Not everyone hates you

Posted on Thu Feb 27th, 2020 @ 8:30pm by Director Tienn Gyce

Mission: Mission 26: Points of Divergence
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke
Timeline: 1030Hrs - February 9th, 2391

Ra'Vak saw Alyssa Mckinley walked in with her two children, Tom and Allison, as they came into engineering. Ra'Vak looked at Alyssa, saying, "Oh, hey Alyssa, don't see you around much, whats up."

Alyssa sighed softly," I'm just showing my kids around, where I work."

Ra'Vak looked at the two children, saying, "Ah, didn't know you had any."

Alyssa nodded," Yeah, they where with my mother, who lived on new holland."

Ra'Vak noticed something in Alyssa's voice, "Was?"

Alyssa nodded sadly," Yeah, she died about a week ago."

Ra'Vak could tell she was trying to hide her distress," Ah, I see, Well if you need to talk to anyone, I'm all ears."

Alyssa managed a weak smile," Thanks Ra'Vak." She then left engineering, leaving Ra'Vak wondering about his assistant chief and her well being. He went back to work when a few minutes later he noticed Lieutenant Benice Gyce walk into engineering.

Ra'Vak looked up saying, "Hi lieutenant, is there something I can help you with."

"I need to investigate the files being played out in the fleet, from that computer core the Roanoke borrowed," Gyce spoke respectfully.

Ra'Vak nodded, mentioning, "Yeah we haven't messed with it since then."

"Would it be possible to pull the core and isolate it?" Gyce asked simply. "If we put it on a closed system, it should in theory, not damage another network."

Ra'Vak shrugged, "At this point with the way that the virus operates, it wouldn't make a difference. It won't stop already infected computers on other starships and starbases from infecting unaffected systems. However Aerin Ranval is using his AI to analyze the virus." Ra'Vak looked at Aerin, saying, "Well, what do you know?"

Aerin looked at Ra'Vak saying, "Well I have analyzed the virus, but I have yet to figure out how to devise a way to clean it out effectively, but I do know now that if we do nothing the virus will shut itself down. It is programmed, that after being active for 30 days from the initial point of activation, it will shut itself down. It will also only mess with a computer system for 5 days before stopping."

Ra'Vak looked back at Gyce, saying, "Well, there is your answer, but the forcefields around it are down now so we can disconnect it. Only problem is, with the backup cores not fully up yet, I can't guarantee that disconnecting it won't trigger the deadman's switch on our warp core and eject it again."

"I was tasked with investigating the origin of the virus. Namely, where the videos were uploaded at," Gyce informed both of them. "Admiral Walton is AWOL, before the videos could be authenticated. Which tells me they are most likely authentic."

Ra'Vak nodded," Alright, Well, computer core is untouched since the start of the incident, I figured that someone would want to investigate anyway. Though if this Admiral is storing any incriminating information it may be encrypted, and quite well."

He then looked back at Aerin, saying, "Hey that AI of yours is pretty good at breaking encryptions right."

Aerin snorted, "Federation encryption is a cakewalk."

Ra'Vak nodded, "Alright, you mind coming down to the computer core with us."

Aerin walked over, saying, "Yeah sure, I'll do it."

Ra'Vak looked back at Gyce, saying, "Well, you ready to go."

"Yes Sir," Gyce affirmed as she walked in line with him.

Ra'Vak led Gyce and Aerin to the computer core, which true enough hadn't been touched since the start of the virus. When they got to the computer core, Ra'Vak pulled up three chairs, where Aerin sat down at one of the workstations, and Ra'Vak offered a Chair to Gyce.

"So essentially, we need proof-positive that Admiral Walton is in the videos, and that it came from his terminal," Gyce said as she sat down at the table.

Aerin made sure that Gyce could see the computer Terminal, he then said to Gyce, "So we are basically looking for security feeds, access logs, and communications logs then."

"Yes Sir," Gyce confirmed as she watched very intently.

Aerin mentioned casually as he began searching for access log, "I know its a habit for you, but I prefer to be called by my first name, Aerin. In my culture, that's how we show each other respect in the military, by learning each others first name."

"Understood... Aerin." Gyce felt a bit uncomfortable with that at first, but complied.

Aerin looked as he got the access logs, summarizing what he could find, "OK, the files in question were downloaded to the database on March 3rd 2388, which was way before the virus was created. The virus itself was created 39 days ago. The Files themselves were accessed 993 times since being downloaded, usually they remained open for at least an hour at a time, many times they were open for several hours. 987 of these times they were accessed using John Waltons command codes, the remaining 6 times, they weren't using command codes at all, someone had just simply cracked the encryption. Most of these accesses can be traced to a computer terminal that was signed out by John Walton."

"When would it be safe to transfer the access data to a transferable file to JAG?" Gyce asked.

Aerin shrugged, "When I can figure out how to write an antivirus that will successfully eliminate the virus. Its not an adaptive virus, so it should take me more than two days to finish the task. Wait that's not right." It was then that he noticed a few other oddities in the records.

"What?" Gyce asked out of curiosity.

Aerin looked at the logs more closely, "Well there are some communication's logs that were purged from the main database, but they are still in one of the backups. I can't get any visual logs, but there is Audio. Strange, these transmissions were not made to any starfleet or government facility, or anything that I recognize."

"Usually when logs go missing like that, it is because they are talking to underworld people, or the enemy." Gyce frowned at those likely assumptions. "Either way, this guy needs to be caught fast so we can put him in prison."

Aerin nodded and pulled out a padd, one that he knew was infected with the virus anyway, and downloaded to it all the information he figured was needed, and anything that seemed suspicious. He then handed it to Gyce, saying, "Yeah, this should be all the information that you need. It has everything that I can think of that may be relevant in there, including some audio logs of conversations and stuff like that. It may take you a while to review, but if you need to come back to the computer core because you think you missed something, you are free to do so at any time, I have already broken all the encryptions."

"I thank both of you for your time," Gyce smiled and bowed respectfully to the both of them.

Ra'Vak nodded, saying, "Well, if you need me, don't hesitate to ask."

"I shall," Gyce promised and limped out of the room casually with her documents and all.