STF

MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)

Posted April 4, 2023, 11:52 a.m. by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Engineer) (David Shotton)

Posted by Gamemaster Deus Ex Machina (GM) in MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)

Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)

Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Snip

Estimation was an 6 to 10 armed creature that was approximately 5 feet in height with an arm reach over 3 feet giving a wing span of nearly 7 feet or more. Along with the lights each ‘station’ had a two button system in the upper left hand corner of 270 degree loop. It was much like the on/off light button found earlier.

Standing at a console in the dim light Jen tried to imagine the beings who operated this and what ‘this’ was for. There was one commonality that he saw related to the light ‘switch’. At least they were somewhat predictable, perhaps, whatever ‘they’ looked like. Figuring that a destruct switch would not be as simple as something like the two buttons calling to him, Jen reached out and touched the one that, like the lights, indicated the on. Couldn’t hurt, he hoped.

Well it certainly could hurt. However, the system were designed similarly and it turned on the power to the console. The system lit up and a line of icons that probably were letters or words of some sort that probably… probably were a boot up log.

After a quick second the screen just paused and blinked calmly.

That was promising, Jen thought to himself, his antennae shifting about like the tail of a cat while all the rest of it, and him, remained calm.

“So I think we are all at the same conclusion that we are dealing with a cephalopod in some shape or form and hopefully the tricorder and give us some dimensions on the beings we are dealing with. It’s finda fascinating to me that we have not met another race yet that resembles octopi in the Federation. Pound for pound, the octopods on Earth have a intelligence rate equal to humans. The IQ rate of humans spans the bell curve from 85 to 115 to be within a normal range with 100 being the median. Crazy enough Octopi fall about 100 in this IQ scale. It is common knowledge in biologist circles that if octopi had a life span equal to humans, we could have been a two-species race on Earth. If this Darkness is cephalopod in genetic origin, they could he just as smart as us and might be the reason no one has been able to contact them. Without vocal folds, which would not be needed for a fully aquatic species, they would not have a traditional form of verbal communication. Next time we meet up with them maybe we should contact Gina the speech therapist instead of comms,” Lexi let out a laugh.

Lexi Robins

GM

The control panels did have a long string of text. It probably was mostly mathematical or computer language. But that was still language of some sort.

It almost appeared like old-style programming that was based more on yes/no formulations. Certainly it could and did get far more complex as one was able to make such language do more and more up to and including their own AI predictive programming that was voice activated. To have a computer ‘know’ what you want to know - or at least to a high degree - and that taking into account all the differences in speech patterns, figures of speech, racial innuendo, and simply people communicating what one wanted. Not everyone was as precise in their ‘asks’ to the computers but all the same they were able to glean much of what they intended. That was both very convenient and concerning to know that the computers were that intuitive.

“I have seen them,” Jen said. “They are very dextrous in their environment. It would be a very different make up though if it was living outside of water.” Inwardly he winced about communicating with the Darkness. “I’m all for communicating with the Darkness - at a significant distance.” He considered the thought. “How would they move, our mystery aliens?”
- Jen, XO

“Probably on the pads of their tentacles no different than any other octopus with a motion like a snake. If I was a betting girl I would say that they lost all the suckers on their limbs and have them retained only on the tips which would work as fingers. Snakes moved through muscle contractions along their abdomen and can start erect of sorts like a cobra so given that evolution allowed them to leave the water permanently I could see them moving around like a snake or spider,” Lexi waggled her head. “Spiders move rather fast and efficiently on the same number of appendages.” Looking up at the ceiling out of reflex Lexi scanned the space. She doubted anything was lurking on the ceiling or in a corner but spiders could literally be on the ceiling and no one noticed because people never looked up unless prompted to. They tended to look down because things on the ground tripped them.

Lexi Robins

“Are you a betting girl?” Jen asked with a trace of a smile.

“Only when the odds are in my favor,” Lexi let out a laugh.

“That makes it an investment, not a bet,” Jen said, humor flashing across his features.

“How do you see a skeletal structure evolve with these? Or what was like one? The octopus were very fluid in water, but I’d guess they’d be a limp lump outside of it.” He looked at his arm and imagined evolved suckers mimicking fingers then how they might work on the console. Nature was highly adaptive; second guessing how something might evolve was a slippery target and oft missed.
Jen, XO

Given the set up an aquatic creature wouldn’t have the skeletal strength to carry its mass out of water upright. Unless this room was designed to be submerged. However that, wouldn’t explain how it would get to the ship. So then the argument would be that they were amphibious or had another ability to offset its mass.

GM

(just to clarify the above. A seaborn creature built like an octopus would be unable to survive/use an equipment setting like this. A formerly aquatic, a creature evolved from an octopus like ancestor could use the set up. It would need to develop an interior or exterior skeletal structure.

“Oh they would probably be all floppy,” she agreed with a smile. “So everyone knows Chris is from Australia and they have this one species of octopus that is able to walk on land. So freaking creepy. Like a globe of snot rolling around the ground.” She let out a shudder. “I think I just got the idea stuck in my head from looking at the design of the Darkness because it looked like an octopus. You make assumptions and we all know what happens when you assume something.”

Lexi looked at the scrolling of text and numbers on the console. “So anyone know mathese,” she let out a sigh.

Lexi Robins

Jen slipped out his tricorder and scanned the ‘mathematical’ script, then tapped his comm badge. =^= Jen to Atlantis. I’m sending you some computer code to analyze. Their computers powered up. I’m hoping this might give us some translation matrix for their language - or at least to begin to navigate about their system. =^= He hit the transmit button as he said that.
- Jen, XO

“Too bad it is not like the ship where we can just ask Is this outpost Federation,” Lexi posed the question to the console as if it were one of the consoles on the Altantis that could answer a simple question.”

Lexi Robins science

Jen was dubious. The tech didn’t appear to be that high. However it was worth a shot. “Perhaps it will reply to something - even if it was ‘does not compute’.”

Math cycles were programmed in all tricorders so the connection wasn’t immediately necessary and worked well with devices likewise designed to be communication systems. This device rejected the ‘mathese’ program on two levels. First it wasn’t designed to be an interspecies/race communication system and secondary it rejected the access.

However with the rejection it indicated that the system was a secure device and had some sort of confidential use.

=/\= Ian here,=/\= The diplomatic officer replied. =/\= I am sending it to linguistics but without a matrix it might take some time. Do you want me to send a team down to you while we analyze it?=/\=

Ian Bordeaux CDO

Likewise the linguistics codes didn’t work as the computer system rejected the connection. For all intents and purposes this was an air gapped computer system.

He looked around at the room as the comms call came in. =^= Send a small team of three to work with science. =^= He gave a nod to Lexi. =^= What is the status of the ship and system? Any activity? =^=
- Jen, XO

If they wanted to use the computer here, they would have to figure out the language and the computer’s function or figure a way to make it accessible to a bigger computer like that on the star-ship so it can ‘overwhelm’ the systems defenses.

GM

Jen moved about, looking past this room while the others worked. Returning back, he asked, “What have we got?”
- Jen, XO

“Well, I am kinda out of my league here but I think we are going to need a bigger boat,” she looked at Jen and the rest of the team, “or a virus.” Lexi was not an engineer or a programmer but she was a biologist. “What if we created some kind of computer virus and overwhelm the system’s defenses?” She had no idea how to do this but that was what viruses did. “Virus trick cells into thinking it is part of the organism until it takes it over. So why can’t we do that?”

As Lexi finished speaking, three men beamed down from the Atlantis and looked at Jen.

Lexi Robins.

“Perhaps our bigger boat has arrived,” Jen said looking at the trio, about to say something the comm badge beeped. Just before answering he said to Lexi, “Brief our newcomers on what we need and see if you all can work out a way to get in.”

Kelly tapped her comm badge. =/\=Jen we have a really odd radiation signature on this piece of debris. It is like nothing we have ever seen. We are only guessing here but it seems to have a regenerative quality to it. Is there any indication of it being on the planet or is this a strictly atmospheric thing? Sending the readings of the radiation down to you now.=/\=

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Odd radiation. So what else was new. Odder than what they know of relating to the Darkness? They would have regenerative qualities, but radiation having that? What did that mean? He honestly had not considered any kind of radiation scan down on the planet. He checked his tricorder to make some sense of the radiation readings. Science was not his strong point unless it had to do with improvising explosives. Pointing at one of the three who came down from the science group. “You, on me.”

When he had come over, Jen showed him the radiation readings. “I’d like to ask what you make of this radiation reading but first run a comparative scan in the area here as broadly as you need or as specific as you need. A piece of debris we picked up has this on it. Skipper is asking if we have any readings like it here.”

  • Jen, XO

It was unlikely she had ever seen the wave. Depending on her level of knowledge she would be confused to fairly certain that the radiation was not natural in origin.

The tricorder received the information from the Captain and gave details like decay rate, orientation of the radiation wave. It further complied and gave the result that there was minimal background radiation that matched the radiation on the fragment… but the wave was well controlled and only focused in one area of this lab. That seemed to be some sort of containment chamber… but after that it resolutely refused to give any kind of analysis of the data.

GM

“How about we just overload the computer and beat it into submission?” Nash grumbled off in the corner. “Here,” he took off his communicator badge and fiddled with it and his tricorder a moment, creating a direct data link to the Atlantis with the communicator signal via his tricorder, then approached the ancient computer looking for either a data port or another way of connecting them assuming the system wasn’t wireless.

Reaching out, he tapped the badge on Lexi’s chest and began speaking to the Atlantis. =/\= Rand, this is Nash. I’m setting up a data connection, can you look into gaining control of the computer down here or just overriding the security lock-outs? My shout in the bar if you can. =/\=

Nash, CE


Posts on USS Atlantis

In topic

Posted since


© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service

Version 1.15.9