Star Trek PBEM Sim / Star Trek RPG
OUR STAR TREK PBEM STORIES: SURPRISE ME, PART FOUR
Title: Surprise Me, Part Four
Location: Pandora's Box
Setting: CO's Office
"Do you have a way to decipher the message?" she asked.
Captain Kamranov smiled. "Yes, perhaps. I can see how that works with these old
phrases for substitution, " he said, punching some more tiny buttons for the slim
cases to begin searching using the keywords.
"Special Delivery would be a beam out most likely more than one in some sort of
sequence..." he started to say staring at the words. He had used that more than
once in his life although he wasn't able to remember that yet.
"Ahhh.. The two toppings meaning two people? What would the specific toppings
mean?" she asked.
"Yes or two objects and some permutation of that," he said reading and scrolling
down.
"Hmmm... You really do need a secret decoder ring in this business, don't you?"
Llew smiled. "I'm getting the order of these narrowed down."
"It's important", the Captain explained, "That if the enemy, we always assume
that there is an enemy, vhere to become able to decrypt the message, as we also
always assume, that the message not make much sense to them or appear benign in
some way or give false information at some level. That's why for certain level
of codes we revert to something like this especially vhen the message is not
high tech. Your notes here and the ease of translation, even though the
languages are quite ancient, imply that there was no advanced technology as we
know it to send the message and encrypt it. This does however also imply in
contrast more advanced technology than we currently understand it at the same
time because of the knowledge of time travel and sending such a message that may
be tailored for us of our time or near abouts. It is an interesting paradox in
which I hope can be unraveled soon to rescue if needed whoever sent the message
before it is too late for them."
"Part of the message must deal with coordinates, " Llewellyn mused. "They would
have to have a way to let us know not only where they are, but more importantly,
when they are. Do you suppose the message that contained three toppings instead
of two might be significant in that regards? I must admit, the peanut butter
threw me for a loop "
"Vherry good," the Captain said. "The trick will be to find them at the right
time if they are moving through time as it seems."
"Is it possible to send a message to a specific time?" she asked.
Yes," he said carefully. "It is possible to send a message to a specific time.
There is much involved. The hardest part perhaps will be to make sure there is
someone who can receive and know what to do with the message." He left it unsaid
that perhaps whoever had left the message was from the future or had knowledge
of the ship and/or himself and maybe LT Moreau's skills. Hoping to successfully
target who to send the message to could help the agent for a faster and safer
retrieval. It could also tip off any enemy agent who might also know such
information who would then in turn target the retriever of the information to
eliminate them to get to the sender first.
"No kidding. Otherwise you'd just be shouting into the dark," Llew agreed.
"They'd have to be fairly certain of some kind of reception I'd think.
Otherwise how would 'they know where and when to send it to?" she asked almost
absently. "Factoring time into a location gives a whole new meaning to
triangulation, " she added. "Turns the whole process into more of a....
Tetrahedron, " she grinned. "I always liked that word. And the shape."
The Captain smiled. She caught on very fast.
"I'm narrowing it down," Llew smiled back. "I'm going to double check the time
factor calculations by filtering out the message itself and dating the
backgrounds. Each one should be unique to specific times. Even space ages,"
she told him.
He nodded deep in thought. It would help him immensely if he knew who the person
was who sent the message to help figure out which codes to use and how to put
them together. Kamranov was beginning to suspect that indeed the sender knew
something of them or maybe him and the COMMO.
Llewellyn took advantage of his silence as she listened intently to the
background in the messages. Space moved. It shifted. Not a lot, but it did.
Combine that with the different sound debris specific to different times, and
location in time was becoming clearer. "I've got it, sir," she announced and
turned to look at him.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Twenty three eighty seven," she answered. "Several systems away from our
present location."
