As the elevator doors slid open, Taylor arrived at the control deck.
She sensed an uneasy tension in the air, as the control crew intently monitored their assigned stations.
Monitors suspended from the ceiling actively scrolled through maintenance reports and schematics of affected systems.
The computers whirred and beeped as usual, yet the atmosphere felt uncertain. The crew also appeared anxious, constantly checking monitors, or pacing from station to station.
As she stepped into the room, Nicholas Steele noticed her arrival. The executive officer appeared tense, observing a computer readout before noticing the operations chief entering the deck. Attempting to compose himself, he briefly straightened his uniform, and turned to face her.
"Something wrong, sir?"
She inquired, stepping towards him.
The officer sighed, shaking his head affirmatively. His blue eyes shimmered with concern; a light sweat glistening on his brow.
He pauses for a moment, glancing uneasily to the side, then looks back at Taylor.
"Something is wrong with the Mainframe. As you know, the station's secondary systems started behaving oddly a few hours ago. We attributed it to simple errors in the software that our maintenance team could easily resolve..."
"Such as the automatic doors to sickbay and the officer's lounge...."
Taylor completed Steele's sentence.
He nodded.
"That's just the start. A few minutes ago, the systems on deck six went offline. Gravity control, oxygen circulation, deck power.
Then just like that (he snaps his fingers), they came back on."
Taylor's eyes had widened in alarm, as she listened to Steele's report. Deck six housed the crew quarters.
Steele continued.
"The Mainframe's logs read that it had cut off power to the deck for approximately seven seconds. We have not yet figured out why, but it's been behaving oddly. Not just it's system management."
"Is the crew okay?"
Asked Taylor, concerned for the well-being of the crew.
Steele nodded, understanding what she meant.
"The personnel on deck six are shaken up, with only minor injuries, but that doesn't mean it won't happen again, with a different outcome."
"I understand."
"I need you to inspect the Mainframe core for software errors. If it's acting up, it needs to be secured and repaired immediately. The Mainframe is a vital piece of the station, and without it, we're going to be a lot less efficient."
"Of course; understood. I'll head down there personally to check on her."
Steele sighed in relief, a faint smile crossing his face.
"Thank you, Taylor. That is all."
Taylor sighed to herself as she turned away from Steele, thinking to herself.
What could be wrong with AzTech?
As the station's command mainframe, she's constantly monitored by technicians. Her defense firewall is second-to-none, and her adaptive systems switch to redundant backups when necessary.
As she pondered this, she walked to the elevator, deep in thought.
As she approached the elevator, it made a negative beep as the doors refused to open.
Steele noticed this and turned to face her. His face reflected the exhaustion that came with trying to manage the malfunctioning machinery.
"Those doors have been operating irregularly recently. Try pulling the manual release, that should open them up."
Taylor nodded and bent down, prying at the door panel to access the release lever.
As Steele turned back to the status display with the intent to monitor the station's systems, the display flickered abnormally, then displayed a blank screen with white text.
"Control Deck computer access has been restricted. The main computer is currently partially inoperative. Please contact the Operations department immediately for level five core maintenance."
Steele stepped back for a moment, concerned, as he briefly read the text filling the screen.
He turned to face the other displays in the room.
They all displayed the same maintenance message.
Computer screens across the control room were being rendered inoperative.
Monitoring systems, status displays, command screens. A negative buzz sounded from the computers in response to the officers' inputs. The systems were not responding.
Steele turned to Taylor, who had removed the panel and stood to her feet, taking notice of the inoperative computers.
Taylor's voice shook as she spoke.
"This, isn't supposed to happen."
Steele turned to face her; his voice low but tinged with concern.
"Indeed..."
He stepped towards a display, waving his hand across the interface. It buzzed negatively, indicating its inoperative status. He tapped the screen, yet nothing happened.
"As you know well, the computers are housed within the computer core. Whatever is going on has just compromised the computer core as well as the mainframe."
Taylor turned a quizzical gaze towards him.
"That's an odd way of putting it. Are you suggesting something?"
She stepped back as a thought entered her mind.
"Sabotage? Did someone plant a virus in the station's systems?"
Her eyes widened as she spoke, her face clearly showing her shock.
Steele bent his head down as he raised his hand to his chin, intently thinking.
"All I'm saying," mused Steele, "is that these errors cannot be coincidental."
"This station has redundancies in the systems layout, functioning as backups when critical systems go offline, or are determined to not be functioning properly. In both cases- that is, for the Mainframe and the CPU core, neither of them automatically switched to the backups. This may be more integrated than we think."
He snapped out of his thoughts, startling Taylor briefly.
"Taylor, you need to get down to the Mainframe at once. There's no approximate way of knowing how far this...virus, has infiltrated our systems."
With a sense of urgency, he ushered Taylor to the operational elevator.
As Taylor stepped in, Steele stood in front of the doors as they swished closed, his naturally composed stature now expressing fear, his facial features reflecting personal concern for the station and its crew.
"Please hurry, Hannah."
YOU ARE READING
TechLines: Earth's Orbital Space-Station
Ficção Científica[AzTech] File Retrieval - Archive 2438 8/4/2108 | Station Logs The crew had been working around the clock to keep the station maintained. Onboard systems were malfunctioning at random, when they're weren't failing outright. Both the Engineering and...
