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RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 5.41] After the briefin

ShotJon

ShotJon

Well-Known Member
Private Third Class Sergei Ibraun Isolov was left in the hangar-bay after the briefing with order to wait for someone to pick him up. He was pulled from next mission for inquiry, because of his AI. BEL was taken from him by Henry Morris, his NCO and send to the higher ups.

As Sergei waited a female navy Ensign came to him. She was a short woman, with short brown hair and athletic figure. The woman watched him for a while from under her officer-cap. "Are you P3C Sergei I. Isolov?" She then asked him.
 
A flush crept up Sergei's neck as he tried, unsuccessfully, not to allow his gaze to linger to long at the female ensign's not-entirely-unflattering uniform, "Uh, yes ma'am... Uhm, do you, by any chance, happen to know why I'm being held here? I was just ordered to stay put... No one's told me much...." Sergei smiled sheepishly, and laughed nervously, trying to break the uneasy silence that permeated the hold.
 
Woman who did something on her datajockey, looked up to him as he laughed. "I do happen to know," she responded, keeping the neutral voice and facial expression. Her eye scanned him from head to toes. "You marines forgot how to salute." She added, sounding a little angry. Then she sighed and waved at him. "Follow me."

They left the armoury and walked through the ship corridors, taking an elevator up. Ensign remained silent throughout the whole walk. At the and they reached a doors. In front of them stood a sailor with sidearm on his belt. He winked at the ensign and opened the door.

Isolov and Ensign entered. The room was almost empty, there was only a table and two chairs, everything bolted to the ground. Ensign pointed at the chair looking towards the large mirror on one wall. She sat down on the other one.

"Sit down private." She said and put her datajockey on the table. "I am Ensign Mildred Smith. You are here for questioning. It seems you have smuggled an AI on the ship and we are here to determine, what to do next with you and your little AI." She said, reached in her breast pocked and took out a small plastic box. Opening it, she revealed a memory-chip. It was memory-chip taken out of Isolov's datajockey earlier that day by corporal Morris.
 
Sergei fumbled to produce as crisp of a salute as he could when the Ensign mentioned his lack thereof, and the flush that had been creeping up his neck jumped an extra foot and fully encased his head in a sheath of red. He followed the Ensign down quite a few corridors until they reached an unmarked door guarded by a sailor standing at attention with his sidearm within easy reach. Sergei noticed the soldier wink at the Ensign and filed that information away for future use.

Upon entering said unmarked room, Sergei immediately realized that it was an interrogation room. When he realized this, the redness that permeated his being was instantly replaced by a sudden pallor. If the Ensign noticed, she made no indication. The room itself was made of brushed steel, and was empty save for a table and two chairs, all of which were bolted down with a mirror on the side wall. The Ensign took a seat on the chair nearest the mirror, and indicated for Sergei to seat himself on the chair opposite her.

Sergei did as he was instructed and sat silently, waiting for the Ensign to explain the situation to him. She introduced herself as Ensign Mildred Smith, she explained to Sergei that he was currently being investigated for his possession of a contraband AI. She then produced a small box containing the memory chip from Sergei's DataJockey, destroyed earlier that day.

Sergei's eyes widened and the color rushed back into his face at the sight of his memory chip, and he had to resist the urge to lunge over the table and grab it, "That's BEL!", Sergei then realized that he had just treated an intelligence construct as if it were a person; in front of another human being. The flush in his neck reappeared as he tried to explain himself, "That is, uh, B-E-L, it's her designation, ma'am, it's short for BELLIGERENT. I call her that because, well, due to discrepancies in her white box, she developed a sort of, well, mean, personality... But she's completely harmless I swear! I designed her to be restricted to running my cyber-protection suite, and my counter-intrusion systems... Granted, I do have a couple of programs designed for hacking, but I left those all back on my home computer. Believe me I am not nearly stupid enough to bring hacking programs onto an active military vessel... Uhm... If I may ma'am, how much trouble am I in exactly?" Sergei tried his best not to let the Ensign's gaze make him squirm, but it was far more difficult than he expected.
 
The woman just raised an eyebrow, she was typing in something in her datajockey. Making a notes, still looking up at Sergei from it every few seconds as he talked. Her face remained fairly neutral throughout the exchange.

"How much trouble?" She repeated after him, her eyes once again locking down on him. Two sapphire-like, icy eyes. "That is what we are here to find out. You squad-leader thought you are in enough trouble to not take you on the mission where every boot on the ground would be useful."

She took the chip and picked it up watching Bel, or rather her hardware home. "Hmm even if this Bel of yours cannot do software intrusion, the Datajockey you were using to communicate with her has a wireless connection to military networks and by that extension so does your Bel." She started talking, eyebrows above her icy eyes frowing. "Do you realise someone could use your little Bel as a weak-point for entry as you gave her access to the network so she could 'protect' your system. For example the ever present dangers from freespacers Polysentience network?"
 
Sergei searched around the room as if grasping at simple words that were on the tip of his tongue, yet somehow kept eluding him. Sergei started to say something, and stopped. Looking downcast, he said, "No, ma-" Suddenly Sergei found the words that he had been looking for. Looking up, he met her withering gaze, and while not appearing as resolute as he may have wanted, he did manage to stop squirming, "Ma'am, I understand that receiving updates from my home computer may leave my Data'Jockey open to attack, but it wouldn't open up the military network any more than any other DataJockey updating itself. I cannot see why I am being singled out. Is it because I was able to design my own operating system? Does the NSMC want only mindless trigger fingers in it's ranks!" Sergei's breathing became rapid as his constant mild paranoia kicked in, "Am I about to dealt with with extreme prejudice?!"
 
The woman picked up a pencil as started tapping it against the table, her eyes watching him. "I am not of NSMC, but I personally always assume that is generally expected from you. To just aim guns, kill things and let other worry about other stuff." She said, obviously mocking the young marine. "And yes Datajockey updates itself, from highly secured NAM networks. Do you think connection to your home computer offers same security, I doubt that. Your little AI will be probed and looked upon by experts and Drei and they will decide if it is a security problem or not. As for you, I will suggest you to be sent back to your unit and mark you with IPG as potential hacker."
 
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