Rundown

Posted on Wednesday November 15th, 2023 @ 2:13am by Lieutenant Drauc Kejail ie-Jia'anKahr & Lieutenant Commander Rachel Williams

2,268 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Grand Tour: Part Two
Location: Various
Timeline: After New Assignment ACEO and Instructor
Tags: Engineering, Operation, 2395

[ON]

As the pair entered the lift and the doors closed "Engineering" she said and the lift started moving and she could hear a quiet screech "dammit, going to have to get the engineering Cadets to lubricate the lift rails, anyway, let's start back before I came to the Poseidon and my Predecessor Lieutenant Commander Paul Sharpe" *pauses*.

"When he came aboard this ship had been retrofitted in spacedock, but the Starbase techs tried to merge Bio-neutral Gelpacks with Isolinear systems by way of converter units, for a time Commander Sharpe was able to keep them going on both holodecks, the initial upgrades will be archived in the ship's databanks, over the time he was here he tried to create a holographic warp core on the holodeck and allow it to transfer power to the ship's batteries, but this ship despite its overhauls is too old and thus while the principle ideas were sound, this ship is too old to do it, so he dropped the project and worked on sorting out the imbalances in the holodeck after the Halloween events locked a group in a simulation and disabling the safeties, while the rest of the crew had long shore leave on Risa Commander Sharpe had a short one as he sorted out the holodeck situation before starting his. All he did was remove the Gel packs and return the Isolinear circuits and the holodecks rating improved, the Starbase Techs experiment failed, and since then there have been no recorded issues with them, Do you have any questions so far? I like it when my team ask questions in engineering, we are a team and lack of questions, and the passing of information could seriously impact operations" Rachel said.

Lieutenant Drauc listened and processed the information that Lieutenant Commander Williams described about the engineering issues they faced. "Question; were the Bio-neural gel packs integrated with the Isolinear circuitry with Gelatinous putrescine, this would allow for a more seamless connection between the Bio-neural gel packs and the Isolinear circuitry. Then one would only need to cool the systems down with a simple thermosyphon.?"

*Looks at the Vulcan* "The holodeck mainly, you have to understand Lieutenant for all its upgrades and modifications the Miranda Class is a mid-23rd Century design, the fact it has remained in service this long shows its durability, but this ship was never designed to have gel packs added on Ad-hoc, I have no doubt that if this ship went into dry-dock and was gutted to its skeleton the dings and weakened frame could be straightened out and strengthened, and transverse bulkheads put in place like my Predecessor wanted, but the Captain did not want to put the ship into dock for about 5 years minimum. I digress, you said gel packs would work if they were installed from scratch like on the Intrepid Class, not added on after the fact, so what you say is correct, these were added on long after and concentrated on the holodeck, but they did interfere with ships operations, Commander Sharpe tried using the newly installed holoprojectors at key places for our EMH to tend to patients outside Medical, that is another issue that did not sit well with the ship as that system relied heavily on gel packs. *sighs* So now the entire ship has only Isolinear and ODN components and the holodeck operates above 100% in efficiency, any questions before I move onto current upgrades?" She asked.

Drauc listened impassively as Commander Williams went over his suggestion and why she was against it. After listening to her he replied "Very well commander, no gel packs. May I suggest we continue the tour." he stated in the Vulcan way of speech that could drive any illogical species crazy.

*Looks at her new Deputy* "Question Lieutenant, how many have found how you behave exasperating? I ask because I find it refreshing" she said.

As the lift opened onto the Engineering level and both entered engineering "the latest upgrades were mainly in weapons and defences, the Phaser banks have been uprated to Type ten, the Pulse Phasers in the rollbar has been fine-tuned to the same level as the DEfiant class uses. Could not touch the torpedoes without a stint in the dry dock, so they were left alone. The SIF has been enhanced to its maximum and now operates at 10 per cent above the recommended rating. Same for the shields, what I did manage to return to this class of ship was hull Polarization ability, a modern take on what was once used on the NX class back in the 2150s, this is something that will be automatically activated in an emergency if the tactical station goes down along with the shields, it will allow the ship precious moments, hopefully enough to allow her to escape. I have told the Captain of the max upgrades and no more can be done outside of Spacedock, the Captain, First Officer and Chief of Security have been briefed" she said and fell silent as she showed her new deputy around engineering.

Drauc looked at Lieutenant Commander Williams and replied in his flat tone "I have heard of no complaints, but I find that many irrational and emotional species have a hard time with Vulcans and our demeanour off-putting." The lift doors opened, and they entered engineering. He listened intently to the upgrades that had been accomplished, he was impressed. "I may have something to add to the hull polarization similar to the ablative armour of the more current ships. I have been working on the idea for my advancement in Spaceship Shield Engineering. I am not at the point where I am satisfied with the results just yet, but I would be willing to show you what my theory and work have accomplished so far."

*Looks at the Vulcan sideways* "at a later date, but for now the latest upgrades have been to SIF, Shields, and Phaser banks and this ship has a modern version of hull polarization. The Phasers are on par with type-ten, and the Pulse Phasers in the ship rollbar are up to the same level as the Defiant Class, I would have liked to have done the torpedoes, but for that space sock would be needed" she said as the pair entered engineering the place was a hub of activity as she showed him engineering from clock-wise.

"This area is the machine shop, an old Terran word for working on smaller ship components when they break down and for general small maintenance work for other departments, we have the heavy Machine shop for bigger stuff, and finally our Office, which is quite large, there are two desks in there one to the right is yours, but it is rarely used as I am always on the go" she said falling silent as they entered the office. Here she fell silent allowing her Second to respond.

Drauc looked about and nodded to himself. The desk would be adequate for his needs, and he would need to use both the machine shop and heavy machine shop to work on his pet project, as well as the help of some of the young cadets. He was close to making the polarization and anti-polarization honeycomb shield work. He just needed to fine-tune some of the finer details. “This should be more than adequate for my needs. I am intimately familiar with what a machine shop is Commander Williams as I have worked many hours in them. Now the question is how I may best help you in this department?”

"I need you to take the Engineering Cadets under your tutelage, your engineering experience is more advanced than mine, what I do comes naturally to me and I have rarely found a way to pass on what I know, as it is more or less instinctive, I am good, but I am not that good. You will need to keep an eye on all systems, this ship has so many modern and advanced systems held together somehow, the only upside is the entire system works on Isolinear connections. Oh, I forgot something, it was added when my team upgraded the defensive and offensive systems if you will follow me Lieutenant we will head to Holodecks, this ship had two holodecks, but now she only has one, the newly added Hull Polarization has been set up there, you need to be briefed upon it" Rachel said.

Drauc merely nodded and followed the Chief Engineer.

With a nod Williams headed out of engineering and to the nearest lift and entered, she waited till the Lieutenant entered and the doors had closed "Holodecks" she said and a short ride later both exited onto the level the holodeck was on, she led him to holodeck two and upon entering gone had the holodeck as there was now equipment, she allowed him to take in the upgrades.

The room now only had a small section that still had the yellow and black grid, the rest was covered with installed consoles and a planning holo table, the still exposed grid was functional, but now the room looked like a truly clunky functional room. "any observations before I give you the basic rundown?" She asked.

"It would appear to be a crude version of the Holometrix labs one would find on Jupiter Research Station, thus allowing a scientist or engineer to simulate a theory or model before implementation in real life," replied Drauc in a dry drawl.

"Well Duh! *she said with dry wit* Remember Lieutenant this is an old ship, I worked with what I had, it is not meant to be sophisticated like at Jupiter Station, this is crude in comparison, but it is functional and operational, and now this console in the corner is your standard Power supply and monitor console, with one minor difference it only monitors power consumption between this room and main power, it does not monitor anything else on the ship except power distribution to this room, it is also manned during the day shift and only at night if we have an operation on and if not just one hourly check is done on the night shift," she said walking over to the indicated console.

Drauc listened to Lieutenant Commander Williams and perceived he may have insulted her with his comment, again in a flat Vulcanian inflexion, he relied. “I meant no offence commander. It is wise to have such workshops on starships. I believe this will be a great boon to the teaching of the cadets. I would, however, like to propose that we have one of the cadets man the monitor console for power on all shifts. This will provide excellent training in getting them ready for long and tedious shifts one can spend while working in engineering when all the systems are running at optimal performance. One always must monitor the warp core reactor at all times, as well as various other systems, which can often be dull and tedious, which you well know. Plus, it will allow me to run some engineering scenarios with the cadet on duty. ”

*Looks at the Lieutenant* "You will know if you have offended me Lieutenant, human wit is lost on you huh! I know you understand the concept, but still" *pauses* "If you put a Cadet on monitoring assign them an engineer to supervise, I do not want any cadet unsupervised with this equipment, so, by all means, assign some for all shifts, BUT they must have at least one supervisor, I ready my predecessors report some Cadets badly damaged the Science lab and he had not been on the ship long before he had to fix it, so the Cadets are to supervise" she added.

As she led him over to the next device "This is the tactical planning holo table, it is used or will be used for Security and Tactical Operations as the need arises, it can also be used for Cadet training too and the patch of original holo grid, that is set aside as a dedicated teaching section, which is also controlled from the tactical table, so the Cadets can get both a minor amount of practice as well as visual aid, the table can be connected to sensors both tactical and science and obviously to the intel database for an operation involving security, that is about it, are there any questions you have that you want clarification for or curious about before you are released to your duties?" she asked.

Drauc thought a moment before replying "I would recommend a tertiary wall program be placed on the tactical holo table. This will help prevent any unnecessary, I believe the term is 'bugs' from infecting the sensors of tactical and science as well as the intel database. Experience as I was going through the Academy showed the wisdom of such a safeguard. Otherwise, I believe I have no questions at this time. "

*Smiling* "Excellent, you get on to installing that tertiary program, think of it as a welcome to the team, also I want you to train any engineering Cadets we have, I have patience, but not to that extent. So if there is nothing further, I shall leave you to said task and return to my work, good luck with the Cadets" Williams said with a smile.

[TAG: Drauc]

With a final nod, Williams left Holodeck two and headed back to engineering to continue with her duties.

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Rachel Williams
Chief Engineer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Drauc Kejail ie-Jia'anKahr
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Poseidon

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