Capt. Lia Rouiancet: All Angles

[Tony Colella]

(( Sickbay, Deck 5, USS Octavia E. Butler ))

The holographic Rivka Brzezinski had disappeared as quickly (and mysteriously) as she had appeared, and while Lia was able to see the program parameters in both the appearance and disappearance, she still had a lot of questions.

Rouiancet: (slowly; thinking) So there is some intelligence behind this distress signal? Or was the identification -- the warning? -- about something else?

Lia's gaze had settled on Jania, not because Jania would necessarily know, but because they were the one who'd been most aware of this program (even if not very), and that made Jania more of an expert than any of the rest of them.

Nis: It’s hard to say without more information.

Forsyth: I’m not sure, and I don’t want to fiddle with it in case its warning turns out to be true….

Greaves: Then we don’t “fiddle.” We’ll be deliberate with it.

Zeka, who had been doing her best to follow Lia's order and reactivate the Brzezinski program, considered that, nodded, and stepped away. Lia considered again getting the real Brzezinski on comms, but -- well, they did have the program, and surely it could speak to its own purpose and parameters, if they knew how to ask.

Forsyth: But, I guess we have to know more…..

Greaves: We do. But we do it on our terms. Contain the device physically, keep it off the network, and if it reactivates, we get answers in sequence: what it detected, where it detected it, and what “tragic mistake” it thinks we’re making.

Lia nodded along. All very reasonable, and -- again, nothing against Brzezinski's enthusiasm, but her creation of an emergency holoprogram wouldn't necessarily have been done with security protocols at the front of her mind. That wasn't a knock on Rivka, since Lia doubted anyone apart from Wes or Anton or some other senior sec-tac-marine personnel, or a systems engineer like Kimonzi, would've known exactly how to create a program to those specifications such that, say, a Zet advertising virus wouldn't have been able to worm inside. She certainly wouldn't have.

Nis: ISO’s got a single Level 10 containment field; that should be good enough to contain it physically. We can’t really help with the computer stuff, though.

Rouiancet: That's a step in the right direction. 

But, yes, the computer stuff. Now that they'd slowed down, Lia was beginning to think that they really shouldn't activate the program again without a team of engineers and security personnel to assess it.

Greaves: I recommend we treat the equipment like a live sensor package. Quarantine protocols, monitored power, the whole works.

She nodded along. At least that, yes.

Forsyth: Captain, permission to try and talk to Herb?

But at that, she couldn't help but snort. "Herb"? But, as she considered it, it made a lot of sense as a name. Rivka Brzezinski, sure, and she was holographic -- and had been summoned in an emergency. Voila, Holographic Emergency Rivka Brzezinski.

OOC Just noting that HERB didn't introduce a name verbally, so I had Lia work backwards here.

Greaves: If we do, we should keep it short and structured at first until we know more.

Nis: (a nod) Maybe we should prep a list of two or three questions. Like what exactly triggered it to activate? 

Rouiancet: Good idea. Two questions, one about its activation trigger. Lieutenant, do you have a second?

Forsyth had asked for reactivation permission, after all, so Lia was fairly certain she had a question in mind.

Forsyth: Response

Greaves: Also, if HERB comes back online, we make it clear we’re not authorizing it to activate anything. No tools, no implements, no “help.” Just questions and answers for now. Who knows what it's capable of doing out of its own “good initiative”.

Rouiancet: Agreed. I want a full joint engineering and security team workup if it remains online for any extended period, but for now...

She didn't finish the thought for a moment as she considered what they could do. Jania's offer of medical isolation was a good one, but what they really needed was the network isolation Wes had suggested. Unfortunately, she didn't think anyone on the current team could whip that up in a few minutes. Which meant they'd have to entrust the task to the computer, which could do an excellent job, but whose ability to section off a part of itself it then wouldn't interact with at all was, it seemed to her, a tall and complicated order. Even so, she moved to the nearest console to begin. She narrated as she worked:

Rouiancet: I'm instructing the computer to create isolated architecture in which the program can activate. It won't be perfect, but it'll be better than nothing.

Forsyth / Greaves: Responses

However, even after a few minutes of ensuring all their precautions were in place, and once they were ready, the holo-Brzezinski -- HERB -- failed to reactivate. 

Nis: Uh … we’re getting … a weird message here. 

Rouiancet: What message?

Forsyth / Greaves: Responses

Nis: We got the same message a few minutes ago, too, when we were trying to run a simulation. 

Speaking of messages, Lia was still at the console, and she saw the alert from Lieutenant JoNz, regarding the composition of the object emitting the distress call. And, although she'd missed that when it had come in a few minutes before, she was already glancing down when the console displayed the shift to yellow alert. She frowned.

Rouiancet: We may not be the only ones running into trouble.

Nis / Forsyth / Greaves: Responses

Rouiancet: I'll contact the bridge for an update. Figure out what that message means, without reactivating the program. Our cautions may not be sufficient, and given that our time at Marohu showed us just how vulnerable our computer architecture can be, I'd rather not take any chances with unknown programs that are themselves advising against their activation.

Maybe the real Brzezinski had just been overly cautious herself. Maybe it had all been a joke, or something to amuse herself. But whatever the reason, Lia was willing to explore different avenues before insisting upon this one.

Nis / Forsyth / Greaves: Responses

She tapped her comm badge.

Rouiancet: =/\= Bridge, this is the captain. What's the situation? =/\=

Bridge: =/\= Responses =/\=

Tags! and TBC!

--

Captain Lia Rouiancet

Commanding Officer 

USS Octavia E. Butler

V238208LV0
she/her/hers (this character)