The Science of Sensors

Posted on 20 Aug 2012 @ 12:36pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Crewman Jude Perry & Phoebe Bennett Ph.D. & Crewman Recruit Marnee & Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeroen Adlar
Edited on on 21 Aug 2012 @ 5:05am

3,924 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4/5 Sensor Array
Timeline: MD8 0800hrs

With a speedy sonic shower and a fresh uniform, Kiri paced quickly through the corridors. Dodging the repairs and crew discussing reports, heading bow-ward as fast as she could without running. The ship was still blind to the nebula around it, there was a lot of work to do to get it running away. Without it they didn't stand a chance in any sort of engagement. The day before she had been able to at least trace the problem to an power overload across the entire system. While safeties had protected most of the network, the controlling computer was damaged. Repairs on that could take a long time but there was a backup, it just meant all the nodes had to be manually turned over to the backup.

On reaching the prow Kiri started to check the numbers on the doors, looking for the Jefferies tube access room. A few doors down she found it and entered. It was larger than some, having a central terminal and access points on every side of the square room. There were several matters to sort out before she could attempt to bring the sensors online. The first was checking the backup computer was fully functional, the second was to switch all the nodes over to its command protocols, then the system had to be configured and then the parts checked for damage. It would take all day for a team of four people at her guess. So last night, before finally taking her wounded self to sickbay she had put out a request to all science department personnel that weren't part of other efforts to repair the ship to meet her here. So far alone she started to work, checking the backup control computer with a full software diagnostic.

Time passed slowly, in her head Kiri could see the plan laid out like a map. Each step carefully landmarked, if she closed her eyes she could almost see notes attached to help her. Despite everything that had happened to the ship, the backup was working fine. When the power surge had cut through it's fuses had switched and protected it. The power was stable for now so she didn't worry about switching them back. Drawing up a power grid she watched it on a real map, noting only one or two points it didn't reach on the sensor network. Due to how the primary computer had cut out though, most couldn't be accessed yet. That was the hard bit, it would take a long time to switch them all over, days on her own. After forty minutes she was still just that. It draw a sigh that was cut short as the door behind her opened.

Surprised Kiri turned and saw two people she recognised but knew nothing more of than what their personnel records showed. One was a woman, Crewman Bennett who was a physicist, same height, age and build as herself with shortish blonde hair. The second was a man, Crewman Perry from the planetary stellar cartography department, cropped blond hair and a very large frame, his face angular and strong. Both were dressed in department uniform and stood to somewhat attention, "Reporting for duty sir," It was Bennett that spoke, her face rounded with large full cheeks.

Kiri was unable to suppress a smile, she had been on the precipice of doing this along and failing in her job. Now things were starting to look up, she actually felt happy. Struggling she let her stance relax sightly, "Crewmen." Stepping aside to give them room, now there was a matter of giving people the same age as she was orders, one of them twice her size who looked like he could carry her in one arm.

Bennett cut her thoughts off before they became words, "Sorry we are late, the labs are almost all without power but we had to check the containment fields. Nothing else to do all day now." Her smile seemed somewhat infectious, Perry joined it and nodded his head.

Even Kiri gave another small smile, this was good, "No problem." Now it was a matter of explaining things, "The main sensor array is offline, there is no major damage other than to the primary sensor computer, it can be left for another time. I will be running more tests but the secondary sensor computer seems to be working fine. The command protocols were unable to transfer properly however. All the nodes and sensor units will need to be manually switched to the secondary computer, which is five thousand four hundred and seven. Units can be controlled in groups of four to ten from each so its only about a thousand points have to be done separately." She noted the looks on both their faces, that the job she had wasn't desirable.

Perry spoke, his voice deep, "So you want us to crawl around the Jeffries tubes and switch them all?" He wasn't amused but it wasn't the worst job he could think of. It also beat being blown up.

Nodding Kiri looked uncomfortable, "Yes, but it shouldn't take very long and it isn't hard." It really was just pressing a few buttons and waiting for the computer to respond. She waited to see if either of them would say anything else before going on, "If you take the port side Perry, Bennett the starboard, I'll go upwards, okay?"

"Alright," Perry moving first and heading to the hatch, his form just about fitting inside but without much room. With a smile Bennett started to go the opposite way. Leaving Kiri alone again, sort of. Taking her tricorder out Kiri linked it with the computer, so she could monitor and update it on the move. Then she started to climb up, keeping what she saw as the hardest task for herself.

After two hours they had made good progress, they were just under two hundred nodes down, only a few were non-functioning. At this rate the switching would be done by about sixteen hundred hours. Kiri was about to move to the next one her Tricorder beeped, the diagnostic was complete. Edging back down though the Jefferies tubes she got back to where they started. Reading through the diagnostic she could see there were a few problems, none of them major. She was checking to see what sort of work she would have to do to repair it, it would take about an hour to get it back to a hundred percent, maybe a little more. That was when the door opened again, this time someone new.

It was a woman younger than her, giving a small smile the black haired woman stood very strongly to attention. Her voice had a tang that Kiri couldn't place as anything other then foreign, "Recruit Marnee Kostiner reporting sir." Her skin was much darker than Kiri's almost seeming to have a sheen to it.

Kiri actually felt stronger now, people were working with her, they were all doing something productive, her confidence was growing. Giving a real smile with a flash of white teeth she answered, "At ease recruit, do you know how to switch a power link?" Kiri knew the woman was a biologist and had only just left the academy. It was the sort of thing that wasn't covered on basic science crew training.

Marnee looked uncertain, shaking her head slightly, "I'm not entirely sure, I think so." her tone wasn't reassuring but that wasn't going to dent her enthusiasm for long.

"Okay, then if you go along the starboard side Jeffries tube until you meet Crewman Bennett, ask her to show you how to do a few of them and then let her know she can take a break," Kiri smiled again, trying to be somewhat comforting, "Thank you for your help."

Marnee nodded, "Right, yes sir," Her own smile might wider as she headed for the hatch, disappearing in a few seconds. Kiri watched after her for a moment, hoping that the young woman could handle it. It was outside of her field even if it was very simple. She was on Beta shift, not that it meant very much without any labs, she'd try and make it so she didn't do too much work though.

Putting the restructuring work she had to do on the secondary computer in order in her head Kiri started to type with very quick little fingers, the panel beeping ever so slightly with each touch. Pausing only to tap on her combadge, "Ensign Cho to Crewman Perry, you can take a break if you want."

=A= "Thank you ma'am," His tone did seem slightly annoyed more than anything, "But I'll keep working until I finish out here, not that much more left to go." =A=

"Very well," Kiri pressed her badge to finish the conversation, "Computer, activate silent tactile interface. With the amount of work she had to do, it would be easier on her ears if it was silent. Working away for twenty minutes before the starboard hatch opened and the blonde head of Crewman Bennett appeared.

The young woman started to stretch once she was out of the confined place, drawing Kiri's attention for a second. Rolling her shoulders Bennett spoke up, "There are about fifty nodes left to work on, Marnee has got the hang of it." Now moving to her legs she walked over behind Kiri peering over her shoulder, "Is everything working?"

"Mostly, there are few problems that I need to fix but right now it will work," Kiri kept typing even as she looked over. Silence hung in the air, Kiri didn't know what else to say, what to ask.

Leaning against the wall Phoebe regarded the shortish young officer, the same age as her give or take a year. Normally Phoebe was working on anomalies, new discoveries and experiments in physics. Working out of her own lab space with limited interaction with other staff. Since the attack everything had changed, she was working in teams, doing physical work. It was a nice change, it kept her busy. It proved how very specific her role was, that she could only help out in the most basic ways. She hadn't seen any of the battle, or the boarding parties. It didn't really seem as if those things had really happened. Thinking about that for a moment she spoke up, "Sir, how is the ship?"

Kiri paused for a moment, before continuing her work, "The ship will be fine, the damage can be repaired, our losses weren't that high." They had names, she knew some of them, seen some of the die. It was important that she try and keep moral up though, "With the sensors back, we will be ready to escape the nebula." She gave the other woman a small smile, it was true, just crafted in a better manner.

"Well I better get back to it then," Standing up Phoebe started towards the back wall of the junction, "I'll go forward then?"

"That's fine, thank you," Giving orders was easy, working with people was hard. Kiri was always second guessing herself, trying to act like other officers she had been around. Finding that she put a massive wall between her and everyone below her when all she wanted was to be close to them. She couldn't find a way round that, not while she was trying to her job as well.

The next hour and twenty four minutes seemed to move very quickly for Kiri, completely submerged in her work so much that she barely looked up when Perry went for a walk around the deck.

Petty Officer Adlar arrived twenty minutes after Kiri started working. He gave the others a small nod of greeting before moving to a consol to work, taking a breath. It felt strange being here. After everything, doing something so boring as checking the backup for the sensors seemed...peculiar.

Adlar frowned as he kept one hand on the consol, checking the backups for damage whilst the others were repairing the senors. His eyes drifted to Kiri, watching her closely as his right hand tapped the commands to check the files. His other hand, however, was on the knife in his belt, hidden under his uniform jacket as his blue eyes fixed on the woman. He finally snapped himself out of whatever he had been thinking and shook his head, letting out a shaky breath. "How are we doing?" he asked, a way of asking anyone in general for a standard situational report. And to be filled in on anything he had missed whilst working. Pf course, it was only her and him there. For an enlisted, he did ask a lot of questions. He was still learning how to slot into this crew, being a relatively new transfer.

Kiri was so absorbed into what she was doing she didn't even notice that anyone else had entered the room. Running the master version of the backup she also wasn't expecting anyone else to be working on it. When he spoke, Kiri almost leapt out of her skin. Whirling on the spot her hand went to her phaser while learning back against the central console. Some of the hair in her knot flew loose as she did so, her heart was hammering by the time she realised who it was. Trying to catch her breath she started to turn rather red, "Pett, Petty Officer Adlar, sorry." Trying to compose herself she let her hands fall, teeth pinching on the inside of her bottom lip, "The computer is, is almost fully operational, it just needs to be calibrated, when all of the nodes and sensor units have been switched to it."

Kiri felt rather ashamed that she hadn't heard him enter, so far she hadn't noticed that he had been checking her work. The fact she had for a fraction of a second considered shooting him was rather more prominent on her mind.

He met her eyes, but the moment he had seen her reach for a weapon, so had he. The knife shone in his hand, showing it as a blade made of some sort of metal, possibly even Earth. It was shorter than the Marine issued K-bar, the blade of it double edged. He let out a breath and nodded, sliding it back into place, with calm and measured movements. "Sorry," he said, giving a weak nod. "I finished what I was working on earlier and thought I'd go and assist here." He kept his eyes lowered away from her as he calmed himself down from the rush of adrenaline he too had experienced.

Regardless of anything else, Kiri felt as an officer she had to bring up. Even if the idea of it made her feel even more sick than what just happened, she had to drag authority from somewhere, for a man twice her age. A man with scars that could surely be removed, a man that had a non-regulation weapon under his uniform. A man that moved in such a way she could only assume he knew how to use it, "Thank you," Though very slightly sterner was also quieter, deflating in confidence, "Why are you carrying a concealed weapon?" Kiri felt very powerless right now, she had the authority, but it didn't feel like she had the right.

He met her eyes before taking a deeper breath. "In all fairness, ma'am...wouldn't you?" he asked as he smiled weakly, holding her eyes. "Just in case, you know. Been a bit bumpy here lately. Which is also why I am so tense and jumpy..." his eyes softened slightly and his body relaxed, the entire language of it changing to something less aggressive. "I apologise, ma'am. It is meant as a way for me to defend myself should I need it, not to draw on my fellow crew."

Kiri couldn't find herself relax as he did, since she had to justify the rules that Starfleet had. She did carry a weapon, the one she was allowed to carry but she did so openly, as it should be. Somehow she was managing to stand her ground, "Do you have consent from Lieutenant Barel to carry it?" She didn't like this, if she did nothing someone higher ranked than her took issue though, she'd be in a lot of trouble.

"No, ma'am," he said as he watched her, studying her closely. "No one gave me permission to do so. It was my choice for my own protection. In case of Klingon, ma'am," he said as he kept his hands where she could clearly see them.

So he wasn't allowed it, there was one last thing that might, be able to stop this from becoming a situation. Glancing away for a second Kiri finally asked, "Do you have a Starfleet Close Quarters Combat Qualification?" She thought it unlikely but there was a chance, still she shouldn't really leave him with the weapon. It could get them both in more trouble, the reality was though, she was telling off someone who was only slightly younger than her father.

He smiled weakly as he watched her, taking a deeper breath. "Yes ma'am," he said and smiled weakly. "And some broken fingers in the past to show how good my instructor was at it," he watched her before taking a breath. "I understand where you have to take this, ma'am."

Overall he seemed aggressive, yet pacifistic, his words repeated how he looked, dangerous, yet his actions didn't match. Looking as confused as she felt, Kiri gingerly held out her hand, glancing at him expectantly. Her voice quivered slightly, surprised that he had the training to use it but not the clearance, "I have to confiscate it until the end of your shift, if you want to carry it on duty then I will make a request to Lieutenant Barel and then the XO on your behalf," That was the best compromise and softest touch she felt she could get away with.

He watched her before nodding gently, taking the knife. He held it briefly in his hand before turning it so that the grip was for her to take, his fingers carefully holding the sharp blade. "Thank you," he said as he gave a small nod, keeping a hold of her eyes. "Although I don't expect to make a habit out of it. Like I said...it is not the best situation."

Taking the blade Kiri looked at it rather uncomfortably, turning and placing it on the floor next to her canteen. Turning back to Adlar she gave a small smile that very quickly disappeared, he generally made her uncomfortable, the way he looked at her, how he spoke, not that there really much of a reason. Switching back to the matter at hand she responded, "There are still a few hundred nodes to switch," she indicated towards the access hatch on the ceiling, "If that is okay?" With this many people, she could be finished in an hour or two, before seclude for something that had a chance to run longer than a day when she started.

He met her eyes before nodding, watching her closely. "Whatever you wish, ma'am," he said, but there was a warmth and playfulness there too. "I'll go and start. We should be done in not too long if everyone does it."

Kiri nodded her head and moved back to the central terminal, she remained quiet, not really sure how she managed to do that. This was the first time she had really, ordered someone to do something, something they might see as negative. She still cared about what Adlar thought of her but cared more about what her CO thought of her, what everyone else would think if she was in trouble? The rules and regulations allowed her a crutch to use, something she could use to guide her to what was right. It was when the hatch closed after him that she finally let out a massive sigh, wanting to sit down for a moment. Placing her head in her hands, trying to figure herself out.

It took the time that Cho had anticipated for them all to change the nodes. Once the task was completed, Jeroen finished and rolled his shoulders. His back was stiff from it all...he supposed he was getting old. "All done, ma'am," he reported to her, with a small smile. "Should be fine now, fingers crossed."

Kiri had finished with the computer and joined in with the final switches, clambering downwards with Marnee while Perry checked the work he had done with the main terminal. Other than that interruption everything was going very well, she could be proud. It was with energetic speed that she moved, checking cables and ports, switching control parameters and going to the next one. It was quite though, Kiri didn't know what to say or talk about so erred on the side of caution, saying nothing. When it was all done, they all returned to the main room, now rather cramped with four, then five people inside.

Returning Petty Officer Adlar's smile though slightly reluctantly, Kiri looked to all of them, "Just a moment." It was with just a few button presses that she brought the system on line through all the working nodes, they were operating at ninety seven percent efficiency. There was still work to do though, lucky for her she had several experts. Leaving the computer to check itself further she explained the situation, "Well done, I've brought the sensors online but they still need to be calibrated." This was one of the pay-offs from reading the profiles of everyone in the entire science department on her first day, "Perry if you would mind setting up the long range sensors against the standard profile test, Petty Officer Adlar would you mind testing the planetary, mineral and chemical sensors?" With a breath she looked to Bennett and Kostiner, "Crewman Bennett will you collect a backup storage unit from stores and bring it here, Kostiner will you work with me on the biological sensors and the others?" They didn't seem to be much rush to do it now, they were far enough ahead, she might even have to ask them to finish their shifts in other departments.

Perry nodded, glad it was not in the Jefferies tubes and that it actually made use of his skills, "Yes sir." Turning one of the wall status panels into one he could work on. As he did that Phoebe Bennett seemed somewhat less happy about being made a delivery girl but complied, walking quickly down the corridor. Kiri returned to the central terminal, a rather confused looking Kostiner at her side, "Do you know anything about ship based sensors?"

Shaking her head the young woman answered, "No Ma'am."

"Okay, I'll try and explain what I'm doing," Kiri felt she should be able to do anything that might be asked of her, that others should be able to do the same. Working slightly slower than normal so that the Recruit could see her method she started on the first recalibration.

Adlar watched her for a moment, just studying them for a long moment. Okay, she was good at showing the recruit how it was done.

-------------

Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeroen Adlar
Geoengineer

&

ENS Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

Also as
Crewman Jude Perry
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

Crewman Phoebe Bennett
Physicist
USS Galileo

Recruit Marnee
Biologist
USS Galileo

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