How Hard Could Breaking And Entering Be?

Posted on Wed Apr 26th, 2023 @ 1:56pm by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea

Mission: Wrath of the People
Location: Intel Offices
Timeline: MD5 :: After 'Holding Down The Fort'
911 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

After P'Rel dropped the call, and after Sam got rid of the uplink device, Nayisa locked herself in P'Rel's office to get to work. It took about an hour for Nayisa to thoroughly study the security seal put in place on the Captain's quarters. The goof who authorized this used a standard seal that required a very specific authorization code, probably that of some pencil-pusher admiral. This type of seal was mostly effective, unless someone was computer savvy. Perhaps they thought they had a sufficiently clear-cut case and didn't think anyone would go snooping. It took some more digging to discover that the use of a standard seal was intentional, however, as it protected a second, more complex seal. The kind she wouldn't be surprised to find if someone were hiding something. Not only that, but it looked like the second seal had some failsafe that served as an alarm if not dismissed, so she'd have to work around that as well. Nayisa could bypass the seals and hardly break a sweat, it was keeping that damn failsafe from alerting security that was the issue. Another consideration was avoiding the ship's internal sensors, but that was rather trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Nayisa loved a challenge.

Switching gears, she then pulled up a diagram of Kane's quarters to memorize the layout so she could optimize her search. As expected, it was just a larger version of the standard quarters. To cover her bases, she used internal sensors to scan the room and look for technology using a similar encryption as the seals. She was surprised that the request even worked, half-expecting the quarters to be shielded, and several "foreign objects" popped up in very specific locations, all with encryption matching what was applied to the seals. Those had to be motion sensors, their positions were not random at all.

This revelation brought forward another problem: what purpose did motion sensors serve in a sealed room? It took a little more digging to learn that the motion sensors were actually connected to the failsafe, and judging by how they were connected, they made the failsafe refresh its idle state regularly. "Ooh, clever," she said to nobody in particular. Not only would she have to keep the failsafe from alerting, she'd have to do it before the refresh rate completed each cycle, over and over again. That made this assignment significantly harder because it took time away from searching. The longer she spent inside Kane's quarters, the greater the chance that she would get caught.

Knowing that she'd need to prepare something to help deter the failsafe, Nayisa grabbed the PADD she was using to take notes and connected it to the computer. She worked through the firewalls she put in place to protect her personal files when they were accessed from a device that wasn't the computer in her quarters. Rooting around, she found a couple of programs she had in reserve for the purpose of bypassing security seals with simple encryption. She copied them to the PADD, then closed the connection to her files and got to work on the PADD. To make it easier to deal with the cycling failsafe, she wanted a simple command she could run that she wouldn't have to put any thought into. In the simplest of terms, the code boiled down to:

if failsafe.triggers; {trigger.dont}

To make it as efficient as possible, Nayisa designed a simple little interface that allowed her to simply push a button to send the command and prevent the alert from going to security. It took about a half hour to test the design and make sure it worked before she put the PADD aside. All that was left to do was tailor the code to the failsafe, but she would do that on site.

Everything was ready.

She could manage it alone, but it would be much easier to have someone help her out and keep the secret with her. It had to be someone she deeply trusted. When she was satisfied with her level of mental preparation, she tapped her comm badge. "Wrea to Zade. Heeeyyyy Dee, you got a few minutes? I could use your help with something." P'Rel did leave it up to Nayisa's own judgement, after all. The tricky part would be convincing the Trill to help her.

"Sure. I just need to wrap something up first."

"Take your time. Meet me in the intelligence offices." After the comm link terminated, Nayisa stood from the desk and left P'Rel's office, locking the door with a simple combination. She doubted anyone would go snooping, but it was imperative that nobody found out. Judging by Sam's reaction to entering the office, she suspected that many in the department would stay away, but she'd rather be paranoid than not. Grabbing a small bag, Nayisa went around the department and collected the things she would need. A survey PADD, two small cameras, a sample collection kit, sterile gloves, a tricorder with the removable scanner, a short cable that would connect to a port inside an access hatch, and something that resembled a spanner.

Not thinking of anything else that would be useful, Nayisa discreetly returned to the office to organize, the door softly clicking behind her. While she waited for Zade, she could sanitize the items she collected and make sure everything worked. She had to ensure that nothing would go wrong.