Lieutenant Commander Ben Garcia - DipOps

[Ben Garcia]

(( Operations Office, Deck 14, USS Thor ))

Dumphf.

 

The options panel waggled and the command was disregarded.

 

Ben took a heavy huff.

 

He had to start with what he knew. The ship’s schematics had been checked. This has been cross referenced with a physical survey. 

 

The brig was definitely on deck 4, sectors 15 and 16.

 

At least that was the understanding of physical reality.

 

Virtually, in the eyes of RAMS, the brig spanned decks 4 through 6 and through sectors 12 to 14. That meant a solid portion of the senior and junior officers were assigned the brig as their quarters.

 

The big flummox was that RAMS was doing something even more weird.

 

The system wasn’t renaming the quarters as part of the brig. Instead, crew assigned to compartments in sectors 12 to 14 on either decks 4, 5 or 6 were being assigned to a cell in the brig - RAMS was spitting out the correct room designation for the actual, real brig and diverting everyone in the affected compartments there.

 

So, the issue seemed two fold. One: RAMS had an incorrect schematic of the ship’s layout. Two: RAMS had incorrectly created associations between compartments and assigned a central designation to this association of compartment .... namely the brig.

 

Ops had acted quickly and corrected the issue using a manual allocations process. 

 

In a weird way … it had been a blast - most of the department had enjoyed indulging their inner logistics geek. 

 

The increasing stack of complaints showed that the crew didn’t share in the department's nerdy delight.

 

Ben leaned in over the terminal screen and studied the back end of the RAMS database. The team had inched their way through the tables. The tables and their relationships were fine. The data was being corrupted when RAMS ran a query. 

 

Ben backed up the database and then manually corrected the errors. The process would take him several brews and a few biscuits. His thinking was to keep a copy of the corrected database and then re-run RAMS to see what part of the code manipulated the data and produced brig-gate.

 

Reading the roomings from his PADD, Ben typed the corrections into the RAMS database cell by cell.

 

A voice sent Ben’s finger sliding over the keypad in surprise.

 

De Scheppes: Excuse me please, sir. I didn't mean to shove in. 

 

Ben swiveled a quarter turn and furrowed his brows at the unknown officer now occupying the office.

 

García: This office is temporarily restricted to operations personnel only - who are you?

 

Dime snapped to attention at once.

 

De Scheppes: Lieutenant De Scheppes, Commander. Assigned to the Thor as a diplomatic contact specialist. (beat) Permission to speak openly, sir?

 

Ben looked at the Lieutenant. Had the complaints escalated to a diplomatic intervention - really? 

 

Perplexed, Ben took a sip of tea and studied the diplomat. Putting his mug back down, Ben waved the officer to move closer.

 

García: Fine.

 

Ben flashed a confused smile.

 

Garcia: Sure. Take a seat? 

 

Ben pointed with a flick of his chin.

 

The officer continued their introduction.

 

De Scheppes: I wanted to get a start on my duties, given the Thor's previous mission involved a first contact. I forgot for a moment that the ship was in a leave period.

 

García: It is. We are. So, grab yourself something from the replicator, by all means.

 

Ben held up his mug in encouragement.

 

De Scheppes: I understand I'll be under your supervision, sir, since the Thor is without a dedicated diplomatic officer.

 

García: Ah… 

 

Ben opened a draw inset beneath the computer terminal and pulled out a PADD. He wiped a light film of dust off with the back of his hand. With a tap, the PADD woke from sleep and Ben took a sip of tea as he quickly executed a sequence of taps and scrolls. 

 

Garcia: (Mumbling.) Deee … Shhhhhhhheeepppppp … scchhhheep.

 

Ben jabbed the PADD with his fingers.

 

Garcia: (To himself.) Right you are. Filed it without a reminder. Hmmm.

 

Ben shook his head at himself in rebuke. With a smile he looked up from the PADD.

 

Garcia: So you are, Lieutenant. Welcome to Ops. (Ben smiled and bit his lip.) Or … DipOps.

 

De Scheppes: Response?

 

Garcia: What’s the paperwork situation with the Vel Maijan encounter?

 

De Scheppes: Response?

 

Garcia: You’re happy with the resulting follow up?

 

De Scheppes: Response?

 

Garcia: I didn’t know - I’m all ears, carry on.

 

De Scheppes: Response?

 

Tags! and TBC!

 

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

Lieutenant Commander Ben Garcia
Second Officer/HCO

USS Thor NCC-82607
Author ID number: G239102MR0

SB118 News Team