MdJG Jovenan – A love letter of desperation
Jovenan
((Computer Lab, CIC Desdemona))
She needed to warn the Artemis.
Finding ways to redirect energy to the Commonwealth’s barely flying trash bin Desdemona’s computer without damaging any of its system, Jovenan considered her options. Stealing the Artemis and taking it back to their own universe would change the war against the Shint forever. It was a logical choice. But her heart and soul now fought on the other side. Attacking those who you are not in war with – especially those who helped you out of the goodness of their hearts – was a major crime. And she couldn’t let harm to be caused to Sil. She couldn’t allow it.
Jovenan: Ready when you are.
Kuva: If you can scrounge power to spare, the computer is ready to receive it.
Jovenan did have access to the power levels on the ship. If she fluctuated them just enough, she could send a hidden, coded message that way to the Artemis. And if the Starfleet ship was observing them…
Adea: Make it so, quick as you can.
… she could …
Chevalier: Mainframe connected. Applying a rotary power drawn from the network. Weapons drained for one point three seconds. Surge is stabilizing. Jumping to communication. Draining...
Jovenan turned to the robot kid. He – it? – was terrifyingly efficient. She couldn’t imagine getting message masked as random fluctuations past him. And based on what he had said and done during the raid of the Shint ship, Jovenan was almost afraid of his single-minded devotion to orders.
Yellir: Connection stable, power transfer is working. I’m gonna make my start here.
Kuva: Given the Federation’s incredible technological advantage, would it not be safe to assume that they would be able to ascertain the Desdemona is pulling power from all systems to overhaul and boost the output of its primary computers? ::motioning toward the door:: And Federation engineers walk the halls, assisting with repairs.
And now this pointy-ear junior officer also had realised the vulnerability Jovenan had planned to abuse. It was too dangerous for her to warn the Artemis right now. She was anxious over her ability to do anything for Sil and his friends right now, but she also had to hope the Betazoid senior officer would interpret her feelings as merely struggling with the moral dilemma and not as intention to betray her fellow universe hoppers. She left the power level calculations to the cyborg as she joined the programming team.
Adea: From what I’ve learned, the Federation are stupid and arrogant. A dangerous combination.
Some, perhaps, but… But she couldn’t argue against him even in the privacy of her own mind. The telepath scared her even more than the cyborg or the body-part replacing lady.
Chevalier: … draining the engines. One point three seconds. Register system investigation of our activities on deck four. Feeding false results to their analysis. Jumping to life support...
Yellir: Slow it down a little, we’ll trip less sensors if we’re a bit more gradual.
The trio of the pink lady, robot guy and the pointy-ears could breach the encryption in matter of minutes, only with their potato computer which they had overclocked by pumping it full of plasma and electricity. Jovenan could only observe the code running on her screen.
Kuva: ::turning back to his computer to continue working:: I did not mean to question the mission, Colonel, nor cast doubts. ::beat:: Right now we grapple with ourselves. Is it not possible that we have an idea of what we are attempting to do?
Adea: I can assure you that other me knows exactly what we’re doing. He’s just in no condition to do anything about it.
Chevalier: ...closing blast doors on deck seven section seven three one. Reducing the oxygenation level in the section by thirty percent. Draining hull integrity. Zero point nine seven three second. Jumping to shields. Draining. Two point one five second. Jumping to…
Yellir: Nearly there, just gotta push a bit further.
Did… Did the pink hacker lady just whack the computer to make it run faster? The state of their hardware was clearly at a more abysmal state than Jovenan had anticipated. She felt little sympathy to these people, but she also felt like they would boil themselves alive if she didn’t contribute.
Jovenan: Computer core is overheating. Bypassing heatsinks and establishing direct vacuum cooling.
Kuva: Response
Adea: How’s the work coming along? The Colonel wants results as soon as we can.
Yellir: Nearly there. I still need a bit more power to work with.
Jovenan’s anxiety was rising as her opportunities to stop them were diminishing. For how long could she wait until warning the Artemis was too late? She tried to focus on the overheating problem instead in case the Betazoid would read her thoughts. That would trip him to think she was anxious about the success of their project… Right?
Kuva: Response
Somebody cleared their throat. It wasn’t the pink lady, nor did it sound like any of the guys there, and it was certainly not Jovenan. She turned a little to see that the Colonel had joined them. The master brain behind the attack against the Artemis.
MacKenzie: Indeed she does. It’s imperative that this work. We can evacuate the ship if you need more power so you can draw from the other systems… Or if that isn’t enough, we can see about using the computers on the Artemis. I’m sure there are ways to get access from my counterpart…
The others acknowledged the Colonel’s orders and resumed working. Jovenan kept her attention to the computer cooling systems struggling under the intense power levels the robot kid was redirecting and the computations the other part of the team were inputting. A part of her wished they’d crash it, but she didn’t want to let the cooling system slip while they were standing so close to the machines.
Chevalier: Batteries charged with sixty eight percent of expected energy level. Draining engines. One point seven second. Jumping to weapons. Draining. Two seconds. Jumping to life support. Identifying redundant ship sections as required. Closing the blast door. Venting. Transferring energy from section's life support to batteries. Two point nine two seconds. Confirmed. Energy transferred. Jumping to shields. Draining…
Yellir: C’mon Dessie, I know you got a bit more bite in you.
Jovenan: Excess heat is being vented to the vacuum, but the computer system is still running hotter than any other part of the ship…
Adea/Kuva: Responses
Yellir: Almost there, we’ll tell the Engineers we were running a system diagnostic or whatever.
Jovenan looked around once again. The team was entirely focused on the project. When they’d succeed in a matter of minutes, the Artemis would be in grave danger and Jovenan’s opportunities to warn them would be minimal. Her opportunity was now.
But she lacked a way to communicate with them. The only plan she could devise was flicking the cooling system on and off, sending a coded message to the Starfleet ship that way. Except that they code languages used by the Starfleet in this universe were likely very different to those used to the Divine Fleet. The only constant between the two universes she could trust to exist was herself and her counterpart. If she turned the cooling system on and off periodically, she could encode a message in binary where each number represented the ordinal of letters of the Edo alphabets.
So, in summary, her plan relied on the Artemis observing them and paying attention to systemic changes in the temperature of one of their systems, them realising it’s a message and asking the other Jovenan what it means, her realising it’s Edo alphabets, her relaying the message to the Artemis leadership and Sil convincing her pleas could be trusted. All while a Betazoid mind reader stood by her side. It just couldn’t work.
But she was desperate enough to try anyway. She had decided it.
She was the traitor.
Without looking at the others at all, she clicked the button and turned the vacuum cooling system off. The temperature in the computer began to rise immediately. That was a zero. She turned it on again. One. Off. Zero. Keep it off. Zero. On. One. 000. 0110.
Chevalier/MacKenzie/Adea/Kuva: Responses
She ignored the team closing to their own resolution. 1001.
0010
0001
Yellir: The moment of truth.
Jovenan’s attention from signalling the Artemis slipped and she turned to the pink lady. She was her entering the stolen data chip to the computer. Silently, she watched as the characters ran across the screen as a wave of anxiety stormed her mind. If they had succeeded, all might be lost. Her message to the Artemis had been cut short, and if they couldn’t read it, they would be at the mercy of the Commonwealth aliens.
The pink lady tapped the side of the computer and grinned. Jovenan lowered her head.
oO Forgive me, Sil. Oo
She studied the information on the screen.
Jovenan: We have access, but the data is still protected by a password. ::to Adea and MacKenzie:: We can try and crack it, unless either of you…
Adea/MacKenzie: Response?
The screen became full of life as characters and numbers ran across it lividly. In a matter of moments, they could hear a distorted voice speaking to them, a mockery of the original she had heard aboard the other ship.
Computer: ::distorted:: AUThoriZAtion ACCepted.
J/MacKenzie/Adea/Yellir/Kuva: Responses
TAG/TBC
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Mediator JG Jovenan
Science officer (secondment)
CIC Desdemona
E239911J11