Smoke, Mirrors, and Chips

Posted on Sun Dec 14, 2014 @ 12:37am by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant AJ Taggart

2,232 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: All this has happened before...
Location: Communicore

AJ was standing outside of the thick tritanium doors of the communicore with two security officers scrutinizing him. It didn't matter that he was their superior officer, they were under strict instructions to allow no one to enter those doors without authorization. Their eyes were locked on him and their hands were near their phasers, which were always set to a heavy stun so they could drop anything that decided to make a break for it faster than a two foot putt.

His mission here was simple: Assist the Captain and Chief Intelligence Officer in decrypted the isolinear chip that he had brought aboard the previous day. The chip was locked tighter than a Ferengi change purse and whatever information needed to be revealed was sealed inside.

Walking up behind him, the Captain stood silently waiting for Taggart to notice her arrival.

AJ could hear echoes of footsteps behind him and spun around on his heel as soon as he heard the firm but slightly sultry voice of the Captain. "Good morning, Captain. Are you ready to enter?" he asked, motioning towards the door.

With a slight nod, she answered "I am Lieutenant. Have you been given the updated access codes for the communicore yet?"

AJ nodded slightly. "Yes, ma'am. My codes should have updated once my orders were confirmed. Shall we go?" He stepped forward and one of the guards held up a small retinal scanner and activated it, bombarding AJ's eyes with a steady stream of blue light. Once the guard deactivated the device, AJ blinked rapidly as his eye began to burn. He held out the palm of his hand on the wall scanner and felt a small pinprick as the scanner took a DNA sample and analyzed it.

=A= AJ Taggart- State Authorization Code. =A=

AJ cleared his throat and spoke clearly. "Taggart-Four-Tango-Beta-Nine-Omega."

=A= Authorization Granted. Enter now. =A=

AJ stood aside and waited for the Captain to complete the authorization process.

Going through the same process, once her access had been verified and authorized the Captain turned to him as the access hatch leading into the communicore opened, "Are you ready?"

AJ nodded. "Captain's first." he said jokingly and motioned with a flourish. Walking behind her, he felt the familiar cold darkness as he entered the dimly lit room that was nothing but curves, consoles, and metal. Millions of terraquads of information were flowing through this room at any given second and it was the job of the black collared crew to receive, interpret, and disseminate it so that Starfleet could act on it. It was all rather awe inspiring if one took the time to think about it.

Entering the quiet room, as the door slid smoothly closed behind them the quiet became very nearly total. So quiet it was a little disconcerting to her.. she'd never liked this part of the job and it was one of multiple reasons why she'd stopped wearing black and returned to standard Starfleet uniform. Even though she was still very much a part of this darker, silent part of Starfleet which .. never really existed officially. "Its cold in here.." she commented as she walked to take one of the four seats in the chamber.

AJ hadn't even felt the cold until the Captain mentioned it, it wasn't so much a physical feeling as it was a psychological one. This room was not designed to emanate warmth- it was designed to absorb it. Taking the second seat, AJ activated the console to his right and entered his security codes to unlock the functions that he needed. Continuing to work with the console, he spoke to the Captain without looking up. "We'll need to get the Chief Intelligence Officer here in order to complete the authentication. Did you want to summon her or shall I?" he asked.

"I'll contact her," Kennit answered simply. "You focus on getting the system up and online. It might be a good idea to bring up the communications system and check for a database update as well." Stepping a few paces from where he was working, she activated a comm channel using another console and said "Kennit to Lt. Blackburn. You are needed in the communicore."

Nina had taken a break in her duties to grab some lunch. It seemed most people seemed wary of her--as if she would instantly record their conversations and use them against them somehow. She had always wondered why that was--she fought for the Federation, same as them. She was Starfleet Intel, not Section 31--now those guys were paranoid. She finished downing her last bite of her Turkey Sandwich when the request from the captain came over her comm badge. "Be right there, captain."

Two minutes later, Nina entered the Communicore and approached the duo. "What brings you to my territory, captain?"

At that comment, the Captain just arched one eyebrow hearing the Communicore referred to as the intelligence officers territory. "Mr. Taggart has returned to the Victory with an isolinear chip which needs to be decrypted.." Kennit answered, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Any idea what's on the chip?" she asked as she looked the other man over and back at the captain.

"Not yet," Kennit answered. "Though hopefully we'll soon have the answer to that question." Silence fell for several minutes, finally the Captain looked at Lt. Taggart and said, "How are you progressing Mr. Taggart?"

AJ shook his head as he tried to keep a wave of frustration from overcoming him. "Your system has so many redundant security clusters, I'm having a lot of trouble getting through. Would you mind giving me some access?" AJ asked Lieutenant Blackburn.

"Those security procedures are required," Nina replied, as she took her place on the opposite side of the console. "The information in this room could start wars or leave Starfleet next to defenseless if it became common knowledge."

AJ looked up from his console. "You don't need to read me the riot act. I used to wear the black collar, just like you. In fact, up until now Starfleet ensured that I knew more than you." Looking over at the young officer with a look of slight venom, he motioned towards the console. "So how about we access this file and we all go on about our day, hmm?" It wasn't in his nature to goad people but he tended to get sarcastic when provoked, a rather valuable skill he picked up as a Recruit Division Commander.

Nina grinned as she operated the console. "Get kicked out? Did you go over to the dark side of Intel? Let the butt hurt flow through you," she finished inputting her code, unlocking the information on the chip.

AJ chuckled as his face turned bright red. "You wish. Fleet decided my skills were better suited as a Tactical Officer than a squint." He watched as another section of the data representation flashed from red to green. "Hell, I much prefer firing a torpedo or kicking down a door to hiding down in this place any day."

Listening to the children bicker, the Captain remained quiet and merely waited patiently. She no longer wore a black uniform, but she suspected Taggart knew the truth about who she was, possibly some of what she'd done.. and that just because her uniform was no longer solid black.. that did not mean she was not still deep within the shadow.

AJ looked over to the Captain since it was the last part that needed to be decoded. "Captain, it's all you now. Enter your authorization and we'll be cooking with fire."

Moving to the console, as she leaned over and allowed the computer to scan her retina before placing a hand on a DNA scanner as a final security measure, she answered "You know what they say about playing with fire.. be careful or you'll get burned.."

"Only if you don't know what you're doing, ma'am," Nina commented with a grin, as she recalled an incident with a Hawaiian Fire Dancer who had accidentally set his hair on fire during a performance.

As the chip unlocked, there was a loud clicking sound and a short list of files appeared. Each was labeled succinctly- BRIEF, MAPS, AND SUPPLEMENTAL DATA . AJ took the liberty of opening the first file and turned in his seat as he heard the secondary entry door slam down and a forcefield engage. Turning back to the screen, AJ saw a slightly pudgy man with thinning black hair in a grey Starfleet uniform that began to speak. He could recognize the man as Commander Samuel Pritchard, one of the best intelligence officers that Starfleet had ever seen. At one point, he was fast tracked for his own command. Then, in a flash of bad fortune, he was caught drunk on duty after a wild night in the Nevada desert. It had completely derailed any hope of ascension within Starfleet and the rest of life along with it.

"The following information is classified and is designated for officers with Level 8 Clearance or above. Dissemination of this information is a violation of Articles 92 and 134 the UCMJ and violators will be subject to the maximum available penalty." The officer continued after taking a moment to swallow and motioned to an image of an Olympic Class vessel. "This is an image of the USS Bethesda, a medical research vessel that was assigned to exploratory and expeditionary medical research. Approximately 8 days ago, the Bethesda stopped responding to communications and began to broadcast an automated quarantine warning. Currently, you are the only vessel in the area . Your mission profile is as follows: Rendezvous with the Bethesda, download all records and determine the reason for their loss of contact. Contact Starbase 900 once you complete these objectives to receive further orders. Maps are enclosed in addition to supplementary tactical information in the connected files. This chip will back up to the secured sector of your main computer and self destruct in five seconds-"

The man was cut off and his image was replaced with static as a snaking wisp of smoke began flowing out of the drive that the chip was inserted into. AJ turned to the group. "I guess that's that. He didn't leave much room for questions, did he?"

The information presented was odd--why the secrecy? Why not just use a secure channel? "Was the Bethesda conducting research on any dangerous chemicals or diseases?"

The Captain shook her head slowly, "I don't know. Last information I was aware of was, as the message said.. they were out here for exploration and to conduct research.." she paused, "Is there any information on what the ship was currently involved in when the quarantine code began to broadcast? Mission reports.. any information on where they'd been recently, what they might have come across?"

AJ shook his head as he continued to dig through the 'Supplemental Data' folder which contained virtually nothing of use. "Ma'am, if there's any useful data in here to find, I am definitely not seeing it-" Locating a file buried deep in some obfuscated data, AJ pulled it up and projected it onto the main screen. It looked to be a mission profile generated by the Bethesda that detailed their flight path. "Captain, what this looks like is a flight data profile." Standing up, AJ walked over to the screen. "It appears that they stopped in two systems before they just stopped. The first, is the Tilamar system. Tiliamar is primarily ocean planets with a few artificially built cities among them. The second is Anchorage, a lone Class P planet which is locked into a perpetual winter. The Bethesda stopped here to offload equipment and personnel for a new Forward Operating Base on the planet. This planet is of strategic value to Starfleet due to the fact that we know the Vaadwaur are staging hit and run attacks in the area. The most recent of which hit another small Fleet outpost on the planet a year ago."

"Suggest we make contact with the Bethesda and if need to, back track to their recent stops with shuttles," Nina suggested.

"Agreed." Kennit answered. "Where is the Bethesda currently located?" she asked, as that bit of data was not currently on the screen. "How far out are they from our current position once we depart the dock in the morning?"

Blackburn tapped in some commands to access the Starfleet Sensor Network. A moment later, a confirmation signal was received. "Looks like they're located in Sector zero-eight-seven-bravo. Current distance is approximately four light years from our current position."

"About four days out.." the Captain mused more to herself than anyone else. "Well then," she said. "We have a job to do.. time to get started with preparations.. We'll need to request additional medical supplies be brought aboard.. as well as possibly additional scientific and research equipment.. Hard to determine what we might need with the information we have."

AJ turned to face the Captain. "I'll work with Nicole- Doctor Anderson to get a decontamination plan going.-" AJ stopped and glanced at Nina. "-I'll also need to get three of your best analysts to sift through all of the data in their main computer."

"Not a problem," Nina said confidently. The mission and the encrypted chip didn't make any sense to her. There was definitely more going on than what was being reported.

 

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