Infiltration

Doc quickly delves into the surprised crewman's psyche. It's a fairly easy read; he's caught in a sudden situation where he might have to get security involved, and he's not wearing any pants. Also, he's somewhat homophobic.

Doc smiles at him. "Hey Sailor, need someone to scrub your back? If not, I'll just take a pee and be out of your hair."

"Uh, no thanks. Sorry, I thought you were someone else." He steps back into the shower and begins singing loudly to himself, trying to make the rest of the world disappear.

"That was close," says Steve. He goes back to the lockers with his multitool.

"Damnit, Steve, it's not going to work. We've got to find another way before you get us into deep shit."

"I've almost got it this time..." PZZT! A spark flares briefly, and all the electronic locks on all the lockers disengage. "Hah!"

Doc looks around. The crewman's loud singing has covered up the shocking sound. No one reacts.

"Okay, lets be quick. Here's a duffel bag for our clothes, 'cause, well, we can't leave them here in the lockers. I wonder why the hell all those locks are on the same circuit, anyway? Weird." Steve hands Doc a shirt and pair of pants, blue silk and nylon weave. As they change, Steve explains the rank and color system. "The color of the shirt denotes your job category. Blue is science and medical. Security is red, staff officers are orange, engineers are yellow, docking operations are green, warrant officers are indigo, pilots are violet, and commanders are white. Rank is denoted by the black stars and stripes on the shirt. It looks like we're junior lieutenants."

They're dressed now and their other clothes are in the duffel bag, which contains medical supplies. Steve hands Doc a passcard. It's also blue, and there's no picture on it, just a bar code and text: LTJG Antonio Sanchez, EMT. Steve's says: LTJG Horatio Zonk, QFM.

"What's QFM?"

"Quantum Flux Monitoring, I presume."

"Why on such an advanced ship with tight security controls do they use something as low tech as bar-coded passcards and RFID? Why no biometrics, or even a picture on the card?"

"Probably because they don't want pirates pulling out eyeballs and ripping off hands just to get through a door. Seems kinda pointless, though, they'll probably kill everyone they see, anyway. Maybe they just don't want a mess to clean up afterwards. I have no idea why there's no picture on the card, that seems kinda silly. Further, why don't they have a computer controlled bio-monitoring system that opens the correct doors for the correct people automatically? Those exist in this era, the DataPlex in Milwaukee had one. They're not even that expensive, really, just a lot of cameras and biosensors."

"Maybe they have a high rate of personnel turnover."

"It would still be easier to make a change in a database than to hand out new passcards."

"Perhaps they don't want a central database, in case it gets hacked by the pirates before they board."

"It's possible. Well, whatever the reason, it works to our advantage. C'mon, we've got to figure out how to get to Veronica."