Shoring up the Defense

Posted on Fri 26th Jun, 2020 @ 9:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Andrew Eberstark & Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro & Lieutenant Commander Dallas Briggs

1,591 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Tactical Operations, Deck 1896
Timeline: MD 14, 1030

Andrew looked over the information presented on the various PADDs on his desk. He thought it best to lead with the security upgrades with Lieutenant Briggs and weave in the communications discussion with them and Commander Baro as opportunities presented themselves. To that end, he arranged the PADDs with the security bullet points on his left.

Before rearranging the PADDs for a third time, Andrew mercifully heard the door chime and answered, "Come in."

Baro entered with a smile, her arm mounted PADD in its usual place on her right arm as she carried a cup of coffee in her left, "How have you been Commander?" She asked finding a seat, glad not to be the last one. She always worried about being late.

Greeting the Commander as she entered, Andrew noticed the drink in her hand and decided she had the right idea. Moving to the replicator, he ordered a coffee and returned to his desk, "I've been busy as hell, as I'm sure you are as well," taking a sip of his coffee he added, "Good call on the coffee by the way."

Shifting the PADDs around on his desk after all, Andrew continued, "I appreciate you taking the time to meet. Perhaps we shouldn't get too far into the discussion without the Lieutenant but did you get a chance to review the general proposal?"

She nodded as she took a seat, "Yes some good ideas there, I think we can accommodate with a little fiddling."

The door chime rang again, this time it was Dallas Briggs. He was running later than he wanted to, it's just that he was overwhelmed with the Andorian Assassin and wanted him apprehended as soon as possible. Dallas waited at the door for someone to invite him in.

Andrew's eyes shifted from Baro to the door, "Hold that thought, if you don't mind. Come in."

A tall, muscular man with a well established tan entered the room. He had never formally met the two that were seated at the desk, but knew their faces and was familiar with the service records. “Commander, Commander.” He said as he greeted them, “Sorry, I’m late, did I miss anything?”

Andrew nodded, returning the greeting and motioned the Lieutenant to the empty seat next to Commander Baro, "No, you didn't. We were just beginning the discussion on the potential impacts this proposal will have with Operations. But why don't we start with your general thoughts on the Security side and we can go from there."

Alora nodded in agreement and settled herself in for a productive meeting, opening files on her PADD she'd want to reference later.

Dallas sat down hard in his seat, "I'm sorry Commander, I haven't had the chance to review the meeting notes before I came. I am dealing with an assassin, a very powerful one that is very elusive. Luckily, I have a Betazoid that's going to try and help me find him, but now I have to worry about her safety. She is very important to me and I have to give her space to do her work." Dallas sighed as he realized that he started dumping his problems on them without properly greeting them first, "I'm sorry, how are you two doing?"

Alora blinked "Well ok then." Then aloud she said, "I'm fine, and if equipment will help your problem please let me know. We techies are known to be creative at need." She offered getting a sense of a complex problem in light of the situation and the underlaying feelings that seemed to be involved.

Andrew shot a glance at Baro as she was speaking but otherwise remained still. As she finished, Andrew nodded, "Thank you, Commander," looking at both parties across from him, "This situation isn't ideal for anybody and we must look at both the issue at hand as well as the larger problems. I'm sure all of our departments are running ragged trying to balance our regular Star base duties while doing our best to keep up with this ever evolving pirate situation," pausing to let his words sink in, he also wanted to mention he was/is part of the investigation Briggs noted but thought better of it.

Continuing after a moment, "To that end, I think there's an opportunity here to hopefully get ahead of some of the tactics the pirates have been implementing. As you noted Lieutenant, interior security is just as important as the exterior threats to the Starbase. Part of the proposal suggests some redistributing of personnel to better monitor and protect vital systems of the Starbase. As we've just witnessed, and I take no pleasure admitting this, people have been able to circumvent our security and systems to cause chaos. I understand that this is a considerable effort considering your staff and priorities at the moment, but having bodies keeping an eye on vital areas of the Starbase more often reduces the possibility of infiltration and us relying on our instruments to alert us to an issue."

"I'm not entirely sure what you mean by our systems being circumvented to cause chaos, our systems are secure and have never been more safe from intruders." Dallas said, "I may not have been here very long, but I can see the type of security that is protecting the key systems."

Pausing to respond diplomatically, Andrew noted, "That was not meant as an insult Lieutenant. There were some instances of breaches in our security in our past, not to mention the recent events going on on the Starbase. Looking back at that history and our current situation, even if we think our defenses are adequate, I think it would be prudent to at least look into options that could potentially improve upon our current routine, if only for combating the current Pirate threat."

Dallas nodded in understanding as the conversation shifted.

"Continuing on that thought," he turned to look at Commander Baro, "I think, if possible, dedicating some more of the Station's power to potentially build-in backup security or monitoring systems to ensure our sensitive areas/information aren't hacked is a good way to augment our Security teams. This obviously would require us to draw some power from some of the other less relevant systems, which would be temporary of course. I had some thoughts on some potential systems which are noted in the proposal that could be toned back to achieve our goal."

Baro glanced up from studying the PADD, "These are solid suggestions but there are a few problems with drawing from sections 43A and 22C because of tertiary draws from 456F and 43C2 so I've modified your list and widened it a bit more so the draws from each are even less. Any idea how long you'll need this set up for?" She asked curiously.

Andrew glanced down at the PADD to visualize her summary and nodded, "Good catch. That makes sense to me. Appreciate the look over," He made a few inputs on his own PADD to note and accept the changes and leaned back in his chair he sighed, "As for the length of time, ideally what I would like is for us to install these changes and see which ones prove sustainable in the long term," he clarified, "By no means are we looking to reinvent the wheel or step on anybody's toes but if we see something works with little to no downside, I would suggest keeping it. Although, it is ultimately yours and the Commodore's call. At the very least, until this pirate situation has been resolved I would say."

Alora nodded pleased she could help make this needed item more effective. After a moment she continued,
"Well these changes are possible to maintain indefinitely, especially if we keep an eye on its practical effects on power and adjust as needed. Ultimately, if it's something you'll want to use for any real length of time I could work on an Albric shunt assembly to add to the comm power network. It can be made power independent like Intel systems on other commands but also has an internal redundancy." She glanced at the others, "I've been reviewing ways with ops to make our systems, both hardware and software, more secure." She thought to explain. She did not want hackers or terrorists messing with her beloved equipment and harming the people that equipment was meant to protect, "and a few of the specialization courses have been intel related." She shrugged a little sheepishly, "May be a bit overkill for your purposes though. At the very least I can suggest you have it be labeled a vital system by Ops." She offered.

Andrew shook his head in approval, "Agreed. I'll make that request in the near future. As for the timing, I would say begin working on the shunt assembly and I'll add that to the overarching proposal to the Commodore."

Tapping the necessary commands onto his PADD, Andrew looked to both officers across from him and gave a satisfied nod, "Thank you both for taking the time to hash out the details," glancing to Baro, "I also was thinking about a proposal regarding dedicating some resources to hacking nearby pirate communications but we can discuss at a later date."

As Briggs and Baro left his office, Andrew collected his thoughts for a few moments before getting back to work and putting the finishing touches on the proposal for his meeting with the Commodore. To nobody, he said aloud, "Now the hard part begins."

 

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