PNPC Lieutenant JG Rachel Morgan - Got A Better Idea?
Martin Tucker
Rachel and TK were hard at it and getting closer to making it spill the beans. The spiderbot had resisted mainly their advances, and they were using all the sweet talk they could muster. One way or another, they were going to get this thing to shout all its secrets. The problem was avoiding triggering any failsafes or other booby traps.
Cabrillo: So far, nothing. It's either not enough power, or it can't or doesn't want to access the PADD's data.
She gritted her teeth; she didn’t want to give too much juice, or they’d be up crap creek without a paddle.
Morgan: I’ve only brought it up to three percent, so it’s just enough juice flowing that some of the minor systems and programming will come online. And with you on a piggyback ride, we can keep it from doing anything we don’t want it to do.
Morgan goosed the ‘throttle’ like she was driving a 67 Impala. She smiled; she missed that car. She had a holodeck program that took her out now and then. She also had several different programs, so if she wanted to, she could build it from the ground up.
She looked over at Cabrillo, who was intent on his work, and she caught herself staring for more than one Mississippi; she definitely didn’t want to ogle him. He was a smart guy, too, though a bit antisocial, at least that was what she was reading. She watched as the console illuminated his face.
Cabrillo: I would think that should be enough power for this thing to take the bait. ::brow furrowing:: Lets see what another two percent in......
Rachel was pulled out of her thoughts by an alarm from the wall display. She looked at the display, down at her console at the table, and back up again. The power feeds show a spike in distribution and in a power pull. The spiderbot was starting to access the controls somehow. It was paying for power feeds directly and drawing more power.
This was not good.
Morgan: ::nervously:: Hey, TK, you wouldn’t want to disconnect now, would you?
Cabrillo: I'm trying to disconnect the power feeds, but this thing has a grip on the internal matrix of our own power lines. How in the hel.....
If the first set of alarms going off wasn’t enough, a second round of alarms started filling the workshop. Power levels were beginning to rise. Morgan put her head down and started working over her console, trying to get things under control. Any more alarms and they were going to bring half the place down on them, and she really didn’t want to explain this.
Thanks to TK’s quick handiwork, he flew through some sequences on the wall display and was able to silence most of the alarms that had been going off. She looked out the bay window into the hallway where they seemed to have gathered a crowd. Rachel smiled, waved, and brought down the blast shields.
Morgan: ::she blew a wayward curl out of her face:: Well, that was more excitement than I really needed. Crafty little bastard….
Cabrillo: ::stepping to Morgan's side:: The damn thing was trying to backdoor us and it didn't even have enough power to run its own systems. ::pointing to Morgan's display:: But look at those communication nodes. That's very interesting, isn't it.
She leaned in and looked where Cabrillo was pointing. There wasn’t just one node as they had initially believed, but several, nine to be exact.
Morgan: There are nine distinct yet identical communication nodes. Essentially, they communicate with nine separate, independent entities. Just think about the tactical implications of that, and the multitude of uses, where are they getting this stuff?
Rachel watched as TK leaned down to examine the node and the smaller ones branching off it. Maybe they found a command spiderbot? That many comm nodes could explain something like that. The issue was that even when dormant, it posed a serious threat. It had just attempted to backdoor into the ship's power matrix, which wouldn’t have been good.
Cabrillo: Response
Morgan looked down at her console again. There had to be a way to approach it and not set off a hidden set of protocols that could do anything, like blow the thing up, though no explosives were found. That didn’t mean it couldn’t overload the system and blow it that way. They need to rethink how they will approach the spiderbot.
Morgan: Okay, we’ve got to come at this thing sideways instead of head-on. Any suggestions?
Morgan tried to adjust her messy bun to little effect. She looked back down at her console, trying a different way to connect with the bot.
Cabrillo: Response
Morgan::pointing at the com nodes:: There are nine total nodes, each one capable of simultaneous communication. What if we overload those nodes with instructions? Occupy most of it, and single out one node to piggyback into it that way, again tricking it to think we’re part of it’s programming. Unless you’ve got a better idea?
Cabrillo: Response
TAGS/TBC
