IKC FHew 7C6110
In the belly of the Whale – Research
by Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Post Details
The unit vibrated with a steady, almost imperceptible rhythm and it hummed. It was almost at the edge of Marie’s hearing but, when she emptied her mind there it was, a low note which oscillated over a very narrow frequency range. Not that that gave her a clue as to what it did but at least she knew it was operating.
She stood in front of the main computer, gently cradling the thing in her hands. It reminded her of a cat purring and she felt like patting it but she doubted it was anywhere near as benign as a pet. She reached out then hesitated. For want of any better option she was going to attach it to the computer and run a diagnostic but.... What if it contained a program that got into the computer; some sort of virus or something? She stood wavering but she knew that, realistically, she had no other option. This might hold the key to the Cardassian attack and the F’Hew was taking a battering.
There was a nodule which looked like a connection. She placed it against the input to the computer. There was a squeal and Marie jumped back but the thing didn’t fall off. In fact, it appeared to have attached itself. The humming rose in pitch but not to intolerable levels.
What is this device? Marie typed into the computer.
The answer immediately popped up on the computers readout. *It fulfils many functions. Primarily, it is a storage device.*
What is stored on it?
*The files are encrypted.*
Marie typed in the command to break the encryption. A curse on this backward Klingon technology. Give me voice activated computers any day! Actually, Marie hated interactive computers. For all the user-friendly aspects built into them they were still pedantic petaQ’s. You only got a direct answer to your question. No speculation; no related or consequential information.
She followed with a request for an estimated time to completion.
*Estimate three hours, two minutes and fifty three point nine six four seconds.*
That was the other thing she hated, estimations to three decimal places. She’d once gotten an estimation to nine decimal places!
She typed in an instruction to run the analysis.
Now, she thought, for something of some actual benefit.
While re-stowing the cargo she’d spotted some crates she wanted to take a good look at. The fact that they were sealed shouldn’t prove a problem. No quartermaster worth her salt had any difficulty in opening sealed containers and resealing them as if they’d never been disturbed.
Yes! Just as I thought. There before her lay a glittering array of equipment which would fetch a handsome price on the black market. She knew Ferengi and Orions who would pay handsomely for this. She took only one or two of each item and only ones of a size to be conveniently hidden away. No point in getting greedy and the short numbers being noticed or a bulky package being spotted. Short numbers shouldn’t be a problem though; she’d blame it on the same Federation idiots who’d done such a poor job of loading the cargo – no doubt they wasted too much time helping themselves to have any time to do a proper job of storage.
Anyway, something might be needed later. What was the point of pinching everything of value only to be blown into space for want of that self-sealing stem bolt you secreted away only the day before.
She had barely finished hiding her treasure when she heard footsteps approaching. She tidied up hurriedly then walked nonchalantly back across to the computer terminal – to all intents and purposes running an inventory program.
by Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Post Details
| Title | Research | |
| Mission | In the belly of the Whale | |
| Author(s) | Soghla' Marie St. Helene | |
| Posted | Mon Mar 15, 2010 @ 12:21am | |
| Location | Cargo bay |
She stood in front of the main computer, gently cradling the thing in her hands. It reminded her of a cat purring and she felt like patting it but she doubted it was anywhere near as benign as a pet. She reached out then hesitated. For want of any better option she was going to attach it to the computer and run a diagnostic but.... What if it contained a program that got into the computer; some sort of virus or something? She stood wavering but she knew that, realistically, she had no other option. This might hold the key to the Cardassian attack and the F’Hew was taking a battering.
There was a nodule which looked like a connection. She placed it against the input to the computer. There was a squeal and Marie jumped back but the thing didn’t fall off. In fact, it appeared to have attached itself. The humming rose in pitch but not to intolerable levels.
What is this device? Marie typed into the computer.
The answer immediately popped up on the computers readout. *It fulfils many functions. Primarily, it is a storage device.*
What is stored on it?
*The files are encrypted.*
Marie typed in the command to break the encryption. A curse on this backward Klingon technology. Give me voice activated computers any day! Actually, Marie hated interactive computers. For all the user-friendly aspects built into them they were still pedantic petaQ’s. You only got a direct answer to your question. No speculation; no related or consequential information.
She followed with a request for an estimated time to completion.
*Estimate three hours, two minutes and fifty three point nine six four seconds.*
That was the other thing she hated, estimations to three decimal places. She’d once gotten an estimation to nine decimal places!
She typed in an instruction to run the analysis.
Now, she thought, for something of some actual benefit.
While re-stowing the cargo she’d spotted some crates she wanted to take a good look at. The fact that they were sealed shouldn’t prove a problem. No quartermaster worth her salt had any difficulty in opening sealed containers and resealing them as if they’d never been disturbed.
Yes! Just as I thought. There before her lay a glittering array of equipment which would fetch a handsome price on the black market. She knew Ferengi and Orions who would pay handsomely for this. She took only one or two of each item and only ones of a size to be conveniently hidden away. No point in getting greedy and the short numbers being noticed or a bulky package being spotted. Short numbers shouldn’t be a problem though; she’d blame it on the same Federation idiots who’d done such a poor job of loading the cargo – no doubt they wasted too much time helping themselves to have any time to do a proper job of storage.
Anyway, something might be needed later. What was the point of pinching everything of value only to be blown into space for want of that self-sealing stem bolt you secreted away only the day before.
She had barely finished hiding her treasure when she heard footsteps approaching. She tidied up hurriedly then walked nonchalantly back across to the computer terminal – to all intents and purposes running an inventory program.