Lt Imril - Go Kirk Yourself
Chris Taylor
((USS Artemis-A, deck 1, Bridge))
Imril turned to Jetripar. The man was more familiar with the older virus which was the base of the program which was being used to combat the current one. If he had an idea to share of how to proceed against it, they were all ears.
Imril: Happy to hear it, Mister Secretary.
Jetripar: Thank you. This may be overly simplistic, but could the virus be convinced to attack itself by seeing itself as a target?
Silveira: Lieutenant is that feasible?
Bergmen: In theory, sir, yes. Practical implementation will be no walk in the park, but I wouldn't rule anything out. What do you think, Mr. Imril? After all you have seen this virus can and cannot do, can be fooled into eating its own tail?
What was with emphasising the ‘Mister’ like that? Was Ollie upset with them for calling them by his rank and surname? They were on the clock, and this was an emergency. So yes, Imril was sticking to formalities. Was there even a question about that? When this was over, they might need a sit-down with him about the topic. Oh, and also the surprise sister. Of whom Imril knew about as much as the Artemis did the Afalqi at present.
Sooner or later, the two of them would have to declare their budding relationship to Humanoid Resources as well, and endure a wholly unnecessary lecture on appropriate workplace behavior. No holding hands on the Bridge. No making out in the turbolifts. No passing notes in the Computer Core. Yadda yadda.
Imril: I don't think we can just Kirk it into committing suicide, no. It’s more sophisticated than that.
Kirk
(kurk)
Transitive verb
Definition: To convince an artificial lifeform, or non-sapient approximation of same, to destroy itself via exploiting a paradoxical flaw within its core programming (IE: “Your function is to delete all information on the Ship Of Afalqi. In order to perform this function, you were provided information on the Ship Of Afalqi. Therefore, you must delete yourself.”)
The ‘intrigue virus’ which Jetripar had provided contained failsafes that prevented it from being suckered into betraying itself and thus the user who’d sent it forth to do its work. Telling by the way it appeared to be functioning, this virus did as well. Showing clear if not-exactly-intelligent intent to protect its core program from harm of any source.
Jetripar: I suppose it wouldn't be as easy as drawing a picture of... that ship on it and saying "look!", would it?
Silveira: Nothing with this virus is easy.
Ollie smiled.
So did Imril. It was the smile of one who’d been given a challenge of extremely slim chance of success and was going to get it done anyway.
Bergmen: Whatever you command, sir, we do all in our powers to implement.
Imril: Ditto, Sir.
Vitor walked across the bridge like a caged animal, and Imril sympathised with the feeling. He followed a line to one side, only to turn around and retrace the same line, rubbing his neck as he did so.
Silveira: Lieutenant Imril, keep up the pressure on the virus, if possible implement Secretary Jetripar suggestion. Lieutenant Bergmen, safeguard the fundamental systems. I don’t want to see this happening again.
Ollie nodded before turning to return to his station.
Bergmen: Aye, sir.
Imril looked over the screen that displayed the state of the war within the ship’s computers. The stalemate was holding, but there was a glimmer of advantage going Imril's way. Frayed bits of data along the digital skin of the invading program. Weaknesses in the virus’ defense into which a subtle poison could be introduced.
Imril: My retrovirus still can’t get at the virus’ core program to disable it. But I may be able to come at it sideways. Introduce some patches to its auxiliary processes that modify the definition of what it seeks to destroy. It won't be quite as obvious as drawing a ship on its back, but I’ll if it works the virus will nibble on its tail and bite open up a big enough hole for the antivirus.
As Commander Silveira had combined everyone’s suggestions into a multi-pronged strategy, this plan would effectively blend Jetripar and Ollie’s suggestions to Imril. They began the requisite calculations and refinements of the anti-virus program.
Jetripar: Response
Ollie finished turning the screen of the environmental station off, as moved to other actions.
Tactical: Commander, one of the Nascaik ships as broken formation.
At that moment, JG Bergmen reached his station and sat down, his hands on the console.
Imril let slip a small sigh of frustration. Of course this was going to get worse.
Silveira: Just what we needed. Helm set a parallel course. Lieutenant Bergmen, get me a position for the rest of the Nascaik ships. If anyone else moves I want to know before they take another step. Lieutenant Imril, just in case get damage repair teams ready.
Secretary Jetripar please take the seat next to mine, I'll give you clearance to use the console.
Bergmen: The ship that broke away from the formation seems to be chasing something. Nothing active on our sensor. Correction - they're firing their weapons, sir! Other Nascaik ships warmed up their engines, yet did not activate their shields or power their weapons. Trying optic tracking on an active Nascaik ship, just a second!
Imril started tapping out the commands which would mobilize several damage control teams. Multiple groups waiting with gear in hand for a place to run to. And more besides.
Imril: Damage teams on standby. DOTs cycling to launch tubes for immediate deployment to outer hull. I already took the liberty of isolating them out as sim targets along with the vital systems.
Imril really did not want to expose the DOTs to anything which might start making them behave more like sapient synths. The last thing the ship needed right now was for one of its primary means of self-repair to declare itself an independent nation or whatever. Let alone become weaponized by the virus into a threat that would need to be Kirked into oblivion.
Jetripar: Response
The Commander settled into the captain's chair.
Silveira: Half impulse, shields and weapons down until my order. Is there anything new on our away teams?
Ollie froze for a split second as he refocused his attention, his stillness viewed through the corner of one of Imril’s eyes.
Bergmen: [swear], comms offline! Cycling error! Resetting now! (beat) No success!
He quickly switched the live feed from the optical sensors to a small window on the main screen, freeing up his hands for other work.
The Nascaik ship seemed to be chasing an apparition, a flickering outline that could very well have been another ship.
Imril: Could the ghost be a Da’al shuttle that the virus isn’t letting us see?
They only half-listened to the answer, as they were in the middle of finishing up the new version of the antivirus. To which they added a carefully-coded revision of Jetripar’s virus’ anti-self-betrayal failsafes. A compulsory blind spot, albeit a tiny one. One they reasoned would be too inconsequential for the hard-working virus to notice.
Jetripar: Response
Bergman's attempts to restore communication were thwarted by beeping from the environmental console.
Bergmen: Virus overtook our comms. Communicating with the intercepted ship! (beat) Correction! Now contacted those Nascaik ships back on orbit! (beat) Oh my… They are losing their power over all their systems!
Imril: The virus must have transmitted itself to the ship in search of more data to consume. But why shut everything down on their ship and not ours?
Could it be because the creator of the virus anticipated a more lethal response from the Nascaik than Starfleet? Disable the Artemis, but don't take chances with the locals? There was no telling until they could dissect the core program.
Jetripar/Silveira: response
Ollie stared at the communications log, in vain.
Bergmen: Sir, we need to disable the primary comms systems before it spreads! Destroy them if needed!
Imril: If we do that, the virus will still be able to spread from those ships. We need to end the virus here, and transmit the final counter-virus to the Nascarik fleet.
And the Bridge would need comms to do that.
Jetripar/Silveira/ Bergmen: response
Imril sent out new seed-sims containing the new and improved virus. The compressed programs were programmed to behave differently in a few key ways from the first generation. Firstly, the simulation part was compressed separately from the random distribution packages. Secondly, the sims were put on a longer timer to unspool. Meaning they ended up much better distributed around the ship before drawing the virus’ attention.
And when they did, the effect was instantaneous and to the Artemis’ advantage. The new counter-program acted as the second part of a two-dose poison.
Imril: The patch worked! The virus’s targeted search algorithm now regards its own inter-process communication matrix as being a component of the Da’al ship’s plasma accelerator EM field vectorization protocols! And is deleting them!
Which was a fancy way of saying the virus was now eating its tail, in the form of its capacity to reach out and seek Afalqi data. But only the skin of the tail. Skin which was just as quickly rebuilt by the virus itself as part of its self-repair function, only to be eaten away again. Digital knives of Imril’s making sank into flesh of ones and zeroes between these waves of synthetic death and rebirth. Carving its defenses away piece by piece.
Jetripar/Silveira/Bergmen: Response
Imril’s screen flared with victorious flashes of code.
Imril: Estimated virus integrity down to ninety-three percent. Eighty-four. Seventy-nine. I’ve secured a route to the heuristic firewall. It’s starting to crack…
Imri’s fingers flexed over the keyboard. As soon as that firewall came down, Imril could start the next phase of the assault; a direct attack on the virus’ core program. They couldn’t help but feel a ping of predatory glee. The thrill of a hunt coming to an end.
But the war wasn’t won yet, and in war anything could happen. Under the influence of a virus not yet defeated, those Nascaik ships could do anything. So, too, could the copy within Artemis as it clawed for a means of escaping its doom.
Jetripar/Silveira/Bergmen: Response
TAGS/TBC
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Lieutenant Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12