Second Chance
Posted on Fri Mar 13th, 2015 @ 6:04pm by Lieutenant Morgan Faye & Ensign Talia Lawson
Mission:
The Ancient Art of Operations
Location: Runabout
Timeline: Post 6 - Communication Anomaly
Name - Communication Anomaly | Code - OT:01 | Post - 06
“We are approaching the second array.” Talia made the announcement over the ship's intercom system as the ship slowed down approaching the second communication array.
“I’ll be right there.” Morgan replied back to Talia.
Talia leaned back in her seat. The ship had come to a full stop by now. She looked out the window in front of her. She was starting at the communication array. She took a deep breath the events of the previous attempt playing in her head. She was slightly concerned but more curious to exactly what Morgan had said to HQ to get them to approve a second attempt. She only hoped that this time around it would fair better.
Morgan stepped to the front compartment walking to Talia. She gently placed her hand on her shoulder looking out the window.
Talia jumped slightly. She had been lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice when Morgan had come in. She looked up at Morgan.
Morgan looked back at her with a smile on her face. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
Talia laughed. “It’s alright. I was just day dreaming.”
Morgan smiled at her again. “I can see that. Do you think we can have you back on the ship with us while we try this again….?” She asked teasingly.
“I think I can manage that.” Talia responded jokingly.
“Glad to hear it. We are going to bring the array aboard again however this time we will not attempt to open it but simply wait. That device boots up every day at the same time...we are going to hack into it as it is booting up. The hope is to copy the operating system, running configurations, logs and disable it so it can be safely removed.” Morgan explained as she looked at another console near by .
“Sounds like a plan to me…” Talia responded. She was more worried about the thing exploding again then about what they were going to do. “I will stay up here and monitor the situation.”
“Sounds good to me!” Morgan said. She took a deep breath. “We will begin in 10 minutes….I guess I should head back there.”
“Good luck!” Talia said as she looked at her console.
“Thanks…” Morgan responded and headed to the back.
Talia took another deep breath as she watched the communication array disappear from in front of her. “I guess they decided to start early.” She shrugged her shoulders and waited for the order to get out of there if they needed to.
Meanwhile in the back of the ship Morgan stood with her arms crossed staring at the array. Not saying anything, just staring at it. She took a deep breath looking around the room. She simply nodded to her people, and they took of with their tasks that were discussed prior to the beam in.
Morgan was sitting behind a console monitoring the readings for the array. Everything was looking normal. Meanwhile, Crewman Jones and Charles were both working on running additional cables from the array to the ships mainframe computer. In order to break into the device as quickly as they had to do so they would need all the computing power they can get their hands on.
“All non essential systems are going offline in 5…” Stated Petty Officer Cole, who was sitting at a console next to Morgan. “4...3...2...1….” As soon as she stated the last digit the ship went dark and then emergency lights came on. “Everything is looking normal.” She announced as she continued to work.
“Good.” Morgan stated. “Rerouting the power to the mainframe computer…” She watched a display in front of her. “We wil be able to utilize 125% of the computing power from the mainframe for about 2 minutes before it starts to overheat.”
“Let’s hope that is enough…” Petty Officer Cole stated.
Before Morgan could reply her console began to beep. “Looks like this one is ahead of the schedule...the device is starting its boot up sequence.”
“Good thing we are ready…” Stated Crewman Jones looking over to his buddy Charles. They exchange smiles then looked at the device. Their part was done, now it was up to Morgan and Petty Officer Cole.
“Algorithm has been started.” Morgan stated. “It looks like there are several levels of security on the device but nothing that we shouldn’t be able to break within 2 minutes…”
“We are at 110%...” Petty Officer Cole read off her screen. “115%...” She adjusted several variables on her console. “Alright...120%.....and…..we are there! We are at 125%....clock has started.” She said looking at Morgan.
“We are past the third layer of security...it looks like its having some trouble with the fourth…” Morgan stated. She began adjusting variables on her console.
“Shit!” Petty Officer Cole exclaimed. “Its beginning to overhead already…” She announced.
“Adjust...” Morgan said.
“I am….” Petty Officer replied. Her fingers working the console in front of her.
“We are in!” Morgan announced happily. “Beginning the download now.” She looked at Cole. “How’s it looking…?”
“Stable for now…” Petty Officer Cole replied. The readings had leveled off but for how longer that was the real question.
The room was silent again. Everyone monitored the readings. Then a really loud beeping noise came from the console at which Petty Officer was sitting at. Everyone in the room looked in her direction.
She looked up. “We have 30 seconds before the mainframe shuts down.”
Morgan quickly glanced down at her console. “We are only at 25%...”
The room fell silent again. Petty Officer Cole continued to work in attempts to buy them more time but it wasn’t working. The console in front of Morgan read 30% with only 10 seconds left. Then suddenly it increased from 30% to 40% then 50% and then it made another jump to 90%.
The mainframe shutdown due to extensive heating from over clocking it but they had managed to get 95% of the information off the device that was inside the array.
“Well, we didn’t get it all but we got enough….” Morgan stated leaning back in her seat.
“Let’s hope that those 95% have what we need.” Petty Officer Cole said.
“Yes, let’s hope.” Morgan replied. before leaning forward. “Alright, let’s get to work.”
----------
Lt. Morgan Faye
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
Starbase 80
Ensign Talia Lawson
Support Craft Pilot
Starbase 80
// Support Characters //
- Petty Officer Cole
- Crewman Jones
- Crewman Charles
