Supply and Demand 101

Posted on Thu Feb 3rd, 2011 @ 1:31pm by Lieutenant Commander Aiden Roberts (KIA) & Crewman Apprentice Sekera

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Deck 14 - Cargo Bay C-1
Timeline: Before Crash Course/After Bruce Lee

Shaking off the events of the night before with little effort, Aiden found himself up the majority of the night anyway. He got his usual two hours of sleep after the ordeal with the Captain, and found himself finally getting to unpacking his personal items around 0330. He felt slightly more at home with the bare walls covered in something other than that bland taupe color that the Starfleet Engineering Corps thought to be soothing and relaxing. Afterwards, he found himself on Deck Three, enjoying both a good work out in the gym followed by a leisurely swim. After all was said and done, it was almost 0600, and he yawned as entered the lowly depths of the Arizona decks. The cargo bay doors opened with a more defined and loud sound when compared to the other doors on the ship, most likely attributed to their heavier construction considering they may be housing various hazardous items as well as their ability to be exposed to outer atmospheres of space with the push of a few buttons.

The Lieutenant had set aside sometime every morning throughout the week to meet with his green (or blue in a literal sense) Quartermaster. Sekera would have been more suited as a Material's Specialist or Operation's Mate for his first tour in his Starfleet career. However, in an effort to make the best of the situation for both himself and the Crewman, there would be a bit of hand holding until the Bolian Non-Com got his feet wet.

"Good Morning Sekera..." Aiden said aloud in an almost cheerful tone of voice - too cheerful for someone at this hour in the early morning.

"Oh!" The young Bolian jumped from where he was sitting on a cargo container. "Good Morning Lieutenant!"

Aiden walked towards to the center of the room, getting his bearings. If you see one Starfleet cargo bay, you have essentially seen them all. Still, this was the first time he had made his way down here and being that this area like many others on board fell under his jurisdiction, he indulged his sense of curiosity.

"Ok two things off the bat. One, don't sit on the job. If the Captain or the XO were to walk in and see you doing that, it's my ass. Two, Call me Aiden or Roberts when its just us. If you're in my department its one of the perks, just don't let it get out. Again it looks bad..."

The Bolian looked concerned for a moment, and Aiden could tell he was debating on throwing the rule book of etiquette when it came to interacting with officers out the nearest airlock. The kid was only just twenty years old, and the first in his family to serve in the military. He seemed so nervous and clueless. 'He'll do just fine..." Aiden thought to himself.

"Alright here is how this gonna work. We'll do this little routine everyday for two weeks, bar I'm not off the ship and we aren't in the middle of some crisis. You and I will walk a different cargo bay each morning, and do a semi-detailed inventory. Don't trust the computer because some folks are lazy or in a hurry and won't log what they're using up. You and I will go through low stock items and components daily until you get the hang of things. If it's something we are constantly using or replicating often, let's try and keep a larger quantity on hand, whether we replicate it in bulk, or we transfer materials when he put at a starbase or outpost."

Aiden motioned for the Crewman to follow him as he surveyed the contents of the cargo bay, looking at labels on towering canisters and containers. "Try and keep things organized and grouped together as much as possible, it makes it easier when you are trying to determine what we're running low in. With that said, it's gonna be a bitch sometimes to keep things balanced between the three sections of the ship..."

The Lieutenant looked at Sekera, who's eyes seemed to have glazed over with that last bit. "You have no idea what I'm talking about do you.."

"Truthfully,....no..", Sekera replied.

Once again the Lieutenant motioned the young crewmember to follow him, this time towards the main workstation in the hold. Aiden's fingers came to life as he tapped the screens, bringing up a side view of the Arizona on the main display.

"Crewman, meet the very ship you have standing on for the last week. The USS Arizona is a Prometheus-Class Attack Cruiser with fifteen decks, the longest spanning four hundred and fifteen meters. Including us, this ship is home to just under two hundred people, and growing it seems since we keep picking up strays everywhere we go..." Aiden paused, thinking of the Romulan scientist he heard was hitching a ride for a while. "So aside from this ship being armed to the teeth, it has one distinct feature not commonly seen in Starfleet vessels - it can separate itself in three sections."

Sekera's eyes followed the animation on the screen, depicting how the ship would separate itself. The screen then focused on each individual section, giving a cross section view.

"If you look, each section of the ship has it's own cargo storage facilities. If think if you look there are three cargo bars per section, so in the event that these sections have to function on their own for an extended period of time, it's gonna be your job to make sure that supplies are distributed evenly amongst them. It's not that daunting of a task, each section has its power systems and warp core so replicating parts and what not isn't that big of a deal. But if power rationing is in effect, I'd rather we didn't have to flip on the industrial replicators for every self sealing bolt. Ya follow me?"

The Bolian nodded, and it brought a grin to Aiden's face when he realized the young man was taking notes diligently on a padd.

"Look treat each section as though they were their own ship if it makes it easier, and I'll give you a template my old Quartermaster would use when he got a new Material's Specialist. Just bear in mind it was from a Starbase perspective, so we were able to store larger quantities of things. Now... please tell me you've at least seen a cargo transporter before right?" Aiden's head went limp and his chin hit his sternum just as the Crewman shook his head 'No'.