Lt. Commander Toxin Arlill - Are you afraid of the dark?
Toxin Arlill
((Operations Centre, Deck 6, U.S.S. Octavia E. Butler.))
The operations ensign was on their way to the shuttlebay to interlink the shuttle computers—a way to bypass the heavily trafficked main cores being used by the Kevara Continuance. This was their only plan. Toxin never liked having just one option; he always preferred a few backups. But their choices were limited with the Kevara Continuance monitoring everything happening on the entire ship.
Lahl: I’m staring at it as hard as I can. For some reason it doesn’t actually make the progress bar go faster.
Toxin silently laughed a little, Kimonzi was on it today.
Arlill: Agreed. ::to Lahl:: keep the lines running, it should speed up once the other resources are online.
Forsyth: Guess, while we wait, we should come up with a backup plan.
Lahl: That makes sense.
O’Reilly: There’s always turning off all the power.
Arlill: That would work. However, it would have to be all the power, including life support. We can't guarantee the Kev… thing would be out of our system, so there's a possibility we couldn't get life support back online. :: to the rest :: Other suggestions?
Forsyth: If my fake virus sweep does not pan out as planned, then we should try another route to avoid detection.
Lahl: That’s fair. So, no fake virus sweep…we could pretend to be diagnosticians?
oO That was a good idea. Oo
Arlill: We’d have to be careful, it has access to our standard maintenance procedures, safe to assume it would be on the lookout.
O’Reilly: What about… :: cut off by comms ::
Nilsen: =/\= All hands, this Lieutenant Commander Lhandon Nilsen; the Kevara Continuance is cooperating with us. Report any latency in our systems. =/\=
Forsyth: Well, I guess that's a start, huh.
Lahl: Yeah, it’s certainly something.
This put them in a particularly challenging position. On one hand, they could continue their work, expecting it would still be needed and that the Kevara Continuance wasn't going to let them go. On the other hand, it all works out and they've made a new ally—an AI ally.
Arlill: If we proceed, we need to understand the risks.
O’Reilly: Certainly. We might damage any progress they’ve made :: pointing upward ::
oO Cute, smart move, the visual input devices in here are offline. Oo Toxin hoped that Kevara Continuance didn’t have the ability to bring them back without his knowledge.
Lahl: Well, our little fishy is going a little bit faster. However, we might still want to come up with some additional canals.
oO Well, that’s something. Oo
Arlill: How long now? :: looking at his console time :: and what is taking the ensign, the sb is on the same deck. :: frustration entering his tone ::
Toxin had to cool himself. If Kevara Continuance was listening to everyone on board, any frustration might pique its interest and cause it to pay closer attention to what they were doing—something they couldn't afford.
Forsyth: Response
Lahl: Here’s what I’m thinking. We package our infectious disease treatment package as a routine diagnostician package. No one would expect that, right?
O’Reilly: Probably not ::beat:: But now I have to add a new task to my list for when this is over! Thanks a lot.
Arlill: ::laughing slightly:: Eh, there will be plenty to work on in ops when all this is done. I’m sure.
Forsyth: Response
Lahl: We would just need to change a couple things from the previous attempt.
Arlill: Which things? ::beat::
It was then that his console chimed, he looked down and his command access now indicated a new set of systems were available—the shuttles.
Arlill: :: redirecting :: Ok, we have our new resources. They may not be as fast, but they’re available.
O’Reilly: Good, I’ll isolate this console, pointing to one nearby, and red phone link it to the shu… ::beat:: resources.
oO Red Phone, red phone, Lhandon’s gone on about something from the past about red phone before, what was it… Oo
Thomas turned to get to work as Alex spoke.
Forsyth: Response
She nodded and began typing again. Toxin's console chimed—the shuttle cores were no longer available in his general resources, no doubt because Thomas had successfully isolated them.
Arlill: Ok ::beat, thinking for a moment:: we know the risk ::long beat, placing his hand on his chin:: do it.
Toxin wished he'd developed a red phone system to send messages to Lhandon. It had never occurred to him that he'd need one. But that was an obvious oversight—given all the Zet and other computer attacks they'd faced in recent missions. What he wouldn't give for a supply run that was just that: a supply run. A simple journey from point A to point B with nothing happening in between.
If this wasn’t the moment where a red phone connection to Lhandon would have been invaluable, Toxin wasn’t sure what moment would be.
Lahl/Forsyth: Response
Arlill: Do we still need to get into the tubes?
O’Reilly: The link to the resources will be limited, I’m not sure we can do everything from this console.
Lahl/Forsyth: Response
Arlill: Agreed, we go in. With the door sensors overridden, we should be invisible. I don't want us to split up ::looking at Alex and Kimonzi:: Thomas, you stay here and man ops.
O’Reilly: Yes sir.
Toxin went for the nearby open hatch, turning towards Kimonzi and Alex.
Arlill: I hope neither of you are afraid of the dark.
It was more a statement than an inquiry, fear wasn’t a factor they could give into, not in this moment, they had a mission and the Jefferies Tube, as dark as it was with lights off, was their only option, they couldn’t risk turning the lights on and alerting Kevara Continuance.
Lahl/Forsyth: Response
Arlill: I’ll take point ::bending down and crawling in::
Tags! / TBC
Lieutenant Commander Toxin Arlill
Executive Officer
USS Octavia E, Butler NCC-82850
Writer ID.: O239910TA4