Ensign Juliet Banks: Exposition
Juliet Banks
((OOC: This is set just after Dewitt and Banks have left the conversation with Michaels and Lacy to head to Deflector Control. Slightly adjusted scene-setting to match Semara’s arrival in with the events in Engineering.))
((Deck 12, USS Khitomer, en route to Lagoon Nebula))
It was rapidly becoming clear just how fast-paced the Khitomer crew were when time was of the essence; no sooner had Juliet explained her idea for mitigating the impact of the Sencha radiation than Commander Dewitt had arrived with new priorities for them to follow. She’d been accompanying him to Deflector Control to assist him with a piece of equipment she’d never heard of before – the Sencha Deflector Array – when she’d seen Lieutenant Semara approaching, PADD in hand, and excused herself, asking to catch up with him as soon as she’d talked to the Lieutenant.
Amelia approached, and Juliet stopped with a smile.
Semara: Hey! :: Producing a smaller PADD with a smile :: I got those gel-pack inventory numbers you wanted.
Juliet took the offered PADD, scanning through the displayed data quickly.
Banks: Thank you! Sorry you had to come in person; I hadn’t realised the data would be so complex.
Semara: :: A soft chuckle. :: No, it ain't the only reason I'm here. We need a bit a' help settin' up an isolated computer system for takin' measurements. Don't wanna lose data if we lose power again.
Juliet was nodding along as Amelia spoke; that should be straightforward, and with a low computational load – if it was just running sensors and recording data – a very simple setup would suffice. The trouble was time. Of course.
Banks: That makes sense. Alright, the best way to give you an isolated system would be to install a standalone, but everyone in Engineering’s already trying to be in about three places at once. What about if I… okay, hang on. Anything else you need, while I’m at it?
As Amelia spoke, Juliet crossed to an unused wall console, activating it with her credentials to trigger an Operations control interface. Annoyingly, a boxy piece of equipment sat right where Juliet needed to stand, and she nudged it experimentally with a toe.
Semara: Well, since you're bein' so accomodatin'... :: A little chuckle. :: Maybe there's one last thing I could trouble you for. I've been doin' these officer development courses... Mind if I pick your brain while we work?
That wasn’t what Juliet was expecting, but she was no stranger to having a question in your head that just wouldn’t let you rest until you’d found the answer. She grinned sympathetically at Amelia.
Banks: Not at all. Just – help me shift this, first?
She’d no sooner pointed at the offending module than Amelia had hoisted it up carefully and plonked it out of the way, and Juliet stepped up to the console.
Semara: I'm workin' on somethin' that goes like this - I wanna verify the source and integrity of a long-range communication. I know the computer does all the cryptographic checkin' automatically, but I'm feelin' that ain't enough. Where would you start if you really wanted an impressive answer?
Banks: Hm. Impressive answer? Okay. Assuming I knew the source that the comms purported to be from, the best bet would be to check the encoding on the message encapsulation – the message headers, routing information, encoding method and so on.
Her hand stilled from tapping in commands as multitasking failed and she focused on Amelia’s question.
Banks: Subspace message decryption gives you a positive if the message matches all the checksums it’s supposed to – but there’s some wiggle room in that positive.
She chewed on a nail, thinking.
Banks: There are a range of allowable matches because the message encapsulation might vary based on the sender – different planets use different encoding methods, not to mention the variety from one civilisation to the next. Then there’s differences in encoding protocols – newer versus older comms equipment, for instance. And there are also some additional redundancies introduced for messages being transmitted over longer distances or through challenging regions of subspace, as proof against signal degradation. That make sense so far?
Semara: Response
Banks: Right, yes. The checksums have to allow for all that variation in message encoding and encryption. But if you get in there and actually examine the message, you can compare all of those traits against what you would expect to receive from that specific sender. So it doesn’t help if you’re receiving a message from someone relatively unknown, like a Second Contact civilization or a random Ferengi trading consortium operating out of who-knows-where.
Semara: Response
Juliet nodded, smiling. Amelia was clearly way ahead of her.
Banks: Exactly. I can look at the message encapsulation for a message from my little brother at the Academy and say yes, this was encoded on Federation Standard equipment from such-and-such decade and has the appropriate redundancies for a message sent from Sector 001 to the Alpha Isles. I can’t prove it was him that sent it, but I can probably prove it came from the Academy. I mean ::a shrug:: with sufficient clearance you could get into a level of detail that might let you narrow down user and hardware, but that doesn’t help outside of Starfleet and official Federation systems anyway.
She blinked, realising how far into the weeds she had gotten.
Banks: Anyway! Sorry, I need to get this isolated system sorted for you so I can catch up with the commander. The easiest way is going to be to partition off the power circuit and data connections for one of your labs; effectively the whole lab will be a standalone system.
She quickly tapped a series of commands into the console, talking as she worked.
Banks: So, I’m setting it up in Lab Three, as I can see that’s where Lieutenant El’Heem and Ensign Matthews are.::more adjustments to the console:: Okay. This will kick in in about thirty-five minutes, once the data storage protocol finishes reconfiguring. Data recorded from instruments connected to Lab Three’s systems will be stored locally, backed up to the main archive core with an option to duplicate the repository to an attached external datastore. So, plug a PADD into your main wall console and activate it as a repository – it’ll give you an offline backup in the event of a total crash. We’ll need to reconfigure the lab system once we’re out of the nebula, but this will do what you need for now.
She blew out an exaggerated breath as if to signal “okay, I’m done!”, and did a little ‘ta-da!’ gesture with her hands at the console.
Semara: Response
Tags / TBC
((OOC: What a lot of dialogue! This is what poor Amelia gets for asking for two different technobabble-y things – I’m so sorry!))
Ensign Juliet Banks
Ops/Comms Officer
USS Khitomer – NCC62400
K240206JB1