…nodding at Adele…
“I know ranks aren’t allowed – it’s just been every transmission that we’ve managed to intercept and decrypt so far were sprinkled with ‘Sir’s’ and ‘Ma’am’s’ and, generally, well… not so much groveling as making sure that a superior officer is reflected as just that. Superior. Forgive me if I add a few here and there, so I don’t get out of the habit of it when I have to communicate outside our little fleet here, which isn’t exactly our little fleet.”
Donovan’s tone turns hushed, as if he’s sure everyone and everything in the room is surely listening in on the conversation.
“From what I’ve discovered, biometric scans and simple voice pattern recognition systems recognize us for us… I mean them… ummm… Don’t make me go down this rabbit hole!”
“What I mean to say is that passwords and such seem to be a bit of extra work to crack, and simple scans like DNA, retinal, and voice register as authentic.”
Donovan looks at his fingers, not so much to check for damage, but tapping them for feeling and to reassure himself that they’re still whole.
“Mr. Vaj, I recommend an extra measure of caution if you try to circumvent the password lockouts. The systems here seem a little less ‘tolerant’ of imaginative bypasses.”
“I was going to test a theory and see if there were any EEG patterns on file to compare to, and, maybe, run some scans on my hand, but I was a little weirded out by the equipment in sickbay. Voiddamnit, I’m a Scientist, not a Doctor, but I don’t think everything in there is meant to patch the officers up and make us feel better!”