Filling in the Cracks II

Posted on Wed Oct 12th, 2011 @ 5:32pm by Lieutenant Jasad Broca & Lieutenant JG Andreus Kohl

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Bridge/Computer Core
Timeline: After Filling in the Cracks I

=Secondary Computer Core=

There wasn't much to the secondary computer core access but the massive cylinder of glittering isolinear-arrays standing three decks tall. At the foot of the cylinder, Andreus Kohl was leaning against the computer core with his arms folded 'cross his chest. A thick, widescreen diagnostic PADD was resting on his arms, and the PADD was connected to the core by a series of ODN cables. While he studied the results from the level two diagnostic, the pair of engineers in the damage control team were physically inspecting the computer core. One was halfway towards the other side of the core, and the other was practically hanging over the railing from the deck above. The medic was breaking open ration packs and dispensing water, making sure the team stayed fit enough to help themselves as well as others.

"--no, but I mean, if you could travel in time," said the medic, "When would you go?"

"The launch of the Great Ex-per-i-ment," said the engineer beside the computer core. He made his proclamation with great fanfare to his timbre. "Transwarp event one."

"Come on," called out the engineer on the upper level. "Stardate 5784.3. Obviously."

"How about you?" the medic asked Kohl.

Kohl shifted his grip on his diagnostic PADD, grasping an edge in each hand. He tapped the screen to halt the scroll of information, and he looked up at the medic, and he blinked at him. "When would I travel if I had all of time and space to choose from?" Kohl said. "Huh. . . Probably my own conception."

Kohl tapped a notation onto his PADD, sending a text-only message to the main Operations console on the Bridge. 'We're going to be here at least another twenty minutes,' Kohl wrote. 'Do any other teams need a medic?'

*****

On the bridge, Jasad had stewed in the misery of communications hell for the past half-hour. His console had become a veritable social network of crisscrossing text messages. The limited functionality of the internal comms network had continuously degraded to the point where it was useless. This had hardly been an auspicious first day as Ops Chief.

However, from adversity came invention. Amongst the deployable gear that the Arizona carried, there was a plethora of probes and communication drones. Equipped to extend the communication and sensor range of the ship, they were capable of receiving and sending gigaquads of data on a broad range of subspace channels. Normally, they were launched and then activated, but Jasad had come up with a new use for them. By interfacing with their on-board communications processors, he hoped to temporarily solve a problem that the intrepid Lieutenant Kohl was finding a permanent fix for.

When Kohl's text message came through, Jasad activated his improvised linkup, diverting the usual traffic handling away from the ship's computer and through a pair of the launchable com drones. They worked together in parallel processing to simulate the action of the ship's own communications processors. Immediately, a flood of voice signals began to come through. Smiling, Jasad put them on hold, and then tapped his badge. "Bridge to Lieutenant Kohl. This is a test. Are you reading me?"

"I hear you, Lieutenant Broca. A successful test, apparently," came Kohl's voice from Jasad's combadge. There was a congratulatory lilt to his voice, but then: "Sir, if you could travel anywhere in time and space on purpose, when and where would you go?"

Jasad was so busy mentally congratulating himself for his innovative workaround that he almost missed Kohl's question. What? Time travel? Well, he supposed it was a topical question, given that a temporal gateway had tossed the entire ship out of their normal time. But first things first.

"To your first question, sickbay could probably use the extra hands, so if your area is clear of casualties, it would probably be best to send your medic back there to fill nursing duties and help move along the mild cases. " As he spoke, he answered a half-dozen text queries from people who had made requests before his test of the comms workaround. "To your other question..." he considered it for a moment.

"I suppose I would enjoy being transported to the engine room of the Cardassian freighter Groumall in Earth year 2372, to serve as Chief Engineer under Gul Dukat." He did not elaborate further before saying, "I have messages piling up, and this improvised com network isn't going to be able to handle too much volume. Message me again when you're done. Work quickly. The genius of my improvisations are contingent on the computer being restored to order before they break down."

He severed the connection and went on to other requests. He fielded two dozen queries, noting that the quality of the voice transmissions was steadily degrading over time. He flushed the cache of the com drones, and the communications quality picked up again... but it was only a temporary fix. It wasn't that the drones couldn't handle the data, but rather that their onboard processors weren't designed to handle routing requests. They could normally relay tremendous amounts of data because simply relaying information required only minimal resources.

But now they were being tasked with understanding the data being relayed to a degree that they could connect parties through the intelligent indexing of requests. It wasn't just the messages meant for the bridge, but communications traffic for the whole ship. Dozens of people talking to dozens of other people each minute, with the drones struggling to figure out who each message was meant for. Perhaps, given time, Jasad could write a more elaborate program for the drones, allowing them to do more work with their limited resources. Unfortunately, there was no time. In a few more minutes, the comms would fail again, and he'd be back to square one.

(to be concluded)