Post 291: If You Direct Your Attention to. . .

Stardate:70707.1700
Title: If You Direct Your Attention to the Center Ring. . .
Author: Zanh Liis
Scene: Bridge, USS Independence
Time: Following: Tug of War and Working With Others
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Captain Gilmore didn't say a word to anyone as he exited the bridge. Zanh Liis seemed to exhale in relief the moment that he was gone, an involuntary reaction that didn't get by Reece.

"What'sa matter, Liissy? Did you take the car out last night without Dad's permission?" Dabin whispered in her ear as they set to work. "He looked ticked."

"Never you mind, fun boy. Just dig into my malfunctioning computer core and translate some error messages for me. Holodecks should have started logging them as soon as the trouble began."

"Happy to help. I'll get out my secret agent decoder ring and get right on that for ya, Wrinkles."

Hearing Reece dub her with yet another nickname, she had the terrifying thought that perhaps she was paying, once again in some karmic fashion, for branding the crew with their own as was her habit to do. Or perhaps for waking poor Biggs up on his morning off.

She swore to heaven and the stars in it that she was done pestering sweet little ensigns, especially those who were on R&R and suffering from hangovers. Maybe that would set the balance right and her day would start to improve.

"So who ya'll got stuck in there anywhere and is there any chance they're at least having a good time?" Reece asked as his hands adeptly worked the science station panel and pages and pages of error messages began to display themselves.

There were about half a dozen recurring number patterns, and Reece pointed out the most frequent of the lot. "Error 41042. Hm. That one isn't ringing any dingies in my head. I'll have to think on that a bit. Meanwhile I'll send this stuff down to engineering so they can start crunching the info in with what they've got."

"You don't want to know who all is stuck in that deck." Zanh sighed, answering the question he'd asked at last. "But suffice it to say that I'd like my senior staff back."

"Yikes. I bet you would. I bet Arthur Treacher would as well." Reece tilted his head toward the direction that Gilmore had left in.

"You have no idea." Zanh tapped her badge to get an update from the engineering staff. "Zanh to Xhian, how are you doing down there?"

[We continue working, Captain. We have been unable to remedy the situation yet as far as communications with the holodeck. The problem appears to be. .. complicated.]

"Well keep at it, and keep me posted."

[Captain, there is something else you should know. From what we have been able to determine from our latest scans, there are indications that the safety protocols on the decks may be off line, either intermittently or consistently.]

"Oh. Great. We're sending some new data down to you, concerning an error message we keep seeing. We're working that angle from up here, though, so just keep replacing all the burnt out equipment you come across until you hear otherwise from me. Zanh out."

She watched as Reece pointed to yet another screen filled with the same sequence of numbers.

"41042, what the?" she mumbled, leaning against the console. "This has got to be bad."

"Excuse me," an unfamiliar voice piped up. "Did you say "error 41042?" A man in a blue Starfleet Sciences uniform approached Zanh and she realized that she had no idea who he was.

"He said the secret word! Does he win a million bars of latinum?" Reece began humming a jaunty little tune and shook McKenna's hand enthusiastically. "That's right, Science dude I don't know! You've won an all expenses paid trip to the holodeck! No. . .wait."

"Reece, shush." Zanh tapped her index finger to his lips and he lunged forward, snapping his teeth as if he would bite.

She glared at him a moment before turning her full attention to the human male. "Have we met?" she asked him, thinking perhaps it was just lack of sleep showing up again and she should know who he was.

"Not yet, Zanh Liis, I've been waiting for the pleasure." The man stuck his hand out. "Lt. Commander Dave McKenna. Starfleet has sent me to speak with Captain Gilmore."

"Well you're welcome to be my guest, he's in the main conference room. Say, in fact, a word with you Lt. Commander?" she nodded to Reece. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back."

"I'll count the moments till you return, oh Captain my Captain!" Reece grinned, putting his hand to his heart. He did so enjoy tormenting her, because it was so easy to do. It'd been awhile since he'd had the chance, and he'd been saving up material for just an occasion like this.

Zanh led the way and McKenna followed her into the ready room. She brought up his personnel file on the computer, and analyzed it. "So, it's Dr. McKenna, is it. Your last posting before returning to Command was as ship's counselor of the Entropy. Is this correct?"

"Yes. Among other and varied duties there, Sir."

"Perfect. Do me a favor, will you please? While you do whatever it is you're here to do with Gilmore, I would like you to assess how he's adjusting to the idea of having the new cardiac implant unit. He was resistant to the idea of having it done at first." she folded her hands thoughtfully.

"He seems to be returning to his normal, grouchy self. But I want to be sure that it's not a 'new' grouchy, but the old grouchy that we all know and. . .deal with."

"Very well, Captain Zanh. Would you like a formal report?"

"No, no. Just an. . . unofficial professional opinion."

"Very well." He changed the topic now, curious about something. "I heard about Admiral Morris, and his mission to try to find Commander K'Raye," McKenna said softly. Tues K'Raye was well known and respected among her peers as one of the finest Counselors in all the fleet. "Have you had any news?"

"Sadly, no." Worry was plainly written on Zanh's face. "But in this case all we can do is hope that no news is good news."

Zanh stood up and returned to the main bridge with McKenna following. He realized that he'd forgotten to finish his earlier thought.

"Oh! You said that your system was giving an error message number of 41042?"

"Does that make any sense to you?"

"Unfortunately. I came by way of Bajor, and I need to ask you, have you been sharing any information with the Bajoran government's central database within the past 24 hours?"

"We've been doing so continually since the search and rescue missions began down on the planet," Zanh said, rubbing her aching temples. "Why?"

"Captain," McKenna drew a deep breath. "You're not going to like what I'm about to say."

"Well for the love of the wormhole, man, just say it already!" Reece demanded, realizing as he worked that this error 41042 had gone beyond the holodeck systems and was now into several other computer core branches including those controlling transporters, and the communications network.

"I'm afraid that the Independence's computer may be infected with a highly destructive virus."

"Originating from Bajor?"

"Yes."

"This virus was intentionally created, with malicious intent?"

"Very likely."

"Wonderful."

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Zanh Liis
Acting CO
USS Independence NCC-90791