Cracking the Code - Part 2

Posted on 28 Aug 2026 @ 4:48pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Alexi Michelle

788 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Persona Quarters -SB51
Timeline: Current

Alexi sat staring at her terminal in her assigned quarters on the base. A memory surfaced of when she’d first been given all the crystal.

And then The Captain had called her in and gave her more crystals. Now instead of just the one Terran Crystal, she had four of them to go through.

They were looking for at two things at the moment. The first was a strong base of operations from which to mount attacks against the Federation and take over. The Second, and perhaps more important to their immediate needs was Dilithium. The Captain also wanted her to find anything that could explain why and where they were.

While she was planning to continue looking at the new crystals and access the files, her time was cut a bit short by a call to arms.

That had been when she was still on the Tomcat. And she was injured in that little call to arms. That had resulted in her being sent to the base, with those crystals.

It was a laborious task she’d been given. Pouring through the data dump for information. She’d been sent to SB51 to work on getting the information without disruptions of battles. They had arranged for a dedicated system to be installed in her quarters, and that was where she had spent most of her time. Only leaving her quarters to grab some food every once in a while.
The four additional Terran data crystals hadn’t been easy to decrypt. That alone had taken her almost a week of working day and night. She laughed when she realized that THAT was the easy part. She’d been combing through the data dump, looking for anything of significance. Most of it was useless and meaningless information. She’d begun sorting out the information into sections, some were just the normal operations codes for the various systems. It was useful information, but not what she was tasked to find. She did forward this back to the Tomcat in the event they could use it. The first crystal she’d decrypted had held vital information on the location of the Terran base close to Federation Territories. But there was still a question as to why they were so intent on building a base of operations where they did.

Alexi rubbed the back of her neck. She’d lost track of when she last slept, and any food she’d had squirreled away had been gone for at least 2 days. She knew she should take a break, but she was so close, she could feel it. It was the same thing she told herself late the night before. The Master Chief leaned back in her chair, her eyes drifting shut against her orders. She sprung to her feet, “No, not going to find anything if you are too tired to think.” At that moment her stomach growled loudly. She shook her head, “Or hungry.” Fine, she thought to herself, Food and sleep, in that order!

She made her way to the closest place to get food and ordered a large helping of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, a baked potato, broccoli in cheese sauce, and a large garden salad, to go. While she waited for her order her mind went back to her days on the Tomcat decoding the first crystals.

It was frustrating her that she had not been able to get past the fourth level od encryption. At least she had found some clues to the Terran base and had sent those to Dodd. The schematics of the base were the most important piece of information she’d found so far, since they would need those to infiltrate and disable the Terran plot.

“Here ya go,” A voice pulled her from her reverie as two large bags filled with food were passed over, “Looks like quite a party! Have fun!” The Master Chief lifted her eyebrows at the waitress and briefly thought about correcting the assumption that she was living it up. Alexi decided it wasn’t anyone’s business but her own, thanked the girl and carried her food back to her quarters.

She helped herself to some of the mashed potatoes and once piece of chicken, storing the remainder in the kitchenette’s stasis unit for later. A heavy yawn told her it was way past time to get a few hours of rest. She still had a lot of work to do. And the Tomcat’s CO still needed it.

To Be Continued…



MCPO Alexi Michelle

 

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