Interface Part One

Posted on Sun Apr 28th, 2024 @ 1:25am by Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Holo-Lab
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 2000

*Slurp....

[Holo-Lab]
[Deck 4]
[2000 Hours]

"Resume Diagnostic Log." Noah tugged on his plaid flannel from riding up against his throat and consciously tried to straighten his back. He set his milkshake down a safe distance from his LCARS interface and the carbon scored hunk of device on the scanner. To his side was a plate of cold steak fries and half an eaten tuna salad sandwich, cut diagonally- Debbie's recipe. He'd decided to forego the armadillo eggs that Sheldon had suggested.

Noah picked up a pair of delicate looking tools like he might dinnerware. "The-the device's carbon dating puts the explosion at probably, uh, about twenty years ago." He squinted through the optical HUD system he'd donned over his eyes. "Give or take. Which is uh well, about when we thought the Borg were crippled." A lens had clicked down over his right eye and he was unconsciously peering through it. "The system nodes look like they went inert a-around the same time. And they show the same signs of regenesis and modification consistent with how the Borg repair and adapt their systems constantly."

Noah stopped and peered into space. His mouth turned with the twist of a cheek. "At-at first I thought this was a data distribution node, but I'm starting to-to think this is an interlink module." He crouched close to the device again and pressed his tools into two scored interfaces. The small round screen on the device warbled like green and amber arcing energy- or more accurate, brainwaves. When it detected no attached, its lines went straight and languid in some kind of a standby.

"It was saturated in tachyons so I'm-I'm watching the decay rate. But I think when this ship was destroyed, it was probably in a transwarp conduit. The damage to the system isn't consistent with phasers or disruptors. My uh, guess is it was caught in the collapse of the transwarp network..." Noah frowned, "I'm still trying to figure how big the ship was. If it's an interlink module, I m-might be able to access some of its shared memory." His frown deepened, "The only problem is, I don't exactly have a cortical implant to access it."

The screen fizzled back to a matte darkness as Noah pulled away his instruments. "So I'll try to fool it by building one from Starfleet archives." The skinny Ensign turned, picked up his tuna sandwich and, hovering in a thoughtful suspension, took a bite. The strong fishy flavor, with purple onion, egg yolk and creamy mayonnaise was a welcome flavor. He pushed it into his cheek momentarily, while his mind distractedly panned to the neurotypical male brain of Humans. It occurred to him that it'd been a long time since he'd... coupled. With a squint and a frown he realized just how long.

He finished his bite of dinner processing whether he really cared or not. There was always the holodeck. Male companion? Female companion? Maybe... J'naii? His eyebrows perked at that. That idea was nice for a cuddle... but Irynya and such was better at that anyway. Ugh... focus dummy... this is way more important than your dick. He chastised himself while he brushed his fingers from any crumbs. He swiveled back to his milkshake and slurped it.

"Computer, access Starfleet archives concerning all encounters and data about the Borg. Include wha-what we know about the trafficking of Borg implants." The computer chirped and squealed. "Specify cortical implants and what we know about how they access Borg hive architecture." It squealed and chirped again.

"Ready." The voice of the computer confirmed, dispassionate but somehow eager to Noah's ears. He was probably transferring his own sense of curiosity on to a machine. Again.

"OK." Noah squinted one eye. His shoulders were tense and he gripped his own knees, his hyper-mobile elbows extended slightly too far than a typical Human. He closed his eyes a moment later and tried to bring up his thesis studies into the Borg mainframe architecture but there was too much noise in the background. "Nope ok... onscreen please computer." He turned tightly in his chair- and banged his kneecap into the bottom of the console. Noah hissed and howled, rubbing the sweet spot of overstimmed nerves that were his reflex. "Ow ow ow ow... ow... OW. OK. Fuck," he wrung his hand, "Focus." His knee throbbed.

There was nothing funny about a funnybone.

As Noah reviewed the data before him, his mouth set in a bothered frown. He covered his mouth, subconsciously leaning into his studies. He finally sighed. "Shit," he blinked in sobering realization. The unvoiced problem was that an interlink module was one of the cleverer pieces of Borg technology. Noah couldn't just fake a cortical implant to access it. It had safeguards in place to detect a real Borg drone's accessing the shared memories- and it would probably be able to sense there was no actual mind behind his facsimile.

And using Sojourner's computer as a mind was a very bad idea. One that was well above his authorization level. So Noah slumped a little and sighed. His arms slacked and dangled and then he crossed them over his chest. He had no intention of risking his entire ship for a simple experiment. So that meant he was going to have to build a proxy free of the main computer completely. And that was going to take awhile.

This hypothesis was on hold. Noah grunted frustration about that and rubbed the phantom pang in his knee. He needed distraction from this setback. But while he mulled his choices for the scant hour or so he had before bed he disconnected his discovery, logged off his station and pushed the hypothetical module into his satchel. "Computer is the holodeck free?" Noah asked the air.

"The holodeck is currently occupied by Tzimal bin'Gavik, Crewman 1st Class. Yeoman."

Noah frowned. He wasn't one to interrupt a Tellarite over... much of anything. He didn't feel like fronting belligerence and aggressive debate skills right now anyway. Noah rubbed the flat of his nose. A shower and some light reading it was then. His eyes turned to his unfinished sandwich. He wasn't hungry anymore but he quickly finished it and then deposited it into the reclamator. Then Noah shouldered his belongings and quietly made the short trek back to his shared quarters.

A Post By:

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist