Powering Science
Posted on Thu Jan 20th, 2022 @ 12:52pm by Lieutenant Elen Diari & Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren
Edited on on Sun Jan 23rd, 2022 @ 2:55pm
1,863 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Episode 12 - Risin' To Risa
Location: Main Engineering - Deck 11 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 1100 hrs
With her PADD in hand, Alyssa headed for engineering to talk over what she envisioned for security and her garden. There were a lot of things that needed approval, but hopefully not much that needed to be ordered. She wanted to use shore leave to get much of this set up so when they left Empok Nor, her scientists would be able to get straight to work.
She walked into Main Engineering and looked around for the chief.
Elen was spinning in a chair next to the Master system display table, waiting for the receipt of some messages to come through when she saw the science officer come in.
"Hello there." She shouted, getting up mid-spin "You must be Vaeby's replacement. Elen Diari, Sci-Ops 57, sorry, old job, Chief wrench wrangler, USS... er, This Place" Walking over to give the new person a hug.
Alyssa hugged her back and smiled. "Thank you. I love hugs. I'm Alyssa Maren and I'd like to talk to you about getting some emergency power generators. Probably only one or two."
"What kind would you like- Lab-based ones or ones for expeditions? Maren, huh, Any relation to Nerom Maren?" El asked.
"Not that I know of, but then, I don't know many of my more distant relatives" she said, referring to the name. "For the power, I would like to set up several labs with emergency power generators. Sometimes experiments take time and shielding. A sudden loss of power, or a necessary reallocation could lead to catastrophic failure. So, If I could have a small generator to power, say, three labs and maybe part of Astrometrics, it would allow some in the department to work on more sensitive projects. Also, having part of Astrometrics powered might allow us to use the long-range sensors and access the relay buoys in an emergency." She paused for a moment. "I've done something similar in the past, but you would be more familiar with the Pioneer and what's possible here."
"Know exactly what you mean. Did it on Harbinger when I was the Assistant CSO there- sure I'll talk to the Empok Quartermaster, say a dozen of them ? One for each lab, including 'metrics and the Med lab, shouldn't be a problem. I'll set them up tomorrow morning. Also, and you didn't hear this from me, shuttlepod warp cores are useful in an emergency, and there's a couple of type 18s sitting in the recycling pile on the station that may or may not walk over here, and one might make its way to the Science hub. Don't tell anyone, as they'll all want one, OK ?" El replied, playing up being sneaky.
"If they're not too big. The power generators I'm thinking of are only small things, about a meter cubed, why I can get so many- can't run a shield off them, but a couple of replicators, or lab consoles are fine."
"I'd need to hold a containment field of about two meters square, plus lab consoles," Alyssa said. "That shouldn't take too much power. I'd need at least two labs, maybe three. I'm not sure if we could rig something for Astrometrics to tap into the long-range sensors and the passive scans."
"Suppose that's one way of keeping the mathematicians under control, always used to worry about them going feral. Easy enough to wire up Astrometrics to the sensor grids, I'll get Dave to do it on his next shift, might be a good project for his new minions, I mean apprentices." Elen continued "What's your specialty, mine was particle physics ?"
"Astrometrics is already connected to the long-range sensors. For the others, they may be best accessed from the bridge as they're shared with ops and security. I don't want to cause trouble for the other departments. I'm more concerned with maintaining power," Alyssa explained.
"Yeah, but Dave's got to train them to wire up something, might as well be something easy to start off with and the connections need an overhaul anyway, going to the new spec ODN over time, so not really stepping on anyone's toes. We've lost a lot of staff with the old XO leaving for his own ship, Ops was gutted- his wife ran that, your predecessor and his team, My assistant and a bunch of good engineers, not that many toes left to stand on. Wish he'd taken our QSD specialist, but you can't have everything." El sighed, missing Clarissa.
"Yes, I was surprised at the high turnover. Starfleet doesn't usually transfer this many crew at one time," Alyssa said. Then she smiled. "But it does make it easier to facilitate some changes. In addition to the emergency generators, I'll be setting up a vertical garden in part of a cargo bay. That will require special lighting, soil, water, and equipment to facilitate vertical growth. It's quite effective in places where there isn't much space."
El's eyes widened "Ohmydeus...yes...yes. Take over a whole cargo bay. We had an allotment garden on Finland station. It was absolutely brilliant, Botanist brunches from the stuff grown there, great place to relax off-shift, even non-science staff loved it, security chief was a closet gardener, the docs used it for plant medicine and rehab. If you want to go to the captain with it, I'll back you up a million percent. Know Keddie, my botanist friend will have growing pattern things, maybe even specialised plants" Her voice speeded up, excited at the prospect.
"I've got permission for part of a cargo bay, but maybe with your friend's help, we could get more, once the Captain sees what we've done." Alyssa grinned. The engineer's enthusiasm was contagious. "I was thinking of going up the sides of the cargo bay and maybe some vines along the top, like grapes, for instance, with some latticework to grow on. The leaves have a lot of uses. Herbs, definitely. And edible flowers. High yield fruit trees would be nice, too. We could definitely section off part of it for allotments."
"Well, you find me a new home for the engineering R&D team and you can have cargo bay three, once it's been cleaned. Have a chat with the doc, might have some medical plants they want to grow. Think it's still Hermia, but can't be sure these days." Elen bargained.
"I'll have to think about where to put the R&D team, unless they want one of the science labs," Alyssa said. "I could probably spare once since I'm getting a cargo bay. And yes, it's still Commander O'Rourke. I met with her to get my physical."
"The R&D team'll be happy with anything that isn't an open airlock, when I found them, they were in a Jeffries tube junction. Don't know what they'd make of an actual room." Elen smiled, thinking of them as a litter of pets she found, rather than a group of professionals.
"Really? How could they do proper R&D in a Jefferies tube?" Most of them were far too cramped for anything more than doing repairs or sitting around. Although she did hear of people sleeping there from time to time.
"That was just their hub, like my office over there." El pointed over to a cramped alcove, "Most of their work's done either on site or on the holodeck, they just wanted somewhere quiet and out of the way to do paperwork."
"Ah. I can't blame them for that. Still, I'll be happy to give them a lab of their own where they can keep their research and do the paperwork."
"Just be worried when they start laying traps to catch cryptozoologists. We have a long-running joke that there is one on-board, but nobody's ever seen them. " Elen jokingly warned.
"Really?" Alyssa raised an eyebrow. "I heard someone on Empok Nor say there was someone living in the Jefferies tubes. I wonder if it could be the same pseudo-person? It would be a good place to stay out of sight." She chuckled. "But don't let them hear that or they'll be laying traps there, too."
Elen nodded "Well, it's true on Empok. After it was retaken, there's a marine commando squad who now live in the tubes- checking for any hidden traps or spies, and leaving their own and hide there if the 'Dassies try to take the station again. Murdo sometimes just randomly pops his head out at random access points to just freak people out for a laugh. He once did it in the middle of an ambassadorial reception in full dress blues, gave a salute, and vanished again. "
"Really?" Alyssa laughed. "That would be worth seeing. There's a lot more space to get lost on a station the size of Empok Nor. I wonder what else has taken up residence? Might be worth seeing if there have been any sightings of oddities like Crypto-zoologists."
Elen went over to her office, and fished around one of her piles to find what looked like a pile of brass coins "Here. Take this, it's a transponder- click it and they'll find you for a chat. We use it on Empok so they know that any engineers doing work there are friendlies, or if the head Commando wants to chat about opera again."
She took it and looked it over, then slipped it into an internal pocket. "Opera? What kind of opera?" Alyssa wondered if someone over there was into Klingon opera. Would be interesting in the Jefferies tubes.
"Mich... mostly pre-warp Terran, or Post-reformation Bolian, you know the baroque, bouncy stuff. Puccini, Azarova, Miet." El answered, then starting humming Toreador by Bizet "We're meeting up at the weekend for Beer, Pizza and the Met broadcast, Le Comte Ory "
"I do. If you ever watch The Magic Flute, Peer Gynt, or Gilbert and Sullivan, let me know," Alyssa said. "I'm more a light opera, Broadway fan, but I think that's great."
"I've got the schedule somewhere, along with a recording of the Miranda retrospective they did last month. I'll dig them out and pass on with the generators." El answered, happy to find other music fan.
"Thank you, I'd appreciate that." The scientist smiled. "I'll let you get back to your work for now. I'm sure I'll be back before long."
"Sure, you're welcome here anytime, even if it's just a chat or coffee to get away from the madness of your department. I'll probably be up in science in the next few days, getting some Particle physics journals" The engineer replied "And of course, delivering your generators, and any other bits and pieces you guys need."
"Thanks. I'll probably take you up on that before long." Alyssa smiled. It would be good for her to escape from science once in a while. "And you're welcome in science any time." She waved to Elen as she turned and headed back to her office.
A Mission Post by
Lieutenant Alyssa Maren
Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Elen Diari
Chief Wrench Wench, USS Pioneer
RSS Feed