PNPC Lieutenant JG Rachel Morgan - Magic Carpet Ride
Martin Tucker
Rachel and TK had been working on it for a while, both lost in their own work. She wasn’t much for silence, and as if her prayers were answered, the computer made a noise.
oO Thank the Goddess Oo
Morgan: Was that me or you?
Rachel looked over at TK, who was staring down, probably coding again. A look creased his face and Rach was pretty sure it wasn’t his happy fun-tim face.
Cabrillo: Me....I think. ::beat:: Take a look at this.
TK moved from the table to a wall display nearest Rachel. He changed the display to show the command paths. She looked at it, cocked her head, and decided she couldn’t make heads of tails of it. It was some damn fancy work, though.
Morgan: ::she scratched her head and folded her arms across her chest:: Can you tell me what we’re looking at?
The Lieutenant pointed to three points on the scan and then zoomed in. There was a cluster of command fibers that led from an assembly he was trying to bypass. It intersected with something Rachel hadn’t seen before; it was tiny, but efficient. The computer, for its part, said it was some kind of organic material. She cocked an eyebrow.
Cabrillo: Are these nano-bio gel packs? Is this thing using bio-neural circuitry?
She stood in silence a moment, her arms crossed over her chest, a scowl washing over her pale features. Rachel was sure that TK was on to something.
Morgan: Holy shi– ::she slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide:: I m-mean crap. I think you’re right, we’re looking at bio-neural circuity, and it is very intricate in design, and on such a micro-scale.
TK looked at Rachel, then turned back to the spiderbot on the table behind them. It was amazing how smoothly all the different technologies were working together.
Cabrillo: ::grinning:: This thing does not have a plexing beacon or a subspace relay to the Borg does it? ::chuckling:: Seems like it has everything else in there.
Morgan: Not that I can see, not to mention we’d have all sorts of alarms going off. Rather not bring an entire security squad down on the place. :: she smiled sheepishly::
She watched as Cabrillo headed back to the table and stared at the spiderbot. Rachel stared too; she had a lot more questions than the thing was giving answers to. They were making progress, growing. TK picked up a leg and looked it over, cautiously and deliberately slow.
Cabrillo: This thing can probably jack itself into any data node and start accessing anything it wants. What if we give it enough power to try and link up with what it thinks is a computer source and piggyback that code right back into its own matrix? Let the monster let us in without knowing it?
Rachel squinted at the bypass; there was a node. It wasn’t Borg per se, but it was something that the Borg inspired; it had to be. She enlarged the area slightly.
Morgan: Look at this:: pointing at the node::, it’s a communications node, similar to what you would find on a Borg ship, but it’s not Borg tech, but it’s like someone tried to copy it….and make it a lot smaller.
Cabrillo: Response
Morgan: As I said, if it were Borg, we’d be in deep crap, but it’s not. But someone was trying to emulate Borg programming. And then use these nodes for mass communication. Once we juice this thing up a bit, I want to find out just how much range this node has.
Rachel looked down at her console and typed in a few commands, the computer scanned a more upclose section of what they were sure was a communication node. She also logged it in the official record, since they were recording it for posterity and security briefings.
Cabrillo: Response
Morgan: We'll give your idea a go. Give it enough juice to piggyback and root around in there like we belong. You sure you can fool it?
Rachel nodded and began the power-up sequence, but did not fully engage it. It was like throttling a warp core; you had to ride a fine line. Sweat began to form on her brow as she blew a stray curl out of her face.
Cabrillo: Response
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.
She goosed the ‘throttle’ a little bit, adding a bit more juice.
Cabrillo: Response
