Chapter 13 - You Use a Search Engine; Also Nerd Stuff

"Is there any kind of data network I can access?" You ask as you finish your food, and wash your plate. "Get myself up to date on current events?"

"You mean the internet?" She cocks a pencil thin eyebrow at you. "Yeah." She opens a panel in the bar and pulls one of two sturdy looking tablets from it. She slides it down as she picks at what's left of the onions on her plate. She's not ignoring them, but she isn't putting them in her mouth until their thick with the entree's sauce. "Knock yourself out."

You nod as you run your hands over the tablet and look for an on button. You find it, and while it power cycles, you have a chance to notice the dents and chips in the tablet's shock case. It was a bar tablet, after all.

The Ship's name Golden Dancer popped up on the screen, along with an emblem. It's a yellow sun being eclipsed by a black moon. Then the tablet asks for a username and a password, with buttons to send that information, or log in as a 'Guest'. You look up at Zoraida, who slurps up an onion, and lets the creamy sauce drip down her lips before she licks her lips, then wipes a finger across her chin to wipe it clean.

"I, um," She sucks her finger as she locks eyes with you, "Could use some tech support."

"Forgot your password?"

"And my username."

She sighs and rolls her eyes, "I can't really expect you to remember that out of the Black," She reaches over to grab the other tablet and logs in. "Go in as a guest while I do this." You eye the tablet. Why does she not link to the ship and just 'do it', unless the ship isn't built like that. You shrug and log into the tablet as a guest. "Fucking protocols. When I see the FO again," She grumbles under her breath. The first officer, she'd called her Io, Io-who? Nothing triggers right away, but you shake off the disappointment as your screen loads and you see a basic front screen. You do smile as Zoraida's taps at the screen loud enough for it to sound like pecking.

Icons for Browser, Ship Chat, Emergency Functions, and a Folder of 'Apps' were all present, along with an icon of a beer mug with 'Bar Menu', a roasting bird leg with 'Food' under that, and a Music icon with 'Entertainment Control' under that icon. You open Browser and start typing things into the search engine.

You start with the Tavus'Raluk Democratic Collaboration, and click the first result.

"Founded in 3117 GA, the Tavus'Raluk Democratic Collaboration (TRDC) is a Political and Military Alliance between the neighboring systems of Tavus and Raluk. They are governed council of 40 representatives, twenty from Tavus, and twenty from Raluk. These representatives are appointed via different methods between the two systems (Direct Democratic for Tavus, Indirect Democratically Appointed Electors for Raluk). They have a significant border range, owing to their vessels unique SFTL (Subjectively Faster than Light) drives and that nearly all of the systems directly boarding their own lack planets habitable to any known species in the Expanse." You're reading aloud, and Zoraida is looking up at you every few sentences, when you pause mostly. She still pecks at the screen with her fingers, picking at options and typing in passwords. "Recent News: 11/19/3230: Embargos against the Empire continue, resulting in border tension, and mass emigration of Imperial citizens living in TRDC space. Concerns that this is evidence of an impending attack has been denounced by Imperial News Groups, but Raluk civilian groups are organizing emergency contingencies for evacuations, in order to ease the burden on military assets that could otherwise be deployed.

It goes on like this for pages and pages. But a few terms catch your eye, for example: SFTL.

"SFTL or Subjective Faster than Light is the term for any form of interstellar travel that utilizes wormholes, portals, or gates to travel distances in a period of time less than what light can achieve, but without operating in real space or otherwise accelerating toward the speed of light. This is in contrast to OFTL (Objective Faster than Light) methods, which create barriers, or transition into 'other space' to travel to destinations while experiencing objective time." 

Both are deemed superior SLT (Subluminal Travel), a primitive method that causes time dilation as a vessel physically accelerates toward the speed of light.

You clear that search and plug in a general 'News' search. Zoraida sighs as she swipes her screen and her fingers begin to peck again at more security.

You're given the warning that due to communication errors and security protocols, much of the data from the last forty five days has been purged. The message is in a column of alerts and notifications. Right above it, dated fifty-four days ago, is a noticed confirming that the ship had purged all private information, cookies, bookmarks, folders, and tabs not copied into the 'Hard Box'. 

"What's the Hard Box?" You ask, but then you answer for yourself. "One of several solid state backups that contains all ship critical data. Redundancy is carried over to each box, and some can be partitioned for use by authorized crew."

"That's what's taking me so long to change this." She sighs. "A lot of the programs I used to make my life easier, I wiped so IVORI couldn't read them and use them for himself, or confirm my presence here."

"He accessed these systems?" You're eyes go wide, more than a little worried you might see a red ring pop up on a screen in the corner of your eye. 

"Yeah, he accessed a sort of mirror system, in read only mode. I disconnected and purged that mirror system while I was starting the ship up." She adds, and you relax. "But while you were out, the mirror system still would have confirmed that this was really your ship, and not a knock off. Unless we sealed or erased a lot of data, that is. So we did."

"What's the problem, then? You are the CIT officer for the ship." You prod and set down the pad.

"Yes, I am." She nods. "Which means I can put the ship into lockdown, and given the right circumstance, take it out of lockdown. The problem is those include having the First Officer plug in the codes that you don't remember, Captain."

"The First Officer," You repeat, Io it is part of the name but it's not the whole thing. You know that. You think about what Zoraida said about the lockdown. If that was the case, maybe that's why she had such trouble with the ship before? All her settings had been changed? Your hand sinks into your pants pocket and you pull out the ring. You hear Zoraida stop tapping on the screen. You look up at her and she looks from the ring, to you.

"Are you sure?" She asks. "You made a good point about it being dangerous."

"Might have just been paranoid." You shrug and take a breath, then slip the ring onto your finger.

You look at Zoraida, who leans forward to get a look at your hand. You look down at your hand. The ring fits, perfectly. But, it's not doing anything.

"Is it supposed to do something?" You ask. She shrugs.

"I never saw you take it off or put it on before." She admits.

You look your hand over, one side, then the other, and then pick up the tablet. The metal of the ring clicks against the tablet and there's a sharp noise from the tablet before it's screen goes blank. You drop the tablet and pull your hand back, before you see the screen reboot and on the screen is a notice.

Admin User: CPT_SE_1912-5-312-1619; Welcome Back. Then the screen showed the same options as before, but now the background had that same eclipse emblem, and more icons. One was security. You tap it, then when it prompts you for name and password you just hold your ring over the screen and asterisks fill the bars. It unlocks and you see options in long, confusing lists.

"Okay, that's cool." You nod and look at the ring. She smiles as you walk beside her to show her the tablet. "What do you need?" You ask, and for the next few minutes she leads you through a slow series of tabs and hand waves that unlock what she needs from the ship.

"Okay." She nods, "Once this is done, you'll have access whatever we didn't erase completely." She leans back. "You'll be able to view it at your own leisure, and since we've got nothing better to do," She leans back against the bar and lets her outfit relax slightly, and her breasts jiggle in the barely confining gold silk, "I guess we can go down memory lane," She winks.

"There's a lot of porn in here, isn't there?" You hold up the tablet.

"Home movies," She winks again. "But I wanna give you one last shot, Captain. Because... I want YOU to remember it, so there's no doubt that it's yours." You look at the tablet, the emblem was the background and the login name was at the top of the screen.

Do you remember your name?