john@hp-pcd.UUCP (03/14/84)
Starfleet Command after reading all of the Enterprises Logs came to the conclusion that the average starship is taken over by a hostile intelligence about once a month. Everyone from M-5 to the riddler has managed to control the Enterprise for at least long enough for Kirk to have to pull out the emergency destruct sequence manual. With a record like that they are lucky that they are still allowed to even have shields let alone phasors. John Eaton !hplabs!hp-pcd!john
dep@cosivax.UUCP (David E. Pugh) (03/16/84)
<Electronic Klingon pacifier>
Here's a question for everyone who likes to second guess starfleet
command:
What is the purpose of the Prefix code used to drop the
Reliant's shields during the first encounter with the
Enterprise ?
The only explanation (that in the event of a mutiny/rebellion/etc.,
the good guys could use the prefix code to capture a rogue ship easily),
has a few problems.
First, you would expect knowledge of the code (or even its existence)
to be kept secret (so the bad guys wouldn't change the code, as Spock
implied they could). If so, then why did the Enterprise have access to
another ship's prefix code. It the time, the Enterprise was a training
vessel, not a fleet command vessel. I doubt Starfleet would have
transmitted anything as valuable as the code, or that Kirk would carry
it with him.
Second, since no starfleet vessel have ever mutinied (I seem to recall
Spock saying this during one episode), and during a rebellion you
would expect some of the bad guys to have knowledge of the code, it
seems to be of little use (save for saving overage admirals). And it
does represent a large danger...if a klingon learned it during a battle,
scratch one Federation starship.
Any ideas ? --David Pugh (uofm-cv!cosivax!dep)freund@aecom.UUCP (Larry Freund) (03/18/84)
I seem to {_reYlI seem to recall that Captain Garth's (The shape changer from the planet for
the criminally insane who took Kirk and Spock hostage and tried to take the
enterprise in the "Queen to Queens Level 3" episode) crew did mutiny and that
he wanted to take the enterprise and track them down. That incident may have
been the motive for the prefix code in STII.
Larry Freund
UUCP: {pegasus,philabs,cucard}!aecom!freund
{pegasus,philabs,cucard}!aecom!spike!larryokie@ihuxs.UUCP (B.K. Cobb) (03/19/84)
As to the prefix code question, let me suggest that only upper command-rank personnel have access to the code. This could follow from the fact that Kirk had Spock track it down. I postulate a very secure computer cache that holds those prefix codes and is only available to those of upper command rand. And, as the *Enterprise* is one of the premier ships of the fleet (or so we're always told), training run or not, she would still be equipped with those codes. Also, consider that Kirk was in charge of fleet deployment at the time of ST:TMP. It would make sense that he would know about such an access system, and could have informed Spock about it. Now, I know that such a computer cache would not be totally secure; but it could be made so secure that the chances of innerrent discovery (or should that be "inerrant"?) would be small. As always, you run the risk that such codes can be learned -- but they can also be learned from the people who man the ships as well as the ship's computer. B.K.Cobb ihnp4!ihuxs!okie
goun@elmer.DEC (Roger H. Goun) (03/20/84)
<This line intentionally left blank.>
I have another explanation for the existence of the prefix code. Assume
that the way Kirk used it in STII (to order Reliant to lower her shields)
was not the purpose for which it was designed.
I can wave my hands and imagine any number of silly reasons to be able to
send commands to another ship's computer: shuttlecraft takeoffs and
landings, handshaking with unmanned data probes, automatic beamups using
the communicator emergency signal, etc. I don't think anyone anticipated
that it could be used to lower another ship's shields in battle until Kirk
thought of it to save his skin.
Evidence:
- It's a silly thing for Star Fleet Command to leave lying around once they
knew it was possible. Therefore, no one had thought of it previously.
- Saavik didn't know about it, as shown by the exchange (from memory; not
the exact words):
Kirk: "Spock, punch up the data for Reliant's command console."
Saavik: "Reliant's command...?"
Kirk: "You have to learn why things work on a starship..."
...
Saavik (confused): "I don't understand."
Saavik, though she lacks the experience to make creative decisions in tight
situations, is strong in her knowledge of "proper" procedures. Since she
always goes "by the book," she would have known that a starship can be
taken in this way if it was documented anywhere.
-- Roger Goun
UUCP: {allegra, decvax, ucbvax}!decwrl!rhea!elmer!goun
ARPA: decwrl!rhea!elmer!goun@{Berkeley, SU-Shasta}
USPS: Digital Equipment Corp., HLO2-2/H13
77 Reed Road; Hudson, MA 01749
MCIMail: RGoun
Tel: (617) 568-6311andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (03/21/84)
"As to the prefix code question, let me suggest that only upper
command-rank personnel have access to the code. This could
follow from the fact that Kirk had Spock track it down. I
postulate a very secure computer cache that holds those prefix
codes and is only available to those of upper command rand."
In "Star Trek VI: the Whiz Kids Play War Games", Kirk's teen-age hacker
nephew will use his personal computer and subspace modem to crack the
prefix codes of each starship through exhaustive search. He will then
begin "playing games", launching a doomsday attack on all alien races
simultaneously, through his control of the starfleet. Of course, he
won't realize that the computer is *really* starting a war until much
too late.
Remember, you saw it here first ... :-)
-- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP]
(orca!andrew.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]mather@uicsl.UUCP (03/27/84)
#R:aecom:-42200:uicsl:11600018:000:744 uicsl!mather Mar 26 10:10:00 1984 About Saavik being the bastard daughter of Spock and the Romulan Commander (note: name never given): 1) No Way. This is lunacy! Spock is hardly James Bond who would do ANYTHING in the line of duty. 2) This is never mentioned in the James Blish 'episodic' translation. 3) If you really think it is so, ask Joanne Linville (any relation to Larry Linville - Frank Burns) who played the Commander. Spock : "Was it Logical for you, too?" 4) Saavik goes 'by the book', but that page was probably missing in her copy. 5) The idea of the prefix code method of remote ship control came from the uux - unix to unix command execution method of running a job on a remote machine. Hardly original. B.C.Mather ...!uiucdcs!uicsl!mather
lee@unmvax.UUCP (03/27/84)
Starfleet command could just issue alot of swords. Oops, guess not, huh?
--Lee
--
--Lee (Ward)
{ucbvax,parsec,gatech}!unmvax!lee