Systems Upgrades (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 19 Apr 2012 @ 1:13am by Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren
Edited on on 20 Apr 2012 @ 12:46pm

3,424 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Starbase 234, USS Galileo
Timeline: MD 02 - 1030 hrs

Last time, on Systems Upgrades (Part 1)...

Markum tapped his badge, =/\=Quinn to Peers. What's your status up there? You haven't fallen off or broken anything yet have you kid?=/\= Quinn allowed himself a chuckle. Besides from complaining about Willis, his very next favorite thing to do while working was harassing his new assistant, Peers.

=/\=Old grids are up, new ones going in. Lower hull is fully installed, as are the nacelles. Troxx is up top with me now setting in the new grids in the fore and port. Should be ready for a diagnostic in about thirty minutes. All limbs whole, short, and accounted for, Chief.=/\=

=/\=Good.=/\= replied Quinn. He looked over toward Remington. "Commander, how are things looking from there? I'd say I'm done here, and ready to move up to the secondary array." Markum grabbed a couple things and descended the ladder. "I'll meet you guys there, or I'll finish up myself and you two can go to medical."

"We're good," Remington replied. "How long will it take you? If you can use the help we'll get the secondary array out of the way now and then go to sickbay." He gestured to Willis, "Reengage the systems and power once Quinn is off there."

"Not long, twenty minutes I expect." replied Quinn. I'll get Peers to meet me there and you can have Willis and we can meet in Medical, if you want Commander."

Willis watched Quinn get down form the array then activated the power to the array. "Power up and rolling along fine sir."

Quinn tapped his badge, =/\=Peers, meet me at the secondary array in fifteen. Don't be late, or you're buying the beer.=/\=

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

--Galileo's Secondary Deflector Array--

=/\=Empty threats, Chief,=/\= Peers snorted as she lined up her last grid. She wasn't quite up to laughing yet, still shaken from having held the fried Trill youth, but she couldn't afford to show that. Not to anyone. Not if she was going to hold on to her newly assigned place. And hell if she was going to let that go any time soon. Ten minutes later, she was sliding down the ladder and running full tilt. She dodged and weaved and used a short cut, but she arrived at the secondary relay with a minute to spare, sweaty and a little charred around the cuffs. Wiping her forehead off with her forearm, she crossed her arms and leaned against the door waiting for Quinn; the only proof of her rush the slightly elevated breathing and the sheen of sweat.

Quinn was five minutes late meeting Peers, who was leaning against the doorway. "yeah, yeah, I know. I'm late. Had to stop by the Science Chief's office to take a peek at this new FTL device's schematics. Remarkable technology." He walked past and smiled at his assistant as he enters the deflector control area. "Close the door. How are you holding up? It's never easy to see what you saw."

Peers straightened as she saw the Chief coming towards her, though by that time she'd had the time to breathe and center herself a bit more. So when she shut the door to the deflector control area and heard Quinn's question, she paused, facing away from him, trying to figure out just what had given away her nerviness on the subject. "It's like I told Rothgra, Chief. Most folks get sparked once. You learn not to do it again." She turned to him, forcing herself to keep her head up and shoulders down and back. Competent, she thought. I am competent and unemotional. "He was conscious and cognizant when the med team left with him. That's more than I can say for myself the first time I zapped myself; his hands are a mess, but I figure they can do something about that in sickbay. Incredible, the stuff they can fix like new." She smiled, albeit a little tremulously. "I told him I'd convince you to make his permanent assignment degaussing the cargo bay transporters with a micro-resonator if he ever gets fried again. Think that might have scared him more than the injuries."

Markum leaned against the bulkhead as he listened to Peers. He saw a lot of himself in her at that age. She had spunk, and she was damn good at her job. He could see that the incident scared her, and that was a good thing. You lose the fear to the job, you could lose your life. "You did the right thing Peers," Markum said as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. " if he ever does something like that again, I'll have him degaussing the latrine to my office." He smiled and patted her shoulder. "Okay, let's get to work Kid. I'll power down the array, you climb up to the top section, with the safety harness, and change out these isolinear chips to the ODN's up there that service the relay's passive sensor scanner."

"Your wish is my command, Chief," she said, nodding sharply and latching herself into the safety harness. A small short laugh escaped her, "Latrine. I should have said latrine. Hope there's not a next time to think of it." Then she hauled herself up, "Ready when you are, boss."

Markum made sure the power was deactivated, then he checked a second time. "Okay Peers. Looks good from here. Make sure you check that relay box up there too. Sometimes the neural gel packs go to hell and the can slow up the data transfer."

Markum grabbed his safety harness and went over to the array. He climbed the ladder and stopped once he was next to his new assistant. "Thought I'd come up and supervise." he said as he attached his harness. "Besides, if a gel pack is bad, you'll need an extra hand to replace it."

"Thank you, Chief." She shook her head slightly, "Used to think it would be handy to have eight pairs of hands. Then I met Crewman Ziyal - have you met him yet?" She whistled, shaking her head. "Nice. And smart. But... wow. So many hands." She pulled on her gloves as she visually checked the three generators patched into the NDA grid to make triple sure that they were powered down. Satisfied, she hooked her harness to the security line directly under the array and slid out under the array; times like this when she was basically free-hanging in the air with her hands in the mechanics of a ship, she really loved her job. Not that she didn't love it all the time, but... especially when the air wafted past her back and her feet were just hanging there. She crossed her ankles and pulled herself out further until she reached the relay's passive sensor scanner to begin the process of exchanging the isolinear chips. "And if he ever offers you some of his food - don't. I'm just now getting my taste buds back in working order."

Markum smiled as he zipped out by Peers. "Yeah...glad you told me that. Kinda like not to take coffee from Commander Remington?" he added with a wink and he pulled out a hyperspanner.

Lilou squinted at him. "Who told you?"

He smiled broadly..."Take it easy. My lips are sealed. As long as I've been in Starfleet, and you wonder how I get privy to information? C'mon Peers. I can't tell you all my secrets yet." He chuckled to himself as he used the hyperspanner, "Besides, I think he's a nice guy. You should get to know him a little better."

Lilou chewed her lip. "I try," she muttered. "People are... complicated. And most often make no sense at all." She shrugged uncomfortably. "Plus, I don't think... well. After that... I think he just wants to pretend none of it happened. At least... anyway. That's fine. It was embarrassing, the whole thing." She focused on the relay, not daring to look towards Quinn. "Don't say anything about it? I don't... I mean, there's no reason to bring it up, is there?" She tried to make light of it. Will- Remington, she reminded herself. Lieutenant Remington had been very kind to her after the ordeal. Gratitude, no doubt, for her keeping quiet about the mess; if he found out people knew about his... well, of course, some did. That medical officer had been there when he'd kissed her, for the spirit's sake... not that that was anything. Drugs. Neurotoxins. She frowned, at the relay. Foolish. Stupid foolish human thoughts. No wonder she didn't deserve a symbiont. She could barely take care of herself as it was. Securing her isolinear spanner in her thigh holster, Lilou drew her tricorder to check that the first set of ODN lines were secure and running smoothly. "One down," she reported.

"Good." Quinn finished calibrating the sensor relay, and returned the hyperspanner to his belt. "Look, Peers. Part of life is taking the risk. Especially when it comes to the heart." He slide down more and took a closer look to the phase inverter relay connection. "Trust me when I say, sometimes opportunity presents itself at what you may think of as the worst possible time. Quit being a stubborn Trill and ask him out. I see the look. Trust me..I know that look." A snap-hiss-crack sound came from Quinn's direction. "The relay is working!" He said with a chuckle.

Lilou nearly dropped her spanner. Only years of experience and quick motor reflexes kept the tool from falling to the ground, because her thoughts certainly screeched to a giant silent halt. Ask him out? Was Quinn insane? She had to spend who knew how long on this ship with the man. And he was... handsome. And nice. And... she was... small and not not nice, but certainly not as... confident or... The very idea that he would ever even... And that was the problem, wasn't it? That she was... well. Her. That had been the problem all along. Part of it, anyway. Not that she didn't like herself. She did. She thought she was perfectly fine. But that was because she was on the inside of herself. The outside of her was so awkward. As though the thoughts and feelings never quite passed through the translator right and she wasn't entirely sure why not. Maybe... maybe... well, he did seem to be good at pretending things hadn't happened. If she... At Quinn's announcement, she scanned the second set of ODN lines, then focused on installing the isolinear chips. "Batch two is..." she double checked her tricorder display, "running smooth." She pulled herself back along the security line to the ladder by Quinn. "Nice work, Chief."

Quinn nodded, "Thanks, kid. How many more you have to do? We should be done soon I'd think?"

"Just the one. Can't reach it on this line." She hooked her feet around the ladder opened up some slack on her harness, stretching out her spine. "I'll go up through the duct and hit it from the other side. Shouldn't take but about fifteen. Then we can go take a look at that EMH." She straightened on the ladder, unhooked her harness and crawled up, opening the duct access and slipping up inside. "Interesting construction decisions on this ship so far. I wonder how many other little hiccups we're going to find along the way."

"Too many, I'm sure." stated the Chief Engineer. I'll keep this line open here so you have a secondary if needed. and hurry up, but don't get reckless."

"Your wish is my command," she called over her shoulder as she crawled through the access shaft to the other side of the array. When she reached the appropriate point diagonal to the other set, she popped out the access panel and planted her legs against either side of the narrow passage, sticking her head down through the hole and slowly wiggling forward until she was leaning her entire torso out. Even then, she couldn't quite reach the array. "...hate being this short..." she muttered under her breath as she wiggled a little further and then further, stretching. Finally, she got her hands on the lines, hanging out of the panel with only her knees on either side of the opening and one hand gripping a maglock to keep her from catapulting to the ground. Deftly, she exchanged the isolinear chips. It took longer than it might have using two hands, but she got it done without dropping anything or herself. When she was done, she was sweating, but she slowly shimmied back up into the access shaft and made her way back to the entrance. Sliding down and out, she slipped back to the ladder and gave a short little sigh. "I'm going to install a security line past that one tomorrow, just in case anyone needs to do repairs there again. That was ridiculous."

"Good idea. Glad you offered, because I was just about to nominate you for that job." Markum tried to saying with a straight face. He lowered himself down and collected his gear. "If we hurry, we may be able to get to sickbay in time to see the new EMH program."


--Sickbay--

Willis walked into sickbay. He noticed the box with the new EMH program components. Willis looked and caught the attention of a nurse. "Excuse me, ma'am. Could you let Doctor Hilyer know the team assigned to install the new EMH program is here please?" She nodded and turned about, heading off to inform the CEO. Willis looked to Remington with a smile as he walked over to the replicator. "Want something to drink sir?"

Pola gently squeezed the shoulder of the young trill on the biobed beside her, "Next time you need a boost, try stay away from live wires and come see me instead, you hear." The young Doctor smiled gently at Rothgra before looking up at the nurse. "Give him another 2cc's of inaprovaline and monitor his heart rate, it's still slightly high but I imagine we will be able to let him go in a few hours. If there's any issues give me a shout."

Walking over to two men who seemed to be gathered around a box, Pola cleared her throat to try get their attention, before tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear."Is there something I can help you with gentlemen?" She had only been on the ship a few hours and already she had been called into duty, something about the CMO being needed for something else. Outside of those details she had been offered no more and she hadn't asked for anymore.

"Doctor Hilyer wanted to be here while we installed the EMH," Remington explained, "but if he's busy we will have to complete it without him. Did he leave the ship?"

"In all honesty, I have not got an iota of a clue...." Pola peered closer at the man's collar and stood up straighter when she realised his rank,"....Commander. I'm Doctor Ni Dhuinn, the ship's new assistant chief medical officer. I've only just arrived on board. My transfer included a request to immediately report for duty to sickbay, so here I am. Can I be of any help in Doctor Hilyer's absence?" Pola tilted her head slightly to see if she could make out what kind of equipment was in the box. She'd never really given much consideration to how exactly an EMH Programme worked, it might be fun helping to install one.

Willis smiled and stepped forward. "Yes Doctor, if you could direct me to the Primary Medical Control Console, I could start uploading the EMH software."

Pola nodded her head and allowed a soft smile. "Please then, follow me, it's just across the room. Before you start though, is there anything I need to be made aware of? We have patients in here at the moment, will there be any danger of power being lost to any of our equipment?" Pola starting walking to the other side of sickbay, going over each patient in her head, their illness and treatments and any contingency plans which may be required.

Willis shook his head while following, "No, Doctor, none at all. I just need to get a good look at the program schematics. Umm, do you know how many holo-projecters there are here in sickbay, Doctor? If not, I'll research it, just save us sometime."

Remington interjected. "There shouldn't be a problem with holoprojectors," he said, moving over to an unused console, "Every area of the ship is supposed to be outfitted with holoprojectors arranged to provide full coverage. We just need to upload it and run a brief diagnostic."

Pola resisted the urge to turn on her heel and point out to Will that there was nothing wrong with being extra secure when it is people's lives at risk. The EMH was exactly what the name suggested, there for emergencies. Should it fail in anyway when needed, it could result in deaths. Pola had experienced enough of those without more occurring because of a technical blunder. "In all honesty. Crewman, I don't have a clue. If we estimate the size of sickbay is 35meters in width and....hum...50meters in length I'm sure you know how much area one holoprojector covers and we can go from there. While you are here there's no harm in running some general diagnosis, it's always better to double and triple check."

Willis walked over to the main console and began working on the codes to access and enable the EMH programs property coding sequence. "I have the codes Commander. What's next, sir?"

"Go to primary sickbay controls," Remington said, gesturing to the large wall display, "access panel J-14-delta. Upload the EMH node into the access point there." He went up to the wall and began to work on the LCARS panel there.

Willis moved over to the primary sickbay controls and began entering information. "Uploading, Commander. Sixteen...thirty, fifty-three, eighty-eight....wait..."Willis' dexterous fingers moved across the console with an unmatched grace, and skill. "We have a problem, the program is regressing...no...wait....It's back to installing. That was odd, Commander."

Pola stood back and watched as the guys starting doing the installation. Suddenly feeling a little awkward just standing there, she spoke up for a moment, "Is there anything further I can help with?"

"Not until we run the diagnostic, doctor," he told her politely but a bit absently as he walked up to the other officer. "What happened?" he asked.

Pola nodded her head, "Please shout if I'm needed, I'll just be checking up on Rothgra." Pola nodded her head at the guys and wandered off.

Willis shrugged his shoulders, "No idea what caused it. All I know is the it was installing, then it began a uninstall, then went back to a full install. It may have been a design flaw. This EMH program may not be compatible with the Galileo's systems."

"Nonsense," he said, "of course it's compatible. LCARS is standardized. Just to be on the safe side, reinitialize the program."

"Aye, sir." replied Willis to the Ops Chief. Willis once again opened the command sequence to reinitialize the EMH program. He started back from the very beginning, to be sure all went well, and no errors were found. The system rebooted the program and started installing again. "So far so good Commander." The program finished its upload, then prompted for a security clearance code. "Commander, it wants a security clearance sir, and mine isn't high enough."

Remington nodded and went back to his panel to enter the security code. "Computer, recognize security authorization Remington-one-three-seven-Tau-Alpha-six."

The computer beeped in reply and the synthetic woman's voice responded. Security authorization accepted.

"There we go," Will said with a nod. "I'll begin a diagnostic. Would you find the doctor for me?"

"Aye-aye, sir." replied Willis as he walked into the larger common area of the sickbay. "Doctor? Commander Remington would like a word sir. I believe we are done."

[OFF]

--

LCDR Chauncey (Will) Remington III
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Pola Ni Dhuinn, M.D.
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CWO Markum Quinn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Arthur Willis (NPC)
Computer Systems Specialist
USS Galileo

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