Breakthrough

[John Randall 0]

OFFICIAL LOG

LIEUTENANT JOHN RANDALL

USS CHALLENGER

 

(Personal Log Stardate 11408.15)

 

John sat with his friend and colleague, Lieutenant (j.g.) Jeff Michaels, at the main console in engineering. "There's no doubt about it, Jeff," Randall said. "Someone has hacked into our data stream from the probes, and it's not anyone on the planet." Michaels looked at him for a few seconds, then said, "Can we reconfigure the probes, John?"

 

Randall sighed, then said, "We could try again, I suppose. Ok, get a team on it, and I'll monitor from here." Michaels nodded, and got from his seat to assemble the team. John sent an e-mail to the science station on the bridge, then, as an afterthought, also sent one to the communications station. Michaels and his team began work on the reconfigurment of the probes, and John monitored for a little while from his station.

 

He then had an idea strike him, and quickly typed in a series of numbers and symbols onto his screen. He studied the data string for a second, then, pleased by what he saw, he looked over to Michaels, getting his attention. "Jeff, I'm sending you a data string to be included with the reconfigurement as an encryption code," he said, and sent it to Michaels' terminal. His friend acknowledged receipt of the string, and the team worked speedily to achieve their objective. After a few more minutes, Michaels looked up from his monitor. "Ok, Lieutenant, think we've got it," he said, and sent the program to Randall's station.

 

The assistant chief engineer looked it over, and nodded. "This looks good, Jeff; well done, everyone," he said to the team, and they all smiled at him. "I'll see if I can raise anyone on the bridge," he continued, and punched the comm. "Randall to bridge," he said, and a few moments later, the voice of the communications officer, Ensign Dvokr chim Hok, answered. "Hok here, go ahead," it said. "Ensign, inform the captain that we have reconfigured the probes," said John. "I have installed an encryption code as well; maybe that will hamper the efforts of the unknown third party to monitor us. Sending you the program now," and he did

just that. "You can also tell the captain that we have direct evidence of tampering; a shorted-out panel from our generator from the nav shields," he continued.

 

Hok said, "I have it, thank you. Lieutenant, are you saying the tampering is on our own ship?" Randall answered, "No, Ensign, the method used to hack into our data stream from the probes caused a transtator feedback into the panel, thus shorting it out. Randall out." He heard Hok say, "Understood," and sat back, satisfied they had done all they could do to help the bridge for now.

 

He then looked over to his friend. "How's it looking, Jeff?" he asked, and Michaels smiled, giving him a thumbs-up. "So far, so good, John," he said. "No evidence of tampering or data loss at the present time." John nodded, and said, "Keep an eye on it for me. Send me your tricorder data on the panel you guys found. I want to run an analysis, and see if I can pinpoint anything that might help us figure out where the tampering was coming from. A set of coordinates, or something." Michaels nodded, plugged his tricorder into his station, and sent the data to John's terminal.

 

The assistant chief engineer began the task of breaking down the tricorder data. A thought occurred to him, and he looked over to where Ensign Susan Maloney was working. "Ensign Maloney, your assistance, please," he said, and the pretty blonde ensign came over to him. He handed her the shorted-out panel. "Run an analysis on this panel for me, please," he said. "I know you have some expertise at this sort of thing." "Of course, sir," she said, smiling at him, and he nodded. She went back to her station with the panel, and he resumed his tricorder analysis.

 

A little while later, he suddenly grunted in triumph, and ran back the analysis program, zooming in on a data string that was decidedly not Starfleet. He then began the task of separating the data, and, a few moments later, had two separate blocks of data. He immediately sent the alien data block to the science station on the bridge, and alerted Ensign Derrick Sabin that this should be the data they were looking for. He recommended that the science officer translate the data block using the universal translator program at the science station. Sabin acknowledged him, and John cut the transmission. He sat back in his chair, pleased with the events that had just occurred.

 

END LOG