Voices In The Ether

Posted on 27 Oct 2013 @ 8:14am by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & Lieutenant JG Tykhin Vess & Warrant Officer Vernon Banks

703 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2 - Main Computer Core
Timeline: MD 03 - 1140 hrs

[ON]

Tykhin stifled a yawn as he walked around the corner on Deck 2. He saw a crewman guarding the door to the Computer Core.

"...Banks?" he asked, eyes narrowed slightly, remembering. He walked up and held out a hand. "Glad you made it," sincerely.

With his rifle in his hands and his eyes diligently scanning the corridors for any signs of Borg movements towards the door he currently guarded, Vernon was a bit surprised to see a shortish intelligence officer turn the corner and approach him. The man looked strangely familiar, and when he identified Vernon by his last name, he suddenly realized he was also a member of Venture's crew. He gave the man a curt nod and slung his weapon over his shoulder, then returned the handshake. "Likewise. Good to see you again, sir."

"Glad to see you're up for duty, they need you here. Anyone else on your team make it?"

Willis came from another direction and stopped next to the two men. "Hello sirs. Anyone find the pub yet?"

Tykhin looked over at the man approaching. "If I had, I'd be five beers deep, Chief. Tykhin Vess," he said, holding out his hand. "And you're Chief Willis, right? Just the man I was looking for."

"Shit, I'd love a beer right now too..." Vernon mumbled to himself with a mental chuckle. Maybe he could pour a 40 ounce bottle over the next drone he bagged and tagged.

"Yes, Sir. I am he." replied Willis, "and hell yeah a Beer would be good!"

Tykhin chuckled. "Well, I know you've probably got your hands full, but... I don't know if any other ship ever had such close contact with the Borg for so long. While they're here, they must be getting control signals from the cube. All that traffic going back and forth... If someone who knew computers was able to use that huge volume of traffic and analyze it..." Tykhin raised an eyebrow. "Imagine the advantage we'd have if you cracked their communications protocols. Now imagine if you cracked their command protocols..."

Willis grinned from ear to ear. "Yes sir it would." he set his phaser down and began to access the nearest console. "Give me a minute or two and I should have something. Quinn had me set up a back door into the computer core's main tertiary processor for just such an instance. I thought he was crazy....well., he is crazy."

Tykhin smiled and was inwardly relieved. This was the first good response he had all day. "That sounds promising," he said while Willis set to work. Tykhin raised a querying eyebrow in Banks' direction. "I'm not a field man, but I bet whatever Willis' analysis would give you what you need to tune some ECCM transmitters. I doubt those drones fight well without command and control signals... And would give you something to do while it's quiet?"

Vernon wasn't sure if it was exactly a good idea to attempt to mess with the Borg who were currently on the ship. Galileo had been purposefully spared certain destruction and was under orders from the Borg hierarchy to not resist, and he couldn't think of any good which would come from tampering with them. Ultimately, however, it wasn't really his place to approve or reject the idea, and so he lightly shrugged in reply. "You'd have to talk to Lieutenant Rhodes about that first and clear it with him. I'm under orders to protect the computer core until further notice." he simply replied. Though he appeared to just be standing around, being on guard duty demanded full concentration despite the lackadaisical appearance.

"I'll run it past him," Tykhin promised. "And I'll leave you both to it. Willis, let me know if you have any luck."

Vernon gave the gray-collared man a brief nod, then tucked the butt of his rifle under his armpit and resumed his diligent computer core-watching.

"Aye, Sir." Willis answered.

[OFF]

--

LTJG Tykhin Vess
Intelligence Officer
USS Venture

WO Vernon Banks
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo
PNPC Lirha Saalm

Senior Chief Petty Officer Arthur Willis
Engineering Computer Specialist
USS Galileo
PNPC Markum Quinn

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