The Plan
Posted on Sat Mar 9th, 2024 @ 6:10pm by Commander Martin Sorenson & Captain Ewan Darrow & Lieutenant Njalia Sayffier & Ensign Evanora Drei
Mission:
Shakedown Shake-Up
Location: Nelson Sickbay
2748 words - 5.5 OF Standard Post Measure
Ewan sat in the chair he had 'appropriated' from the office meant for the Chief Medical Officer as he waited for the rest of the staff he had summoned to the Sickbay to arrive. Idly spinning back and forth from foot to foot in the corner of the sickaby reading the PaDD, he considered what was next. This kind of meeting should have been taking place somewhere else, ideally in the briefing room, but Martin wasn't going to leave the sick bay when their guest was knocked out and terrified of the holograms that the ship should have been able to use to assist.
It was going to be a small meeting, Ewan, Martin, Njalia, Rufus and some engineering Ensign that had been sent in Jack's place to strip the shuttle down. He had read the initial reports from some of the other crew that had been assisting, but to hear it straight from them would be ideal, and besides that he had another task for them now.
Having surrendered his chair to Ewan, Martin had claimed a spot in the medical consultation room that gave him a good view of the patient. But as he thought about the holographic display table that would likely be used, he left a mug of coffee to save his place and went to tap in commands to make the window one-way.
Njalia arrived with a datapad and a small piece of technology held in her hands. She saluted her superior officers. "Good day, sirs."
Since 'some engineering Ensign' was with Njalia exploring the shuttle the whole time, Eva ended up following the Lieutenant in. As the only junior officer present, but also clearly summoned to this meeting, she found a place to stand that didn't put her in the center of attention. That place ended up being by the windows while still having a clear enough view of the table and everyone else.
"Lieutenant, Ensign," Martin nodded cordially and produced a hypo. "I got a notice you required anti-radiation treatment."
"Yes, Doctor," Njalia said, changing her grip and offering her right arm. "The shuttle was a little hot but easily within tolerences."
"Better safe though," the doctor replied, applying hypos to each. "The pilot seemed to have been better insulated from it, if not from the kinetic effects of shuttle failure."
"Alright then I think we're just waiting on Rufus to show up, but he doesn't need to be here for you two to report," Ewan said as he watched Martin inject the pair of officers with anti-radiation medication. "Njalia tell me what we got from the shuttles computers?"
"Quite a bit about the shuttle systems and their flight plan, which certainly did not include coming here," said Njalia. "I am using a best guess system to work back from its sensor and comm reading both to get an idea of what it passed by on its way here and what was happening in the system when it left. It will not be perfect but it will give us a fuzzy picture of both."
"The other thing, that Ensign Drei can confirm, is that they seemed to be very security conscious," said Njalia, setting the compont she was holding down in from of Ewan. "No booby traps but lots of tampering alarms, it indicates, to me, nearly a Cardassian level of wariness about sabotage."
"Hey, sorry," Rufus apologized as he dashed through door. "I had to call up the helm-holo and make sure it knew what it was doing." He glanced at Njalia. "I know it should, but given how things on this ship were set up..." his whiskers flattened back with a grimace. "Besides, it's hard to trust something that doesn't have a scent," he added as he took a seat.
Njalia nods. "No, I understand. If there is anything I can do to make the holograms more . . . comfortable for you. Let me know. Scent is still very limited but if you want to come by Ops, we can try a few things." She turned to Ewan and Martin. "Sorry, sirs, problem-solving mode just took over."
Rufus nodded, though his ears pulled back. Artificial scent was not always an improvement.
"No need to apologize, Lieutenant. Your problem-solving mode is much appreciated." Martin said, offering a small smile. "Please, continue."
Njalia paused, she was not expecting to discuss this at the moment, so she quickly shifted gears. "I had been discussing the holograms and people's reactions to them with Captain Ajzure of the Tanjura, she was in Operation before command, and she had some time on her hands. Scents are often used to enhance the experience of a good holodeck program and, of course, a good replicated meal includes an element of smell. So, we were brainstorming on how to use those techniques along with the shipwide holoemitters to generate scents. We have only tried it on a limited basis but with an expert such as Rufus," she nodded to the pilot, "I think we could refine it into something helpful for people." She finished.
"Ah.. Sorry. I was unclear. I meant continue with your presentation on the shuttle," Martin said somewhat abashedly.
"Isi," said Njalia, her antennae quirking either with amusement or embarrassment, it was hard for a non-Andorian to tell. "Well," she gestured to Drei, "Ensign Drei can give you more information on the hardware side. From what I saw, I was impressed with their ability to adapt to Federation technology even if their technological base was obviously multiple generations behind."
Ewan frowned, that was not an assessment that he wanted to be hearing, not now. "So we'll at least be able to get a general sense of how close they are to figuring out how to use the catapult then from the readings? They're refinements on the wavefront, the power system and output of their generators those kinds of things? How detailed can we get on the status of the actual catapult they're using?"
"Within the restrictions of my understanding of the catapult system," said Njalia, "I think they are working it through trial and error. Their course records, if I am reading them right, was for a short hop, and they ended up here. That is a huge miscalculation, so it looks like they have a considerable way to go on that front. Especially as it does not look as though any of the telemetry from the shuttle was broadcast where it could have been received. It may have just seemed to vanish from their end."
"Hmm... That suggests they haven't worked out how to calibrate to graviton field strength, or perhaps how to control the tetryon reactions to prevent unstable power bursts," Rufus put in. "No way of knowing for sure without readings at the source, but a failure on their part there was a piece of luck for us." First one we've had on this shakedown. he thought to himself.
"So they screwed up then and screwed up big." Ewan said matter-of-factly with a nod, "That we can work with then it means we do have some time to formulate how we're going to respond." He leaned back into his chair as he looked between the two officers, “Our computer should…” Ewan paused then shook his head, “Well if its working right now, should help us interpret their data and tells us more exact information but that can wait…”
"For now, we need to look a bit more at the shuttle itself, which I believe would be your area Ensign Drei,” Ewan asked looking over at the young officer, “What can you tell us about the shuttle itself?”
The mention of her name made the young half-Betazoid snap to attention, both mentally and physically. Maybe if she made a good impression here, Eva could be on more cool assignments. But she couldn't word vomit, she had to be to the point. It's fine, just three higher ranking officers, possibly judging her by her response. No big deal. "It's got quite a few modifications made to it, sir. I counted components from at least ten other species, with the parts ranging from a conduit connector to an entire console assembly. Whoever made the modifications knew their way around these parts because they seem to be integrated... well, flawlessly."
Martin cast a look at Ewan. The doctor wasn't by any means an engineer, but he could put two and two together and it seemed to him that someone in the Republic with that kind of talent might pose a problem beyond simply destroying whatever had not been properly shutdown when the Federation left. "Chances whoever managed that hasn't learned enough from our catapult to eventually recreate it?"
Njalia paused and opened her datapad, quickly running some searches. "Sirs, it occurs to me," she nodded to Drei, "what with what the Ensign mentioned about the integration and the heavy inclusion of anti-sabotage devices . . . what if they have a captured Federation-trained engineer?"
Martin's jaw nearly dropped. "Surely we'd know, right? There'd be records of someone missing."
Ewan shook his head, "No, after we returned from the quadrant and our time skip myself and Yoshi got a comprehensive debrief from Command. We lost no ships during our time there and everyone was accounted for before the departure was completed." He leaned back in his chair as he thought it over, "However... it doesn't necessarily have to have been a person. A large part of the infrastructure was left behind as it was too large and complex to remove. The computers were mostly either wiped or locked down tighter than Data's..... well pretty damn tight. Especially the ones on the station controlling the catapult itself. Mostly it was for the possibility of a potential return to the quadrant."
"Theoretically it all should have been sealed against tampering and entry but we all know those aren't foolproof. The OS for the catapult was removed entirely but with enough basic technical specs from manuals and guides potentially they're trying to build their own." The Captain mused to himself and those at the briefing, "I won't discount your theory though, we'll get Intelligence to run the numbers and reports again."
"Just a possibility, if a disturbing one, sir," said Njalia.
"Again, not discounting your theory Lieutenant as its one if nothing else we need to check in on it and confirm that we aren't missing anyone," Ewan said, "If we are missing someone its something we do need to address, but regardless of that we need to address the issue of them using Federation Technology to potentially expand past their means. The Republic is not a friendly state to us, we cant have that happening. Ensign Drei, how much of our technology was used as a base for their shuttle?"
"A significant amount, sir," Eva responded. "The complete scan showed upwards of 34 percent."
Rufus' ears flattened back. "That's as much a concern as the idea someone from our side helped them. To use that much and integrate with pieces of other tech likely involved significant reverse engineering work." He wasn't an engineer, but flight ops had to know how to repair a damaged helm on the spot, as well as know shuttle systems inside out. Back when he'd been a fighter pilot he could have managed basic repairs on that too. But starting from something that should have been wrecked beyond use and patching it with bits from multiple other species... that would take a genius, or a team. Either would need a lot of support. "This tech is known to them now. There's no resealing that breach."
Njulia paused. "That may be partly our fault, and by our I mean Starfleet design goals, in making our technology and systems accessible to all of our myriad races and cultures, we have made it easily accessible and adaptable. With a proper technical manual or a guide who knows Starfleet technology, adapting it to a less advanced system would be relatively simple. Again, because we have designed it that way for crews who have to make repairs in less than perfect circumstances."
"It's not a bad design philosophy," Martin put in. He'd certainly benefitted since when he'd joined Starfleet his knowledge on non-biological systems had been largely limited to prosthetic design and some minor cludges for fixing old medical devices. It had been surprising, and welcome, how readily that had translated to the basic knowledge expected of all personnel. "But Lt. Marocain is right that even if we shut down whatever has been revived at the catapult, we may only be delaying another encounter. Perhaps by many years, but we can't scrub knowledge once it's been learned and disseminated."
"I agree, it is an excellent design philosophy," said Njalia, "but we need to recognize that it will lead to situations like this."
"For the short term, when we return our friend to where he came from his shuttle will include a data bomb and a little more," Ewan said as he looked over at the Andorian, "You're going to build us a virus that will wipe out any operating system they've installed in the catapult. Whatever OS they built on our hardware, or if they somehow cracked our own OS, we need to wipe it out."
Njalia looked startled at this request. "It should be technically possible, the code I have looked at did not seem to have the levels of redundant security that the hardware did." She called up some information on her datapad. "I will have to look at things from a different angle than I usually do."
Ewan grabbed his tea and took a sip, "The other part of the virus will be a bit trickier. It will require something that will be able to hide within the kernel or hardware somehow and get itself off the station. It will need to find any data it can on the catapult and delete it. Doesn't need to be too complex, just needs to work. Yoshi is reviving an old QSD probe that's going to be sent to the Delta Quadrant so Starfleet can plan a more permanent solution, but for now we have to delay them as best we can. How long will it take to work up the programs we need?"
"With access to OpsNet, I would like seventy-two hours, but can make do with forty-eight," said Njalia, her fingers dancing over the datapad. "I will need formal confirmation of these orders from both you and the Admiral. As deploying a virus in this fashion may well be considered an act of war by the recipients of it, thus we will need to have the proper paperwork in place."
Martin couldn't help but nod at that. His experience of them was that they would find nearly any pretense for offense if they thought it could benefit them. The question was whether war would - had it been a concerted effort or had this been the act of one clan that could be disavowed, as had been the case with the Director? If the latter, would it be taken as excuse to remove or reduce them, or would there be more benefit in using the specter of a distant enemy who had attacked them to rally the people (and keep the lower classes in check)? Honestly, both were a distinct possibility. He pinched the bridge of his nose - how did Dad do it? - trying to guess someone else's political maneuvering gave him a headache. "She's not wrong. I have no doubt they could consider it an act of war - if the situation were reversed, half the Federation Council would. And even if that doesn't, whatever 'more permanent solution' you envision may well push it to that. I think we need Ms. Cerin's buy in on that paperwork too."
Ewan nodded, "You'll have it by the time we arrive at the catapult with signatures from both myself and Admiral Minawara." The Captain said as he let out a long breath, "This is not something we take lightly, don't think we don't know that but this is the course we're taking. Questions?"
"No, Captain," replied Njalia, her mind awhirl with questions on how best to achieve these programs.
"None here, sir," Rufus answered. Others might worry consequences, but in his opinion, it was those big buzzards who ought to be in for the finding out phase of things and he was happy they had a solid plan for it.
