<<In transit to Malinche. Recorded in the Aurelian tongue>>
Well, I'm in transit again. Yesterday I received reassignment orders. No explanation forthcoming, but at least they've given me a specific ship: U.S.S. Malinche.
I really wonder if something was up on Antares. Cmdr. Taylor had to appear before a tribunal to explain his actions, and several of us had to testify as well, but in the end they promoted him to captain. However, at the same time, dozens of crew were transferred off the ship.
I contacted a few other transferees who I know. Most of them say they've been given concrete reasons for their transfers. Thomason said it was an old transfer request he'd had on the books for a while. McClinton heard from his wife that she'd been transferred to the Potemkin, that there was an opening for him, and that their captain would request him. All reasonable, all saying it was just a matter of synchronicity that all these transfers came at the same time.
But there are some who aren't happy with their transfers, and a few I haven't been able to contact for one reason or another. Lt. Masaki, for instance, hasn't responded to messages since she left the ship.
Some of the crew suspect it's a reprisal against Taylor for disobeying the admiral's orders, no matter how justified he was in doing so.
I suppose that's possible. That would explain why so many senior officers have gone, anyway, but it doesn't really offer any explanation for why so many junior officers have been moved. They'll just be replaced with other junior officers who are about equal in skill and experience, so it's no strike against the commander... or, I should say, the captain.
There's another possibility: it could be response to something else. I can't imagine it could be anything like Federation Prime this soon, but it could be fallout from that, suspect personnel being isolated or relocated, or maybe being placed under observation.
Or maybe with all these shake-ups in the admiralty, Starfleet might be getting pressure from the Council, but you'd think there would be more rumors flying about if it was that.
Anyway, as I was saying, USS Malinche is my new ship, and she's Prometheus class. I have two weeks of travel ahead of me before I meet up with her, and I'm going to have to hit the books.
I haven't had a chance to find out yet where Malinche's patrol route will take her. With luck, it'll be closer to Savrok IV than my last assignments. It might be possible to visit home without an extended leave of absence. We'll see.
Akios, Turuas'ta
Moderators: Tournneau, Korath, Kersare
Akios, Turuas'ta
Ensign Turuas'ta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
<Blood and Iron MD03, 1245. Recorded in the aurelian tongue.>
Personal log, stardate 61170.5
During lunch, I overheard some unusual sounding talk in the mess hall, and soon learned that most of the senior staff were on the starbase attending the courtmartial of one of the senior officers.
What was unusual about it was that no one seemed to know any details, because the only people discussing it were people who had recently transferred to Malinche. The crew who were present during the events leading up to the courtmartial are reluctant to discuss the details.
I hope it's because they're concerned they may be called upon to testify and thus don't want to chance having other crew who were present overhear them, which might lead to the appearance of "getting their stories straight".
Or, maybe the senior staff ordered them not to discuss it. Whatever the reason is, it's provided fertile ground for rumors to grow.
Some of the rumors sound pretty fantastic, but I can't discount them. Stranger things have happened to me and the ships I've served on in the past year.
In the meantime, I may have to do some digging.
Anyway, the shuttlebay is operational. Most of the repairs are done; all that's left is cosmetic work and minor adjustments. I've been reassigned to a team running maintenance diagnostics on the warp plasma distribution system. It's about time--I still need to get up to speed on Prometheus-specific systems, and this will be a good chance to learn. [NPC] Drochlo's on the same team, so I may be able to approach him about my project.
Personal log, stardate 61170.5
During lunch, I overheard some unusual sounding talk in the mess hall, and soon learned that most of the senior staff were on the starbase attending the courtmartial of one of the senior officers.
What was unusual about it was that no one seemed to know any details, because the only people discussing it were people who had recently transferred to Malinche. The crew who were present during the events leading up to the courtmartial are reluctant to discuss the details.
I hope it's because they're concerned they may be called upon to testify and thus don't want to chance having other crew who were present overhear them, which might lead to the appearance of "getting their stories straight".
Or, maybe the senior staff ordered them not to discuss it. Whatever the reason is, it's provided fertile ground for rumors to grow.
Some of the rumors sound pretty fantastic, but I can't discount them. Stranger things have happened to me and the ships I've served on in the past year.
In the meantime, I may have to do some digging.
Anyway, the shuttlebay is operational. Most of the repairs are done; all that's left is cosmetic work and minor adjustments. I've been reassigned to a team running maintenance diagnostics on the warp plasma distribution system. It's about time--I still need to get up to speed on Prometheus-specific systems, and this will be a good chance to learn. [NPC] Drochlo's on the same team, so I may be able to approach him about my project.
Ensign Turuas'ta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
<Blood and Iron MD04, 0715. Recorded in the aurelian tongue.>
Personal log, Stardate 61384.3
It seems like a good idea to document the modifications I'm going to make to my quarters. I thought about keeping everything on a private PADD, but I think by the time I'm done, the record will exceed a PADD's capacity. Besides, a PADD could get lost. No one would be looking at my personal logs without a good reason, and I can encrypt the file. It won't keep out a determined effort, but will prevent accidental discovery.
So...
I've decided that the best location for the pattern buffer is by the bulkhead opposite the doors, under the floor. According the the schematics, there's enough room to squeeze it in. I was going to cut an access panel in the deck plates, but it might be possible to install it from Jeffries tube P18A-4B. I'll have to crawl in there to check--it'll be tight. If it can go in through the Jeffries tube, then I'll only need to cut a hole big enough for the connector conduit to the materialization chamber. I'll need to arrange for the internal sensors to ignore this compartment while I'm cutting, and the shorter the interruption, the more invisible it will be.
As for the materialization chamber, I've decided to mount it horizontally inside the end table. These quarters have a "reading nook" with a chair and end table--and that table is big enough for the chamber. By mounting it horizontally, I'll be able to use the entire table top as a cover. I just realized it will make the table into a "treasure chest"--Drochlo should like that.
Turns out installing the matter storage unit will be easier than I anticipated. The sonic shower is designed so that it can be retrofitted with a water-spray unit, and there's already allowance for a water storage tank. Refilling the unit will be a little inconvenient, but not outrageously so. I thought for a bit about cross-connecting the matter-reclamation unit from the toilet, but I'm sure Drochlo wouldn't go for it, and to be honest, I'm not really comfortable with it either. I realize of course that the waste reclamation system eventually feeds into the matter storage for the replicator system, but I'm not interested in rushing the process.
I have 80% of the components I need, though some of them are in need of repair, the fruits of scavenging a starbase's waste material depot. As long as no one becomes suspicious, I should be able to include repair components in other repair jobs around the ship. I just hope Drochlo doesn't become over-eager. This will work as long as I take my time and wait for the right opportunities. I've managed to stash them all inside my quarters. Fortunately both Drochlo and I are light on personal possessions.
Once we get underway, the sound of the ship's engines will cover up the sound of the work. While we're docked, there's a small chance that the crewmen in the adjacent quarters might notice something. With luck, we'll get underway soon--rumors say that the courtmartial proceedings are almost completed. I'm sure Starfleet will have an assignment for us as soon as that's over.
Of course, that means any repairs we can't complete underway will have to be finished today. I think we're covered, though it's taking longer than I though to finish up the shuttle bay. Plus, there's the possibility of polaron sources on the ship. I really hope it turns out to be nothing. I'm anxious to get underway and see how a Prometheus performs.
END LOG.
Encrypted using GOA diplomatic protocol 12A.
Personal log, Stardate 61384.3
It seems like a good idea to document the modifications I'm going to make to my quarters. I thought about keeping everything on a private PADD, but I think by the time I'm done, the record will exceed a PADD's capacity. Besides, a PADD could get lost. No one would be looking at my personal logs without a good reason, and I can encrypt the file. It won't keep out a determined effort, but will prevent accidental discovery.
So...
I've decided that the best location for the pattern buffer is by the bulkhead opposite the doors, under the floor. According the the schematics, there's enough room to squeeze it in. I was going to cut an access panel in the deck plates, but it might be possible to install it from Jeffries tube P18A-4B. I'll have to crawl in there to check--it'll be tight. If it can go in through the Jeffries tube, then I'll only need to cut a hole big enough for the connector conduit to the materialization chamber. I'll need to arrange for the internal sensors to ignore this compartment while I'm cutting, and the shorter the interruption, the more invisible it will be.
As for the materialization chamber, I've decided to mount it horizontally inside the end table. These quarters have a "reading nook" with a chair and end table--and that table is big enough for the chamber. By mounting it horizontally, I'll be able to use the entire table top as a cover. I just realized it will make the table into a "treasure chest"--Drochlo should like that.
Turns out installing the matter storage unit will be easier than I anticipated. The sonic shower is designed so that it can be retrofitted with a water-spray unit, and there's already allowance for a water storage tank. Refilling the unit will be a little inconvenient, but not outrageously so. I thought for a bit about cross-connecting the matter-reclamation unit from the toilet, but I'm sure Drochlo wouldn't go for it, and to be honest, I'm not really comfortable with it either. I realize of course that the waste reclamation system eventually feeds into the matter storage for the replicator system, but I'm not interested in rushing the process.
I have 80% of the components I need, though some of them are in need of repair, the fruits of scavenging a starbase's waste material depot. As long as no one becomes suspicious, I should be able to include repair components in other repair jobs around the ship. I just hope Drochlo doesn't become over-eager. This will work as long as I take my time and wait for the right opportunities. I've managed to stash them all inside my quarters. Fortunately both Drochlo and I are light on personal possessions.
Once we get underway, the sound of the ship's engines will cover up the sound of the work. While we're docked, there's a small chance that the crewmen in the adjacent quarters might notice something. With luck, we'll get underway soon--rumors say that the courtmartial proceedings are almost completed. I'm sure Starfleet will have an assignment for us as soon as that's over.
Of course, that means any repairs we can't complete underway will have to be finished today. I think we're covered, though it's taking longer than I though to finish up the shuttle bay. Plus, there's the possibility of polaron sources on the ship. I really hope it turns out to be nothing. I'm anxious to get underway and see how a Prometheus performs.
END LOG.
Encrypted using GOA diplomatic protocol 12A.
Ensign Turuas'ta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
<Personal message transmission>
My darling,
As you can see from the header, I'm aboard another ship now, the Malinche. I know, I know, it's my third ship in a year. Hopefully I won't be transferred again soon.
From what I've seen so far, it's a good ship and crew. Lt. Peters is much more of a hands-on engineer than at my last two postings. The ship's currently docked at a starbase and the crew is at liberty, so he's the only member of the senior staff that I've met.
The ship's not without its troubles, of course. One of the crew is being courtmartialed. I don't know many details yet, but among other things he's apparently the one who attacked the ship's shuttle bay. I've already put a lot of hours into repairs down there.
Since leaving the Antares, it's been a crash course in Prometheus-class systems. But because of the layover, a lot of general maintenance is being done, and that's given me several opportunities to get hands-on experience with ship-specific systems.
The quarters I've been assigned are the smallest I've ever had, and I'm sharing with another engineer, Ens. Drochlo. He's a Zakdorn. Our quarters are only a little bigger than a similar unit on a Defiant class. Thank goodness they learned from that experience before they designed the Prometheus. The bunk beds might still be enclosed, but they're bigger and about twenty inches longer. I think I'd slowly go mad if I was assigned to a Defiant.
Before anyone asks, no, I haven't seen the ship operate in multi-vector assault mode yet. We're still docked at a starbase. I've had a chance to work on the warp core, though, and I've seen the ship's lounge that splits into two sections when the ship separates.
I hope that you are living well. Are you still at peace with my sister? The last you mentioned was that you had ceased your disagreement about the wetlands.
How are Das'tar and Ulod? Were you able to get in contact with Kal'lital about Das'tar's allergy? Malinche's patrol route passes within two sectors of Walok, so it has become more possible that I could visit, but it will still be some time. Give them my love.
I haven't had a chance to follow developments on the colony. Are the Cestans still asking for permission to set up a settlement? It's a good idea, but I still hope the Manager will hold them off until they allow at least limited flight within their baseballs rules. It's not like it would affect any game not played on Walok.
I look forward to hearing from you.
My darling,
As you can see from the header, I'm aboard another ship now, the Malinche. I know, I know, it's my third ship in a year. Hopefully I won't be transferred again soon.
From what I've seen so far, it's a good ship and crew. Lt. Peters is much more of a hands-on engineer than at my last two postings. The ship's currently docked at a starbase and the crew is at liberty, so he's the only member of the senior staff that I've met.
The ship's not without its troubles, of course. One of the crew is being courtmartialed. I don't know many details yet, but among other things he's apparently the one who attacked the ship's shuttle bay. I've already put a lot of hours into repairs down there.
Since leaving the Antares, it's been a crash course in Prometheus-class systems. But because of the layover, a lot of general maintenance is being done, and that's given me several opportunities to get hands-on experience with ship-specific systems.
The quarters I've been assigned are the smallest I've ever had, and I'm sharing with another engineer, Ens. Drochlo. He's a Zakdorn. Our quarters are only a little bigger than a similar unit on a Defiant class. Thank goodness they learned from that experience before they designed the Prometheus. The bunk beds might still be enclosed, but they're bigger and about twenty inches longer. I think I'd slowly go mad if I was assigned to a Defiant.
Before anyone asks, no, I haven't seen the ship operate in multi-vector assault mode yet. We're still docked at a starbase. I've had a chance to work on the warp core, though, and I've seen the ship's lounge that splits into two sections when the ship separates.
I hope that you are living well. Are you still at peace with my sister? The last you mentioned was that you had ceased your disagreement about the wetlands.
How are Das'tar and Ulod? Were you able to get in contact with Kal'lital about Das'tar's allergy? Malinche's patrol route passes within two sectors of Walok, so it has become more possible that I could visit, but it will still be some time. Give them my love.
I haven't had a chance to follow developments on the colony. Are the Cestans still asking for permission to set up a settlement? It's a good idea, but I still hope the Manager will hold them off until they allow at least limited flight within their baseballs rules. It's not like it would affect any game not played on Walok.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Ensign Turuas'ta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
[Lost and Found, MD03 1545]
Personal log, Stardate 62109.4
I've just heard a disturbing rumor. I hope it's not true; if it is, it would greatly lower my opinion of Captain Kersare, and I haven't even met her yet.
According to what I heard, beta section started experiencing unexplained system failures everywhere. Lt. Thundera beamed over to see if she could help. Then, the captain apparently decided to reconnect the sections of the ship, and of course once that happened, the system failures spread through the rest of the ship.
It's hard to believe that the captain would do that without having alpha and gamma sections take the necessary precautions. You never connect a working system to a malfunctioning one without putting safeguards in place. Any first year Engineering cadet would know that. Well, any Engineering cadet from the last twenty years, anyway.
Starfleet had to re-learn that lesson the hard way when the Yamato was lost with all hands, and the Enterprise was nearly destroyed, because their computer had an adaptive control program uploaded into it by an ancient computer in an abandoned space relic. And that program didn't even have a harmful intent.
And, two separate Galaxy Class starships aren't even remotely as integrated as the sections of a Prometheus. Every system in each section is designed to quickly and automatically synchronize when the systems reconnect. Reconnecting the sections of the ship without safeguards would provide an open door for any kind of invasive program.
Of course, if it really is an invasive program, then it was just luck that we were operating the sections independently. If the ship had been running normal MVAM synchronization, all three sections would have been affected at the same time. I suppose that the captain might not have taken that into consideration before deciding to reconnect the ship.
If Captain Kersare hadn't come up through the ranks from Engineering, I don't suppose I'd have any issues with her decision. However, since she did start as an engineer, it's a little hard for me to give her the benefit of that doubt. If the rumor is true, that is.
I don't envy C'eltor right now. Back when I was ACEO on the Andromeda, I was usually the one who handled rumor control. Well, she's an el-aurian. Maybe that will make it easier for her.
Anyway, if it's some kind of invasive program that's the cause of our problems, we'll need to come up with a counter-program. Otherwise about only thing we could do would be to keep re-loading uninfected files from the protected archives and try to keep from blowing up or dying until we can reach an uninfected ship or starbase with the proper precautions in place.
In the meantime, we need to locate systems that have been inactive since before beta section was infected, and set manual overrides on them to prevent them from accepting program modifications. Of course, since we were in MVAM, almost every system on the ship was active. Probably the only significant system that were inactive would be the shuttlecraft. I just hope no one brings their systems online without taking precautions.
Personal log, Stardate 62109.4
I've just heard a disturbing rumor. I hope it's not true; if it is, it would greatly lower my opinion of Captain Kersare, and I haven't even met her yet.
According to what I heard, beta section started experiencing unexplained system failures everywhere. Lt. Thundera beamed over to see if she could help. Then, the captain apparently decided to reconnect the sections of the ship, and of course once that happened, the system failures spread through the rest of the ship.
It's hard to believe that the captain would do that without having alpha and gamma sections take the necessary precautions. You never connect a working system to a malfunctioning one without putting safeguards in place. Any first year Engineering cadet would know that. Well, any Engineering cadet from the last twenty years, anyway.
Starfleet had to re-learn that lesson the hard way when the Yamato was lost with all hands, and the Enterprise was nearly destroyed, because their computer had an adaptive control program uploaded into it by an ancient computer in an abandoned space relic. And that program didn't even have a harmful intent.
And, two separate Galaxy Class starships aren't even remotely as integrated as the sections of a Prometheus. Every system in each section is designed to quickly and automatically synchronize when the systems reconnect. Reconnecting the sections of the ship without safeguards would provide an open door for any kind of invasive program.
Of course, if it really is an invasive program, then it was just luck that we were operating the sections independently. If the ship had been running normal MVAM synchronization, all three sections would have been affected at the same time. I suppose that the captain might not have taken that into consideration before deciding to reconnect the ship.
If Captain Kersare hadn't come up through the ranks from Engineering, I don't suppose I'd have any issues with her decision. However, since she did start as an engineer, it's a little hard for me to give her the benefit of that doubt. If the rumor is true, that is.
I don't envy C'eltor right now. Back when I was ACEO on the Andromeda, I was usually the one who handled rumor control. Well, she's an el-aurian. Maybe that will make it easier for her.
Anyway, if it's some kind of invasive program that's the cause of our problems, we'll need to come up with a counter-program. Otherwise about only thing we could do would be to keep re-loading uninfected files from the protected archives and try to keep from blowing up or dying until we can reach an uninfected ship or starbase with the proper precautions in place.
In the meantime, we need to locate systems that have been inactive since before beta section was infected, and set manual overrides on them to prevent them from accepting program modifications. Of course, since we were in MVAM, almost every system on the ship was active. Probably the only significant system that were inactive would be the shuttlecraft. I just hope no one brings their systems online without taking precautions.
Ensign Turuas'ta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
<<USS Sirion Bridge, MD04, 0145>>
Seated at the Operations station of Sirion's bridge, Akios took a break to record a personal log entry on his tricorder, hoping he'd be alive later to upload it on Malinche.
_______________________________________
Personal log, stardate 62607.9
anticlimax: [noun] an event, conclusion, statement, etc., that is far less important, powerful, or striking than expected.
And after all that, when we finally climbed out of the Jeffries tube on Deck 1 and entered the Sirion's Bridge, everything was quiet, just as Lt. JG Breland had left it. The crewmates she had left there had not been assimilated, and the three Borg there were still standing around or wandering aimlessly. It's possible that there's something about the nebula's interference that causes the Borg to fragment into short-range mini-Collectives--a literal case of left hands not knowing what right hands are doing. I'd like to spend some time figuring out if that's the case, but I'm no Science officer, and we have other priorities.
I've spent the last four hours trying to penetrate both the Borg jamming and the nebula's interference. So far, nothing has worked. I haven't been able to raise either Malinche or Sentinel. Some of the others have been working on sensors. If we can pinpoint the location of either ship, we can launch probes loaded with our logs and data.
We still have internal sensors. Firvan routed the scan data from the station in Stellar Cartography to his tricorder on a secure channel. The data we have on the larger decks is still fragmentary, but at least there doesn't seem to be any concerted movement of Borg towards our location.
One of the others went down to the computer core to let Peters and Quaid know we'd reached the bridge. Apparently Lt. Quaid had left some time before, looking for us, and Lt. Peters was resting. No sign yet of Lt. Hawkins. We don't have enough personnel to afford to send out a search team. If I have to manually access the probe launchers, I'll take a look around then.
I found two packs of polynutrient solution in my toolkit, and one of the security officers dug up some ration and water packs, so we won't need to try to run the replicators, something that might attract unwanted attention. We've started talking about getting some sleep. No one's really sleepy yet, no doubt thanks to adrenaline, but if we're stuck here much longer we'll need to get some rest. The captain's ready room is available, but no one want to sleep near the Borg. Deck 2 still looks clear. Maybe one of the other labs would be safe.
Seated at the Operations station of Sirion's bridge, Akios took a break to record a personal log entry on his tricorder, hoping he'd be alive later to upload it on Malinche.
_______________________________________
Personal log, stardate 62607.9
anticlimax: [noun] an event, conclusion, statement, etc., that is far less important, powerful, or striking than expected.
And after all that, when we finally climbed out of the Jeffries tube on Deck 1 and entered the Sirion's Bridge, everything was quiet, just as Lt. JG Breland had left it. The crewmates she had left there had not been assimilated, and the three Borg there were still standing around or wandering aimlessly. It's possible that there's something about the nebula's interference that causes the Borg to fragment into short-range mini-Collectives--a literal case of left hands not knowing what right hands are doing. I'd like to spend some time figuring out if that's the case, but I'm no Science officer, and we have other priorities.
I've spent the last four hours trying to penetrate both the Borg jamming and the nebula's interference. So far, nothing has worked. I haven't been able to raise either Malinche or Sentinel. Some of the others have been working on sensors. If we can pinpoint the location of either ship, we can launch probes loaded with our logs and data.
We still have internal sensors. Firvan routed the scan data from the station in Stellar Cartography to his tricorder on a secure channel. The data we have on the larger decks is still fragmentary, but at least there doesn't seem to be any concerted movement of Borg towards our location.
One of the others went down to the computer core to let Peters and Quaid know we'd reached the bridge. Apparently Lt. Quaid had left some time before, looking for us, and Lt. Peters was resting. No sign yet of Lt. Hawkins. We don't have enough personnel to afford to send out a search team. If I have to manually access the probe launchers, I'll take a look around then.
I found two packs of polynutrient solution in my toolkit, and one of the security officers dug up some ration and water packs, so we won't need to try to run the replicators, something that might attract unwanted attention. We've started talking about getting some sleep. No one's really sleepy yet, no doubt thanks to adrenaline, but if we're stuck here much longer we'll need to get some rest. The captain's ready room is available, but no one want to sleep near the Borg. Deck 2 still looks clear. Maybe one of the other labs would be safe.
Ensign Turuas'ta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B