ʀemus ʟuᴘiɴ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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ataraxionlogs2015-05-12 11:59 am
fullmoon) wrote in ataraxionlogs2015-05-12 11:59 am
here lies the abyss
CHARACTERS: OPEN.
LOCATION: Science labs, Level Two.
WARNINGS: Black, eternal nothingness.
SUMMARY: To congratulate Xenogen on the appearance of their new endless void. And their new nanite research and storage facility. That's probably important too.
NOTES: Consolidated post for abyss and nanite-room gaping, gazing, and experimentation.
There are greater tragedies than their ruined map, it turns out. Missing people. Dead people. So while Remus and Sirius notice the change nearly straight away, checking in on the map out of miserable habit--like poking a bruise to confirm that it still hurts--the appearance of a fully-functional display of the science department isn't enough to take precedence over other things, such as drinking and kicking walls and sorting through what the departed left behind.
But they do, eventually, sit down to study it. The inky walls are mostly where they're meant to be, and the Homonculous Charm is working again, displaying a half-dozen lonely dots labelled as science department members scurrying in and out of view. (It isn't spying if you don't know or care what anyone is doing.) Even this one department is massive, their attention to detail both a blessing and a difficult-to-process curse, so combing over it takes time. And assistance, courtesy of Kate. And also, importantly, alcohol. It's two return visits before one of them says, probably with a mouthful of terrible whisky, "I don't think that was there before."
That: a small room across from the containment chambers, labelled nanite storage and research. And a second that, discovered soon afterwards: a new corridor, leading away from the department and toward the centre of the ship, with an adjacent Lab E.
It isn't a personal slight against anyone in particular (or only very small slight against Xenogen, which still has Severus Snape's fingerprints everywhere) that they go to have a look on their own. It's just that they're Gryffindors. You understand.
LOCATION: Science labs, Level Two.
WARNINGS: Black, eternal nothingness.
SUMMARY: To congratulate Xenogen on the appearance of their new endless void. And their new nanite research and storage facility. That's probably important too.
NOTES: Consolidated post for abyss and nanite-room gaping, gazing, and experimentation.
There are greater tragedies than their ruined map, it turns out. Missing people. Dead people. So while Remus and Sirius notice the change nearly straight away, checking in on the map out of miserable habit--like poking a bruise to confirm that it still hurts--the appearance of a fully-functional display of the science department isn't enough to take precedence over other things, such as drinking and kicking walls and sorting through what the departed left behind.
But they do, eventually, sit down to study it. The inky walls are mostly where they're meant to be, and the Homonculous Charm is working again, displaying a half-dozen lonely dots labelled as science department members scurrying in and out of view. (It isn't spying if you don't know or care what anyone is doing.) Even this one department is massive, their attention to detail both a blessing and a difficult-to-process curse, so combing over it takes time. And assistance, courtesy of Kate. And also, importantly, alcohol. It's two return visits before one of them says, probably with a mouthful of terrible whisky, "I don't think that was there before."
That: a small room across from the containment chambers, labelled nanite storage and research. And a second that, discovered soon afterwards: a new corridor, leading away from the department and toward the centre of the ship, with an adjacent Lab E.
It isn't a personal slight against anyone in particular (or only very small slight against Xenogen, which still has Severus Snape's fingerprints everywhere) that they go to have a look on their own. It's just that they're Gryffindors. You understand.
LOCATION: NANITE STORAGE & RESEARCH ROOM
Of the cabinets on the last wall, one (to the far end) is half empty, while the others all contain small metal cannisters. These cannisters all contain a nanite solution. Running several of them through the analysis equipment available will find that they all contain nanites NANOTECH USC-XX9000-091S, but seem to be organised in order of programming completion, with those closest to the far end (and the half empty cabinet) being the most complete. These nanites will have the below programming:
REPLICATION
IMMUNE SYSTEM SUPPORT
HEALTH MAINTENANCE
MANTICORE A#34 ADVANCEMENT
MANTICORE B#39 ADAPTATION
GENETIC STABILIZATION
The nanites in the cannisters in the cabinets at the other end will be programmed with:
REPLICATION
IMMUNE SYSTEM SUPPORT
HEALTH MAINTENANCE
-- ADVANCEMENT
-- ADAPTATION
Though this cabinet will be completely full, one spot in the middle shelf will be very tellingly empty.
[ Note: The mods wrote this. Isn't it beautiful? ]
to me, my x-men.
[ This, Charles suggests a little belatedly, honestly. As it standard for equipment and rooms recklessly appearing in the science department, he is taking some pictures. His composition could use some work, but he tries to snag details, a sense of dimension, and hooks a gloved finger around the edge of a cabinet -- not a very important cabinet, as it is empty -- to peer inside. ]
Within reason.
[ He is thinking more along the lines of forensics and tampering than the concern, he recalls, Security had for their behaviour the last time with regard to superstition. Like maybe the fabric of reality that made this place possible could slam closed on them like a book, taking them with.
Charles doesn't mention that either. ]
This is the Research and Development level. We've had occurrences of things appearing before -- work spaces, equipment, that sort of thing. The void is new, [ he says, as aside. ] And it was more scattered about than this.
no subject
There was a department that disappeared as well, was there not? [It had been some time ago but she could remember that much.
She doesn't plan on tampering with much herself, moving along with Charles and watching for anything that might seem to have any good lingering fingerprints.]
no subject
[he provides, to Luthien. He had been lucky not to be attacked by a manticore then; the mutated rat had been bad enough. His shoes were still stained by his own blood.]
When we found it, the computer systems had been overwritten by the virus that almost took down the network a while ago. How it got there, I'm not sure, but it's part of a consistent pattern of attempts at sabotage.
[Moving through, not touching anything, peering at what he can, photographing just as much as Xavier is, L glances at the shelf of canisters, then at the empty place.]
So how did our saboteur access this place, assuming they did? It must have come and gone... were they waiting? Or... did they have a special way in...?
[He still harbors his own suspicions about the identity of the saboteur, but the waters are muddier for him now, now that he knows what he knows, than they were a few months ago.]
[OOC: Picking up here rather than in the other thread because the tenor of this one so far is muuuuuuuch better suited to L's interests and capabilities.]
no subject
I- I am sorry, I don't know very much about viruses but it does seem like sabotage. And there doesn't not seem to be very many ways to tell if anything has been too disturbed. [No dust or anything broken or placed strangely. Which could be helpful since the dust wouldn't interfere with fingerprinting.
Something does stand out though. Did they wait? Or come and go already?]
Might they still be here somewhere?
no subject
[ Supplied easily, by the telepath, almost muttered to himself. There's a glance over at where Ryuuzaki is considering the empty shelf, a glance back to Luthien. ]
A computer virus seems like the kind of thing that can be instigated remotely -- but there are other means of sabotage that have needed a hands on approach, since. Implies nanite access, perhaps, or ability to cross space and time beyond normal means.
[ He stops short of saying more on that specific subject, moving then instead to the consoles.
Don't touch anything, he said.
He immediately touches paneling, screens responding to his own specific set of nanites. ]
Alright, Ryuuzaki, what the hell am I doing?
[ Computers. ]
no subject
The virus in Comms was certainly instigated remotely. In Genetics... it's impossible to say, now, but if it had been... it raises questions about who and why.
[Had someone wanted to sabotage as much of the record of the research and experimentation conducted on the Tranquility as they could? Originally, it had seemed to him like it might have been some kind of cover-up job, but the knowledge that van Rijn had spent decades in an attempt to chase the ship down made that seem less likely.
So... what? The easiest conclusion is that, if intent had been involved at all, the systems had been overwritten to keep the work from being reconstructed easily... maybe to stop what had been happening here.
The ability to cross space and time beyond normal means rings a bell, but he doesn't indicate it in any way. What would have caused Ward -- or presumably Resnik -- to try to kill them all, then erase their existence? It doesn't fit with what he knows of their behavior, but there's so much behavior that he hasn't been able to observe that it isn't a definitive conclusion. Had they expanded the passengers' access -- if indeed they really had -- only so that the Comms Hub would be in use? There had to be easier ways to accomplish something like that.
Could Davis walk through walls -- or might he have found this place when it was somewhere else? Might he have been looking for it, under instruction, or led to it? L still considers him a good candidate for the nanite sabotage, but not for the attack on the network, which until now, he would have attributed to the DUPRR.
At Charles's request, L moves closer, peers at the console screen. The subject material is different to that of the consoles in Comms, but the interface really isn't.]
It looks like -- ah, sample analysis. You'd have to feed it something to process, then you press... that, and that, initialize. See if it works. If not, there are a few other things to try, but it's most likely relatively foolproof.
[A glance back at Luthien, and he addresses his next words to her.]
Have you seen a machine like this in Medbay?
hops in sorry for delay!!
That doesn't mean he isn't invested in the answers, even if he's unlikely to find them himself. And besides, every team's better off with a hired gun — or a SEC member, in this case. Very official. He slides another drawer shut before turning to watch the others, tracking Charles' interest towards the screens. ]
Feed it what?
[ Feed. ?? Like actual feeding, or. ]
no subject
Ryuuzaki, though. Charles can't be sure.
He takes instruction, accessing analysis programmes, not too much like your granddad being taught how to use a computer -- he, like Killian, has had to adapt and upskill. ]
Feed it one of the cannisters. Captain, if you please, [ and whether Hook indulges in helpful fetch quest from the set of cannisters nearest him or not, Charles goes to put one through testing, drawing up its properties. ]
Kate Bishop took fingerprint samples from that room, [ he says, as the data processes, watching the screen over anyone else. That was to the room; more to Hook, he prompts; ] You had a look while it was a crime scene, isn't that right? Who all had nanite access to it?
no subject
He seems to take a second to catch on to Charles's question. People asking him about nanite access isn't common territory. ]
Medical. [ He thinks. It's a little hazy, but that seems more memory than guess. ] But that depends on what you mean by access, mate. I was with that woman — all legs and blonde hair, seemed to have an idea how to work the system. The screen kept yelling at her. We got some readings off it, but it wouldn't let her get any further.
no subject
What kind of yelling? [But if it's the kind he's seen, in the brief period between Nathan's disappearance and L taking up the CCO mantle, then he already understands.] It might work more effectively for the head of an appropriate department. Xavier here, or Tsang, or someone else.
If that's the case, it tells us that it required high clearance, or the ability to fake it.
[How would you do that? Could you do that?]
no subject
[ It doesn't take long for these machines to do their thing, although it may feel like an unnecessary delay for those that do not often use computers -- Charles had left so much of the hardware to Hank, back home. But soon; ][ Charles doesn't necessarily time it with this revelation when he says; ]
Kate had managed to identify some of the prints. Turned out a few of them matched with mine.
[ He doesn't clarify that he had not himself actually sabotaged the nanites and brought about horrific illness not only to himself but to everyone else -- they could credit him with that going without being said.
Or not. A sideways glance makes sure. ]
Look. [ He is a genius, tell your friends, but for now he points like a monkey at the screen. Manticores. ]
an actual month later yikes sorry!!
And... gets roughly nothing from the information there. Science ?????? ?? ]
Advancement and adaptation?
[ He's seen some monsters in his day, but the idea of making them... actually, no, not totally foreign to that, either. It just seems like a lot of work for not much pay off when you're trapped with the damn things on a tin can. ]
Adaptation for what?
no subject
After all the samples are analyzed and Charles points at the screen, L leans in, peers at it, and stands again with an expression that looks like he's just swallowed something dry and unpleasant.]
It could be environmental adaptation, but I think... we know that the process of creating the manticores was experimental, that a number of early subjects died. There were refinements over time. This may have been a catalyst for advancement of the process, then the physical adaptation to it. I don't know whether or not a two-part process would make it less deadly, but it does seem that the fine-tuning did, until subjects began to survive the experiments.
Either way... when any further investigation is concluded, these should be destroyed.
no subject
[ His fingers sort of wiggle over the top of the console before he labouriously follows along the semi-familiar programming, perusing what options of analysis are available. ]
I suspect too that we're looking at complete programming -- the nanites from before either were not. Genetic stabilisation, for example, but I'd have to check with the CMO. He gathered better data than I did, during all that.
I'll see if these machines have anything more to say about them, analyse the rest of the cannisters too, and see they're destroyed.
splitting in twaaaaain
If you feel the need to handle anything, do so with care. Try not to interfere with anything that hasn't been recorded.
( like charles, she is taking pictures; a second set for comparison purposes, and for the likelihood one or both of them will not get literally every possible angle. )
no subject
So touch nothing?
( At least if you're not from the department. She wouldn't know what has been recorded. Thankfully she's less of the nosy, touchy sort. Curious but weary. If there is something new there they might not know what it is, and if all of it is good. She's not getting struck by anything unexpected if she can help it )