Tweaking

Posted on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 @ 11:07pm by Captain Vorn Krace

Mission: Dark Discoveries
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD4 1347hrs

"You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?" Maachal (NPC), Iapetus' resident Romulan, and specialist in structural and environmental systems, was supposedly one of the best out-of-the-box thinking engineers from his year at the Academy. Of course, most of 'his year' were much younger than him - Maachal entered Starfleet Academy only after making the decision to leave the Romulan Star Empire, and 'defecting' to the Federation - not that he'd actually been a member of any of the Romulan militaries.

Lamento slowly looked up from his datapad to the romulan. "Yes, I did" He answered looking back at his datapad.

“We might encounter a group of hostile people soon, that might use bio weapons. I want you to check all the hull's external vents and prep them so we can close them all within a second, Take any engineers you need for this.

"When your done with that head back here asap, I will need your expertise on the environmental systems to help write the sub-routine for the life support systems.

"Any questions?”

"What sort of sub-routines will we be writing, Sir?" Maachal asked. He might be able to get the computer specialist to begin some preliminary work on the framework while he worked on the external vents.

"Hummm" Lamento moaned "Using the biosensors to setup quarantine fields in any area that might get infected and that medical gets informed so that they know where to head."

Maachal nodded. "I'll get right onto it, Lieutenant." Moving away, he beckoned over the engineers he would be taking with him to work on the external vents, as well as the ship's computer systems specialist. "The Lieutenant wants us to begin working on some new subroutines when I get back," he informed him, "start looking into the biological sensor and internal quarantine and notification frameworks, and prepare them for modification." He tried to give the engineer something to do without actually giving away any information; judging by the little amount that the CEO had told him, he assumed that the reasons for this work would be kept quiet.

~~~Three Hours Later~~~

"Setting and locking fourth control."

Maachal and one other engineer were concluding the work on the upgrades on the ship's external venting systems, magnetised to the outer hull in their Environmental Suits. The rest the team had been working in pairs on the vast exterior of their home in space, and it had taken them all hours to complete the work required.

"OK, step well back, and prepare to re-open the vent." Maachal ordered, his voice sounding tinny through the suit's speakers.

As the two engineers backed off, the vent re-opened, allowing the buildup that had occured while work had proceeded to be expelled as a grey-white gas, and Maachal knew that on the other side of the starship, one or two of the RCS thrusters would have automatically fired to compensate. After the buildup had been released, the stream being released from the vent died down to near-invisible normal levels.

=/=Maachal to environmental control. Test the new modifications to the external vents, please. External teams and support teams, please ensure by observing your assigned vents that the system is working correctly.=/= There were too many vents to allow for a pair of engineers to each one, and so some vents were monitored remotely after the work had been completed.

Maachal watched as the vents closed with such speed that in a gravity well, such as the inner atmosphere of a planet, or even ground-level, would have caused such force as to damage the vent. As he approached the vent to check however, he confirmed what he already knew; the vacuum and gravity-free environment of space had done nothing to damage the components, and they were still in working order.

=/=Maachal to 'control. System operates correctly. Please revert to normal operations. Engineering teams, return to the airlocks and go through the re-entrance procedures.=/=

~~~1 Hour Later~~~

"Lieutenant." Maachal approached the Chief Engineer, once again dressed simply in his gold-collared duty uniform. "I have the report for the modifications of the external vents," he reported, handing over a PADD.

Beckonning over the computer systems specialist he had spoken to earlier, he then moved off to begin working on the other modifications the Lieutenant had wanted without another word.

-------------------------

Ensign Maachal D'Tala (NPC)
Structural/Environmental Systems Specialist
Played by Captain Krace

and

Lieutenant Lamento Solar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Iapetus