Initial Scientific Communication
Posted on Fri 12th Apr, 2013 @ 3:09pm by Commander Mikaela Locke & Captain Eee-eee-rie--eeee-eek Nightingale D.Sc
1,192 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
https://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Deck 11: Main Communications / CCO's Office
Timeline: MD-06: 0912 hours.
[ON:]
Getting acclimatized to Starbase Life meant acknowledging that there were very different departments, than the Medical Services ship Nightingale had been previously posted to.
The Bridge was Operations, and Engineering was Operations. It was all very confusing, if you were trying to translate things by yourself.
The one department, however, which Nightingale would have to work particularly close with, other than Operations, was Communications, who monitored most of the sensors and comm equipment on the Base.
As such, upon hearing that there was a new section chief in that department, Nightingale did the only pertinent thing one would do in her position. She immediate wandered off in the general direction of Communications, getting lost a couple times on the way, in search of the new arrival.
===
"Are you serious?" Mikaela Locke's voice carried across the communications centre.
The engineer she was talking to clearly had no answer to the rather simple question.
"This is what we've been using?" Mikaela repeated.
The engineer nodded.
Mikaela didn't respond any more simply walking away from the console shaking her head. "Inbelievable!" she mutter to herself.
It seemed that there was much work to be done if the stations communications systems were going to be brought up to scratch. One of the major downsides of leaving anything in the hands of the FCDA was that they never seemed to upgrade anything.
She was about to head out of the comm-centre and back to her office, when she noticed a blue-skinned marine hanging about in the entrance way. Crossing over to approach, what she presumed to be a 'her', she stole a glance at her uniform collar before deciding on a greeting.
"Can I help you, sir?" she asked formally, stopping a couple of feet from the visitor.
"Ma'am, actually." Nightingale said. "Doctor, if you must use a rank. I'm Doctor Nightingale, Chief Science Officer. I was expecting to come down here, asking you for some help with some audio-related scientific experiments, for sonic repulsion field creation, but it more accurately seems to be, is there anything that the scientific department can do for you?"
Locke shook her head with a sigh. "It seems that the FCDA did absolutely nothing to the station's comm systems all the time they were here," she replied. "All of our communications technology is out of date." She shrugged. "I need to speak to engineering about upgrading..." she paused and shook her head again, "Well... everything."
She stopped again and looked up at the marine doctor. "My apologies, Doctor," she continued, raising a hand in deference, "I'm rambling. I'm Lieutenant Locke," she extended her hand. "Perhaps we should go and talk in my office..."
"Probably for the best." Nightingale said, wincing, as some of the machinery began making a nearly inaudible noise. Inaudible, that is, to humans. To her, it was nearly equivalent to fingernails on a chalkboard. "Acoustic filters to 300%." She added, with a wince.
The two officers made their way the short distance down the corridor to Mikaela's office. As the doors slid open and they entered, Mikaela made her way around the desk that was currently covered in PaDDs and equipment components.
"Please, have a seat," she indicated as Nightingale followed her in. "I'm sorry about the mess," she continued, "I haven't really had a chance to get the room in order yet."
"I completely understand." Nightingale said, with a nod. "I've been on base a week, and so far, I've gotten engaged, assisted with the investigation of a rather gruesome discovery, helped design the most efficient design for a shop, met just four members of my staff, because everyone else seems to be deliberately avoiding me after a staff member threw up in my environmental suit, after I retracted part of it to shake his hand, and lost some semi-classified data to an unknown source. My office looks fairly close to Dorothy's house during the tornado, I'd wager."
"Wow," Mikaela responded, a little taken aback "that sounds like a week from hell!"
"If my people had a choice of afterlives, and one was foul, I would agree." Nightingale said, nodding.
"So," Mikaela said, settling in to her chair and, finally, relaxing a little, "Tell me about this experiment you're proposing."
"Well, I was planning on asking you for assistance with coding some sonic-repulsion fields for the new Tivoli Gardens project, some of which hasn't been tested before, but I now see you seem to be in the need of some top of the line, or perhaps even cutting edge comm equipment. So I'm going to change the parameters for this experiment. At current, there are 390 prototype comm systems that are untested in the Starfleet Scientific Research Database, and I was on three of their design teams. Perhaps I should forward you copies, and issue an upgrade order, under Starfleet's Scientific research regulations." She quickly tapped at her PADD, then nodded. "There are three, as I said, that I can requisition. One uses graviton-generated quantum singularities, with fairly instantaneous communications links. The second uses common subspace comm links, but uses several quantum theory adjustments, to speed up, and increase the range, of the transmitter dish, though it has shown diminished returns, as the other side requires the same load-out, to get the appropriate range, and the third is a Velurian prototype which also abuses both graviton-generated quantum singularities, and the second, as well as a probe. This combination system is designed to communicate with people using only short range comm systems, because we fire a probe through a quantum singularity, and it shows up on their door-step, as a signal relay." She winced, while singing, as her song had stopped nearly by the end of the first sentence, but the translator took a while to catch up. Once it was finished, she switched to English. "Sorry. I still haven't quite got the knack of science speak in English."
"It's fine," Mikaela replied, with a smile, "Your language is lovely to listen to. Look," she continued, "I'd love to look over the specs with you at some point. I think you've already gathered what a state the station is in - not just the comm systems, but the whole place. Anything we can do to bring it up-to-date would be a bonus and," she added, "Once I've cleared my desk a little, I'd be happy to help you with the sonic-repulsion technology."
"Well, there's no time to lose, than, is there? I'll have the prototype specs on your desk in three hours, and 29 minutes, give or take 30 minutes extra work-out schedule time." Nightingale said, with a nod.
"Excellent," Mikaela nodded. "I look forward to receiving them."
"Good day, Lieutenant." Nightingale said, as she walked towards the door. She had nearly forgotten about human customs, regarding departures.
"Good day, Doctor," Mikaela responded, breezily. So far, getting to know people on the station was proving most interesting.
[OFF:]
Eee-eee-rie--eeee-eek Nightingale D.Sc
Senior Science Officer
&
Mikaela Locke
Chief Communications Officer
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