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driftfleet2016-08-04 10:13 pm
tetractys) wrote in driftfleet2016-08-04 10:13 pm
Entry tags:
enigma variations
Who: Bill Cipher
Broadcast: First to the SS Golden, then to the rest of the fleet after a few days
Action: Aboard the Golden
When: Wednesday - Friday
[Action:]
[There's a distinct smell of smoke when the comms fry, on the Golden, and a horrible electronic whine just barely within the high range of human hearing. The ship blinks off of fleet radar. Fifteen seconds go by, and the system fails to reboot itself. Thirty seconds. Sixty.
By the time any of the rest of the crew can come investigate, a bespectacled man with his sleeves rolled up is elbow-deep in the comm array, a small flashlight between his teeth. He hasn't been around the ship before, no one will recognize him. The ship's had all the equipment associated with a Communications officer for a month now, it's just that nobody's touched it, or even showed up to claim the title. So maybe this is the guy making an appearance, finally? Then again, it's a little weird that he's never come out of his cabin for meals, if he's been here that long.
The man waves over anyone who gets close and pulls the flashlight out of his mouth to hand it to them, if they'll accept it.]
Hi. Hold this, will you?
[Text, to the Crew of the Golden.]
[It's a few hours of tinkering before this message appears. Bits of the communications array have been tossed haphazardly around the entire surrounding area. Try not to step on anything breakable or sharp?]
The good news is that I found the problem! The bad news is that it's going to take the rest of the night to fix. It's good and cooked in here! I'd say the router is about medium-rare! Bring me some protien sauce to put on it and check back tomorrow morning.
The other bad news is that this was sabotage! But the other good news is that I've got a plan! I wrote an executable for you guys to all run on your communicators so that we're all on the same page when I can get the system running again.
Attachment: sysupdate.exe
Just type this in like you would if you were sending a regular message. Don't make any typos or we'll be isolated in the unforgiving depths of space for another six hours while I try to find out what you did wrong. Ha ha! :)
[What Bill isn't mentioning is that this little bit of code has nothing to do with fixing the ship and everything to do with remotely scripting any communicator it's run on.]
[Audio, fleetwide.]
[It's thirty-six hours into the rebuild when the systems suddenly click back on in a burst of static and feedback. Muffled, triumphant cackling is audible down the entire main corridor of the Golden. The ship comes back into radar detection. On the communicator network, an unfamiliar male voice crackles to life. Anyone who's heard Bill's real voice in a dream won't recognize this one - he's borrowing it from a friend.]
Hellooooo, fleet! This is a systems test, the SS Golden hailing any other satellites that can recieve. Please respond if I'm getting through to you! I've got some pret-ty interesting news about what just put us into a blackout.
[Text. Double-encrypted; Private-locked to self only.]
THAT SURE WAS A DUMB MISTAKE YOU JUST MADE. FORTUNATELY, I'M A GENEROUS GUY. I CAN SMOOTH ALL OF THIS OVER AND MAKE SURE YOU CAN STILL COLLECT WHATEVER IT IS YOU NEEDED. I WON'T TELL THE OTHER SHIPS HOW TO CORRECTLY UNHOOK YOUR LITTLE DOODADS, AND THINGS WILL GO BACK TO NORMAL FOR YOU. ALL I WANT IS TO GET IN ON WHAT YOU KNOW. LET'S BE A TEAM!
I WANT ACCESS TO PRIVATE FILTERED COMMUNICATIONS, FLEET-WIDE. I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU 24 HOURS TO THINK ABOUT IT. IF I GET MY PRICE BY THEN, I'LL ASSUME WE HAVE A DEAL. IF THERE'S NO CHANGE BY THEN, WELL - YOU WOULDN'T HAVE PUT THIS ON MY SHIP UNLESS WE HAD SOMETHING YOU WANTED! AND IF I DON'T GET WHAT I WANT, NO ONE DOES.
◬
[(FQ PBBJP XQOLJX EXP X CLB, XK FKQBOZBMQLO PQFII RKKXJBA
F'SB PELTK JV ZXOA IBQ'P EXSB PLJB CRK
QEBOB KLT XOB QEOBB PFABP FK QEFP DXJB)]
((Want your character with a Commuications augment to be able to catch and decode that last message? PM or hit me up on Plurk, I'm totally down for that!))
Broadcast: First to the SS Golden, then to the rest of the fleet after a few days
Action: Aboard the Golden
When: Wednesday - Friday
[Action:]
[There's a distinct smell of smoke when the comms fry, on the Golden, and a horrible electronic whine just barely within the high range of human hearing. The ship blinks off of fleet radar. Fifteen seconds go by, and the system fails to reboot itself. Thirty seconds. Sixty.
By the time any of the rest of the crew can come investigate, a bespectacled man with his sleeves rolled up is elbow-deep in the comm array, a small flashlight between his teeth. He hasn't been around the ship before, no one will recognize him. The ship's had all the equipment associated with a Communications officer for a month now, it's just that nobody's touched it, or even showed up to claim the title. So maybe this is the guy making an appearance, finally? Then again, it's a little weird that he's never come out of his cabin for meals, if he's been here that long.
The man waves over anyone who gets close and pulls the flashlight out of his mouth to hand it to them, if they'll accept it.]
Hi. Hold this, will you?
[Text, to the Crew of the Golden.]
[It's a few hours of tinkering before this message appears. Bits of the communications array have been tossed haphazardly around the entire surrounding area. Try not to step on anything breakable or sharp?]
The good news is that I found the problem! The bad news is that it's going to take the rest of the night to fix. It's good and cooked in here! I'd say the router is about medium-rare! Bring me some protien sauce to put on it and check back tomorrow morning.
The other bad news is that this was sabotage! But the other good news is that I've got a plan! I wrote an executable for you guys to all run on your communicators so that we're all on the same page when I can get the system running again.
Attachment: sysupdate.exe
Just type this in like you would if you were sending a regular message. Don't make any typos or we'll be isolated in the unforgiving depths of space for another six hours while I try to find out what you did wrong. Ha ha! :)
[What Bill isn't mentioning is that this little bit of code has nothing to do with fixing the ship and everything to do with remotely scripting any communicator it's run on.]
[Audio, fleetwide.]
[It's thirty-six hours into the rebuild when the systems suddenly click back on in a burst of static and feedback. Muffled, triumphant cackling is audible down the entire main corridor of the Golden. The ship comes back into radar detection. On the communicator network, an unfamiliar male voice crackles to life. Anyone who's heard Bill's real voice in a dream won't recognize this one - he's borrowing it from a friend.]
Hellooooo, fleet! This is a systems test, the SS Golden hailing any other satellites that can recieve. Please respond if I'm getting through to you! I've got some pret-ty interesting news about what just put us into a blackout.
[Text. Double-encrypted; Private-locked to self only.]
THAT SURE WAS A DUMB MISTAKE YOU JUST MADE. FORTUNATELY, I'M A GENEROUS GUY. I CAN SMOOTH ALL OF THIS OVER AND MAKE SURE YOU CAN STILL COLLECT WHATEVER IT IS YOU NEEDED. I WON'T TELL THE OTHER SHIPS HOW TO CORRECTLY UNHOOK YOUR LITTLE DOODADS, AND THINGS WILL GO BACK TO NORMAL FOR YOU. ALL I WANT IS TO GET IN ON WHAT YOU KNOW. LET'S BE A TEAM!
I WANT ACCESS TO PRIVATE FILTERED COMMUNICATIONS, FLEET-WIDE. I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU 24 HOURS TO THINK ABOUT IT. IF I GET MY PRICE BY THEN, I'LL ASSUME WE HAVE A DEAL. IF THERE'S NO CHANGE BY THEN, WELL - YOU WOULDN'T HAVE PUT THIS ON MY SHIP UNLESS WE HAD SOMETHING YOU WANTED! AND IF I DON'T GET WHAT I WANT, NO ONE DOES.
◬
[(FQ PBBJP XQOLJX EXP X CLB, XK FKQBOZBMQLO PQFII RKKXJBA
F'SB PELTK JV ZXOA IBQ'P EXSB PLJB CRK
QEBOB KLT XOB QEOBB PFABP FK QEFP DXJB)]
((Want your character with a Commuications augment to be able to catch and decode that last message? PM or hit me up on Plurk, I'm totally down for that!))
private//encrypted
[A pause as he considers it. He's had dreams about different passengers since then too. He takes a moment to make sure the specific ones he's thinking of happened back then.]
Yes, I did see other passengers in the dreams I had during that time.
private//encrypted
private//encrypted
private//encrypted
[Bill doesn't need to fake the fascination in the borrowed voice.]
Was there a machine involved? A spell?
private//encrypted
private//encrypted
[The sounds of a comm being poked at come through on the other end.]
Would there be record of this incident? On the network? I've only been here for a few days.
Re: private//encrypted
private//encrypted
...There haven't been any side effects that you've noticed, have there?
Re: private//encrypted
private//encrypted
... Who else was here?
private//encrypted
The ones that I can remember being there are- [Vash will then list off everyone from this event who are still in the fleet. Remarkably if anyone had a list to confirm it he would have gotten all the names right.] Although with the way this place can warp a person's memories they may not all remember it. Especially if they've gone home and back again.
At least I think that's everyone. I may have missed a name or two.