Eyes Only - Admiral A. McKenzie, Director, League Intelligence
Subject: LSS Meshach systems post-mortem
Report Compiled by CDR J. Canapino & SCPO M. Athumani
ENCRYPT: AA-9qTz33-StyxCOM#10DE.G548801
Pursuant to Standing Order Styx-779J “All quarantined vessels held on site must produce a quarterly report for the Director of Intelligence, or their designated proxy, detailing the ongoing efforts surrounding said vessel until the Director issues a stand down order for a given vessel held on site.”
SDN-13 Status Report:
SDN-13, christened LSS Meshach, remains in a curious state of systems failure. As previously noted, all efforts to restart her local systems have met with failure. The systems team has requested an isolated space where they can extract the systems consoles from SDN-13 and reconnect them to see if they can isolate the issue that way. CDR Canapino has approved the request and our engineering crew is assembling six of our spare cargo containers into such a space. Per quarantine doctrine, this temporary space will be held in isolation from the station and from any other vessels. Those involved will utilize Walker Protocols to access the temp hull.
Our engineers, as led by SCPO Athumani, have been unable to detect any structural or physical connection issues utilizing the ship’s own detection equipment. Once the systems consoles are removed to the temp hull, Chief Athumani and her crew will begin opening up interior panels and performing a sight inspection on every single cable and connection on the ship. Given current staffing and other ongoing projects, Chief Athumani estimates that this full visual inspection and test could take as little as eight months or upwards of 16 months.
Chief Athumani also reports that all engine systems, both subspace and ion drives, are in perfect working order and an independent ignition sequence dropped directly to the drives worked as predicted. This has proven to be, perhaps, more baffling than the currently unknown systems issue, as this indicates that individual subsystems should be fully functional, and yet, when given start-up orders directly, with no system interface, no other system would come online. After this series of tests was complete, SPC 4 Bellisario suggested that it would be prudent to treat the SDN-13’s system issues as though a General Intelligence had somehow been connected to them and had infiltrated these affected subsystems. SPC 4 Bellisario has repeatedly stated that they have no evidence that this has occurred, just that all of these symptoms could be read as a GI infiltration.
SDN-13 Projections and Requests:
Given the current availability of crew, and the relative ease of removing systems consoles that were so recently upgraded and installed in dry dock, it is our best estimate that the temp hull will be fully sealed and moved into position within six days of the writing of this report. Specialist team leads estimate one month for the proper transfer of the systems consoles, however, it is the opinion of CDR Canapino that extra care and time be dedicated to this task. To that end, he has recommended that the teams be given two months to complete the transfer so as not to be rushed in a delicate job.
The sight inspection of every inch of cable will begin as consoles are removed. Again, citing a desire to not rush the crews assigned to this task and fulfilling the orders of DIRINT to find out what happened regardless of time or cost, CDR Canapino has authorized SCPO Athumani to take their time and not worry about a delivery date.
Finally, a comparatively odd request has come through from SPC4 Bellisario and both SCPO Athumani and CDR Canapino felt that it was worth sending up the chain to DIRINT. SPC4 Bellisario has requested permission to reach out to the Artificial Intelligence team at CNK for a consultation on the likelihood of a GI having infiltrated the systems. Given our prior working relationship with various members of CNK, CDR Canapino has given this plan his approval pending the approval of DIRINT.
Conclusions:
As with every previous update on SDN-13, everyone remains baffled at both why and how the entire system net on a top-of-the-line Super Dreadnaught could suffer what has been deemed a “spontaneous failure of existence.” We can now add on the oddity that there are some subsystems that will come online when activated directly and not through the system net. We would either expect no subsystems to come online, or all of them to, yet we remain unable to bring any other subsystem besides the engines online.
Both of SDN-13’s escorts are being examined, and SCPO Athumani is going to attempt the same direct engine ignition test on them in the coming weeks. Both the LSS Ligeia and the LSS Teles seem to have suffered the same fate as the Meshach, as such, if we can identify further points of similarity or difference between the cases, we may find some indication of what happened and how we can fix it.
Both CDR Canapino and SCPO Athumani support SPC4 Bellisario’s request for limited CNK involvement with this particular project. Furthermore, SCPO Athumani is recommending SPC4 Bellisario and SPC4 Reynolds for promotion to PO2 for their leadership and their excellent work ethics. Promotion Recommendations are attached, as is a recommendation for SCPO Athumani to be considered for the rank of MCPO.
Given the current nature of the work, DIRINT should expect updates to fall back to their once a quarter rate. More frequent updates will be available upon request, though it is the current belief of CDR Canapino that there will not be much to report on until the system consoles are removed and transferred.
From Matt:
If I feel bad for any of the ships I've created for RFI, its the Meshach.
I knew pretty quickly when I was filling out the Revelation-class line up that one of the ships was going to get the short end of the stick, and that turned out to be the Meshach. The Rev herself had a solid niche prepared for her, the Shadrach ended up with a fairly comfortable spot, and the Abednego was snatched up as the main setting for a West Isles Company adventure. That left poor ol' 13 without any role to fill, meaning she got stuck in this hell. I compensated by making her one of the more decorated Rev's in their pre-refit service lives. Someday, I want to tell stories about this lady. For now, she remains a mystery.
From Case:
We, uh, had some ideas about what's going on.