"From A Distance, the Universe Still Looks Big"
(Previous Post: "The Full Emotional Spectrum")
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Stardate: 60341.0730
The USS ANUBIS had still been on course for SURIAL
III, but now they were doing so without the tactical
support of the USS HATHOR which had gone off to
intercept an unknown probe which had been heading for
the SCARAB-Class Cruiser. There had been no proof
that the probe had been sent by the Imperians or even
if it had been meant to challenge the ANUBIS, but
given the chaos in which the Cardassians had been
plunged into, certain levels of precautions had been
deemed prudent and necessary.
"Are the sensors working to your satisfaction?" The
giant Oltharian asked as he stepped into the
Astrometrics Lab, the engineer and his team having
worked non-stop to bring the sensors of the ANUBIS
back to their full potential. This immediately
shifted the focus of the Chief Science Officer from
her work on finding a way to retrieve the energy
pattern of their Intelligence Liaison Officer to
seeing if the sensors could pick up on what the HATHOR
had been up to.
Designed to be a state-of-the-art Intel-gathering
ship, the ANUBIS and the other three ships of its
class had been equipped with sensors that could, if
someone had wanted to know, identify what a specific
person had been having for dinner along with how much
his or her heart-rate changed as they ate thus giving
a clue as to whether or not they had been enjoying it,
all of this from orbit. Such accuracy had been
useless at this exact moment, but the increased range
of the sensors had been more than welcomed by the
Chief Science Officer and acting Executive Officer of
the ship. "Nice job Elan, the long-range sensors seem
to be back to full reach, and with a little work I
might actually be able to keep track of the HATHOR
despite it being under the protection of a cloaking
device, of course knowing the exact frequency of the
visual distortion field and of the method used to
disperse the warp trail will make such a search that
much easier. Then again I could just search for that
probe which is heading our way and wait to see what
happens, knowing that the HATHOR is around there
somewhere, I mean it may be a little less accurate but
it will get the job done nonetheless and allow me to
continue working on the SURIAL III problem."
The massive engineer smiled as he took the words and
jubilation of the Shillian woman as a sign that she
had been happy and grateful of the accomplished work,
and since she had broached the subject of the planet
they had been heading towards the Oltharian decided to
go ahead with the other reason which had brought him
here to speak to the scientist and Executive Officer.
"Have you made any progress in your research to rescue
Lieutenant Commander Enaii?"
The Shillian woman looked at the giant and grinned
softly indicating by the gesture that she had in fact
made some progress which the Chief Science Officer had
appeared more than willing and ready to share with the
Oltharian. "As I am sure you will remember, SURIAL
III was protected by an array of cloaked orbital
defence platforms which we were able to disable thanks
to an electronic auto-adapting and self-replicating
virus which was transmitted to one and relayed to the
others during their routine orbital update link-up.
What I was thinking was that since we need to be able
to scan the entire atmosphere of the planet in as
short of a period as possible, we could create a
sensor uplink with the satellites and use their own
built-in targeting sensors to scan the ionization
field. We would still need to figure out how to
recalibrate the sensors of the weapons platforms to
search for the bio-energy of Lieutenant Commander
Enaii without having to do the modifications manually
and to each and every satellite, and of course we
would also need to find a safe way to reactivate the
array without risking it turning against us and
turning the ANUBIS and the crew into sub-atomic
particles. The reason for this is that the sensors of
these weapons platforms are currently aimed *away*
from the planet and its atmosphere, so we would need
to access the orbital controls and rotate the entire
array to face inward instead of outward."
"Could the virus used to disable the array be rewritten to accomplish these tasks?" The Chief Engineering Officer asked sounding almost surprised that the Shillian woman had not thought of this possibility beforehand.
"I thought of that," the Shillian scientist sadly
admitted, the problem is that the virus was initially
designed to disable the array, I mean it would require
a complete rewriting of the base reprogramming routine
while leaving the infectious sub-routines intact, and
to be honest with you I do not think we have that kind
of time on our hands. We would need someone with the
brain of a computer and the ability to adapt to
varying parameters to come up with such a revised
program, something that the computer onboard the
ANUBIS is unfortunately incapable of."
The Oltharian gave the issue a few moments before
turning to face the Shillian scientist, a growing
smile brightening his face in a way that the Chief
Science Officer had never before seen. "The computer
of the ANUBIS may be lacking the adaptability required
to perform such a task, but there is someone onboard
who can *and* has direct access to the speed and
resources of the computer."
"ANNIE!" The Shillian exclaimed, not having given the
Avatar any consideration whatsoever in the solving of
the problem that she had been working on. "Of course,
I mean I should have thought of her unique abilities
from the start, she should, in theory of course, be
able to use the computer to create the required new
program while overseeing the process and stepping in
to make those choices and decisions that the computer
would not be able to do on its own. Her ability to
interact with the computer on a direct level would
also transform days of tedious work into mere hours
which might actually allow us to be ready before we
reach SURIAL III."
"I will inform Annie of the task we require of her,"
the Oltharian said as he gave the Shillian woman the
customary bow of respect for an Officer of her rank
before leaving to return to the bridge where the
Avatar of the USS ANUBIS had been busy with the duties
of the Flight Control Officer.
As the Chief Science Officer glanced once again at the
data being displayed by the newly restored long-range
sensors, the Shillian woman found it oddly ironic that
while the Cardassians were facing oblivion at the
hands of an artificial race, the Intelligence Liaison
Officer of the USS ANUBIS had seen her possible rescue
from oblivion to be in the hands of an equally
artificial life, one which luckily for them all held
the values of the Federation at the core of her
programming.
---
"To see the world in a grain of sand, 2006 post #047
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Deck 12, Astrometrics Lab
Jessica Solarik { maya_992003@yahoo.com }
Lieutenant Commander Maya
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS
and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake (British, 1757-1827)
