Echos in the Core

Posted on Sun Apr 24th, 2016 @ 1:58pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Mizatan Fij

Episode: Lost Property
Location: De Salle, D-Deck, Computer Core
Timeline: MD03 1630hrs

"Pass me the optic cable reel?"

Fij paused in his interrogation of the computer databases they had managed to access so far to bend down and retrieve the requested reel from the tool kit that he and Petty Officer Wood had brought with them when they beamed into the De Salle's computer core. Once the Highlander's engineering teams had managed to patch up the myriad hull fractures and breaches to make the ship once again airtight, they had set up temporary airlocks around the bridge, main engineering and the computer core, and filled each with air scrubbers, heaters, and beamed in enough air to create a liveable environment for work to be carried out without the need for the bulky EVA suits. The computer core had needed patching in a number of places - the temporary repairs were still visible in the higher levels of the core - and so Fij and Wood were still required to wear their suits while they worked in there, but they could safely do away with their helmets and gloves. Fij's were on the floor next to the workstation he had opted to use, ready to be donned again should any of the repair patches begin leaking air.

"Thanks," Wood responded, head and one arm deep in the gap behind the computer panels that he had moved into their maintenance position so that he could get to the workings behind them. A number of the cores had been damaged by micro meteorites, and while much of the data on damaged units couldn't be restored, Wood was working to try and repair and restore functionality to the parts of the core that handled functions rather than data, trying to give the old computer the ability to once again carry out commands and control the ship's systems. Meanwhile, Fij was working at one of the terminals trying to recover more data from the ship's database. The initial data dump that had been taken back to the Highlander excluded data stored on drives that were undamaged, but connected to damaged subsystems that had since been repaired, and there were still much more data that was present, but corrupted that he was hoping to be able to try and recover.

"Have you identified the fault with this unit?" Fij asked his colleague, as he worked away at the physical keys on the old computer system.

"Yeah, I think so," Wood responded from behind the machinery. "One of the micros that came through here shot straight through the optical connections on this one. Most of the components themselves are still in surprisingly good condition, but they just can't talk to each other. Replacing the optical lines should give us this one back, providing that the operating system hasn't been corrupted."

Fij nodded. "Makes sense."

The pair worked in silence for a few more minutes, before the unit Wood was working behind began to hum, the lights on its front face starting to shine, indicating that it was booting up. "There we go!" Wood exclaimed. "Another one down. How's the system on it looking?"

Fij brought up a connection to that unit from his terminal, and ran a few of the pre-installed diagnostics checks. "The system looks uncorrupted," he reported. "I will try and access the data files stored on it." He fired up a new series of commands that would reintegrate the data drives on the newly repaired system with the ship's network, and began looking through the file directories. Most of the files on this unit seemed to be related to non-essential systems controls, but they were still necessary if they were to get the ship working again.

"Where's my next one?" Wood asked.

Fij checked the PADD he had brought with him. "Unit Alpha-Niner-Five. Top level."

"Got it." Wood deactivated his boots, grabbed his helmet with his gloves inside it, and grabbed the tool kit. Pushing off gently from the floor send him gliding up towards the upper reaches of the computer core room.

Fij returned to his own task, and the two again worked in silence for a few more minutes, with the odd sound of computer components being disconnected or moved about the only sound to interrupt the hum of the air scrubbers and heaters.

"Did you hear that?" Woods called down a few minutes later.

"Hear what?"

"Nothing, I must have imagined it."

Fij shook his head. So far everyone who had worked onboard the De Salle had been jumpy; the psychological effects of working on a centuries old lost ship where all the crew had mysteriously died, he supposed. Phantom sounds and sensations were bound to be conjured up by an over-imaginative mind.

No sooner had he finished the thought, that he thought he head breathing coming from near his shoulder. He span quickly in surprise... only to find nobody there. "Over-active imagination," he quietly reminded himself. Turning back to work. He turned again and returned to his workstation.

"Woah!" Fij looked up as Wood called out, and saw him trying to grab hold of a hand rail to arrest his drift in the zero gravity. Something must have shocked him enough to move suddenly. Any small movements in zero-g could send you flying to the other side of the room.

"What is it?"

"I don't know," the other engineer called back. "I just felt a weird chill; I can't explain it."

Fij took out his tricorder and ran a quick scan of the room. The air temperature was optimal, and there were no cold spots or signs that any of the repair patches had begun leaking. As he took a step back to angle the device's primary sensors higher up, he felt a chill run down his spine too, as though he had just walked through a wall of cold water, yet the tricorder showed no change in its readings.

"Let's get back to the Highlander," he decided, feeling his anxiety starting to make the tips of the horns on his forehead itch. "Let's ask one of the structural engineers to do a quick check of the repair patches, just in case." He knew the tricorder wasn't reporting any problems with them, but he couldn't think of any other logical explanation for the chills they had both felt.

"Yeah, okay." Wood's voice was slightly shaky when he responded. The spookiness of working on a ship like this was getting to the both of them.

"Fij to Highlander," the computer specialist said, picking up his helmet and gloves. "Two to beam back."