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. 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