Cmdr. Geoffrey Teller -

[Geoffrey Teller]

((Endless Golden Penetrator - Basic operating chamber for impulse and energy / Reactor chamber))

Rod'gurs:  'The Endless Golden Penetrator is the pride of the Saldanian Corporate Hegemony Fleet, and at the core of the Penetrator is our newest and largest Perpetual Dynamic Catastrophic Momentum Impeller, the PDCMI, Brought to you by Saldanian Heavy Industrial Concerns, a subsidiary of....'

Commander Teller held up a hand, trying to stop the sales pitch without being entirely rude. A difficult task when all of a sudden the Zet sounded like repeating one of the best litanies learned in a Ferengi business school.

Teller: Oh...kay...Doctor, maybe check out Mr. Rod'gurs here first.  Ensign - eyes open...something about all this is rubbing me wrong.  Chief...pretty sure that's an access panel over there, it looks like the one Saulan used on the bridge.  Lets see if we can get the tricorder to make any sense of it.  

Jehe: Haven't shut them yet sir. ::She reached up and tapped the side of her head by one of her eyes.::

Alieth:  I consider that would be the most advisable course of action, Mister Teller. Signaling to a nearby pylon, from which a portrait with six cruel eyes spied on them. This way Mister Rod'gurs

Sirok: I have been scanning your systems for a while, the hardware is easy to bypass. :: He opened his briefcase and pulled out a sonic screwdriver. With which he began to open a panel. :: The problem is its software, the code is not complex but everything is named in that peculiar way. It's hard to know what each thing does.

Geoff had set down his own toolkit and had tricorder in hand. Chief Sirok was absolutely right - their tricorder has no problem interfacing with the computer systems of the ship.  They were, compared to some of the systems on board, surprisingly modern.  Almost definitely an isolinear system or something very much like it, it would've been considered state of the art a few decades ago.  The software, though, was another matter entirely.  Geoff had never seen such a convoluted web of processes and subprocesses, all bunched up and impossible to untangle.  They seemed to control every function of the ship, so much so that Teller wondered why the ship needed such a massive crew.  From what he could tell, the ships entire journey had been programed right down to the second, with no apparent access for the crew to change any of it.  

Teller:  This doesn't make any sense.  The code is written like this whole ship was on autopilot for the whole journey.  None of this is meant to be changed once it's executed - it's just one long series of pre-programmed events.  I don't think the crew could change any of this even if they wanted to.  Besides, everything is coached in these bizarre euphemisms that I can barely understand, like 'glorious energetic vigor projection' or 'digestive excess neutralization platform.'  What do you think, should we just start flipping switches and hope for the best?  

Someday, Geoff would make the famously stoic Vulcan crack even the smallest hint of a smile...but apparently not today.  

Sirok: Trial and error could be made at another time, but the ship will not last that long. Perhaps if we give the translation matrix access to the Penetrator database, it will be able to generate a translation matrix for that gibberish. :: Sirok's idea was to treat it as if it were a language within a language, perhaps so that they could get something out of it without needing the help of aliens. Vulcans also preferred dealing with machines to dealing with people, they were more logical. :: Another option would be to do the trial and error as a forceful attack. Let Thor's computer access Penetrator's and take control, doing trial and error to generate a control system that we can understand.

Geoff considered it, and the time they were likely to have before a thermobaric shockwave hit both ships.  The Penetrator was simply too big to evacuate in the time they had left.  If they couldn't save the ship, a lot of Zet were going to die.  To say nothing of the Starfleet personnel who would be there with them until the very end.  

Teller: It's our best bet.  Get the uplink setup, I'll contact the Thor.  

Sirok:  Response

Teller:  =/\= Teller to Garcia =/\=

Garcia:  =/\= Response =/\=

Teller:  =/\= Ben, I can barely read you.  We're getting a lot of interference from the reactor. =/\=

Garcia:  =/\= Response =/\=

Teller:  =/\= That's better.  Chief Sirok is setting up an direct connection between this ship and the Thor - we need you to tie in the linguistic and cultural databases, and we need it fast.  We have to get a handle on this computer system and the crew here doesn't seem to know how it works.  Has the Thor picked up a thermobaric shockwave coming towards us?  =/\=

Sirok:  =/\= Response =/\=

Garcia:  =/\= Response =/\=

Teller:  =/\= Yeah, we're trying to get this ships version of a structural integrity field strong enough to survive the impact.  Keep a lock on the Captain's team and pull them out before the shockwave hits.  Thor should be able to ride it out. =/\=

Sirok:  =/\= Response =/\=

Garcia:  =/\= Response =/\=

Teller:  =/\= Understood, batten down the hatches Mr. Garcia.  Teller out. =/\=

A few moments later their tricorders chirped, acknowledging the uplink between the Thor and the Penetrators systems.  Geoff began scrolling through the raw output as quickly as he could, desperate to find something usable. 

Teller:  Hmm how about this...'gratuitous rigidity amplification system' - computer says 65% probability that has something to do with the structural integrity field.  

Sirok:  Response

Tags/TBC

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Commander Geoffrey Teller

Executive Officer

USS Thor - NCC 82607

Commodore A. Kells, Commanding

V239509GT0