Tripwire

Posted on 18 May 2024 @ 3:33pm by Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat

943 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Enigma Variations
Timeline: Concurrent with Checking In

ON

Lisald stepped away from the assembled group of officers and made his way aft, towards the damaged part of the ship. He wasn't going to that section specifically, but would circumnavigate around it and head for the computer core on the starboard side of the ship, in compartment seven (of nine total compartments). Within a few moments, he stood in front of the massive mainframe, though to be fair, it was dwarfed by any one of the three computer cores on the Cygnus.

"Alright baby, don't make me a liar," he said to the computer interface. While he was somewhat familiar with the computer cores on the Cygnus, he had actually never seen a Mk. II in person. The oldest one he had ever seen was a Mk. V, which was leaps and bounds more advanced than this old thing. Still, he had made the assertation he could hack this thing to his Commander, and he didn't want to let him down. Plus, it would be pretty awesome street cred with Veenak, Roberts and...oh...Jin'Tok was dead....he had died on Antioch III. Lisald felt a pang of guilt, followed by sadness for the loss of his friend. He briefly wondered about Dr. Elodin, too.

Shaking those thoughts from his head, he opened his tricorder and started scanning the century and half old machine. While it was still functional, there was some degradation, fragmentation and corrupted files over about 3% of the entire memory banks, he could see. If the Cygnus had this amount of faults, Starfleet would order the ship back to spacedock for a major computer overhaul. Not to mention the Chief Engineer and Captain would likely be fired for negligence. Still, for a machine that was older than him by more than twelve decades, not bad. Lisald hoped he fared as well as this computer core when, and if, he made it to that age. Jin'Tok's face splashed across his memory again.

As he worked, he thought more about Jin'Tok, and thought about Elodin, thought about how Ravi was nearly killed and how everyone thought the Captain would be held prisoner there for crimes against the people of Antioch III. He kept trying to push the thoughts from his mind, and only half succeeding as he gained partial access to the computer core and started downloading files as he got access to them, not concerned with what was in them. He half-figured he and Commander Stovek could pour through them at their leisure aboard the Cygnus. He also half considered making use of Counselor Morak's services. While he didn't dwell too much on what happened last mission, he did acknowledge that the thoughts were intrusive, and if he weren't careful, they could cause him to lose focus on his duties and attention to detail.

Lisald tapped a few commands into the computer, then cross-referenced it with his tricorder before hitting the command button. Lisald remembered discussing his and Ravi's relationship in a small park, her getting upset and storming off when he didn't respond the way she had expected. She had disappeared into the scenery. Lisald had been confused about that whole exchange, as his mind had been on trying to solve the issue that was afflicting the Antiocians. Lisald didn't recognize the readout on the computer terminal, and quickly glanced at his tricorder. It was still churning up the data from the computer he had gotten into. Thinking nothing of it, he continued digging deeper into the computer core, his mind wandering a bit back to Antioch III.

The next time he had heard about Ravi, she had been missing. He had gone with Ensign Jin'Tok, his friend, to the last place he saw her and told him the direction she had went off in. The next he heard, Ravi had been recovered by him after the riots had begun, but she was gravely injured with a fractured skull, and in his efforts to rescue her, he himself had been killed. If only Lisald had been able to really focus on her that day, if only he had been more aware of what was going on with her, then she would have likely never been injured, and Jin'Tok might still be alive. Lisald hit a few more commands on the computer.

Much to his surprise, and sudden alarm, the computer terminal went black, with the exception of the number "500" in bold red letters, in Orion, of course. At the same time, an alarm sounded through the whole compartment, along with words that Lisald did not understand. For whatever reason, his Universal Translator didn't pick up on what had been said. The number dropped to 499, then 498 a moment later, and continued. Confused, and with his heart racing, he looked back to his tricorder. It had stopped downloading information. He tapped a few commands to see how much of the information had been downloaded. Only 23.5% of the total information stored in the computer core had been downloaded. Furrowing his brow, he pulled up another tab and quickly opened up another program. He scanned the computer again, his confusion being replaced with fear. "Oh, shit..." he said aloud to nobody.

He had inadvertently tripped a security measure. The ship was now in self-destruct mode, and the computer was locked down tight, with only the Captain of this vessel's voice able to shut it down, and that guy was dead. Lisald looked back to the screen. The number read 481.

He tapped his commbadge. "Lisald to Commander Bast. Sir, we have a problem."



OFF
Lieutenant junior grade Lisald Vaat
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Cygnus

 

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