[sb118-khitomer] MSNPC Technological Lead Vidya - Turbolifts and Transporters
BC Cooper
((Main Engineering, Deck 12))
The brief ride in the turbo lift was a bit cramped for Vidya. There were four of them inside such a confined space. It wasn’t the size of the technological that gave her pause, but the fact two males stood alongside herself and Michaels. It was unfamiliar to Vidya and her culture and something she would have to learn, males working alongside females was a part of this Federations culture.
The doors hissed open and Vidya quickly exited right behind the true First Officer, following along into the technological engineering of the Khitomer. Vidya glanced around looking to see what she could from her current vantage point. Aliens of all sorts, male and female and some she could not disconcert their gender or species stood about working side by side with each other.
Vidya: ::examining the room with her eyes:: Rather square in your execution. Too many boxes, straight lines and material. Everything on the Jorogumo flows together as one. The threads of the Jorogumo weave in harmony and execution. We can see and know every strain and its movements.
The coldness of it all, it was alien indeed. Especially the warp core. Something she was not familiar with. She stared at it briefly before turning her attention back to the conversation. It would be yet another technological that she would wish to examine before her leave of the Khitomer.
Michaels: :: to Dewitt :: Commander. Clearly my knowledge of the ship's status is no longer current, given my time on Jorogumo. When I departed, we had two non-trivial problems. There was the loss of power due, I believe, to the filaments preventing us from obtaining power levels much above survival levels. Unless that is rectified, we may not be able to power the shields and SDA to the required levels. There was also the issue of the holes in the hull plates created by the filaments. :: beat :: I am concerned about both the effectiveness of an SDA riddled with small holes and the possible atmosphere losses if the hull holes were abruptly unplugged by removing the filaments. I would appreciate it if you could "bring me up to speed" on our situation.
Vydia was curious about this "bring me up to speed" and waited and watched as the true First Officer spoke.
Dewitt: Those are two problems, Lieutenant. Both still problems. Smaller than when you left though. Part of our effort here is to get power levels up by containing and removing the filaments. That’s why Vidya is here ::nodding to Vidya::. Those filaments have been a choke point in generation - as soon as we have all asleep and/or off the ship, we should see stabilization on power levels. Commander Valeris and Mr Morda have the lullaby running ship-wide.
She would do her best to assist within her limits on this task. Using music to ease the potentially aggressive nature of the threads was a wise decision on their part.
The true First Officer paused only a briefest of moments before continuing.
Dewitt: As for the SDA. A small piece of good news from the Starfleet Corps of Engineering. The anti-Sencha systems were outfitted with last-shot capacitors, isolated from the main bus by default. They charged on our way into this system, before we entered the nebula and the filaments could throttle power generation. They are not connected to main power unless we actively connect them. ::beat:: Those capacitors are what is powering the SDA right now. They will not hold forever, and they will not let us throw the punch twice. But they buy us time. One full shot… maybe two. That is what is in the bottle.
SDA? A terminology she would need to learn later. The true First Officer gave that another second to sink in before continuing.
Dewitt: As for the holes in the hull, Lieutenant. You are not wrong to worry. We are not going to plug them quickly enough to make either of us happy. ::beat:: My estimate is that roughly 95% of the hull plating is still intact when we are looking at its power draw. 95% is not what we want. But it's what we have. And it's not zero.
That was not good for a Federation that didn’t have the same regenerative properties like their organic parts aboard the Jorogumo.
Michaels: Our briefing on what it was that brought us here in the first place mentioned that Starfleet had detected Sencha weapon and warp signatures here. During our initial analysis of the derelict Sheliak ship, did not Mr. Stros find indications that their Sencha weapons had been fired. If I recall correctly, he suggested the Sheliak had used their Sencha weapons to blast their way out of the nebula. That implies that the Velithari have defeated at least one Lettuce Alliance ship and may be less sensitive to Sencha radiation than we fear. :: beat :: The Velithari may be in better condition to deal with them than we are.
She was not wrong. The Velithair was able to use the Jorogumo within the cloud to assist them in disabling the Alliance vessel.
Dewitt: Useful catch, Lieutenant. ::quieter:: If the ships we encountered were already trapped in the nebula when they fired, then their Sencha weaponry would not have been operating at full capacity. You said it yourself a minute ago… the Khitomer is barely above survival on power. ::beat:: A Sencha burst fired at that power is a fraction of what the weapon was designed for. ::another beat:: What we are seeing now is a different problem. The new Lattice group is holding distance outside the nebula. They could fire at the cloud from close range with full power. We do not know what a fully-fledged Sencha attack will do to the nebula.
He turned, finally, to the Velithari engineer at his side and let his voice go quiet.
Dewitt: ::to Vidya:: Do we?
Vidya: ::quietly to the XO:: We do not. As you have seen, one ship is not a problem for us within the cloud. Many vessels at one time have not been tested. This will be a first.
The true First Officer took a breath and then gave a sheepish smile.
Dewitt: Alright… Let’s start to work on this. This is going to take a lot of coordinated effort. ::to Vidya:: Is there any way to transport the masses out of the ship one by one? I’m almost positive we could get enough juice out of the backup batteries for 3-4 masses. But our transporter sensors cannot isolate their pattern. Any advice?
The other male called Valeris spoke up before Vidya. She took a quiet, but deep breath. A male rudely interrupting a female was something one of their culture did not take to kindly. She held herself in check and waited for an opportunity to respond to the true First Officer.
Valeris: We could always use the trusty transport enhancers and put them ‘in a box’, so to speak.
The XO was lost in thought. Vidya quickly blurted out her response before either male could speak again.
Vidya: ::beat:: I have none. ::to the XO:: Your transporters are as alien to us as is your turbolift. Explain.
Michaels looked to Vidya as she explained a technology that was alien to her and her people.
Michaels: ::to Vidya:: The transporters disassemble an object on an atomic level and then reassemble it at the destination. I am not certain it would address the individual fibers scattered throughout the ship. As long as we are limiting this to the major masses, that would certainly be feasible. The enhancers would need to contain the entire mass. If any of the masses have extensions beyond the central mass, those might remain.
It was an interesting technological piece that she had yet to see. She made a point to examine this technological transporter. She looked to Michaels for further explanation, but the same male that had interrupted continued as if the conversation was not there, at least in Vidya’s mind.
Valeris: Wait… What about our light show? Could we tie the transporter sensors into the sensor modifications we made to make the filaments visible?
Dewitt: ::quietly:: That might just be the answer, Commander…
Light show? So they had used their lights to verify the location of the threads. Once more Vidya was surprised at how well these Federations had adapted. Especially the males.
Dewitt: ::more level:: We have already mapped out every filament and every mass on the ship to within a few micrometers. The underlying sensor signature could just be what we are looking for. Can we feed that signature into the transporter pattern buffers? We would not need to do anything by hand.
Vidya: The fact you have mapped every thread is impressive. One that we have done many times. I am not familiar with your transporters to give you a recommendation on these buffers.
Valeris: In theory, yes. Might take some creative programming.
Vidya: Programming?
Michaels: ::to Vidya:: We have devices we call computers that can taught... "programmed" ... to accomplish various tasks. They do a great deal than mathematics. No doubt you have comparable devices.
Vidya: ::nods:: Indeed we do.
Something they both had, instead of yet another technological the Velithari did not.
The XO called up a display. Vidya stepped forward alongside Michaels to examine the blue web of threads. She recognized all of them, especially the ones that originated from outside the Khitomer.
Dewitt: Commander, you’re the architect of that light show. Connect the light show to the transporter systems.
Valeris smirked and nodded.
Valeris: Yes, sir.
Dewitt: ::nodding, to Michaels:: Lieutenant, I would like you to verify the buffer can hold these non-standard patterns without smearing the lock.
The XO took a breath and turned to Vidya.
Dewitt: Ma’am, if there is anything we should now before we proceed, now would be the time. We are about to lift things out of the ship that we do not fully understand. ::pause:: I’d also be interested if there is any particular destination we should transport the masses to?
Vidya: You have done everything that I am aware can be done to prepare for what it is you are attempting to complete.
Michaels: Miss Vidya. In the simplest form, the filaments will, momentarily, cease to exist when we transport them and then reappear at the destination. We can place them essentially anywhere within a significant distance.
Vidya: If the Alliance of Lettuce vessel was within range, I would advise there. However at this time my recommendation is as far from this vessel as you can in whatever direction you choose.
Michaels moved to another of the engineering consoles and called up the details of the transporter system. Details that interested Vidya.
Michaels: Commander Dewitt. We are capable of holding non-standard transporter patterns provided they are fundamentally no more complicated than living beings. ::beat:: We can handle these. The number of individual masses we can handle in a single transporter cycle could be problematic.
Problematic? That was a word Vidya understood.
Dewitt: One more thing before we light that thing up. As I said, the reserves give us only three, maybe four masses. So the order matters. ::beat:: My vote is fusion reactors first. Every filament sitting on that, an EPS junction or a coolant manifold needs to go. Once we are above survival, the rest of this gets a great deal easier.
Vidya: ::nodding:: That would be my recommendation true First Officer.
Valeris: We may need to use up one of those runs for pattern creation. ::gesturing towards his console:: We don’t have a complete pattern.
Michaels: Two observations if I may. If we transport away the filaments that are plugging the holes in the hull, we will suddenly have multiple air leaks. My preference would be to remove those filaments last and perhaps not at all. If we can find a way to detach them from their external anchor, we could repair the holes at any time. :: quick glimpse at Vidya and then back at Dewitt:: Second, the filaments in the nacelles that have been draining our power must be exceptionally effective superconductors to carry that much power in that amount of time. The graphene tubes at the core would explain some of that but there is still much to learn. If possible, I would like to retain at least one of those filaments for later study.
A lot of technologiccal talk that she did understand. Well at least most of it. It was solid advice from Michaels.
Dewitt: ::nodding:: Both noted, Lieutenant. Though I will not allow to take any samples of a living organism without its consent and according to everything we know the nebula is at least close to that. You can keep a copy of the pattern buffer data once we have enough power.
Valeris: We should be able to grab enough with the first run to help fill in the gaps and make the remaining attempts more effective.
Michaels: Agreed.
Vidya: I concur with Michaels.
Dewitt: Alright, you call the shots, Commander. Fusion reactors first, nacelles second, warp core access third. Take one run to get the full pattern ready. :: to Michaels:: Lieutenant, you keep the buffer in check. ::to Vidya:: Ma’am… If the rhythm of any of this looks wrong to you, say the word. We will stop and listen.
A male in charge of shots to be called. She silently shook her head to herself and responded to the XO.
Vidya: It shall be done.
Valeris: Not much left to do but hit the button, sir.
The XO nodded and took a deep breath.
Dewitt: Hit it.
TBC
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MSNPC Technological Lead, Vidya
As simmed by
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Lieutenant (JG) Ezra Zerva
Security Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240101EZ2