Elementary, Dear Commander
Posted on Sat Jan 25, 2020 @ 6:33pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant JG Erich Hartmann & Lieutenant Si'Lar Trellis
2,022 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Doors of Perception
Location: Chief Operations Officers office, Deck 13
Timeline: MD 14 1500
[ON]
Initial queries exhausted, and preliminary scans of the discovered data rod showing it to be carefully encrypted, Maritza was more than happy to let Lieutenants Trellis and Kato take it to Operations and make it the top priority of the new Chief of Operations to see if he could do anything more with it.
So now she was stepping into his office, the first time since the disastrous end of the Cross Dimensional visitors trip back home. "Good Afternoon, Mr Hartmann. Can I have a minute of your time?"
Hartmann looked up from his computer, stood up briefly at attention. “Of course ma’am.”
Lieutenant Trellis and Deborah Kato had been going back and forth between the Chief's Office and Claude's quarters. They had searched the suite thoroughly, but all they had managed to come up with was the data rod. The heavily encrypted data rod. Trellis rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration as he entered the office and saw the Commander already there speaking with the Chief. He was frustrated that he had no new answers for her despite the urgency of the situation.
Lieutenant Kato did not feel any better. It was obvious that Claude had not left of his own volition; however, the sensors failed to register what had happened. The key to learning where he was lied within the data rod itself.
Hartmann stood respectful, his hands behind his back and his back straight. “May I be so bold as to presume you are here about...this?” His wave of the hand encompassed the data rod.
"It was found in the quarters of my yeoman this morning," Maritza said, "He is missing. I'm hoping its a clue. Ms Kato and Mr Trellis can tell you more."
"The data rod was found within his quarters; however, we weren't able to determine what happened other than an obvious struggle." He said. "I scanned the rod and the only thing I was able to read was a polymorphic encoding sequence. " Lieutenant Trellis said. "Lieutenant Kato ran just about every program she could and she wasn't able to decode the message due to its constant shifting." The Security Officer said.
"We're hoping you'd have better luck unlocking the rod, because it is our only lead we have to the whereabouts of the Yeoman." He said.
The German scratched at his chin while staring at the rod, as of willing it to surrender its answers. “Lieutenant Kato, could you describe what type of programs you ran? Did you attempt the eurythmic as well as tripolymetric?”
"I tried them, but I was unable to gain access to the root-level of the system." She replied. "How familiar are you with trinary syntax languages?" She asked. "I have a feeling that the rod is on a time-sequenced, but it is contained with a trinary syntax. If you can't get past that sequence, then you'll miss the countdown to when the polymorphic sequence is stable enough to unlock." She said, looking up at the confused glances of both the Commander and Lieutentant Trellis.
"The rod is a square hole, we have a square peg, but we won't be able to insert it unless we can figure out the trinary syntax that is serving as a primary defense." She said, trying to simplify the scenario.
Maritza raised an eyebrow, "Trinary Syntax isn't exactly secure when you have, for example, a stardock level supercomputer available to brute force it."
Hartmann paced around the object while speaking, as if the thing would disappear if not observed. “True Skipper, but that would take time, as there could be many combinations of locks, up to uh...”
The Teutonic man glanced furtively around the room. “Someone smarter than me crunch those numbers, please.”
"A couple of trillions," Maritza supplied, "Maybe. Its not that big a isolinear rod."
“Perhaps ma’am,” Erich offered, “But we also have to presume the bloody thing has safety measures, such as self-deletion if forced open.”
"I think that's a risk I'm willing to take. It strikes me it was placed deliberately, and the encoding is just a delaying technique, provide a head start. What your feeling, Ms Kato?"
"This rod. . .it is a non-standard. It is not something that could be replicated here on the station. Whoever left this had this specially created off-station and it was brought here knowing how difficult it would be to unlock it." The forensic investigator said.
"So we all agree, that whoever took the Yeoman left this rod here for us to figure out how to unlock, probably to give them enough to get to. . .wherever they're holding him." Lieutenant Trellis chimed in, finally feeling comfortable enough to contribue to the conversation despite the complicated terms being tossed around.
"Ok, Lieuenant Hartmann, can you set your computer to run a non-sequential data analytic program, I can tie in my system from Security that is working on a brute-force password penetration for the password. I figure with both of our systems working together, we can beat the built-in polymorphic sequence and gain access to the kernel of the rod and find out what the hell is on this thing without triggering it's self-deletion routine." She said as he walked over and began connecting her padd to the open console.
“Happy to.” The German replied, punching in his own key to link his system. The computer happily chirped in obedience as connection was verified. Hartmann gave a thumbs up to Trellis. “On your mark. I’ll follow your lead.”
Lieutenant Kato nodded to Trellis who sat down at a nearby console and began to direct connection access to an available security terminal from the Security detachment for the deck. It took several seconds for the terminal to secure a stable connection and begun process the teraquad of information that had been segregated by the database petition.
Lieutenant Trellis turned and nodded to the Operations Officer to begin.
Hartmann Keyed his terminal to commence its sequencing, caping it’s download speed so as to not trigger any non-standard routines. At first, only chirps of the computer stated any actions at all took place, until streams of data began to flow across the screen. It was still encrypted, but it was coming off the data rod into safer storage.
Lieutenant Kato rejoiced silently as the progress successfully access the kernel of the data rod. From there it was simply a matter of running the newly accessed data through a compiling program she had designed just for this venture. The information had to be scrubbed to sort through the redundant and simply irrelevant information that was placed within the rod as a red-herring.
"Ma'am, I believe there is a. . .video file within the rod." Kato said as she continue to de-scramble the information into a more stable format. Once the file had been properly formatted, she transferred it to a nearby console for playback.
The video opens from the point of view of someone pressing the chime for the Yeoman's quarters. After a few seconds, his voice could be heard responding to the chime and making his way to open it.
The doors slid open to reveal Claude's face, slightly surprised
"Engineering, we're here for the repair job." Said the woman's voice, off-screen. "Apparently, there's been a problem for a while." Her voice continued.
"There must be a mistake, I never called for Engineering to fix anyth---" He said, but he was cut off as another figure appeared just off-screen. Its shadow could be seen filling the right side of the screen as a fist traveled quickly through the air and connected with the bridge of the Yeoman's nose. He fell back immediately, the power of the blow knocking him backwards and directly over the ottoman within his quarters.
The camera view continued forward into the quarters quickly as the doors hissed shut. More noise could be heard as the figure reached for the downed-crewman and continued to punch him viciously in the face. As the pummeling continued, a third voice was heard, just out of the camera's view.
"I beg to differ, Mr. Toussaint. There has been a serious problem within this station for quite some time. A problem that your Commander has chosen to ignore.. . much to the detriment of every Human on board." The voice was strong, but steady and lower-pitched. "Tragically. . .she considers us to be terrorists, but I..."
The camera turned towards the first individual as he picked the Yeoman up off the ground and through him onto the dining table and pinned down.
"But I, and those who follow our movement, are better than that..." The voice continued as the Yeoman continued to struggle physically with the individual. The voice had to speak louder, just to be heard over the grunts of the two men locked in combat.
"To be more exact, I consider myself to be a teacher of sorts" The voice continued. "And we are going to teach the Starfleet that it can no longer cast out Humanity second-class citizens...not within a Federation that we built with our own sweat and blood." The voice said, his tone more excited than before, but still cast within the same even tone.
"Humanity will be put First" The voice said assuredly.
Claude struggled to respond, but every time he tried to speak, he just managed to spit blood out of his mouth. He tried to reach for the collar of the individual that was pinning him to the table and managed to grab a hold of his face, digging his nails down the left side of the man's forehead and cheek. The valiant effort was rewarded with several quick strikes to the Yeoman's face again.
"Don't kill him..." The voice said, the camera showed a hand being placed on the individual's shoulder in a stabilizing manner. "At least. . .not yet." The voice continued. "If he has so much fight left in him, I'd bet. . ." The voice said slowly, as if carefully choosing his words. "We can find a proper place for him. . .below decks" The voice said with obvious mirth to his tone.
The video feed terminated
Maritza pressed her hands to her mouth the moment Claude had been punched the first time, but by the end, she was shaking with rage. How dare they! How dare they come at her through him. He was yeoman. If there was a position that was lowest of the low, it was the yeoman. They were the youngest, the lowest ranked. Claude had only finished high school six months ago. How dare they!
"Fucking cowards!" Maritza snarled. "I want them found. Any details you can get off those videos. Height, species. Anything. Check those voice patterns against the Promenade cameras. Something may match." She slammed her hannd down on the desk in pure frustration. The sting of pain cleared away the fog of rage. "Start with the Dilithium Chamber."
Lieutenant Trellis paused for several moments and stared at the darken screen before he turned to the Commander. "Ma'am. . .I..." The Trill stumbled as he searched for the proper words. "Before we turn the Dilithium Chamber upside down, perhaps we should direct our resources to finding Yeoman Toussiant." The Security Officer said. However, Trellis did not have much faith that they would find the young crewman alive.
"You mean you're not already?" Maritza's tone of voice dropped twenty degrees. "Use the marines if you need extra bodies. Search this place physically from 1250 up. Unbolt every panel, check every crawlspace. Rip the decking up if you have to. I want him back! And I want them found."
“Jawöhl Frau Kommandeur!” Hartmann stayed, internally flinching at the Skipper’s cold tone.
"Aye ma'am" The Trill Security Officer said in response. "I'll push down word." He said, not wishing to say more.
[OFF]
Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5
Lt JG Erich Hartmann
Cheif of Operations
DS5
Lt Silar Trellia
Lt JG Deborah Kato
Investigations officers
DS5
(NPCs by Dorian Gabriel)
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