Welcome Aboard, Captain (Stardate: 53829.75)
It has been just over six hours since the intruder invaded the
USS Thunderchild and they are no closer to solving the mystery of who the intruder is then they were during the attack. Lieutenant Kinchlirah in all of her Klingon stubbornness refuses to accept neither the Computer's identification nor the acting Chief Medical Officer's DNA identification of the intruder. Lieutenant Kinchlirah claims that neither of those identified match her own eye witnessed account of the encounter. Due to this, Commander Bonham has granted her time to expand her own investigation in to who might be responsible for the attack.
While the ship's crew might not know who was behind the attack, it was clear what they were after. The intruder had managed to steal over 65 teraquads of seemingly random data from the ship's computer core. However thanks to the limited science department, they were able to swift through the data taken and verified that nearly half of the data stolen were all linked to Admiral Ross and his staff. Personal logs, official reports, and activities were all targeted by the intruder. The rest of the data all appeared to be random bits of data to cover up the true target of the intruder. Commander Bonham personally placed Lieutenant Paaleia, two other Vulcans in charge of rebuilding the worm in hopes of learning more about the intruder and her abilities.
The worm was impressive according to Lieutenant Paaleia. She said that had never seen anything quite like it. After its mission was complete, it self deleted its self. What made it so impressive was the skill used to mask its actions till it was too late for the ships own Computer Core to react to it. It was also highly advanced in its search algorithms as it was able to search massive number of memory blocks at once. It was twice as fast as the most advanced Starfleet search program. Sadly, this impressive worm was not able to be rebuilt fully. After six hours of work, Lieutenant Paaleia conceded that the most she and her team will be able to salvage was about one third of the worm. However this was more than enough to help identify the programmer who created the worm.
Thanks to the work of Lieutenant Paaleia and her team, two more virus were discovered in the ship's computer systems. One virus left the veteran Vulcan near speechless. It was a type of clone program that simulated normal computer functions while the entire system was hijacked. Regardless of what the crew commanded the computer to do, it only simulated the actions while the actual ship reacted to commands from elsewhere. This virus only survived for a few minutes till the ship's computer was able to identify it and neutralize the threat. However during that limited time, the Thunderchild had no control over her own helm, navigation or engines. This virus was clearly used to help the invader escape the ship on her terms.
The last virus was the one which took control over the transporters, internal sensors and internal communications. With controls of the transporters routed off the ship, the intruder or someone else was able to target select personal of the ship and transport them from where they were to another place on the ship. Using the ship's own sensors, the intruder or someone else was able to ensure that the Deck 8, Section 15 would remain clear of crewmembers while the data was stolen. This virus also allowed someone to monitor internal communications freely. Like the search worm, both of these viruses self destructed as well.
His team was able to figure out how the intruder was able to fool the ship's sensors and remain so close. They had used tethers and formed a direct link to the ship's sensor grid. As far as the ship was concerned, the little runabout was part of the Thunderchild. To fool crew members who might have been looking out a window or view port. The intruder ran cords of lighting along the haul of the runabout. These lights simulated stars whipping past while the ship was at warp. The intruder painted the runabout jet black and turned off all the running lights. While the ship wasn't cloaked, it was very hard to detect. A clever low tech way of over come a possible problem.
The only bit of good news was that no one was seriously injured during the attack aside from Cadet Madhev. However the young cadet's wounds were inflicted by her own shipmate. A fact that Commander Bonham was going to bring up to Ensign Faulknen regarding phaser combat in close spaces. Nonetheless, it was surprising that there were no major causalities. Not that Commander Bonham was complaining. Still, a lone intruder made his crew look like a ship full of second year cadets. This bothered his ego more than anything else. Searching for warp trails was equally upsetting and proving to be just as frustration. Based on scans, there were nine equally hard to find warp trails. Each had a variance that could mean it came from the real
USS Susquehanna. Each trail headed off towards major areas of space travel making tracking the trails at long distance much harder.
He simply didn't have the resources to follow all of them at the same time with the Thunderchild. If he commanded the Thunderchild off in the wrong direction he risked loosing what other trails as they dissipated. He decided to dispatch all four of his runabouts and all four warp capable shuttles to follow the numerous warp trails which were left behind by the intruder. As the scouts were deployed, he ordered the much faster Thunderchild to follow the most logical trail to its end. This bought them enough time to a hasty rendezvous with the
USS Intrepid so that the Captain and XO can come aboard. The commander hoped to have something to report to his new captain and XO. However his trail came up cold as they discovered the trail ended at a Class IX Long-Range Multimission Warp Probe. They had followed one of eight decoys.
Based on the specs of the
USS Susquehanna, the runabout was not capable of firing this model probe. Based on what they discovered with the probe, it was not launched via a normal torpedo launcher. This proved that the intruder could adapt to the limitations of what she had on hand. This made her even more dangerous. This was topped by the computer viruses and the personal sensor damping device. The technical knowledge of the intrude was clearly on par with the best minds he had aboard the ship. This fact seemed to discount the computer's identification.
Commander Bonham ran over the encounter, the more it was clear that this intruder was one step ahead of them. This bothered the commander greatly. Based on voice recording, she knew her way around the ship. Security protocols for their ship and more importantly, she knew the crew. It was clear that she was speaking with some unknown accomplice during the encounter. This person could have been operating the ship's systems during the encounter. Commander Bonham felt as if he was in a match of strategy, logic and tactics with a Vulcan.
An hour ago, two more reports from the scouts came back and they were disappointing. Two of his runabouts had discovered two more decoys. With three trails down, that only left six others to come back. 'Six' Commander Bonham thought. It seemed like such a small number, yet in this moment it seemed like a massive number. Commander Bonham stood in the transporter room waiting for their captain to beam aboard. "Six" he mumbled under his breath.
"Sir we are ready to beam them over" informed the transporter tech.
Commander Bonham nodded, "Energize."
With that command the transporter lit up and a single person beamed aboard. Commander Bonham was surprise to only see Captain Jackson F. Campbell and no First Officer. It had been just over a year since he had seen Captain Campbell . With all the honor and dignity of a Starfleet Officer, Commander Bonham stepped forward, "Welcome Aboard Sir!" He said loud enough for the crew in the hall to hear. "The USS Thunderchild awaits your command."
Narrator Note: Any Active Character in the game may make a post in this greeting thread including Captain Campbell.