Interlude – Tip of the Iceberg: Part 1
by Arrival Kaia & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC)
Post Details
Old:
=^="Sir, yes sir. I'll be there right away. Jennings out."
He looked at the silver pip one more time before putting it and the other medals back into the power cell casing of the chessboard. He squeezed the cover back on and set the game back in its original place before hurriedly slipping the replicated power cell in a pocket, running out, and locking the door behind him.
NEW:
It had been quite some time since the crewman had conducted the search of the civilian's quarters, but what he had discovered there continued to nag him. Something seemed out of place with the whole situation. If the medals were real, one would have expected their keeper to have a bit more respect for them. Most people he knew with medals at least kept them in a protective case, if not on display. If the medals were fake, perhaps in a similar manner to costume jewelry for the holodeck or whatnot, you'd think an informal box might be in order.
But the medals he found...they had been deliberately hidden. Having never encountered something like that in his life, let alone his brief career with Starfleet, he couldn't help ut wonder what sort of person would act like that. On another level, he also had to wonder that if it wasn't a characteristic of the individual, what sort of situation would drive a normal person to hide medals like that.
Whatever the reason, something didn't sit right. Formally, his part in the investigation was over. He hadn't been given any information other that which berth to search and that's what he did. It was his own curiosity and gut feeling that drove him to follow up on his own.
Being a crewman for the security department, he had a low level security clearance. It was easy enough to access the civilian Kaia's station records, but they were utterly uninformative. She had been indicted on some kind of restricted technology charges, which he figured involved his search somehow, but there had been no conviction due to lack of evidence.
Jennings figured the medals technically weren't restricted technology. It's not as though this civilian was trying to pass herself off as a war hero or something. Quite the opposite. Rather than collecting credit where it was not due, she was hiding it from perhaps where it should be. If the situation was that she was hiding medals that belonged to someone else, Jennings wanted to return them to their proper owner. But first, he would have to figure out if there was the proper owner. There would be no sense in bothering the department into conducting a full investigation if it turned out to be costume jewelry.
As such, the formal channels were going to be unhelpful. Regardless, he needed proof, and he had some idea where to start....
"Computer, begin recording."
The computer chimed it's acknowledgement.
"Dear Uncle Rupert,
I hope the weather in San Francisco is treating you well. I guess it's getting into the dog awful hot days of summer. I've been in deep space so long that I almost miss it... heh heh, almost...
I'm sending you this missive because of a little investigation I've got going on. If you're able, could you send me a list of all the people to whom Starfleet has ever given a United Federation of Planets commendation pip? I think someone here on the station may have a counterfeit one, but I want to make sure there's some evidence for it before I go throwing around accusations.
Anyway, give aunt May my best. Hope to hear from you soon!
your nephew,
John
Computer, end message. Address to Lieutenant Commander Rupert Jennings, San Francisco Starfleet Archives. Send message."
Crewman Jenning's PADD bleeped at him, signalling an incoming message. He waved to the other crewman getting off duty as he turned into his bunk. "Hey guys, I've got a message from home, I'll catch up to you later at the mess hall!"
They waved him on as he took out his PADD and hooked in a set of headphones for some privacy. He pulled up the message and smiled. It had been a day or two since he sent his message to San Francisco, and he had received a timely response from his uncle.
"Hey Johnie, sounds like you're getting by alright out there in deep space. It's been too long since I talked to you or your folks last, I'm actually a full commander as of three months ago. You'll find the list of recipients attached. Considering the number of them that died in the line of duty when they earned it, you've always got the possibility that they inherited it from someone. I like that you're avoiding being reckless with your investigation, keep up the good work and let me know if I can help you out with anything else. don't be a stranger, and let me know the next time you'll be back on earth for a spell. Take care, your uncle Rupert."
The crewman smiled at the family sentiment and lost himself in a moment of nostalgia before accessing the file his uncle had sent. there before him was the list of names. The highest of the high, those who had single handedly saved the federation. Kirk was on here, and Sisko, even though nobody really knew if Sisko was actually dead or just MIA. Still, this list contained all those souls crewmen like himself dreamed of being when they enlisted.
As he spent more and more time looking at the names on the list, he retrieved another PADD and began cross listing the awards with dates and locations. He quickly skimmed over most of the names, looking for anything that appeared to have some connection with any of the points in Kaia's file.
Of all things, there was a single hit. Some officer aboard DS5 itself was awarded the UFP five years ago. Sadly, that was two years before Kaia ever set foot near it. At least, he presumed. Technically, the DS5 officer died a year before Kaia even appeared on the grid. The bottom of her file began with her arrival on Starbase 11 four years ago. It didn't seem like a close enough connection.
Jennings began scanning the list backwards, from most recent to least, a bit more carefully. Line by line, he couldn't find anything as he scrolled up. There was a brief delay in the file as he continued to peruse. he thought nothing of it at first, untill he had gone over the entire list four or five times. The delay was becoming more and more noticeable, and more and more annoying.
He tried to quash his growing frustration at his task by momentarily taking up a new one. He closed the file and instead opened it up a with a code editing program. He scanned the file entries listing each name along with the file formatting. Curiously, as he peered through the code, he found a duplicate formatting entry. He rolled his eyes at whatever careless coder accidentally wrote the errant lines of code and quickly fixed the problem.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him of the time. He closed the file again, set the two PADDs under his pillow and got up. The list of names continued to cycle through his mind as he continued trying to find any kind of connection. His frustration quickly melted away as he entered the mess hall. It was bustling with the shift change, but it looked as though there was still some real food to be had.
As he finished getting his food, his friends waved him over to where they were sitting. He sighed as he set his tray down and joined them.
"Hey Jennings, why the long face? Bad news from home?"
"Nah," he replied. "Just working on a pet project, hasn't been going well."
"Zat'so?" another friend replied. "What you got going on?"
"Just trying to line up some names with events and places and times and such. Though I"m wondering about the quality of the file I'm using. I opened up the code and found some duplicate formatting."
"Ohhh, I HATE that." Another friend interrupted, "Having worked in ops, let me tell you It's a nightmare when you have to update code with inheritance. It's far too easy to try and update an entry across a wide range of databases and have to go back through each and every database because of a glitch like that."
"Wait, say that again?" Jennings asked.
"Okay, say you're putting someone's name into a database, and say you spell that name wrong, but you don't find out till later. If that entry has been duplicated, like with copying files or something, it you just tell the computer to find and replace all the versions of the misspelled name, it'll do that. But occasionally, depending on the type of database, it'll leave all these little orphans of code that were attached to the original entry. If they build up they can really start slowing the system down, sometimes you have to go back through and individually delete-"
"WAIT." Jennings interrupted. "So you're saying that's not an error of writing code, but changing it?"
"Yeah, or deleting it..."
Jennings dropped his fork. "I'll be right back..."
TBC.....
NPCs by Kaia
by Arrival Kaia & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC)
Post Details
| Title | Tip of the Iceberg: Part 1 | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Arrival Kaia & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) | |
| Posted | Fri Dec 03, 2010 @ 11:41pm | |
| Location | DS5 | |
| Timeline | SD 28 (Backpost) |
=^="Sir, yes sir. I'll be there right away. Jennings out."
He looked at the silver pip one more time before putting it and the other medals back into the power cell casing of the chessboard. He squeezed the cover back on and set the game back in its original place before hurriedly slipping the replicated power cell in a pocket, running out, and locking the door behind him.
NEW:
It had been quite some time since the crewman had conducted the search of the civilian's quarters, but what he had discovered there continued to nag him. Something seemed out of place with the whole situation. If the medals were real, one would have expected their keeper to have a bit more respect for them. Most people he knew with medals at least kept them in a protective case, if not on display. If the medals were fake, perhaps in a similar manner to costume jewelry for the holodeck or whatnot, you'd think an informal box might be in order.
But the medals he found...they had been deliberately hidden. Having never encountered something like that in his life, let alone his brief career with Starfleet, he couldn't help ut wonder what sort of person would act like that. On another level, he also had to wonder that if it wasn't a characteristic of the individual, what sort of situation would drive a normal person to hide medals like that.
Whatever the reason, something didn't sit right. Formally, his part in the investigation was over. He hadn't been given any information other that which berth to search and that's what he did. It was his own curiosity and gut feeling that drove him to follow up on his own.
Being a crewman for the security department, he had a low level security clearance. It was easy enough to access the civilian Kaia's station records, but they were utterly uninformative. She had been indicted on some kind of restricted technology charges, which he figured involved his search somehow, but there had been no conviction due to lack of evidence.
Jennings figured the medals technically weren't restricted technology. It's not as though this civilian was trying to pass herself off as a war hero or something. Quite the opposite. Rather than collecting credit where it was not due, she was hiding it from perhaps where it should be. If the situation was that she was hiding medals that belonged to someone else, Jennings wanted to return them to their proper owner. But first, he would have to figure out if there was the proper owner. There would be no sense in bothering the department into conducting a full investigation if it turned out to be costume jewelry.
As such, the formal channels were going to be unhelpful. Regardless, he needed proof, and he had some idea where to start....
"Computer, begin recording."
The computer chimed it's acknowledgement.
"Dear Uncle Rupert,
I hope the weather in San Francisco is treating you well. I guess it's getting into the dog awful hot days of summer. I've been in deep space so long that I almost miss it... heh heh, almost...
I'm sending you this missive because of a little investigation I've got going on. If you're able, could you send me a list of all the people to whom Starfleet has ever given a United Federation of Planets commendation pip? I think someone here on the station may have a counterfeit one, but I want to make sure there's some evidence for it before I go throwing around accusations.
Anyway, give aunt May my best. Hope to hear from you soon!
your nephew,
John
Computer, end message. Address to Lieutenant Commander Rupert Jennings, San Francisco Starfleet Archives. Send message."
Crewman Jenning's PADD bleeped at him, signalling an incoming message. He waved to the other crewman getting off duty as he turned into his bunk. "Hey guys, I've got a message from home, I'll catch up to you later at the mess hall!"
They waved him on as he took out his PADD and hooked in a set of headphones for some privacy. He pulled up the message and smiled. It had been a day or two since he sent his message to San Francisco, and he had received a timely response from his uncle.
"Hey Johnie, sounds like you're getting by alright out there in deep space. It's been too long since I talked to you or your folks last, I'm actually a full commander as of three months ago. You'll find the list of recipients attached. Considering the number of them that died in the line of duty when they earned it, you've always got the possibility that they inherited it from someone. I like that you're avoiding being reckless with your investigation, keep up the good work and let me know if I can help you out with anything else. don't be a stranger, and let me know the next time you'll be back on earth for a spell. Take care, your uncle Rupert."
The crewman smiled at the family sentiment and lost himself in a moment of nostalgia before accessing the file his uncle had sent. there before him was the list of names. The highest of the high, those who had single handedly saved the federation. Kirk was on here, and Sisko, even though nobody really knew if Sisko was actually dead or just MIA. Still, this list contained all those souls crewmen like himself dreamed of being when they enlisted.
As he spent more and more time looking at the names on the list, he retrieved another PADD and began cross listing the awards with dates and locations. He quickly skimmed over most of the names, looking for anything that appeared to have some connection with any of the points in Kaia's file.
Of all things, there was a single hit. Some officer aboard DS5 itself was awarded the UFP five years ago. Sadly, that was two years before Kaia ever set foot near it. At least, he presumed. Technically, the DS5 officer died a year before Kaia even appeared on the grid. The bottom of her file began with her arrival on Starbase 11 four years ago. It didn't seem like a close enough connection.
Jennings began scanning the list backwards, from most recent to least, a bit more carefully. Line by line, he couldn't find anything as he scrolled up. There was a brief delay in the file as he continued to peruse. he thought nothing of it at first, untill he had gone over the entire list four or five times. The delay was becoming more and more noticeable, and more and more annoying.
He tried to quash his growing frustration at his task by momentarily taking up a new one. He closed the file and instead opened it up a with a code editing program. He scanned the file entries listing each name along with the file formatting. Curiously, as he peered through the code, he found a duplicate formatting entry. He rolled his eyes at whatever careless coder accidentally wrote the errant lines of code and quickly fixed the problem.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him of the time. He closed the file again, set the two PADDs under his pillow and got up. The list of names continued to cycle through his mind as he continued trying to find any kind of connection. His frustration quickly melted away as he entered the mess hall. It was bustling with the shift change, but it looked as though there was still some real food to be had.
As he finished getting his food, his friends waved him over to where they were sitting. He sighed as he set his tray down and joined them.
"Hey Jennings, why the long face? Bad news from home?"
"Nah," he replied. "Just working on a pet project, hasn't been going well."
"Zat'so?" another friend replied. "What you got going on?"
"Just trying to line up some names with events and places and times and such. Though I"m wondering about the quality of the file I'm using. I opened up the code and found some duplicate formatting."
"Ohhh, I HATE that." Another friend interrupted, "Having worked in ops, let me tell you It's a nightmare when you have to update code with inheritance. It's far too easy to try and update an entry across a wide range of databases and have to go back through each and every database because of a glitch like that."
"Wait, say that again?" Jennings asked.
"Okay, say you're putting someone's name into a database, and say you spell that name wrong, but you don't find out till later. If that entry has been duplicated, like with copying files or something, it you just tell the computer to find and replace all the versions of the misspelled name, it'll do that. But occasionally, depending on the type of database, it'll leave all these little orphans of code that were attached to the original entry. If they build up they can really start slowing the system down, sometimes you have to go back through and individually delete-"
"WAIT." Jennings interrupted. "So you're saying that's not an error of writing code, but changing it?"
"Yeah, or deleting it..."
Jennings dropped his fork. "I'll be right back..."
TBC.....
NPCs by Kaia