Configuration
Posted on 20 Mar 2013 @ 7:10pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Vincent Kramer Ph.D.
4,787 words; about a 24 minute read
Mission:
Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Multi-purpose Laboratory
Timeline: MD3 1000
ON:
As the group exited the turbolift, Dr. Kramer met Lt. Cho face to face at the door. They stared at each other for a moment. Kramer felt awkward for a moment then said, "Shall we meet in one of the Labs in say.. 15 minutes?"
"Okay?" Kiri was confused more than anything, she wasn't even on duty and still rather tired but there was nothing wrong per say. Blinking she moved out of his way, "Is there anything in particular you want to work on?"
"Well," he replied quickly, but had to think for a moment. "I just thought it would be good to go over the details on the telemetry transfer procedure,"
15 mins later
Liyar stepped into the multipurpose laboratory, where Kiri and Vincent had told him they would be meeting. He saw they were already there and beginning preparations. He wasn't sure what role he would be given and waited for them to lay out their plan before offering any suggestions.
Kramer continued his conversation with Lt. Cho, only giving Lt. Liyar a nod when he arrived. "I understand that the level 3 sensor sweep is only regulated to the . . ." He just stopped talking. He didn't feel like this line of conversation was going anywhere. He turned and smiled at Lt. Liyar, possibly he can bring a new perspective to the group mind, and said, "Hello Lieutenant. What do you have to offer us today?"
Liyar arched an eyebrow down at the scrambled components of the sensor probes. He wondered which part exactly of tell me what role you require me to fulfill that people were failing to grasp. He hid his impatience behind a usual veneer of emotionlessness. He had his hands clasped behind him and offered a slight bow of his head in acknowledgment of them. "I am capable of several models of computer programming and software engineering. If you will direct me to the areas of construction which require my assistance, I will begin."
Kiri was pinching her thumb when Liyar entered, when he did she offered a small smile that didn't last very long. It wasn't really her project, but she did feel she now understood almost all of it, "The software that runs the interlinking between the Three Probe set-up might need some updating, would you be interested?" Kiri felt she could do it herself quite easily, but it would let her work on something else and get it all done faster.
Liyar had meditated on this, and so he showed none of the impatience that threatened to boil over into anger. He couldn't find the source of these feelings, but he knew it wasn't to do with either Vincent or Kiri. So he would not take it out on them. Not like he had almost done to Maenad. That was unacceptable. Instead, he breathed through it and sat down. "Affirmative." He pulled out the connecting PADDs and began running a systems check, running through the base algorithms in his mind over the Miran settlement resource allocation units. It was a good channel, he thought. Do tedious work, and real work. DKR Ran, DKR Set, DKR Tal due course in approximately one week, itemize A. faster ships, thus far - He connected a control panel and began manipulating streams of code quickly through touch analysis. "You wish for each of these probes to interlink and work together, yes?" Liyar asked.
"That's correct." Kramer spoke up. He was simply amazed at this Vulcan's abilities. He smiled and continued to watch.
Our interceded aid has not been beneficial due to A - his eyes tracked as he worked both in understanding the program's components and in transferring those onto his own control panel so that he could manipulate them in the future. That is seven shipments and approximately two hundred thousand liters of water per city settlement. V'Ket forces within Miran posted- Liyar blinked at the fact that Vincent was now speaking to him. He looked up. "Do you also wish for them to disconnect at any time from the interlink to increase their range of information and then reconvene, reattach, with additional telemetry?"
"Their initial design is to work as one, but still maintain their flight independence." Kramer explained. "Most all of this has been worked out. We are just trying to fine tune the details in the shared telemetry."
Kiri looked back down at the very complicated gravity map on the system. There were so many bodies that pulled and tugged at each other stable orbits were hard to come by, their work was cut out in that regard, she almost relished it.
"Understood." The work-as-one pattern was solid. It would give them more reach and, most of all, more power for that reach. But it had a built in flaw. It relied upon itself even with independent flight. Liyar began a seeker mechanism inlaid code and began inputting it. In the event of damage, or severance from the linking mechanism, which - he looked over, needed some modification as well to remain completely secure - the probe would then be capable of functioning independently and seek out its sister probes. "Thus far your work is adequate. I have compensated for one internal flaw and I have an idea to improve the overall efficiency of this network system, if you are interested to hear this."
Kramer was amazed by his ability see all this so quickly. "That's amazing. Yes, please continue, but we need to be done soon." He looked at his timepiece. "I was hoping to give Lt. Panne our official sign off on this today."
"Yes, I understand. What I wish to do here is teach it to relay and coordinate information between itself. Not only mathematically, but behaviorally as well. To adapt to differing circumstances that may appear as a result of their journey. This way, the probes will not only work as one unit, but three separate units working as one, communicating with one another in sync, interlinked to one main matrix. This minimizes the potential for damage to communications, to units themselves, and allows them to digest and organize completely alien information amongst themselves. Do you accept?" Liyar looked up, tilting his head.
"Yes," Kramer exclaimed. "That is exactly the desired effect we are looking for."
Liyar began calculating another piece of code which was a behavioral modification adaptation. This he ran from his own clear V'Shar PADD, connected to the interlinking mechanism input area. He tapped the numerical sequences in a rhythm, speaking into the detachable microphone in Vulcan as he did so. He continued speaking, offering in set codes. He looked over to Kiri's mapping data and gently hooked in this component to the mapping matrix. He distended the PADD into two separate halves, typing on one end and monitoring the code sequences on the other end. He spoke in a sharp, abrupt sentence in MAG and the computer activated in his hand. "Good. It has now begun responding. You may continue your work with Lieutenant Cho. By the time our session is concluded, I will have the matrix properly trained." He disconnected the three nodes that were part of the interlinking system and gently detached them, only taking the base chips. they formed a long triangular line in his hand as he balanced them delicately and he took out an isolinear spanner on the table, switching it on and beginning the delicate programming work.
Dr. Kramer with arms crossed bent forward to get a better look at the display console, "This is simply amazing. I can not say it enough. Our scientists and engineers had been working on this program for the last year. What you have done in the last several minutes ... " He didn't know how to describe it any better. Then feeling slightly responsible, he stood up and looked directly at Lt. Liyar, "Would it be alright with you that I submit this information, program, and format to Starfleet Engineering with your name for reference?"
Liyar continued working for the next while, speaking in short bursts and alternating with typing in the code matrices. He switched on the dual translator component so he could speak to the computer properly. "Yeorioryivak, yeorioryeori, yeorioryami," he tapped through the code, continuing the counting sequence. "...Yeoriyansanyivak, yeoriyansanyeori,." He looked up as Vincent spoke again and arched an eyebrow. He shrugged minutely. "As you wish, Dr. Kramer. I shall make the program data available. Karek gaztakhkolari Liyar vhakzyon yameka trisal vereitci." The isolinear circuit in his hand glowed for a moment before the Starfleet PADD flicked on. Liyar switched a setting in the system and it repeated itself in Standard. "Awaiting value set change ten by Lieutenant Liyar." He input another sequence and the nodes began lighting up. He continued speaking in low MAG, the translator spitting out half-translations along the way.
"Reset. Return. Begin broadcast." Between the three disconnected nodes, they began creating bunches of code in sequence, using information from the mapping data he'd connected to create information loads. It wouldn't hold a lot, not until they were reconnected to the probe. And there were minor fluctuations to be corrected out, but one node began an analysis of the Eridani system data that was in the bank, and then transmitted that information to the second node, which added onto it given further data, while the first node then began responding to the second one. He continued speaking lowly to prevent interfering with Kramer and Cho's work, this time in Standard. "Adjust. Planetary system Eridani. Value 764." The node responded and recalculated. "Narrow-band automated search. Run database and compare." The node in his hand activated in a stream, the information appearing on his PADD. Kashen, Veris, Tyer, Shaksik, unidentified object 4567, unidentified object 5634, unidentified object 4443c, Valdena - "High-traffic content only. Eliminate extraneous data and compare. Scientific inquiries only. Eliminate native naming conjecture." It did so. He repeated the same sequence several times with differing sets of information. Asteroid 453c. Asteroid 455a. Planetoid 65p, Delta Vega. Better. "Compare known information and begin assimilating correct naming procedures." The connected PADD he held in his hand popped up with several thousand lists of known stellar objects, planets, asteroids, meteors, comets. This would let the system create new naming and sorting methods without compromising Federation data by repeating it unnecessarily or overwriting it. He devolved into silent typing, eyes flicking back and forth between the various components he had in front of him.
As Liyar went through this process, Kramer watched in continued amazement. But when he saw the light glow from the Vulcan's hand, Kramer's eyes opened wide. He glanced over to Lt. Cho and then back at the display. He had not idea that Lt. Liyar was cybernetically enhanced. He considered commenting about it. He was sure that he would be willing to talk about it, but possibly not at this time. He should just be grateful for all the work he had done today.
Liyar held up the PADD, and his hand, separating them. "There is no enhancement," he said, picking up on Vincent's thoughts unconsciously. "I am merely communicating with the verbal interface program and teaching it to, as you might say, teach itself."
Kiri was far less impressed by the work. She hadn't considered it that vital a part as they would be in contact with the probes for most of the time. There wasn't much of a need to have them that able deal with situations alone as they would be monitored and ordered almost constantly. The program for the probes themselves had to be much lighter to use, there had to be space for the sensor readings as well as the programming. Still it wasn't bad work, it just wasn't anything that impressive. Her focus was more on the course plotting, something she was making progress with now. The computer helped but only so far, the rest had to be done by hand. Reams of numbers and precise course alterations were starting to take shape on the map in front of her, "Are there any candidate bodies you want to make a priority?"
Kramer turned to Lt. Cho with pursed lips, "Unfortunately, our directive will be to launch the first two sets of these S.C.A.P. probes at Rojar II and Rojar III. That same directive is to wait until we are in the system before deciding which of the other planets or moons for them to survey for us." He looked to Liyar and then back to Cho. "It will be up to the science team to then decide."
"Still we can plan based on likely assumptions, from the long range scans," Kiri looked up at him, "It won't take long and it might save us some time when we arrive." Kiri didn't feel that went against their orders at all.
Kramer kind of shrugged and replied, "Okay, I'm all for preliminary plans or multiple initiatives to draw from when the time comes. I think that could even save us some time when we arrive." Kramer looked at Liyar, still very involved in his task and back to Cho. "How can I help?"
Liyar continued his calculations, frequently looking up to examine each individual node in front of him and periodically interjecting a verbal command into the detachable microphone which adjusted the output values, leaving Kiri and Vincent to work on the rest of the probe's mainframe.
"Well, are there any orbits that pose a higher chance of life than any others?" Kiri would generally assume those closer to the planet were less so, as were those on the far outside, something in the middle maybe? That didn't narrow it down much though and it wasn't quite her field of expertise.
Dr. Kramer thought for a moment with a serious look on his face with scrunched eye brows and mouth. After a moment he replied, "My understanding is that the elevation is not a major factor. However, if there is any interference in the electromagnetic belts about the planet or moon, then a lower elevation would be required to provide a better sensor sweep."
"Sorry, I meant the orbit of the bodies, not the probes, which moons should we target?" Kiri flushed slightly, she had just assumed he knew what she was talking about.
"Ah." Kramer slightly smacked his palm against his forehead, "Sorry. I guess I'm too focused." He walked over to see Lt. Cho's display. And looked at it for a minute. "I think it would make most sense to have the probes go from one moon to the next moving out from the planet." Then crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side and said, "the other alternative would be to scan the largest moons first and move about the planetary system toward the smallest of moons."
"That would be efficient as far as scanning went, going in order. But the faster we find points of interest the more time we have to spend on them before the next mission." Kramer then added, "I would think the single Class 5 probes would be sent out to outer planets and those moons smaller than 2,500km in diameter."
"That works for the smaller moons, but life isn't the only thing we are looking for, we might want to use the full set for the outer planets when their time comes." Kiri looked up at him, trying to work out what his plan was.
"That is also a possibility." Kramer replied. "Realize, we are only making options that will be available. We are not making any final decisions at this point."
"Yes," Kiri had a slight twinge in her tone. She had said as much twice herself to her mind and had never considered this anything other than possibilities. What he hadn't done was say what he thought about her criticisms, had she upset him? She'd met people that didn't like being told their ideas could be improved. Uncertain now she kept her tongue and looked down at the screen. Her mind rather chaotic in her own self criticisms.
Kramer glanced down at Lt. Cho who seemed to shrink in inches before his eyes. Something some people do when not wanting to be noticed. He wondered if he had said something wrong. "Let us continue." the scientist said, "These are all good possibilities. Whatever the scenario, we want to have a procedure already worked out." He ended with a nod looking from Cho to Liyar and back.
"Perhaps you should focus upon the moons and planets most likely to contain items for our scientific teams to personally study," Liyar spoke idly, still focused upon his task. "Life. Metals. Resources," he gave examples with a shrug. "Dividing these probes into cross-networking grid-patterns with each devoted to a specific set of tasks organized in order of priority," Liyar continued, and then pulled out another PADD, laying it on the table. "Rojar resource deposits study. Still in progress, updating as more telemetry feeds in. The massive spikes are what you would consider easy finds," taken from the data that the Federation had used to determine there was resource deposits to begin with. "Focus there, then move to the next likely target." His eyes darted back and forth as he spoke, before falling silent again.
Kramer crossed his arms saying, "Well, that's a great idea. Networking the other probes makes total sense."
"Yes," Kiri's map and orbit paths were based around this data, she could already see the areas predicted to contain elemental and mineral spikes. However at the range it was scanned the exact location with all these moons was not clear. What they were trying to find out where what targets were a priority from those, both as likely targets and desired results, "That is the data we have been working on, however are these minerals a priority compared to other results? They have limited scientific value, they are economic in worth."
"The data is not similar to the data which you have used to originally design the probe's pathway. If it were, it would be of little value." Liyar switched a panel on the PADD and held it out. Far beyond the original data of earlier, the projections spanned thousands of kilometers further, analyzed and re-analyzed and re-checked, the error margins were there, but slim, as the new data streams fed in the closer they got, he had checked and updated his programs to compensate and repeated the process manually. "As I stated above," he decided he would simply repeat himself, "Focus upon the planets that you and your teams can study, that have value to you." Economic or not, what a preposterous idea, but he didn't say that outloud, all value was economic, that was economics, but he was here, to work, not argue, and his own anger was likely influencing his reactions as well, so he let it out and through. Later. "Whether or not that value is monetary is up for you to decide. If you do not wish to study life, nor resources -" he blinked, "Minerals, metal, as you call them, then find what you do wish to study and center your search grid there." He blinked. "Another option is to devote one of the interlinks to cataloging and maintaining signatures that do not show up on our database." He decided to give up there and went back to his calibrations.
"Wouldn't that procedure be done by the ship's computer?" Kramer inquired. Then looking over to Lt. Cho for confirmation.
Throwing his hands up in the air and storming off was looking more and more likely. Only years of hard earned emotional training kept Liyar's irritation from showing in his features. He talked himself through the rest of it in his mind, dropping off several seconds of response time, before answering in a perfectly neutral voice. "If that is so, then as it currently stands, discussing the properties of something that will be automatically accounted for is rather a pointless exercise in conjecture, yes." Which begged the question why the two scientists had devoted ten minutes of discussion to it, but Liyar had determined a long while ago that he just wasn't going to understand Terrans anytime soon. He set his transceiver down on the table a short while later. "I have completed the interlink system. It is ready to be integrated into the probes at any time."
Kramer realized that something more had been taking place within Liyar, but had no idea what. He finally said, "You've done an amazing addition here." looking to Lt. Cho for a little support, then back to Liyar. "We'll get this integrated and be ready."
Liyar nodded, closing his eyes briefly in acknowledgment. He opened the back panel of the PADD and popped out one of the isolinear chips. He broke it in half several times and rose to deposit the pieces into the reclamator before returning to give it to Kramer, wiped of any classified data. Fortunately what Kramer needed did not fall into that category, and remained one of the few active programs left on the device. "I will require this back, when you are finished using it. The code is yours to do with as you wish."
Kramer accepted the chip into his palm. He wasn't sure what else to say, then closed his fingers into a fist and said, "It'll be a big help."
Liyar folded his hands behind his back once they were emptied. "Do you require additional assistance?"
Kiri wasn't sure if something was wrong with Liyar or not. He had gone to great length to tell them to do what they thought best. Which is exactly what she was trying to discuss. He'd gone far beyond the scope of what they had asked him to do and a fair amount of it they already had covered. From her guess Kramer was as lost as she was with the series of events and she couldn't find anything to say. The first draft of the probe map was almost complete now. The matter of provisional first targets still hung in the air though.
Liyar waited for a second longer for Kramer's answer, which remained unforthcoming. He decided after absorbing Kiri's unnecessary negativity over the past several seconds that it was not his project, not his problem. He was done. He bowed his head once briefly and swept out of the room before Kramer could answer verbally.
Kramer was stunned he looked at the back or Liyar walking out, to Cho, back to the closing door, and finally to Lt. Cho again, "Forgive me," he began, "I'm just a little confused. Did I miss something in that exchange?"
"I'm not really sure," Kiri looked to him not really sure what to do. Well they did have to finish the work they were doing. If Liyar wanted to talk about what the problem was, he would have done right? Biting her lip for a moment she thought about going after him anyway, "This moon had a large amount of water that is liquid below the surface, do you think we should break the crust with an aquatic probe, or just scan from the surface, or orbit?"
Considering the possibilities, Kramer replied, "Best to err on the side of caution and just do a surface scan. We can always come back and do that aquatic probe. We definitely want to highlight that task, and not miss it though."
"Okay," It would be interesting to see if there was any sort of life there and the properties of the water. She wasn't the expert here though so she tried again, "Is there anything else that stands out?"
Kramer crossed his arms thinking for a moment as he paced. Turning back to Lt. Cho he said, "Why don't we run some computer simulations and see how these new upgrades that Liyar provided will work out."
"Okay," Turning over the program on the screen with a flick Kiri brought up a simulation using the data Liyar had altered and her own changes to route paths. Creating multiple copies with random problems and errors to encounter at the same time she watched them run in high speed. Nothing seemed to be encountered that couldn't be dealt with or accounted for. No sudden crashes, it didn't get them any closer to finding anything though. Not looking up Kiri spoke quietly, "Everything seems to be working."
"Excellent," Kramer exclaimed and walked over to the science console and inserted the isolinear chip that Liyar had provided. "Computer, Upgrade S.C.A.P. probes with this information."
"It will need to be compressed and shared between the three probes in each unit, rather than each having a complete copy," The probes were advanced but there was still only so much information they could carry.
Kramer replied, "That seems appropriate. Proceed." Vince walked over to a chair and sat down. He thought for a moment, "Something just occurred to me. We may need to check for security safeguards so that someone or something does not gain control of our probes."
"True, if there is the potential for Romulan involvement, their infiltration assets are highly advanced." Kiri opened up a new window, "I can implement an active detection program for out of schedule contact, as well as encrypt the information to a key on the ship. If there is an error though it will be harder to correct after launch though."
Kramer replied, "I think it would be an important asset to have that detection added to our probes."
"I'll have it done shortly," Kiri's fingers flashed out in front of her, "Is there anything in particular you are worried about?"
"Hah! " Kramer laughed out loud. "Personally , I don't think we will encounter any formidable threat. We just gotta do it right, for the Captain."
"Okay?" Kiri finished a detection program and moved onto a system alert, "Have you ever encountered pirates before?"
"Pirates?" Kramer exclaimed, "Ah, no. I've heard they can be very . . let us say unorthodox in their methods . . and ruthless. I would not want to encounter them out here."
"I just remember seeing something about unlawful ships that might be in this area, since its not documented," Kiri felt she had finished the defences and started to compress them into four dimensional encoding.
Vince turned to the monitor, "Would you through up the a display of the parameters that we have added in our time here? I just want to make sure we haven't forgotten anything."
"Okay," Kiri did so, first with the plotted courses for each moon, planet and body they were scanning. Then listings for the programming changes made to the probes and their communication procedures.
Vince looked close at the displays, only mumbling, "ah huh." "Mmm yep." "Okay then." and turned to Lt. Cho. "I'm satisfied."
"I'll upload the changes to the probe interface for when we are ready to launch," Closing the window she started a few more keystrokes, "Would you like me to package it for dispatch to Starfleet Command in the next set of updates?"
"Yes." Kramer replied, "I think that would be a good idea." Vince stood there a moment thinking through what they had accomplished. He looked at Lt. Cho, "Lieutenant, you do very good work. Thank you for your assistance."
"Thank you, it is all based on your idea though, we couldn't do it without you," She managed a smile before looking back down at the screen, "I look forward to working on what we find together."
Kramer replied, "I very much look forward to that, as well." Raising a hand he waved, "Bye for now." and walked out the door.
Kiri watched him leave for a moment before finishing her work. Things seemed to have gone well, or at least not badly. Between them they had covered everything they needed to do and brought the final parts of the idea to fruition. Now she was on her own her fingers got a little faster and her eyes a little less alert.
OFF:
Dr. Vincent Kramer, PhD.
Planetologist
USS Galileo
Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo
Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo
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