Plugging the Holes (Part 2)
Posted on 22 Nov 2018 @ 9:32am by Lieutenant Commander Magdalena "Maggie" Doyl & Captain Gabriel Barron M.D. & Petty Officer 1st Class Lia McCarthy
Edited on on 22 Nov 2018 @ 9:34am
1,716 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Empty Creche
Location: Security and Main Computer
[CONTINUED]
[OLD]
Barron moved to a small couch in the office and say down then thought better of it. He moved to the replicator. "Popcorn, hot extra butter." He blinked "All the butter actually computer." A bag of buttery popcorn appeared and he took a handful "I didn't know this came with a show too."
[NEW]
Maggie grinned at the Captain. "Are you going to share?"
Lia rolled her eyes at the peanut gallery antics and closed her eyes to focus on the task at hand. Whispering and muttering under her breath to herself she worked steadily at the outskirts of the defense system. mainly looking for open or unsecured ports, just to cover the basics, and even assumed there would be a few fakes in place to try and trick her as well.
Her typing speed flared as she engaged her stealth drive to enable her super low profile programs to test the sensitivity as well as the actual defense as well.
Gabe watched and leaned the bag of popcorn over to Maggie as he munched. "Damned I had forgotten how much I like this stuff. Used to eat it every movie night on the farm." he grinned at Doyle and flicked his eyes over to PALLAS who stood there with an eyebrow raised taking in the two officers, seemingly giving no heed to Lia.
"It's been far too long for me, too," Maggie said, taking a handful out of the bag. "PALLAS is quite an actor. I wonder if she'll have a chance to give Ms. McCarthy a show." She munched on the popcorn, then took another handful. "I've never been on a farm. It sounds like a nice place to grow up."
He grunted "It was, met my first love there." he paused thought about it and retorted "No bestiality jokes please. My first love was medicine, I learned animal husbandry from my mother. Orginally I was going to become a vet then the war broke out and I enlisted in the marines as a medic."
"No jokes," she assured him. "You never know, there may be a need for a good vet out here."
He laughed "No I've got an M.D. behind my name, didnt go down the vet path. Got distracted by the war and ended up working on the two legged veriaty."
"I would classify some of those as animals," she said, flashing him a grin. "From what I read of your service record, you were a good doctor."
So far it looked like Lia was not getting past the buffer. Maggie was expecting her to hit one of the false positives any moment now.
He snorted "Good enough to be promoted beyond my incompetence. You know there are times I missed just being the resident surgeon at Star Base One. Got all those fancy degrees and I hardly use them any more."
She nodded. It would be a lot simpler being a doctor. "I'm sorry, sort of. From what I've seen, you're a good commander, too. We don't have enough of those."
He nodded "I appreciate that, miss the thrill of saving a life and now I have to worry about taking them with this stupid war." he sighed and stuffed his mouth full of popcorn again.
Maggie understood that sentiment all too well. She took another handful of popcorn and said nothing.
PALLAS turned her attention to Lia and waited, her eyes focused on the woman at the console. She internally isolated herself from the system waiting for the alarm to go off that there was an unauthorized hack, however subtle.
And then Lia disappeared.
"I think she's in the brig," Maggie said, finishing her handful of popcorn before tapping her combadge.
"Doyl to Brig."
"Brig here. What's up, ma'am?"
"I believe you just received a new occupant."
There was a pause. "Yep. Did you send her?"
"Not exactly. We were testing some new security protocols. Let her out, give her a drink, and then send her on her way."
"Aye, ma'am. Brig out."
Maggie turned to the Captain. "I would still like her to work with PALLAS and give it another go later. Just to see if she can find any weaknesses. But for now, I think the first test was a success." She glanced at PALLAS for confirmation.
PALLAS nod "I will be happy to work with the Petty Officer... once she gets out of the brig."
"Captain, if you don't mind my being informal, can I buy you a drink?" Maggie said. "To celebrate a small victory."
Gabe grinned wickedly "My dear Lieutenant Commander, please I'm the Captain." he said pushg himself up from the couch and moving to a resesed enclosure that he had stocked with top shelf liquors. "What would you like, mundane Earth, exotic Earth, or something more... illicit?" pulling a tall transparent container with a light blue liquid inside from the enclosure.
Maggie grinned back, liking this captain even more. "That blue looks good."
He nodded and produced two glasses "On the rocks or straight?"
"However you're having it. Either way goes well with popcorn."
He pulled two glasses out of the same area and popped the cork on the romulan ale, pouring two fingers into each glass before replacing the cork and the bottle and handing the glass to her.
"Captain's prerogative." he grinned "I'm impressed with what you and PALLAS have accomplished and look forward to seeing what else y'all can do together."
Maggie took a sip of her drink. She'd had Romulan Ale before, but it had been a while. "I must admit, I enjoy working with PALLAS. She's devious." Maggie raised her glass to PALLAS in a salute.
The AI inclind her head slightly as Gabe took a sip himself and sighed appreciatively. "The Romulans are devious backstabing bastards but they do know their ale."
The response caught Maggie by surprise. She almost choked on her drink as she started laughing.
He raised his eyebrow at her and looked concerned for a moment. "Do I need to get my medkit out?"
She thumped herself on the chest to help clear her airways and shook her head. After a moment, she was back under control. "Just took a swallow at the wrong time." She tossed back the rest of her drink and wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Sorry. That comment was priceless."
"The truth is often times priceless." he grinned his voice deadpan but the twinkel in his eye showing a mischevous personality.
"Very true." Her eyes sparkled impishly in response to his. Oh, yes. She was definitely going to like working with Gabriel Barron.
He nodded "Was there anything you wished to discuss in particular?" he asked sipping the ale and settling back down on the couch.
She sat down next to him, sobering. "We did well keeping John Marshall out of the computer, but I'm still concerned that someone else will try to get access to PALLAS or to the information on the ship. Thus the increased security. Is there anything you would like me to implement or any ideas you might have?"
"Nothing that I can think of at the moment." he said leaning back against the sofa and sipping mulling over the idea in his head "I'm not an engineer so I'm not sure this is possible but can we set up a system that would allow PALLAS to lock out systems that were compromised? Kind of like the computer versions of air tight compartments on ancient sailing vessels? Maybe have each system run by a different, isolated system that's connected by network. When she senses an issue with that system a secondary PALLAS is shunted into it and it's cut off from the rest of the system?"
"I think she can do that, in part if not in whole. But a secondary PALLAS..." That had some interesting possibilities. She turned to the AI. "Can we do that?"
The holographic woman tilted her head and thought. "It would require boosted secondary hard drive space as well as dedicated processing for each copy. They would not have my... adaptability but we could tailor them for the system they would be warding in theory."
"Well, if the captain were to authorize the additional processing and backup facilities," she flashed a grin at the captain, "Then I think I could have something set up in a couple of days. I even have some ideas where I could place them."
He nodded "Consider it authorized, as I'm expecting us to get within range of the abduction ship within the next day I want as many aces up our sleeves as possible. Speaking of as I'm sure were going to get into a fire fight, how are the offensive and defensive systems?"
"Top of the line, but that's no guarantee we'll be ready for whatever they throw at us. I'll have another look with an eye to the new subsystems and see if I can give you at least one more ace."
He grinned and nodded and took another sip "Very good Commander." there was an alert beep at his desk and he pushed himself up to switch on the computer and read the message. As his eyes flashed from the alert he had a bad feeling hit his stomach.
"Commander, notify Starfleet Commander Rhyan's shuttle has dropped off of sensors, their flight path took them close to Andoria and the Confederacys space. Have them scramble what ever ships they can to search for him." he forwarded the notice to her along with the last known coordinates.
She read the message and then looked at the captain. "I'll send it priority one." She started for the door and stopped. "I'll give you an update on security tomorrow. If there's anything else I can do..."
He nodded "Thank you Commander." he settled himself into his chair and looked at the blue liquid in the glass beside him. He took the glass in his big hand and downed the last of the romulan ale enjoying the burn as his mind worked over the ramifcations of what had happened.
OFF
Gabriel Barron
Captain
Commanding Officer
USS Redemption
&
Lieutenant Commander Magdalena "Maggie" Doyl
Chief Security/Tactical officer
USS Redemption
&
Lia McCarthy
Petty Officer 1st Class
Encryption Specialist
USS Redemption
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