PHENOMENAL COSMIC KNOWLEDGE- itty bitty thinking space...

Posted on Sun May 26th, 2019 @ 2:16pm by Lieutenant Asa Dael & Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Samuel Clemens XV

Mission: Fractured Fairy Tales
Location: Holodeck One, USS Hera
Timeline: During mission prep for the Tribunal.

The Chief of Intel for the USS Hera stared at the galactic chart in front of him in the holodeck, as he say in a comfortable chair. In many ways, it was similar to the ship's own astrogation maps of the Milky Way, but, where there were gaps in the Federation version, this one had, almost in a fractal way, information that grew more complex as he zoomed in. Many of the systems had been cataloged by long-range telemetry, but only a few had been reached by UFP probes for detailed scans over the last century. The new information was...immense.

He shook his head, as though to shake off the dust of a billion suns. So much information. And apparently, it was all in his head.

Since his cybernetic reconstruction, he'd been exploring the system controls and resources in the controls for his cybernetics, which had required direct connection to his brain via pretty much all the cortexes in it. While he had only had his leg and arm replaced, the superstructure reinforcement, plus the load-balancing modules that were added to his other limbs, were incredibly-complex, and required a huge amount of processing power to coordinate. This had resulted in the need to speed up his reflexes, which inherently required an improvement in his mental capacities, both in speed, as well as organization.

Cybernetics in the Federation had been an advanced science since its inception, when the charter members pooled their varying knowledge levels of the topic together to try to better the lives of those who would benefit from prosthetic replacements. Even as early as the 2230s, the brain-cybernetic interfaces were advanced enough to not intrude on the external appearance of a humanoid head, while being capable of fully-integrating the recipient's own memories with any additional storage the new systems added.

Generally, new information would be routed through the brain itself, and mirrored across to the computer storage, to ensure no cognitive loss in the event of a hardware malfunction. This was established via ethical protocols developed to avoid any form of mind control by the cybernetic implants, and was a longstanding practice in all Federation research and development organizations.

But lately, Sam had been having...flashes. They started right after the massive mental link established as a way to communicate with the titan Gaia, in order to persuade her to stop terraforming all humanoid life in the galaxy. He'd seen worlds he knew he'd never visited- could clearly recall how it felt to fly through a Class VIII planetary nebula, with the gasses making his skin tingle...

He knew that these were new, because the cyber-interface installation had also, as a consequence, granted him total recall- every memory, from his entire lifetime.

He'd stopped looking once he realized one of the memories was from inside his mother's womb. After that, he just set the system to build a time-indexed catalog of discrete memories, so he could look back at a particular moment, if needed.

These new items were definitely in his brain...but not in the mirroring. They were in an organizational system that was more advanced than anything he'd ever seen, and apparently, was only deciphered by his system recently. They seemed to be holographically stored throughout his brain, in a similar setup to his normal memories, but with a compression method that allowed for not only use of the "unused" parts of his brain, but the use of the areas where his brain already had stored his original memories, in a sort of tessarine spatial arrangement, where they weren't entirely in normal space. As such, while he could see the basic information on a case by case basis, seeing finer details wasn't possible without connecting to an external system with far more memory than his onboard systems had. This also had the effect of making an index of the new information effectively impossible to create- there was simply too much to wrangle. At best, he got random things, as his subconscious instinctively grabbed bits and pieces.

All he could do was route it out to a subsection of the holodeck computer and actually render it there, where he could actually look at it with his eyes.

He wasn't sure what to do with this. And it wasn't something he wanted to talk about with just...anyone.

Mnhei'sahe Dox had saved his life, and he was fond of her- and he'd come to trust her over the time he'd been here, so he called her to the holodeck, to get her opinion on it all.

Having received the call near the end of her shift, Dox saved the files she had been working on. Crew rotations for the helm and flight deck that she oversaw as the Hera's flight control chief. After a few minutes, she messaged the Intel Chief that she was on her way.

The last time the two were in a holodeck together, they had been sparring rather aggressive, and the somewhat drained pilot was, for the first time in a while, hoping it wasn't a call to spar. So the red-headed Romulan woman was pleasantly surprised, if a little confused, to see the massive holographic maps hovering in space around Lieutenant Clemens when she had entered the holodeck.

"Lieutenant Clemens. How can I help you?" The young officer asked, standing with her arms folded behind her back, striking a professional posture.

As Sam leaned back in his easy chair, a bulky cable connected to an interface port on his arm, he gestured upward.

"All that, and more, is in my head. I just discovered it," he began, standing up. "I can't forget anything, because of my cybernetics."

He added, thoughtfully, "I suppose it's also in your head, too. But your brain doesn't have a computer-aided cataloging system for memories. I really don't know what to do about it."

Tilting her head, slightly confused, Dox cocked an eyebrow as she replied. Her posture relaxing somewhat around the generally genial gentleman. "Aside from the obvious, what is it, Sam? Why is it in your head... And... Wait... why would it be in mine?"

The elusive engineer leaned against the chair, one deadpanned, "Because it was in Gaia's head. And so were all of us. And vice versa."

"It ain't like regular memories. As far as I can tell, it's encoded multi-dimensionally, like a hologram. And it's just one of 'em. Every memory, from everyone in the meld, is in everyone in the meld."

At the mention of the name of the Titan, Gaia, Dox's olive skin went flush. "G... Gaia?"

It had been months since the one-open doorway in the young Romulan's mind had made her the conduit for a group mind meld between her fellow crewmates and the cosmic entity, but the memory was still a difficult one for her to reconcile. "Maybe you kept all this... but... no. She didn't leave me anything, Sam. She took it all when she left me."

There was a slight tremble in Dox's voice as she spoke.

"Aw, Dox- no one but me can even access this stuff, I think. And it's not herself- just the things she's experienced. I only noticed it because I was getting flashes of memories I knew weren't mine. So I had the computer in my head go looking for them, and found way more than I could have ever experienced. Anything I could ID as someone else's, I flagged and blocked, except for Gaia's, because...well, just look at the detail on that map." He paused, hoping he was reassuring her. "I don't think that, by the time she left, she had any further ill will toward humanoids. Especially you, since she knew what you were risking, and what your fears were about it."

"No... I know she didn't. I could feel it through our bond. From... from when I was joined with the shard." Dox was physically withdrawn as she remembered the experience and it was visibly noticeable. "Just that piece of her being a part of me for a few minutes. It's... well... It's impossible to describe with words. But I can't."

The anxious Romulan began rubbing an ear, a nervous tic held over from her early childhood when her ears had been surgically altered against her will. "When she left, she closed that door in my mind. It closed me off. I can't... I don't know how I can help you."

Sam walked over to his friend, squared off with her, and put his hands on her shoulders. "You're one of the only other people on the ship that's gone through the level of changes I've gone through. I trust your judgment. We've all seen some serious shit- and you're one of the ones I'd trust to help me figure out what to do about this," he looked at her solemnly.

"Pa always did tell me to bring along solutions to any problems I brought him. I think that'll serve us well, here, too."

Looking past the ginger Intel Chief to the projection if what's inside his brain, Dox thought for a long moment before meeting his surprisingly warm eyes. "Obviously, you've can't just download it to the ships computer and delete it. You wouldn't need advice for that. And I guess I should apologize for all of my shit being up there, too."

As she spoke, she poked Sam's forehead with a smirk. "Enjoy cursing in Rihan on duty when you forget yourself." Then she began to pace, a behavior Sam recognized as just how she thought through problems.

"When the door in my mind was open, Hera told me it was... un-closeable. Even now, with Gaia having re-shut it, almost anything could re-open it. Because of that, I had to start doing the hardest thing I ever had to do. I had to learn to live with it. Control it."

"When I touched people, I could see the colors of their spirits. You're a weird one, by the way. Bright green, with orange sparks. That was... hard to not see. But there were exercises. Mental training. I have no idea if it would help... but we can try." Dox asked.

In a strange way, she seemed almost unusually relaxed. "Asa was right. You've been trying to muscle through the changes you've endured. I know all about how much that doesn't work, first hand. You said you had my memories stored in your head, right?"

The ginger gentry nodded, "Yep, I do. I told the computer to index all non-native memories, first by person, then by time index."

"Okay..." Dox thought about it a second. "I'd feel a lot more comfortable poking around in your brain with Asa here. If you've got my memories in there, then... I..."

There was the briefest moment of hesitance from the emotionally damaged young Romulan before she nodded slightly and continued. "I am giving you my permission to access them. Do that... and think about Asa. What they mean to me. How they put me back together, body and mind. Asa can help us... help you. Are you good with my calling them?"

The half-man, all Intel officer nodded. "It's actually kinda weird, how our paths ran so parallel, even though the events take different forms...Asa and the EMH not only saved my life, they did so because they cared...no matter how odd the EMH might choose to express it, sometimes. I think I'd like Asa's help- and the EMH's, if you y'all think he could help from an AI standpoint. This thing's got so many pieces to it- from mental to spiritual to hardware to wetware..." The Forcefielded Man looked a bit distressed, and added, "I feel like I've been given the Preserver Archives. I can't imagine the loss to the galaxy, if we don't find some way of archiving them somewhere safe." He chuckled..."And darlin', I ain't safe."

While Clemens' original accent was missing, the turns of phrase he grew up with still remained, leaving a new hybrid speech pattern in its place. He appeared to notice this, at the end of the statement, and worked his mouth, as though he'd just gotten new teeth.

"Excellent." Dox said as she tapped her Comm badge and called for the ships Chief Medical Officer, and if available, the EMH for good measure, doing her best to summarize the situation and let them know what was going on. After just a few minutes, the holodeck doors wooshed open as Asa Dael stepped it, ready for business.

“Greetings folks,” Asa said, adjusting the strap of their med-bag as they walked into the room. “Well, I’m not sensing any extra-dimensional beings and no one is about to have their head burst open. So far, this is an excellent trip to the holodeck. Sam, you had plenty of rest? This isn’t an endeavor to undertake tired….”

The Missourian Meddler grinned. "Oh, Myx Asa- I'm feeling fine- just...overwhelmed by what's apparently tucked into my brain. My cybernetics are managing it, and, in fact, seem to be the only reason I'm even aware of it. If my theory is right, everyone who participated in the meld has a copy of it, too, but it's not stored where they are- it's folded through tessarine links to otherspace of some sort. I've just got the hardware to access it, though making sense of it is way beyond my augmentations."

He added, with a warm smile,"It's good to see you, by the by. I've been trying to figure out how to get this stuff ported to a safe place, before the Tribunal."

“Good to see you too, you scoundrel,” Asa replied with a wink. “Safe is good….not taxing your memory reserves is good too. Even cybernetics have a max, and from what you are saying, you might be nearing yours. You augmentations weren’t meant to host a freaking Titan after all. So, were you thinking uploading to a secure data bank somewhere off-ship?”

"Is there any data bank more secure than the Hera and Maru? Dox interjected. "If.you can get it downloaded and dumped, I'll do what I can to show you some of the mental training techniques Sonak has been teaching me. It may help you deal with all the information overload better to strengthen you mental defenses."

“Wait….” Asa said, “You have all our personal memories in there?” Then muttering to themself they said, “Greeeeaaat. Now more people know about the not-so-glorious hijinx of dormitory 3…..Just what Starfleet Medical never wanted……”

As if realizing the last bit was out loud, Asa turned beet red and cleared their throat.

“Um, sorry about that. Uh, forget I said anything. Just some…..youthful transgressions…..that would be best left in the past…Or else Professor Eaglestone’s dog may track me down and use her increased vocabulary and abilities to chew me out….So, I’m curious, were you thinking about using the Holodeck to visualize how the memories are stored? A mind palace type thing?”

Sam considered the idea. "Well, it'd be a good place to start. We're going to have to do this in phases. Pause indexing. Start with the indexing we have built up, and copy all the information it links to, to the long-term storage. Deactivate the current index, then build the next one, rinse, and repeat. We can use the holodeck to visualize it as we go. In fact, someone with a tricorder could record it all as it comes through, to make a sort of visual index, so it could be accessed via a sort of kiosk." He looked at his friends and fellow officers. "Does that sound like a safe way to proceed?"

"Aye, it does to me," Asa said, tapping their chin in thought, "I can monitor your vitals and we can go at a speed that is safe that way. I guess start with the framework....do the memories feel more grouped by time, location, person, or some other factor?"

The mustachioed merchant of mayhem gave it some thought.

"Y'know... I really think it's random access. I mean, a full experience per memory, yes, but they don't seem to come in a sequence, although the index can at least timestamp them...and maybe...maaaaybe, location-stamp them- that's uncertain."

"At least we can make good use of my sleep time. The transfers ought to proceed without a hitch while I'm resting and awake, as a background task. Good thing we're not in the days of cabling and boring holes in skulls, eh, Doc?"

Asa shuddered at the thought. "May the universe will it that the days of trepanation never come again."

"Give me time, Asa. Sooner or later I'll almost die in some ridiculous way that you'll have to drill in my skull. You're running out of normal ways to save my life." Dox joked, with a bit of an awkward grin.

"But, in all seriousness. This information... the data from Gaia... Is it something we should have?" Dox asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sam stared at Dox like she'd grown two heads.

"…"

His mouth worked for a moment, then stopped. He pursued his lips, collected himself, and tried again.

"…to boldly go?"

The anxious aviatrix pursed her lips slightly as she thought about it, but she didn't think long. "Starfleet didn't boldly get our here... get where we are now... because your people found warp drive left behind by someone. Whatever that data is... Your brain just made a copy if it. We didn't discover it through exploration. We didn't earn it."

"Sam..." Dox said, with reservation. "All of this happened because I plugged myself into something I didn't understand trying to reach further than I was ready to. It opened up my mind, woke up Gaia, almost killed Ila and billions more. Because, arguably, I tried to boldly go... too far and too fast."

"Look, I'm not saying that I know what to do." Dox continued, "But we need to consider the implications and ramifications before we decide what's best. Saving it all because... we can... might be dangerous in ways we can't imagine. To the ship, to the galaxy, and toyou.

"When I used that experimental helmet, it opened my mind to attack. It ATTRACTED hostile entities right into my brain. What is you having THIS much information going to attract?" Dox concluded, her expression one of concern.

Sam pursed his lips. "I'm not broadcasting it. Hell, it wasn't even visible to me until I literally went looking for what it was. And I wouldn't have seen it to begin with if my implants weren't running an active security check." He paused, and looked at her seriously. "Getting this stuff to a safe place and cataloging it is the only way I know of to figure out how to remove it, for all of us, without having to involve other beings like Gaia. And, in the meantime, we all need to avoid any mental contact with anyone outside the meld group. Every one of us had contact with all of this, even if it didn't stick- that's a trace that others might see."

His expression was one of resignation, at this point. "We're stuck with this stuff until we figure out a way to clear those linkages out of our heads. But my gut tells me that the key to doing that safely and securely is in that data. In the meantime, we've got to get it visible to us, so we can start searching it."

"Please help me, guys."

Feeling a bit guilty for her speech, Dox nodded with her familiar, awkward smile. "I'm sorry, Sam. Worrying about what we do with it when it's out of your head is the next step. Of course we're going to help in any way we can."

Nodding their head in agreement, Asa smiled and gave Sam a silent thumbs up.

Looking up at the holographic projections of star maps surrounding them, Dox pondered for a second. "So, all of this is from the data in your head? Your cybernetic links allow you to project it directly using the holodeck?"

Sam nodded, explaining, as his schematic popped up off to the side for his friends to see.

"See, my heads up display and control system is holographic, primarily, though I can manually access all systems by internal ocular implants, a control panel inside my right arm, and even via cable, if the panel, holographics, and ocular systems are down." As he spoke, he highlighted each system.

"Good things for you guys to know, I suppose, since Asa will be someone who'll need to work on me if I get damaged badly. I'm still figuring out the Maureen Protocols. Apparently, she's designed to handle my repair and defensive systems, especially if I'm incapacitated. I got her details from the Commodore after the stroke incident. The reason it's an AI system is to protect and firewall against active hacking attempts on all of my systems. Apparently, her personality is...matronly."

"Okay... So, I'm not going to be helpful much at all regarding the technical side of any of this. But as I understand it, you've got too much information in your brain and you need to identify it to save it out of your head. But it's a jumble. Your cybernetics are indexing it but you need your meat brain to fire out how to navigate it all? Control the flow of information for yourself?" Dox asked, her eyebrow raised.

"It's more like the index that's being generated is becoming so massive as this stuff un-crunches, that I'm running out of space. So I need to pause the indexing, copy the current index and the information it's linked to, to wherever we're going to store it, then wipe the current index and the links it refers to, then do it all again, until it's all out and safe. Because it's stored so randomly, there'll be no figuring it all out without a searchable index." As he spoke, he illustrated on the holoprojection with animated graphics, drawn in pages with panels, showing the process being done by what looked like...elves.

Looking at the whimsical projection with a cricked head, Dox commented. "So, priority one is to pause the indexing. Stop the files from expanding so it doesn't all burn out your brain. Then, the Captain and Commander need to know about this data. And Ila might be the expert here when it comes to cyberbrains. But if you can pause this... keep it from continuing, with the Tribunal in a couple of days, the ship's resources, along with the Captain's attention will be extremely taxed. I can update Commander Paris of the situation and let her know that it's in a holding pattern, at least, for now."

Dox looked at Asa with a serious expression, then back to Sam. "We're definitely going to need more help."

After thinking things over for a moment, Asa input some information into a PaDD and looked up at Sam before continuing to speak.

"Um, the easiest way to stop any flow of information from your brain and reset it, so to speak, is to knock you unconscious. Once you are asleep, your mind can process and clear the data from overwhelming you. Plus, this is likely going to be an exhausting process. I'm proposing we ask Lieutenant Sonak to form a meld between the three of us, four if Dox would like to join. That way he can help guide your thoughts, I can monitor your vitals, and Dox can give thoughts of encouragement. Plus by increasing the meat-space, so to speak, you might be able to get through more at once. What do you think?"

Sam looked puzzled for a moment, and queried, "I can stop the indexing indefinitely without a problem. The gathered index is fine where it's at- my only worry was that the entire thing- or even a tenth of it, is way more than my storage has available. I just need a safe external location to offload it to so I can clear the current files and the embedded extra-dimensional pointers they're referencing, so I can get moving on the next batch. Don't think a mind meld would help out with that, though Sonak's computer expertise would certainly be of a help in expediting the transfer speeds, data isolation, and storage efficiency in whatever our target system is. And honestly, at the moment, the data is fine where it's at. We've got bigger fish to fry with the Tribunal, don't we?"

"Provided you don't go challenging another Q or arm-wrestling any gods during the Tribunal, that sounds like the best plan we have at the moment," Asa said half-joking, still clearly concerned about both Sam and the information he was shepherding.

"Well, it's all important. But we need all of our resources available to tackle this right." Dox added, looking back at Asa. "When we're done here, I can go appraise Commander Paris of the situation and that it's currently stable."

"...as stable as having hyperlinks to god-memory storage in your head makes you...." intoned Clemens seriously- for a millisecond. Then he cracked up, shaking said head. "Seriously- my noggin is the least of my worries. I have to go talk with Hera. For the first time."