Beginning an Investigation Part 1

Posted on Monday 28 January 2019 @ 16:10 by Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Current
1261 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody entered main engineering and made her way over to the pool table just in front of the warp core where a group of engineers had gathered.

“OK listen up people. I need a level one diagnostic across the board and I mean everything. Leave no stone unturned. Primary systems first. If you see anything unusual, no matter how small, don’t try and fix it yourself! Report it to either myself or Lieutenant Rejal. Let’s move people!”

She placed a hand on Rejal’s arm to keep him back a moment. She turned to him and spoke in a low voice. “I’ve reason to believe that whatever is controlling Lieutenant O’Hara has done something to the ship that’s going to kill us all. We have to find it. You and I are going to go though the main computer and see if we can find anything that shouldn’t be there.”

Marbim's face pales as he says, "Not here then, the shuttlecraft first. They were alone for a few minutes before we beamed aboard, we need to start there. O'hara never made it this far. We beamed her from the shuttle bay to sickbay. I've been in here looking at the device she built, so I know she sisn't access anything in engineering, and the warp core is still locked out to everyone but me."

Melody sighed “ Not only do we not know what we’re looking for, it seems that the thing controlling O’Hara has access to her knowledge. She knows every inch of this ship. When she broke out of sickbay, who knows what else she did while we were chasing her.”
She mused for a moment. “I’ll start on the main computer. You go over that shuttle with a fine tooth comb. Contact me if you find anything. I’ll do the same. Something tells me that whatever it is, it’s going to take some creative thinking to get rid of it.”

Grabbing his work belt Marbim'll start heading out of main Engineering, "Yes Mam. Just remember, I'm Cardassian, we're not that creative, but we'll come up with something." Hitting his combadge, =^= This is Rejal, any free ops or engineering work teams that are available, meet me in the shuttle bay, another group head for main engineering =^=

Hitting the closest turbolift, Marbim starts thinking about what he would do to cripple or destroy a ship...once the doors open he has a kina-plan. Entering the shuttle bay and seeing several work crews he gathers them together, "Look, Chief O'Hara is still sick. Something other than the Borg is messing with her head. Now, we need to figure out what happened in the shuttle between O'Hara and the Borg Drone, before the away team beamed back aboard. There has to be logs, entries, something that we can follow." He stops dead, then looks at the shuttle. "Start with a Level 1 scan of all software on board. Look for anything non-Starfleet - be it Borg or other. Attempt to confine whatever you find to a non-essential part of the shuttle. I have a bad feeling that whatever has been done is already starting a ticking clock somewhere. Now go!" Marbim steps back into the shuttle looking at the cramped space, muttering to himself he grabs a few people and directs them to specific locations within the shuttle, essentially recreating what it looked like upon beam-in....

Once Marbim has everyone in place, he ponders aloud, "Ok people, this is the test. These two, who represent O'Hara and the Borg Drone, have about three to five minutes of alone time before Karki, Matthews and I beam back aboard. Sedating the drone takes maybe half a minute, as O'Hara was ready for it. Then she jacked herself into her machine and then the drone...now, what can she have done in about two minutes of time. When we beamed aboard she wasn't moving in her seat and the drone was still knocked out .... what are we missing people?" He isn't insulting, more asking aloud to get his own brain working around the problem.

After giving 'his team' about ten minutes to talk about things, he suddenly punches the shuttle wall, shouting "Qi-yah !!" [Klingon for Holy Shit]. Marbim, realizing that he has now scared everybody as he has left a dent in the wall, looks at his team. "The only thing that goes from shuttle to ship are the logs that get downloaded once the shuttle docks. Get a team working on those logs from this end, I'm heading to main engineering to find Commander Jones and give her a heads up as I no longer trust the comms." Marbim almost breaks into a run as he starts wrapping his head around viruses, trojan horses, worms, and other forms of computerized attack. On his way to the turbolift he taps his combadge. =^=Rejal to Jones, Commander where are you presently?"

"That's new," Miles heard from across the Engine room. The voice started to get closer as it spoke. "Steph swears in Gaelic, but I've never heard a Cardassian cuss in Klingon before." She walked over, but didn't offer her hand. "MCPO Hale. Everyone calls me Liz. Now what's the fuss you've been raising around here and where's Steph?"

"The Chief is either in the brig or sickbay. Whatever has screwed with the Borg Collective got her. I think something transferred itself into her through her dataport and connection with the drone. I also think that something bad got downloaded into the shuttle logs. They're the only piece of data that gets downloaded into the main computer with when returning from a mission. I think that 'something' is some kind of virus to hurt the or kill the Merlin, which means all of us. Up to speed now Liz, I've got teams working on the physical aspect of the inside of the shuttle looking for anything out of the norm, but I need to report to Commander Jones about the virus before someone goes and turns it on...can I trust you to oversee what's going on here?"

After Rejal had left, Melody moved into O'Hara's office and sat down at the main terminal. "Computer I need a review of all files currently in active memory, authorization Jones Gamma 323. Engineering override Alpha 1"


The monitor came to life and Melody began studying the display. This was not going to be easy.


Melody addressed the computer. "Computer are any anomalies present in active memory?"

"Negative."

"Computer is there any programs or files present that shouldn't be there?"

"Please restate request."

Melody frowned "Are there any unidentified files or programs?"

"Negative."

"What none? What is the current load on the main computer?"

"The main computer systems on this ship are currently operating at 98% capacity."

Melody was shocked "That's too high. Even running a full diagnostic. Something is eating up a lot of computer power." She sighed. "Something is defiantly not right here. Back to the files I suppose."

She looked up when Lieutenant Rejal came over the COMM.

=^=Rejal to Jones, Commander where are you presently?"=^=

=^= Jones here, I'm in Lieutenant O'Hara's Office in engineering, going through the main computer files. Something is defiantly not right here.=^=

=^=You're right mam. I'll be there shortly, I think i figured out 'the what and how's' of our present dilemma. Also, shuttle 1 has a dent that needs to be repaired.=^=


OFF:

Commander Meldoy Jones
Second Officer / CSO

Lt jg Marbim Rejal
Chief of Operations
USS Merlin

MCPO Elizabeth Hale
Engineer
USS Merlin