Chapter Title: Ockham's Razor
Chapter Synapses: A series of computer errors creep up and begin to seriously threaten the safety of the crew. Collins undergoes counseling following the Tal'Nori Incident.
Written by: Seraph Koji
"Anything you'd like to talk about today, Commander?" West asked, sitting in her office with Collins.
"I had the dream again. The one where Nog blames Captain Starwind for the destruction of Valiant." Collins sat uncomfortably in the office.
West stood and approached her replicator, "Want anything?"
"No."
"Tea. Herbal Blend 12." The fluid materialized without a glass, "Great. A smart-ass replicator."
"The thing is I went through counseling for the loss of the Valiant." Collins clasped her hands.
West sighed, sitting down and opting to clean the mess of liquid off the replicator later, "But seeing Hyperion like that now doubt tore down a few mental walls."
"Fix me, doc." Collins almost pleaded, "I want to return to active duty."
"If only it were that simple, Dorian." West smiled, "No miracle cures here."
On the bridge, a blip sounded at Ivano's station. "That's weird." Ivano examined his console.
"What?" VonBach asked from the central chair.
"I'm getting a proximity warning." Ivano continued to examine his console, "We're at high warp with the sensors reading a clean path and my console is giving me a proximity warning."
"Bridge to Engineering." VonBach tapped his badge, "We got a sensor glitch."
"We got a few other problems, Commander." Phral's voice reported back, "A series of minor glitches. I'm trying to find if there's a larger root cause."
"Get to work on that." VonBach ordered.
"Aye, sir!" Phral responded.
Starwind sat alone in his quarters, looking at his trumpet. He hadn't found the time to play in weeks, and here he was with time off. He picked up the trumpet and music filled the room. Klingon opera being played by the computer.
"Computer!" Starwind snapped at the ship, "Shut that damn music off!"
The computer blipped and the shrieking Klingon opera ceased only to be replaced by a blaring siren. Starwind, set his trumpet down and bolted out the door.
"Stand down Red Alert." VonBach ordered.
"I can't." Talara stared, "My console is non-responsive."
"Commander, we're accelerating. Warp eight." Ivano reported, "These glitches are losing their quirky humor."
"Shields are down." Winters reported from Tactical, "No, now their back up."
"Warp nine."
"We're firing phasers!" Winters reported, frantically.
Starwind entered the bridge, "What the hell are you lot doing to my ship?"
"Sir!" VonBach rose, "Chief Phral says that a series of computer malfunctions…"
"Warp nine point five." Ivano reported, "Little help here?"
"Mister Ivano, try to overload the impulse manifolds. You might trick the sensors into initiating an emergency shut-down of the Warp Core." Starwind ordered, "Winters, go to Engineering and give the Chief a hand. VonBach, I want all torpedoes disarmed. Can't have them going off in the tubes, can we?"
"Impulse overload in progress." The ship shook slightly, "It's working. We're dropping out of warp."
"Bridge to Engineering." Starwind sat down, "Who broke the ship?"
"Captain's Log, stardate 57565.3. Hyperion's trip to return the Tal'Nori delegation to Deep Space Three has been postponed due to a series of technical errors. So far, no error has been too severe or irreparable, but there's no telling how long before things get out of hand."
The senior officers (Collins excluded) sat in the briefing room. The display screen in the room called up pictures of random planets.
"Phral, what the hell is going on?" Starwind asked, impatiently.
Phral obviously had no clue, "Th effect is a series of malfunctions."
"The cause?" West asked.
"No idea."
"What do we know?" Watson asked.
"There are no hardware problems. The computer is actually being told to do this stuff by some piece of software." Phral leaned back, "No idea what."
"Ockham's Razor." Starwind suggested, "What's the simplest explanation?"
"Virus." Sen suggested, "Hyperion got a computer virus while in drydock."
Starwind looked about the table, "VonBach?"
"Sabotage." VonBach suggested.
"Confine the Tal'Nori delegation to their quarters and restrict computer access. Tell them that it's for their safety." Starwind ordered, "Talara, Phral, I want a cure devised and I want it yesterday. Sen, in the event these glitches should hurt someone…"
"I'll have Sick Bay prepared." Sen nodded.
"West, status of Commander Collins?" Starwind asked.
West sighed, "She's improving, but it seems as though all her repressed trauma over the Valiant has surfaced. That's a lot to deal with sir."
"Ivano, keep me apprised as to where exactly this ship is going. I don't want to fly into a star, got it?" Starwind ordered.
"Aye." Ivano responded.
"Dismissed."
"Chief…" Talara thought of a course of action, standing in Engineering not much later, "If we've isolated the cause, why not just restart the ship?"
"Restart the ship?" Phral looked up from his console, "Rebooting the computer core… it might purge the infected data." Phral grew excited, "Engineering to Bridge, I'm going to reboot the computer core. Every system is going to go offline when I do. It'll take me a few minutes to set up." Phral tapped his badge and moved quickly to another console, "But everything's gonna shut down."
On the bridge, Starwind sighed, "Life support?" He asked.
"Yes, sir." Phral responded, "But it will only be a few seconds."
"Sir," Ivano swiveled in his chair to face Starwind, "Main shuttle bay is decompressing and recompressing."
"Do it, Phral." Starwind ordered.
Sen stood in sick bay, awaiting inevitable injuries.
"Doctor?" One of his nurses approached. A burst of light surrounded her and alarms blared.
"Fire suppression systems activated!"
"That's a person!" Sen grabbed a medical tricorder, "You're siphoning the air from inside the field around her! You'll kill her!"
The nurse couldn't breathe.
Sen gritted his teeth, "Damn it, computer! Disengage suppression systems. Emergency override. Authorization Sen Asim, Chief Medical Officer."
"Authorization denied."
The blipping sound on Sen's tricorder was replaced by a solid beep, "Damn!"
"Fire suppressed." The field vanished from around the nurse.
"I want cortical stimulators!" Sen called to the rest of his staff, who were watching the event in horror, "Move!"
"All systems shutting down…" Phral stood at a control panel, "Now!" The room fell to absolute darkness then slowly began to return to life. "Ockham's Razor." Hr laughed, "If there's a solution simpler than 'Turn it off', I'd like to hear it."
"Hail the Ockham." Talara stared at the computer read-out, "The razor didn't work."
"So, Sen was right. It was a regular virus." Phral nodded, "Can you trace it?"
Talara shook her head, "Maybe you could?"
Phral walked over and stared at the read out, "There. In the Log files."
"How?"
"Standard procedure when you find a destroyed ship, Lieutenant?" Phral asked.
Talara caught on, "We downloaded infected log files!"
"We quarantine the log files and reinitialize the ship's computer defense systems and we should be fine." Phral smiled.
Alarms began to sound in Engineering.
"What's that?" Talara asked.
Phral looked at his console, "A warp core breach is in progress." Phral yelled to other engineering crews, "Stabilize the containment field!"
An ensign stared at the containment display, "Chief, containment is fine. The breach alarm is just sounding."
"Then shut that siren off." Phral said, annoyed.
Starwind sat, staring at the image of space. It was, rather suddenly, replaced by the image of another Starfleet captain.
"What do you need, Vic?" The Captain asked.
Starwind sighed. Third hail of its kind. "Sorry to bother you. My comm. array has a slight malfunction." Of course, he greatly undersold the situation, "Hyperion out."
"Safe to say Phral's plan failed." Ivano observed.
Starwind nodded, "Win some, lose some."
"Sickbay to Bridge." Sen sounded particularly solemn, "We've lost someone. One of my nurses was killed by the fire suppression system."
Ivano looked puzzled, "Captain, the ship has se course for the center of the galaxy. Warp drive is powering up." Ivano looked more perplexed, "Warp drive is powering down."
"Bridge to Engineering!" Starwind rose. "I want my ship fixed, and I want it fixed now, Chief!"
"Working on it." Talara's voice responded.
All the displays on the bridge fell to black and were replaced by lines of gibberish. The4 lights on the bridge dimmed and suddenly returned to normal. The consoles returned to normal as well.
"Engineering to Birdge." Phral sounded confident, "We did it."
In a briefing later that day, all were present. Even Collins.
"Ockham's Razor." Talara explained, "The simplest solution is always somebody screwing up."
"Elaborate." Collins requested.
"Some of the data logs we downloaded at the Tal'Nori homeworld were infected with a compeer virus." Phral explained.
Starwind nodded, "Dismissed."
As others filed out, Collins approached Starwind, "Permission to return to active duty?"
"Are you psychologically fit?" Starwind asked.
Collins nodded, "Recovering, sir."
"Permission granted." Starwind nodded.
"Captain's Log, stardate 57570.1. After docking at Deep Space Three to deliver the Tal'Nori delegation, the station technicians assisted Chief Phral in completing repairs to the computer core and recovering the infected files. Not only is Hyperion fit as a fiddle again, but so is her first officer, who is doing far better now. We have sent the non-infectious log entries to Starfleet Command as an addendum to our previous report on the matter."
