the information on the stubborn panel. "It looks like... code 3025?" Squinting slightly, she added, "something about incorrect permissions?"
"3025 you say?" said Njalia calling up the protocol. "Oh for the goddess' sake," she said under her breath. "Is your chief there? It is a security lock left from installation. It needs the permission of the Chief Engineer, the acting commander, or a yard supervisor, who were are not going to find out here, to override. I am sorry, it is just a continuing legacy of these . . ." she paused biting back a more colorful term, "unusual permission structures we have been working with since this shakedown began."
"No, it's just me in here." Why would access to a relay have a security lock? It seemed like overkill. Eva pouted at the panel, as if the expression would magically solve the problem. "Does the chief have to be physically present to unlock the panel, or can we just... I dunno, give him a call? It seems kind of obnoxious to rely on one of those three people for something minor like this. They have better things to do than go crawling around in the tubes, unlocking every little thing."
"Verbal or keyed permission should suffice," said Njalia after a quick review. "I cannot find a note on why this particular lock was activated but I will keep digging."
There was a pause as Eva glanced at the panel, then at the imaginary spot where she imagined the Ops officer to be if she were there in person. "Uh... is there anything I can try on this end to help?"
"Let me see if I can bypass the lock, there may be a workaround," said Njalia calling up information. Ice Maiden highlighted a few potential fixes. "Isi?" she said and paused. "Well, according to the documentation this will work. Ensign Drei, you will need to use your tricorder to take a retinal scan, then use that scan and your security code to access it as an authorized utility worker and that should unlock it."
That easy, huh? Eva thought. "Copy that! Lemme just-" As she shifted to reach her tricorder, she promptly forgot about the size of the Jefferies tube, and a solid "whack" from her elbow hitting the side of the tube's wall sounded in the small space, undoubtedly heard through the communicator. "... Ow... tube's a bit small, hang on..."
Njalia winced in sympathy.
A few sounds of rustling came through the communicator, followed by a whispered 'yesss' as the engineer's reach for the tricorder was successful. Eva shifted onto her back again to have more space for the scan and configured the tricorder. "Alright, running the retinal scan." A few seconds later, the tricorder alerted that the scan was successful, so she rotated to allow the panel to use the tricorder scan, entering in her security code when prompted.
Then, she waited.
The panel looked like it was still trying to process the request, leaving Ev laying in the tube for what felt like eons. "So, uh, it's not not working... it seems to be stuck in some kind of verifying stage," she reported.
Njalia looked at the system. "It is, but why?" she asked, calling up routing trees. "Oh, I see. Give me a minute, it is trying to connect to the Stackdock system, which is a bit out of reach." She quickly wrote a patch and inserted it. "Try now."
As one to tinker with computer systems in her spare time, Eva liked to think she could generally navigate a computer when it wasn't barring her from basic access. The "tech support" realm, however, was just enough out of her expertise that only the non-tech words the Ops officer relayed made any sense. "Trying again..." The computer angrily beeped this time, and she groaned as she read the message. "Seriously? I have to do the retina scan again?? Wow, they really didn't make this easy."
"Welcome to the technological wonder that is the Inquiry-class," said Njalia. "When all of the bugs are worked out, it will be quite a good ship to serve on."
"I hope so." Once the new scan was finished, the young engineer tried the scan/access code combo again, and waited. Again. Eva almost spoke up to report that it wasn’t working, but then the screen changed, and she read the output. "Like threading the canyon!" She cheerfully reported. In that brief moment, she forgot that she was probably talking to a superior officer, and that superior officer likely wasn't familiar with the slang used in the colonies. "Sorry, uh... ma'am. Whatever you did looks like it worked. I can access what I need to finish this task."
"Good to hear, Ops is here to help, after all," said Njalia. "And, welcome aboard. It is nice to have more non-digital crew about. Perhaps we could have a meal together sometime?"
"Thanks," Eva replied as she got to work on the connections. "And yeah, I'd like to share a meal. Maybe after our shift?"
"A firm plan. Good luck getting that sorted out and see you later," said Njalia.
"Thanks, see ya!" It was only after the connection ended, when another call to Ops could result in a different person, that Eva realized that she didn't really know who helped her aside from a last name. "Smooth going, genius," the engineer muttered to herself, setting down the tricorder to smack her forehead. At least knowing she was in Ops narrowed it down. Hopefully Eva had permission to access the crew manifest without using that silly workaround.
