Ensign Imril - There Goes The Tricorder
Chris Taylor
((Outside Water Treatment Plant - Outskirts of the Bantlox Colony, Laoi III))
Bim Pend: All the scanners we’ve got are experiencing the same fritz as the plant’s computers. We can’t get through it.
Vailani: Our tricorders are affected as well, the closer we get. I could be that once the ship was discovered it triggered some kind of dampening field as a defense measure.
Gnai: Response
Silveira looked around the hole, carefully.
Silveira: OK so it’s up to us now. So to me we got two options. One, we should secure the hole and check out the ship. ::He tipped his head to Vailani:: We can try and get its database, learn more about it. We dig a little more around it.
The engineer’s mind began generating ideas from that suggestion alone, but waited for the second option before speaking.
The Chief Of Ops nodded enthusiastically.
Vailani: That ship's computer core and it's contents could be a find for Starfleet historians and I'm sure Commander Dakora and the intelligence team on the Artemis will want to review it's contents.
Gnai: Response
Sadar: Hmm... ::looks to Silveira:: Option two?
Silveira: Option two, we get everything to a clear distance and start dismantling the ship apart. In whatever way possible, we could blow it up somehow. I think that could be the safest of these options.
Bim Pend: Do that. The faster we get rid of this thing, the faster I can get construction back on schedule.
Imril presented an option of their own. Or, rather one to be taken before either of Silveira’s. One that could add significant time to the project, but potentially pay benefits in terms of lives kept out of danger.
Imril: I can’t recommend dismantling or demolitions without more information. We don’t know how the ship will, or can, react to either as yet. Or how big an explosion would actually be if we blew it up, because we don't know how much the ships stockpiles will magnify it. If that thing is stuffed with Houdini mines or fully energized weapon banks… Just one Jem’Hadar fighter making a suicide run was packed with enough destructive power to take out a Galaxy-class vessel. We need to be extremely sure what we’re doing before we do it.
Sadar: I-I’m with Ensign Imril! W-We can’t be certain that won’t endanger the colony, e-especially since we don’t have a reasonable way of determining the blast radius, or what it is that’s causing the interference with the colony’s equipment!
Vailani: Not to mention our distinct lack of resources for such an operation.
Morgan: Or the potential health ramifications for those who live here.
Silveira shrugged.
Silveira: Fine, we will find another way.
Gnai: Response
Imril presented an option of their own. Or, rather one to be taken before either of Silveira’s. One that could add significant time to the project, but potentially pay benefits in terms of lives kept out of danger.
Imril: I think the first thing to do is evacuate the colony, or at least this part of it, to a minimum safe distance.
Bim Pend: Evacuate? But I thought you said you wouldn’t blow it up?
Vailani: It's a precaution, Administrator. The ship could have redundant safety protocols but we'll do everything we can to avoid any damage to your colony and its people.
Silveira: True. We just have to be careful.
Gnai: Response
Morgan nodded his agreement.
Imril: The hull of a Galaxy-class vessel being over six hundred meters long, I’d say a one-kilometer radius at minimum. Two or three, if possible. We have to consider how far all of this rock and infrastructure could be thrown in addition to parts of the vessel itself. Dominion warships are designed to maximize that kind of damage as much as possible, with intent to destroy whatever destroyed them.
Sadar: Right... ::looks to the team:: Ensign Imril, Sil-net; do you think you could find a way to get into the Ship? ::considers:: Or at least a way for our tricorders to get through the interference without malfunctioning?
Silveira nodded and smiled at Imril.
Silveira: I am sure we can cut it.
The swell of confidence Imril felt at Silveira’s comment was undercut by an error alert from their tricorder. Its screen was blotched with patches of pixelated snow. Their Padd was doing no better. Imril could still bully their way through performing some limited functions, as Bim Pend must have done with his communications systems to signal the Galaktoboureko. But in all likelihood the process would become more difficult. Eventually, they may well be holding a pair of useless bricks.
Imril: ::Mid-way through a diagnostic:: Targeted operation system corruption. It’s destabilizing user interfaces and hijacking the systems that our tricoders and such use to talk to each other, spreading itself like a computer worm. We can expect our communicators to go buggy, too, if they haven't already. My best guess at present is we’re all being affected by one of the security protocols I mentioned. Jem’Hadar fighters don't have viewports; the ship’s First and Vorta get to see everything outside the ship through eyepieces linked into the sensor net. The interference could be a means of keeping us from accessing that data feed. Our gear is a little more advanced than the colony’s, I expect, but that’s just slowing the process down.
Three decades of advancements in Federation computer firewalls had bought the away team’s tech but a few minutes of protection against aggressive Dominion countermeasures. Would the shuttle’s computer last any longer?
Sadar: Assistant Chief Morgan, w-would you mind staying with them, in case whatever’s acting up inside the Ship gets, uhh... Worse?
Morgan: You bet, boss.
Sada looked at the others.
Sadar: Vai-net, Lieutenant Gnai, please come with me and the Administrator to start evacuating the nearest districts of the colony.
Vailani: :: nods :: Administrator I'd like to know which facilities you have on the planet? Specifically transporters, shuttles and anything used for transporting cargo or produce?
Gnai: Response
The Administrator didn’t appear to be all that happy to take the slower path. But he didn’t try to argue the group’s way back towards Silveira’s approach.
Bim Pend: Very well... This way then.
Doctor Sadar and the others started following the Administrator, but then she turned around, narrowing her eyes at Silveira.
Sadar: ::to Sil-net:: Do not go in there without us!
Morgan shrugged, and Silveira nodded, opening his arms.
Silveira: Moi? Of course not.
Imril had a sinking suspicion that the sudden switch to a different language masked some plan that Silveira wasn’t sharing.
Gnai: Response
(OOC: from here I only tag Morgan and Silveira)
Morgan: Well, where do we start?
Silveira took a deep breath and took a step forward.
Silveira: First we get close. Carefully. If the tricorder’s don’t work, what other options do we have?
Imril: If I’m right about the reason for the interference, the only way to disable it is to get inside and manually shut the source down. But I’d love to hear any other ideas?
Morgan: response.
Silveira stepped closer, carefully and looked around at the wreck that was partially visible. He pointed to the left.
Silveira: Does that look like a hatch?
Imril raised their padd and tapped for a tactical schematic. The file did not want to come up. Nor the historical information they had referenced just moments before. Could the worm be actively seeking out and deleting information on the Dominion? They slapped the side of the device a few times. That sort of ‘maintenance’ almost never amounted to anything, though. This time, it did not.
Imril: Maybe, maybe not? I can’t get the fighter schematic back up to be sure. Could be a fueling port.
Morgan: response
Silveira rolled his eyes and started walking in that direction as he shrugged.
Silveira: Of course I am not going in. Not at least without reaching Doctor Sadar. ::He turned, winked and smiled at Imril and Morgan.:: I think we should all get inside… Once we call her.
Imril: And get her permission to go in without her?
Silveira/ Morgan: Response
Imril: We should probably determine if that is a way into the ship before alerting Doctor Sadar.
They stepped up alongside Silveira to examine the ‘hatch’ more closely. As they did, an ugly thought occurred to them about what could end up coming out of it.
Imril: Sirs.. How long can a Changeling survive away from the Great Link?
Morgan/Silveira: Response
TAGs/TBC
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Ensign Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12