RP Log: Possible Computer Problem?
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Stardate:
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| 2023-07-12 00:16 | |
You trigger the door chime in Chief Engineer's Quarters.
Knock from CEng's Quarters: Come in
- Chief Engineer's Quarters <USS Phoenix NCC-170100-A>
- These officer quarters are spacious and built for comfort. The egyptian-blue carpet is soft and thick, giving the room the appearance of a still ocean. Before the door is a sofa and two armchairs, arranged around a walnut coffee table. To the left of the entrance is a small dining table, placed in front of a replicator, and an ornate sculpture above which is a row of shelves. A bedroom can be found through a doorway in the far bulkhead, where there is a double bed. A single door in the sleeping area leads to a bathroom. The lighting, while adjustable, is at a default setting that causes the overhead panels to bathe the room in a soft, welcoming glow.
LePage is sitting at behind his desk, working through a few PADDs worth of reports. "Make yourself at home, how can I help you?"
Worthington smiles. "Nice place you got," he says. "Much like mine. I wanted to chat briefly about your work on the computer core and humanist sabotage. It may be nothing, or it could be something important to worry about. In your professional engineering opinion, what is the likelyhood that any humanist code on the computer we re-imaged could have migrated to our auxiliary craft through the data links such craft maintain with the mothership when in range and in operation?"
"Indeterminately worrying" LePage says. "With how advanced they are, I'm not able to really know if they could have made a shell worm for transferring from one core to another. In theory, they're supposed to be secured against any sort of actual executable code and only really sync nav and comms data, but there might've been some kind of injection play that I wasn't able to positively identify"
Worthington nods. "Captain Shulon and I had a similar conversation. There are 2 sides to this. On one hand, it could be nothing. On the other, we could have just re-imaged our core with infected software. You weren't able to isolate any of the code fragments, is that true? I'm wondering if this is worth a secure message to the Corps of Engineers about, particularly the admiral. I don't want to raise a false alarm, though it is my job to think about risks such as these."
"No, I sandboxed a few code snipets" LePage says, pulling out a few storage units. "Some of the ones that I could start to understand their function. A lot of it was beyond me and was likely a lot of redirecting to keep me busy and force me to go the nuclear route" Gordon leans back in his chair. "As for whether or not the recent image is infected or not, I don't know. I'll say the computer seems to have been behaving as of late, but maybe they anticipated us using Hadfield and loaded it up with a whole other set of tricks. It's like playing chess and I can't see my opponent's face or pieces"
Worthington nods. "In other words, you can verify that the code you're aware of isn't there, but not be sure that there isn't something else?" he asks.
"Yeah, pretty much" LePage nods. "Nothing LOOKS the same, even in some of the obscure registries our hacker decided to make use of. I'm cautiously willing to say it's good enough to work with but I know I'd feel better getting some kind of authoritative remediation from the Corps. But we're a long way out and that's a lot of data"
Worthington considers. "You re-imaged from Hadfield. How much of the code is the same between those 2 ships? Is the issue with the offloaded data perhaps?" he ponders. "We could load data onto external drives, kind of like with what you did when re-imaging, and send Hadfield back. It's a day at slipstream to Utopia, and we could get that check," he says.
"We... could do that yes" LePage nods. "Hadn't considered doing that. Hmm. As far as the similiarities in the code, largely I took the standard ship's operating system as a base from Hadfield and then manually reimplemented a lot of Phoenix's special additions. I just needed a clean base to work off of"
Worthington nods, considering. "If the special editions aren't that much data, we could in theory load it on to external drives and put them on the Hadfield if we wanted to go through with it. If the people at Utopia certify everything, it should ring true for our other auxiliaries. The question is, when was this code introduced, where, and by whom? I would want the admiral and those he trusts on this one personally."
"I agree" LePage says. "I mostly just need an authoritative check done to make sure we're where we should be. If nothing else, we can send the portable computer core over to Utopia and even if they don't or can't verify any of our current data, they can send back a completely clean copy of what we need"
Worthington nods. "I will discuss that with the captain. It could be something to do while we rap up things here, and a way to also alert command of the terrans on this planet. We could achieve multiple objectives with a single trip back."
"I'm good with that" LePage nods. "Let my crew know and they can move the portacore onto the Hadfield whenever you're ready to send it. I would also reccomend coordinating with Engineering Corps and verifying a couple of your security crew to them to live with the core while it's moving to ensure it was never physically accessed. There's no remote radio or wireless access to them so if they're physically protected it'll be secure"
Worthington considers. "I would want a couple of hand picked people I could trust on that, and a low profile nature to the mission. I'll suggest to the captain that it be flagged as alerting Starfleet of the terran and kuvassian presence. Minimal complament on the Hadfield, as a full crew isn't needed for a simple briefing for command. I think I'd take lieutenant Choma, as flight ops hasn't had much to do, and commander Ki'Vek, as she can't effectively operate on away duty right now. The fewer people know about this the better in my eyes. It limits the chances that the conspirators will know what we're up to, and by the time they do, we'll be long gone. I think I'd be more worried about security when we return. If we go to verify the code or re-image systems, there's a higher chance for sabotage here where we know the conspirators are located, and clearly have knowledge of our systems."
"That's just the gamble of it" LePage sighs. "Yeah, that all sounds good to me, I think I might should stay in order to combat any shennanigans while y'all are gone. Hopefully there won't be any but if there are, y'all will need to guard that porta-core like it's the last water on Earth. It'll just about be the only salvation we might get. And if this ship is all sideways, do not bring it on here until we get an all clear"
Worthington nods. "That I shal do," he says. "Hopefully it's nothing to worry about, and the re-image fixed everything. This however will make sure of it. If we do re-image everything, we'll need to make sure no auxiliaries uplink to Phoenix between the start of the process and conclusion on all vessels."
"Preeeety much" LePage nods. "If they do find it was compromised, I wanna figure out how they did it. Ship to ship data transfers got REALLY tight after a bunch of incidents in the 24th century. Seems like ships were getting infected all the time"
Worthington nods. "I hope it's a wild goose chase. I don't like the alternative. You know that old terran maxim though, better safe than sorry," he says.
"It's a good one in cybersecurity" Gordon agrees. "Yeah, I like that plan"
Worthington smiles. "As do I. I'll have a chat with the captain when prudent. In the meantime, do you have a secure way to reach admiral Kadn? If not, I could attempt to reach out to him or captain Svetzvani. I'd prefer to ascertain the location of both of them and give them a heads up before showing up, especially, showing up unannounced."
"I'll drop him a line, I think I can manage that" LePage nods.
Worthington smiles and nods. "That's all I had for you commander. If there's anyone from engineering that you personally know and would trust with your life on this one who you think should accompany the mission, that'd be something to consider. Aside from that, I'll work on getting the green light from the captain. See what the admiral thinks, and if we get the go ahead, we'll already have a solid plan to proceed," he says.
LePage nods. "I'll let you know who we can send. Thanks for the idea, I hadn't thought of approaching it like that"
Worthington smiles again. "Any time Gordon," he says. "Feel free to drop by the range if you'd like to see how badly I handle a revolver as opposed to a phaser." He turns to the door. "Good night."
"Night" Gordon says, looking back to his PADD.