Blog Trek: Run Silent, Run Deep

CYBERSPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER...

THESE ARE THE VOYAGES OF THE UCS WEBLOG...

ITS MULTIYEAR MISSION...

TO EXPLORE STRANGE NEW SITES...

TO SEEK OUT NEW FACTS AND NEW POINTS OF VIEW...

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO BLOGGER HAS GONE BEFORE....


Aboard the United Cybership (UCS) Weblog...


Captain's Blog, Cyberdate 20090214


Deep in uncharted cyberspace, we have become aware of unique threats posed to the UCS Weblog by our enemy. Analyses by Intelligence and Tactical indicate that our vessel is being tracked based upon our identification transponder, the codes for which have been compromised. Although I will not go into the technical details in this blog entry, it is important to realize the gravity of the threat.

The Federation is part of a broader alliance that now finds itself in the midst of a war -- a war which was begun by a terrorist attack. The information that we have uncovered makes that terrorist attack look more and more suspicious. Undoubtedly, the terrorists had help from deep inside the Federation, and undoubtedly, the enemy that we now face has access to Federation cybership transponder codes.

To be sure, it takes resources to track a cybership, although the need for resources is mitigated by the fact that, once started, the process of tracking cyberships is highly automated.

We had previously been aware of our enemy's ability to sense the wake of our vessel as we move through cyberspace, and of our enemy's attempt to track the leading edge of our wake, with an eye toward gaining a fire control solution against us. Now, however, the ante in this game has been upped by the enemy's ability to track us via our transponder code.

It should be noted that other critical information is now known or assumed to be compromised, as well.

As a consequence of this situation, the UCS Weblog has been forced to operate far more cautiously than previously.

As I reflect on this, I am reminded of stories about submarine operations in past wars. These vessels, with the ability to slip into close proximity to enemy targets and fire on them while underwater, and thus unseen, were considered particularly dangerous in warfare. In a deadly game of cat-and-mouse -- an analogy I have used in a previous blog entry with reference to our own situation -- the answer to the threat posed by the submarine was for groups of ships to work together to hunt it down and destroy it; however, the game of cat-and-mouse was deadly precisely because the prey was so deadly, and, indeed, it was often difficult to tell who was the prey, and who was the hunter pursuing it, or, as I had phrased it, "who is the cat, and who is the mouse."

Already with a reputation for mystery, the UCS Weblog now becomes even more mysterious, as we manipulate our transponder, and tie this through Tactical to our cloaking system, allowing us to move like a ghostship through the heart of enemy cyberspace. The enemy must now wonder where will we appear and in what form, what target will we fire upon and with what weapons -- all while I compare our current situation to that of submariners of old, as the UCS Weblog appears to "run silent, run deep".