Posted by Lieutenant Harry Archer (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim: Engineering - Diagnostic Bay - Tag GM

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade T’Mor (Scientist) in Main Sim: Engineering - Diagnostic Bay - Tag GM

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Lisa Caldwell (Engineer) in Main Sim: Engineering - Diagnostic Bay - Tag GM
Posted by… suppressed (55) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Harry entered engineering and made his way toward one of the diagnostic bay, where he had instructed the transporter room to beam the Admiral’s hardware and data recorders. Connecting them to one of the diagnostic networks, which was separate to the ship’s systems, he started to backup all of the data and configuration, just in case anything went wrong.

Once completed, he started to analyse the data from the hardware to see if there was any clues to the origin of the file that the Admiral had viewed on these devices. As he did so, he did wonder whether he would need the original file from the chip that was no concealed in the egg, or whether the Admiral had kindly left a copy on her terminal that he was now analysing.

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

None of the hardware or data had any kind of identification coding or transmission history. Odd, since everything had to have a transmission code to move it from one system to another. There was a file that should have been a copy of the recording… but when he opened it, it was complete junk. A somewhat in-depth attempt to restore it failed, but it did tell Archer that something prevented the video from being copied… and that prevention was housed in the video itself.

GM

Harry was intrigued to discover the copy of the file wasn’t intact. Normally the system would copy the file locally and run it from the copy. He started to run the file through various data reconstruction algorithms, and even tried to see if it had been encrypted. Even without any decryption key, he realised the file was very much corrupted. He even looked to see if there were shadow copies of the file in the file system, but no such luck.

An hour and a large pot of tea later, he admitted defeat; although it had been fun to dust off some of computer science skills.

=^= Archer to XO. No luck with the data console; I suspect I’ll need to take a look at the chip itself to find out anything further from the recording. =^=

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

The channel opened but there was a long pause before Calloway responded. =/\=I’m not surprised. Can you restore any of the corrupted pieces? If not, myself or Gadi might be able to lend a hand. Sometimes there is information contained within what looks like nothing. In any case, talk to the Captain about the chip. Just… be careful about keeping our internal systems as separate from this stuff as possible. Proceed with an abundance of caution.=/\=

~Shara Calloway, XO

=^= Understood Commander. =^= Harry said, a little frustrated that the XO would even ask the question about whether he could restore any of the corrupted pieces. He reminded himself that was unlikely to be a comment on his ability, more the XO checking verifying that he had done his job, despite him thinking it was fairly obvious that he would have done.

He tapped a couple of commands into his console, and noted that Gadi was in her office and, apparently, running a similar set of diagnostics. He sighed slightly.

“Why bother having engineering if you’re just going to do everything yourself,,” he muttered under his breath. Security officers were always the same.

“I’m sorry sir?” said a passing ensign, overhearing the Lieutenant.

“Ahh,” Harry started, “nothing to worry about, I was just airing some frustrations that I probably should keep to myself.” he said with a slight smile. “Whilst you’re here, can you query the Starfleet Engineering Corp database, and see if there are any Sovereign class ships that have been either retired from service and handed over to an external force to Starfleet, or missing and/or presumed destroyed? Also, see if there are any Sovereign ships that were built but didn’t enter service within the main fleet.” he asked, acting on a bit of a hunch on the latter. It would be unusual for Starfleet to sell a ship class that was still the bulwark of the fleet.

“I’ll be in security.”

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

Ensign Kelbin sighed; he had definitely walked into that one. He settled himself down on the seat that Harry had been sitting at previously, and started to tap in some commands into the computer before pausing.

=^= Computer, create a list of every Sovereign ship that had been built at the shipyards, and remove those that are either still in service or have been classed as destroyed or disassembled.=^=

Ens Kelbin
Nameless Ensign

The search for a Sovereign class vessel under those specifications returned no definitive results. It seemed that all vessels of that class were accounted for.

GM

Kelbin frowned. =^= Are there any Sovereign class ships that are currently missing? =^= he asked.

Ens Kelbin

=/\= Negative. All ships of the Sovereign class are either currently active, in drydock, or confirmed destroyed. =/\= came the reply from the computer.

GM

“Strange,” he said to himself. He was sure that he had been told that the ship on the recording was a Sovereign class starship. Struggling to work out what to do next, he made a report and sent it to the Chief Engineer.

Ens Kelbin

OOC: The recording was corrupted, just as a reminder.

GM

OOC: Updated!

It was at that moment that Lisa walked over to Kelbin. She’d been working in another part of Engineering and had just finished and decided to check up on the Ensign.
“Ensign, care to fill me in? Happy to lend a hand.” She stated looking over his shoulder. She smelled of grease.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

Kelbin sighed. “I’m not sure. The video recording has footage of apparently a Sovereign class starship attacking a planet, yet they’re all accounted for. And I can’t get access to the recording as the data is corrupted.” he said, shrugging. “I’m still of the mind that this was a false flag operation, rather than actually one of our ships.”

Ens Kelbin

Lisa nodded and tapped the desk lost in thought for a moment.
“It sounds like we’ve hit a dead end here Kelbin. Have you tried to view the source code to see if the data can be retrieved that way?” She asked, if that didn’t work she didn’t know what else they could do.
“We’d best update the Chief.” She added tapping her com badge =^= Caldwell to Archer. Chief, we’ve hit a bit of a dead end here. The recording is completely corrupted and we can’t get access to the data. There doesn’t seem to be anyway around it unfortunately. Have you had any luck on your end?=^=

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

<Bump>

OOC: I think I’m going to leave this for the time being. We probably need some GM input, as I’m struggling to understand what is it I need to do (frankly, I’m out of ideas!).

Jack
<Bump for GM>

OOC: Your team does have the actual recording in their possession. And your passing idea of looking at the chip itself was left hanging out there. Maybe revisit that avenue?

GM

Lisa turned to the Ensign next to her.
“I think we should try to look at the recording, bring it up for me. Lets see what’s going on.” She stated.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

The Ensign looked back at Caldwell and said “Sorry, L-T. That recording was here for a while, but there was absolutely no way to transfer the file off the disk it’s housed on. We tried… it’s gotta be played straight from the disc. “

GM

Lisa sighed frustrated.
“Okay then. Can we look at the chip? Do we have that?” She asked, not expecting an answer she wanted.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

“I think the Executive Officer is looking over it with the Chief of Security.” the Ensign said. “And I think that’s where the boss went… when he found out that security was doing engineering stuff, I sensed he wasn’t too pleased.”

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

Lisa grunted with frustration.
“Well what the hell are we doing here then?” She complained.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

<Bump>

“Well, I was trying to figure out why the image of a sovereign class starship was in the recording as apparently none have gone missing.”

NE Kelbin

Lisa sighed and rubbed her temple.
“Sorry Ensign. It’s not your fault. It’s just very, frustrating.” She replied apologetically.

The doors slid open and NE Fitzroy came through the door carrying a security case. “Excuse me, Lieutenant. The XO wanted me to bring this to you and ask that you run every kind of scan, test, and- as they put it- ‘engineering witchcraft’ that you can think of on it.” He opened the case and there sat the chip.

GM

“Ah, at last. Thank you Fitzroy. Lets see what we’ve got to work with.” She took the chip and placed it into the computer on the desk.
“Lets start off by running the chip. Then we’ll scan it and go from there.” She stated out loud and pressed play.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

The chip played the vid of the attack on the colony just as it had before. The several different ‘scenes’ played out in excruciating detail. When the clips finished, the display went dark.

GM

Lisa scratched her head then frowned thoughtfully. She then ran a scan to see if the chip had been tampered with.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

The chip was encrypted in such a way that anyone could view the contents but any attempt to replicate or copy it’s contents was impossible. In fact, the level and complexity of encryption was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

The physical chip was fairly standard… but for one thing. It held a very low but very distinctive radiation signature. The computer couldn’t identify the specific kind of radiation; but could establish it was not of a dangerous level and was not transferreable from the chip to anything else.

GM

Lisa scratched her head as she looked at the results. The level of encryption was just remarkable. The background radiation was puzzling. She turned to the Ensign.
“Any thoughts?” She asked as she thought away.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

NE Kelbin scratched his head.

=^= Computer, can you identify the radiation on the chip. =^= he asked, before turning to the Lieutenant. “Perhaps we will get lucky and be able to identify where the materials were mined for the chip.” he said, with a bit of a shrug.

NE Kelbin

Lisa nodded and sighed frustratingly.
“Maybe that’ll return something. I think we might have hit a dead end otherwise.” She replied waiting for the computer’s response. She crossed her fingers hoping they would get some usable information.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

“Let’s hope so,” replied NE Kelbin, drumming his fingers on the console waiting for the response from the computer.

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

Lisa nodded and drummed her fingers on the desk as she waited for the computer to respond.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

The computer was silent… for an exceedingly long time. Finally, it activated. =/\= Radiation signature is unknown. Does not confirm to naturally occuring radiation signatures. =/\=

GM

“Curious,” the Ensign said, looking through the results from the computer before sighing. “Although also completely unhelpful. Everything we explore seems to point to a dead-end. First trying to identify the starship, now the radiation source… it’s almost as if someone is working against us.” he muttered to Lisa.

=^= Computer, if the radiation source is not naturally occurring radiation, what is it? =^=

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

=/\= Unknown. Signature does not match any known radiation signatures. Closest comparable signature is referenced in Old Earth governmental document entitled ‘Technological Assets and Practices for Covert Field Agent Suppoet’ published by the Central Intelligence Agency of the former United States of America government.The document.states that 7 ique radiographic signatures could be created that do not exist in nature. Such signatures could be used as a non-technology based tracking system. =/\=

GM

“Well that’s something,” the Ensign muttered. A moment later, Harry walked around the corner.

“How are we getting on?” he asked both Kelbin and Lisa.

Kelbin sighed, “We’ve worked out that the chip has a radiation signature, but trying to work out what the signature is has proven problematic.”

“Do we know whether the radiation signature is harmful?” Harry asked.

Kelbin’s eyebrows suddenly raised, out of concern. “None of the alarms have gone off?” he suggested, almost as a question.

=^= Computer, is the radiation source harmful? =^=

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

Lisa looked up as Harry walked in, she had been deep in thought.
“If the radiation is being used a marker, I highly doubt that it would be harmful, but it can’t hurt to ask.”
“Chief, we’ve hit a bit of a dead end with this thing.” She replied and then waited for the computer to reply.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

=/\= Radiation signature is not of a strength that it would prove harmful. =/\= the computer replied.

GM

“Well, that’s something,” Harry grumbled to Lisa.

=^= Computer, is the radiation as a result of radioactive isotopes in the chip, or is it being created through some form of stimulation? =^= he asked, wondering whether there was a power source that was causing the emission, or whether it was some radioactive material .

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

=/\= Radiation is from material in the chip structure. =/\=

GM

“Hmm,” Harry mused, before continuing. =^=Computer, can you calculate the half-life of the radioactive material based on its radiation output over time? If so, compare it to known isotopes in Federation and non-Federation databases.=^=

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

=/\= Half-life unknown. Degradation of material is unknown factor at this time. =/\=
the computer said. But then it added =/\= Comparison of material shows match. Base composite of chip is made from an identical substance discussed in doctoral thesis entitled ‘Extinction Patterns of Geological Structures’ by Hortence Blythe, Cambridge University. =/\=

GM

“Well, that’s quirkily specific,” Harry said, wondering why the computer had not identified any other uses of the substance. It would seem to imply it was quite unique.

Seeing this was now straying out of the realms of engineering, and more into science, he decided to call for some help.

=^= Archer to T’Mor. I could do with your assistance in the Main Engineering Diagnostic Bay. =^= he stated.

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

=^= Yes, sir=^= T’Mor responded

Lisa frowned.
“Aye, that’s very specific.” Lisa replied.
“What are your thoughts Chief?” She asked.

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

“I’m thinking that someone wants to follow where this chip is,” he replied, before pausing. “Although…,” his voice trailed off mid-thought.

=^= Computer, what would be the expected distance that someone could identify this chip from the radiation emitted? =^+

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

There was a pause and the computer replied =/\= Due to the unique nature of the radiation signature, identifying it would be a simple matter if the signature is known. Current sensor technologies would allow the signature to be detected at a range of approximately twenty light years. =/\=

GM

T’Mor entered the Diagnostic Bay. Taking her a bit longer due to her unfamiliarity with the ship. She caught the last few mentions of the computer’s readout and silently dreaded the thought that this task might involve more sensor adjustments. Still she stood up straight and at attention, tall as she could at 5’4”,

“What may I help you with, sir?”

|Lt., j.g. T’Mor, Scientist|

“This chip here,” Harry said to T’Mor. “It seems to be manufactured with some form of radiation source bedded into it. I wondered if we could work out where it is from.”

He looked at the computer, with one final enquiry. =^= Given the range of 20 light years, is it correct to assume detection would require active scans, given that otherwise it would take 20 years for the radiation to reach whoever is tracking? =^=

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

=/\= Active scans would be required for detection. =/\= the computer affirmed.

GM

Lisa scratched her chin.
“I wonder, would be possible to scan within a 20 light year radius for anyone actively scanning the area?”

Lt (j.g) Lisa Caldwell (Eng)

<Bump>

Okay. Material science, she could handle that. A few taps on the console brought up the previous queries. Good, there was already a match for the material.

She focused on reading through the cited paper for more information.

|Lt., j.g. T’Mor, Scientist|

Meanwhile, Harry turned to Lisa. “In theory, we should be able to detect if someone is scanning us, and look to triangulate the signal.”

=^= Computer, are we being scanned by anything within 20 light years, specifically any scans that will detect the radioactive isotope? =^=

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

=/\= There are no active scans of the ship from any exterior sources. =/\= the computer replied.

GM