Software Issues

[Joe Manning 0]

Joe's had crew-management issues, and he knew it.

 

If the Bynars were evaluating the redesigned crew -- Qob 4.0 -- they'd no doubt criticize it for extensive design flaws. The components were all sound; hell, in some cases he was working with the Federation's brightest castoffs and runaways. Those components were not working seamlessly together, though -- software conflicts abound.

 

There were tensions between Pher and Kaara. Pher was doing Pher's thing, sizing up and testing her competition for the hearts (among other body parts) of the male crew. Kaara was doing Kaara's thing. It'd been years since Joe practiced psychology, and he'd forgotten more than he'd ever learned over those years, but he sensed that "Kaara's thing" betrayed signs of verbal abuse in her past. For Pher it would be an easy exercise, the standard routine. For Kaara, it might build animosity. A buildup of bad memory threatening an overflow?

 

Nickles stepping in to mediate had been a good sign. Joe needed Chris to be a mediator. "The pleasant counterpart to my salty ol' ass," as Joe had once called him. Joe had become more hawkish, more calculating over his (twilight) years in Bull's Head. He'd learned the dangers of even a trusted friend stabbing him in the back, so he'd started making a practice of learning everything he could about his crew, gathering whatever dirt there was to gather, and preparing contingencies for future betrayals. A good amount of his scheming was subconscious, but others had to sense it; they had to be put off by it. Chris cared little for shrewd calculations and manipulations. He was a straightforward, practical sort of guy who got along well with all his friends (reserving his fury for known enemies). The trouble was that Chris hadn't been himself lately. Thanks to a Deltan whose idea of a job interview was kidnapping one of the interviewers and pumping him with drugs and pheromones, Chris was overly obsessed with one of Qob's crew and paying little attention to the others. The sooner his head was cleared (along with his hormones), the sooner he could make sure all the drivers were playing nice with each other. Or most of them at least ...

 

Shane and Byblos were the proverbial loose cannon and powder keg, respectively. Gunpowder had no place on a starship. Shane had already established a tendency to tick off his crewmates. He was anti-authority and anti-groupthink -- common enough in a trade that catered to Starfleet outcasts, but Shane had not left his anti's back in the Federation. He'd at least shown that he could be reasoned with, but not without some tooth-pulling. Byblos was playing the subservient hired gun well enough. But could anyone on the crew look at him without thinking that an outburst could come in the next blink of an eye? Tranquility's Unspeakable District Guardians could not have been hunting him for nothing. Even if they were trustworthy, neither of them were comforting sights for the rest of the crew, not yet at least. Sloppy design -- too many resources demanded, even if they were benefits to the system, could produce a crash. Gunpowder was a favored solution to any computer crash -- would it leave anything in one piece, though?

 

Rewrite of the software, that's probably what the Bynars would suggest. But the Bynars would likely suggest hooking everyone's minds up to a central brain that could turn each member of the crew into a carbon copy of the next and instruct each of their actions. Not an attractive solution. Many of Joe's crew had already left Starfleet.

 

The Bynars weren't interested in crew evaluation though. They were interested in Minos. Specifically, in Minos not being Simon Graham. Simon Graham not being Minos. A =/= B === B =/= A === ticked off Guardians. Joe didn't care about the fact that the Bynars travelled in threes, nor that names with -1 seemed like a good idea to them (calling everyone 'John,' 'Jane,' 'Jim,' and 'Joe' would have to get boring after a while). He did want to know what the hell the Bynars were doing on his ship, why they were allowed to board the ship without his permission, and what they knew about Minos in the first place. Software engineers gone wild -- just what nobody needed.

 

If the Bynars were right about Simon Graham, a call from Marshall Savoy would be inevitable. Joe would be tempted to point her in the Bynars' direction. Let her deal with all the secrecy of Xorax. The flight control nitwits hadn't even any idea which administrator's authority the Bynars worked under. Even their requests for information were met with repeated 'Access Denied' 'Strictly Confidential' slaps across the face. Xorax bureaucracy being the nightmare that it was, Joe was sure that the Minos problem was going to get dumped in his lap again.

 

He hoped to get out of the Hyades cluster before that time came. Into the rimward regions. The most dangerous territories of Bull's Head. No better place for a crew to bond around a common purpose. No better environment for software errors to cascade to an explosive point. Which direction would Qob 4.0 take? Hopefully, Joe 12.0 would not break down before finding out ...