Another Meeting

Posted on Tue Jun 13th, 2017 @ 8:39am by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Lieutenant Azusa Nakano

825 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Taking Wing
Location: Engineering
Timeline: BACKPOST Shortly after leaving the Starbase

ON

Amber walked into Engineering to see what she could do to help Azusa with the ship modifications since a lot of the tweaking had been done by Amber, at least in Science.

Azusa was standing by the small warp core, her fingers tapping away at the diagnostic console. Because Engineering was small, she noticed when anyone entered.
"Commander" she said looking up. "Welcome to Engineering. Can we help you in any way?" she asked.

"That's what I came to ask you," Amber said. "I made modifications to the science department, and wasn't sure if you wanted me to show you what I did."

"Go ahead" Azusa said with a sigh. "You might as well show me, just in case something breaks and we have to fix it" she added with a slightly nervous smile.

"Oh, it will," Amber said. She went to the nearest console and pulled up the science database and showed Azusa how the upgrade added a science computer core that was separate from the main computer, although it still had access to it. "This is to allow the scientists to have their own projects without taxing the ship's systems. Science has its own backup power supply as well. If the ship loses power, science keeps running." She grinned. "That's to keep experiments from failing catastrophically. I've also increased the security to the science computer in case of any breach."

Azusa looked over the schematics. "I see" she said. "Well, as long as it doesn't drain too much power we should be ok" she explained. "However..." she paused a minute tapping at the console. "You could improve its effiency by utilising the Bio-Neural gel packs and hooking it with the EPS system" she explained. "Its quite simple, and would probably process a little faster"

"The whole point was to not hook directly into the ship's systems," Amber said. "It was to run autonomously, yet still have access. So that if it became necessary, the two could be separated."

"That's not hard to do" Azusa said now finally understanding the Commanders point. "Why not set up a dead switch?" she asked. "Basically, its like a safety valve, its semi-automatic" she began to explain. "When the computer detects a problem or an intrusion it literally cuts itself off to protect itself" she told her. "It can also be activated or deactivated manually"

"A safety valve would be nice, but if we can use secondary generators in science, we wouldn't need to draw power from the gel packs."

Azusa nodded in agreement. "The core would have its own systems. Including its own Gel Packs" she explained. "The switch will allow you to inerface with the ships systems when you need to. So you can link to sensors and the main computer, but also choose when to isolate the core" she pondered it for a few moments going over the technical requirements in her head. "I can send some engineers to help you install it if you wish?"

"Would we need it if we had our own power supply, our own computer core, and a connection to the main core that only worked when you accessed it? So we weren't continuously connected?" Amber asked.

Azusa pulled up the schematics for the core on the screen in front of her. "You should already have all that" she explained. "However, should you wish to use sensor data, you will need the links to the main computer. But the switch will be a way of completely isolating the core from all outside connections outside of science"

Amber nodded. "Sure, we can try it. A lot will depend on if we get another science officer. He or she may ask for more modifications. I'm doing double duty until then." She pulled up some data from other scientists for Azusa to peruse. "I've been in situations where the ship had to pull all power from non-essential functions and a lab experiment failed catastrophically. I also heard of a lab failure that affected the main computer. So this is a preventative measure."

Azusa nodded in response. "Well that makes sense" she said. "Well, with it having its own power source, pulling away from other systems shouldn't be a problem you have to put up with. You'll just have to make sure to keep it powered" she explained.

"I don't think that will be a problem." Amber grinned. "The labs are likely to be in use round the clock. So, is there anything you need from me?"

Azusa shook her head. "Not that I can think of. Check in with me if Science needs anything from Engineering" she replied.

"I will." Amber smiled. "In that case, I'll get out of your way so that you can continue what you were doing. Thank you again." Amber nodded and headed back to the science department to see what else needed to be dune.

____
OFF

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer

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