Official Secrets

Posted on Tue Mar 13, 2018 @ 11:10am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Captain Maritza Soran

968 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: Secondary Computer Core Beta, Deck 150
Timeline: MD 05 1130

[ON]

Maritza came through the doors of the secondary computer core, and looked around and saw the woman she had come to see. The files her Chief Scientist had sneaked off the USS Svikiri during its shield test had been transferred to a secure and isolated system. Now they just had to get them open and see what was inside. The ease Allana had found and removed them was suspicious to Maritza, but it wouldn't be the first time good computer security was overlooked. "Ready to crack those files, Dr Wells?"

"I am," Alanna said. "I've run several tests to make sure there is no malignant software." She smiled at the commander. "IF you've never sent a message through Astrometrics, you're not likely to know you can do this, or how to make your data packet look like a standard Starfleet packet."

"Pathfinder," Maritza nodded, referring to the research project that had finally made contact with the famous USS Voyager nearly twenty years ago. "Its a useful trick. Lets hope Hayashi was too in love with his weapons systems to notice the vulnerability."

"Most people who aren't involved with science tend to forget," Alanna replied. "But to be certain, I double-checked everything, went in with a second program to look deeper, and sifted through the data." She pulled up the pertinent data on a screen. "And came up with this."

Maritza looked at the equation that popped up. Her speciality had been comms and sensors, not tactical applications, "Is that the shield harmonics?"

"Yes. And this one," Alanna pulled up another one. "Shows the shield harmonics when the ship is attacked."

Martiza compared the two, impressed. "The warp bubble actually flexes to absorb the energy. That's genius." She turned away from the panel to her CSO. "There's a but coming, isn't there?"

"There is," Alanna said. "While it looks impressive, a warp field isn't supposed to work this way. It takes an enormous amount of energy. As you can see by the second set of data, the warp core isn't up to the task. A few direct hits and not only do the shields go down, so does the warp core--and a good number of systems along with it. This is made to look good, not to be truly functional."

Maritza frowned. "But we saw them take an absolute pounding! Far in excess of what normal shields can take. How did they do it?"

"From what I deduce from the data, they push the warp cores beyond their limits and hope the battle is brief."

"And a promethean has three of them." Maritza tapped at the screen scrolling through the data. "They can't seriously have cleared this for tests." A thought occured to her. "What's the blast radius on three warp cores going at once?"

Alanna whistled. She pulled out her PADD, ran the calculations, and showed them to Maritza. "I wouldn't want to be nearby if they breach."

Soran pinched the bridge of her nose. "We;re going to be less than an AU away from the wargame in three days. Real weapons won't be being used this time, just computer calculations, but the shields will be up. What are the chances of the Svikiri blowing up in the middle of the battle? How many people could we lose?"

"The chances are greater that they'll dump a warp core before it goes critical," Alanna admitted. "But worse case scenario, we should be safe here. It's the other ships that are in close proximity that could be in danger. I'm also concerned about that weapon of theirs. On a small scale, the concept works as predicted. But with something like a starship, there's a potential that the rapid compression from the gravitational collapse will cause an explosion."

"Unfortunately we're not going to get a close look at it. After LIeutenant Blue pointed out the ridiculous flaw in pyrotechnic style, I've been told to keep my staff away from the weapons check. We have to watch from here." Marittza crossed her arms and tapped her fingers against a bicep, "If you can find the flaws, then R&D should definitely be able to. I can't believe they'd let them stand without good reason." She arched an eyebrow at Alanna , "So the question becomes, what is really going on?"

"I don't know. They're too eager to show their muscle, but I don't know why. I don't know if they're so eager to have the biggest and baddest weapon that they're willing to cut corners or if this is all to hide what's really going on. I could try and find out, but I'd need to know what to look for."

"Anything you can do will help. And keep analysing those files. I want to know everything and anything that might be a weakness or a backdoor. Or a dirty secret."

"I will," Alanna promised. "If they aren't paying attention, I might be able to send in another coded data packet."

"Do it. I suspect Janus is so concerned with controlling his results, and watching for more obvious attempts at sabotage he isn't going to be looking for anything subtle."

Alanna grinned. "It will be my pleasure. I don't like bullies and I don't like reckless endangerment. I'll be careful, and I'll let you know what I find."

"Excellent." Maritza stared up at the projection of the shield harmonics. What else was going on? she had to trust that her new staff could get to the bottom of it before someone got hurt. "Carry on, Doctor."

"Yes, ma'am." Alanna nodded. There was a lot to be done, if she was going to do this right. "Good luck."

OFF:

Commander maritza Soran
Commanding Officer
Deep Space Five

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

 

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