Making Things Right (The Rise of I-402) (Part 1)
Posted on Thu Jan 30th, 2025 @ 7:18am by Captain Patricia Cooke & I-402 & Boso Gane & Oko Gane & Lieutenant Commander Tsukasa Izumi & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Nixon & Lieutenant Akira Kogami & Lieutenant Daisheliss "Lissa" Kerr
Edited on on Thu Jan 30th, 2025 @ 7:18am
1,620 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
I-402
Location: Starbase 72. Janus VI System
Once Admiral Soryuu had stepped off, Doctors Anthony Banner and Luhk were given the go ahead to receive the Cradle and bring it to the lab on the starbase where they had set up shop. Joined by both their engineer and one from the starbase, the two Daystrom scientists made their way down the gangway to the Missouri's docking port, where they found Patricia awaiting them.
"Welcome aboard the Missouri, Doctors:" Patricia said, extending a hand for them to shake.
"So, you're the ones to thank for delivering the Cradle to us." Banner responded. "Don't worry; we're going to make things right."
"Is that so?" Patricia questioned. "Because two Hebitians would very much disagree."
"Captain, you should know better than to trust the words of known terrorists." Banner said.
"Are they, though?" Patricia pressed. "Or did we ever stop to consider that perhaps the Gane siblings are monsters of our own creation?"
"Commander, we could argue the specifics all day." Luhk said. "However, it is imperative that we remain focused on the task at hand."
"And that task would be...?" Akira piped in, evidently as skeptical about all this as Patricia was, if not duly so.
Banner lowered his head and sighed before looking at Patricia and Akira:
"Back at the New Year's party, I-400 said she killed someone." He explained. "But, a more accurate term would be severely wounded. It took me a long time to stitch them back together, but I think we may finally have a chance. A chance to win."
Lieutenant Kerr waited a beat to see if Akira was going to provide any more information than that. When neither the Captain or XO jumped at the opportunity to ask for information, the ever curious science officer spoke up. "I'm sorry, but could you be more specific. Who, or what did you stitch back together, and how does this help us?"
"That is a discussion that is best tabled until we bring the Cradle to our lab on the Starbase." Luhk said. "Speaking of which; did you bring the Cradle with you, Lieutenant?"
"I don't know what else we could have done with it," Lissa commented cheekily. She looked at the pair with some suspicion. She didn't like secrets. "Beamed it into a star I suppose. Are you ready to see it now?"
"Probably would've been a better option..." Akira lamented.
"Yes, please." Banner nodded. "I promise, everything will be clear once we can get situated."
"Of course," Lissa responded. She looked to Commander Cooke for orders. She stood her ground when Kogami had asked for a word with the Captain.
"Captain, a moment, please?" Akira requested.
Patricia nodded.
"Lead the way, Lieutenant." She said, turning to Banner and Luhk "Excuse us for one second:"
The two of them quietly excused themselves and disappeared around a nearby corner.
"Permission to speak freely, Captain?" Akira whispered once they were out of earshot.
"Granted." Patricia responded.
"With all due respect to you, Patty... are you sure we can trust this idiot?" Akira was quick to point out. "If my Security team is to be believed, then I-400's willing to kill for whatever's in that Cradle; and in spite of all that, Doctor Banner can't even trust us with whatever he intends to do with it? This is potential mass extinction that we're looking at, Patty, not the fricken' Utopia Aerospace Exhibition!"
"But what other choice do we have, Lieutenant?" Patricia countered. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Starfleet's really been dragging their heels on this I-400 matter: They don't want to rally the fleet until they have absolute proof of I-400's intentions. What we need right now is a Hail Mary, Lieutenant, and if Banner thinks he can give us one, then it's worth a shot, because frankly, I'm running out of ideas here!"
"And how do we know that this won't make things exponentially worse for us, Patty?" Akira was quick to point out. "The last time Doctor Banner had good intentions, look how that turned out!"
"Do you have any other alternatives, Lieutenant?" Patricia asked. "Because right now, the only one I see is where Starfleet's hubris quite literally destroys us!"
Akria pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, because loathe as she may have been to admit it, sadly Patricia was right.
"Okay; I'll play along with this for now," she conceded. "However, I make one condition- if at any point Doctor Banner's experiments begin to endanger the lives of this crew, we shut it down immediately, no ifs, ands, or buts; capiche?"
Patricia nodded. She knew that when Akira started talking like a gangster, she meant business:
"Alright, that's a deal that I can work with." She said.
Lissa smiled akwardly at Dr. Banner while they waited. "So you're pretty tight lipped on this. If you managed to save someone, I think that you would want to share that. We are on the same side?"
"Oh, for... Christ on a bike..." Banner grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose, mumbling something under his breath about playing the blame game. "Alright, fine: You want to know? How familiar are you with the AI Interface known as Iona?"
This is where the quiet XO spoke up. "She was originally tested on the new Sovereign II class of Starships." She explained. "Basically, the engineers at Jupiter Station tool the basics of the EMH, and the ECH from the USS Voyager and created an AI program that could be linked with all a starships systems." Taukasa paused. "The general idea was that if the ships crew were incapacitated, this AI program could get the ship out of danger, get it back to somewhere safe and safeguard the crew. Basically an Advanced ECH, but had automatic access to everything."
"Exactly!" Banner responded. "In the years since then, she's seen a wider implementation on newer classes of Starfleet ships. Even the Daystrom Institute has had its own dabbling with the Iona program." He elaborated. "Before I-400 attacked the New Year's party, she needed a way into our systems to hijack Lieutenant Rem's implant. Iona was her key: I-400 dismantled Iona's code and reverse engineered it for herself to use, but not entirely: The institute has found random pieces of Iona code backed up in different places, and now we've finally recovered enough of it to put Humpty Dumpty back together!"
"Sounds to me like there's a catch," Akira remarked as she and Patricia rejoined with the group. "Approximately how much of Iona have you recovered? And what does any of this have to do with my security officers risking life and limb for The Cradle?"
"Iona should have a backup in the auxilary computer core." Tsukasa said. "Just like the EMH, her designers created a 'backup' of her in case her original programming became corrupted or damaged. Think of it like a 'fresh install'."
"One could argue that a 'fresh install' would be precisely that." Luhk was quick to point out. "This newly rebooted backed up Iona would need to be treated as a 'factory reset,' and might not be aware of the danger that I-400 presents until... Well, until the temporal loop completes itself and we're back to square one."
"Which is why it's important that we have a version of Iona that's encountered I-400 before to merge with the form that's in the Cradle." Banner explained. "And to answer the pinkette's question-!"
"Whoa, whoa, pump the brakes, hotshot:" Patricia interrupted. "Merge with it?"
Banner sighed.
"So... Many... Questions..." He grumbled. "If I-400 is willing to kill for the contents of the Cradle like you say, then we need to give her what she wants: The body she was constructing, but devoid of the genocidal glitches she thinks are a winning personality."
"So your idea is to basically use the Cradle as some kind of" Trojan Horse" to try and give the Iona interface something of a fighting chance against I-400?" Akira speculated. "And how if Iona is going to be the solution, let alone the right one?"
"'Trojan Horse' is an inaccurate term to describe Dr. Banner's plan." Luhk stated. "Perhaps if you weren't badgering us for details and 'playing the blame game', as Dr. Banner calls it, the whole process would be finished, and you would be on your way."
"Well, someone's got a stick up his ass, and it's not me..." Akira grumbled.
Luhk turned to Lissa.
"So... Are you thoroughly satisfied with the explanations we have given you?" He asked. "Or are we going to waste more valuable time?"
Patricia sighed. The Vulcan did have a point:
"You heard him, Lieutenant: Hand the Cradle over." Patricia told Lissa. "That's an order."
"Of course, Captain." Lissa turned to their guests. "Right this way."
As the rest of the party moved off to collect the Cradle, Patricia heard footsteps approach from behind her, and stayed put as Boso and Oko drew up behind her:
"So, that's it?" Oko asked. "You're just going to let them take it?"
"You two have any better ideas?" Patricia responded.
"You imbeciles!" Boso exclaimed. "Banner has deceived you; this won't fix a damn thing!"
"What did I tell you, Patty?" Akira grumbled as she primed her phaser rifle. "It seems we couldn't trust that dipshit Banner after all..."
"Now, now, let's settle down for a second..." Patricia said, looking off down the corridor where the others had disappeared to. Now, the doubt was beginning to set into her mind:
To be continued...
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