Away Team VII

Posted on Fri Aug 26th, 2022 @ 4:12am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Chester "Duo" Maxwell & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant Jessica Holland

Mission: New Harrington
Location: Weather Station Alpha
Timeline: Current-ish

Now entrapped within the tractor beam the weather station was no longer in danger.

"Sunfire to away team, do you read?" The concerned voice of the Captain echoed through the station.

Savar thought he heard something, a voice through his combadge but with the rescued repair personnel shouting and squeezing through the opening he wasn't sure. "Aurora, did you hear something?"

Aurora nodded. “I think so” she motioned for escaping workers to help hold the door whilst she stepped aside away from some of the noise. Tapping her comm badge she hoped it was what she thought. “Captain? Is that you?”

"Indeed it is Aurora, could you advise me of your team's status? We're still having issues with sensors" the Captain replied through the comlink.

Aurora breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ve found the survivors Captain. They’re being freed from captivity as we speak. We’ve been trying to regain control of the station from the AI onboard.” She looked to Savar, motioning for him to fill in the report.

Savar was pulling the last repair team member through the gap between the door and the frame. He tapped his combadge, "Captain, what Aurora has stated is correct. We have found the repair teams and they are now free. We are still working on correctly altitude control and your assistance was precisely on time."

"We have you in a tractor beam and are looking to re-establish the stations orbit once you're clear of the AI. We may need Bonnie's expertise on that one" the Captain advised.

"Understood Captain. Bonnie has been engaged in essentially a chess match with the station's AI and has had the upper hand more often than not."

Overhearing the comms and her ears proverbially burning from others speaking her name, Bonnie piped up. "More like I've been keeping it occupied by feeding it and paying attention to it. I've found that it really likes light based energy which is probably why the tractor beam has made it spaz out." She punched a few button to establish a secure communications link with the Sunfire, separate from the code. Then she sent her findings to the Sunfires main screen.

"See Captain, the moment you locked on the virus began getting jittery around the edges as if it was trying to reach out but couldn't. I'm not an expert in organic viruses, mostly the normal kind." She added sheepishly. "But it acts as though it were designed to eat energy, and a lot of it."

"Are you saying we should cut the tractor beam?" The Captain asked cautiously, not wanting to make the situation worse. "We were about to use it to realign your position with a standard orbit"

Aurora looked at Savar hoping not, at present the tractor beam was holding the station steady.

"Indeed, not Captain, I suggest you maintain the tractor beam to realign our orbit and we get the altitude control thrusters back online to stabilize and maintain the station's orbit." Savar replied to Rhenora.

Bonnie piped up, "I don't disagree but I have to warn you that if this thing desires to jump from the station to the Sunfire there won't be much to stop it. It is very adaptable programmed with a limited set of instructions first of which seems to be not to allow itself to be trapped. Kind of like a fight or flight response." She thought about why it had given the Sunfire such a difficult time when they initially took a piece of the thing and tried to trap it in a force field.

" If we maintain the tractor beam, can you keep that thing in the box Bonnie? We can't risk it getting onto the Sunfire again, we barely survived the last round. Savar, let me know the minute you have thrusters enough to maneuver the station back into it's proper orbit" The Captain replied as she considered their options. Getting the station back into orbit was the top priority. " Tell me, Did you find the previous repair crews?" She tactfully left out the 'dead or alive' part, knowing that there were some details that were best left unsaid.

"Certainly Captain. The minute we have enough thruster power I shall inform you so you may release the tractor beam. As for the repair crews Aurora and I did find some members alive."

Dean piped up, "Bonnie, it's your favorite pain in the ass. I've not thought about the energy thing yet. Well, actually I just did. Before that, the AI, having to keep it occupied. You could give it a task it has to run against itself. It should keep trying to 'beat' itself. Putting it in an infinite loop." Giving a pause a moment, "The energy chasing. You could try popping force fields up at random. Different places in the station. Don't give it time to catch it before a new one pops up. They are basically a form of tractor beam after all."

She looked down at the code and the virus then back at the view screen, "not a bad idea Commander. I shall endeavor to play a game with the potentially deadly virus, sure no sweat." Bonnie was confident she could occupy the virus in the short term but eventually it would learn.

" Savar, ready the repair team for transport and we'll bring them across here for medical assessment" Rhenora replied, putting a call through to medical at the same time to prepare for incoming patients.

"At once Captain." Savar replied and closed the comm. A moment later he was back. "Repair team members ready for transport Captain. You may transport when ready."

"Bonnie keep it in the box...transporting the repair teams directly to sickbay" The Captain advised as the Sunfire crew did what they did best in the time of crisis - rise to the challenge.

“So what do we do with this program?” Aurora couldn’t help but wonder. “If it’s some sort of program that’s defending itself, we can’t just destroy it. As strange as it sounds it’s more or less showing signs of sentience.”

"Perhaps we should try to communicate with it. Let it know we mean it no harm, find a common ground to have a discussion." Savar suggested.

“Any ideas on that one Bonnie?” Aurora was curious how they’d achieve it.

Bonnie was already attempting to engage the virus in a game of chess, moving her piece around the board and being almost instantly countered by the virus. It learned quickly. She blinked as it took her Queen. She turned to Aurora who had rejoined her on the bridge.

"Communicate? As in a first contact?" She instantly felt excited yet underqualified. Then it occurred to her, and she frowned, "I'm not sure this thing understands language per say, more like basic coding. Zeros, ones and twos. Even robots need to be programmed to know how language works before they can then be told how to speak and this thing wasnt even afforded that. It was just instructed to do a specific job which we've interrupted."

She thought for a moment before offering, "We could try and decode its code matrix in an effort to maybe, uh, find a digital fingerprint of sorts. Perhaps find out who sent it?" She looked unsure of herself.

" If we have the time - finding out the history would be worth doing. However, right now we just need it contained so we can get the station back into a safe orbit without wreaking havoc" The Captain reiterated over the com-link.

"It's just, it might see that as us attempting to harm it and it may react by defending itself. I think the Sunfire found that out the hard way." As she finished the virus took her King and in resignation, she started a new match only this time pitting the virus against the station's computer.

Aurora nodded. “You’re right, it could be too dangerous. So what do we do?”

Dean shook his head, even though they couldn't see it, "Not play one with it, get it to try to defeat itself in a game. It shouldn't be possible and just keep it locked up on that."

She heard him and thought 'goober' before responding, "It was prudent to teach it to crawl before it could run Commander. I will increase the computer response level slowly over time and then try to get it to play itself. Hopefully," She emphasized, "It won't learn too quickly for me to keep up, giving time to deconstruct its code."

"Let us know when you're ready to fire thrusters, we now have the repairs teams in sickbay. Do what you can to contain the AI as a first priority - find out its origins and learning from it is secondary to your and our safety" The Captain reminded.

"Yes ma'am, I'll do my best ma'am." Bonnie replied nervously before going back to work.

TBC