[sb118-butler] Lieutenant. J.G. Alex Forsyth - Which Way Is West.

[Robert Forsyth]

((Dyson Sphere, Communications Platform A2))

Greaves, Forsyth, Varik, and Lahl's mission to free the Continuance from his creator's home was not going great as they had hoped. After believing they had found the area they needed to free the AI, and letting Stella poke around. They were greeted by a chorus of alerts and warnings, followed by Stella saying that the sphere is about to go boom.

Forsyth: Well….. poop….

Lahl: That’s an understatement. 

 

It was indeed an understatement, but one that Alex could not say without having to put credit in the old swear jar. She remembered her first day on the Butler when they were in the far future, and how the ship started to malfunction, which caused a warp core meltdown. The tactical officer felt the panic rising through her, feeling unsure what to do.

Greaves turned on a dime, toward her and the others. 

 

Greaves: Forsyth, get ready to shoot something if the security systems reactivate. Full power on your rifle. Maybe that’ll overwhelm their energy dissipation. Lahl, can you do anything on that console?

 

Alex nodded, adjusting the setting on her rifle. She turned to the highest it could go, which could disintegrate not only people but also large objects as well. It was powerful enough to kill a borg drone.

She hoped her wonderful girlfriend could stop or at least help Stella with shutting down the self-destruct quickly, too.  

Varik/Stella: Response

 

Lahl: I’m not seeing anything readily here on this console. 

 

Greaves: Ideas people. We need ideas.

 

Forsyth: Hard to think with that alarm, sir!

She did not like loud noises at the best of times, and she was used to klaxons on the Butler due to growing up on starfleet starships, but the Alarm of the Dyson sphere reverberated off the large walls, which seemed to make it louder. 

Alex was also unsure what was worse: the  Alarm or Zet advertisements.

Stella/Varik: Response

 

Lahl: Stella? Do you have anything to report?

 

Stella: Response

 

That was something she did not want to hear from Stella, as if she or Lahl could not stop it, then they were toast.  

Forsyth: Well, that's not great. Let me help, dear.

She walked up to the console, thinking that three heads were better than two. The Console showed a scrolling list of code and programs, each moving faster than she could read. 

Varik: Response

 

Lahl: There has to be some way to stop it.

 

Greaves: Maybe we can buy ourselves more time. The Butler’s self-destruct is tied to anti-matter storage containment. That can be instantaneous if it needs to be. This station doesn’t need antimatter. It’s got a star. That means this detonation likely requires a staged overload of energy storage. Can we slow that overload? Divert flow? Create resistance somewhere in the grid?

 

Forsyth: Em, there should be exhaust or something. Something that can maybe divert the blast out into space, or….make it easier for starfleet to identify us.

She began flicking through the screen for something like a map or blueprints, but nothing seemed to match what she thought.  

oO Why can’t they make these user-friendly….. Oo

Varik: Response

 

Stella: =/\= Unab….acces…amework.  Self de…four minu…=/\=

 

Stella spoke; however, she sounded like she was cutting out. Alex was too focused on finding a solution to make out what she was saying.  

Nilsen: =/\= Go for #@AQSD, Stella, %SA? ::beat:: wh%SDF ^$#@ong? Team, rep%^DF. =/\=

 

Despite how distorted it sounded, she could still tell it was Lhandon. It was hard to hide the pattern of his voice, especially when he was confused or surprised. 

 

Continuance:  =/\= Report: Signal degradation correlates with rapid energy accumulation in Sphere internal grid. Mitigation: synchronized EM frequency hopping and phased array coherence correction. Proceed with communications. =/\=

Alex was unsure if that was the Continuance itself or the sphere's copy, although she could not recall if the Dyson sphere had a computer voice. The deep monotone from whoever was talking was not helping her stress levels, and so she tried to ignore it.  

Stella: =/\= Previous message received.  Repeated for clarification. Confirm if any statements are false.=/\=

 

And then Stella repeated what she assumed was what Nilsen had said back, but without the Lhandon inflection. 

Stella: =/\=Go for Nilsen, Stella, who? ::beat:: what’s wrong? Team, report.=/\=

Greaves: =/\= We’ve got less than four minutes before detonation and Stella here can’t even access the Station’s computer core anymore to try and override it. =/\=

 

Woolheater/Away Team: =/\= Response (optional) =/\=

 

She wanted to say that she might have founded what they are looking for, but being the introver and ploite person that she is. Alex waited until there was a gap, dispite how much her mind was telling her to say it. 

Nilsen: =/\= Continuance, let’s work together. Is there anything we can do from up here? =/\=

 

Continuance: =/\= Clarification: STATION self-destruct sequence is a terminal fail-safe embedded at Sphere core-depth to prevent Kevaran Continuance-class intelligences from acquiring write access to foundational code and propagating across Kevaran infrastructure. Trigger condition: unauthorized artificial intelligence interaction with deeper functions. Status: Triggered. Initiator signature: Stella. =/\=

 

The Continuance pause briefly, and Alex notice that the Colonel wanted to say something but was cut off when Continuance….contniued.

 

Continuance: =/\= Clarification: Captain Rouiancet’s team has physically removed the STATION computer core. With the core removed, no command channel exists to issue override or abort. The device that can hear “stop” is no longer present. =/\=

 

Greaves: =/\= I’ll take that as a no then. We need to get the ship out of the system before this thing blows. Who knows how big of an explosion this thing will trigger or what will happen to the system’s star =/\=

 

Stella: =/\= Continuance, =/\=

 

Alex was not sure if Stella wanted to ask Continuance a question or was speaking like a disappointed mother; either way, it did not draw his attention.

Woolheater/Away Team: =/\= Response (optional) =/\=

 

Greaves: =/\= With the transporter interference here we’ll need to move. We’ll try and find a beam-out point. Greaves out. =/\=

 

Alex tried to remembered where they beamed in originally, thinking back through the route they took.

Greaves: Time is short, and there’s no bad ideas. Way I see it, we either need to divert energy flow away from this compartment to clean up localized signal interference, or run to find a new compartment with less energy flow nearby.

Stella: Changing position to a location closer to the hull of the station increases likelihood of successful transportation.  

Lahl: Right, so…where do we think we can go? 

Forsyth: Anywere that is close to the edge,  

As long as the reach the edge of the sphere, or at least closet enough for a transport then she did not care about were to go.

Greaves/Varik: Response

Lahl: Ok, we need to get off this station. Does anyone remember the route we took?

Forsyth: Umm… No….wait, maybe.

Alex was normally good with directions, however because how dark or similar some area of sphere were that she got a little turn around.

oO If only we had a map…. Oo 

Greaves/Varik/Stella(?): Response

Lahl: Ok, let’s retrace our steps. Unless our friend that automaton wants to help us out.

The Drone was still in the same spot, unflinch to the chaos around it. Alex assume it had crash or something, either way it was no help. 

Forsyth: I doubt it, dear.

Greaves/Varik/Stella(?): Response

Lahl: Well, hope springs eternal and all that.

Forsyth: I think we went straight ahead, then left…. No, right.

Greaves/Varik/Stella(?): Response

TAG/TBC

_________________________________________________ 

Lieutenant. J.G. Alex Forsyth

Tactical

USS Octavia E. Butler

D239910AF1