JP by Pax and Elli-Navine
Following the events of TBR#014
1147 words

Toran was an engineer, had been all his career. Pax had been an engineer in a number their lifetimes. So when the chance came to look at data that an alien computer had been gathering for the better part of a mega year he had pulled rank and dragged it off to a private lab that sat just off the main computer monitoring room. He had sent a message to his Chief Engineer, Elli-Navine as he had gotten himself situated. He wasn’t really expecting her to arrive for a while, ship time was just shy of 4am.

He had found that the small device housed a database store almost equal to the science computer. Terrabytes of information, he had no idea where to start!

As he studied it, Elli showed up in uniform; although sans jacket, she did sport a golden colored woolen sleeping wrap around her horns— when she’d slept without it, she’d inadvertently speared far too many pillows.

“Captain? Did you need some assistance?”

He smiled “You didn’t need to come until your shift started Elli” he glanced up at her at this point and frowned, spotting the wrap. His face worked as he tried to keep himself from asking questions.. or worse grinning.

“It’s alright. I was feeling a little restless anyway.” She looked over the data that Pax had the computer working on and nibbled her lip in thought, bending a knuckle to rest her chin on. “Still no key pathway or execution file?”

Deciding it would be best to ignore the towel he turned back to the console before him. “I do think that i have found an interface that should unlock the data inside.” he was staring at a stream of numbers and letters as they scrawled down the screen. “There” he paused the stream and pointed at a line “It seems that this here is the key to it. It isn’t so much as a password but rather a frequency and intensity of a power input we need to use.” He glanced at her, “And nether is a ‘normal’ for us. We’re gonna have to build an interface.”

With a moment of contemplation, Elli regarded the frequencies, turning the model and breaking apart the various strings that composed the stream. She took down the requirements in a separate file and then walked that backwards to implement a computer model for a transformer unit. “Just need to set a magnetic resonance…” She muttered as the computer redrew each component when she fiddled with the settings. “I’ve got the frequencies accounted for, if you can determine the intensity necessary…”

Pax smiled as he allowed her to work. She was gifted engineer and more than likely would have gotten this done without him. It was only his privilege as Captain that allowed him to be a part of the process.
He ran a few simulations and messed with the variables. “its a range” he said “Between 0.01 and 0.051, but” he frowned “Oh” he muttered.

Elli leaned in to see whatever it was Pax had discovered. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Yeah, it needs it needs to be within a tolerance of 0.001 otherwise it wont work.” he glanced at her, “Not only fail to work but would result in the fusing of the memory resulting in the destruction of the data!”

She grimaced. “While we’re probably going to get it working this way, it doesn’t seem very robust as a measure of ensuring your civilization’s information gets passed on safely. My guess is this wasn’t how it was intended to be unlocked.”

“I agree, but i can’t see any other way to unlock the data.” He was a gifted Engineer, but he had also been a Captain of a starship for a very long time, his skills might be a little rusty, not out of date just rusty… At least that’s what he assured himself. “Suggestions are most welcome Elli”

“Well, the chip gives everyone who touches it a telepathic contact, right? My guess is they must assume most other races are telepaths the same way we might take for granted that most people see and hear. I’m betting they must have intended some portion of the access controls to be telepathically engaged with. We can get around that, but if we woke up one of the Betazoid crewers, they might just be able to think their way through the welcome settings.”

Toron frowned and pursed his lips, “Okay, that makes sense” he pressed a few other buttons, running a new scan. “Ah, well there you go” he said once the computer had run the scan. “Telepathic circuitry, not something we normally scan for” he gave his Chief Engineer a broad smile. “Good job you’re here” turning back “You are right, we couldn’t fake a signal either. I wonder if there would be a test to open it?”

“A test?” She suppressed a giggle “Like, a pop quiz for math? Or one of those little boxes where you have to find all of the shuttle craft?”

Shaking his head “No, I rather feel that it would be more questions, maybe even just a mental hello” he raised his hands before him, “Did you know that Pax and other symbiotic communicate using electrical waves, its a little known fact but joined Trill gain a kind of touch telepathy?”

With a tilt of her head Elli considered.” I didn’t know that, but it makes a lot of sense. That’s essentially what all brain signals are doing. I just never studied much in the way of bio electrical fields.”

“Few engineers do” he said “We enjoy machinery more. However” he reached out and took hold of the chip, he focused and concentrated allowing what telepathic abilities he had to come to the forefront. Nothing happened. “Nope, guess it needs a stronger telepathic link than i can provide.” he was wishing his former XO was still aboard. “I am hesitant to bring anyone with a lower clearance into this. I have no idea whats on it, or even how it will effect another mind” but then there was little other choice. “What do you think?”

“I think…” Elli put her chin in her hand and fiddled with an old necklace charm as she thought. “We should have Doctor Artopolis devise a way to amplify and integrate your bio electric signals with the telepathic patterning required, as well as include a ‘circuit breaker’ in case there’s an incompatibility that will affect you, Sir.”

“That might work” he said “There should be some research on the subject already. Feel like paying the doc a visit” he glanced over at her “Maybe give it a few hours though. Call me in when you have a plan or a prototype?”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him when he gets on shift.” Elli yawned and stretched. “Doctor Artopolis is cranky when you interrupt his beauty sleep…”