"I need an update, Mister Schmitt," the captain proclaimed as he strode into Engineering the following morning.
"Uh, yes sir," the head of Engineering seemed a bit distracted, "we've gotten almost all systems back online now. Jackson is still going through the code, which could take a very long time. There are millions of lines of code that make this ship function."
"But everything is back online already?"
"Nearly, sir. We worked through the night to get things back on track again."
"I sense a 'but' in there somewhere."
"Yes sir," Schmitt swallowed and thought about his next words. "If there is malicious code in our computers, then bringing the engines back up might have the same effect that it did before. Or maybe even some other systems. We just don't know at this point."
Jacks nodded, "you and your team get some rest. There's no immediate threat, and I think we can stay here for awhile longer. Just keep at it."
"Yes sir," his shoulders relaxed visibly at the thought of getting some sleep.
"Ms. Bines, Mr. Jackson," the captain called, "with me please."
Both of the IT personnel looked as haggard as the engineer had. He had no doubt that they had been working without a break as well. But he needed a little bit more information from them before he was willing to give them their well-deserved rest.
"I take it you haven't found the virus yet?" he asked when they were in the conference room.
"Oh we found it alright," Megan said confidently, "we're just not sure if it replicated itself first."
"And it didn't come form the outside," Jackson added, "I've been through the communications logs and couldn't find anything."
"So it was definitely an inside job."
"Correct, sir."
"Well hell. That's bad news." His gut clenched at the thought of one of his crew members being responsible for the sabotage.
"Why is that, sir? We know that we weren't hacked now."
Jacks stared intently at the two, "it's bad because the saboteur is still on the ship. Whoever they are, they can upload the virus again, or maybe something new this time."
"Not necessarily," Bines pointed out, "there were hundreds of technicians and workers in and out of the ship for months before we launched. It could have been one of them. It wouldn't have been too difficult for one of them to stick in a flash drive somewhere while they were doing their job.
"So what you're telling me is that other than having eliminated the possibility of having been hacked from the outside, we still don't know any more than we did yesterday."
"Yes sir."
"Okay, let's approach this from another angle," the captain began pacing, "have you determined precisely what this virus was supposed to do?"
"As far as we can tell," Megan began, "it was supposed to disable the power output controls on the reactor, causing unregulated power flow to the engines and overloading the reactor itself."
"So why didn't it work?"
"Well it did, just not to the extent that it was meant to. You had ordered all of our drive systems to engage, which sucked up a lot of the excess power that was being generated. But the physical circuits weren't able to handle the excess and burnt out, shutting down the reactor before it could go critical."
"So basic dumb luck saved us."
"I suppose so, yes sir."
"Okay, let's play a game," he was like a dog with a bone now, "let's pretend that you are the saboteur," he pointed to Jackson.
"Uh, no sir. I would never do anything like that!"
"Just pretend," he insisted, "what would be the best way to cripple or destroy this ship?"
"Well, sir, I think the reactor overload would have been the best way."
"Okay, so your first plan didn't work. What do you do now? Would you try the same tactic again, or would you move on to something else?"
Jackson stuttered for a moment, then decided, "I don't think I'd try the same thing twice. Fool me once and all that. So I'd find something else."
"Like what?"
"Uh," he was completely off balance, but determined to play along, "life support maybe?"
"Right," Jacks agreed, "no life support, no life. What else?"
"Contaminate the water supply?" Megan suggested.
"Nearly impossible to do, but still a valid target."
"It occurs to me," Bines said, "that as long as we're orbiting this planet, we're a lot less vulnerable than if we were out in space."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if I were the saboteur, I think that I'd wait to try again until we were well away from anything else. A planet or space station or whatever provides us with a lifeline. If life support failed right now, we'd just need to get to the surface of the planet and we'd be fine. But if it happened while we were in space, there's nowhere to run."
"You have a very devious mind," Jacks told her, "I like that."
"Thank you, sir?"
"I can't believe the captain agreed to this," Doctor Simental said, mostly because of the threat of a possible alien contagion.
Ted Baxter, the geologist, dropped his heavy cases, "Well I, for one, am absolutely thrilled to be here. I can't even imagine the things that we can discover here. We'll all be in line for Nobel prizes."
"If we ever get back to Earth," Max Penrose said, also setting his equipment cases down to rest.
"Well I agree with Doctor Baxter, " Indira Vasami said, "I can't wait to start cataloguing all of this new information. I think it might really begin to open our eyes about how little we really know about the universe we live in, and what might be living there"
"I just wish we didn't have to wear these damn environment suits," Penrose complained.
"Stop your whining, Max," Doctor Slivinski said, "they've got the shelters set up on the south pad. Let's get our equipment set up so we can start having some fun. Let's go."
The temporary prefab shelters looked like huge plastic half-pipes arranged to form a plus sign, with a larger dome in the middle connecting them all together. The entrance had an airlock that was used as a decontamination chamber as well. It hissed loudly as liquid was sprayed over them from three sides, supposedly washing away any contaminants.
"It's been so long since I've done any field work," Indira sighed happily, taking it all in.
"Field work," Max sneered, "is for interns and manual laborers."
"Well nobody ever accused you of doing any manual labor," Ted jibed, only half seriously.
"Isn't this why you signed up?" Slivinski asked, "to study parts of the universe that nobody else ever has before?"
"Well I didn't think I'd be doing it in a bloody tent!"
"Suck it up, Max," Indira laughed, "you're the only one here who's complaining."
Within an hour, with equipment only half assembled, the scientists were no longer able to contain their curiosity and suited up to go investigate the abandoned outpost. Slavinski tried to reign them in, but eventually gave in to their enthusiasm and let the herd roam free.
"What do you think this station was used for?" Indira idly asked.
"Processing Kree tax returns, no doubt," Max scoffed, "this place is probably a galactic IRS."
"That could still be interesting," she countered his negativity with a wry smile.
"I suppose. Shall we get started?"
By 'begin' he really meant 'continue'. They had already partially disassembled what they had determined to be a Kree computer terminal. Similar to the computers they were used to, it was basically a holographic projector that was the monitor, and input devices that could be analogous to a keyboard and mouse, though it might have had other uses.
"I'm going to try to figure out what powers this thing," he said as he opened a panel in the top of the desk.
"Are you sure that's wise?" she asked, "it could give you a shock."
"It's fine," he snapped, "I know what I'm doing."
"How can you..."
"Just let me do my work. Don't you anything to do besides lecturing me on my job?"
"Whatever you say, Doctor."
He had a multimeter out and ready, one lead in each hand. He considered the tangle of wires and conduits exposed by the panel, then boldly stuck them in at two calculated places.
He flew backwards with the sound of Velcro being ripped open, a light trail of smoke marking his five foot trajectory.
"Doctor," Indira yelled as she leapt down to check on him, but the suits made that difficult.
"On my way," the doc said through the radio, "what happened?"
"Doctor Penrose was electrocuted I think," she said as she stripped off her gloves.
"You think?"
"That's what it looked like," she unlatched his helmet and removed it, knowing that she was exposing both of them to possible contamination.
"Move," Jorge snapped as he arrived, taking her place next to the limp scientist.
Checking for a pulse, he relaxed visibly, "he's alive."
"Thank God."
Lifting one of his hands, the glove was partially melted around the fingers. Melted rubber hid much of the fingers on his right hand, which were an angry red an covered with blisters. Jorge took a spray bottle out of his medical bag and coated Max's hand in a clear liquid that bubbled when it touched this skin. His left hand looked much like the right, so that one got a coating as well.
