| SUBMITTED:
Stardate 96186.1
| | FILED BY:
CAPT A. Derenzis
| | SECURITY:
Level 1 - Open
| |
LOCATION: U.S.S.
Shackleton, currently in DS-13 drydock.
ADDENDUM: Security teams have finished sweeping the ship for any remaining 'hexabots' aboard the ship. The teams report that the bots were most heavily concentrated on Deck 25, having infested most of the laboratories, crawlways, and jeffries tubes there, with large concentrations on decks 24 and 26, and smaller concentrations on Deck 27. The bots on Deck 27 had been found almost exclusively in Cargo Bay 11, trying to carry off the larger power cells stored in that bay. The security teams report all power cells are accounted for, as the power cell's individual mass proved too great even for the bots collective ability to move them. Security has also found isolated scouts on Decks 20 through 23, and no bots elsewhere through the ship.
After speaking with the researcher assigned to Science Lab 19, Lieutenant James Falken, I believe we now have a better picture of what happened to allow the bots to run amuck. Falken had been working on simple insect-level bots working collectively to solve problems - basic research. The bots only capacity for replication lay through the laboratory replicator which Falken controlled, but which the bots had ample opportunity to observe him using to make more of their kind. The bots problem solving abilities were largely limited to seeking out power sources to recharge, to navigate mazes and operate simple controls. Falken had not planned any further research until he had collected enough data on the bot network's capacity at varying levels.
The first sign that the experiment might expand beyond control occurred on Stardate 96120.3, when one of the then-mysterious malfunctions cut power to Science Lab 19. When Falken returned to the lab the next day, power had been restored... by the bots who had learned to divert EPS flow from Science Lab 20. Falken recalled the bots from the jeffries tube they had occupied, and had started to look into how they had solved this particular problem when the larger EPS overloads forced this officer to give the order to abandon ship. In his haste, Falken admitted, quite sheepishly, that he forgot to power down the bots, then only 48 in number. Falken had believed the bots would simply shut off once their power reserves were drained.
Left without further instructions, and with power throughout the ship shut down, the bots reverted to their basic programming, and started seeking out alternate power sources. They found - and tapped into - the ship's emergency batteries to power the lab's replicator, and so began manufacturing more bots to expand their search for power sources so that they could remain charged. With more bots, came the need for more power, and the bots soon began to home in on any power source they could find and haul them back to Science Lab 19 - specifically, power packs for tricorders and PADDs. They managed to avoid the engineering teams conducting initial repairs and investigations more due to luck than management, with available power sources closer to hand than the engineers' equipment, and smaller numbers; the lockdown limited personnel access to the ship still further, allowing the bots to continue their expansion largely unhindered. When we began to power up the ship again, the bots sensed this and began to divert active EPS flow to Lab 19, as the emergency batteries had been depleted by this time. By the time this officer and CMDR Samaras encountered them, the bots had increased in number to 4,216, infesting the decks listed above.
Examination of the bots show no change in programming or design from Falken's original work - the bots have not evolved or developed anything approaching sapience, relying instead on numbers to brute-force solutions. Once reset, the bots are able to function again.
RECOMMENDATION: Lieutenant Falken has expressed his deepest apologies for leaving his experiment unattended. He has been ordered to review Starfleet protocols on basic laboratory safety and laboratory emergency procedures with regards to hazardous experiments. He has also been ordered to review Starfleet restrictions on self-replicating machines.
We now have a large number of deactivated hexabots that need to be dealt with. Disposing of them seems both wasteful and potentially unethical, as they may classify as a simple lifeform at this point. Should other robotics researchers be interested, it is this officer's recommendation that the bots be distributed to laboratories better equipped to study and contain them, and that additional safeguards be built into their programming to prevent a repetition of this incident.
OOC: Alyx's follow-up on "Power Hungry".