Filling the Cracks I

Posted on Thu Oct 6th, 2011 @ 4:14pm by Lieutenant Jasad Broca & Lieutenant JG Andreus Kohl
Edited on on Thu Oct 6th, 2011 @ 4:47pm

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Bridge/Deck 8
Timeline: After "I cannot make light, I'm so burnt out, I'm a meteor shower"

Jasad shook his head as damage reports kept scrolling in. It had been no small embarrassment that the Science Officer had been forced to step in and do his job of reporting ship's status. Jasad had been momentarily overwhelmed by the quantity of information he'd needed to sort through. In Engineering, he'd enjoyed the sterile sensor feedback of a million diagnostic sensors whose information had been collated and thrown into easy-to-digest patterns by the ship's computer. Ops had asked for reports, and he'd followed instructions about how to prioritize his work.

Here, there was all of that same information to deal with... along with hundreds of personnel reporting on the readiness status of their departments and areas of concern. He also had to worry about damaged people for the first time in his career. As the communication hub of internal rescue efforts, he was intregal in helping to coordinate emergency rescue teams with the victims of emergencies. Working Ops was like being the dispatcher for an entire municipality's combined public services. And of course, he had to keep an eye on what was going on outside the ship as well.

The computer seemed to be almost as overwhelmed as he was, with ship-to-ship communications cutting in and out as damaged computer databanks sputtered and died while their neighbors tried to pick up the slack. Finally, the beleaguered com system sub-processors connected him to the damage control team on Deck 5. He'd been trying to reach them for five minutes. "This is the bridge, DC5A, please report status of damage control in your area of responsibility."

"All casualties in our sections have been treated or escorted to Sickbay, according to triage protocol," came Andreus Kohl's steady voice from the com system. "Repairs have been completed on the IDF generators and the EPS distribution hub. No physical damage to the structural integrity field generators, and the damage in the sensor control room was mostly cosmetic. Repairs have been de-prioritized. Artificial gravity held tight in Cargo Bay 3." --Kohl cleared his throat, and the sensitive communication system mostly picked it up-- "Also, we're on deck eight now."

Jasad frowned and peered at his console. Deck 8? Even the internal positioning system was malfunctioning. And what was he doing on Deck 8 anyhow? Well... cut off from the bridge, he'd probably needed to take initiative in some matter or other. That's what officers were for. Leadership was important if you didn't want to have an army of mindless drones. That's why Starfleet's officer to enlisted ratio was so high.

"Very good," he said, updating his reconstructed map of emergency and repair team locations. "I need you to make your way to the computer core. I can't diagnose the problem from here, but the core is exceedingly sluggish and the com subsystem is running sub-optimally. I'm having a great deal of trouble keeping in touch with our teams throughout the ship, and I still haven't been able to reach Engineering except through console text messages. If you can figure out what the problem is..." Then I won't look like such a novice trying to keep up with damage control. "... then damage control procedures will become much more efficient."

"Of course. I'll redirect the team to the secondary computer core access on deck six," replied Kohl. He spoke with the regulated amount of deference to his department Chief. If Kohl had picked up on any of Jasad's self-doubt, he certainly didn't reveal it in his voice. The communications channel closed for a few moments while Kohl spoke to the damage control team. When Kohl opened the connection again, he asked, "Have you been receiving any other reports of difficulty with the communications system? Could the problem be local to the subprocessors on deck one?"

Jasad froze for a moment. Somehow, the idea that the problem might be local had never occurred to him. His hands quickly danced across his console, running a swift diagnostic on the local sub-processor groups. The results saved him from humiliation, though he vowed not to be complacent in the future. Standard engineering practice was to check for a problem locally before assuming the source was distant or systemic. With all the activity he'd been coordinating, that simple academy rule-of-thumb had slipped his mind entirely.

"It's definitely not local to deck one," Jasad replied, "I'm going to continue checking on other repair teams. Send me a message through console text messaging if you are able to isolate the problem. At the moment that seems to be getting through more reliably than other intership comms. Bridge out."