New Protocols and New Friends, Part 1

Posted on Sat Apr 22nd, 2023 @ 2:32am by Lieutenant JG Nezuko & Commander Chisato Nishikigi

772 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Descent
Location: Deck 3, Intelligence Centre

Nezuko had had an idea about something she could do which would help the ship's efficiency. But before doing it, she needed to discuss it with another department head. So she found herself at the entrance of the ship's Intelligence Centre, waiting to be let in so she could talk to the new CIO.

Fortunately for her, she didn't have to wait too terribly long to get someone's attenion; an Intel Officer passed her by on his way to file a report, but stopped when he realized the Amphea happened to be loitering outside the entrance, as if waiting for an appointment.

"Can I get you something, Lieutenant?" he began politely enough.

Nezuko had written the name Chisato Nishikigi on her PADD and held it up for the officer to see.

"Oh, I see," the Intel Officer remarked. "You want to speak with Commander Nishikigi about something?"

Nezuko nodded.

"I'll let her know," the Intel Officer nodded. "She should be with you shortly."

And with that, he turned and disappeared into the intel center; a few moments before the doors opened again and Commander Nishikigi stepped out into the hall.

"Ah, you're the Amphea, if I'm remembering correctly?" she began. "Let's see... Nezuko, was it?"

Nezuko nodded again. She brought up a file on her PADD and gave it to Chisato. The file contained some patch notes for a software update on the Tokyo's various subspace comms transceivers, including the one integrated into the ship's intel department for transmission of classified documents and interception of signals intelligence.

She also held in her other hand a pair of isolinear chips, which contained the patch.

"You mean like a TLS protocol?" Chisato remarked, her eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree. "That's genius! Why hasn't Starfleet already implemented something like this?"

The Amphea shrugged. The old Secure Sockets Layer protocols were getting more and more vulnerable. For the Tokyo to conduct its mission properly, they needed to collect, receive, and transmit intelligence along secure, stable connections, confident that whatever they sent could not be intercepted and decrypted. Starfleet Operations had been working on new Transport Layer Security protocols that could work far better, but these were not yet widespread. Still, a gentle request from Nezuko to one of her old classmates who was at Operations HQ came back positive, and now she had the protocols ready for installation.

She gestured toward the door of the intel department. The access point for the transceiver was inside.

"If you're implying we install it now, I'm afraid the transceiver's undergoing maintenance at the moment," Chisato sighed. "If we were to remove one of the STL chips while that's going on, we risk corrupting the whole system. I know, because I did that once, and Da- Captain Yoshimatsu chewed me out for it."

Nezuko’s brow furrowed. Chewed me out? she wondered. She’d not heard this expression before. It sounded similar to another phrase she knew, but that wasn’t something Captains did to junior officers. At least not without getting into trouble and having a stern talking-to from Sentient Resources.

She used her hands, fingers curled down, to mime a mouth and teeth and chewing, hoping that Ms. Nishikigi understood her question.

"Oh, that?" Chisato replied, immediately realizing what Nezuko was trying to get at. "That's just a human figure of speech; it essentially means that Captain Yoshimatsu reprimanded me. Certainly taught me not to do that again..."

Nezuko bobbed her head, knowingly. What a strange turn of phrase, she thought.

Lacking any kind of time piece to point to, she brought up the daily calendar app on her PADD and showed it to Chisato.

"Oh, you're wondering when would be a good time to install it?" Chisato guessed. "Let's see... I don't think we're going to have time to do that tonight, so how about... 1500 hours tomorrow? I don't think I have anything scheduled for that window... key word being "think"..."

1500 was available. Nezuko wrote an entry in the 1500-1600 window called Install TLS on Intel computer and added Chisato’s name to it. She gave the intel Chief a thumbs-up.

"Great!" Chisato replied. "Though... I suppose I should at least make it up to you for going this far out of your way for nothing... do Amphea eat cake, by any chance?"

Nezuko nodded excitedly, and followed Chisato toward what she assumed would be excellent cake. Was there any other kind?

***

A posting by:

Lieutenant Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer

&

Lieutenant junior grade Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer

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