What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [11]
That made sense, Scotty reflected. Multitronics was an evolution of the old duotronic technology that had been used in the twenty-third century. The Federation had abandoned the development of multitronic technology like most of the peoples of the galaxy and eventually moved in a totally different direction, to isolinear technology. Though multitronics had its advantages, isolinear computers had come to dominate because it was immensely difficult to create a stable operating system for a multitronic system.
Scotty had seen the results of that problem himself. Dr. Richard Daystrom had used his own memory engrams as a model for the M-5 multitronic unit, which had resulted in the computer going mad and damaging several Federation starships before Captain Kirk had managed to shut it down.
But according to the orders provided by Nechayev on his padd, the Kropaslin had managed to create a stable multitronic computer core. This made their data storage virtually invulnerable, as no one outside of the few Kropaslin who had designed it had the necessary knowledge to tap into it remotely. Every other computer on the planet was isolinear/bioneural in nature, and interfacing one of them with a multitronic system was something no one knew how to do.
Except Scotty, of course. He had been there when Daystrom had installed the M-5 on the Enterprise, and he still knew exactly how it had interfaced with the standard Starfleet systems. “I’m the only person who can do it, aye,” Scotty said quietly. “Daystrom’s dead; the M-5 and its predecessors long disassembled. Everyone who worked with him is gone, too—except for me.”
“Exactly,” said Iamor. He tapped a few buttons on his computer panel, and suddenly the one in front of Scotty lit up with blocks of code. “This is as far as our own programmers have been able to get; none of them have been able to make sense of the data.”
“Everyone who worked on the multitronic computer is kept with it, well away from outside contact,” Miculamor explained. “We are a secretive people where our technology is concerned.” He made a gesture with his upper arms that Scotty interpreted as a shrug. “This is a necessity in today’s competitive market.”
“You may begin now,” said Iamor.
He, and with him every other Kropaslin in the room, looked expectantly at Scotty.
Though outwardly he may have looked calm, inwardly Scotty was furious. He had been set up! Manipulated by Nechayev, by Piñiero, by Iamor and the other opposition politicians. This whole diplomatic function was nothing more than a ploy to get him into this room so that he could steal from the Kropaslin government just so the Federation Council could avoid taking on an undesirable member, just so these politicians’ precious bid for power wouldn’t be jeopardized.
It was sickening. He could feel the vegetables from his kebab churning in his stomach, along with the ale and the coffee he’d consumed. He desperately wanted to visit waste extraction.
Yet here he was. The door was locked, and he had his orders from the almighty Fleet Admiral Alynna Nechayev right in front of him, clearly signed and dated. Oh-so-conveniently, she wasn’t here. He couldn’t argue with her. And he had no doubt that the door would not be unlocked until he had extracted those blasted coordinates from the multitronic computer.
There was no way out. He sighed, and cracked his knuckles before leaning down to take a good look at the screen on his terminal. “Well, I’ll have to give it my best shot, laddies and lassies, haven’t I?”
At least it would be an interesting challenge.
He could take some small comfort in that.
When the beam released Scotty into the Gorkon’s transporter room, the first thing he noticed was Admiral Nechayev standing before him; Commander Piñiero was operating the console. “Glad to see you’re better, Admiral,” he said as he stepped off the