"The Gravity of Software Problems"

[Vex Xiang 0]

"The Gravity of Software Problems"

 

 

 

The doors to the bridge turbolift on the USS Excalibur swished open and a tall, darkhaired science lieutenant emerged. He walked purposefully to the aft science terminal where Xiang floated, a perplexed look on his delpin face.

 

"You called for me, sir?" Lt Copper asked.

 

Xiang turned to meet his look and pointed with a fin to the screen. "Greetings, Lt Copper. I require your assistance."

 

Copper simply nodded and turned to the monitor. A very complex three dimensional map was displayed. There were thousands of tiny red dots of varying shades from dark maroon to bright pink. Each was moving along its own thin line, which at first glance was just a large jumble of web-like lines indistinct. It took him a moment, but he realized that this was a local stellar chart displaying off of the large bodies. Perhaps the shades indicated the size or density...or even gravitational force of each object, he couldn't be sure. But the entire map was rotating, turning the map into an indistinct mess. He couldn't imagine how Xiang could make sense of any of it.

 

"I am attempting to run a thermographic scan of this region here," Xiang explained as he pointed with a thin tenticle from the tip of his left fin, "but the sensor arrays refuse to accept my gravitational distortion algorithms. In the past my algorithm has allowed thermographs to be coorelated to gravity fields, but for an unkown reason my program is no longer working."

 

Copper took a moment to study the large list of data that was slowly scrolling by on the screen below the map. He squinted at the tiny font and nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

 

"It's the new sensor protocals," he finally said, "while you were away we upgraded several of our sensor arrays to some new configurations. All the LCARS sensor software had to be changed. The problem is that your program isn't configuring the sensor arrays correctly and its misaligned. See?" Copper tapped the panel, which entered a mole into Xiang's software file. The program instantly began to reprogram itself.

 

"I'm afraid you got back just too quickly for anyone to be able to update you on our upgrades. By the time anyone knew you had arrived we were already in the mission briefing room and getting ready to board the ships."

 

Xiang rolled slightly. "I see. Fascinating. What is this small program you have editted my file with?"

 

"It's a software mole. I programmed it myself. Sir you left so suddenly that when we made the upgrades, we didn't have any notes to any of your algorithms. I wrote a mole program that would reconfigure your software to match our new system protocals, but it's only worked on 60% of them or so. We tried contacting you but we couldn't reach you."

 

"Indeed," Xiang admitted apologetically, "I was detained on Delpi 5 for a family gathering. It is required every 30 years. A very private matter, Lieutenant, you can understand." Xiang looked back at the screen. The little dots were shifting in color. A small cluster of them were changing from shades of red, to shades of green. Though Copper didn't understand what that meant, Xiang's reaction seemed to confirm that his mole had worked.

 

"This is an extremely complex bit of programming, Lieutenant," Xiang commended him.

 

"Thank you, sir."

 

With that Copper was gone and Xiang was free to return to studying his map.

 

The USS San Fransisco was only a few billion kilometers away. No doubt they had also picked up the large gravity well emitting from directly ahead, because their orientation had changed to provide a clear sensor path.

 

As the Excalibur drew nearer, Xiang's program filtered out the heavy distortions that both the high proximity of asteroids was creating, as well as that from the gravity well. It appeared that there were several artificial generators attached to the asteroids that were creating these fields.

 

Fascinating, he thought. What possible purpose could these have. And what did it have to do with their mission against the San Fransisco?

 

Xiang brought up a list of historical accounts regarding the use of these devices in order to come up with a preliminary theory. Whatever they were, he was sure that the Excalibur was supposed to find out before the San Fransisco.