Glitches

Posted on 04/18/2020 @ 4:38pm by Ensign Melis Mendyar

Mission: S1E2: The Plomeek Soup Conundrum
Location: USS Crazy Horse, Engineering
Timeline: Day 5 at 1000

Ensign Mendyar entered Engineering and looked around for the human he was supposed to report to. Finding him, the Benzite headed his direction.

"Lieutenant Logan, Ensign Mendyar--I've been sent from Lieutenant Lae'Or. I'm her resident computer specialist."

Noting the goldshirted uniform, Archer suddenly realized why he didn't recognize the Benzite.

"Oh. You're from Security," Archer said flatly. "What can I do you for, Ensign Mendyar?"

"I thought I could help you run down the source of these glitches... At least, that's what I've been asked to do, if you want the help?"

Archer's full brow shot up in a heavy furrow. "Ah. I see... Well, what do you need to get started?"

"Well..." The Benzite pondered a moment. "What system did the first glitches show up in?" He went over to a console and tapped at it.

"That's just the thing," Archer said. "There was no locus point. Flags just started getting flown across every department. That's what led me to believe the shakedown engineers were less than thorough in their assessment. At least, at first. But many of our repairs won't take. The same problems are cropping up again and again. Much as I hate to say it, we might be seeing something other than routine maintenance glitches."

"Hmmm... You're talking sabotage." The alien scratched a lip fringe. "What about..." He tapped at the console. "Weird, I can't access the subspace comm logs. I was thinking, maybe it was encrypted in some recent communications. Even if from Starfleet, somebody could have slipped something in if they had the right access codes."

Archer shrugged. "It's as good of a place to start as any. What's locking you out? Insufficient clearance?"

"Maybe..." Something that looked like a frown crossed the Ensign's face. "Either that, or this console isn't working... What do you think?"

"We can easily rule that out," Archer said. He deactivated the console's primary function and set it to diagnostic mode. The initial scan indicated that there was no hardware failure, but it would take a moment longer to check the firmware settings. "Have you had any login issues before now?"

The only stupid question was the one not asked.

"No, but I'm only an Ensign. I thought I had all the clearances..."

"Whoa!" Archer said. "Seems you were right. Despite the unbroken network connection, this console was not sending or receiving anything from the main computer. It's almost as if something else was using the port instead. Look at these runtimes!"

"That is definitely unusual... So, we have a console not sending or getting any input... We have glitches in other systems... And we have what looks like some sort of virus in our computer systems... Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Archer frowned and let out a sigh. "Sabotage," he said reluctantly. "Okay, Security, how do you want to handle this?"

"Well... Lets first make sure it was nobody onboard the ship itself... Who would have the necessary computer skills, and access, to do what was done?"

"Potentially anybody," Archer said. "Drydock engineers, anyone from Engineering or Operations, even various Security or Science personnel for that matter." He furrowed his brow into a heavy scowl. "Maybe we should assess motive. Why would this happen? What would be gained? Perhaps we can run models on potential outcomes derived from the seemingly random points of sabotage and narrow down the culprit that way?"

"Assuming your modeling program doesn't go to hell, that should help... Shall we?"

"Oh shale!" Archer said with a slap to his forehead. "I hadn't considered that. Any models we run would have to be done the old fashioned way." A sly grin came over his face. "Got any writing boards handy or should we replicate some?"

"I happen to have some... I'll go get them and meet you back here."

"Sounds good," Archer said. He collapsed into his chair and prepared for a long day of handwritten number-crunching.

---

A post by:
Lieutenant J.G. Archer Logan V
Chief Engineer
USS Crazy Horse
And
Ensign Melis Mendyar
Security Officer
USS Crazy Horse