Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Spymasters at Work

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Spymasters at Work

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Daggum Hammor (Chief Engineer) in Spymasters at Work
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Hmmm, now that you mention it, no I don’t think you have. Most of the time that just gets me variations of the Callous Calloway moniker I used to have. Or maybe still do. I’m waiting to see how this ship decides to classify me, so I can have the immense pleasure of constantly keeping them on their toes and challenging their expectations.”

Faye turned back to the screen, she pointed. “The way I see it, if he covered his tracks, I can tell by the code. And well, sure, tecnically I’m not supposed to be in there, but it is for the safety of the Federation, after all, right?” she said, looking over her shoulder at Dag.

~Faye

He sighed that the pass he made at her fell by the wayside as her mind took over and began running with the problem. It was a beautiful mind, though; and he never took it personally. “It is, yes. Plus… doesn’t all of this constitute an investigation? We didn’t open the door ourselves. It was opened for us by one Mallaua Ch’fre, was it not?”

Daggum

“Indeed it was,” Faye agreed. “So…” She rolled her shoulders and wiggled her fingers to warm them up. “Alright, no time like the present.” She flashed him a grin. “It’s been awhile since I’ve done this. I’ve kind of missed it.” Hacking computers wasn’t exactly in her job description, but she had certainly had her opportunities over the years.

Turning fully to face her computer, Faye brought up a secure shell in her specialized hub. It was kept separate from the rest of the Athena’s computer cores out of an abundance of caution given the nature of her work. Her fingers flew over the keys and she accessed the personnel database, pulling the Admiral’s record. She inputted a her security codes so that she could read the confidential portion and got in no problem. Now came the tricky bit. Anything further was going to be out of her purview, but she also knew how the system worked and could push her access to work for the medical file portion of his record by adding some security threat notations. That covered her ass, but the rest would be what it was. Faye pulled up another shell and displayed it on a second screen. She transferred the file over and then meticulously broke down the protections that normally would keep her out. As she went along, the corners of her mouth crept upwards. “I might be enjoying this too much,” she commented to Dag, though her eyes remained focused on her two screens as her fingers moved deftly over the keys.

~Faye

Daggum watched her work, her eyes flashing with the spark from inside her as she navigated code and protocols almost as fast as a computer would. He smiled as he watched her, there, in her element. He took a breath and said “You and me both.”; although had she been paying attention, it would have been obvious that he wasn’t talking about the work being done… but instead it was who was doing it.

Daggum

She shot him a quizzical look, once again missing the point. Then again, no one ever accused Faye of being social in tune. It was one of those things she really struggled with, and yes, even with her own husband, though she understood him better than she did most people. Then again, Daggum was usually very straightforward with her ever since she explained about her BPD. Clarity mattered and it not only kept her anxiety at bay, it lessened the potential for strife. Faye was blunt, and she didn’t mind bluntness back, though admittedly she still struggled with perceived or real rejection. Ah, mental health.

Al this went through her brain as she turned back and kept working. “Okay… and… I am… in!” Faye laughed and wiggled in her seat. “Moment nine thousand six hundred and twenty-two where Starfleet is infinitely glad I’m on their side.”

She continued her work. “Okay, so… I am in the file and I have pulled the version history and can see that there are no amendments. That’s expected. But… what most people don’t know is that even if you hide any amendments, there are tiny bits of code that are laid within the background as a more permanent history.” Faye instantly frowned. The she outright scowled. “That’s not possible,” she muttered and pushed herself away from the desk, swivelling into a standing position. She huffed. “Well, I have to give credit where credit is due. He’s erased it. I need to find another way to trace the changes in the backend. But first I need coffee,” she said, her mood soured by this frustrating admiral. She would not be bested by this man. No way. The answer was there, she just had to find it.

~Faye

Daggum nodded. “I’ll make some.” and he went to the replicator. The advantages of having been an Operations Chief and dealing with supplies and such was that over the years, Daggum had bartered supplies and such for favors and other compensation for assistance. Some of that compensation was replicator programs. Good ones. And one of those was a fantastic pot of coffee. He made it and brought her a cup. “Here you go.”

Daggum

“Thank you,” Faye said, just glancing at the cup enough to grab it securely before she refocused on the screen. She took a sip and that made her fully pause. “Oh. Ohhhh, that’s good, Gem. Just what I need,” she said, looking at him with a true smile.

She took two luxurious sips before she went back to work. For the next twenty minutes there was a flurry of typing, cursing and coffee sipping. Mostly in that order.

Finally Faye sat back and pushed herself away from the desk. She moved over to Daggum and leaned in, planting a kiss on his cheek.”I think I know how he did it. They key lay in the code framework. It looks on the surface like one of the standard programming languages we use for the records system in Starfleet. Very standard and even when you add the more complicated security measures, still easy to understand. What he did is very clever. I think he added a new security measure that made his changes invisible. Except they aren’t invisible. There is new code there for the security measure and while he might have wanted his changes to be invisible, there are empty brackets. They don’t do anything, but it’s sloppy code and not the standard system that we use. We input changes on the front end so it’s not like you’re coding in your annual physical and risk creating bugs and typos in the framework. But someone did. If I can trace the date and time of the changes to a location he was at, I might be able to have enough evidence that he tampered with his own record. Or even if we can’t prove he did it, his clearance was used and so we’d have to have other evidence that it wasn’t stolen clearance codes and he knew the changes were being made. That might mean some more… questionable digging, but I still think it falls within the purview of the investigation.”

~Faye

Bump

Daggum followed most of what she said as she said it… buy had to take a pause and catch up. “Okay. That makes sense. So what can I do to help?” he asked.

Daggum