Bad Things Come in Small Packages"
By: Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Krystal, Hologram, [RNPC]
Giuseppe Silvio, Chief Engineer, [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58206.16 0200

"I didn't do it," Krystal announced as Maxine stepped off the turbolift and headed to her "appointment" with the Captain. It had been an hour since the holodeck simulation had ended and Maxine wasn't any closer to finding out *why*. She wasn't looking forward to this meeting because she was sure the Captain would want the answers that she couldn't provide yet. "Hush up," Max told her. "I didn't say y'did. Now remember t' be quite and make yourself scarce while I talk t' the Captain," she instructed the hologram. "Alright.. But I didn't do it," Krystal added before poofing from sight. Maxine took a deep breath, smoothed down her uniform and let the Captain know she'd arrived. Hunter looked up as the door chimed, "Enter." "Ensign Tapert reporting as ordered, sir," Maxine announced as she stepped inside. "Please, have a seat," said the Captain. "Thank you sir," Maxine sat across from him and settled the PADD she was carrying in her lap. "Can you explain to me what happened?" "No sir. Not at this time I can't," Maxine answered promptly. "What I can tell you with some degree of certainty is that Birkoff was *not* in the system after that last attack," she added. "Good," said Hunter. "That's what I need to know.." Hunter stood up, turning off his console. "Good work Ensign, its been a long day, get some rest." Maxine blinked and stood when he did. Okay, she'd been unclear. "What I meant t' say was that 'e wasn't in the system before this last attack, sir. I don't know 'ow 'e got back in..." "Are you saying there is still a risk to the ship now?"

"No... er.. Yes... Actually sir, I don't know," she admitted honestly. "I've got diagnostics running as we speak. And I instigated Level-9 security on all key systems as soon as I knew 'e was in the 'olodeck. I *think* 'e was contained there. I know for sure 'e was once Lieutenant Silvio and I isolated it, but I can't give you a 100% guarantee until I finish running the system scan. My concern is that if 'e got back in once...." she sort of leaves that hanging and lets Hunter fill in the rest.

"Very well, Ensign, keep me posted."

*** Stardate: 58206.16 0230 Maxine stepped out of the Captain's Ready Room and breathed a small sigh. Okay... she was still alive and at the moment determined to find out just what had happened and how. "I told you I didn't do it," Krystal popped into view and perched on her shoulder. "Hush, pixie," Max strode to the turbolift and stepped inside. "Deck six," she ordered and then turned to look at the hologram. "Begin a level 4 security trace protocol," she instructed. "When we get to the core, I'll start a diagnostic of all the holodeck systems." "Security trace protocol running," Krystal announced. "Good, maybe we can get t' the bottom of this before we lose our jobs." The turbolift doors opened and Max strode to the Core. "Can they really fire us?" Krystal asked, worried now and showing signs of paranoia. Maxine eyed her as she settled down before her terminal and started working. "I need t' adjust your programming," she announced. "It's pretty bad when y'start displaying properties of the routines your running." "I am not!" Krystal defended herself and then looked over her shoulder. "I think we're being watched..." "I rest my case," Maxine smirked. *** Stardate: 58206.16 0410 "You're going to just wake him up?" Krystal asked as she and Maxine stopped before the Chief Engineer's quarters. "It's zero-four-ten," she pointed out helpfully. "He might be cranky..." "The Captain said first thing in the morning," Maxine reminded her. "And I can't do this without 'im. I don't really *do* 'ardware," she added as she rang the chime to Silvio's quarters. "I do code."

*** Silvio woke with a start, he was covered in sweat and every nerve on his body was on edge. Another dream, he thought as he forced his breathing to slow down. Fortunately his Cardassian tormentor was interrupted by whoever was ringing his door bell. Maxine persistently rang the chime again when there was no immediate answer to her hail. Silvio had fallen asleep sitting at his desk. He stood up went to the door and opened it up. It slid open to reveal Max and Krystal. "Is something wrong," he asked. Krystal peeked from around Max's head because you just never knew about cranky engineers. "Yes sir," Maxine nodded. "We're sorry to bother you..." She was surprised to find the engineer still in his uniform. Although he did look a little like they'd disturbed him. "But we need you, sir," she told him and fidgeted a little. "See.. I don't *do* hardware," she explained. Silvio looked at Max and tried to make sense of what she was saying, "Ok, what do you need?" She looked like she was about ready to grab him and drag him along with her, but she clasped her hands behind her back and started again. "Birkoff wasn't *in* the computer before this latest attack. But he got in... We traced it to the Auxiliary Net but I can't find the point of entry. The code is... well.. Shattered is the best way I can explain it. Fragmented so much at that end that we can't pinpoint it." Silvio's sleepy mind started coming back into focus. Max was working on the Birkoff virus. "Give me a 10 minutes and meet me in Auxiliary control." Ten minutes. She could do ten minutes. "Aye sir. I'll meet you there...." Maxine acknowledged and nodded her head before she and Krystal turned and strode away. *** Silvio just did not believe Max had missed the latest Birkoff virus. He watched her combat the virus in the holodeck. She was much to good for that. "There must be something else," he muttered to himself as he stepped off the turbolift. Silvio held his ever present tool kit in his left hand and he entered Auxiliary control. To Silvio, this was the scene of the crime and his feeling was that the answer was here somewhere. Max had not yet arrived so Silvio pulled off the access panel and did a quick scan with is tricorder. He has ordered this station checked and double checked after the Birkoff incident. His techs assured him that it was clean. Silvio tapped a button on the console, "Silvio to Bridge," he said. "Bridge here," came the reply. "Be advised that Auxiliary control will be offline for maintenance," he said. "Acknowledged." Max had swung by the computer core on the way and grabbed her diagnostic equipment. Not that there was much. It consisted of a compact laptop looking thing that contained a copy of all her software and allowed her to remotely log into the system and run routines from outside it. She also had a couple of PADDs that she toted around with it. "You beat me 'ere," she announced unnecessarily as she strode into Auxiliary Control and moved to where Silvio was. She was quite nosy enough to peer over his shoulder uninvited. "Yes, I did," he replied removing several control chips and placing them on the floor, "All the systems check out clean." "Yup. We were here earlier," Krystal announced. "Tried running the trace from this end," Maxine admitted. "Didn't do any good." "We think he had an accomplice and they're working together to undermine the computer core and infiltrate all our systems," Krystal added helpfully. Her paranoia was rather evident. "We have spies on board," she whispered conspiratorially and glanced around to see if anyone was looking or listening in. Considering how they got into this mess in the first place Silvio could hardly disputer her claims, but he did not think there was another traitor on the Zion, at least not one working with Birkoff anyway. Silvio removed several more chips and scanned each one, "We will go through it one piece at a time." Silvio pulled another chip and scanned it, "Hello," he said concentrating on the tricroder reading, "That is not supposed to be there." "What's not supposed t' be there?" Max and Krystal asked in unison and both leaned closer to him. Silvio handed her the chip and the tricorder, "What do you think of this?" Maxine took the chip and tricorder and plopped down on the deck as she scanned it. "Crikey..." she blinked and looked back up at Silvio. "I've only seen a couple of these in my whole life..." "You are one up on me," said Silvio, "I have only read about them." "OOooohhhh. It's a little teeny baby one!" Krystal squealed. "Abandoned at birth! Coerced into turning traitor!" she struck a dramatic pose. "The spies are cads!! CADS! We have to roust them out! Make them walk the plank! Hang them from the yardarm!" "Pixie!" Max reached up and flicked her image. "Knock it off." She gave Silvio an apologetic look. "Sorry sir. It's the trace routine. Makes her paranoid," she explained. Silvio had no idea what this tiny computer attached to the isolinear chip was programmed to do, but his hunch was that they had just found Birkoff's mode of infection. "I think we have found it. You will need to figure out what it is programmed for. I will bet you anything that it is programmed to deliver a virus into our ship's computer." Maxine pulled an old semi-battered looking PADD from her pack. "I've modified this so that it has absolutely *no* networking or communication capabilities," she told him. "I use it to analyze suspicious code. If we plug in the chip we should be able to get a look at the code on it." "Let's do it," he said, wanting to confirm his hunch.

"A'roight then.." Maxine grinned in anticipation as she hooked the PADD up to a small collapsible keyboard and then slid the isolinear chip into the slot. As she waited, she angled the screen so that she and Silvio could both watch. "The program's accessing the chip now... Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't eat my system," she grinned like the prospect was actually appealing.

"There is definitely a nanocomputer on the chip," Maxine announced as the program confirmed its presence. "It's dormant at the moment," she added and looked over at him for any signs of disapproval as she announced, "m'gonna try and activate it, sir." When Silvio gave her a slight non to proceed Max's fingers typed out the commands and then she sat back while she and the Chief Engineer watched in awe as the microscopic computer dumped its waiting payload into the PADD and then destroyed its own operating system.

Max let out a whispered, "Crikey..."

Silvio let out a low whistle, "He is pretty good," he said as he picked up his tricorder and began scanning more of the chips. The ship had many chips, however, they could not manually scan them all by hand. "Do you think you can configure the computer to detect and identify any other infected chips, without activating them?"

"Aye, sir. I can write a program that will basically do what your tricorder did. It'll access the sensors and perform a narrow scan for the trace elements of the nanoprocessors without activating them." Her eyes were on the screen of her PADD the entire time she talked as she watched the Birkoff virus in action.

"That is good, we better make sure that there aren't any more of these," suggested Silvio.

"Aye sir. The way that bloody sot keeps showing up, I wouldn't put anything past him," Max totally agreed "I'll get on it right now."