Buzzing in the wires (part II)

Posted on Tue Dec 22, 2020 @ 1:02am by Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas & Lieutenant Yukiko Winters

1,539 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Deck 1138 - Engineering Computer Core
Timeline: MD 01 1030
Tags: Xi'Cadia, Cardassia, Intelligence

Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas was leaning over Master Chief Petty Officer Ziqot's shoulder and examining his console. The NCO wasn't particularly fond of having anyone standing over his shoulder; however, he recognized that he was merely the Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC) of the Computer Systems sub-department of Operations and Lt. Kivan was. . .well, he was in charge. So for the time being he tolerated the micromanagment.

Lt. Kivan looked up as the doors swished open and Lt. Winters entered the room. "How can I help you?" He asked as he stood up, acknowleding the officer's arrival.

"Hello," Silk called out. "I need to use a bit of computer time. Captain gave it highest priority." Silk wanted to kick herself for that. It sounded bombastic but time was of the essence here. She immediately apologized, "Sorry that came off rude. I am Yukiko Winters, the new Intel Officer and well basically if you are aware the Cardassians have been kicked off the station. Some headed for the planet. What I have been noticing is a fair amount of communication traffic both off the station but also off the planet as well. Some is encoded, some seems cryptic and some seems just routine. The Federation seems to be reluctant to provide much help trying to break the code and can only get parts."

Of course it's the Cardassians. . .is there ever a time when some other group is responsible for causing problems? The Operations Officer thought to himself.

"See? I told you!" Master Chief Petty Officer Ziqot said triumphantly to the Officer. "I noticed the increase in comm traffic coming from the Cardassian research facility." He said. "At first I figured it was just normal because they had just been booted off the station and had to relocate their Embassy to he planet surface. But then I started to notice numerous data packets being sent and received from the surface with heightened encryption codes. The level of encryption you would expect to see between military assets, not diplomats and bureaucrats." The Senior NCO reported.

"You think this is related to something significant?" Lt. Kivan asked the Intelligence Officer. "They're on the planet surface with no weapons and under the gone of our CAG Fighter Wing and Marine Battalion." He pointed out.

Silk nodded in the affirmative. "Yes, while I expected missives and such to be sent off to Cardassia, quite a bit of traffic seems to be headed toward the Xi'Cadians. That worries me. Cardassia is a long ways away and any movement there would be noted. The same is not true for the Xi'Cadian side and the Federation just does not have a lot of surveillance over there and add to the fact that the most heavily encoded messages are being sent that way has got me worried. So wondering if you guys would help me out?"

Lt. Kivan nodded to Senior NCO. "Master Chief, go ahead and give her access to the secondary Server through the Dyson Repair Yards." He said. Ordinarily, he would spare the bandwith through the station's primary system; however, with upcoming repairs he needed the resources to ensure that the working crews could communicate and transmit orders as quickly as posisble.

"Thank you whatever you can spare. Just call me paranoid," Silk nodded gratefully. She did not expect everyone to drop everything.

"You would think that Starfleet would have taken some action after the Xi'Cadians blew apart the USS Atlantis" Lt. Kivan said, referencing the Starfleet vessel that was open fired upon and destroyed by a Xi'Caidian patrol vessel. Preiliminary investigations revealed that the Xi'Cadian vessel had been upgraded with Cardassian offensive and defensive capabilities. However, Starfleet had chosen not to take any action or subsequent investigation into the matter.

"What the hell are they afraid of?"He wondered aloud.

"Treading the thin ice of diplomacy," Silk replied. "I was doing that before moving over to Intel. That is just as much a game as this is except you are trying to play nice. Federation probably wants the Xi'Cadians to give up the Cardassians and come back to the fold as it where. So anything that does not fit the narrative is to be ignored as much as possible. Now then, let me see what we can get out of this. Decoding is not my forte so if you can spare the time would appreciate it."

Lt. Kivan nodded and Master Chief Ziqot slid his chair over to the console and began to access his subroutine.

"Ma'am, the Cardassians typically use a three-pass protocol for sending messages." He said as he began to access a level three diagnostic of the latest packet that was intercepted.

"Alright let's give it a go," Silk replied.

"Well, it certainly isn't the simpliest of encryption methods." He replied. "It is a framework which allows one party to securely send a message to a second party without the need to exchange or distribute encryption keys." Master Chief Ziqot said. "Their Intel Officer is pretty smart, because if they used only one encryption key, then they that we could intercept and be more likely to decode the message with the singular encryption key." He added.

"The basic concept of the three-pass protocol is that each party has a private encryption key and a private decryption key. The two parties use their keys independently, first to encrypt the message, and then to decrypt the message." Master Chief Ziqot explained.

"If we can get anything at all would be useful," Silk replied. "An idea of anything is better than nothing at all."

Master Chief Ziqot turned back to his console and began to evaluate the packet Lt. Winters. He found it easier to speak while he worked. "Well Ma'am, for a three-protocol encryption system to function correctly, the security relies on the difficulty of computing discrete logarithms in a finite or confined field." The NCO said as he brought up another display.

"We essentially have to compute discrete logarithms in order to break the Cardassian's protocol." He added. "Ordinarily we've had trouble properly decrpyting Cardassians codes; however, with being located in the same facility as their Embassay we've been able to pick up on something significant." He said as he pointed to a certain point on the dispaly. "We can compile their designiated key and use that to decrypt the particular protocl used to transmit this particular data packet." Master Chief Ziqot said as he brought up a portion on the screen.

"So this was what I was able to decrypt and run against the protocols we know. I'm seeing something about a. . .Project Oasis...Darhe'el..and reinforcements" The Non-Com said.

"Wait. . .Darhe'el?" Lieutenant Kivan said. "Wait. . .wasn't the Warship Darhe'el involved in the shooting of the Bajoran Cruiser?" The Ops Chief asked. **

Silk was only half listening as the computer continued to work on various bits with some success. "Attack....destroy...station...Xi'Cadia," she was reading the bits that were being spit out. She looked up and shook her platinum blonde head. "Guys, I have to go. Lieutenant Ta'Gas, send an alert down to the planet please. I think there is going to be an attack. I need to go inform the captain and executive officer."

"On it!" Master Chief Ziqot said as he began to upload the information and begin to transmit it.

"What the hell. . .?" He said as his fingers stopped. He tried to enter the sequence again but was unsuccesful.

"I-I-I can't get a signal through." He said. "I'm being locked out of the Primary Communication Array on deck 7, every time I try to transmit, the signal is blocked by a distributed denial of service." He said as he tried to re-route the signal.

"What? How the hell is that happening!?" Lt. Kivan said as he rushed over. "Re-route through the Secondary on deck 1160." He said as he went to the adjoining console and tried to sort through the feedback."

Silk skidded as she heard that. "Some one interferring?" she asked.

"The DDOS is coming from off station, it's like we're being jammed externally." Master Chief Ziqot responded. "We can't send anything out." He added.

"Alright, we got a problem, see what you can do, I have got to let the Commander know." Silk was not sure how much the communications were being screwed up and this was technically skirting the edge of the rules but she closed her eyes and sought out the command minds and sent mentally *Communications being blocked. Partialy decode says invasion. Get the station on alert!* She put all her considerably power into it.

Lt. Kivan tapped his comm unit repeatedily. He turned to look towards Lt. Silk with growing frustration. "Whatever is happening, we can't get word to any outside parties any time soon." He said

Silk made a face and nodded. "Maybe," was all she said and then ran off. There was a lot to do in little time.

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** - https://ds5.sim-metry.net/index.php/sim/viewpost/521

Lt. Yukiko "Silk" Winters
Chief Intel Officer
DS5

Lt. Kivan Ta'Gas
Chief Operations Officer
DS5

Master Chief Petty Officer Ziqot
Computer Systems
DS5

 

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