T.A.M.I.
Posted on 14 Jul 2021 @ 3:34pm by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Parker Voss & T.A.M.I
1,564 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Extinction
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Mission Day 19 at 1300
Once the unconscious human and the equipment that had been salvaged from the shuttle, Camila noticed a small electronic puck like device which didn't respond to her tricorder. It seemed to have a power source and transmitters, but it seemed to be in a dormant state. She tapped her combadge as she headed for Engineering.
'Commander Geisler, can you join me in Engineering, please?" she requested as she entered a turbolift and headed down towards the Engineering deck.
Joey arched a brow. It wasn't often she was summoned to Engineering, much less by the Chief of Security. "On my way, Commander," she answered as she rose to her feet. It only took her a moment to secure her office before she left her department after letting someone know where she was going to be, then began the journey to Engineering.
T.A.M.I. had gone into lockdown mode since they had managed to pull Conrad from the shuttle wreckage, the fact that he had been without oxygen for roughly ten minutes didn't exactly help with her concern for her creator. She had managed to make the cockpit exceedingly cold so his vital functions and more importantly his brain would be able to withstand the lack of oxygen longer. As an AI, he was exceedingly intelligent in terms of processing speed and analysis. She was however very inexperienced when it came to interactions with others other than Conrad. So that would work well if she played the role of a virtual Intelligence, not true intelligence.
She was a quantum computer at her core so she was fast and the amount of data she could process was impressive, even with her tiny size. What she had was a vast storage capacity for her intelligence and saved data and another that she used as a 'work harddrive, temporary data was stored here and she could easily clean it up if she needed. One of the many protocols during a lockdown was shutting down all active processes, create a 'fake' database. It would have plenty of data that wasn't exactly sensitive, some personal notes from Conrad and theories, maybe even some results of smaller research, but it didn't hold any actual usable data. This fake hard drive would be the only thing accessible from the outside because someone had to go through it in order to get to the primary data center. She placed a 'dumb' version of herself in this place as well, without any of the actual AI markers. Just a fully interactive helper program in a way.
She would use very subtle fealers to anything that tried to access the data in order to gain access to their systems, simply piggybacking off the datastream that was going into their device, it was slow because the bandwidth increase would easily be detectable otherwise.
Camila arrived in Engineering soon after her call to Joey and looked around for the new Chief Engineer. "Lieutenant Voss?" she asked as she headed for Main Engineering.
Voss turned away from one of the computer panels when he heard his name. He saw who it was, so he qquickly walked over. "Commander. May I be of assistance?"
"Yes," Camila said as she handed over the technological puck. "I need a full analysis on this. I've invited Commander Geisler here as well. We recovered it from the shuttle."
Voss took the puck and looked it over, turning it over and over. "I wonder how I missed this little beauty. I removed some components from the shuttle, and must have missed this." He set the device down, and pulled out a tricorder and started scanning.
Joey made her way into Engineering and took a quick look around before asking a passing crewman where she could find Camila. When she was pointed in the right direction, she approached the two of them. "Commander, Lieutenant," she greeted. "Commander di Pasquale, you requested my presence?"
"Thank you for coming, Commander," Camila said and indicated the puck she had handed to Voss. "This was found on the shuttle and while it has a power source, it appears to be dormant. However, it could be more than it seems. I want a full breakdown of it."
Voss looked at Camila. "Commander, my scans are not detecting anything...I think this has some kind of shield...."
"Unauthorized scan detected." a warm female voice came from the device, a moment later it lights up softly and the hologram of her avatar appeared, she looked straight ahead and showed no expression. "Please enter the passcode and verification code," she asked, this part of her was nothing special, it was a shell and had no of the higher functions that the true T.A.M.I. possessed, it was an excellent way to help Conrad when he needed to make notes and things like that while the AI focused on the simulations.
Joey arched a brow. "What the hell is that thing, and why have I been asked to come here, and I'm assuming, to see it?" She asked.
"Good question, sir." Voss looked at the image. "What are you?"
"The personal pocket computer of Conrad Hawkingsson." the woman said, her face flat. "Please supply password and verification code," it asked again.
"Is that the name of the human that we rescued in the cockpit?" Voss asked.
"Yes, according to the identification the shuttle was registered under," Camila said as she looked at the tiny hologram. "Mister Hawkingsson is in Medical in critical condition," she told it. "We need his medical records to ensure his heath." She wasn't lying, but if the thing divulged information via normal communications, she'd get all she could. "As well as what happened to him."
"Level 0 access approved per emergency protocol. Medical record of Conrad Hawkingsson accessed." the voice said, the rest of the data would need a password. Conrad had trusted others with his research before and it nearly killed him. "For further data access, provide password and verification code."
"Does Mr. Hawkingsson have any known medically related conditions which could effect his recovery?" the Security Chief asked, annoyed at having to dig just to get basic data.
"Right arm; full prosthesis. Right side torso, hip, and leg light scarring. Mental health; severe PTSD, mild Pistanthrophobia." T.A.M.I. avatar said flatly.
"Define Pistanthrophobia," Camila requested.
“Pistanthrophobia: the fear of trusting others and is often the result of experiencing a serious disappointment or painful ending to a prior relationship,” T.A.M.I. answered.
Joey arched a brow. She still had no idea why she'd been called here, and prior inquiries were ignored. Her gaze moved from Camila, to Parker, to T.A.M.I., then back to Camila again. "It would appear that you and Lieutenant Voss have things under control here, Commander," she pointed out, then gestured to the puck-like device. "But, I'm curious to know what rank this Conrad Hawkingsson individual is, and why he needs something like this in his possession."
Camila looked at Joey. "This this is locked down. Can you work with Lieutenant Voss or your analysis team to open it up and see what it contains?"
"My team and I can likely crack it," the Intelligence Chief said as she held her hand out for it. "Before I take it to that extreme, though, perhaps I'll pay him a visit in sickbay and see if he wants to offer a little insight."
"Sir, I would suggest you not try to pry it open. All the scans were bounced back, so we don't know what's inside there." Voss spoke up. "I would suggest we take it back to the person in sickbay and give it back to him."
"No one said anything about cracking it open, Lieutenant," Joey said, holding her hand out for the device. "And bringing it back to him is out of the question. At least for the moment. The entire point is to make sure it does not pose a threat to me, you, Commander di Pasquale and everyone else on the ship." She continued to hold her hand out. "Do you wish to be held responsible should there be some sort of virus on it that he introduces to the ship's computer once it's given back? I'm not saying that's the case, but how can any of us be absolutely certain?"
"Of course not, commander, I'm not a total idiot." Voss replied.
"Then, you won't mind handing the device over," Joey said with her hand still out.
Voss reached over and placed the device in her hand.
"Thank you," Joey said, looking toward Camila as she closed her hand around the device. "Is there anything else you need me for? If not, I'm going to pay the owner of this a visit after I put it someplace safe." Which would be in her office.
"No, but if he asks for anything else, be sure to check it first," Camila said.
The taller woman nodded her head. "Will do. I'll be in touch," she said, then after a nod to Voss, Joey turned and made her way out into the corridor. Her next task was speaking with the owner of the thing she held in her hand, but first, she needed to secure it, and that had her heading back to her office.
Once the Commander left the area, Voss headed back to main engineering.