Of Mice and Men
Posted on Tue Jun 5th, 2018 @ 11:19am by Captain Akiva ben-Avram & Captain Mrazak & Lieutenant Colonel Storr Garlake & Lieutenant Commander Kiril Nevin & Lieutenant Commander BaoJun Qiao & Lieutenant Nevada McKay M.D. & Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos & Ferrofax & Lieutenant Commander Kazyah Linn
5,455 words; about a 27 minute read
Mission:
S1E1: Bynars Be Bygones
Location: Strategic Operations Conference Room, USS Phantom
Timeline: MD 6; 2200
Mrazak strummed his fingers on the round tabletop, his mind deep in thought. The multi-faceted story he had just heard was rather fantastical, which appealed to him, but it was also logical--a little too logical--which did not appeal to him.
"Let me get this straight," he said. Looking at Nevin, he narrowed his eyes. "After you autopsied the Bynar corpses, you treated Sergeant Kos for injuries sustained in a fight with this man--" Mrazak paused just long enough to point at Kazyah. "--which was halted by the timely intervention of Colonel Garlake." He gave Storr a nod to emphasize his proper pronunciation. "Who then failed to mention it before running off with Lieutenant Qiao to retrieve this man--" More finger pointing, this time at Akiva. "--and then proceeded to bring him into our classified investigation, during which he notified Kos' assailant--" Another finger pointed at Kaz. "--and advised him of our location, resulting in us all being here."
Mrazak cleared his throat before continuing. "Meanwhile, despite the best efforts of my onboard VI and my first officer, my ship was infiltrated by no other than operatives from Section 31 with the aid of our traitorous pilot, who nearly died when he was backstabbed in turn and nearly blown to smithereens by an explosion prevented only by the intervention of my first officer who transported an explosive device away from the infirmary to E/V control, which is why it is so uncomfortably warm in here!"
Looking at Nevin, Storr, Akiva, and Kazyah, the Vulcan scowled at each in turn. "Correct me on any pertinent point, because from where I'm sitting, I own all of you to a man, body and katra."
"I uh..." Nevin cleared his throat. He wasn't quite sure what to say.
Kaz leaned forward, "In my defense, Mrazak, your reputation proceeds you. And let's just say, I had prepared myself to kill you to save this damn machine." The man gave an apologetic look to his friend, Akiva, but didn't relinquish his point.
"That is a terrible defense if I ever heard one," Mrazak scoffed. He turned to Storr. "And you..." The glare was partially hidden by narrowed eyes. "I think now we've seen how the tables have turned."
The Marine Lieutenant Colonel simply met the Vulcan's gaze with equal aplomb. No words were exchanged, simply a winnowing stare between the two men that was only interrupted by the sudden appearance of the ship's AI high above their heads.
"Wheeee!!" went Janus as her holographic avatar again drifted down from where it phased through the ceiling, to where it exited the floor. It was hard to say if her holographic spatial stabilizers were working fine, or if she enjoyed the wandering life.
"Janus!" Mrazak pounded the table with his fist. "I am never leaving you in command again!"
The unsightly outburst from a Vulcan made Akiva cringe. "What kind of ship is this?" he asked. "You hound us one moment, then shout at holograms the next. I was told you could help me get my daughter back, but if we're just going to play games..."
He tossed a cautious look toward Storr. Their reunion had been cut short by BaoJun's explanation from Biynah, but it was still good to see the man. In truth, Storr was the only reason he had come to this meeting. After what he had seen in the Praxis, the last place he wanted to be was in the clutches of shadowy agencies.
"I assure you, ben-Avram, this is not a game." Mrazak leaned forward to fix the man with a hard stare. "I just want everyone to understand how incredibly gracious I am for letting this quagmire continue, for I am well within my rights to lock you all away and forget your names." He looked at the others, and decided he was unimpressed. Bynaus seemed to be the place where several Starfleet careers had come to die.
"Actually, you have nothing on me," Akiva said. "So, unless you can prove yourself helpful, my next stop will be with the JAG investigator who is already hot on your heels. What was his name again, Kaz?"
"Captain Pron," Kaz said, tapping at the table when he said it.
Mrazak very nearly pouted. "Very well." He turned to Nevin. "Assemble the team. It seems we need to have a meeting about all of this."
"Aren't we already having a meeting?" Nevin asked.
"I meant a bigger meeting!" Mrazak snapped. "With everyone. Make it so."
The goldshirt Security officer stood at attention. He had never pulled Brig duty before; in fact, he was little more than a secretary with a phaser assigned to keep up duty logs. But now that the Phantom held a prisoner, he stared directly at the wall so as to avoid eye contact. What little he knew of predators told him that would be bad.
His Prisoner how ever had almost no intention of speaking, As The Short, well built human Lay sprawled out on the Bunk. Survival was her only Objective at the moment, And survival dictated she comply with The ships proper masters.
A hologram appeared in the middle of the room, featuring Mrazak from the bust up. "I understand that you wish to betray your comrades." Mrazak cut straight to the point. "The potential uses I have for you are plain and obvious. What I wish to know is why I should trust you. From where I sit, that would make you a traitor twice over."
"First and foremost….commander I Never was A traitor To Starfleet," Nevada said calmly, having taken a moment to assess his rank. "I Certainly Pushed a boundary In science and technology that the Federation Was Afraid to push, and would have had to face the consequences of my actions At Elba II, But I Never once Committed Treason," she said firmly closing her eyes and laying back on the bunk. "Of Course when Section 31 Hijacked a prison transport My options for survival were…limited to say the least but I had every intention of throwing them under the Proverbial Shuttle."
She shifted slightly so she was facing away from him. "My Research is Unorthodox yes…pushing the boundaries of Legality, absolutely, but My Loyalties Lie to the Survival of Starfleet," she shuddered. "I'd happily execute all of S31 to Ensure the federation Survives….especially that Damned Perverted bastard Hightower."
Mrazak arched a holographic eyebrow. "I had my suspicions, but never before had anyone named. As it stands, your story checks out." He rubbed his chin in quick calculation. "I'm going to trust you, McKay, but only as far as I can throw you." The hologram shifted to the goldshirt. "Brig officer, release her."
The interim Brig officer balked at the order. "Release her?!"
"Did I stutter, Chief?"
"No, sir," the goldshirt said with an ardent shake of his head. He deactivated the force-field with a dainty press of his hand, then lurched back as if Nevada would bite.
Nevada blinked slightly at the exchange before smirking. "Relax…I'm just a Doctor," she said slowly, her motions deliberately slow and nonthreatening.
Mrazak cleared his throat. "You will follow the illuminated path to the turbolift, then subsequently to my location. Deviate from it, and there will be consequences."
"Is there a Replicator there?" she asked staring at his Image. "As you Can imagine its been a rough day for me and I'd appreciate a Cup of coffee," she says as she starts to walk.
The hologram winked away without reply. And the goldshirt, now alone in every sense with Nevada, ran away without another word.
Meanwhile, in the infirmary, the recently activated EMH was putting the finishing touches on scolding Rodi.
"It is illogical that you persisted in a course of action which exacerbated your injury. Take more care in the future." The holographic Vulcan set Rodi's arm into a sling, then injected him with a hypospray. "This should catalyze the production of your osseous tissue regeneration. Do not move your limb for the next 2 to 6 hours, or until the stiffness in the joint has abated."
Rodi grunted as he put the sling around his neck. He was at the edge of the door, "Computer, end program."
The EMH sighed as his hologram faded to oblivion.
=/\="Sergeant Kos, please report to the Strategic Operations Conference Room."=/\=
Sitting in the Phantom's Vault on Deck Four, Biynah reached out to the barrier surrounding the vessel. She had to use a softer touch than before, as her previous attempt at hacking the system was not unlike touching a statue only for it to come alive. The ship's computer had a supplemental intelligence installed to it that was highly unexpected. It was a virtual intelligence, perhaps not unlike her own prenatal form some time ago. She let go of her sensory self and reached out to Janus with a digital olive branch.
"I'm sorry for that--I did not intend to overwhelm your holographic subroutines." That she was trying to eavesdrop on the closed meeting with her father and Mrazak remained unsaid.
"It's nice of you to say so, but I am a non-sentient virtual intelligence that has somehow gained the ability to run a passable Turing viable application process," the little green pyramid spun in the air and glowed red. "I'd gloat if I wasn't a collection of preprogrammed responses."
Bao chuckled. "It might be wiser not to attempt to try that again, meiniu."
"Yes! Because we are not a terrible quasi-official Federation capture/kill squad with next to no governmental oversight!" Janus added, going for the Klingon investigatory tactic of Bad Cop, Homicidal Deranged Mad Cop. ((Anthropological note: this tactic has the added benefit among Klingons of not having the least clue as to which cop is the mad cop.))
Biynah inclined in her head, letting her hair cascade over one shoulder. "Who would program a virtual intelligence to behave like a Klingon interrogator? I am made of questions." Looking to Bao, she said, "Perhaps you should deactivate her."
Janus let out an electronic trill and zipped around the room like an emerald comet, before peeking up and over Bao’s shoulder.
“You heard the mechanoid threaten me!” Janus bleated, before turning a sullen campfire red and bristling with spikes. “KIll it, kill it with fire!”
Bao let out a sigh that could be interpreted as long-suffering. "Meiniu, I am going to pretend you did not ask me that," he said. Mrazak was on the ship. That's all one needed to know to expect ridiculous shenanigans apparently. "Janus," he added, "I don't think that was properly construed as a threat, and it is not becoming for a disembodied holographic AI to cower in fear."
"This is not who you are," Biynah said as she slowly stretched out her hand to Janus' holographic projection. "This does not define you." Eyes closed, Biynah reached out beyond the light form to the primordial realm of digital code and rebooted Janus' programming subroutines. "You know who you are."
For a second Janus was nothing more than a dissociated cloud of green and red pixels, their glistering edges held together by flicking streams of machine-readable code. Then with a snap, they folded back together into a hexagonal sphere, its faces flickering from red to green.
"Welcome to the Bajoran Department Of Tourism, I am Janus your friendly Virtual Intelligence guide." This stream of preprogrammed thought came out in a pulse of binary code, given the Janus VI data kernel was designed to deliver information in a locally accessible format. It was a selling feature for the software, along with a winning simulated personality, and the ability to hold up to one billion preprogrammed sayings. Citadel Computer rated the VI as 9/10 for reliability.
Biynah smiled. "She's better now."
The Lagashi was about to respond, but his badge chirped instead.
=/\="Lieutenant Qiao, please report to the Strategic Operations Conference Room."=/\=
Once the calls were made, Mrazak ordered the strat-ops conference room door unlocked and awaited everyone else's arrival.
Nevin walked in, immediately taken aback to see that the blind Romulan man was already sitting in the room. In silence, he walked forward and took a seat, his eyes glued to the individual.
"Stop staring at me," Kaz said, not turning to look at the man.
"Sorry," Nevin said, his cheeks turning bright red with embarrassment at having been caught. Turns out even blind men could see.
Lieutenant Qiao entered the room shortly afterward and took a seat, rather aware that he knew a total of approximately 4 of the people in the room, 5 if he counted ben-Avram and even then it was more of 'acquainted with' then actually knowing. Besides which, he really needed a good sleep. Defiant-class vessels were notoriously sub-par when it came to comfort.
With a quick sidestep to the mess, Rodi appeared in the meeting carrying a big cup of coffee. He scanned the room as soon as the doors closed. He gave Kaz an annoyed glance before seating himself with a corner at his back.
The Door Slid open admitting the Short Well built Female into the Room, her eyes darting about as she scanned for The Vulcan Who'd Interrogated her. "Ca…Commander?" she asked correcting herself before she Promoted him. She Strutted in like she owned the ship, her steps sure and Proud despite the fact that She was for all intents and purposes an unwelcome guest. "Doctor Lieutenant Nevada Reporting as Requested."
Mrazak nodded at the latecomer and pointed her to a seat at the roundtable. Though she was technically a traitor, her story had checked out, and what Mrazak was about to suggest would land them all firmly on the wrong side of the law. If they got caught, of course. Regarding each one with a pensive gaze, he assessed the augmented team before him. And that's when he realized that was what they had to become. A team.
"We have a predicament," Mrazak said, breaking the silence. "It's not customary for us to include outsiders in our operations, but what we're about to do is outside our protocols. We're going to save Bynaus, whether or not it wants to be saved." He let those cryptic words hang in the air, then turned to Bao. "Lieutenant, please share your findings with the rest of the team. What exactly are we up against?"
Bao did the mental equivalent of raising his brows, but otherwise tried not to let on his surprise at Mrazak's pronouncement. "From my contact with the Bynars and the android Biynah, we know the following: a group of Bynars travelled to Bynaus with the android. En route, the android showed the Bynars how to convert their processing to a quantum basis, which they did. From what I can infer, this change ought to have been challenging but manageable. The results as they have unfolded were not foreseen or anticipated by either the Bynars or Biynah. The android has also implied that there was some incident that interfered with her original intent. I am inclined to believe that whatever event happened was outside the control of the Bynars and android. As of yet, I have had insufficient time to request information or assistance from Commander Ben-Avram to ascertain the nature of the event. Without that knowledge, I cannot make any commentary on the nature of the problem to be overcome, except that the shift from binary to quantum processing appears to be permanent, irreversible, and spread by contact, meaning Bynaus must adapt or it will likely perish."
"Well, now is as good a time as any," Kaz said, turning to his friend. "Akiva?"
Rodi meanwhile sighed internally, looking into his now empty coffee cup and wanting some more.
When all eyes fell on him, Akiva resisted the urge to cringe and shrink back. He had come to Bynaus to find aid for Biynah, and even if this wasn't what he had had in mind, he knew Ha'Shem worked in mysterious ways. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he said, "When I designed Biynah, she was just a virtual intelligence not unlike the one I've observed on board this ship. I didn't want to just create another android... I wanted a true sentient being, which meant free will, sensory experience, and self-determination. The quantum subprocessor inside her neural net required a small team of engineers to make my dream come true." His eyes lit with excitement as he recalled the development process. He smiled as he continued, "The coolant system alone required its own power cell. And then the molecular motors to fabricate her synth-flesh at the cellular level, just like an organic..."
He cut himself off, realizing that the rabbit trail was leading away from the point. "At any rate, I gave her only two directives on which to build: honor me and learn everything. Her curiosity is insatiable. When Biynah's original scheduled transport was accosted by Ferengi marauders and a Bynar transport uncharacteristically allowed passage, I thought it would be a great learning experience. I never expected this." He put his face in his hands to clear his mind for a moment. When they fell, his eyes were red but dry. A touch of anger singed his voice. "I don't know who these Ferengi are, but Ambassador Hannok is in collusion with them. He had a couple of Bynar officials murdered. I saw it with my own eyes... as it were."
His viewing from the Praxis counted as an eyewitness account. Or would it?
"Lurk." Mrazak's timbre matched Akiva's own, though it was saturated in contempt and disdain. "I knew that old toad was ambitious, but... destabilizing an entire planet? By the stars, how did he manage to pull this off?"
Akiva grimaced with confusion. "Lurk? Who's that?"
"Lurk is..." Kaz trailed off, his fingers tapping the table as he was clearly thinking of the best way to answer. "Lurk is honestly one of the worst Ferengi. He is vile and old and he puts his reputation and his thirst for power above his need for profit. He is difficult to control and manipulate, as much as we've tried."
Mrazak pounded the table. "He is a menace! Even Ferenginar doesn't want him, which leaves him the rest of the galaxy to pilfer and pillage. And he perhaps has a grudge against me... after last time." The Vulcan swept the room with a sheepish roll of his eyes before clearing his throat. "If the Black Nagus organization has its claws in this crisis, then all bets are off."
"Where does Biynah fit into this?" Akiva interjected.
"This is about more than just your bath'pa android, Commander." Mounting frustration spread across Mrazak's face. "While it has indeed catalyzed some sort of metamorphosis within the Bynar population, it is almost certainly a decoy phenomenon to obscure the boldest cyber-attack the Federation has ever faced."
The doors parted, allowing a newcomer. "Why not both?" All heads turned to see Biynah enter the briefing. She looked upward at the ceiling camera. "Thank you, Janus."
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Janus's new hologrpahic orb flared with colours as it spoke, but it was not Janus's voice but a somber male voice speaking in reverent tones.
"That was the opening stanza of The Raven, by the Earth poet Edgar Allen Poe. If you are interested in this, and other literary masterpieces you to can collect the entire set on isolinear chips for just 4 strips of gold pressed latinum!" Janus' cheery voice replied.
The scowl on Mrazak's face deepened. Not only was he interrupted, but it was with a non sequitur.
"That will be all." As Biynah walked to Akiva's chair, she dismissed Janus' hologram with a flick of the wrist. Her eyes never left Mrazak.
"Yediydah!" Akiva scolded. "What are--"
"Abba." Biynah stopped in place and stared. "Let me speak. Please."
Akiva considered the impropriety of the request along with the absurdity of the situation. Perhaps it was crazy enough to help in light of the looming catastrophe. "Very well."
"I'm in charge here," Mrazak said, "and I will not be interrupted by--"
Biynah lowered her head as though thinking, though her voice soon filled the room. A slight tinny sound modulated her tone as it came through the room's comm system.
"Time is of the essence, and there is much you do not know." Head still bowed, Biynah still spoke remotely through the ship's systems. The holographic display above the table even came to life and began to provide visual aids. "When I first encountered the Bynars, they were fascinating beings who seemed far more like me than anyone I had encountered before. As the transport vessel began its trek, the Bynars seemed equally fascinated by me. I showed them quantum ontology, opened their cybernetic systems to non-binary processes, like a new horizon."
Images of twin Bynars being paired and separated into individuals flashed through the holographic display. They formed a rainbow population of distinct people no longer bound by binary orientation.
She raised her head, looking first to Akiva, then Mrazak, and then the rest. "But then I found the malignant code," Biynah said quietly from her own flesh-like lips. "It began in a solitary Bynar whose mate was presumed dead. That was why he was alone on the transport; he was returning to Bynaus to be paired with another mate. Instead, what had happened is that the Black Nagus, whom you name Lurk, had the second mate abducted. Using the latent peer connection, he was able to establish a backdoor link directly to the master computer which bypassed the system's security firewalls and heuristics."
Unconvinced, Mrazak took the opportunity to interrupt. "Though antiquated in many ways, Bynaus remains one of the preeminent centers of computer security in the Federation. Surely their internal mainframe would be harder to compromise than that."
Biynah shook her head. "Not when it already isolated the perceived source of data corruption. With myself unknowingly serving as a false flag, the Black Nagus virus has been able to insert itself directly into the master computer. My new friends will remain unaffected once it has finished propagating, but I do not have to tell you what can happen if the system collapses under the strain."
The holographic display shifted as the lights of the Dyson swarm around the dark star of the Beta Magellan system winked out. Orbiting planetary bodies slowly began to sink into the singularity like sand through a sieve. The accretion disk eventually absorbed the lone star, shrouding the entire sector in darkness.
"What strain is that?" Akiva asked. The emotion of the moment had been set aside as his analytical mind chewed on the problem set before them. "Are you preventing the virus from infecting the entire system?"
"No, and yes." Biynah jostled her head as she considered the matter. "The virus cannot overwrite me, and therefore I am immune. Quantum run-times are also immune, meaning that all those Bynars quarantined in the hangar are like white-blood cells staving off sepsis. But the strain on the system is like a fever. The system is straining to orient and correct itself, but is prevented from doing so." Pausing for effect, Biynah emphatically added, "I can make it so."
"I uh..." Nevin leaned forward, clearing his throat. "Am I the only one a bit confused right now?"
Across from him, Kaz rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.
Bao looked at Nevin and Biynah as he processed. "The virus is designed to propagate along binary systems, and quantum systems are immune to the effect. So, to make an analogy, if the Nagus virus is Malaria, then the quantum conversion is analogous to having the sickle-cell trait in that it confers immunity but has potential drawbacks of its own. Do I follow you sufficiently, Mei Nu? What rate would the Bynars have to convert to quantum ontology to contain and reverse the effects of the virus? Ideally, a cultural change like this would percolate and integrate over a noticeable period of time. The cultural upheaval would be massive if we were to brute force spread it through the population overnight, so to speak. We're talking about the computer system failing under the strain of the virus, but causing the social system to collapse to save it would lead to the same end result."
While Bao spoke, Akiva arched his eyebrows in deep thought, attempting to reconcile the Lagashi's warning with his daughter's grandeur claim. Skepticism overtook his face as he spoke to Biynah. "How can you correct the Bynars' network without triggering the same cataclysm as Lieutenant Qiao described?"
"Simple," Biynah boasted with a knowing grin. "I need to enter the master computer's mainframe. From there I can upgrade the system from its core, which would only offer the potential for individual Bynars to transcend binary orientation while still providing systemic immunity to the Black Nagus virus."
"We must destroy Bynar to save it..." Storr murmured, his fingers tracing the five-day stubble on his chin. It seemed both a ludicrious yet necessary statement.
Mrazak strummed his fingers across the tabletop like a muted musical instrument. The android's proposal was indeed a bold one; potentially catastrophic, but no less than letting events take their natural course. And, he silently admitted to himself with a sly smirk, it gave him access to the very thing which had compelled him to bring a full team to Bynaus.
"It's settled then," the Vulcan said, indifferent to whether or not he was interrupting anyone. "We enter the mainframe, let the android reboot it, help ourselves to any data of interest, and everybody goes home happy."
Akiva blinked in slow, deliberate eye movements. Illegal things were very unsettling to him. Still... "And just how do you propose we do that?"
"Simple." Mrazak adopted Biynah's selfsame grin. "Your android will do it. It clearly has a way with computers, and I happen to know the ambassador contains emergency clearance. We'll go to his office, extort or otherwise persuade him into supplying his access codes, and then reset the master computer with this theoretical quantum upgrade." Turning to Biynah, he added, "Or did you have something else in mind?"
Biynah pursed her lips in vexed consideration. "No," she admitted eventually. Even reluctantly.
Smugly satisfied that he had retaken the upper hand, Mrazak looked to the rest of his team. "Any other questions?"
"How much do we know about the embassy's security, will we need to force entry, and will we need to defend a position against attackers?" Rodi asked, knowing these factors would decide the gear he brought with.
Mrazak shook his head. "Force shouldn't be necessary, although I will sanction its use in order to accomplish our mission."
That was his cue, whether Mrazak meant it to be or not. Storr stood, walking the short distance to the antiquated whiteboard that hung on the wall opposite the entrance door that may or may not have been placed there by him for this exact situation. Taking several colors of markers from his fatigue pants he began drawing figures, making annotations and delineating duties. While he normally gave WARNOs (Warning Order) to tactical members, he was no stranger to adapting them to a more general audience. They weren't always hostile but the Afrikan was hoping for at least a neutral reception.
"Alright, here's our OOB...order of battle," he spelled out, catching himself. Acronyms were ingrained into the substrate of his world and it was like a fish to water in that he didn't always realize when they were being used. Jaya had reminded him more than once after a sentence composed nearly completely with the time-saving verbal devices had been uttered that he needed to get out more. If this is what she meant, he would have to respectfully disagree.
"One, Situation. Enemy Forces: Unknown. Potential Black Nagus troops with energy whips, disruptors or phasers; Infected Bynars with hidden subroutines to defend the mainframe. Disposition, strength, composition, capabilities and MLCOA...most likely course of action would be to protect the mainframe at all costs via ad-hoc small unit tactics. No friendly forces in the area for reinforcement/resupply." Taking a breath, he continued his markings and diagrammed out two trees. "Two, Mission. Upgrade the Bynar Mainframe to quantum computing in order to fend off Ferengi cyber infiltration. Team One: The Face Team is Mrazak, Nevada, and Nevin. You will enter the Embassy through the landing pad directly to the ambassador's office. Confront Hannok and obtain his Special Access Program for direct mainframe access for the team. Method is... of your choosing, just make sure that he can still speak in order to relay the codes." His lip curled slightly at the thought though he turned back to the board to hide his simultaneous exuberance/revulsion.
"Team Two: Infiltration Team. This is a two-pronged team with cyber and fire support, the former being Akiva, Bao, Biynah, Isaac, and Janus while the latter is Kaz, Rodi, and myself. The cyber team will enter the Praxis to hit the reset button on the mainframe and end the mission. The fire team supports the cyber team in the event they face physical opposition or encounter the Ferengi marauders allied with the turncoat ambassador. While we are to defend with extreme prejudice, we must also remember that more bodies mean more evidence, something that no IG can ignore for long."
Quickly surveying the faces at the table, Garlake realized that he only had a few more moments before he began losing everyone in the minutia. It was a fine balance...too much detail meant you were tuned out, too little and people died for want of critical information. The briefer's Sword of Damocles indeed. He turned back to the board for some last furtive marking.
"Three: Execution. We ride discretion and violence of action. Too much of the former and we are unable to make it to the core before sufficient forces mass to its defense. Too much of the latter and we risk not acquiring the codes, destroying the core, or illuminating our presence to those who do not need to know at this juncture. I leave it to the Team Commanders to further brief METT...conditions and procedures." Storr thought it best to skip Command/Signal and Service/Support and turned to face the audience.
"Questions?"
Mrazak blinked several times in rapid succession as he assimilated Storr's barrage of information. While it all made sense to him, he knew very little about tactical strategy. That left him in the uncomfortable position of being unable to disagree or provide correction. He had little choice to defer to Garlake's recommendation, especially since that sycophant sergeant turned out to be such a disappointment with his head shoved so far up the colonel's--
"Ben-Avram," Mrazak said, interrupting his own thoughts. "It seems our interests are aligned, and the colonel vouches for you. As the administrator of Memory Theta, I name you infiltration team commander." It was unorthodox, to be sure, but Mrazak could tell the Hebron wanted to get the android to the master computer core almost as much as he did. And, he noted with no small satisfaction, it would keep him from granting Garlake too much authority.
"What?!" Akiva gulped at the thought. He had been on away missions before, some of which he'd led, but nothing like this. "I don't think that's a good idea." His eyes scanned the room until they fell on Kaz. "I defer to Kazyah Linn. He has extensive experience in... this kind of thing. He's your man."
Kaz smiled with a slightly shrug, "I'm flattered. And if I were being honest, I'd tell you that I'm the best man for the job. Not like I haven't built an entire career around this exact type of operation."
Not an altogether unexpected turn. It also provided an extra degree of indemnity and deniability in the event the operation turned south. Not to mention Garlake would be unlikely to protest overmuch. Mrazak smirked. "Very well. Assemble your gear, everyone. And someone get that confounded VI back to its normal settings. We have data to mine and a civilization to... not destroy."
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