[USS Vanguard] The Game's Afoot

  • From: "Jonathon Bremmer" <parasynthesis@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "Vanguard" <ncv80221@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 20:57:32 -0000

Lt. Cmdr Jaav E'thexx
Lt.Cmdr Jaav E'thexx
Ship's Counselor 
Engineering, USS Vanguard
After: Wake-Up Call

<snip>
At that moment, the overhead comm rang out.

=/\= "Captain Santos, will you join us in Engineering, please." It was
Jaav E'thexx.

=/\= "On my way."

Santos and Quetan looked at one another.

They got up to leave, and Des lifted a glass to them. "Fine, sure,
leave me all alone. Talking to myself. I'll be here..."
<snip>

Santos strolled towards a workstation at the back of Engineering, Craig Kavan, 
Sam McCaw, Jaav E'thexx and Jazz Falcon stood around.  

"What is it gentleman?"  Santos said as he nodded in Jazz's direction, 
deliberately acknowledging the minor gender bias of his opening statement.  

"We have a problem sir, one bigger than we originally thought," Sam McCaw said 
walking towards Santos.  

"Hit me with the bad news then Mister McCaw," Santos began "I'm a busy man but 
I'm all ears."

Sam gestured towards Jaav.  Jaav tapped a few controls on the workstation and 
brought up a schematic of the viral activity in the computer core and other 
connected systems.  

"I've already seen this,"  Santos seemed a little fractious, then that was his 
prerogative, and not surprising while his command was halted under quarantine.  
Jaav tapped again at the controls and brought up another schematic for 
comparison, directly adjacent to the first.  Although clearly different types 
of images, their were startling similarities between the two.  Santos's mouth 
hung open?

"Is that what I think it is?" Santos rubbed his chin. 

"I'm afraid so," Jaav offered, "The first schematic shows the current 
distribution of virus activity in the computer core and other systems, the 
second...The second is a scan of a typical humanoid brain."

"My God," 

"As you can see," Jaav began explaining,  "The virus is organising itself 
within our computer systems in the same way a complex neurological system does. 
 The complexity of the pathways being formed is increasing at an exponential 
rate."

This time it was Sam McCaw who spoke.

"Based on our extrapolations, we have approximately 48 hours before the virus 
reaches a complexity capable of some form of independent thought."

"You mean SENTIENT thought?" Santos asked. 

"A possibility," Came the reply from the Ship's Exobiologist, Jazz Falcon.  

Santos exhaled, leant against the adjacent bulk head before peering more 
closely at the schematic display.  

"What are our options?  Have we come up with any way to neutralise the virus?" 
He enquired. 

"Not as yet," Jazz Falcon began, "but it appears the virus had a synthesised 
organic source, we should start looking for the vector of transmission to the 
core."

"Get on it right away...=/\=Santos to all senior personnel, report to the 
briefing room immediately =/\=..." Santos paused, "I think we'll need 
everybody's heads for this one."

All the senior officers dispersed and began making their way to the briefing 
room, Sam collected a few materials together that may be needed.  As Santos 
turned, about to make his own way towards the briefing room, Jaav touched him 
on the elbow and stopped him.  Discretely drawing him to the side wall in 
engineering."

"Sir, there's something you should know,  I didn't want to say this in front of 
any other crew members."

"Go on Jaav,"

"The virus,  the reason I recognised it is because, I may have helped design 
it."

"Explain Counselor,"  Santos seemed a little stern, not surprising the 
immensity of the situation at hand.  

"About a month ago, several members of Starfleet tactical and Starfleet 
medical, including myself, were approched with a view to developing a new 
weapon.  It has highly classified, with the shortage of Starfleet vessels and 
the loss of resources in recent wars, Starfleet felt that the only way to gain 
a upper hand may be to take over enemy ships from 'inside' whether they were 
crewed or not.  All the research suggested that an intelligent, self-aware 
virus would be the most successful way of doing this."

"Then it IS sabotage!" Santos said angrily, but repressed under his breath.  

"It would seem so, I recognise the neural markers, although I can't be sure, we 
were never permitted access to all the research material, only enough to 
complete our individual portions of the work."

"Of course, 'Need-to-know' only" 

"There is one thing that doesn't make sense though sir," Jaav began, clearly 
feeling he had some level of responsibility for what was happening to his 
Captain's ship. 

"This work was only started a month ago," Jaav paused and swallowed, preparing 
himself for what he was about to say, "Preliminary estimates suggested it would 
take at least 8 years to have a prototype model for the virus developed, let 
alone a working model."

Santos stared into Jaav's eyes, he thought he knew what the Counselor was 
getting at.  

"Understood Jaav,"

The ship jolted and the bulkheads rattled, the pitch of the Quantum Singularity 
core changed.  

=/\= "Bridge to Santos,  we've just lost helm control and gone into warp!" 
Mandrake's voice sounded over the intercom.  

=/\= "Acknowledged, I'm on my way.  All hands, Red Alert!"

Santos and Jaav made their way to the bridge.  


END




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