War Stories (Book 2) by Keith R. A. Decandido

Author:Keith R. A. Decandido [DeCandido, Keith R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743456777
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2002-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Fabian sat in the observation lounge, along with Gold, Corsi, and the two Bynars. They had waited that long to have the meeting only because 110 and 111 needed to replicate new data boxes. Apparently their ability to function at a slow enough level to interact with other life-forms was aided considerably by those boxes, and without them, they’d never be able to process data slowly enough for anyone else to understand.

“The golf ball appears to be a multipurpose weapon, Captain,” Fabian said, calling up the sensor schematics from his tricorder on the lounge’s viewscreen. “Its housing, as I said before, is the same as that used by the Jem’Hadar for their torpedoes. It can survive the ravages of space and of atmosphere with little difficulty. It’s also equipped with three different miniaturized directed energy weapons of similar design to that of a Jem’Hadar warship.”

“How powerful?” Corsi asked.

“The yield is roughly equivalent to that of a Defiant-class ship’s phasers.”

“Gevalt,” Gold muttered.

“There’s more, I’m afraid.” Fabian touched a control, and the image focused in on another component of the inner workings. “What you’re looking at there is a propulsion system that allows the golf ball to travel at speeds up to full impulse. In addition, it contains a computer core that is very complex, which 110 and 111 were able to commune with briefly.”

“We are still—”

“—recovering from the shock—”

“—but we learned that the device—”

“—is capable of independent motion—”

“—and firing, based on a sophisticated—”

“—artificial intelligence.”

Corsi shook her head. “A self-sufficient, self-directing, obscenely fast mobile weapon?”

“More than that—”

“—we’re afraid, Lieutenant Commander.”

Gold shook his head. “Much more, I don’t think I could take.”

“The golf ball can transmit—”

“—a computer virus.”

Fabian smiled wryly. “It almost ate my tricorder. I was recording what 110 and 111 were saying, and they were screaming the code for the virus. Luckily, I purged it before it got too far—though if they’d gone on much longer…”

“We have already begun a diagnostic—”

“—of all the computers on the ship—”

“—to make certain that no other systems—”

“—besides Mr. Stevens’s tricorder—”

“—were affected.”

Gold leaned back in his chair. Fabian thought it interesting that, while Corsi looked a frightening combination of appalled and angry, Gold only looked thoughtful—and not nearly as shocked as Fabian would have expected. Almost as if he knew what was coming.

“How pervasive,” the captain asked after a moment,

“would this virus be?”

“It transmits—”

“—in machine language.”

“There is no known computer system—”

“—that would not be vulnerable to it—”

“—in theory.”

Leaning forward, Gold asked, “In practice?”

“We believe that we were in contact with the program—”

“—long enough to devise a countermeasure.”

“Good.” Again he leaned back. “In a set of reports from Starfleet Intelligence that I received two weeks ago, they mentioned that the Dominion was working on something like this. The mobility, they mentioned. The weapons, they mentioned. The virus, they didn’t mention. They also thought the prototype would be ready to go within a month.”

Corsi pursed her lips. “Two weeks is within a month.”

“That’s what both Admiral Ross and I were afraid of when they found that thing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.