{REDACTED}

Posted on Thu 19th Feb, 2026 @ 12:24pm by Commander Damion Ildaran & Captain Gordon Francis & Exo-Comp EXQT & Alidade (Computer)

2,790 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] From The Ashes
Location: IBEX- Loading Bay 7

The IBEX introduction can be found here: https://sb109.harperhold.com/index.php/sim/viewpost/2318

-Start-

{Armory-IBEX (Refit)}

Kolor was in love. The Exo-comps which had come into his life brought such warmth and joy as he had ever imagined worth feeling. A decision had been made, that the IBEX was to be rebuilt. Her three-hundred-year-old frame needed to evolve with the times, and it had been a long successful run until Captain Alexander Richardson had overstepped their capabilities and gotten half the crew killed. Now, with the injured bird at rest, the Starbase had not only seen to its wounds but delivered new life. These little bots doing the building were going to no doubt be recruited to serve the IBEX or face memory wipe, but that was a conversation for the new captain to have, whenever they arrived.

Alex had retreated to the White Room, as he called it. Sometimes it was known by other names there wasn't an official designation beyond a "Deck X" which represented the space philosophically as it wasn't present in any tangible way. Only the Captain could access the space, and regulated others very closely. Since their docking, Captain Alexander Richardson III had been MIA inside this non-linear chronosphere. The space existed thanks to an Ansible network spread galaxy wide, fed by a program called HOME which anonymously aggregated intelligence reports, and somebody behind the scenes sent relevant data where it needed to go. The void was a side effect, and Kolor knew little else of it, but knew if he asked it would reveal his attempts to enter.

Duke and Makoto were both on medical leave, so it was just him and the Ferengi on board. He decided to do a systems check from the consoles for their superior access. As he stepped into the final loading ramp for the turbolift A large boxy robot was motoring across the floor instead of its usual flight patterns, looking very much like a giant rat. Of the four Vertiform Robots rebuilding IBEX, Zombie was the most menacing, so named as it took on dangerous missions and had been rebuilt from near dust many times over. Despite copying its machine intelligence each time the poor bot face death, it came back and looked more ragged. Zombie was dragging a girder three times its size and hundred times the weight.

"Zombie, a thousand pardons, please go on by the loaded man has the right of way." Kolor moved to the side of the corridor.

From the ground level Zombie grumbled some mechanical noises and made a small whine as it hoisted the girder higher. Kolor could barely make out a few words, but it sounded like Zombie was saying, "Out of the Way!"

As Zombie went by Kolor only chuckled and continued along gleaming corridors with fresh carpet. The ship was reduced internally, Ten decks in the primary, Two in the Secondary hull, Engineering and the Armory. The Primary also had a large void meant for space to run holo programs for missions, only Deck 6 ran the full length of the saucer.

The new bridge was more traditional if not smaller than most. Two turbolift shafts made for a starboard and port side entry, and a maintenance tube was accessible under a panel near the Tactical station. Immediately out of the turbolift a "pool table" with upraised monitors gave all the information a crew could want in a briefing, and only three meters behind the captains chair. The rear conference alcove lacked full chairs, offering only four swing out stools for those long sessions of staring at the board. The room opened into an arrow head shape past this foyer, where the Captain chair sat to observe all the stations in front of them.

Such a small space demands economy of function, all of the chairs swiveled under the station when not in use, a single thing balancing rail formed an arc arrayed behind the captains chair and extending forward to run behind all of the stations forward from its start. The Captains chair was directly behind the conn, upraised and allowing the captain the same instantaneous input on their environment as the pilot, and from the vantage could see the stations screens whenever they glanced. Tactical was the alcove pool table, Weapons and Engineering to the Left, Special systems, OPS to the right. But the hidden value to this smaller bridge setup was the walls recessed into the floor to reveal the "Main Deck." When necessary, the bridge became a control station for a cavernous holodeck operation, and the walls would take the roof and slide into alcoves.

Kolor had thought the older IBEX prior to their accident had been a ship of wonders but the refit was epochal here. They could do so muchwith a ship like this. A gentle ramp down to the forefront of the bridge had replaced the stairs and metal gangplanks, and the room itself seemed to encourage a low speaking volume. There wasn't a shadow anywhere, and no glaring brights either. A truly exquisite crafting in his opinion. The holodeck allowed them to simulate their missions, to flawlessly recreate from scans whatever the mission was, and its simulation capability was uncannily accurate to life.

"Special Systems" was Kolor's station. It was his job to make sure the weird tech wasn't also dangerous, and then to use it. The LCARS of new systems was extensive. One in particular caught his eye, IBEX used programmable matter and machines to self-heal now.

Kolor spoke in his usual monotone, but truth be told today was exciting. "Banshee, run the final checks, confirm systems status and report back any anomalies."

He had been certain the refit would be a year long, and his confinement interminable but it had been a month since their arrival under tow, and the ship was gleaming, all thanks to these incredible bots.

The four bots, named Peggy, Nessy, Banshee, and Zombie (reference to their origins https://sb109.harperhold.com/index.php/simviewpost/1619)

...had come such a long way to arrive here. Peggy was their command unit, Nessy broadcast the body and handled comms, Banshee interfaced with computer systems natively, and Zombie was a portable toolbox with a replicator in its belly. Those four had followed impossibly complex technical guides to the letter, and then deleted their memories. The solution was ingenious, whoever had thought of it. No specs on the IBEX could exist off-site, and even now, they didn't.

=/\=Banshee, confirms. Running Final checks.

Only a year ago three of the bots were non verbal, relaying their {Text} to Peggy in machine language to be read out. Time had seen them learn, though Zombie still lacked subtlety.

Kolor admired the work from his bridge display. Since nearly every system had been thrashed by the battle, it made sense to refit the whole ship. Now it was complete, their link to the Ansible had just been restored. Reggie was begging to be allowed to interact holographically, but he had a tendency to take over the situation. Alex had wisely overridden the hologram for adhering to stealth protocols at the cost of crew health. He typed out a polite decline to the "Reggie" program. Who knows what would happen if the stentorian hard-light dictator was given a body again.

=/\= Checks are complete. Report Ready.

The Cardassian saw the systems display in all green, with purple lines to indicate new components. He went to press the purple line surrounding the bridge. They had installed Quantum computational cores only yesterday, and he was curious.

{This REDACTED provides REDACTED}

He laughed, the IBEX was too much to believe sometimes. He imagined looking around for onlookers and said out loud,

"Kolor, All 5's no 8."

The screen blinked, but refused to change image. Kolor sighed, "Need to build new cyphers I guess." He talked to himself these days, Grazia was in her new lair and very much fixing the place up to be her throne. Kolor dug into the computer, curious to see so much change. Either someone was using pre-made code of an extremely advanced nature, or they coded a custom operating system in two weeks. "Who in the hell designed the anti-intrusion... what?"

Alidade flashed into existence on the screen. She stood...more like...floated there, nude but featureless. She was unblinking and unbreathing. That much made sense as she was an incorporeal entity taking up residence in the computer, but the Thunderchild computer. Kolor was clueless for the moment as to how Alidade was also in the IBEX computer.

"Please restate your inquiry," she said and then continued to float there without further remark.

Digging further into the code, Kolor saw the code for Alidade. 109 personnel were transparent on that front, but Alidade's code was supposed to be ever-changing. This code was static. It was a shell, merely the avatar of Alidade copied into the GUI of the IBEX...a very pretty GUI. Still, it was the standard computer. Just a new face.

"I hope to meet the real thing one day, you are a snap shot my dear." Their other systems were more advanced than anything Starfleet had released for fleet usage, but even this fragment of the entity known as Alidade was beyond his reckoning. The real thing was likely a tempest no ship would truly contain.

They had a governing AI that was limited in its controls, except most recently when it actually made decisions which resulted in crew deaths. Since then "Reggie" an ideological portmanteau of "Reginald Barclay" and "Regulations" this EMH mark 3 was a repurposed one, part of the first generation attempts at holographic crew. Until today, Reggie was nearly unrivaled in elegance and sophisticated programming. This new system made Reggie a gimmick, combining them would be deadly possibly so Kolor checked the partitions were intt

Kolor tried to access other ship specs, seeing new power lines, data storage, gel packs, but any actual system detail was met with the same line, {This REDACTED provides REDACTED}.

He could however, re-activate Reggie. Without a proper captain to say otherwise Kolor considered his options, knowing it was safe enough. Reggie was put in place once already, this new OS would have no trouble doing it again. In many ways it gave Reggie a common ground as a crewmember and not an overseer. With a fingers-crossed entry of his best, most exclusive command cracking codes he hoped the new, fancy OS didn't notice or care a holo-crew was being activated.

The last time Reggie was active was when he was trying to force the IBEX into a four-month exercise in self harm. The unfeeling machine only registered "discomfort" not "living hell."

Kolor made a face as Reggie flutzed into being.

Reggie took all of a half-second to reacquaint himself. Duty logs, repair logs, updates, requisitions, all of the data which he had missed in the last two weeks absorbed and integrated.

"We have broken every measure of confidentiality, but HOME approves this."

Kolor found it curious, HOME was not something you heard much about. It was a total mystery to all on board except for the former Captain Richardson.

"Reggie, long time." Kolor bantered the way a Hyena laughs.

"There is a backlog of messages. Captain Richardson has not been at his post?" Reggie demanded of Kolor this information like an officer addressing a subordinate, but that game was over. Reggie had been neutered and needed to change his tone.

"Former Captain Alexander Richardson has gone to ground in the White space. We haven't seen him since landing at 109."

Reggie looked astonished, "Fifteen days will be driving him into insanity! Does he have the TaBB?"

Kolor shook his head, "No, and I woke you up for you to answer my questions ok, keep it up and you'll go back to the buffer. Give me a summary of everything done to this ship in the last two weeks you can glean."

The hologram glared at the Cardassian, who profoundly did not notice or care.

"Well?"

Reggie began to talk in a monotone, "Where to begin?"

Kolor deep sighed, "Broad Strokes, start with Core systems."

Reggie was thinking so hard his program flickered, "This new operating system is beyond Federation technology. I can find nothing in databases. I cannot enter into any of the systems."

Kolor snorted, "So they got us a new version of you, how exciting. Is there anything at all you are good for?"

Reggie actually looked like he was mad for a split instant, "Unrecognizable technology based on scans alone. I have no frame of reference for engines, weapons, sensors, it is all encrypted and has no comparison in my database!"

Kolor was supplementing Reggie in trying to access it, "You are being fed into a recursive search error. You don't have access to the databanks because the OS is routing you away from the answers."

Suddenly a text message appeared, "Or you could just ask. Kolor."

Realizing this wasn't Reggie gave Kolor a pause, he tentatively said aloud, "Is this the IBEX itself speaking to me?"

The text came through again, "No, Officer Reggie is your AI interface with the HOME. This message generates from the intelligence governing systems security, which uses the Reggie program as well."

Kolor knew there was not going to be a crack to the command codes tonight. So he did as was suggested, and asked.

"May I have access to the change logs for IBEX and the recent upgrades to systems?"

"LCARS Access granted for Kolor at: https://sb109.harperhold.com/index.php/wiki/view/page/174 " The disembodied voice added, "Say Please... " Kolor made a deep breath to hold his feelings back and the computer added, "Disregard, not required. Just funny."

He scoffed this time. Their AI was skirting prescience; last time that happened, Reggie had nearly killed them following the secrecy mandate to the extreme. So they had an upgraded computer core skirting presience as well now. If the computer knew what was good for it, the jokes would come sparingly.

Kolor read the extensive entry, marveling at the wondrous technologies from all over the galaxy put to use in one hull. Their hidden deck was even accounted for. A whole ship reduced to twelve decks, with four of them livable spaces for the crew. The capacity for mission completion just tripled in his estimation, and there were even new technologies he didn't realize the Federation was tinkering with. Quantum scanners to detect covert messaging was a new trick, one he'd gladly add to the bag of tricks he already employed.

The Cardassian marveled at the flexibility of the Federation for the millionth time. His former military life had all but informed him of the extensive failures of Cardassian society post Military rule. Even the Klingons were plagued by the weight of empire, but the Federation got to absorb anything it liked and put it to use. Parallels to the infamous Borg line "You will be assimilated" had always been a dark mirror of sorts, but what this ship proved was that one could absorb the culture and knowledge of another without corrupting its soul.

A ship like this, given to a madman with an agenda, could do so much harm. Technologies which violated treaties were being tested and employed and yet for their organization's history, not once had any captain gone rogue or taken matters into a dark path. Being careful who got the keys to the spy car was paramount.

"Visitors."

The spoken word was through a speaker at his head, Reggie was still there and announcing the doors to their private landing pad had just opened. He flutzed into existence but said nothing further.

Kolor saw Captain Francis, Geri Severide, and a new man he had not seen before on the external feeds approaching their loading bay door. Without even asking, the IBEX supplied a dossier for each of them. It didn't take long to figure out that Damion was their new Captain, and this Captain Francis was their controller. Geri was an earmark for high-level Starfleet Intelligence as well, perhaps she was intended to liaison their work and data? The little one had a record too long to read in one sitting, but Commander Mindo would be a problem to a ship that liked its secrets.

"Grazia, we have company." Kolor sent word, knowing she was busy, but those words were never spoken on this ship.

She replied, "How? Who, are we..." The Ferengi read the short form of the dossiers as IBEX caught her up. She realized the work was nearly finished and it was time for new crew.

Then she only said, "Hail Duke and Makoto, and meet me at the ramp."

-End-

 

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