[BACK POST] Proposition to Captain

Posted on Friday March 12th, 2021 @ 8:27pm by Captain Franklin Johnson & Lieutenant Commander Paul Sharpe

2,547 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: S1-A1-Ep. 1: Spectrophobia
Location: Various
Timeline: Prior to next mission

[ON]

It was some day's later after coating his holodeck idea, he decided that he was ready to put his idea to the Captain, he had no idea if the Captain would go for it, the ship was old, but her skeleton was strong and she had been upgraded recently as she was being repaired, his holographic emergency warp core was 50/50 at best in its current configuration then again only for five-minutes so he tapped his Commbadge "Sharpe to Captain!"

=/\= This is the Captain. Go Ahead, Mr Sharpe =/\=

"I have some ideas I need to run by you Sir, it could improve emergency, double emergency power and a strong possibility of expanding the reach of the EMH to certain key areas of the ship, do you have the time please Captain?" Sharpe asked.

"Absolutely," Franklin replied through his combadge as he began to pick up a datapad again. He had been looking them over in his Ready Room. "Come on up to my Ready Room when you're available. I'm only looking over reports at the moment, so I have the time now."

"Affirmative Captain will be there in ten-minutes, Sharpe out" When he closed the line he picked up his Padds and headed out, hoping that the Captain would allow the modifications to his ship, he was, however, unsure if he would go for the holo warp core idea, but he had to attempt the idea, so heading to the nearest Turbo lift and stepping in and when the doors closed "CRR," he said and the lift whisked him to his requested destination, he looked at the shuttle car and noticed the modifications done to it where upgrades were concerned, the old Constitution type handholds had been removed and replaced with sensors. Still not for the first time since he came aboard the ship had he pondered this, he was all too aware that this ship was coming to the end of its lifespan as a frontline service ship, the Miranda class ship for all its upgrades its days were numbered the Poseidon included, the only question was what class of ship he would choose when it came time to decommission the ship.

[CRR]

Eventually, he stepped out on the level where the CRR was located and walked up to the read doors and tugged down his tunic as he pressed the buzzer.

The door opened by a spoken command from the Captain, Franklin standing there to greet his CEO as he entered.

"Mr Sharpe! It's a pleasure to see you again. Figured you'd be busy down in Engineering fixing whatever else may be wrong with the old girl," he said with a chuckle. "What can I do for you today?"

Smiling back "the old Girl is doing just fine Captain, I have two proposals, one which will decrease the amount of time Medical help gets to key areas and the other one I have been working on for some time, but until I returned from Security to Engineering I had no reason to advance the idea, but it has merit, may I sit Captain?" he asked pointing to the chair in front of the Captain's desk.

"Of course!" Franklin replied, briefly abashed at himself for not suggesting it sooner. "Would you like anything to drink? I can grab us a coffee or tea if you'd like. Pleasure having you here today."

Smiling he took a seat "I am okay thank you, Captain, now which topic would you like me to start with first, the Holo emitters or the proposed failsafe back up for emergency power?" he asked sitting back and calling up both titles on his pad ready to choose which one the Captain would like to hear about first.

"Very good," replied the Captain to his CEO's polite refusal of refreshment. He then sat a bit straighter as Paul offered the topics. "Let's start with the emitters first, then the backups."

"As you wish Captain," he said pulling up the emitters topic "I have found out a way to get the EMH into key areas of this ship, like Engineering, Science, Security and Bridge, but I will need to do a lot of rewiring so to speak and install emitters in said places, this ship is too old for putting them throughout the ship I have looked at her specs and noticed that even with improving power efficiency this ship could not hold any more emitters than I said so the corridors and personal quarters will be unable to have them, I assess that if granted I can have the job done by the time we leave spacedock, and then there is the EMH!" he said and paused.

Franklin's eyes lit up, his smile beaming. "That's fantastic news! I remember when the Poseidon was overhauled in spacedock the first time the dock engineer stated the new core was suited for a more advanced warship, so I know we have the power to spare. The only issue I can fathom is with the relays. Are they capable of withstanding the power requirements?"

"THe power relays would need to be thermo protected and some redundant systems in place to prevent a total burnout, but yes they can be adjusted to handle that extra power, so after the installation, you will have those emitters in said areas," he said then in a grave tone "then there is the matter of the EMH" he added sighing as he was still vexed as to why the ships EMH had a different visual appearance to the standard EMH MK 1.

"What's the issue?" asked Franklin, looking confused.

He raised an eyebrow as he scratched the back of his neck "well it is the hologram itself, Captain, all Mark Ones were modelled off Doctor Lewis Zimmerman, but when I briefly had the EMH active in my Office the EMH was a tall dark-haired female visage looked like a female version of the Doctor, but one-hundred times more attractive. She was okay with the name I gave her as Alex, but she still has the personality of Zimmerman, I will have to write algorithms to adjust her personality, but I am curious where did the EMH from what I can tell had never been used before getting the idea to have a female visage, it is unheard of in a stock Mark One EMH, the Mark Two was an attempt to add empathy and compassion, but the Mark three was pronounced adequate and I have not heard any more news of another Mark of EMH. So I was thinking of altering Alex's personality to fit the body the EMH has chosen and making sure its core matrix is solid and secure" he paused.

"But otherwise I can get holo-emitters installed, connect ODN cables and retrofit them to withstand the extra power in designated areas, but the minor alterations of the EMH will take some time. I mean prior to this meeting I hooked up a make-shift holo-emitter in my office down in engineering, connected it up to the main system and used independent power cells to power the emitter, so it will take some time for the EMH bit but the rest is easy enough, I will have to reinitialize the stock image of the EMH until I can perfect the female version called Alex" he finished.

Franklin was flummoxed. He briefly stared at his Chief Engineering Officer, looking dumbfounded at the revelation of what the EMH looked like. He then straightened his uniform, an odd but usual habit of his as he readjusted his posture. A slow nod followed.

"If you'd like, I can have the Commodore give me some details as to why this would be," Franklin offered. "I'm not sure of that myself. I wasn't even aware the Poseidon even had an EMH until your report crossed my desk. Now with this additional bit of detail, it almost sounds like someone made a pet project of it without filing an appropriate report."

Briefly, he glanced at his computer monitor, pressing on it as he scrolled through thousands of old reports. A few presses later and he looked back at Paul.

"Not one that I've noticed, anyway," he said, offering a helpless shrug at the end of those words. "Concerning the alterations, consider them approved. I've already approved your preliminary reports, this meeting was simply a necessary addition to that process. If you'd like, you can send another report my way for approval and we'll double-stamp it. As far as I'm concerned, I appreciate and like your vigour and motivation. I have no issues in trusting you with this process."

Raises his hand "I am good with as is, Captain. Now onto that other idea, but first I need to give you a bit of a backstory to it, so as you know what I want to implement as soon as it is feasible" he said pulling up his second topic "the idea came to me years ago when I served as DCEO on a Steamrunner class ship, I was a Lt Jg back then and I had a bright idea, the problem was I tried to implement it at the wrong time and you can guess what the Captain's response was at the time!" He said and paused.

Franklin looked on quizzically for a brief moment. "Did he say no?" he ventured, a small smile creeping his expression.

"She did not, we were in a battle, the ship was badly damaged and in my naivete, I tried to help with giving the ship some much-needed power boost to survive, the Captain knew nothing about my actions until after the attempt almost blew the ship up. I got one heck of roasting on that, but I analyzed it after and found my idea to be sound, it was the case of the wrong time and wrong place and trying to make modifications to a damaged ship, so over the years as time permitted I made adjustments and I only picked it up again after becoming your new CEO, it is refined enough to give five minutes of extra power before it fails, but that is in a simulation. Eventually, I worked out that this idea would work better for a redundant back up to emergency power which would do shields, SIF and essential systems, it will not work to boost weapon power, if it did not work on a Steamrunner class then a Miranda class has no chance. But I should be able to make it work for Shields, SIF and emergency systems, but it becomes unstable after five minutes, I have tried adding more and managed thirty seconds extra but there is a price for such a boon, there always is" Sharpe explained knowing that the Captain had to know the good and the bad of this.

"I'll be honest, Paul," Franklin said, giving an understanding nod as he followed it with a sigh, "the Poseidon is an old girl. If there's any ship in the fleet that can be used for something of a testbed, it's her. So, while we have the time and ability I don't see why we can't follow through with what we've talked about. Knowing your history and your eagerness, as well as honesty, helps a bunch. I have faith in you, Mr Sharpe."

"Thank you, Captain, with this holographic backup power idea as stated a maximum of five minutes extra power, it would be essentially a holographic warp core on the holodeck that would transmit energy into a converter which would then pump it into the ships reserves, giving extra power to one system only for an extra five minutes, now it will not work with weapons, but it can handle Emergency power, SIF and shields. The downside is the program would have to be reset after every use which will take three days so should only be used sparingly and in an emergency but this can be done," Sharpe paused and broached another subject.

"This is only an idea at the moment Captain but I was thinking of installing physical emergency bulkheads that would operate should all power fail, it would be the ultimate last-ditch effort to save the ship. I know ships rely upon emergency forcefields when hull breaches occur, but what if the power to said fields fails, how do we save areas of the ship then Sir?" Sharpe said "granted this is but an idle idea and it is one that will have to be implemented at a Starbase as it cannot be done else" Sharpe added.

"I'm more concerned of the possible implications of a holographic power source going super-critical due to a factual error in its programming," Franklin stated, "but the Poseidon I think should be able to handle it. As for the bulkheads, I can agree and write off an approval to test these. I'd like to see some test results of them as well."

"On the Emergency Power idea?" Sharpe asked and handed his Padd over for the Captain to have a look at "there you see the results of the holographic power emergency simulation, it will take some time to retrofit the holodeck power transfer and energy conversion module for the second idea, but I can get the EMH holo-emitters installed and reinforce those specific ODN lines to accommodate the EMH power signature, that is the easiest one to implement the other will take some time as I do not want to repeat my past mistake Captain, the holographic Warp core energy source will be slowly and carefully installed and when it is, perhaps I can arrange a demonstration for you?" Sharpe added.

"I'd like that," Franklin said as he took and examined the PADD, scrolling across the numbers and figures carefully. "Wouldn't mind a demonstration within the next two weeks, if you're able?" Carefully, Franklin handed the PADD back, smiling at his CEO as he awaited a reply.

"If I have time Captain, my main focus besides keeping the engines and systems of this ship running will be to get the holographic EMH working on those specified areas as the other task is a one-man job as it is not easy to pass on one's vision to others, the most I can have them do is install and reinforce the ODN cables to the ships main systems and to put in energy converters, three will be needed, one on the holodeck, not the grid itself, but the systems one midway between the holodeck and the bridge and one on the bridge tied into the aft engineering station on the bridge. But back to the EMH give me a month on it, as said the other will take longer" Sharpe added.

"That sounds like a plan," Franklin smiled as he began to stand. "I look forward to some amazing results."

"Very well Captain I will do my best on my ideas," Sharpe said with a smile as he stood up with a final polite nod to the Captain he left Johnson to his own tasks while he would return to engineering and get started on the EMH idea.

[OFF]

Captain Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lt Cmdr Paul Sharpe
Chief Engineer
USS Poseidon

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