Delegation - Part 1

Posted on 06 Aug 2015 @ 2:39am by Captain Ricardo (Rico) Montoya & Commander Travis Stone & Lieutenant Commander Fanvo Adtanis
Edited on on 06 Aug 2015 @ 2:43am

1,617 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: M13-B: The Big Goodbye
Location: Achilles / Freedom / Berlin
Timeline: DS9 Pre-launch

-ON-

Fanvo took a second to gather his breath; if this gambit failed he would never escape the ship much less the Quadrant. With considerable effort he had removed the gel pack containing the command processors on the Universal Translation matrix. It was the master template, would update all others automatically. Essentially he would be able to change the ships interpretation of certain terms into alternate ones. The one exception was that it was only for this ship. There were two other communication panels he needed to affect, and further more replace their Primary Communications matrix data.

He would have to do it during his inspection,since he could only do that from Main Engineering or the Bridge. The first inspection was due in half an hour. The hard part would be distracting the Chief on the Berlin and Freedom, but he planned on Tyce being the agent of chaos. If he did this right, all the ships records would be updated with his information in proper form, along with command cyphers and access-ways built in for his purposes. The Achilles had been easy to rig, the complex patterns allowed his virus and subroutines to disguise in the maelstrom. It would be harder on the smaller vessels, but once they were in the Gamma Quadrant, he could keep this ruse alive.

A moment to double check his work, incoming messages earmarked for his name and a series of other triggers would be routed to a private folder for Fanvo to respond to directly. Ship manifest would update locally, but show the CEO post taken by Catherine Wilhelm everywhere else, so long as she went undiscovered, nobody would be the wiser. He had control over the flow information, or at least, one third of it currently.

The chronometer showed 12 after the hour, it was time to set the first wheels in motion.
=/\= Tyce Backo, what is your status?

=/\= Backo here. Approving specs in the galley, they want to have direct flame pits in the Klingon cafe but fire suppression won’t be selective how-

=/\= Lt. that is fascinating but we have an inspection in less than an hour. Meet me in the Freedom engine room in 45, Adtanis Out.

He had moments to act before he could send a similar notification to mask and overlap what he was about to do. That brief window allowed Fanvo to use the Achilles site-to-site transporter in Main engineering directly to the Berlin. Ordinarily the site-to-site would not go between vessels, even if within range. The subtle re-write would make it allow profile transmission routed through the Berlins transporter as a power cycling diagnostic. At last check, there were only twenty crew on board, the rest were finishing shore leave in the next two hours and would return over the next three.


[USS Berlin Computer core emergency repair hatch]

Counting backwards from five thousand Fanvo typed feverishly on the computer panel deep in the Quarnary core itself. It was a very cramped access he knew it was fortunate the transporter got him there intact. He had just enough time to introduce a flaw in the comm system and wipe the panel for his traces and erasing his bio stamp from ships logs. At eighty eight seconds he fel apnic as the UV beams nearly didn't finish cleansing the panel. The confinement beam claimed him simultaneously as the beam sparked off the last piece of his DNA.


[USS Freedom- Main Transporter room]

The Freedom was where it went sideways. The transporter chief on the Freedom was on duty, a shift change Fanvo hadn't seen since he last looked at the schedule. It occurred to him that a person without flawless memory may have checked again, he was not above this as well. The board was set to re-direct him to the computer core automatically, so when he saw the shocked face of the transporter chief he had to think quickly.

"Ah, Chief Panovsky, what can I do for you?" He bought a few seconds playing obtuse.

The young man was taken by surprise but had a spine for sure, "Sir, why are you cycling through the transporter board? And-"

Fanvo held up a finger to cut him off, "Shhhh, I have three ships to inspect, I cant announce my comings and goings. Be a lad and carry out the program as entered to the computer. I would appreciate it if you could wait for 45 minutes to announce that I have arrived to the bridge for my scheduled inspection...." A moment passed where the chief did nothing, "I don't want to order you, not my style, but I do need you to carry out the program... Energize. Now"

Fanvo materialized, he knew this was not the right way but had no time for further improvisation, the worm he embedded was set to a time table he was in danger of missing. If it removed itself everything he was doing would be widely evident and stop this plan cold. If it worked, there would be comm errors triggered by his comm-badge forcing him to repair a system while inspecting the ships. The Captain would see every step and nothing would be suspicious with a simple repair of a minor issue... he hoped.

Chief Panovsky activated the board, watching the Lt Commander dematerialize. He took a moment to consider his options, the order hadn't been made, but then again pissing off your CO's CO was not a great first day. However it occurred to him that there was nothing stopping him from alerting the CEO via a task report, it took a moment and he sent it to Main Engineering, hoping that would be enough if something came of this in the future.


[Half hour later- Main Engineering Berlin]

Tyce walked into the Main Engineering alcove of the USS Berlin, the Steamrunner engine room was elongated very similar to older styles, and hardened under several reinforced decks. It felt strong, and secure Tyce always appreciated this about the design. It was time for the inspection for Fanvo was nowhere in sight, he tried to find Commander Montoya in the mean time.

Rico stepped through the doors of Main Engineering, having heard that an inspection was taking place and wanting to handle things on his new command personally as long as several of his engineering staff remained on shoreleave. He noted a face he had not studied in the ships manifest and quickly approached, hand extended for a shake.

"Commander Montoya." he said in his soothing baritone. "I'm assuming your here to inspect my ship?"

Rico raised a brow. "Last I heard the Berlin was MY ship...are you Adtanis?"

Tyce looked at the Commander and did his best subtly swallow the lump in his throat. Fanvo had told him to be here early but stood him up, a strike against the man for calling himself "punctual." He clamored to string a sentence together and stitch a plan to buy time.

"No sir, I am not, Lt Commander Adtanis Will Be... along, he actually arranged for us to meet a touch early... sssoo-"

The commbadge chirp saved him from further stammer,

=/\= Adtanis to Backo, I've been delayed on the Freedom Momentarily, please express my regrets to Commander Montoya, I will catch up with you as quickly as I can. Out."

Tyce had made a career of avoiding direct interaction with Senior staff whenever possible. His mouth got him in trouble so he lurked usually in any meetings... This was a nightmare. and of course, the Commander had heard it all.

Travis came in just in time to hear that comment from Fanvo, and made a growl. "He's running late for a tour he insisted on? I'm going to have a few words with him about this. "Computer, locate Commander Fanvo Adtanis and log location into my personal log.


[USS Freedom Computer Core.]

Fanvo swore and felt anger simply radiate from every pore as he realized what had happened. It could have simply been and overeager engineer but the level of decryption told Fanvo it was Tactical systems. Unauthorized rewrites done in transit to DS9 by Tactical had encrypted the entire communications system head to toe. It was ridiculous, marginal security upgrade at best and added inefficiency to the whole process. Only a paranoid madman would want to enter a password every screen, for every message, for every transaction.

It also stopped sabotage cold until you decrypted the software, so for the moment Fanvo could only scream silently in abject frustration. He had just over two minutes before the worm would become detectable and thusly self-destruct. Not too mention his other delays, he was late for the rendezvous on the Berlin where he would activate Tyce's Badge as a catalyst. He had to perform the programming overwrite now, or he could never get another chance.

=/\= Adtanis to Backo, I've been delayed on the Freedom Momentarily, please express my regrets to Commander Montoya, I will catch up with you as quickly as I can. Out."

Despite the fact it was encrypted, Fanvo was able to bypass the system locks and install the coding to be distributed. Forty two seconds left on a minute long process left Fanvo typing and making intuitive choices without reading the anel. there was simply no time to make any changes, or check for errors along the way. If it worked he would know right away, but fast as he was, it was unavoidable that the tail end of the process fell outside the data worm erasing his trail. His beam out from the Freedom Computer core was logged, added to an early series of entries, still in the early hundreds of logs.


TBC

 

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