Trouble call list -150 what? Part ONE

Posted on Thu Oct 21st, 2021 @ 10:52am by Lieutenant Myne Redal & Lieutenant Baeryn Whavi-Tonelly & Ensign Edward D'Gracefull
Edited on on Thu Dec 23rd, 2021 @ 7:38pm

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Deck 11 Operations Center
Timeline: MD8 14 H 45
2725 words - 5.5 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

Edward Garnla Gnomomer Chel'Sata, from the House of EL, line of D'Gracefull, pulled up the daily trouble call log. It showed 212 trouble calls since midnight last night. Of that 150 belonged to the Operations department. He should talk with them to determine when they would start dropping equipment for repairs. He tried sorting the list by priority, but most were the same, high priority. ED then tried to sort by the system. This was marginally better. Finally giving up, he sorted by deck and location, to start at the top of the ship, and work his way down. Ed went looking for the assistant Operations boss, his office was on the same level as Ed's. Walking over to the office, he knocked on the door.

Baeryn had been trying to sort the mess of equipment with her assistant for the better part of the last two hours. They were making little headway but persisting nonetheless when a knock sounded on the assistant's door. Baeryn looked to Myne as it was her office they were in and raised a brow.

Myne was humming a tune and tapping on the floor in rhythm with her right foot as she helped her chief sort through a wonderfully chaotic mess of parts and gear. The knock on the door went over her head something fierce, until she noticed Baeryn looking at her. "What? Do you not like the song chief?" Myne has completely forgotten this is her office, actually, the idea of having her own office is still so new to her that it doesn't even occur to her that she has to invite the person that knocked in.

Baeryn smirked, she found so much humor in her new assistant. It was a breath of fresh air to work with someone less stoic and business all the time."You gonna answer that Myne?" She pointed to the door.

Raising her head to look at Baeryn, then slowly turn towards the door, Myne blushed intensely red. "Crap, this is my office? Erm, sure boss in a jiffy!" Clearing her throat she raised her voice, avoiding Baeryn's gaze, clearly feeling rather silly at the moment. "Whoever has knocked! If you're still out there, you can come in! Please?"

Ed heard a muffled come on in, so deciding to risk things being hurled at him, carefully advanced to the doorway, ready to duck. After all fortune favors the prepared. "Greetings!" He said to the two Operations officers. "I am Edward Garnla Gnomomer Chel'Sata, from the House of EL, line of D'Gracefull. I am the new assistant Engineering Officer. Just call me ED. Since I was in the area, I figured that I would stop by and say hi, grease any squeaky wheels, and put out any fires! Do you have any? fires? or squeaky wheels?"

Looking at the newcomer, Myne visibly tried to silently repeat his name and completely failed. "Hi there Ed! I am Lieutenant JG Myne Redal and this is Lieutenant Baeryn Whavi. She's the boss, not me, but this is my office. Soo... it's complicated. No squeaky wheels sadly, current Federation technology levels have outgrown direct mechanical wheels, so they cannot squeak anymore. And we actually have fire prevention systems in place." She replied honestly to his questions, taking them at face value.

Ed looked at the piles of parts that covered the room. "Well", he said, "If the replicators go offline, your covered! Wait you sure there are no wheels in here, it look's like you have everything else!"

"Pretty sure, I checked! Not many round-shaped objects made out of plastic around here!" Myne replied cheerfully.

"Poker chips?" asked Ed, " I hear that Operations is famous for their high-stakes poker nights. The Looser has the mid-watch, for Two days. "

"Nope, not sure people play poker here. I am not allowed to play poker." Myne looked saddened. "Or am I? Do restrictions apply after a hundred years?"

"A hundred human years, Just how old are you?" Ed blurted out before he realized, that he had just asked a female her age, and that was known to get people beheaded. If one asked the wrong female.

'Me?" Myne asked thinking for a moment. "Twenty seven in this host. Over a handful of centuries overall. So, you know, I am both young and old. Kid grandma!" She chuckled and smiled joyfully.

Ed asked. "How many planned and unplanned drills do you schedule per cycle? Also any are there any Drills that will affect engineering equipment? Should we plan on faults and simulation damages? Do you wish to coordinate with me to rope the rest of shipboard personnel for damage control simulations? I think that 10% of the crew per month is a minimum, not a maximum."

Baeryn stood straighter, placing a hand on her hip. "Engineering receives advanced notice of all and any drills that can or will affect any equipment. Lieutenant Barclay de Tolly will see that you are included in that information." she paused for a moment before answering another of his questions, these two assistants were sure to keep her on her toes with their questions. "I'm sure we could coordinate a schedule to accomplish the damage control project, though my advice is you take plan no more than 15% of the crew at a time. The Elysium is a larger than normal ship and I would like to see that the simulations are conducted correctly rather than quickly."

Ed said, "I agree, but on my previous ship, drills were.. how to say this politely, only for engineering and operations. The rest of the departments had more important things to do."

Shrugging Myne nodded to Ed. "Yep, that's true. Most departments do have more important things to do. Especially when the ship is not engaged in an active operation. Like... not doing anything because most other departments are reactionary. Doing nothing is a very important task after all! Sadly, us operations people have less important things to do, like make sure the ship systems are constantly at peak efficiency. And since a ship doesn't really get downtime or else we would all die from lack of oxygen and from the cold of interstellar space... there is a constant stream of components that get used up and worn down that we must make sure to find and repair in time." Myne smiled cutely at Ed. "Then the drills are kinda useless, true. Because everyone from all other departments are trained in emergency procedures and handling of equipment such as life support, evacuation modules, transporters... oh wait. No, no they are not. Sheesh I talk a lot, sorry Ed, but have you got stranded on a derelict ship before? I mean that was made derelict?" She asked smiling innocently.

Ed smiled and said "Well, I was on a Solarian Navy destroyer, when a Shelliak Corporate Cruiser, managed to ambush us in a nebula. We lost the right nacelle and had to limp home on sub-warp. Unlike the Federation, we did not have Fancy mobile shipyards to fix these things. So unfortunately I can understand. I tend to not make other people conform to my standards, It can be a painful process. But Fancy toys tend to break easy...That's why I prefer Sturdy to fancy!"

Baeryn raised her brows unsure how she was even keeping up with these two. "Well, I can agree with you there but believe me when I tell you there is no ship that can match the Elysium. She's got all the bells and whistles." She set down her PaDD and took a seat in front of Myne's desk. "Also, as a department head I feel the need to state how necessary drills are to have. We all hope to never have to use the information gained by running drills, but they are paramount none the less. I would rather have a crew annoyed with the time spent to conduct them then a crew ignorant of how to handle themselves in emergency situations."

Nodding feverishly, Myne agreed. "Yes yes, just as the boss said! Drills are necessary, even if people do not like them. It is knowledge that is good to have!! Also, a Solarian destroyer? Ooh, those are fun. Not to good on cyberdefenses though. But lovely overall ship architecture. Was it fun at least?"

Ed smiled, while reminiscing, " A blast, when had two drills a day, and the CO would walk into a room, and say BANG, everybody is dead, an point to a random person in the youngest age group, and say [YOU the only survivor, what do you do?] Occasionally a young sharp mind, would pull a rabbit out of his or her hat, and the drill was over in 30 seconds. Any one doing that, got 45 minutes in the captain's chair while the captain had lunch, with all department heads. Those that did that, wore a smug look for at least a week. Needless everyone was cross-trained in everything. We had to get signed off on all departments, but when we did, we then got to wear the space warrior emblem on our uniform. It took 2-3 years to complete normally. Maybe someone should suggest something like that to our CO?"

"Oh that sounds exciting! Really fun, we should totally do stuff like that!" Myne clapped cheerfully, chuckling at the story. "I like, sounds like a cool idea. Though not sure on proposing that to the CO yet. Right now, I think the best course is just getting some drills in and make sure everyone has a base level of knowledge and understanding of critical systems during a crisis."

Pulling up his oversized P.a.d.d., Ed asked "Of these 150 trouble calls, over half are tied to information repeaters or information display systems. Records indicate there was a patch on the midships computer transfer matrix, there may have been a bad chipset or an incomplete install of the program upgrade. Any ideas?"

Getting her own custom homemade PADD, Myne nodded and brought a finger to her mouth to bite on it as she thought. "Well, it does seem like a cascade error, to be honest. Should have backup chipsets that would compensate for this. The error might be a more annoying bug or something that went wonky in the code."

Ed pulled out his Padd, "Cascade failure, but there are 5 different systems. Tying them to mean that it would have to be part of the communication systems or sensor system for it to spread like this."

Baeryn took in the information from both officers before drawing her own conclusion, "This system failure could be due to recent damage from the invasion. I suggest we run a diagnostic on both the communications and sensor system to find the source of the error. I'm sure it's simple a circuit in need of maintenance."

Ed looked up, "Invasion, what invasion?" He looked around now regretting he had no weapons on his person, "In the Solarian Guard, we carried weapons at all times, How likely is this to happen again?" Ed felt naked without his weapons, as he had grown complacent in the academy.

Baeryn reached out and patted Ed's forearm, "It happened a few days ago, don't worry it's not something that takes place...ever. But the disarray of some of the systems is a result of it."

Ed said, "If it happens once on a ship this size, then can you guarantee it won't happen again?"

Myne sighed and her gaze turned nostalgic. "That invasion was more fun than my last two mutinies. I locked myself in..." She stopped to look at Baeryn and blushed furiously, looking terribly guilty. "Hehehe." She laughed even more guilty. "I think I know how to explain the cascade failure. Boss... remember when I told you I had a... erm virus thingy in the system?"

Ed's eyebrows went up, First invasion then mutinies, boy Life in Starfleet was not what he had expected. "They didn't say anything about mutinies back in the academy. Just how often do they occur?" Ed asked.

"Oh no no no!!" Myne shook her head and hands at Ed. "Sorry, my bad! Erm, those mutinies were on an Orian pirate ship, a Ferengi cruiser and a Klingon freighter. And none of them recent, the last one was about ninety years ago." The clearly way too young Myne said hastily. "No mutinies on Starfleet ships, do not worry about that."

"The computer had a virus?" Ed asked, "I thought the system was designed to prevent that from happening?"

"Crap, yes. The system is designed to prevent that from happening unless... you have clearance as I do, and unless I am the one making the virus. Erm... yeah, it did come in handy during the invasion though!" Myne explained nervously and looked at Baeryn with slumped shoulders expecting quite a beatdown.

Baeryn's features darkened a bit as she took a deep inhale, "Myne, I assumed you would have taken care of your virus once the ship had been cleared from Greens men."

Raising her hands defensively, Myne nodded. "I swear I did! I must have forgotten some bits and bobs. Alright, that's a lie, I am biologically incapable of forgetting, damn Redal... buuuut!! I did purge it! Remember, I was using it to lockout control that Green's men had over transporters and other systems. There might have been errors left behind after that, and I didn't have time to go over every system and check them from time to bottom. I tried to! Fell asleep a few times after pulling double shifts."

Ed said, "Well now that you have slept since then, and after a good nights sleep tonight. How about we run through the system one last time to purge this virus if it still exists. Or it could even be, read / write errors that never got fixed while the virus was in control, and the fix missed them in the command log, for what ever reason, and we have out date command instructions that just need fixed."

"I agree, that sounds like an excellent plan Ed except one thing. This issue needs to be solved promptly. Myne, "Baeryn turned to her assistant with a stern look. "I want no trace of your virus found by the end of the day. I would like to not have to report to Starfleet that this virus went unnoticed. I'm going to check with Ensign Bond on the status of the computer core. I can leave this in your capable hands, yes?" She raised a brow to Myne while she began to gather her belongings.

"Good point!" Myne replied to Ed. "Though the virus should be consumed by now. Think of it like a storm. We just have to do some damage control. Like you said, read / write errors most likely, the virus itself was not designed to be harmful or intrusive. I kind of had to modify it on the fly since we were locked out of several parts of the ship." Turning to Baeryn, Myne continued to look meek and guilty, buckling a bit under the stern look. "Yes boss, we will wipe trace of it. I should not have used the term virus, sorry. Boss... it was merely a short scope sensor blocker really, meant to hide a singular item. I just... pushed the code a bit too far because I couldn't find another way to bypass Green's control over the transporters. Was more of a stupid panic move."

Ed smiled and then said, "Well, I would not call it going overboard, If it's crazy and it works, then it's not crazy! It did the job you needed at the time. So there!"

"Heh, I mean, thank you Ed, that's nice of you to say. But it was a bit rash of me. Starfleet has soo many rules, it is like, super crazy and hard to keep track of everything!!" Myne chuckled and sneaked a peak at Baeryn just to be safe.

Ed said, "Well if you need an hand looking at the code'ing, I can at least man the replicated coffee pot, code'ing is not my fort'e, but I will keep you from falling asleep!"

//OFF//

Lieutenant Baeryn Whavi
Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium

Lieutenant JG Edward D'Gracefull
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Elysium

Lieutenant JG Myne Redal
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium