Gadgets, Gizmos and Widgets
Posted on Mon Nov 6th, 2023 @ 8:29pm by Chief Petty Officer Xeres & Lieutenant Paul Michael
Edited on on Mon Nov 6th, 2023 @ 8:32pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: Shuttle Maintenance Bay - Deck 10 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD001 1300 hrs
Paul was in his quarters, with Auba and their daughter Anegn. Paul had just finished feeding her, and changed her, and now Anegn was asleep on his chest.
He cherished these times, because he knew that before he knew if, she'd be grown and on her own.
His commbadge started to chirp. He reached over and, speaking in a hushed whisper, "Michael".
"Sorry to bother you, lieutenant. This is Crewman Struthers."
"What is it crewman?" was Paul's response.
Auba came over and took Anegn and disappeared into the baby's room.
"I'm in the shuttle maintenance hangar, sir. We've been running routine diagnostics on the runabouts and shuttles, and the computer is detecting an anomaly in 3 runabouts used in the last mission, sir." reported Struthers.
"Did you try asking the runabouts computer for a clarification?"
"Yes sir, but the runabouts computer isn't detecting anything." Struthers voice seemed concerned.
Paul sighed and sat up. "All right. Get all shifts together, and I'll be there in 15 minutes. Michael out." He got off the couch and walked into the baby's room. He walked over to Auba. He spoke in a whisper. "There's a problem in the maintenance hangar. I have to go check it out. Shouldn't be that long." He leaned over and gave her a kiss. Then he turned around and headed towards the door.
Minutes later, he stepped off the turbolift on the hangar deck. Struthers walked over to him, hanging him a PADD. "Sorry to drag you away from your family, sir, but honestly we're stumped." Paul looked at the PADD.
"First, take these ships out of service until we figure out what's wrong." He looked around and saw the maintenance staff waiting for orders. "Alright. We're going to break up into 3 groups. I'll be moving from group to group overseeing everything. If anyone finds something, holler! Check every system on the ship. This could be a chip malfunction or an error in one of the systems. If we have too, we'll take them apart and check each piece of equipment individually. Get to work!"
The teams broke up and headed to their assigned runabouts. Paul entered the nearest ship and sat in the pilot's chair. He pressed a switch on the console. "Computer. Run a full diagnostic on all ship's functions and report any problems."
The computer replied. "Working."
While he waited for the results, he started doing diagnostic checks on the bridge systems. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he would know it when he found it.
Then the computer replied. "All ship's systems operating within normal parameters."
"Computer. This is Lieutenant Paul Michael, ship's flight officer. Authorization 8732 Charlie 43 Omega. Start a level 5 diagnostics."
"Authorization confirmed. Level 5 diagnostic will require 3 hours."
"Acknowledged. Begin diagnostic."
Paul opened up the cover to the isolinear chips and started scanning each one individually.
He checked the ship's computer memory. He looked at Struthers. "Have someone start going over the ship's outer hull with a scanner."
"Do you suspect something, sir?
"No, but it seems to be the easiest thing to do at the moment."
Chief Petty Officer Xeres had been going over the computer system of the Serenity and found a few readings that were out of the ordinary. The Bolian looked up and saw Lieutenant Michael and was relieved that someone called him down for this. "Hey Lieutenant would you come take a look at this. I know you have your hands full but I think I found something while running a diagnostic on the Serenity."
"First the runabouts now the Serenity. Something is going on and I don't like it." Michael sat and looked at the readout. "I'm ordering the Serenity out of commission until this issue is solved."
Michael shook his head. "If the computer can't locate the problem, I'll have to order all the runabouts to be dismantled. If we find the problem, we can rebuild 3 of the craft, if we don't, I'll have to go to the
commodore and ask him to requisition new runabouts."
"Lieutenant it seems that a large amount of data was dumped into the Serenity's computer core. That data has since been retrieved but when I look for the trace to see who did it, why, or even what the data was, I hit a brick wall. That is why I called you over. Perhaps you can make heads or tails of this." Xeres said as he handed Paul a PADD containing what he had learned thus far.
Paul took the PADD and started reading it. "You checked the memory from the Serenity? That may have told you who did the download."
"I have indeed however, the Serenity's computer access logs have been wiped. It would take a command level access code to do that. Hell, there isn't even a record of you taking the ship out during the last mission." Xeres pointed to the point in the report that showed what he said.
Paul pondered the situation. "That's impossible. Like you said, it would take a command level access code....or...." he tailed off. "Keep this under your hat, I'm going to speak to the commodore." He got up to leave.
"Yes sir Lieutenant." Xeres replied and made sure that anyone else who worked on the Serenity stepped away. As Shuttle Bay Manager Xeres was able to make sure that the Serenity stayed off limits to anyone that the Lieutenant did not want to see it. He did not know what was up, but he knew that it must be big for the Lieutenant to hurry off in that manner.
A Joint Post By
Chief Petty Officer Xeres
Shuttle Bay Manager, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Paul Michael
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
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