Lt. Jg. Kim Stapledon - Gamble

[John Smith]

((Bridge - USS Chin'toka))

Kim was angry.  She was angry for reasons she didn't care to list as they would distract her.  But it was enough to give her a bit more determination.

She called out that the Borg were shooting escape pods when the captain asked her to report.

And then she went to work on analyzing the other signal involved in this mess.  The damned fleet control software.  It was designed to piggyback on a modified version of existing command and control code, even to use the same protocols.

Anyone using the system needed to have a Federation issued certificate key pair, as any starship would.  Once you had the pair you could use the protocol.

She'd seen one of the vessels regain control over their ship from the borg only to have their automated tactical systems overridden by the fleet formation software as they were directed remotely to a sitting-duck position to be blown up.

She wondered now if it was possible to use that to their advantage.  And so she set her console to work looking for a vulnerability, some way to inject commands into the fleet formation network.

Serala: Attention to orders! President on the bridge.

Chekov: Response

Kim straightened up, standing at attention despite the protests from her legs.

Serala: Mister President, it is an honor. I am Commander Serala, Acting Captain of the USS Chin’toka.

Chekov: Response

Serala: Forgive me, sir, but I am not a diplomat. I will just say, as I am sure you know based on your transmission, it is not going well at all. There were some rescue efforts of the Starbase, but…

Bridge crewman: Oh my god! Sol Station. Sirs, Mister President. The Borg have destroyed it.

Kim swallowed, not realizing her fists were clenched.

Male voice transmits: =/\= Mayday! Mayday! Shields are down. =/\=

Serala: On screen.

The viewer was replaced by an image of the station, parts of it exploding away.

Borg Collective/Vox: =/\= The Titan has been neutralized. We are the Borg. Resistance is Futile. Eliminate all unassimilated. Target lock: Berlin. Target lock: Cairo. Target lock: Philadelphia. Target lock: Rome. Target lock: San Francisco. Target lock: Paris. Target lock: (overlapping voices). Target lock: New York. =/\=

Kim turned back to her station, watching iterations on her console as it gamed out protocol vulnerabilities with the fleet control software, downloading versions of the binary package from the Starfleet master repository and running them inside her sandbox environment.

Serala: With respect, Mister President, it doesn’t appear this is quite over yet. If you care to watch, you’re welcome to take the seat to my left.

Chekov: Response

Serala: Thank you, Mister President. :: to Sherlock :: Number One, signal the Aegis, Lieutenant Zarax, and Lieutenant Neshala. They are to fall back and rendezvous with us once we jump back in.

Sherlock: Yes, Sir.

Kim heard a chime and looked over at one of her windows.  Something had caused memory corruption at a specific address address.  It occurred during a simulated malformed handshake to register with the system.  A packet crafted in just the right way during initial registration could be used to escalate local privileges in the control mesh network, allowing the attacker to pose as the command and control system.  If local subspace was distorted.

Kim sighed.  Did they have enough power?

Serala: Ensign Kel, plot a warp jump and put us between the fleet and Earth. Send coordinates to Commander Sherlock to be relayed to our task force. McGillian, no holds barred. We take as many of them as we can before they take us down.

Kel / McGillian: Responses

Serala: Stapledon, Ilsam, we need some kind of strategic miracle here. I am about out of ideas. If either of you have any thoughts, let’s hear them.

Kim nodded, waiting for the computer to complete another run of the simulation.  

Stapledon:  Aye.

Ilsam: Response

Serala: Mister President, the hour is critical and we can make a final stand. But if I am honest here, sir, we are not going to survive this. We’ll do what we can, but … There is one small hope, but Admiral Picard - I believe - is facing off with a Borg cube at Jupiter. It appears to be the source of the Borg signal. Whatever he’s doing, if he can stop that signal and release the Fleet Formation software, we might be able to end all of this. But it’s a tiny sliver of a hope and I can’t risk taking you back into the battle zone.

Chekov: Response

Serala: With respect, Mister President, Earth is about to fall, and the Federation won’t be far behind it. We are going to need a leader to keep us together in this dark hour. And that leader, sir, is you. I have to keep you safe at all costs. If you want me to take the Chin’toka back into the battle, I will, sir. But I am going to insist you take my personal runabout –

Serala: – and head for Vulcan or the nearest safe harbor you can find.

Chekov: Response

Sherlock: ::speaking calmly and level:: Captain, we need to move.

Kel / McGillian / Stapledon: Responses

The Borg controlled ships were moving to their final attack positions over Earth and they were out of time. Whether the President chose to run or stay, the Chin'toka still had a job to do.

Chekov: response

Serala: response

Sherlock: Very well. ::turning to their helmsman:: Ensign, plot a course to the these coordinates.  On your order, Sir.

She could no longer keep quiet.

Stapledon:  Sirs.  If we join the fleet control network using a custom version of that software we might be able to elevate our privileges.  Direct the ships closest to us to execute specific instructions.  

Ilsam/Serala:  Response

Stapledon:  That fleet formation is moving in segments.  They're each acting as smaller subnetworks that are directed by a central controller.  The Borg.  If we could scramble local subspace geometry just enough we could take over the local network and act like the central Borg controller, we could gain an advantage.

Sherklock/Ilsam:  Response

Stapledon:  Except we'd need to use most of our remaining power to distort local subspace around the ship

Serala/Sherlock: response

--

Lt. Jg Kimberly Stapledon

Acting Chief of Science

USS Chin'toka

I238601KB0