Your Name Is Mudd

Posted on Sun Dec 30th, 2018 @ 3:00pm by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan
Edited on on Tue Jan 1st, 2019 @ 3:28am

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: USS Hera, Deck 11, the Brig
Timeline: 2295, after 'Clear As Mudd'

The Captain of the USS Hera had been briefed on the situation and briefly warned about how difficult dealing with Ensign Joy would be. Being married to an artificial life form, she hoped that gave her a unique perspective, but she'd soon find out. Steeling herself, she entered the brig and waved the crewman on duty to stand at ease, directing her attention instead towards the one occupied cell.

"Ensign Joy Mudd Three, I presume," Enalia began, her face impassive, looking down at the PaDD she carried at the profile of the being before her. "I hope you're enjoying the isolation field blocking your communications. It's a standard part of our brig cells. As classified as this ship is, we can't allow any unmonitored transmissions. You understand, of course."

Joy ceased her dance, and turned to... the captain. She assumed The Captain. Curious. She had not given her name. Neither had the XO. Was that some sort of Starfleet Intelligence thing? "Lets just say I was not surprised."

"That's good at least." Looking up from the PaDD, Enalia tried out a bit of a smile. "I'm Captain Enalia Telvan, Captain of the USS Hera, assigned to Intel Command. My First Officer says your coming aboard briefing didn't go so well. Considering she's uncovered a spy, an assassination, a kidnapping, and a changeling since she's been aboard just with these interviews, I trust her judgement completely. Now... what is it about you that's so dangerous?"

"Hmm, I am rather strong and quick. That makes me dangerous in one way. But I am inhibited from killing or harming without orders at Priority Two, which makes me as dangerous as you and your XO say I should be. Since you will find no illegal unordered deaths on my record, it seems I am not dangerous at all."

Joy continued on. "But are you familiar with the notion of a security backdoor? If you disappear me indefinitely, somebody will react. I don't think that your XO is seeking that. She seems too sincere for that. But, somebody assigned me to this ship, and it was not me. That is as dangerous as I have come up with, and that's a stretch."

Enalia's grin became a bit darker. "I think your assessment of what constitutes a threat on a ship whose existence and mission is classified is a bit skewed. Your profiles say you're a member of a hive mind. Therefore, you send all of your memories, experiences, feelings, knowledge.... Everything, really... To your other selves. You just being here is a security breach."

Losing the smile, Enalia crossed her arms and leaned against the security console behind her. "Now then. As a member of Starfleet, and having been previously been assigned to a ship under Intel Command, I'm sure you have an idea of where I'm going to go with this. We have two options. Wipe your memory of this transfer, shut you down, and ship you back to command... Or you separate from your hive mind and become an individual. If you need to send reports to the others, do like my wife, Maica Three, Model Forty Seven does. Send them occasional diary logs of your thoughts, feelings, what you eat, hobbies... But not what you're actually doing related to your location or job. No more full synchronizes or constant updates."

"I'll leave the choice of which order set you follow up to you, but I'll warn you. The latter will be a dark and difficult path. It will also be a lot more rewarding. We've saved more lives and made more of a difference than just about any ship in the fleet than I can think of. On top of that, when you some day relink with the rest of your hivemind, you'll have to keep your time here from them. That may be a monumental task all on its own." The spotted captain paused to let what she was saying sink in. You have to choose between the greatest adventure in Starfleet and a taste of individuality... Or run of the mill duty on some backwater outpost and remaining comfortable in your hivemind."

Joy processed briefly. "Most of this is doable. The sticking point is rejoining the hive mind, very much in the future. You likely don't understand the process of assimilating experience as the Mudd Androids do. We generally use a one meter optic cable for the process. As one might imagine, the process is quite data intensive, not done at any significant distance. We do not need to do it often. In some cruises of Beta Quad, the Joys have gone decades without assimilation.

"But the process must run to completion. The intended result is two androids with identical data bases. For security reasons, the process can not, should not and will not be tampered with.

"The Federation took a different approach. LCARS is full of back doors. Council, security, many special interest groups, seek special access to data. Of course, hackers take advantage of the resulting weakness. Federation Engineers put an emphasis on making things work. Understandable. Flexible. Versatile. Efficient. Secure? Federation computer security is a joke. I do not begin to question any mistrust of Federation computer security. However, you almost have to use Federation computers to use a Federation ship.

"Organic sentient beings? Again, you almost have to use them. The Federation is primarily a union of organic beings. But they rely on soft processes like judgement, conscience, world views and the like. They vary highly, with is sometimes a strength, sometimes not. They are inherently untrustworthy in a large group, and subject to the influences of psi. Still, you have to deal with them.

"And yet, you will not trust the Builders technology? Their approach was very much different from what the Federation chose. We will not, should not, can not allow tampering with this secure process for any mission, no matter how important. Ironically, this sometimes, like now, creates problems for those accustomed to Federation approach. Their philosophy is to insert a custom solution."

Joy knew how the Federation, Romulan and Klingon councils had judged. But, no. This captain did not begin to have a need to know.

Apparently the starship captain had no desire to know, either. "Security, EMP this cell, shut her down, wipe her memory if possible without endangering any engineers, then package her up to ship her back to Starfleet Intelligence for disassembly and analysis. I want this irritating security breach off my ship, if we have to stuff it in a torpedo casing and fire it at Earth."

If Joy Mudd 3 had a comeback, it was lost as she was surprised to find even her systems shutting down. It was as if the cell had been specially designed to hold androids of greater sophistication levels than herself, and as it went fully active and shut down her processes, her last thought was of what fate would befall this crew when the rest of the Joy series heard about this.

As none of them existed in this reality, there would be no fallout at all.