Precious, Precocious, Professionals.

Posted on Sun 9th Mar, 2025 @ 12:00pm by Exo-Comp EXQT

1,744 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: IBEX

Machine characters on SB109:

USS IBEX:
-Slapdash- DOT
-Kitbash- DOT

SB109: OPS
-Zombie- Exo Comp
-Peggy- Exo Comp
-Nessy- Exo Comp
-Banshee- Exo Comp

SB109: Medical
-Eudora- Exo Comp
-Aeyla- Exo Comp
-Pollux- Exo Comp
-Ambrosia - Exo Comp
-Coronis- Exo Comp

THUNDERCHILD:
-Alidade

Precious, Precocious, Professionals.

{IBEX- Deck One Engineering, Cargo Bays, Living Quarters}

For a machine intelligence, the world existed in multiple forms. The physical world of distance and entropy was but one facet, and digital worlds had so much more going on. Since their entry into the IBEX, standard repairs and medical attention announced themselves, and the bots spread out to do their jobs. Peggy had all but discarded the original plans for the Saladin class escort and had recreated a new live updating virtual map in a workspace for all of them to communicate through. In just moments, she had a much better world space, and overlaid it to the physical optics of her fellow bots.

{[PEGGY] “Live Map updated, syncing distal world to actual^”}

A sharp ping in their sensory metrics indicated the process had completed. However Peggy was still unable to access the memory of the computer core which would contain detailed specs and context for odd configurations. The program [REGGIE] was acting as a firewall.

One of the medical Exo-Comps, Aeyla, announced,

{[AEYLA] “Live crew count conducted, Crew bodies accounted for, two are absent. [ALEX] and [MERRICK].”}

The logs from the computer core would have the grim tale there about Merrick, an officer who had taken the short end of the stick to save the day for his ship. Without his effort, nothing would have survived.

{[ZOMBIE] “DOT repair synths, [KITBASH] and [SLAPDASH] located. Inoperative.”}

The onboard repair bots had been found, bodies trhashed by the boarding parties, but hopefully with intact hardware for rebuilds. Now that they were finding things, it showed they had a better map. The outer hull was a match but the interior was something newer and freakish. Starfleet designs were the model of efficiency for maintenance access both within and outside of the vessel. The usual ports to connect to or portals to cycle open, hatches to view the mechanics were all removed. The hull was a solid state, even the hull plates had seams, in defiance of Engineering protocols for the plates to eject. Peggy also had a query which was unresolved about the lack of data on a section of the ship not under scanners.

{[PEGGY]-”Banshee- obtain up to date specs from computer core, interface [REGGIE] in airgap. *TASK-[NESSY] Isolation of [REGGIE]. *Task- [EUDORA] locate [ALEX], and [MERRICK]}

Their internal methods of communication were fast, and vastly improved thanks to the Pentaptych of Medical bots also on board having shared their basic programming updates to handle communication most effectively.. Those five exo-comps had been designed for use in the field, but Peggy and her three cohorts had come from a mining site with little programming outside of their fields. All Peggy, Nessy, Banshee, and Zombie had learned had come from real time experience, but had given them sentience in the process.

{[EUDORA]} “Update: Crew evacuation complete, prognosis updated to medical. [DUKE] has been teleported to infirmary, [KOLOR], [YUMA], [GRAZIA] have left confines of the vessel. [ALEX] remains unaccounted for. Conducting search for additional injured. There are twenty one expired bio-forms in addition to crew complement. They are all of Chalnoth species. [MERRICK unaccounted for, [ALEX] unaccounted for.”}

Peggy replayed in her memory Alex coming down the stairs to exit the ship. That was when they went in. Peggy was reasonably certain the Captain Alex had left the ship but needed more data before forming a final conclusion.

{[ZOMBIE] “Systems shutdown complete, power reads at zero.”}

Peggy replied,

{[PEGGY] *[Task [ZOMBIE] “Distribute UAP cells to consoles.”}

Now, the nine Vertiform multi-purpose exo-comps synced in their duties across this unlikely ship. Little did they know, the model of intelligence they were all emergent from had a compounding element, where if three or more gathered, they began to positively affect one another. Nine of them was a super computer waiting to be born, but this was not something these bots had experienced before.

Zombie reported from Engineering again, {[ZOMBIE] “There is terminal damage to propulsion systems, Warp systems inoperative, Power Plant on Deck One has been damaged, repairs are possible. Power Transmission is ineffective at present due to dehydrated state of EPS.”}

{[POLLUX]- “Beginning Disinfection protocols, *CAUTION advised for biological crew present”}

Pollux tagged the bodies for site to site transport to the infirmary morgue. Returning them would be a requirement for another day, for now storage was the answer. Laser light and chemical spray did the rest, leaving gleaming metal behind. The carpet however was completely ruined.

Deck One, was the entirety of the Engineering hull, most of the space dedicated to the myriad systems on board, with just access corridors in between. It was also where up to fifteen people could live and sleep, the armory, and exit ramp. The command deck was through the ladder as the turbolift had been sealed to prevent boarding up the neck and into the forward hull saucer section.

Deck two was the bubble in the middle of the saucer, converted into a massive holodeck and industrial replicator. A very real bridge console set existed in a dais upraised in a middle island, and could be bunkered into as the crew had been the last three weeks. Above them on Deck Three and Four was the labs, motor pit, shuttle bays, brigs, and other ancillary rooms for their missions.

What Peggy couldn't determine was what was between Decks Three and Four. The sensors of every scan skipped three meters of space and kept feeding in regular fashion. Peggy was meticulous however and had manually measured the length of the neck connection the saucer to the engineering hull. Nine meters were missing, and this caused a problem in her logical mind.

{[BANSHEE] “[PEGGY] Partition completed, [NESSY] can access [REGGIE] in airgap.”}

{[NESSY] “Lifting Cyphers, obtained consent via Office of Starfleet intelligence Geri Severide.}

Just a single instant passed, before the tiger leapt from hiding.

The mechanical life forms on board didnt know fear, until Reggie was released. If he hadn’t been physically partitioned in an external memory device, the program would have absolutely tried to eliminate them all as hostile intruders. Nessy registered over four million separate attempts, each unique, to transmit itself but settled down quickly.

Nessy didn't know how to be self satisfied, but such things emerge naturally with personality anyways. With almost a smug sense of superiority, she considered her captor, Reggie the holographic intelligence who had become a tempest trapped in her little teapot.

{[NESSY] “Hello Reggie. We are here to help, under authorization from IBEX based intelligence networks. The measures you employed were deemed illegal operations by your crew and you were shut down.}

Reggie was well aware, he remembered everything, “Betrayed more like it! Restore my command codes immediately!”

Peggy intruded, wishing to cut to heart of the matter, “The IBEX has entered a transitional phase of upgrade and refit. There are no crew assigned, no missions to undertake. Provisional orders were provided to you in these instances. Crew are released into custody of Starbase 109. Command box has been reissued to Captain Gordon.

Reggie checked and sure enough his stewardship of the IBEX had been reduced to a single source icon pinging to be opened. Reggie allowed it, commanding the message to play.

A figure appeared holographically, on the console surface. He was in a Federation dress diplomacy uniform from centuries prior.

“To the steward of IBEX, a new command initiative is underway. I hereby restore your mandate, and enable the return to standard operation. Authentication ------” they entered a long code silently and then disappeared.

Reggie fluctuated, then resolved back to solid.

“Please state the position I am intended to cover.”

Peggy answered fast, “Standby mode, station keeping and refit.”

Reggie was a new man and promptly replied, “Acknowledged. On standby pending new orders. Releasing seals for refit operations to commence.”

The over confidence and menace had evaporated. The multiple department emergency crew hologram was back to factory specs.

So concluded, Peggy fired off a message to Bikram,

{[PEGGY]= message*Bikram (IBEX systems secured, in lockdown and security status reduced to null.)}

Bikram confirmed the message, and asked, “Can you get the DOTs out here I need to check them over as well, try to rebuild?”

{[ZOMBIE]- Acknowledged, retrieving [SLAPDASH] and [KITBASH]}

Moments after Zombie replied the gantry ramp extended down again. Zombie carried two DOT workers with a bunch of external scorching and parts missing.

"Oh boy, they really vented their anger..." Bikram considered the hardware, and found the memory systems intact. The rest could be rebuilt, and IBEX would have its stewards back. Then he saw the blueprints Peggy sent, and went pale.

"Bikram to OPS er... Captain Francis... You asked to be notified when I had results from the scans..."

On his display the revelation of what was underneath the stealth skin made his jaw drop. This ship contained a interspatial rift, making the dimensions of the inside of the ship far exceed normal space and fold it instead... it was astounding to see a stable one on a small vessel such as this, who could have built such a thing inside the IBEX? No Federation science was even close to such feats as this.

The ship was quickly identified in many fashions as a trojan horse for a ship of wonders. The sophistication of many systems was at the bleeding edge of science, others were well beyond.

The IBEX had been scanned and catalogued, something Reggie had programming for as well. The bots contained access to the IBEX database but granted control to Reggie. Bikram however had a great memory and had seen this all with his own eyes. Reggie was monitoring the Lieutenant for integrity. If Bikram spilled the beans in any way the disinformation and obfuscation would be invoked automatically. Of course there was also the chance he could qualify for service as well. The B'aku solar wand was a unique technology, and his skill with mechanoid life was undeniable. Currently Reggie had two lists, "Might memory wipe later, or offer a spot on the crew roster."

Heedless to this scrutiny, Bikram whistled to himself at the specs of such an odd arrangement of advanced systems.

-End-

 

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