LtCmdr Tamio K'Wara - High Level Masking (but not high enough)

[LtCmdr Tamio K'Wara]

((Tertiary Conference Room - Operations Center, Deck 5, USS Artemis-A ))

Transporters were a wonderful experiment, except when they ended up fusing you to a plant or accidentally transporting you sans tail. Transporter scramblers on the other hand, were the devil’s work as far as Tamio was concerned in that moment. Granted, they were very useful when Starfleet employed them, but piecing together the information after a proper scrambling was murder.

K’Wara: I agree, that’s what I’m seeing too. ::considers:: The scrambling methodology isn’t random. Someone - on either side of the transporter - used a deliberate system to ruin the pattern, likely to prevent anyone from doing what we’re trying to do. Let's try and cycle through some reparative algorithms we have on file, see if one matches.

Beeps and whirrs filled the air as them and Doctor Jaran tried making the computer see their way for just a moment, but eventually, the Doctor’s powers of technological persuasion won out.

Jaran: Whoa! That's... not much, but it's progress!

Tamio stepped over to them, looking at the screen as they pointed.

Jaran: That right there? If we can clean up two or three more sections from that area, we're starting to get into phenotype information. We could potentially construct at least a wireframe of who we're looking at.

K’Wara: Excellent! We’re getting somewhere.

The same could be said for the Imril and Ollie, who were pouring over the schematics of the Afalqi, trying to work out what part of the puzzle the odd device fit into.

Bergmen: Are those data confirmed? Because they do not make sense until they would weaponize that input, right?

Imril: I see where you’re headed. ::Typing:: EPS grid analysis confirms standard plasma flow across the other parts of the ship, yet I’m reading an uptick in the levels being produced by the engines. It’s got to be passing through the device. You might want to re-do the calculations to be sure.

Bergmen: No, the numbers check. That input calculation is correct. Comparison analysis too.

Imril: ::Typing:: Power output from the warp engine is staying within parameters expected by the schematics. The dilithium chamber’s maintaining steady plasma generation. The device is keeping up with the load. Could keep going for some time.

Tamio wasn’t properly hearing what the two of them were discussing - they had faith that Imril and Ollie would report when they had something substantial - and so instead, they copied over the methodology that Jaran had been using to repair the transporter signal, working at it from their own computer interface as well.

Jaran: ::excitedly:: Commander, I think I may be seeing the beginning of a pattern. It's too early to say, but I may be on to being able to reverse most of this damage entirely. If it works.

K’Wara: The clearer the image we can get, the better. It’s time we get rid of some of the secrecy around this whole affair.

Bergmen: Sir? …Commander? Do we… Do we know the weaponry standard and typology Da’al possesses?

Tamio looked towards Ollie. There was no confusion in their face when they responded.

K’Wara: Our computers should have all the publicly available information, plus the scan data the Artemis took when we encountered Colonel Evreste’s warship.

Imril: I certainly don’t remember seeing anything like this the last time I encountered Da’al.

They stood from their position, their attention now firmly on Imril and Ollie’s report.

Imril: Simulated responses are consistent with the device being involved in regulating plasma acceleration. Tactical-grade plasma acceleration.

Bergmen: Response

K’Wara: Agreed, it doesn’t fit with any Da’al weapons systems we know of. ::to Imril:: Are there any other ways it could be used?

Tamio would have to report the potential for a very dangerous weapons system at this stage, but it would be helpful if they could rule out any other possibilities. The most helpful, of course, would be for them to rule out weapons at all and establish that the Afalqi just had a very expensive heating system, but that didn’t seem likely at this stage.

Imril: It could be a novel, if reckless, means of boosting power to some other system. Or just powering the unidentified tech.

Bergmen: Response

Imril: Whatever it’s powering, it’s definitely hungry and possibly very big. Based on the differential between plasma output from the engines and the amount being circulated around the rest of the ship, there should be more than one of these ‘accelerators’ sharing the load. I’d say at least four.

‘Hungry’ and ‘big’ when talking ship equipment usually also meant ‘volatile’. One wrong strike with a phaser could mean the Afalqi blowing up once they actually caught up to the Ship. They needed to find some weak spot in the technology that could give the Artemis some leverage.

Suddenly, an amorphous blob most resembling latent existential dread blinked into being right before Tamio’s eyes, violently yanking them from their increasingly worried mental rants and they froze up their joints to not openly startle.

Jaran: Don't mind me. You can watch if you want. I just wanted a better view while I, you know, unlocked the secrets that no one is meant to know.

Tamio chortled.

oO We aren’t flying blind anymore. Oo

K’Wara: Jumpscares aside, I trust you to know what you’re doing, Doctor. ::looks to Imril and Ollie:: Is there a way for the Artemis to safely disable the Afalqi without risking destabilizing that plasma?

Imril/Bergmen: Response

K’Wara: That’s the next step then.

As they had been talking, Jaran’s sculpturing blob now had the basic humanoid shape language.

Jaran: That's the most basic phenotype data. It's at the core of every transporter pattern of a living being.

K'Wara: Humanoids, at least.

For obvious reasons, most Starships didn’t have a standing department of Cetacean Ops - not every Ship had the space available for aquatic decks - but as more species joined the Fleet, Operations and Engineering had had to work together to ensure the transporters had the capacity necessary for increasingly diverse alien physiognomies.

Imril/Bergmen: Response

Musculature was now added to the shape as well, though it was still nothing more than a base imprint of whosoever’s transporter signal this was.

Jaran: Now, this portion is a little less clear. I'm still missing a few primary markers, but I have enough to make a good guess at some of the more notable internals. Nothing is interfering with our assumption of "Romulan" yet.

K'Wara: Nothing’s confirming it either.

Imril/Bergmen: Response

What happened next made Tamio’s blood run cold. As Jaran corrected the last functional segment, the corrections cascaded through the most stubbornly muddled segments and the shape before them took the form of a Da’al woman, long turquoise hair and an upturned nose, but then, it shifted.

Then, it was a Klingon warrior - decked up in the most stereotypical uniform possible - then it was a Da’al security officer, then it was a Romulan, and it kept changing, morphing from one shape to the next. And for one horrifying moment, Tamio was transported back.

Jaran: Commander, I... I don't have any explanation for... whatever it is we're seeing. Is that even possible?

It was like physical pressure, the way that Tamio’s heart was currently beating in their throat, as they looked to Ollie.

K'Wara: ::hesitant pause:: Ollie, do we have any DNA markers?

The pause between the four officers, all of whom had been either in active service or in the Academy during Frontier Day, was overwhelming as they waited for confirmation.

Bergmen: Response

K’Wara: ::shaky breath:: Good. Good... ::shakes head slightly:: Evidence of Romulan involvement.

It felt silly to even consider Changeling involvement - they had been quiet since the Dominion War, and had only had cursory involvement during Frontier Day - but it was so recent a memory. And a very dominant one. Sometimes, on their worst days, they could still remember what the halls of the Academy looked like on that day. And then they forced the image away again.

Jaran/Imril/Bergmen: Response

K’Wara: It’s likely either genetic engineering or some sort of specialized transporter technology that can alter your appearance to specifications, though I don’t know if we have a way to be certain which one.

Jaran/Imril/Bergmen: Response

K’Wara: It would explain why no one seems to remember seeing a Romulan walking about the facility. But evidently, it doesn’t mask DNA, and that’s why the infiltrator needed Alvaine’s biometric ID to pass through security.

Jaran/Imril/Bergmen: Response

TAG/TBC

LtCmdr Tamio K’Wara

Chief of Ops

USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1