Away Team Final
Posted on Mon Sep 19th, 2022 @ 5:18pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali
Mission:
*CD*
Location: Orbital Weather Platform Alpha
Timeline: Current-ish
As the orbital weather platform eased back into a position where it could communicate with the other satellites and the ground base stations, Bonnie had moved from letting it teach itself chess to teaching itself to play other more intense simulations. Stratagem took all of five minutes for the AI virus to master, even when she pitted it against itself.
The trick was, it was not only learning the 0 and the 1 but it had the capacity to learn the 2 which gave it cognition. In a 0 and 1 scenario, an endless logic battle occurs until a memory allocation barrier is reached. Utilizing 2, the virus had the capacity to see that it was in a logical battle and chose to end the battle in a draw. Overall, Bonne was growing frustrated as she tried to find a way to end the situation without the virus returning to its original programming.
She had managed to reboot and run diagnostics on the weather platforms systems, but she did not want to reactivate them for fear the virus would redeploy itself. Now she was in a race to decipher the code matrix and reverse engineer in order to backtrack the code to its maker, while at the same time keeping the ever-learning PITA in check. PITA was now what she was calling the thing.
Savar had seen the repair teams off the station but elected to stay behind with Bonnie as she engaged the station's AI in a battle of wits. "How is your duel proceeding Bonnie?" He asked as he watched her work on deciphering the code matrix.
"To be honest Commander, not great. I am struggling to find a solution while at the same time keeping PITA occupied. And I just know the moment we reengage to weather controls, PITA will try and disrupt the system. So, I am trying to teach it, sort of, how not to do that.?" She finished with an air of confusion on what her real end game was going to be.
"Can you give PITA a new set of instructions or lessons on forgetting how to disrupt the system?" Savar asked.
She was unsure about making it forget, but she firmly believed she could program it to believe it had completed its already programmed instructions. Teaching was always easier than reteaching even in programming. "I will try sir. Maybe if I show it images of ecological devastation it will believe it has already completed its programming." She offered.
Bonnie set to work. While the virus preoccupied itself with menial tasks she secretly fed it images along with data to show aftermath greater than what really happened. Her suspected idea was that by teaching it empathy she could help it understand what it did was wrong. At the same time, she had written a little trace script which was covertly pulled historical data from the virus itself in an effort to trace its origins. It wouldn't be long before her data birthed some sort of results.
"It is a logical approach, Bonnie. By showing images of devastation, you may be successful in convincing the AI, it has completed its task." Savar agreed.
Half an hour passed before Bonnie noticed a change in the virus. At first, it was something in the code and she thought it was a glitch, but then as she dug deeper the code unraveled before her eyes. It was spilling its secrets like a child opening up to a new friend they had just met on the playground. She now had access to the root directory and the backdoor access. Her eyes lit up at the information she found.
"Commander. According to the bio-numeric sequence, this virus was written by a Vulcan but conscripted for use by someone named Lil'High. It seems it was planted here in order to disrupt the weather patterns on the surface as a way to cover up a new construction project which would pull resources for sale to some Ferengi named Opec. Should, should we report this?" Bonnie questioned of Commander Savar even as she began reprogramming the virus.
"Yes." Savar answered instantly. "I will mention it in my report, and you do the same in your report Bonnie. If we had not arrived and had your programming skills, this could have been a planetary disaster."
A short discussion with the Captain later, it was decided that Bonnie was going to isolate and contain the AI, and bring it back to the Sunfire for further investigation.
Rhenora’s communicator chirped, meaning the communications were no longer being jammed, “Lieutenant Durnell to Captain.”
Rhenora raised an eyebrow as the young computer tech called her directly. Not unheard of but unusual. "Go ahead Bonnie" she replied.
“Captain, I’ve managed to unravel the virus enough to uncover who created it and who conscripted it. At first, I couldn’t believe it. Captain, Governor Lil’High, the same man who called us to this planet, conscripted the virus through some Vulcan named, uh, … V’Lest’Ani. Do you believe it?”
Dean tilted his head, “Is that the Vulcan that was taken into custody along with the Betazoid I had grabbed or supposed to have been by Ensign Rammakin?” Crap crap crap. Bonnie? She was gonna have a fit if she knew the fight he got into, not the fighting aspect, more on the being hurt that much part.
The Captain's glare ramped up a notch and caught Lil'High in her sights. She dared not speak for fear of saying something that would unravel the delicate balance that had been achieved.
“Oh, well, um, I, uh, I am just about done reprogramming the virus. I haven’t given it a target or directive yet. Do you, um, do you have something in mind?” Bonnie asked nervously.
"Can you get the AI to target itself, or is that something that doesn't work in situations such as this?" The Captain enquired, not overly ofey with the workings of complex AI systems.
There was the tilt of Dean’s head, curious about why she’d want the AI to target itself. Wouldn’t they want to keep it so it could be studied and reverse-engineered?
Bonnie couldn't help but scratch her head as the idea violated some sort of ethics within her. "I, I'm, I think it would be too smart to target itself. Someone mentioned a Romulan ship with Ferengi on board. We could use the virus to wreak havoc on their systems. Or I could keep it, I mean as long as it is fed and kept happy it should remain benign." She offered.
"You sound as though you want to keep it as a pet" Rhenora was somewhat bemused, although ethics told her she couldn't inflict it on the Ferengi no matter what they'd done. The Sunfire had barely survived it when it was on the loose. "Are you confident you can keep it contained and isolated?"
“She might want to keep that, which I think is a good idea.” Dean gave a smirk and quickly stopped doing it. That hurt a little. “I want to keep the D’Deridex. You know how hard one of those is to get a hold of. I promise to keep it fed and happy also.” So Bonnie hopefully heard as well.
Bonnie was not confident. She half expected the Captain to question her judgment like her papa always did. She was also confused and bemused by Dean's words. "I, um, where would, um but where would you store it and feed it, huh?"
Then she responded to the Captain. "As the virus goes, I think so. Right now it is taking a lot to keep it entertained, but it would give me, us, something to do and a new lifeform to care for. I mean until we have to give it up or something. Though I may not be able to do it all myself." She ended on an unsure note.
"Set yourself up a team and use what resources you need to. This virus could teach us a few things, so long as we can keep it in the box. Make sure it has no contact with the Sunfire's systems and do what you need to do to effect the transfer" The Captain continued, casting a look at Dean and knowing he was on board with it.
"Ma'am. Yes ma'am." Bonnie concluded the call. "Will there be anything else ma'am?" She finished obediently.
" Not at the moment Bonnie, get yourself, the team, and the virus off that weather station and back on the Sunfire. We're in the final stages here on the planet and should be able to depart shortly." Her words were self-assured in regard to what would happen next. The Daemon would arrive, the people would revolt, and they would leave the Governor to his fate.
"Yes ma'am. I will inform Commander Savar. Um, okay bye." She said as she awkwardly closed the channel.
After the channel was closed, Bonnie turned and made a final report to Commander Savar. "All I have left to do is transfer the virus, and reactivate the planetary weather control system. Then we can go back to the ship."
"Then let us, you do that so we may return to the Sunfire. What may I do to help you facilitate our departure?" Savar questioned her.
"Um," she felt weird asking her Commander for help but knew he had offered. "If Ensign Thenis could prepare an offline computer matrix with twenty teraquads of space and preprogram it with some advanced strategy simulations, I could have a place to transfer Pita. Without that in place she would be free to roam and that would be bad." Bonnie offered with a worried look upon her face.
Savar nodded at Bonnie's request. Tapping his combadge he spoke, =^= Savar to Ensign Thenis, please prepare an offline computer matrix with twenty teraquads space and preprogram it with some advanced strategy simulations.=^=
Ensign Thenis voice came back instantly. =^= Yes sir, I'll have it ready for you.=^=.
=^= Thank you.=^= Savar replied and closed the link. Looking to Bonnie he spoke. "Ensign Thenis is preparing the matrix now. It will be ready when we arrive. Do you require anything else Bonnie?"
"No, thank you. That was helpful." She set the station on a reboot cycle time and transferred the virus into a temporary holding state for transport, then activated the weather controls. Everything rebooted and as it came back online it performed a clean systems check and then reconnected with the ground stations. Everything was going to work out well. She then stood and nodded to Savar, "Ready for transport when you are Commander."
"Very good Bonnie. Your work was exemplary, in this endeavor. You saved the weather platform and contained a highly adaptive computer virus in the process. In addition you saved countless lives along with saving property and natural resources. My report will make note of that." Savar replied to her.
She blushed. Her father would always praise her too, but over time she was humbled as she came to realize the work she did was a team effort. It was difficult for her now to just say thank you and move on. She began to interject, But it was..." And she stopped herself, "Thanks Commander." She finished as they transported off the station.
The away team along with the virus beamed from the orbital station back to the Sunfire as though they were never there, leaving the weather station once again operating as it should have all along. Once back on board the Sunfire there were reports to file and the virus to study.
