Conference room 209G had been reserved by the Chief of Engineering. Lt. Cmdr. Ophalesh, acting head of the Computer Services division and team lead for Project Udox, took a seat at the table. She was expecting to meet with Banyan Moon, her Science liaison; Cmdr. Sivath would join the meeting later if his schedule permitted. She had been told to expect the science officer to bring along a proposal for a stopgap measure for protecting Starfleet systems from infection by Species 2492 malware. Ophalesh was hoping he had something good, because things were looking grim on her end.
The Chief Engineer had ordered CS to comb through the data fragments from the Gainsborough's computer core debris, but it was looking increasingly futile. The data was too corrupt to be useful; it wasn't even clear what damage had been inflicted by the 2492 virus, the reportedly-sentient AI counteracting it, or the physical destruction of the core itself. A couple data forensics specialists were sifting through the ashes but it had become clear that there was little they would learn this way.
What she needed was a good look at the virus' handiwork, and she wasn't going to get that from the Gainsborough -- at least, not in the granular sense. Project Udox needed a pure sample, isolated but active, that they could use to infect test systems and see how it worked its dark magic. That probably meant sending out another ship to face the enemy again, and that probably meant getting it infected.
There was no way Cmdr. Sivath or anybody else up the chain was going to approve a plan like that unless she could guarantee the safety of the ship's crew from the debilitating effects of the virus, at the very least. So Ophalesh waited, interested to hear what Lt. Cmdr. Moon had to say.
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Lieutenant Commander Moon arrived at Conference Room 209G. As he entered through the automatic doors, he looked around and noticed Lt. Cmdr. Ophalesh already seated. Banyan moved to a chair opposite her and placed a small blue box with a number of optic cables trailing out of it of different types and configurations on the conference table in front of him.
He nodded in her direction and took a seat in a manner that suggested a bit of fatigue.
With a kind, if somewhat tired, voice, Moon spoke; his voice lightly accented with sounds reminiscent of Terran Welsh. "Hello. Lieutenant Commander Moon, I am, and apologies I offer should my arrival be at all tardy."
Looking around at the otherwise empty room, he leaned back slightly in his chair. "Perhaps I will wait a bit more for anyone else attending the meeting to arrive before going further, yes?"
He nodded in her direction and took a seat in a manner that suggested a bit of fatigue.
With a kind, if somewhat tired, voice, Moon spoke; his voice lightly accented with sounds reminiscent of Terran Welsh. "Hello. Lieutenant Commander Moon, I am, and apologies I offer should my arrival be at all tardy."
Looking around at the otherwise empty room, he leaned back slightly in his chair. "Perhaps I will wait a bit more for anyone else attending the meeting to arrive before going further, yes?"
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The doors opened again and Commander Alina Mandra walked in. She wasn't necessarily invited specifically, as Moon was the Science Department representation for this. However Alina wanted to get involved not so much as the Assistant Chief of the department but as her trade job of being a Computer Scientist. Plus she had been curious to meet the Engineering departments Computer Services lead. Computer Engineering and Computer Sciences were always two things that go hand it hand so it was best to build bridges where possible as well.
She took a seat at the table between the two, smiling lightly at each. She knew who Moon was of course, but this was the first time she was getting the chance to actually speak to him. So far he'd only really interacted with Everhart so far, though she wished more of the personnel would correspond directly to her as working with them was one of her main jobs compared to the Science Chief's job of directing the focus of the department's work and playing with the higher ups. Not that such was important right now.
Looking to Ophalesh, she decides to introduce herself properly, "Hello, Commander Mandra, Assistant Chief of Sciences. I'm here as a Computer Scientist though to help out with the task." She fidgets a bit in her seat, which is in just enough of a low light you can almost barely see the faint glow in her eyes that is a side effect of her Synesthesia system.
Within the various screens and streams of data only she saw she selected a application silently queuing her supercomputer, affectionately named Ziggy, to switch the application from her own perception to the embedded computer in the table opening up a 2D holographic screen on the surface.
"This is just a notepad we can use to type up random notes. You can use it from any orientation on the table with popup keyboards, and my computer will organize everything properly later so I can send you both copies of our session notes. Figured this would be helpful. I have a few thoughts on our problem today, but I'll save that for later as I know Moon here has his own idea to present first." she explains as the table surface bound notepad quickly flashes features she describes like a tutorial showing how anyone can bring up a quick keyboard on screen to type from any angle and notes will be organized automatically, including by who wrote them.
She sits back a bit and waits either for one of the others to begin or for anyone else to arrive that hasn't yet.
She took a seat at the table between the two, smiling lightly at each. She knew who Moon was of course, but this was the first time she was getting the chance to actually speak to him. So far he'd only really interacted with Everhart so far, though she wished more of the personnel would correspond directly to her as working with them was one of her main jobs compared to the Science Chief's job of directing the focus of the department's work and playing with the higher ups. Not that such was important right now.
Looking to Ophalesh, she decides to introduce herself properly, "Hello, Commander Mandra, Assistant Chief of Sciences. I'm here as a Computer Scientist though to help out with the task." She fidgets a bit in her seat, which is in just enough of a low light you can almost barely see the faint glow in her eyes that is a side effect of her Synesthesia system.
Within the various screens and streams of data only she saw she selected a application silently queuing her supercomputer, affectionately named Ziggy, to switch the application from her own perception to the embedded computer in the table opening up a 2D holographic screen on the surface.
"This is just a notepad we can use to type up random notes. You can use it from any orientation on the table with popup keyboards, and my computer will organize everything properly later so I can send you both copies of our session notes. Figured this would be helpful. I have a few thoughts on our problem today, but I'll save that for later as I know Moon here has his own idea to present first." she explains as the table surface bound notepad quickly flashes features she describes like a tutorial showing how anyone can bring up a quick keyboard on screen to type from any angle and notes will be organized automatically, including by who wrote them.
She sits back a bit and waits either for one of the others to begin or for anyone else to arrive that hasn't yet.
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"Thanks..." Ophalesh said, eyeing the holographic display with mild bemusement. She knew of Cmdr. Mandra, of course; there wasn't a single member of the CS division that didn't follow Mandra's research into machine intelligence. Ophalesh hadn't expected to her to take an interest in Project Udox, though. Perhaps it had something to do with the Gainsborough AI. Whatever the reason, she was happy to have a mind like Mandra's onboard. "Let's get started. If anybody else wants to join late, they join late." She gestured to Lt. Cmdr. Moon. "Show us what you've got, Commander."
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Moon sat up when Commander Mandra walked into the conference room. He had never met her, but he recognized her face from the Sciences manifest, as well as from her research. He lamented for a moment how he hadn't had the chance to check in with her beforehand, but he was certainly appreciative to have her expertise available to this project.
He nodded to Ophalesh in acknowledgement, and then picked up the blue box and took a moment to plug it into the monitor system on the wall.
"Computer, scan and project a schematic layout of this device."
He then turned and addressed the room. "My thanks for having you both here. My lab has been crammed with a team of subspace theorists and technicians all night putting this prototype together."
He motioned to the schematic display, "As you can see, this box is a subspace signal repeater, that's been fitted with manual solenoid connectors to disconnect and connect optronic cable between the device and the rest of a ship's communication architecture, and standard computer circuits commonly used in diagnostic testing of electronic viral counter-measures."
He continued, "...The theoretical use of this device is to serve as a manual circuit breaker. It works by taking a signal that is received from a standard ship or star base subspace communications receiver array and buffering it through the test circuity of the device prior to repeating the signal and passing it on to the rest of the communications architecture. The idea is that a signal that is corrupt would burn out or otherwise adversely affect the diagnostic circuitry, and, if so, the fail safe would be triggered and the solenoids would then not activate; which would then prevent any optronic hard cable connection between the device and the rest of the ship; thus protecting the vessel receiving the signal."
"Of course, this is just a mock up, with only 10 diagnostic circuits. Ships receive and process hundreds of communications and data signals a second, so there would have to be several hundred diagnostic boards and solenoid connectors per ship to be effective, and the interface between a subspace communications array and the network used to transfer those signals would have to be reconfigured as well to accommodate the design."
He pressed on, "And here is where I acknowledge my shortcomings. I'm not an engineer, and this is just a theoretical device. I'm sure there are many issues that I haven't considered, and a lot of unanswered questions. What time interval do we consider "safe" before allowing the device to repeat a signal its received? How do we design an interface that will be cross compatible with many different array designs out there from different eras of ships? How do we know this signal isn't smart enough to recognize a dummy circuit configuration?"
"I wish I had answers. I wish we had a sample of the viral signal to work with, or access to a corrupted system to see how the virus affected and compromised the system. But I don't, and I'd very much like to get both of your feedback on this idea. And, please, don't hold back. It's so important that we make the best counter defense we can. If this idea doesn't have merit, I'll happily accept that and move on to something else."
He looked at his audience, attentively listening for their feedback.
He nodded to Ophalesh in acknowledgement, and then picked up the blue box and took a moment to plug it into the monitor system on the wall.
"Computer, scan and project a schematic layout of this device."
He then turned and addressed the room. "My thanks for having you both here. My lab has been crammed with a team of subspace theorists and technicians all night putting this prototype together."
He motioned to the schematic display, "As you can see, this box is a subspace signal repeater, that's been fitted with manual solenoid connectors to disconnect and connect optronic cable between the device and the rest of a ship's communication architecture, and standard computer circuits commonly used in diagnostic testing of electronic viral counter-measures."
He continued, "...The theoretical use of this device is to serve as a manual circuit breaker. It works by taking a signal that is received from a standard ship or star base subspace communications receiver array and buffering it through the test circuity of the device prior to repeating the signal and passing it on to the rest of the communications architecture. The idea is that a signal that is corrupt would burn out or otherwise adversely affect the diagnostic circuitry, and, if so, the fail safe would be triggered and the solenoids would then not activate; which would then prevent any optronic hard cable connection between the device and the rest of the ship; thus protecting the vessel receiving the signal."
"Of course, this is just a mock up, with only 10 diagnostic circuits. Ships receive and process hundreds of communications and data signals a second, so there would have to be several hundred diagnostic boards and solenoid connectors per ship to be effective, and the interface between a subspace communications array and the network used to transfer those signals would have to be reconfigured as well to accommodate the design."
He pressed on, "And here is where I acknowledge my shortcomings. I'm not an engineer, and this is just a theoretical device. I'm sure there are many issues that I haven't considered, and a lot of unanswered questions. What time interval do we consider "safe" before allowing the device to repeat a signal its received? How do we design an interface that will be cross compatible with many different array designs out there from different eras of ships? How do we know this signal isn't smart enough to recognize a dummy circuit configuration?"
"I wish I had answers. I wish we had a sample of the viral signal to work with, or access to a corrupted system to see how the virus affected and compromised the system. But I don't, and I'd very much like to get both of your feedback on this idea. And, please, don't hold back. It's so important that we make the best counter defense we can. If this idea doesn't have merit, I'll happily accept that and move on to something else."
He looked at his audience, attentively listening for their feedback.
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Ophalesh drummed her fingers on the table. "So here's my thing," she said, thinking aloud. "I like the concept of an isolated system serving as a communications buffer. But I'm hesitant to trust diagnostic circuits for this. They don't guard against all kinds of malware, and we're already using them in some of the newer ships in the fleet. They're not standard issue yet but I'd bet an Odyssey like the Gainsborough had 'em."
She paused a moment to study the floating hologram, picking absently at a thumbnail.
"Like you say, we don't have a copy of the virus to work with yet. We're designing totally blind here. But there's one way to be totally sure we're not spreading the virus beyond that buffered comm system, right? Just don't ever make that connection." Building up speed now, Ophelesh sat up straighter in her chair, propping her elbows on the table. "Suppose we route subspace comms to just once console on the bridge. We'd sever all other connections. Then we stick this doodad of yours in between that console's link to the ship's intranet. The moment anybody spots these nasties or one of their wormholes, we trip the breaker and isolate this comms console. It can still call out from the ship, answer hails, all that, but it can no longer talk to any other system on the ship. And from that point on we just never link it back up again, at least not until the ship has come back for study and its comm system been positively purged of any viral infection. The person manning the comms console can relay messages to internal comms, but you use a person as that bridge, so we're sure the infection can't spread."
Ophalesh sat back and spread her hands, palms up. "And look, if you stick these diagnostic circuits in there, we get to test whether they detect the virus without endangering the ship. And if they don't, we know that and we've got a copy of the virus to study to figure out how to improve them so they will catch it." She thought for a moment, and added sheepishly, "Assuming the ship can get back home alive, of course."
She paused a moment to study the floating hologram, picking absently at a thumbnail.
"Like you say, we don't have a copy of the virus to work with yet. We're designing totally blind here. But there's one way to be totally sure we're not spreading the virus beyond that buffered comm system, right? Just don't ever make that connection." Building up speed now, Ophelesh sat up straighter in her chair, propping her elbows on the table. "Suppose we route subspace comms to just once console on the bridge. We'd sever all other connections. Then we stick this doodad of yours in between that console's link to the ship's intranet. The moment anybody spots these nasties or one of their wormholes, we trip the breaker and isolate this comms console. It can still call out from the ship, answer hails, all that, but it can no longer talk to any other system on the ship. And from that point on we just never link it back up again, at least not until the ship has come back for study and its comm system been positively purged of any viral infection. The person manning the comms console can relay messages to internal comms, but you use a person as that bridge, so we're sure the infection can't spread."
Ophalesh sat back and spread her hands, palms up. "And look, if you stick these diagnostic circuits in there, we get to test whether they detect the virus without endangering the ship. And if they don't, we know that and we've got a copy of the virus to study to figure out how to improve them so they will catch it." She thought for a moment, and added sheepishly, "Assuming the ship can get back home alive, of course."
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Lt. Cmdr. Moon listened intently, and nodded in agreement throughout Ophalesh's feedback.
"Those are all excellent points and ideas. I'm glad I'm not working on this alone."
He typed in some instructions and had the computer display several typical bridge layouts used by ships in the fleet.
"It seems like the more modern ships don't have a designated communications station, so we'll have to reconfigure ships in the fleet to keep a comms station up and running on all ships if this is going to work. We'll also need to set up that direct connection you were discussing."
Banyan rubbed his temples for a moment, the enormity of the task suddenly weighing on him. "An enormous task we are proposing, I think. And, we'll need to make sure the circuit hard disconnect activators are working properly...."
He trailed off for a few seconds, considering the options. He then switched into what his co-spouses sometimes referred to as 'controlling project management mode'.
"So, three projects it seems to me there are: One is finalizing the design on the signal breaker device, the second is configuring dedicated communications stations on the bridges of all ships to accept the signal breaker device and isolate the station from the rest of the ship, and the third is ensuring the compliance of all ships and space station assets."
"We could perhaps finalize the design of the device and its testing together, and then turn it over to Engineering and The 38th fleet Command Structure to implement the other two phases. I'm sure they'll have feedback as well."
Turning to the two officers, he said, "What do you think?"
"Those are all excellent points and ideas. I'm glad I'm not working on this alone."
He typed in some instructions and had the computer display several typical bridge layouts used by ships in the fleet.
"It seems like the more modern ships don't have a designated communications station, so we'll have to reconfigure ships in the fleet to keep a comms station up and running on all ships if this is going to work. We'll also need to set up that direct connection you were discussing."
Banyan rubbed his temples for a moment, the enormity of the task suddenly weighing on him. "An enormous task we are proposing, I think. And, we'll need to make sure the circuit hard disconnect activators are working properly...."
He trailed off for a few seconds, considering the options. He then switched into what his co-spouses sometimes referred to as 'controlling project management mode'.
"So, three projects it seems to me there are: One is finalizing the design on the signal breaker device, the second is configuring dedicated communications stations on the bridges of all ships to accept the signal breaker device and isolate the station from the rest of the ship, and the third is ensuring the compliance of all ships and space station assets."
"We could perhaps finalize the design of the device and its testing together, and then turn it over to Engineering and The 38th fleet Command Structure to implement the other two phases. I'm sure they'll have feedback as well."
Turning to the two officers, he said, "What do you think?"
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Alina had been listening and sitting back so far. She'd also been taking notes, amusingly the notepad on the table she'd open had been slowly having notes appear on it. She'd been righting them in her synesthesia second sight and transferring them over so it looked like her thoughts were just appearing on the table. Though she'd been writing in something of a funny shorthand so not all the notes seemed readable at first.
"I'm having trouble deciding if we are overthinking this or just missing the intent." she said as her response. "Ophalesh's idea is smart, and yeah it can work.. but I'm left wondering why have the console connected at all to begin with instead of designing it to disconnect when there is trouble... why not design it to only connect to the ship when it gets a verified signal? That way we'd run the device backward essentially.. hopefully in the final version this is an internal circuit and not this demo box too... and in any instance while this is still a threat all incoming communications will have to pass through an encryption filter. We can even use VRSA protocols, which were a Vulcan update on the old RSA public-private key encryption method."
She clears off a space on the table and her notepad starts writing out an example with crude stick figures. She's still not physically drawing it, but apparently she isn't interested in good artwork right now.
"So our problem is Alice wants to talk to Bob like normal, but Marge also wants to tell Bob things that will really hurt him. Bob doesn't want that message but he won't stop trying to talk to Alice. So Bob decides that he and Alice need a way to get each others messages but blocks others, like Marge's. They each have special boxes they put their messages in that require keys only each other has to open. No one else ever gets these keys, but they share the boxes with each other. Marge tries to send Bob her message in a similar box, but she didn't know the right kind of box that Bob's secret key can open. Thus the message cannot be opened. Bob is safe." she finishes as her little cartoon finishes and then self-erases.
"A lot of this can be automated very easily and is already in use in a wide variety of digital communication. I wouldn't be surprised if Moon hadn't heard similar stories of Alice and Bob before, they come up a lot in Cryptography circles." she notes.
"My thought is, keep the special console always locked off. Our public key can be based on a typical communication channel data transfer, one we know is safe and 99% of any ship communication will match. An open signal is really a series of relays before we start talking. Our public keys go out to people we want to talk to, their signals get encrypted, and we decode them with our private keys. This unlocks the console so it can talk to the ship like normal. When these bad guys try to hail us though, they won't get our public key, cause we know better. We'll also change the public keys every so often so they can't get a hold on old ones. So their messages will not be encrypted right and our console remains disconnected." she finishes.
Giving them a chance to think she simple adds, "No one idea is better than the other, and Moon's plan still gets the job done.. I'm simply giving alternatives.. the best option may be somewhere in the middle."
"I'm having trouble deciding if we are overthinking this or just missing the intent." she said as her response. "Ophalesh's idea is smart, and yeah it can work.. but I'm left wondering why have the console connected at all to begin with instead of designing it to disconnect when there is trouble... why not design it to only connect to the ship when it gets a verified signal? That way we'd run the device backward essentially.. hopefully in the final version this is an internal circuit and not this demo box too... and in any instance while this is still a threat all incoming communications will have to pass through an encryption filter. We can even use VRSA protocols, which were a Vulcan update on the old RSA public-private key encryption method."
She clears off a space on the table and her notepad starts writing out an example with crude stick figures. She's still not physically drawing it, but apparently she isn't interested in good artwork right now.
"So our problem is Alice wants to talk to Bob like normal, but Marge also wants to tell Bob things that will really hurt him. Bob doesn't want that message but he won't stop trying to talk to Alice. So Bob decides that he and Alice need a way to get each others messages but blocks others, like Marge's. They each have special boxes they put their messages in that require keys only each other has to open. No one else ever gets these keys, but they share the boxes with each other. Marge tries to send Bob her message in a similar box, but she didn't know the right kind of box that Bob's secret key can open. Thus the message cannot be opened. Bob is safe." she finishes as her little cartoon finishes and then self-erases.
"A lot of this can be automated very easily and is already in use in a wide variety of digital communication. I wouldn't be surprised if Moon hadn't heard similar stories of Alice and Bob before, they come up a lot in Cryptography circles." she notes.
"My thought is, keep the special console always locked off. Our public key can be based on a typical communication channel data transfer, one we know is safe and 99% of any ship communication will match. An open signal is really a series of relays before we start talking. Our public keys go out to people we want to talk to, their signals get encrypted, and we decode them with our private keys. This unlocks the console so it can talk to the ship like normal. When these bad guys try to hail us though, they won't get our public key, cause we know better. We'll also change the public keys every so often so they can't get a hold on old ones. So their messages will not be encrypted right and our console remains disconnected." she finishes.
Giving them a chance to think she simple adds, "No one idea is better than the other, and Moon's plan still gets the job done.. I'm simply giving alternatives.. the best option may be somewhere in the middle."
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Ophalesh squinted quizzically at Cmdr. Mandra. "I'm... not sure I'm following you here, doc. Crypto-keys are nothing new for intra-fleet secure communications, sure, but we're talking about infection through insecure comms. If we shut down all communications except those secured with VRSA auth, we'd be cutting off our ability to communicate with all unauthorized endpoints. No civilians, no Republic ships, no nobody but ourselves. Seems... kinda drastic, don't you think? Our ships can't do their job out there if they can't talk to anybody."
She rubbed her forehead as her mind raced through the implications of Mandra's suggestion. "Even if we were willing to go to that extreme -- and I think that's a big 'if' -- right now, I'm not sure I'd bet lives on our cryptographic capabilities against these nasties we're dealing with." She started to count off on her fingers. "They've got weapons that rip our ships to threads. They've got malware that can cripple our computer systems. And we have reports that they downloaded a copy of the Gainsborough's--"
Ophalesh was interrupted by conference room door opening. Cmdr. Sivath entered at a brisk clip, typically severe and humorless. Ophalesh sat up a little straighter in her chair. Her boss took a seat down at the far end of the table and nodded curtly to her. "Proceed."
"They downloaded a copy of the whole computer core," Ophalesh resumed. "Now Ops is in the process of coordinating the fleet through purging and regenerating all our keys, but it takes time. At minimum, these aliens have access to our encryption methods for study. Are you confident they don't have the computing power to crack 'em? Because I am not, not yet at least. So I say we should stick to what we know for sure, and that's that you can't transmit a virus without a data connection. Keep the comms isolated, use crew as the information bridge. It's going to be inconvenient as hell, but it'll keep us safe until we have time to study this thing more and properly inoculate our systems against infection."
She rubbed her forehead as her mind raced through the implications of Mandra's suggestion. "Even if we were willing to go to that extreme -- and I think that's a big 'if' -- right now, I'm not sure I'd bet lives on our cryptographic capabilities against these nasties we're dealing with." She started to count off on her fingers. "They've got weapons that rip our ships to threads. They've got malware that can cripple our computer systems. And we have reports that they downloaded a copy of the Gainsborough's--"
Ophalesh was interrupted by conference room door opening. Cmdr. Sivath entered at a brisk clip, typically severe and humorless. Ophalesh sat up a little straighter in her chair. Her boss took a seat down at the far end of the table and nodded curtly to her. "Proceed."
"They downloaded a copy of the whole computer core," Ophalesh resumed. "Now Ops is in the process of coordinating the fleet through purging and regenerating all our keys, but it takes time. At minimum, these aliens have access to our encryption methods for study. Are you confident they don't have the computing power to crack 'em? Because I am not, not yet at least. So I say we should stick to what we know for sure, and that's that you can't transmit a virus without a data connection. Keep the comms isolated, use crew as the information bridge. It's going to be inconvenient as hell, but it'll keep us safe until we have time to study this thing more and properly inoculate our systems against infection."
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"That's... not exactly what I meant to imply.." said with a sign of regret on her face. Her regret wasn't that Ophalesh has poked holes in her idea, it was that her idea had been misunderstood. Alina had gotten a tad carried away in her thought experiment and reverted to her data transfer theory research (which despite her recent reputation for machine intelligence, data transfer theory was in fact her primary field). She'd gone a bit overboard in her analogy and realized it would take an extra hour to really explain it. There was little worth when one workable, if less than sophisticated, system was already, literally, on the table.
"Table that as a concept for another day then, too bold for this project's needs... I do think there is a lot more streamlining that can be done with this box though, being a physical break is fine of course, but there are ways to implement this on a much smaller level that can make for faster and easier mods to consoles. I'm sure LtCmdr. Moon expected that of course as this is just a proof of concept." she notes.
It is about here she realize Sivath had arrived to watch. That amused her somehow, but she wasn't overly concerned with his presence at the moment.
"Table that as a concept for another day then, too bold for this project's needs... I do think there is a lot more streamlining that can be done with this box though, being a physical break is fine of course, but there are ways to implement this on a much smaller level that can make for faster and easier mods to consoles. I'm sure LtCmdr. Moon expected that of course as this is just a proof of concept." she notes.
It is about here she realize Sivath had arrived to watch. That amused her somehow, but she wasn't overly concerned with his presence at the moment.
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Cmdr. Sivath spoke up now: "Then consensus has been reached?"
Ophalesh looked to Lt. Cmdr. Moon briefly before nodding to the Chief Engineer. "Seems like it. We're going to isolate ships' comms to just one terminal and rig up a manual breaker between that terminal and the rest of the onboard network. When we run into Species 2492, we trip the breaker, sever the connection, and from then on it's on the assigned officer to act as external communications hub for the ship. With a little luck, we can get somebody to bring us back an infected comms system. We're also going to be putting some litmus hardware in place to see how that fares in contact with the vrius." She pointed to Moon. "Sci is going to handle the breaker design, we'll do the comms isolation and breaker installation."
Sivath looked around the room. "Very well. Commence with due haste. I will draft a report to the admiralty outlining this plan." Just like that, the Chief rose from his seat and left the conference room. Ophalesh had learned to accept that it was just his way.
Looking at the others, she said, "Moon, as soon as you have a prototype worked up, send us the design and I'll put it in front of the fabrication guys. We'll get a model built in the SIS for testing and send back the results. We can iterate from there. Sound good?" Ophalesh rose from her seat and stretched.
Ophalesh looked to Lt. Cmdr. Moon briefly before nodding to the Chief Engineer. "Seems like it. We're going to isolate ships' comms to just one terminal and rig up a manual breaker between that terminal and the rest of the onboard network. When we run into Species 2492, we trip the breaker, sever the connection, and from then on it's on the assigned officer to act as external communications hub for the ship. With a little luck, we can get somebody to bring us back an infected comms system. We're also going to be putting some litmus hardware in place to see how that fares in contact with the vrius." She pointed to Moon. "Sci is going to handle the breaker design, we'll do the comms isolation and breaker installation."
Sivath looked around the room. "Very well. Commence with due haste. I will draft a report to the admiralty outlining this plan." Just like that, the Chief rose from his seat and left the conference room. Ophalesh had learned to accept that it was just his way.
Looking at the others, she said, "Moon, as soon as you have a prototype worked up, send us the design and I'll put it in front of the fabrication guys. We'll get a model built in the SIS for testing and send back the results. We can iterate from there. Sound good?" Ophalesh rose from her seat and stretched.
Moon nodded in agreement, "Yes. Now that I have the feedback I needed, my lab will have the design completed in twelve hours. I'll forward you the design."
He added, "It's been a pleasure collaborating with you. A lot is riding on this, though. Let's hope our efforts help to protect us from this new threat."
He got up from the table, disconnected the prototype unit from the computer, and made all due haste back to his laboratory.
He added, "It's been a pleasure collaborating with you. A lot is riding on this, though. Let's hope our efforts help to protect us from this new threat."
He got up from the table, disconnected the prototype unit from the computer, and made all due haste back to his laboratory.
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