Ensign D'Cyra Varati - A hatch in the floor
D'Cyra Varati
((Babbage Science Center, “Whispering Wall” Colony – Planet Imza-4521-L))
((OOC: Since it's already Saturday for me, I'm posting the sim, see below.😉 ))
Hopper: Wil said that this technology was being developed under the same directive as fleet mode – creating methodologies for sharing of resources between starships and installations… that they’d had some degree of success with Interlink, but we didn’t know how much. ::Raising her eyebrows:: Maybe the backdoor’s already been installed across the whole fleet.
Like a dam bursting, more and more potentially catastrophic consequences of this program flooded her mind. The only sensible response could only be: shut it down, and quickly. She was aware that it was an emotional expression. But such a system posed more risks than benefits.
Varati: We should actually shut down the system immediately and blow the whole place up! If you can read and control ships or entire fleets light-years away… phew… that makes the entire Starfleet and its systems as full of holes as Swiss cheese! I think I’m starting to understand why they wanted to rip out all the cables here! Let’s just hope that reactivating the Interlink-system doesn’t also recharge some emergency power supply… Commander Richards and his team must not bring the main power system back online under any circumstances! We have to work with the other teams to find the antenna systems and, if necessary, destroy them…
Yes, the feelings... but what could one do? "Wait and see" in this case would only lure the devil out of hell, not chase him away. She understood Robin's gesture, even if it was difficult for her to calm down…
Galanis: Might I suggest we address one thing at a time, Ensign Varati? Whoever created that entry on the PADD tried all they could to shut it down and it clearly didn’t end well. Abruptly severing the connection might even do more harm than good. We don’t know enough to go around blowing things up yet.
Great... that had worked brilliantly - not! It was to be feared that the system only needed a kind of ‘vitamin injection’ to keep running again. The engineers had done a great job.
Hopper: Alright, so it’s self-sustaining. ::Chewing her lip:: I get why our project leader had such a hard time shutting it down – assuming we’re understanding their log entry right.
Galanis: Whatever’s going on here, I don’t think it needs the main power supply. It would make sense for the science labs to have their own on-site backups, especially for something like whatever we’re feeling below us.
Hopper: Yeah. Add “spooky basement search” to our to-do list. ::Pause, thinking:: Well, it talks. Let’s try talking to it, see if we can just, you know, ask it to stop. ::Clearing her throat:: Ahem. Hiya, Interlink, this is Lieutenant Commander Robin Hopper, I–
Interlink: LIEUTENANT COMMANDER HOPPER, ROBIN. STARFLEET SERIAL HC-018-080. SECURITY CLEARANCE ALPHA-TWO. STARFLEET DATA ACCESS LEVEL FOUR.
Ha! The system was also rude! Who would program a cheeky program? Someone who didn't like their fellow human beings?
Hopper: Well, it seems like you already know me. ::Under her breath:: I hate when they already know me… Interlink, could you disconnect from the Independence?
Interlink: LIEUTENANT COMMANDER HOPPER, ROBIN DOES NOT POSSESS ADEQUATE SECURITY CLEARANCE OR STARFLEET DATA ACCESS TO DISENGAGE INTERLINK PROTOCOL ONCE INTERFACE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED.
Robin scowled at the terminal, it was not only cheeky and pretentious, but also brazen.
Varati: Well, what did we expect? We opened Pandora's box and now it's bitching like an unloved teenager... Maybe only the carrot and stick will help?
Galanis: That stream of information… if I run it through my PADD, I can slow it down and isolate any keywords, see if we can learn anything from it. I don’t think any of us want to end up like whoever left their own PADD behind that panel.
Yes, analysing at least some of the available data was certainly better than forcing cold, sharp metal between the thing's circuit paths.
Hopper: That’s what we’re here to do, Lieutenant. Get on it.
Miller: =/\= Lt. Miller to Commander Hopper. We have set down a Type-10 shuttle for you in case you need it, courtesy of our skipper. =/\=
Hopper: ::Tapping her combadge:: =/\= Uhh, thanks Independence – We’ve had a strange development here. Recommend the shuttle set down at our original beam-down site, outside of the colony… Standby. =/\=
A shuttle... well, who knows what else it might be needed for. But Robin turned to her.
Hopper: D’Cyra, our top priority remains figuring out what happened to the colonists. Since the CPU is on now anyways, see if you can tap in and find anything useful on who was here and where they might be now – personnel manifest, cabin assignments, emergency preparedness plans… you get the idea?
Interlink was one thing, but the station's regular LCARS was supposed to contain this data somehow. Hopefully, Interlink wasn't "intrusive"...
Varati: Aye, we should seize the opportunity - the more energy we extract from “the thing”, the sooner it will throttle back or switch itself off again... hopefully. If necessary, the generator is available again. You can "distract" Interlink in the meantime.
She sat down at one of the standard LCARS terminals and started the system. Surprisingly, it wasn't the current version, but an older one. That didn't matter, as long as she could find something useful. D’Cyra carefully scrolled through the directories: they were full of files, but all had a file size of zero—i.e., empty. What was that all about? You could have just deleted everything.
So she kept searching, finding more and more directories full of empty files. It was frustrating. Luckily, she found a kind of backup in a system folder, which had apparently been created automatically during the operating system update and had apparently survived the strange cleanup unscathed.
But the joy was short-lived: there were only a handful of documents, and they were quite old. A map that at least roughly showed the individual sections and a crew list—but most of the deployment times had already expired.
She checked her tricorder every now and then to see if there was any unwanted electromagnetic activity—but everything remained quiet here. Interlink stayed where it was supposed to...
D’Cyra quickly transferred the data she found to a secure folder on her PADD. Who knew how long they would still have access to the terminal.
Hopper: So, Interlink, who exactly does have adequate security clearance to – what was it you said? Disengage the protocol?
The voice replied again, as cold and monotonous as before.
Interlink: THE INTERLINK PROTOCOL IS DESIGNED TO RESIST EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE. ONLY THOSE WITH SECURITY LEVEL ALPHA-ONE AND STARFLEET DATA ACCESS LEVEL FIVE MAY DISENGAGE THE PROTOCOL ONCE INTERFACE–
Hopper: ::Talking over it:: “Once interface is established…” Right, okay, I get it. Admirals and Commodores only. ::Sarcastic:: Good thing we have a bunch of those just sitting around out here in the Delta Quadrant.
Hopper: Niev – how’s it looking? Does it actually seem to be doing anything harmful to the Indy or its systems, or is it just– ::waving her hand gesturally:: –looking through our drawers?
Galanis: Lots of start up procedures, network requests… it’s like we’ve triggered some kind of bootstrapping process that’s bringing something much bigger online. But some of these signals are strange - if these numbers are correct, it’s pinging something both below us, and around three thousand kilometers away…
Hopper: Three thousand kilometers…? The caves? ::To Varati:: Ensign, have you found anything in the colony’s records about those cave systems?
Her yield was shockingly low, but a lot of effort had been put into erasing the content behind the facades. But a few old copies were better than nothing.
Varati: Well, unfortunately, I was only able to find a few older files. Recent files were there, but they were empty. Pretty strange. oO Like everything else here... Oo A rough map showing that there are two basement levels and a few service shafts or tunnels leading away from the main facility. It's conceivable that the cave system begins behind it. But if it's that big... we could search forever with hundreds of people and find nothing. - Perhaps the encrypted file contains more information about the cave system because it was in the same folder. ::pause, scrolling through the saved files:: The map and an encrypted file were provided by a "Stros," and the crew list by a "Dr. Honkanen." Most of the colonists reportedly complained of psychological problems and tinnitus after a prolonged stay...
Galanis: Response
Robin rested her hands on her hips, nodding slowly as she listened.
Hopper: Could be worth looking into. But first we need to be sure we haven’t missed anything – including our missing colonists. I think our next move, though, is to poke our noses where we clearly aren’t meant to be looking. Let’s find the access hatch that leads into the underground level you mentioned, Lieutenant.
She hadn't listened to what Robin and Niev had discussed or discovered while searching the LCARS for information.
Varati: Oh, there's a hidden entrance? But well, an activated Interlink certainly wouldn't let us in through the main entrance... Then let's start looking, there's not a moment to lose!
Galanis: Response
The hatch was relatively unremarkable, built flush with the floor – only a thin line surrounding it and outlining the handle which popped up when pressed. Robin grasped it and gave it a firm tug, and it swung up and aside, revealing a ladder down into an even darker space below. Shining her phaser light into it, it seemed a short climb down into the ‘guts’ of the colony’s central computer banks.
Hopper: Either of you scared of the dark?
Everyone looked around embarrassed, as if no one had said anything. But in front of them lay the open hatch, from which cool and metal-smelling air streamed out of the darkness.
Varati: ::sighing:: That was sooo obvious... ::rolls her eyes:: Okaaaay, I'll go first. Flashlight, tricorder...
Galanis: Response
Hopper: For now, we’re just taking a look – seeing what we can learn about how it works. Remember, it said it’s designed to resist interference… Something tells me it won’t take kindly to us trying to force a shut down– ::smirking at Varati:: –or blowing it up.
She also knew they wouldn't be able to get in through the main entrance if the system was running. But it was such a remote and hidden station... whoever wanted to conquer it wouldn't have come in with kid gloves anyway.
Varati: Sorry, guys... I know I just get a little too emotional sometimes. Must be those barbaric Orion primal instincts. We don't have to blow anything up... at least not now. ::pause:: Perhaps we can better recognise where there are potential weak points during operation. After all, the thing is still in the development phase?
Galanis: Response
She carefully tied her hair back and tucked it into the back of her collar. Then she dug out her PADD and reviewed what she'd “learned” so far:
Varati: Let's consider what we have so far:
1.: A short pulse brings the Interlink-system back up... and even if it has its own power supply, hopefully those few minutes weren't enough to keep it running continuously. So let's keep it busy until it shuts down again in hibernation. But we don't know and can only speculate.
2.: We have a huge dampening field here, but it explicitly keeps communication and Interlink frequencies open. Let's reverse polarity or isolate these frequency bands, even though they probably overlap. This might allow us to somehow interrupt the transmission; as a workaround, it would help until a better solution is found. And
3.: Without help or an external computer, we can't analyse the data so quickly... but surely Aitas has Fureri on board?! The bot already provided us with valuable data analysis services on the Miombo – and it's definitely not Starfleet technology, so it's not susceptible to any backdoors. Since Interlink doesn't just read the data but establishes a dynamic connection, it must leave some trace.
Okay, this turned out a bit longer than I expected, but we should keep this information in mind, and it might be important for the other teams as well. I'll forward my notes to you. ::taps on her PADD::
She looked up from her PADD and looked at the astonished faces of her teammates.
Varati: Do you really think I always want to blow everything up? And the torpedo attack against Ravarj was purely defensive!
She grinned, but wasn't sure if the joke had landed.
Galanis/Hopper: Response
D’Cyra knelt down and rummaged through her own mission bag.
Varati: Where is it? - Ah!
Anyone who knew her knew what was coming: chocolate.
Varati: I need to recharge my batteries too... ::to Niev:: Since it's your birthday, you get to choose first! Happy birthday, Niev!
D’Cyra offered the chocolate bars of different flavours first to Niev and then to Robin.
Galanis/Hopper: Response
She chewed on her chocolate with relish until the bar disappeared.
Varati: Ok, after the little celebration, we should leave now before Interlink gets any stupid ideas…
She gathered her things, switched the tricorder to surveillance mode, took the small flashlight and headed toward the hatch in the floor.
Varati: ::humming:: inter-LINK… inter-LINK… meh!… what a big $#!@ THING!
Galanis/Hopper: Response
Tag/TBC
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