Interlude – Tip of the Iceberg: Part 2
by Arrival Kaia & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC)
Post Details
OLD:
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 frstration 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.
New:
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 jsut tell the computer to find and replace all the versions of the misspelled name, it'll do that. But occationally, 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..."
***
"You're SURE the file you sent me wasn't edited?"
"Pretty sure. It's just the standard file. Nobody has received that award in a while, so it doesn't get updated very often. Why the concern?"
"It's just that I found an abberant line of code in the file at... crap, I can't remember... I saved over it, but you can find it in the original copy you've got. I think an entry may have been rewritten or deleted. The current list doesn't seem to connect to my suspect at all. but if there's evidence that the list was edited, I'd like to see if I can find out who the deleted entry was. Maybe someone was on that list that shouldn't have been, I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out."
"Well, I can look into it. I've got a lot of other things on my plate at the moment so it might take me a few days."
"Uncle Rupert, I really appreciate you doing this for me."
"Glad to help, John. You stay out of trouble, now."
"That's what I'm trying to do. Thanks again, and take care..."
Crewman Jennings was on duty when the next message arrived from his uncle. He had to wait several hours before he had the first opportunity to retreive the message. Even that was only during a quick break. Even before opening the mesage, he frowned at the fact there were no attached files.
"Hey John, your uncle Rupert here. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, things have been a bit strange around here. I haven't been able to confirm whether or not there was a deleted entry, a lot of folks, especially the flag brass, haven't been talking to me.
One person who did some work with TI said they remembered something about four years back regarding a UFP pip and the alpha mensae system. They weren't able to get me a name, and I couldn't find anything to connect that system to any of the existing entries. I did talk to some comp-sci friends of mine out here, and they confirmed your observation about the duplicate formatting. There's a good chance that there was a deleted entry.
I'm going to to some checking around here to make sure that whatever tampering was done to the file was legitimate. There's still the possible reason for this if someone was put on the list by mistake, or the medal was revoked, either way someone should have left a log of manipulating the file. I'll let you know if I come up with anything, hope you can find something a bit more useful on your end. Talk to you later. Your uncle, Rupert."
Jennings was dismayed at the block to progress, and carried out the rest of his shift in a bit of a preoccupied huff. The name of the system his uncle had given him echoed through his mind. This puzzle was developing more and more pieces at every turn. Part of him wanted to shrug it all off as coincidence and focus more on his assigned duties. This sideshow was begining to affect his work, and people were noticing.
When his shift ended, he skipped meeting up with his compatriots and instead headed for astrometrics. It took some time for him to get access, he didn't exactly have the pull to get himself ahead in the queue like so many seemed to have. The officers, NCOs, and civilians of prestige always seemed to get allotted the best time slots for the holodecks, astrometrics, and other station facilities. While he wasn't thrilled with his place in the pecking order, he knew that everybody had their own job to do.
As it stood, he had about five minutes of time with the astrometrics computer, but that would be plenty of time to do what he needed to do. When his time at astrometrics came up, he immediately looked up the location of the Alpha Mensae system.
"The neutral zone?" The crewman said aloud to an empty room. He sighed, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Another complication. He marked the location on a PADD and accessed the station's data file on the system. Again, he was met with a woefully insufficient amount of data.
"Blah blah blah... standard astrogeologic classifications... pre-romulan vulcan ruins... discovered by survey team prior to the war between Earth and Romulus...Wait... that's all? The last update was 230 years ago!? The federation barely existed then! Surely if something happened within the last four or five years someone would have a record of it-"
An astrometrics officer poked her head in the doorway. "Do you need some assistance, crewman?"
Jennings shook his head and downloaded the information he had looked p to a PADD. "No, thank you, I'm just thinking out loud. I'm finished here, thank you, ma'am." He saluted as he walked past the officer.
Once he was in the corridor, he stopped and leaned against a bulkhead to think for a few moments. "This situation is getting more and more strange... I'm not sure if I like it, but this trail has to lead somewhere. All of this can't just be a series of coincidences, it's just too bizarre... The neutral zone..."
Crewman Jennings looked up from his thoughts as an idea struck him. "Maybe someone does have a record of what happened there..."
"Possibly. There is only one person I know who could maybe help you out, but she is a long way from home at the moment. Visit Xenobiology, as for Kaia. If anyone knows how to help, she will." The astrometrics officer advised with a knowing grin and her head disappeared back from whence it came.
"Possibilities, there are always possibilities." Jennings smiled as he headed out.
Off
NPCs by Kaia
by Arrival Kaia & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC)
Post Details
| Title | Tip of the Iceberg: Part 2 | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Arrival Kaia & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) | |
| Posted | Tue Dec 21, 2010 @ 7:40pm | |
| Location | DS5 | |
| Timeline | SD 28 (Backpost) |
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 frstration 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.
New:
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 jsut tell the computer to find and replace all the versions of the misspelled name, it'll do that. But occationally, 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..."
***
"You're SURE the file you sent me wasn't edited?"
"Pretty sure. It's just the standard file. Nobody has received that award in a while, so it doesn't get updated very often. Why the concern?"
"It's just that I found an abberant line of code in the file at... crap, I can't remember... I saved over it, but you can find it in the original copy you've got. I think an entry may have been rewritten or deleted. The current list doesn't seem to connect to my suspect at all. but if there's evidence that the list was edited, I'd like to see if I can find out who the deleted entry was. Maybe someone was on that list that shouldn't have been, I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out."
"Well, I can look into it. I've got a lot of other things on my plate at the moment so it might take me a few days."
"Uncle Rupert, I really appreciate you doing this for me."
"Glad to help, John. You stay out of trouble, now."
"That's what I'm trying to do. Thanks again, and take care..."
Crewman Jennings was on duty when the next message arrived from his uncle. He had to wait several hours before he had the first opportunity to retreive the message. Even that was only during a quick break. Even before opening the mesage, he frowned at the fact there were no attached files.
"Hey John, your uncle Rupert here. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, things have been a bit strange around here. I haven't been able to confirm whether or not there was a deleted entry, a lot of folks, especially the flag brass, haven't been talking to me.
One person who did some work with TI said they remembered something about four years back regarding a UFP pip and the alpha mensae system. They weren't able to get me a name, and I couldn't find anything to connect that system to any of the existing entries. I did talk to some comp-sci friends of mine out here, and they confirmed your observation about the duplicate formatting. There's a good chance that there was a deleted entry.
I'm going to to some checking around here to make sure that whatever tampering was done to the file was legitimate. There's still the possible reason for this if someone was put on the list by mistake, or the medal was revoked, either way someone should have left a log of manipulating the file. I'll let you know if I come up with anything, hope you can find something a bit more useful on your end. Talk to you later. Your uncle, Rupert."
Jennings was dismayed at the block to progress, and carried out the rest of his shift in a bit of a preoccupied huff. The name of the system his uncle had given him echoed through his mind. This puzzle was developing more and more pieces at every turn. Part of him wanted to shrug it all off as coincidence and focus more on his assigned duties. This sideshow was begining to affect his work, and people were noticing.
When his shift ended, he skipped meeting up with his compatriots and instead headed for astrometrics. It took some time for him to get access, he didn't exactly have the pull to get himself ahead in the queue like so many seemed to have. The officers, NCOs, and civilians of prestige always seemed to get allotted the best time slots for the holodecks, astrometrics, and other station facilities. While he wasn't thrilled with his place in the pecking order, he knew that everybody had their own job to do.
As it stood, he had about five minutes of time with the astrometrics computer, but that would be plenty of time to do what he needed to do. When his time at astrometrics came up, he immediately looked up the location of the Alpha Mensae system.
"The neutral zone?" The crewman said aloud to an empty room. He sighed, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Another complication. He marked the location on a PADD and accessed the station's data file on the system. Again, he was met with a woefully insufficient amount of data.
"Blah blah blah... standard astrogeologic classifications... pre-romulan vulcan ruins... discovered by survey team prior to the war between Earth and Romulus...Wait... that's all? The last update was 230 years ago!? The federation barely existed then! Surely if something happened within the last four or five years someone would have a record of it-"
An astrometrics officer poked her head in the doorway. "Do you need some assistance, crewman?"
Jennings shook his head and downloaded the information he had looked p to a PADD. "No, thank you, I'm just thinking out loud. I'm finished here, thank you, ma'am." He saluted as he walked past the officer.
Once he was in the corridor, he stopped and leaned against a bulkhead to think for a few moments. "This situation is getting more and more strange... I'm not sure if I like it, but this trail has to lead somewhere. All of this can't just be a series of coincidences, it's just too bizarre... The neutral zone..."
Crewman Jennings looked up from his thoughts as an idea struck him. "Maybe someone does have a record of what happened there..."
"Possibly. There is only one person I know who could maybe help you out, but she is a long way from home at the moment. Visit Xenobiology, as for Kaia. If anyone knows how to help, she will." The astrometrics officer advised with a knowing grin and her head disappeared back from whence it came.
"Possibilities, there are always possibilities." Jennings smiled as he headed out.
Off
NPCs by Kaia