Senior Chief Petty Officer Jenta Solana - File Forensics
Rameses
((Stellar Cartography, Deck 10, USS Ronin))
That made Jenta look back at her colleagues. “Some version of the Ronin?” The Orion gestured towards the data cable on the counter nearby so they could connect the black box to the computer to begin downloading the data once she was able to get to the access ports.
Solana: Some version of the Ronin? The version of the recorder that found us? This isn’t from our Kurosawa. ::she nodded to herself:: That explains why the variance is off so much on this thing. So, we just watched another versions of all of us’s Captain and XO die horribly. Yar, I hope that there’s not another Ronin somewhere that saw ours go out the same way.
Temporal mechanics and alternate universes had been experienced so many times, mostly thanks to the beard universe as some called it. Mirror for most. That every Starfleet Officer and even enlisted had to take tests about both. It was a nightmare of a Gordian Knot of possibilities and things that could go wrong or be possible.
Dekas: I can’t imagine how that universe will feel without those people. Because if nothing else, they at least don’t seem like they were from the, ah, mirror universe? They seemed normal.
Dekas had been quiet for so long that T’Fearne had grown slightly concerned, but maybe he had just been metabolising the grief and then the relief of the situation, or their discussion had made him uncomfortable. She looked at him more closely for the first time, bright plumage distracting from depths of empathy and compassion.
T'Fearne: ::softly in response:: Just like us, Commander.
Esot: Response
She set the tricorder on the floor and drew one of her curved knives from the small of her back. A subtle adjustment to the button on the hilt and the blade began to glow white hot after a few moments. The Orion then proceeded to carefully pry the casing off the black box. Which popped loose with far less effort than she had expected. The panel cracked in half when it hit the floor.
Solana: I really hope the data cores aren’t as geriatric as the rest of this thing is. ::she plugged in the data cable to the data port:: Alright, at least it connected. See if you can download the recorder data.
Esot: Response
Dekas: Will do.
Jenta moved back to her previous console and looked at the data as the others retrieved it. As feared, a lot of it was badly corrupted or degraded.
Solana: Some of the files in the black box match the ones the Captain…well, a Captain Niac transmitted. Should let us fill in some of the blacks from what we were able to get from that burst transmission of his.
Dekas: Let’s hope so.
T’Fearne leaned closer to the data stream like a Cadet studying for finals.
T'Fearne: Even partial confirmation helps us anchor the sequence of events. The most recent stardate here is 240502.03. That’s nearly two standard years in the future. ::frowning slightly:: Large portions are corrupted. There could be more buried in there. If we run an extrapolation and reconstruction program, we might recover additional data.
Esot: Response
Jenta noted that even some of the Kurosawa’s computer files were still intact. Not things related to its final moments but what would have been in the data core. A historical file caught her attention because she didn’t recognize it.
Solana: Hmm, I found a fragment of a historical file. Don’t think it’s related to anything but it adds to the evidence that this wasn’t our Kurosawa. Something about a Delta Alliance between the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and the Dominion to face some threat from the Delta quadrant. The file’s too damaged to get more. So we know that wasn’t our people….so how does that help us find our people and stop whatever calamity they were warning about?
Jenta snorted in disbelief and was glad that Osiris wasn’t present. The big cat had survived the war with the Dominion. For that matter, she was also glad Kiran wasn’t there either.
Dekas: My realm of science isn’t based in quantum mechanics, though that would be very convenient right now if it was…
T'Fearne: Mine either, unfortunately, I went for Piloting as my minor. But this worries me. If one timeline can fall into a Federation-ending event, others may be at risk too. Which means this anomaly may not be random. And if this version of Niac and Raga came through… whatever destroyed their Federation may be coming through that storm next.
That was a thought that made Jenta reflexively rest her hand at the small of her back for a moment.
Solana: Then we had better figure out what it is before it comes for our Federation.
Esot: Response
Dekas: I think that makes sense.
T'Fearne: I’m placing a level five containment field over these components, we can still pull information, just continue to follow containment protocoles as you have been.
She nodded in approval, activating a small force field that sparked over the core and the black box.
Solana: Good idea, LT. From now on, just as a precaution we should compartmentalize any and all data into partitioned memory of the main computer so we have everything in one place for when DTI shows up later. We should restrict the data to level four. Since those already working on this need to know we’ll have clearance temporarily.
Since level four data access was generally reserved for flag and command officers.
Esot: Response
Dekas nodded, and she saw his feather ruffle slightly.
Dekas: Alright, so what do we do about that, then?
T'Fearne: I see two primary tasks. First, we identify which timeline they came from—use that “Delta Alliance” detail Jenta found as a search key. Then we reconstruct their chain of events from whatever we can recover from the core. Backwards and forwards. We find the point where their path diverged from ours. See if that helps us identify the threat.
T’Fearne turned to the console and brought the large, glowing, three-dimensional holo-image into focus over the sparkling electrical anomaly as the events of the Kurosawas' appearance and explosion replayed in a loop. Jenta studied it for a moment.
T'Fearne: Secondly, this anomaly poses an active security risk, not just to Ronin but to incursions into our timeline. We need to either close it or barricade it.
Solana: That may be easier said than done but I imagine it’s going to be number one priority for Commander Kel. I would also add, we should do all we can to recover the Shinano and her crew before they’re lost to us or worse.
Esot/Dekas: Response
T'Fearne: And we should prepare the bridge for the possibility that this warning has… company. I recommend we be ready to go to red alert at a moment’s notice.
Solana: Agreed.
Esot/Dekas: Response
T'Fearne: I’d prefer to be prepared—rather than surprised.
A data update came in around then from the flight deck and Jenta groaned slightly.
Solana: We just got an update from the flight deck. The debris is being secured and quarantined. They’ve sent us all the data they collected from it and the coaxial warp drive they found is being sent to Commander Tucker’s lab on Deck Twelve. ::she exhaled slowly:: The same lab we currently have a spiderbot in stasis. I really hope they rendered that thing completely inert. Last thing we need is that thing turning on right next to a coaxial drive.
Esot/Dekas: Response
Jenta dispersed the data that came in, to all the consoles and looked at each of them.
Solana: Well, we have a lot of data to sift through. I recommend we split it up. Half of us work on the black box and half on the flight deck data.
Esot/Dekas: Response
Jenta for her part was better at the computer forensics than she was at the science required to study the bits of Kurosawa's from other realities. So she settled into digging into the black box data with whomever was going to work on it with her. With luck, they’d get enough clues to help rescue the Shinano.
[tags/End of Act 1 for Jenta]
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Senior Chief Petty Officer Jenta Solana
Security/Tactical CQC Specialist
As simmed by
Commander Toryn Raga
First Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
Writer ID: A239410TR0
https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Toryn_Raga