Started making trouble in my neighborhood

Posted on 06 Oct 2016 @ 1:29am by Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander

1,339 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo, Sector 30 - Deck 3,
Timeline: MD -03 - 1445 hrs

Luke was lost in his own thoughts again and dragging his feet as he walked his way back from the Engineering to the Bridge when he stumbled into someone he hadn't met before or atleast cant remember speaking to before which was odd on a ship the size of the Galileo. Since his promotion and his new job role finally kicking in he decided to introduce himself to the Ensign. Standing a meter away her cleared his through to yank the crewman out of whatever it was he was doing.

Ryan turned his head from his display, closing the operations plan of the day as he moved. Noticing it was one of the Command Staff, Ryan straitened a bit. "Good Morning Sir. How may I be of assistance?" He asked, realizing this was the first time actually meeting the Strategic Operations Officer.

Luke held up his hand "Please, just call me Luke when not on the bridge or in front of other command staff I never liked the formality of the rank system. I'm actually just taking a stroll to meet the crew wasting time really. How are you Ensign..?" He asked leaning him to introduce himself.

Ryan smiled, taking his hand. "Alexander, Ryan Alexander. It is a pleasure sir...sorry, Luke. Old habits." Ryan said, knowing that he would probably still call him sir later on. "I am doing pretty well, just finishing up fixing a weird bottle necking problem that astrometrics was having." He said with a smile.

Shaking the mans hand before realizing it he frowned "Bottle necking problem? That does sound like something I've heard of before?" He said simply before continuing "What do you mean exactly?"

Ryan smiled. "I was noticing data flow through this area was slower than elsewhere on the ship. I had to track down, specifically which junction it was happening in. Turns out, the issue was three gel packs, and an iso-linear chip that were either damaged or needing replacing. Well, the Iso-linear chip was damaged by one of the gel packs, but that is either here nor there." He said with a smile. "Right now, I am just finishing up repairs, tagging the damaged components, and hopefully in about an hour, we should know what caused the gel packs to have the issue that they had. I have two potential ideas, but I need to use the diagnostic equipment before I finish report." He explained as he secured the final latch on the bulkhead panel.

Luke nodded along, listening to the young man made him smile he obviously knew his job well "Its nothing we should be to concerned about should we?" He asked pointing towards the Gel packs "I remember from the USS Voyager archives they had some kinda of life form grow in them and began infecting the crew"

Ryan shook his head. "I don't think this will be the same problem." Ryan said as he held up the one gel pack that was leaking. "This one was damaged during install, and it took a while to start failing. When it did," he held up the other two to show there damages, "these other ones had to take on the load. Since this is just a busy area for data, the remaining systems couldn't quite handle the load. Granted it was just a bottle necking problem so not even a full failure. But eventually they would have fully failed." He finished with a shrug. "I still want to get them tested just to be sure, but initial scans aren't showing anything dangerous, or anything that is out of the ordinary for this type of damage." He said with a shrug.

Luke eyed at the gel packs, he always wondered how they work and why a mechanical ship needed biological components for it to run, being from the background he was and was clearly enjoying the talk he expressed his question. "How is it that those gel packs work?"

Ryan smiled. "Well, the bio-neural circuity contained within each pack is essentially an organic computer," Ryan started, knowing that his superior already knew that but it helped with Ryans thought process, "the packs contain neural fibers which are capable of making billions of connections, thus generating an incredibly sophisticated and responsive computing architecture. The blue gel in which they are surrounded in helps with heat dissipation, conduction, and keeps the circuitry alive. Because of this they are able to store more information and operate at faster speeds than isolinear circuitry." He said with a smile.

Luke scratched his chin "So essentially it really is like a small brain that links to each othe allowing quicker ,escapes to be sent, it's rather quiet fascinating, would there ever be a better way of doing it perhaps?" He asked curiously.

"Maybe, the issue is not so much processing power anymore as it is what we are processing, we tend to process a lot of the raw data locally, which takes up a lot of processing power. I am sure someone is working on something. Though Lieutenant Min is a little bit more knowledgeable when it comes to the more theoretical side of things. Though I am sure some one could really tackle quantum computing and make it viable, than that could solve a lot of problems." Ryan said with a smile as he secured the gel packs and damage chip into his carry-all.

"Sir, if you don't mind, may I ask you a question?" Ryan asked a bit hesitantly.

Luke frowned but kept his smile steady, he was curious to know what the Ensign wanted to ask him so he said "Of course, what kind of command staff would we be if our officers cant approach us."

"Thank you sir." Ryan said taking a breath. "Let me preface this with, it is nothing grave, just merely an inquiry. What was your occupational specialty before you became part of the command track and have you ever regretted the switch?" Ryan asked.

"It's no problem at all, it's good to speak about the last it's what made me the person I am today and to answer your question I was a marine Staff Sergeant" he mused over the other part of the question. "I don't regret the switch, at the time it was the right thing to do for me and this crew. Though I do wonder where I'd be if I had stayed in the corps."

Ryan nodded. " I understand sir. There are times that I wonder if leaving the Corps was the right thing, but that is in the past, there is no changing it, only learning from it." Ryan said more to himself than to Luke.

He nodded "Living in regret is never a good thing, Learn from it yes. Regret it never because it doesn't matter anymore as its already happened" Luke said philosophically "The Marines taught me how to survive and how to lead I think starfleet will teach me much more"

Ryan nodded in agreement. HE checked to make sure he had everything. He wanted to make sure that he ran the tests on the damaged Gel Packs. "I can understand and with agree with that sir."

"Well I am a very wise old man" Luke joked. "Well it seemed like you're doing a great job here and I shouldn't hinder you anymore. It was a pleasure talking to you Ensign, if you ever have any more questions feel free to look me up." He put out his hand for him to shake.

Ryan took his hand, shaking it. "Thank you sir, it was pleasure talking with you, and nice to know a fellow Marine is on board. I look forward to working with you in the future. "

Taking his hand "And I too Ensign." With that he turned on his heel before walking of back in the direction he originally came from, and towards the bridge.

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations
USS Galileo

RSS Feed