#29 Hidden Threat

Posted on Sun Feb 26th, 2023 @ 12:52pm by Major Jackson "JJ" Barnes {Meji} & Lieutenant JG Ainkara "Kara" {Meji}

Mission: Vanished
Location: starbase
Timeline: current

ON:

Having descended a level in the computer core, Ainkara opened the access panel and crawled inside. It did not take her long to find what she was looking for. There was a device attached to the core, right at the memory storage baths, with fiberoptic tendrils running from it and into the core itself. It was mechanical in nature, but also had an organic look to it. Something biosynthetic like her eye. And, speaking of her eye, Ainkara let it do its thing, the amber computer spindle and reticle appearing within the eye itself as she ran her vision over the device that had been found. The Iconian database told her it was an electromagnetic pulse bomb, one that could and would send out EMP surges to fry any and all systems it was attached to if they were active. And, being a computer core, it was always active.

But, why? What did the computer have within its memory banks that would cause such a precaution to be put in place? Then, her eye honed in and focused on the tendrils, her internal Iconian database denoting the device as having been built by the Ataraxian Technocracy, also know as the Ataraxian Imperium. Stark white skin, purple hair, with eyes ranging from violet to crimson in color, and they were a Vulcanoid species. Whether the Ataraxians had planted the device, or were even involved, remained to be seen. Ainkara tapped her badge. "Jacobs, we have a problem. Someone has placed an electromagnetic pulse bomb on the main computer core, directly over the storage baths. If it goes off it could severely damage computer control."

"F****n' great!" Came the response from Jacobs. "It shouldn't matter, I hope. The firewall is penetrated, we're in. As long as we don't muck with that bomb then maybe we can start making sense of all this bullshit."

Ainkara was not as assured as her colleague. "I think that would be a very bad idea. There are biosynthetic tendrils, no thicker than a hair, laced all over the core. If we access anything it doesn't want us to, it could fry the core."

"And, that, my dear Cadet, is why all starships and bases have a backup core," stated Jacobs. "We can transfer control over to that core and then begin to access data and storing it in the secondary. Easy-peezey."

"If all things were only that simple," replied Ainkara. "What if this device is prgrammed to detect such a move, and while we're interfaced with the secondary, it decides to end it all by going off. From what I can tell the device is not going to destroy itself, just cause a massive shut down."

"Repeatable?" Jacobs got a worried look on his face, glad he was alone so no one else could see it. "That is not good. Dammit!" He scrambled out fot he core, standing and stretching his lumbar region. When his eyes opened once more and his head came back to neutral, Barnes was standing before him. "Oh. Hey, Chief."

"Report, Lance Corporal," ordered Barnes, his eyes denoting his irritation. Jacobs gave him the rundown, all that had been said between himself and Ainkara. Barnes tapped his own badge. "Cadet Ainkara, report." Everything she had relayed to Jacobs was now relayed to him. "Son of a...Ainkara, any chance you can disconnect this thing?"

Ainkara looked at the device, then her chin dropped a bit with her own body language. "Chief, I wouldn't know where to begin. It will take time to study the device to get even a rudimentary understanding of how it works. We could try to contact the Ataraxians for aid."

"The Ataraxians?" Barnes was confused. "Who the hell are the Ataraxians?"

"Albino Vulcanoids, Chief. The tech is theirs. The Ataraxian Technocracy is quite skilled with items such as this. And, according to my memory, this device is theirs. Whether they placed it or sold it to someone remains a mystery." Ainkara waited patiently on her end.

Barnes looked at Jacobs. "Get your hiney down there with Ainkara, figure that thing out and shut it down! You," he chinned at the other female marine. "Go with him and keep watch. Scabbi," he said to the Italian. "You're with me. We got more people coming over and a dinosaur retired Admiral will be running the base. Be polite and keep the traps clamped unless he says something really stupid, at which point give me a look and I will address it. Capiche?"

Scabbi grinned at how Barnes had put that. Subtle and polite while at the same time talking about how retired people needed to stay retired. "You got it, Chief." She replied.

Looking over at Jacobs, Barnes gave a sigh. "You're not gone, yet? Move, Kevin!"

Jacobs finished bagging his goods and then rushed to find the ladder well.

"Jacobs reminds me why I'll never have kids," Jack said, shaking his head derisively, chuckling.

Scabbia leaned forward a bit, her head turned as she watched Jacobs move away. "I don't know," she said, coming to stand straight again. "You handled that well, Chief. I think you'd be a good dad." Before he could retort she added. "Where we headed, Chief?"

"Back to OPS," stated Barnes. "We have to meet the crown Duke and his princelings." They both laughed at that and began to move.

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