Ensign Richard Matthews - Still on Time and there was a Sale
Matthew Gough
((Main Engineering, Deck 12, USS Khitomer))
Lacy: So… “emergency” gel pack replacement?
R. Matthews: Right :: He pointed at the officer, whose name he totally remembered :: What the Ensign said. How up to date are we all on this?
Michaels :Beyond what you said in the briefing, we know only what we could logically conclude from our prior experience in the nebula. Some gel packs are more susceptible to the radiation than others. None of the gel packs involved in our battle at the space station were damaged. Ergo, the older gel packs are better suited for critical services. You mentioned "foreign DNA" at the briefing and that seems to be a plausible source for the susceptibility of the gel packs.
Lacy / Semara: Response
R. Matthews: K, while docked, we were retrofitted with replacement gel packs. Unfortunately, the bulk of the new gel packs installed on the Khitomer have a flaw that makes them susceptible to Sencha radiation. We’ve traced the abnormality in packs through their batch numbers. :: He pulled out his tricorder :: I’ll send you the details, check your PADDs.
Michaels: I have the details.
Lacy / Semara: Response
R. Matthews: The highlighted packs on decks 18, 15, and 9 are the only ones that are safe for use from what was installed on Deep Space 33. All the packs on Deck 6 were safe, and the highlighted packs on decks 12 and 15 are safe. Anything marked in blue is safe, don’t touch, the others we need to switch out with the packs we have in storage. That means the original gel packs the Khitomer had before its last big upgrade.
Lacy / Semara: Response
Michaels: I understand. :: Succinct. To the point. ::
Richard nodded, of course Michaels would catch on quick. He’d expect nothing less - they were the ones that first discovered the unaffected gel packs, that had sent Richard down the rabbit hole of gel pack production. So he had assumed they were following along with the work being done on them.
R. Matthews: Any questions? If not, we should divide up the decks between us and get to work. Semara can take decks 18 through 15, I’ll grab 14 through 11, Michaels — 10 though 7 and you :: He pointed at the other ensign because he was still blanking on their name :: can get 6 through 3. I’ll message El’Heem to do 2 and 1 on his way back from sickbay.
Michaels: I have one comment and one question. My comment first. As my father might say, Richard, you are a day late and a dollar short. We have individuals already switching out gel-packs. Individuals who have the training and the experience to know what they are doing. Your information will save us some time. I thank you for that. And I am certain we will be able to find a place where your assistance will be helpful.
Oh, or, nope, he had read the room wrong. Shoot. Okay, they could fix this.
oO Oh god, what are they switching the packs out with then? The ones with the Vulcan DNA? Oo
R. Matthews: Sorry, what? No, no, the packs were already replaced. We did that before leaving Deep Space 33. I reported that at the briefing, what do you mean you have people switching out the gel packs?
Lacy / Semara: Response
Michaels: My questions. Are you suggesting that the gel pack manufacturer did not properly vett their source of the Vulcan DNA they used? And given that Mr. V'Lak is also a Vulcan, is it your recommendation that I pull him off the assignment?
Richard wasn’t ignoring Michaels, honestly, he’d get to that in a moment. With questions of his own, like ‘who is V’Lak and what did it matter if he was on the team or not. Shoot did Michaels think he had turned racist against Vulcans during shore leave?
He’d fix all that later.
R. Matthews: =/\= Blue to El’Heem, I mean Matthews, dang it, to El’Heem. Sir, we got an issue. Engineering is going through and replacing the bio neural gel packs we’ve already switched out. Can you get them to cancel that order and put back whatever they might have already switched out? =/\=
El’ Heem / Semara: Response
R. Matthews: =/\= Thanks, I’ll go over the redundant systems plan with the individuals that have the training and experience here, to make sure they know what they’re doing. Get us back some time we’ve lost, before we get to the nebula. =/\=
Michaels / Lacy / El’ Heem / Semara: Response
R. Matthews: Okay, El’ Heem will take care of that. Now to answer your questions. No, and no. Any packs from the batches with Vulcan DNA added to the synthetic neurons are black listed currently, when it comes to dealing with the Sencha radiation threat. And yourself and any other Vulcan crew member are not going to be moved off any projects.
Certain individuals that Starfleet had sent along during the last round of testing, though? Richard just might be singing a different tune if he had to work with T'Dara again. But he was self-aware enough to know that it was because he unfairly blamed her for a friend getting seriously hurt. That was a Richard problem only, and if he ever did have to interact with them again, he'd be on his best behavior.
Michaels / Lacy / El’ Heem / Semara: Response
R. Matthews: So! Let’s quickly go over what redundant systems are, why we want them setup in these key areas. And then get to work on doing that. Should be quick and easy and doable in time before we get back to the nebula. To quickly coin a phrase or something, we'll be on time and there'll be a sale! So no one is short on cash.
oO Thank goodness I spent a fake year of my life living in the 21st century, and know what a dollar is. Oo
Michaels / Lacy / Semara: Response
R. Matthews: We’ll just see if it’s the same game plan as originally, or if Ras is going to need us to do something different now.
Michaels / Lacy / Semara: Response
TAGS/TBC
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Science Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A238908RM0