LTJG Josh Herrick: Blame the Secret Keepers

[Mark P]

OOC: We can assume the time index for this storyline is prior to the awards ceremony.  

  

((Jefferies Junction 15-Charlie-2, Deck 15, USS Octavia E. Butler)) 

  

Josh frowned at the small discrepancy in his tricorder readings. Most engineers might have dismissed it, but his recent experiences made him more cautious. He turned his tricorder display towards the transporter officer standing nearby. 

  

Herrick: =/\= What do you make of this? =/\= 

  

Paradi’s eyes narrowed as he glanced through the readings, followed by pulling out his own tricorder. 

  

Paradi: =/\= I've got nothing. ::He angled the device for Herrick to see.:: But right there, you've got a slight variance on the secondary buffer feedback coils. =/\= 

  

Both tricorders showed the same story: a variance of just a few micro-millionths, but enough to raise an alert in Herrick's mind. 

  

Nilsen: =/\= I’ve connected to your tricorder, I see the read outs over here. =/\= 

  

Paradi: =/\= A variance this size shouldn't be detectable, let alone cause any disruption to the systems. =/\=

To Paradi's point, Josh wondered how the devices were picking up this reading - perhaps leveraging the Sagan's internal sensors with a flavour of Borg spice. For now, it seemed to be a secondary item but worthwhile to follow up on.

  

Nilsen: =/\= Josh, can you connect the tricorder to the MUPD slot. Just on the top left. I wanna look at those logs. =/\= 

  

Josh held his tricorder against the panel, wiggling it until the magnetics latched with a satisfying thunk. Chimes from both the panel and the tricorder indicated the link was successful, and added diagnostics began running. 

  

Herrick: =/\= It’s connected. =/\=  

  

Paradi: =/\= What's your line of thought, sir? 

  

Nilsen: =/\= It don’t make sense. I’m looking for the kernel dump and I’m finding nothing. According the computer josh when you got transported out, that…never happened….Obviously that’s not right. This damn computer is trying to gaslight us. Julien, can you access the kernel dump from either Br'desh and Watanabi, or Yinn’s incident, or even Josh’s incident? in case it didn’t find it’s way here and it’s still in local storage. =/\= 

 

Julien set his tricorder down, grabbed a PADD, and started tapping through the logs. Herrick peered over his shoulder, noticing that while some files held relevant data, all the questioned scenarios were inexplicably blank once accessed. 

  

Paradi: =/\= The information is there, sir. But at the same time its not there. =/\= 

  

Herrick: =/\= Hrmmm... There, but not there. =/\= 

 

Josh racked his brain, something about this issue tickling a memory from his months of pouring over Sagan-class technical documentation. 

  

Paradi: =/\= Maybe we need to try from whichever terminal those logs were originally input from? =/\= 

 

Herrick: =/\= I suspect that the same issue would be there; newer consoles don’t typically keep local data stores for records like these, they default to copying it over and then purging. The main computer library is treated as the single source of truth. That’s how they’ve been able to slim things down... but I can’t shake that I’ve heard something like this somewhere. =/\= 

  

Nilsen: =/\= Response =/\= 

  

Paradi: =/\= Could be a memory core issue? =/\= 

  

Herrick: =/\= It could be; I mean the shakedown wasn’t as long as we would’ve liked but it seems strange that it’s isolated to these events; and these records would be post transport. =/\= 

 

Nilsen/Paradi: =/\= Response =/\= 

 

Herrick: (nodding) =/\= You’re absolutely right... the Intelligence transport sequence works the same way, obfuscating the transport records so that the location is kept hidden from most officers. ::glancing at Paradi:: But I doubt they arrive upside down when they arrive at the department. =/\= 

 

Nilsen/Paradi: =/\= Response =/\= 

 

Herrick: =/\= I suspect that they route the transporter all around the ship so that there isn’t any clear sign of where the signal is stopping on a consistent basis. For all I know, it’s winding its way through every day. =/\= 

 

Josh shook his head, frustrated by the layers of obfuscation the intelligence protocols introduced. 

Nilsen/Paradi: =/\= Response =/\= 

 

Herrick: =/\= So, if we entertain this assumption, what’s our next steps? =/\= 

 

The acting chief had noticed that other leaders onboard the Butler often looked to group counsel first before putting forth their recommendation. In a leadership book his dad gifted him when he was made acting chief, More Pips More Problems, it referred to this as a way to install confidence and grow folks.  

 

Nilsen/Paradi: =/\= Response =/\= 

---

Lieutenant JG Josh Herrick

Acting Chief Engineer

USS Octavia E. Butler

O240005JH3

he/him/his (player/character)