Living as a Salted Fish, No Snake on the Marshal's Wrist

Chapter 114: Result

Moving passed the little mishap with the toy Jun De began to wash the babies as planned.

"Have we left the asteroid belt?" Taio Ru asked.

"We have. Things have been quiet so far, but everyone is on high alert. I'll also be returning after I've finished giving the babies their bath." Jun De said.

"I should check in on the engineering team." Taio Ru added.

"That's not necessary. Get some sleep. They know how to contact you if there is a problem. Right now you should rest." Jun De said.

"I'm not going to monitor the system. I want to study the dead spots and see if I can form a predictive algorithm. If we know where they will appear next we can reverse it and determine where it might have originated. Knowing it's origin will be helpful when fixing it." Taio Ru explained.

"Love, you can leave that to the engineering department." Jun De repeated. His reluctance to let Taio Ru do any work was beginning to get on Taio Ru's nerves.

"Jun De I know you're concerned about my health, but I'm offering my help because I think it is necessary. There is something unusual about those dead spots and I can't relax until it's been solved. The system rerouting is only a stopgap so we can return to Capital Star. I'm confident I can make it work until we reach our destination, but it's no different than treating the symptoms not the illness. Unless we find the cause and fix the core problem it's difficult to predict what will happen next." Taio Ru explained. He never believed in things as vague as "gut feeling" but he couldn't deny something felt wrong.

"I agree. That's why I've told the Head of the Engineering Department to continue working on the problem. They've been told not to modify your current programming and only monitor and analyze the data. If they find anything of significance they can discuss it with you." Jun De said.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'd still prefer to have a look myself." Taio Ru said. He didn't doubt that Jun De's subordinates could do their job. He just had more confidence in himself.

"I'll have them relay all information to you. But it's best if you stay here and rest with the babies." Jun De finally agreed. He didn't want Taio Ru working, but he couldn't deny Taio Ru's help would be appreciated.

...

As promised Taio Ru soon received a red tablet with all the current information they had on the ships system. He had reviewed the information previously when he reprogrammed the system. Even so, he wanted to consider the information from new perspectives and run additional simulations along with many other things.

With each new day new information would come in and Taio Ru would analyze it.  Until fifth day when Taio Du came to a realization.

"Jun De we have a serious problem." Taio Ru said the moment Jun De entered the room. He had just come back from the cafeteria with some food for Taio Ru and the babies.

"Has something happened to the babies?" Jun De asked as he immediately walked over to the crib. Looking inside he couldn't find anything unusual.

"Not the babies, the dead spots. Listen close, I think something might be eaten the power and creating these dead spots." Taio Ru said. He had been analyzing and running different scenarios and there was no mechanical reason that could explain the pattern at which these dead spots were occurring. It wasn't following a predictable pattern. The dead spots didn't appear at random places in the system, but from fixed locations according to the physical hardware. Like branches expanding from a few singular sources.

The only plausible cause was either a virus which was unlikely or something physically attacking the hardware. He'd searched the entire system for any software anomalies but found nothing, leaving a hardware problem as the only other viable conclusion.