A Surprise in Operations 101

Posted on Sun Jul 24th, 2022 @ 6:00am by Commander Kyle Reece & Lieutenant Myne Redal

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Elysium Academy
Timeline: 1000 hours
2301 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Alicianna entered the lecture hall with a PADD, a large mug of decaf mocha latte, and her crisp uniform. She sat down in the chair and began to meditate until her new instructor arrived.

Myne entered the lecture hall, stopping in the door to look around for a moment, her eyes resting on the familiar face of Alicianna. She waved cheerfully with a big, bright smile before moving towards the teacher's desk.

Placing a lovely wooden PaDD support on the desk, she then inserted her custom PaDD in it so it would stand straight. Clearing her throat she began to speak. "Hey there everyone! Name's Lieutenant JG Myne Redal and I will be your Operations Instructor for the next... erm century or so. Hopefully, we'll see."

"Now, less fancy talk from me and more fancy talk from you. Can anyone tell me what Ops is all about? Why do we even need an Ops department when we have the Engies running around the ship?"

When Alicianna heard the lunatic's voice, she suddenly almost choked on her mocha. "You're the instructor?!?!" She blurted out in surprise.

"Oh, crazy kid! Yeah, I'm the Ops Instructor. Now since you volunteered to speak, care to answer my questions? Or shall I send you my resume of being an Operations Instructor on Earth for over four decades?" Myne asked her warm smile still on her lips, but her tone rather stern all of the sudden. "Listen kids, you're all here to learn and to better yourselves. Operations might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it offers a wealth of knowledge that will serve you well no matter the career you choose for yourselves."

As the discussion took place, Kyle quietly entered the rear of the class. He moved to the rear row of empty desks and gently lowered his large frame down into the seat. A pleasant grin was on his face as he listened to the back and forth from Myne and her students.

"Crazy kid?!? You're the one who had us all climbing for apples in the arboretum, and if we decided to leave, you arranged to have us imprisoned in a transporter buffer repeatedly. Thus risking degrading, and posing a severe risk of either pattern degradation or transporter psychosis." Alicianna noted. "You're a lunatic... an insane lunatic in charge of this ship's systems."

Throwing only a cursory glance at Kyle, Myne continued smiling to Alicianna and nodded. "Quite so. How do you know any of those things would have transpired? Can you actually point out to me what system I would have used to achieve that method of imprisonment?" Tapping her PaDD quickly a holografic representation of the Elysium and its transporters appeared above her desk.

"For now, the debate over pattern degradation and transporter psychosis shall be put on hold, after everyone reads on the curious case of Captain Montgomery Scott who actually survived in a transporter buffer for seventy-five years. Once everyone is caught up on that study case we can try to emulate his achievement and reverse engineer his method."

"Until then, cadet Salannis, please step up and walk me through to the system I would have used to trap you in a transporter buffer." Myne offered inviting her cadet over with a glint of excitement in her eye. This was not only to be fun, but this young cadet was actually challenging her to do some more interesting lessons than she anticipated.

Back in the rear row of the class, Kyle watched silently, a bemused smirk on his face. Watching Alicianna buck and fight back, reminded him of another intelligent, beautiful, hard headed Alindari that he once knew quite well. It was as if Arrianna was here in class, instead of her niece.

"Simple... you've created a pattern buffer loop between two transporters, then you insidiously configured the data to cycle between them, thus reducing the pattern degradation down to .0000001 percent. Enough, to imprison a noble and intelligent fifteen year old Alindari indefinitely. But the power demands for doing this is extravagant." Alicianna sipped on her coffee. That was the glaring difference; Arrianna did not drink decaf coffee.

"Oh, curious. We will have to test if nobility and intelligence increase the power demand in such a situation. Anyways class, as I've been saying for the past several decades, there's no teacher-like hands on practice. Cadet Salannis here has offered us the perfect chance to have some fun!" Myne cheered and shot a fist up in the air from excitement.

"So, for the following week, each of you will be trapping something in the transporter buffer. I will reserve two transporters for the class to use as well as the necessary power output to sustain the experiment. Each of you will be given a finety bomb. A confederati bomb? A feti something bomb, it's a Human thing from Terra. Its blows up and small pieces of paper shoot out everywhere and it is apparently fun. If you do not manage to always keep an eye out on the power fluctuations and keep the patterns stable, the transporter will transport the bomb to your location and you'll be covered in the paper thingies. If you do manage it, however, you get a day as an intern in Operations, shadowing anyone you would like. So, any questions?"

"Yes... One..." Alicianna noted.

"If it's an honest question bout the assignment, go ahead. If not, you're going right not the buffer for the rest of the class." Myne offered and chuckled.

Before anyone could respond further, Kyle discreetly, and quietly, cleared his throat. Just loud enough for Myne to look at him and see him giving her a slightly raised eyebrow.

Myne raised her hands defensively and smiled innocently. "What? I was just going to transport her into one of the holodeck into a simulation of some metaphysical state that would seem as if she was stuck in the buffer. With lots of puzzles to solve to get out. Both a teaching moment and a lesson to remember."

Alicianna stared at Myne and sipped her mug like she was saying 'Really?'

He grinned and chuckled softly. "Fair enough," his deep baritone nearly filled the class, causing a few cadets, who were not as observant, suddenly realize that they weren't alone in the room with their professor. One or two of the female cadets smiled when they saw him.

Kyle ignored the looks and said, "Ask your question, Cadet an Kharadan."

"Tirielle save me from the madness of chaos and discord." Alicianna noted. "Very well, Commandant. I will ask my question. Instructor Redal. Has anyone ever told you that you are either an eccentric genius... or a raving lunatic?"

"Cadet!" Kyle barked, the sudden change in his tone causing several of the other cadets to flinch. "Mind your tongue, Cadet. You are speaking to, not only a trusted member of my staff, but of this ship. Furthermore, you are speaking to someone who has forgotten more about Ops then you will ever learn. You have just earned yourself a demerit. Now I suggest that, from this point forward, you keep the smart-ass comments to yourself, and pay attention to your professor." He looked over the rest of the class. "That goes for all of you," he said in a very commanding voice. One that made no qualms about him being willing to snap a knot in anyone else's ass. "While you attend my academy, you will respect every one of you instructors. They are here for a reason. They will teach you how to become the next generation of officers in Star Fleet. If I hear of any more blatant disrespect aimed at my Cadre, the offending cadet will learn the true meaning of fear. Do I make myself clear, Cadets?!"

Trying to be pacifying, Myne continued to smile and speak up in a playful tone. "Now now, no need for such drastic measures Commandant Reece. Not when this is a question that has came up over the course of the past few centuries." Looking at Alicianna, Myne nodded. "The answer would have to be a little bit of both, since you cannot be an eccentric genius without being a tiny bit mad. But as a percentage, I have been named to be a genius with consistence over the decades, from host to host."

Looking towards the rest of the class, Myne spoke in a more serious tone. "I have been dealing with operations for almost four centuries now, so the expertise I have acquired tends to be on the encyclopedic side. However, being an eccentric genius is closer to what it means to pursue a career than you might think. Unlike all departments that have their own specializations, Operations Officers need to know everything. We are the ones with a finger on the pulse of the ship. We are the central nervous system. We fill every role needed to supplement all the other departments. We are the jack of all trades of every ship. You need to reboot a derelict space station? Send in Engineering and Ops. You have a combat situation on the ground and need explosives? Guess what, Ops is down there. Science has found a fun new nebula that is messing with their sensors? Yep, Ops is there to help. We are the one department that connects all the others."

Taking a deep breath she closes her speech on a warmer tone. "Not everyone can make it as a Ops officer, however. Honestly, it is not a job you will be praised in, if at all, and it is a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, equations that boggle the mind. Everyone will expect you to know everything about everything. But it is the one domain in which if you truly dedicate yourself to it, you might earn the distinction of having a promising student one day ask if you are a genius or a lunatic." With that she looked back at Alicianna and nodded, with a hand inviting her to go back to her seat.

Alicianna looked at Kyle. "Understood, Sir." She then looked at Myne. "With all due respect. My major is Engineering."

"And it is a wonderful major to have. That doesn't mean the knowledge you can gain in these classes will not help you cadet. Knowing more and being able to do more will help you in your career for years to come. Do not turn out a chance to gain more knowledge when it is offered to you." Myne replied in a soft tone.

Alicianna spoke. "Transporting one of my people is no small matter. We are skittish around strange transporters. My people believe in maintaining the body and mind to the greatest degree. We even demand the highest quality in transporters. If it damages our body. We tend to completely shun the technology."

That peaked Myne's curiosity and her smile grew wide. "Oh, cadet, I think I might actually have to find some provision that allows me to enlist you as a instructor's aide. Because you keep stealing my thunder with very pertinent questions. this was a topic I wanted to address at a later date, but we can at least mention it now: transporters."

Looking at her class, Myne explained. "What cadet an Kharadan has brought up is rather interesting. It is an old Human debate stemming from the moment that transporters shifted from cargo transport to people transport during Captain Archer's time. The question is simple, and it seems the Alindari already have had this debate in their society as well. In a sense. What happens when you are being transported? On a basic level, you are copied in one location and pasted in another. Does this mean you are being moved, or do you die at the start and a new version of you is created at the destination? What do you think cadet?" She finished with a question for Alicianna.

Quietly, Kyle sat back down to continue observing the class.

Alicianna spoke. "With all due respect.. We take great care in the development of our organic forms. Our health, our education, even our fairness.. We view it as a reflection of what"s inside. Humans have a saying; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. to the Alindari.. We are as beautiful inside as we are outside. Transporters in my society gained acceptance slowly because we sought to refine the technology to such a point that we could trust to use it. Federation Transporters meets our approval. Many transporters of other species do not. It is not vanity it is the standards we strive for and the standards we demand in return."

"I see cadet. So you have not met my question with a response that I can see much use off. Other than more boasting about your people. On atomic level, when you transport, what comes out on the other end are the original atoms or new atoms reconstructed in the configuration of the original pattern which was copied and send to the destination?" Myne reiterated her question softly.

Kyle sat back and listened, curious as to how Alicia would reply.

Alicia spoke. "I am not a philsopher Ma'am." She noted. "I think on the lines of science not endless philosophical debate that usually goes nowhere. And the discussion echoes for years. The accepted resolution i subscribe to is the universe is a vast quantum based memory that contains our consciousness. We end up transferred to a new medium every time we transport. Converted to energy and vice verse. Hmm.. That is intriguing."

The rest of the lecture continued on without any more disturbances. A few minutes before class ended, Kyle discreetly made his exit, allowing Myne to wrap up her class as she saw fit.

~OFF~

 

Comments (1)