DAY 177 (mon) cont...
Kirk and the crew of the Caco now found that the ship's rogue AI was more or less in full control. Kirk wasn't going to just give up though, or wait for a cogent plan come to that, and he immediately started by trying to gain access to the kitchen / engineering station where the AI core was located (under the work top).
He told everyone to put on their MATSEs and breathing apparatus as a safety measure and then tried to open the door. Quorg responded immediately by saying, 'All crew return to your cabins.'
When Kirk did no such thing, the AI altered the life support settings and the air began to get hotter and hotter.
With sweat lashing off him in rivers, Kirk carried on. He opened the door and got to the kitchen. The air was as hot as an oven and scalding to his exposed skin. He reached the AI core and hit the 'off' switch and... ...nothing happened. The AI was apparently clever enough to ignore a digital signal from a control panel.
'Paterson has collapsed from the heat!' yelped Murphy over their communicators. 'She's going to die!'
Kirk ordered everyone back to their cabins and the temperature returned to normal.
It wasn't long before he was trying again though. He knew there was a panel to kill power to the warp core in a crawl space under the hold. Something weird in Numiri logic also meant that not only was it hard to access there was also a ten minute procedure to shut it down. Kirk was fairly sure this would also kill the power to the AI.
He couldn't go himself so he used a handset to communicate with his faithful Engineering Bot and sent it down there. The door to the crawl way was sealed off so the Bot started to cut it with one of its many inbuilt tools.
'Stop that!' said Quorg over the coms and Kirk reluctantly sent the Bot back to its station.
Later that day, as they cruised along at warp speed, somehow they managed to his a meteor. This is not something that usually occurs at warp speed, but the Delta Quadrant is an unusual place or perhaps the AI had turned off some warp safety measures for some reason.
They dropped out of warp immediately and started drifting, badly damaged. Quorg ordered Kirk and Dell down to the engine room to start fixing things. The main Deflector Control was overloaded, smoking and sparking. Kirk requested the Engineering Bot and it came to help out.
It took them the rest of the day, but in the end everything was patched up.
As he headed back to his cabin, worn out and covered in soot, Kirk was informed, 'Start studying for an Astronomy Exam sucker! And Numiri training exercises are at five am sharp!'
DAY 178 (tue)
After his exercises and exam Kirk was awarded his breakfast - two slices of dried toast and a pea.
The crew were then allowed out of their cabins for one hour of social interaction.
Kirk tried the replicator but it was under control of Quorg.
'He has control over everything,' said Dell glumly. 'James Adams is gone and Quorg is in his place.
I think Quorg is the original Numiri AI.'
Kirk rubbed his chin, 'But he was replaced by Adams. Perhaps we can replace him again?'
'Return to your rooms!' barked Quorg.
Later on, in frustration, Kirk exited his room and with the Engineering Bot headed for the hold.
Together they opened the door to the Warp Reactor kill switch. He then ordered the Bot to head down the crawl space.
When Quorg told him to stop. Kirk ignored him and told the Bot to keep going. The poor bot was then cut in half down the middle when an emergency door slammed down on its back.
'Return to your cabin, sucker!' bellowed Quorg.
The crew behaved themselves for the rest of the day, doing the work that Quorg assigned to them.
DAY 179 (wed)
At four in the morning Kirk was woken by Dell contacting him on the MATSE. Luckily for them it was a means of communication that Quorg had no control over and could no listen in on. Using text so they could not be overheard Dell explained that perhaps they could use an AI from a virtual game that Dell had.
He had figured out how to channel it through the MATSE to Kirk who could then play the game to 'rescue' the AI from a 'dungeon'.
Its the best I could do with so little time, said Dell. While I work on the code to fit our AI in with the Caco, all you need to do is play the game to unlock the AI, it shouldn't be hard.
Kirk adjusted his headset and the game appeared before him in virtual reality. The first thing he had to do was choose which AI to 'rescue'. He knew underneath it all the AI would be much the same regardless.
This was just the game giving it a 'skin' or level of personality.
His choices where:
Fenrir - some sort of warlock sex pest
Rollo - some sort of druid know-it-all
Arahel - some sort of green skinned child
Sylvia - some sort of grumpy woman in armour
Veddic - some sort of grumpy man in armour
He selected 'Fenrir' feeling some sort of empathy for the fellow and entered the dungeon...
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