Wired In

Posted on Wed Jul 1st, 2026 @ 5:26pm by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Commander Christine J'Oh & Lieutenant Jarok

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Deck 4 - Rapid Response Unit

ON:

The Pandora's refit was not short on embellishments; she had become a testing ground for so many new Federation technologies, the envy of many captains in the fleet. From the latest in warp advancements with a double-refracting warp core matrix with twin inter-mixed chambers, to experimental defensive weapons, to an upgraded Luna Class Sensor Pod with a high intensity scanning field, to the very latest toy - the Rapid Response Network Pod. The pod worked in conjunction with the sensor pod to deliver super fast subspace communications directly into an onboard station. Alerts, reports, and sensor information were funnelled into the station from across Federation space, allowing the Pandora to respond and to coordinate others while out in the field. It was faster than the information relays and more efficient than allowing an event to bounce around Star Fleet until someone could respond.

For Lieutenant Jarok, the Pandora's new Chief of Intelligence, the Network Pod was his responsibility to operate; his team would be stationed in the Pod on a rotating basis 24 hours a day, ensuring no call for help went unanswered. He had already given his own team a crash-course in operating the equipment, now he was allowing other senior crew to have a chance to play - learn - with the new toy. Lieutenant Commander J'Oh, Ensign Devine, and a group of 10 other officers from departments across the Pandora were listening to Jarok as he guided Christine through a guided simulation of the Pod in action.

Christine stood in the pod, which was a semi-circular standing station in the centre of the room; there was a vertical LCARS panel to her both right and left, a flat computer console at waist height, and a projection coming from the base to make a concave display wall in front of her. On the display was a series of "Request" tiles in a 3 by 3 configuration, each one showing a different simulated alert from across Starfleet. There were also icon buttons running down both sides of the display for further tools and applications. But the main focus was on those Request tiles. As they spoke, a new tile jumped into view, with a slowly flashing yellow border.

"Now you can tap on that yellow alert from the USS Saratoga." Jarok was instructing her from the side.

Christine gingerly held out her finger and the display triggered, making it larger than the other tiles and centring it in the middle of her display.

"Oh." Christine mouthed, marvelling, "No buttons. It senses my finger position."

"Indeed." Jarok raised an eyebrow; the rest of the assembled crew were stood in front of pod also nodded. "Now turn your head slightly."

Christine looked to her right and the highlighted panel moved with her vision, sensing her movement and following her eyeline. "Ooh." She giggled. "I like that."

"Because the yellow alert was highlighted, it will stay within the centre of your field of vision until you dismiss it." Jarok explained, "Some have found this feature... disorientating at first, but you will adapt with additional time in the Pod."

"Does that mean I get to have another go?" Christine couldn't help but laugh. She was normally very serious, as most of the crew knew, but in this instance we was enjoying this a little too much, and it showed.

Jarok ignored this question and continued, deliberately so, "If you find the motion tracking too distracting, you may deactivate the feature. Now that the Saratoga's message has been highlighted, we are expected to respond. Remember - " He cast a firm eye around at the gathered officers. "It is our duty to respond. Even if that response is to send the message onto higher command. We have received it first, we are expected to act upon it."

Christine and the group nodded, the highlighted tile nodded with her. Christine blinked a little at this, feeling a slight moment of dizziness. She understood why some people may want to deactivate that particular feature.

"Tap the tile again and you will be given a list of five shortcut commands." Jarok was saying. Christine followed as she was told and touched the tile, a panel of icons appeared to the right of the tile. "It is currently configured to a right-hand display because the computer has detected Lieutenant Command J'Oh uses her right hand. This can be changed at any time by the user."

Nyx entered the class a little late; he didn't like to be tardy, especially when initiating new officers to the equipment, but preparations for the mission had taken up most of his morning. Luckily, Lieutenant Jarok wasn't too far into the lesson as yet.

"Welcome Captain." Jarok gave a respectful nod, and the team of officers turned and did likewise.

"Please, continue, I won't interrupt." Nyx said calmly, crossing his arms as he stood at the back of the class. "Have you done the Convergence yet?"

The crew looked expectedly at Jarok. The Lieutenant breathed through his nose. For a man that had just insisted that he would not to interrupt, the captain had done exactly that. Jarok demurred, "Not yet. We are still on navigating the visual tools."

"Ooh!" Nyx rubbed his hands together, "I liked to confuse it by switching between right and left hands."

"You did and if I recall correctly, in your simulated scenario, you allowed a refugee transport to fall into a gravitational anomaly." Jarok replied calmly. "All hands were lost."

The crew look at each other with some confusion and a few hidden smiles.

"It was a training exercise, people. Don't start the court martial just yet." Nyx responded with a smirk, holding up his hands in protect. "Please, continue Lieutenant. I will be silent."

"He won't be." Christine remarked. Nyx heard that but made a show of closing his mouth just to prove her wrong.

"Moving on." Jarok said pointedly, "You will see the top five most common response tools. The first is the 'Rapid Response' acknowledgement, which will direct the Pandora and any available craft in the vicinity towards the alert. You will only, and allow me to be absolute on this point, you will only use this option when granted permission by the Commanding Officer of the ship. The Commanding Officer is required to acknowledge and activate the request; this option sends back a response to the Requestor that we are en-route. Need I remind you that sending this response when we are not en-route, or without the authorisation of the Commanding Officer, will be grounds for your immediate dismissal. Is that understood?"

"Aye." Came a serious chorus of voices from the crowd.

Satisfied, Jarok continued, "Then there is a 'Reroute' acknowledgement, showing that the request has been passed on to high command. The Pandora has been given a distinct jurisdictional level for all events, which dictates the types of alerts and situations that the Pandora can respond to. The network will typically automatically re-route any calls above our jurisdiction to the necessary higher commands. However, there will be instances when the Requester may not have provided an adequate alert information, or underestimated the response required, or there have been technical deficiencies within the network, for a few examples, which means the request comes through to us first. Should we determine that the request is beyond our jurisdiction, use this option immediately to pass it up the chain of command accordingly." He turned to Christine, "Lieutenant Commander, what is the alert level the USS Saratoga has requested in your training exercise?"

Christine focused on the tile in front of her, looking to see a categorisation displayed on the top right corner. "Well, a yellow alert." She responded, then frowned, "But it appears the Saratoga has detected an incoming fleet of Borg cubes."

"Is that something the Pandora will typically be able to respond to?"

"I would." Nyx remarked to himself, but still loud enough to be heard by others, earning him an eyebrow raise from Jarok and a few laughs from around the room.

"No." Christine said firmly. "So I will.. Re-Route." She tapped at the display and sent the message off to high-command. The panel swished to the top of the tiles, but was still illuminated.

"As you can see, the tile remains in the display grid but it is no longer the highlighted alert." Jarok nodded. "The tile may be reactivated with another touch, or it may automatically jump back to the centre if the request is repeated, or Starfleet Command Demotes the call back to us to make a decision. They may choose to allow us to handle the call after all."

Christine frowned at the display of the simulated alert, where the Borg fleet were now invading Federation space, having destroyed the Saratoga and apparently headed towards Earth. "Oh my." She remarked. "Maybe we should have helped them?"

"Yes!" Nyx pumps his fist. "That's the spirit."

"Negative, Lieutenant Commander." Jarok sighed. "Unless we are instructed to by Starfleet Command." He touched at the display panel and removed the Borg Invasion simulation from the display, to save from any more distractions. "Congratulations, we went back in time and prevented the Borg from invading Earth. Problem solved. Now, the further quick responses are to 'Request Further Information'. I would presume that is pretty self-explanatory, yes? We can send a standard pro-forma request or you can stipulate through a message what information you require. Then, there is the option to 'Demote' the call to a lower level response, which will go to a non-urgent vessel, and finally to 'Dismiss' the request entirely."

"When do we dismiss a request?" Christine asked. She looked at her tiles and wondered which one should get rid of. There was a general alert from a colony on Santo-La requesting a supply drop of organic chocolate that seemed a little superfluous to her. She had been eyeing it off. "Do we require authorisation?"

"No. This is for false alarms, repeat requests, non-urgent requests." Jarok responded. He saw the group were confused by the last one. "The Federation is a wide and varied expanse of stations, ships, planets, and colonies. Someone, someday, is going to make a mistake. All requests are of course logged through the central subspace network, and any such calls will be dealt with by Starfleet."

"Goodbye organic chocolate." Christine smirked as she wiped away the tile and it disappeared. Another call quickly took its place. "So this is constant, huh? We won't ever have a clear screen."

"Universal peace eludes us, Lieutenant Commander." Jarok said with a small dose of the sardonic. "Unfortunately, the sensor pod will not be able to solve all of the Federation's problems. Neither will the Pandora."

"Pfft." Nyx huffed. "Coulda stopped the Borg."

"Captain, you mentioned the convergence?" Jarok turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Mind explaining that feature?"

"Of course!" Nyx smiled as he sauntered up to the pod. He tapped a little on the screen and suddenly there were multiple alert requests on the display, some red and others yellow. "Every ship in the fleet has been given a designation based on their ability to respond to particular events. This is automatically assigned and changes depending on proximity and their current mission status. As you can see, we are experiencing multiple alerts at once."

Christine was getting crossed off eyed again looking at all of the urgent tiles, "The Bajoran Wormhole has destabilised and has begun to threaten both Bajor and Deep Space 9 requiring immediate evacuation; the Cardassians have engaged in combat with the USS Andreas; a terrorist has attacked the Federation Council on Earth, and... Oh my. The Federation Colony of Santo-La has devolved into civil war after being refused supplies of organic chocolate." That last one stung a little. This was supposed to be an introduction lesson, not the Kobayashi Maru test. "There's a lot happening."

"In this instance, with approval given from the Commanding Officer, or Starfleet Command, we activate the convergence." Nyx continued, he pointed to the top left corner where a gold "C" button was flashing. "This will automatically redirect all of the current high alerts through to any available ships in the area based on their designation, including the Pandora."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant Commander," Jarok insisted.

Christine was about to reach out with her finger but then pulled it back, "I don't have approval." She said, dropping her hand instinctively.

Nyx laughed a little, "Approved."

Christine stabbed her finger into the display and held it there. Immediately, the Converge was activated and highlighted the current red and yellow alerts with a gold border, as each one designated to a ship. Once designated, the calls moved to the top of the display, still highlighted but no longer flashing as alerts.

"Ooh, that was easy." Christine clapped. "Why can't we just do that all the time?"

"Automated threat designations are not within Starfleet's protocols." Jarok replied, "Nor is artificial intelligence controlling our decision making. That is the command we have been given from Starfleet, they do not wish to explain it any further. The network will only allow a Converge when there are multiple high level alerts on the display at once. And only with approval from high command."

Nyx nodded solemnly, "Plus, it is better the usual way. More for us to do."

Jarok nodded to Christine, "Well done. You may continue to practice with the Pod in the Holodeck if you require."

Christine stepped away from the station and blinked a few times; eyes adjusting back to looking at normal things again. "I can tell you will need to rotate users regularly."

"Indeed." Jarok replied, "We are working on an appropriate schedule and improving the display illumination so that it's not an eyesore strain. There is also a dark mode.”

"Now he tells me.” Christine huffs to Nyx as she joined him on the sidelines.

Jarok busied himself with showing Raven how to use the pod, which she took to with equal measures of trepidation and excitement. Christine leaned against the same console that Nyx had also sidled up next to.

“See we’ve got a Chief Science Officer from the Celeste?” Christine asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt Jarok’s teaching any more than Nyx had. “First appointment but good recommendations.”

“I know.” Nyx gave a smirk. “I choose my senior crew.”

Christine folded her arms, “Well now, Command must owe you some favours.”

Nyx laughed a little, “My friend, you have no idea how much. But it’s also because we are starting a new kind of service with new equipment. They want me to build the team that I need to make it work.”

“You think more ships will get the Rapid Response if this works?” Christine asked, looking as Raven successfully counteracted a Romulan spy ship detected in Federation space. “A network or networks?”

Nyx shrugged, “Perhaps. We’re testing this for Theta Fleet. If it works, I imagine other fleets will get the same. We’re really a prototype for how it could work.”

“Then we’ll make sure it works.” Christine put on a smile. “Oh, before I forget, we received another data upload from Omipro, it contains some new footage of the attack.”

Nyx straightened up and his face lost some of its warmth. “I’ll look at it now. Thank you, Lieutenant Commander.”

The captain gave a polite farewell to Jarok as he exited the Intelligence offices. He wasn’t looking forward to seeing the attack again, but it was part of his duties. He would have much rather spent the rest of the day playing with the Rapid Response pod; but duties called once again.

OFF