Going Through the Motions

Posted on 30 Oct 2017 @ 12:03am by Lieutenant T'Pai & Captain Harvey Geisler & Master Warrant Officer Karyna Fordyce

1,339 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Crossing Over
Location: Bridge
Timeline: November 12, 2388

T'Pai settled into the command chair, displaying neither discomfort nor expectation by doing so. Her present duty required her to "Take the Conn" while the Black Hawk's senior staff attended the nuptials of the Black Hawk's Commanding Officer and Chief Intelligence Officer on the Space Station filling the main viewing screen. Since T'Pai was new to the ship and unfamiliar with the primaries involved in the ceremony, her current position was both logical and necessary.

Somehow, Karyna was on the bridge. After her experiences on the Cochrane, she had avoided being near the proverbial action. I've had enough of that for a lifetime, she thought, as she looked down at the science console. The ship's current status made the chance for danger minimal. But that's what you thought on the Cochrane too, K, she reminded herself.

The turbolift doors opened, allowing Ensign Rincon to enter the bridge. The tall Hispanic woman been assigned by the Chief Operations Officer to oversee the department while the rest of the crew were attending the wedding. She crossed the bridge to her station and relieved the officer manning the console. As soon as she sat, she ran a Level Five diagnostic on the panel. Within three seconds, all indicators showed green, meaning that the console was ready for use. "Operations systems report operational, Lieutenant," she reported to the Chief Engineer and acting Captain.

T'Pai gave a curt nod to Rincon before turning her attention back to the main viewing screen.

Ensign Nasek, being fairly new and not remotely close to the Captain or Lt. Corwin, entered the bridge to take the engineer's station. She spent a moment talking with the previous station holder, making sure there was nothing she needed to know before assuming the station. Her eyes skimmed her consoles readouts as she quickly orientated herself.

"Ms. Fordyce, any activity from the planet?" T'Pai asked.

Looking down at her console, Karyna consulted the sensor displays. "Things look normal, sir."

Ensign Rincon carefully checked what she could see from the sensors as well. "Looks like the lateral sensors are out of alignment. Possibly about ten microns," she reported.

"Which pallets, Ensign?" T'Pai inquired.

"Looks like the entire starboard array along the saucer," Rincon reported, looking back at the Captain. "If memory serves, the ship took several hits along that section during our skirmish with the starbase."

"Your memory would be correct in its recollection," T'Pai agreed as she stood and made her way to the Ensign's station. "If you will note on the accompanying maintenance log, Ensign, both Operations and Engineering reported the deviations, and work orders were issued accordingly. However, a number of the sensor pallets are being reconfigured in anticipation of our mission to the Finnean Convergence Zone, and thus have not been returned to their standard alignment." A hint of a frown might have appeared on the Vulcan engineer's lips as she added, "However, that information has not been added to the array's maintenance log." T'Pai leaned over the Ensign's shoulder and tapped an entry into the ensign's board. "I am sending you a list of activity that should have been entered into the maintenance log, Ensign. If you would enter said data into the log, I would be most appreciative."

"Sí, Lieutenant," said the ensign. She took a few minutes to review the list that the Chief Engineer had given her before beginning to insert it into the maintenance log. The first reason was to fully acquaint herself with the data, and the second was to make sure there wouldn't be any double entries as she transferred the information.

T'Pai silently studied the image of Deep Space Fifteen for a minute before turning back to the crew. "Since we find ourselves with an abundance of..." she paused for a moment before saying "...down time, we shall take this opportunity to see if there are any other irregularities that might have been overlooked in the last six days, since our recent conflict with the previous authority of the station. Have all departments begin running Level 3 diagnostics of major subsystems."

Ensign Rincon looked up from her work with the logs. "Lieutenant, that could take at least an hour. During that time, we may lose efficiency of the primary systems, as much as fifty percent throughout the duration of the diagnostics." She didn't mean to protest, but with the majority of the ship's senior staff off the ship, it would complicate things if the Black Hawk was forced to suddenly move.

"My intention was not to conduct the diagnostics simultaneously, Ensign, but in a cascading fashion," T'Pai responded, her tone calm. "It will take longer to run diagnostics on all the systems, but it will not have a debilitating effect on the Black Hawk's ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances. In addition, any response that would be required of the Black Hawk would be supplemented by DS15. However, my people have a saying: Wuh rasath t'ek'man'es." T'Pai paused before translating, "An ounce of prevention. Have the Mississippi ready to launch to provide supplemental sensory information."

The Operations officer nodded, turning back to her console. "Sending orders to the Flight Deck now to prepare the Mississippi for launch." Though she could do some of the diagnostics herself, she would have to rely on support from the Science and Engineering departments to complete the task.

Ensign Nasek nodded, cascading style that would work, "Cascade Diagnostic Level 3 Aye" She said to T'Pai, Then to T'Pai and the ops officer she asked, "Do you have an order you prefer to start with or standard cycle?"

"Standard cycle will suffice, Ensign," T'pai answered Nasek. "Advise me when the Mississippi has launched, Ms. Rincon."

The Vulcan's command proved to be quite timely as the status update from the Flight Deck just came through. "The Mississippi just cleared the bay doors," the ensign reported.

T'Pai nodded. The Chief Engineer did not expect the diagnostics to reveal any significant disorders. Between her own department and Operations, the six days since the battle had been more than enough time to detect any and all damage to the Black Hawk and initiate repair. Thus, it was only logical to conduct redundant surveys.

Ensign Nasek nodded and prepared her part of the sequence. "Cascade diagnostic prepared" She said after a moment. Those on site that proper locations checked then she turned to Rincon,"Ready ops?" She glanced over at the ops station, always finding it better to coordinate such things.

"Ready," briskly replied the operations officer.

"Commencing cascade diagnostic, first system. Monitoring teams in place." She said focused on her console as her hands moved gently over the correct sequence of keys, glad they were finding time to do this before the next crisis hit.

From her position at the science console, Karyna observed the activity around her. As a warrant officer, she was rarely at the forefront of the action. Instead, she was generally in a lab or in Astrometrics. And she liked that. Whenever she did find herself in the thick of it, as she did on the Cochrane, bad things happened. Hopefully that's not the case this time, she thought.

Though T'Pai could have quietly observed the progress of the various diagnostics from the command chair, she chose instead to "wander" the bridge, moving from station to station. Though she did not feel this was the most economic method of monitoring the progress, she had observed among other senior officers that "moving about" seemed to provide an...emotional cohesiveness, among the bridge crew. It wasn't logical, but appeared to be a valid 'tactic.'

"Status report from the Mississippi, Ms. Rincon," T'Pai requested.

"They're in position," Ensign Rincon reported, having just received the notice from the runabout. "Telemetry is now synced between us. Deactivating lateral array now for diagnostics."

T'Pai nodded. Things were proceeding in a non-eventful yet productive manner, which was more than satisfactory. Hopefully the wedding on Deep Space Fifteen was proceeding in a similar fashion.

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