Tuning the Sensors

Posted on 12 Sep 2012 @ 7:10pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Crewman Aurangzeb Ameen

4,222 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo: Sensor Array, Deck's 4 & 5
Timeline: MD 09 - 1030

[ON]

Kiri had only found about three hours to sleep, getting up even earlier than normal she head to the sensor suite again. While the day before they had gotten the sensors working, it would do but wasn't as good as it could be. Firstly there was no backup, so if the system went down, it would be even harder to get back up and running. She also couldn't sleep or think of anything else to do with her time. The fatigue showed, the rings around her eyes deeper than ever, her skin pale and rather bluish. Her hair was tied up in a knot today, tiny black pins holding it in place, it had started to fray slightly over the morning. For several hours she had been rebuilding the system with only one unexpected break. Other than that one moment of strange joy she had spent most of her time on her knees checking the insides of the computer. There were several corrupted subroutines and a range of reasons for causing them. The power surge, burned components and damaged connections to the sensors.

It was a tangled web of problems and slowly she pulled each one out. Replacing code from the remote backups and the main backup computer. Circuits were bypassed or replaced, code needed to be written to cover the gaps that caused. It was four and a half hours later that she almost had a working computer again. It was still currently disconnected though, the primary plasma manifold that it connected to was still damaged. There wasn't enough power in the secondary to power both the primary computer, the backups and the sensor array. There were also a lot more connections through the array to be checked, it wasn't something that she could do alone.

Taking a long drink from the canteen she'd brought with her Kiri let out a long sigh. She felt a mess, that her insides were churning around and around. It was something she knew she did. When things got hard she ran away and gave herself more work to do. Not that she could stop herself from doing it. What was she running from? Everything. The idea that they could all die very soon, that people had died, likely the captain as well. That all she wanted was to hide in her room, be a little child and cuddle up with her mother. That she didn't fit in, or belong or. She had to work, she would be weak otherwise, her brain reminded her. Locking her heart back down in her chest, she had to call engineering. Pressing her combadge she spoke softly, upset, "Ensign Cho to Engineering, can I request a repair technician for the EPS relay on deck four section two?" Angry at herself now she roughly rubbed her eyes, she was meant to be an officer.

=^= "Engineering to Ensign Cho, affirmative; we have an available technician en-route as we speak. Engineering out." =^=

At least five minutes passed before the doors to the sensor suite opened. Crewman Aurangzeb Ameen stepped over its threshold and into the circular shaped cabin. He'd reported for duty in main engineering after receiving the first opportunity for rest in the last forty-eight hours. Unbeknownst to any other member of the crew, he'd actually slept behind the couch in the living room area of Pola's personal quarters; he'd pulled the piece of furniture away from the bulkhead that created a relatively private area to sleep. In all honesty, it was the only place that he felt absolutely safe and at ease. At first, his dreams were disquieting and he found it difficult to sleep, yet soon his body succumbed to the effects of complete and utter exhaustion, mind settling into a contented slumber. He'd awoken this morning to find that Pola had not returned to the quarters, her bed untouched. In her absence, he'd taken a long, soothing shower and adorned a pair of exceptionally clean and well pressed technician's coveralls. Although his mind, body and soul still felt the fatigue of the last several days, there was a sense of mindful renewal.

Lacing fingers through locks of damp, curly hair, Aurangzeb glanced around the cabin; not immediately seeing anybody, his soft voice called out. "Hello?"

Kiri wasn't an athletic person, it was the one area of the academy that she had barely scraped through, she still could barely swim. The hardest to reach connection was the one she started with. So she had started with the top, clambering up the ladder and perching just inside the access hatch. With the access panel open she started to run a small current through the first two connections she tested and they seemed fine. She was in the process of shutting them down when she heard a voice below. Expecting this to be the engineer she closed the panel and started down the ladder, though she had been wrong already today.

Safely back on the ground she turned to the man and gave a small smile, "Crewman," She expected him to stand to attention but didn't require it, "Are you here to repair the EPS relay?" Despite how she looked, her uniform was spotless. Her hands at her side, tricorder in its pouch and still a phaser at her side. Something she hadn't let go of since the first red alert.

Aurangzeb stood at a relaxed attention, unveiling a broad, handsome smile; "Yes ma'am." He replied politely to the Ensign's question. He lifted the large toolkit and nodded. "Chief Tusk said that you were looking for a second set of hands to help." He noted, glancing around the sensor suite to assess its current state of repair. "If I may, ma'am, how much progress have you achieved thus far?" He placed the toolkit down on the nearest flat surface, unclipped the pair of securing tabs and opened the hinged lid.

Standing still Kiri answered listed it off in her head, "Yesterday we transferred all control from the primary sensor control computer to the secondary. The primary was damaged from a power surge that also damaged several relays that had to be checked and rerouted. Today I've started to rebuild the primary computer but I can't bring it back to full power without repairing the damage to the EPS relay and checking all the power connections." Taking a deep breath she looked down on him for a few seconds. While there was more work for her to do, she was interested in learning at lead something more about the EPS relay and what might be wrong with it. So she waited, pursing her lips together.

Aurangzeb nodded, "Rightly so; it'd be a wee bit discouraging to lose all of your hard work thus far should a falt or power surge occur." He removed a tool belt from within the kit and wrapped it around his thin waist. "Has a backup of the primary computer's databanks been completed and stored in the secondary memory bank?" He'd hate to be muddling around with the power systems only for something to go terribly wrong during the repair process and for them to loose every quad of data in the process. While he awaited the Ensign's reply, Aurangzeb started a mental process check in the sequence of steps during the repair process while stocking the belt with the tools and devices necessary to complete the work.

While making sure was fine, Kiri's secondary specialism was in computer science, she knew what she was doing. It didn't show in her voice which was still soft and quiet, "A backup has been stored on the main computer core every few minutes, the secondary memory bank is currently in use by the secondary sensor computer that is operating the sensor array. When you are ready to start I will be taking the primary sensor computer offline so it can't be damaged." It wasn't doing anything useful until it had a full power supply, so there was no need for it to be on at all. Besides all this right now for Kiri she wanted to be working. She felt quite fragile and not really up to talking to strangers, when they had work to do as well.

Aurangzeb had not met the Ensign prior to this interaction, so his own knowledge pertaining to her qualifications were severely lacking; however, the manner in which she spoke gave considerable indication that she was perhaps more than qualified in computer operation and maintenance than the standard crew person... undoubtedly due to her Academy education. He conducted a final inspection of the toolbelt to ensure that he had all of what was needed to complete the scope of work. "You sound like someone who knows their way around the computer in more of an intimate way than the commonplace layman." It wasn't a question, more of a verbal observation.

Exposing a tricorder, Aurangzeb conducted an active scan of the EPS relay system feeding into the sensor suits dual computer cores. Approaching the ladder, he pointed past it towards the length of bulkhead. "The primary EPS relay's and manifolds are behind these panels." Thankfully, the vast majority of the work could be completed simply by removing the lowest stretch of bulkhead panels. It was only nearest the computer cores that the work became a bit more cumbersome, as the EPS lines would then feed down below the deck into a sub-conduit. If the safety lockout systems had worked properly, there was an automatic shutoff that would shunt the power and disperse it prior to reaching the three foot length of translucent wire that fed into the three large ports below either computer, literally saving either core from burning up from the inside out.

Placing the tricorder away, Aurangzeb produced a sonic driver and, starting at the furthest end of the bulkhead, started to unsecure the bolts that held each panel into place. One by one, each panel came away with ease; Aurangzeb would then place them aside on the opposite wall so they were out of the way. Soon, the innards of the wall were exposed, showcasing the neatly organized circulatory system of the EPS system.

With the system now uncovered, there was almost immediate visual evidence to the damages sustained.

Stowing the sonic driver, the tricoder was once again produced. Flipping open the clamshell, Aurangzeb conducted more intensive scans of the relays and manifolds.

Kiri remained still for a little while, letting him work in silence. Sensing that she wasn't needed she started to clamber back up the ladder, into the vertical shaft. This time she locked the door so she could stand on it while she checked a higher connection. She didn't feel the need to remind him to disconnect the relay before restoring power to it. Despite the fact there was now a person near her, Kiri's personal walls were high. To interact with him while they should be working would be bad, she also didn't do very well with new people.

When the power surge occurred, most of the safeties had been in place and subsequently activated; so, although damaged, most of it was rudimentary; three or four burned out relays and two frazzled manifolds. "Ma'am?" Aurangzeb called out to the Ensign, "the repairs are actually rather straight forward, but I'll need to pick up some replacement parts and equipment." He paused for a moment, wondering if this next question would be appropriate; however, after discovering a good friend in Pola and establishing a rapport with Andreus, Aurangzeb decided that venturing well outside of his comfort zone might once again produce positive results. "Would you, um, care to join me?"

Kiri heard that he was talking at first but not the words, replacing the panel she was working on she climbed back onto the ladder and opened the hatch again. Clambering back into view she waited until she was back on the deck before speaking. She'd heard the parts about replacement parts and joining him, so she could make a guess as to what he was asking. There didn't seem much need to have two people do it, she ran into conflict. She needed to do her job, she wanted to make friend, peoples lives could depend on this, should she socialise with the crew as an officer? Did she want to risk perceived failure again? To all of this, she had no answers at all. Kohl had done something nice for her, it felt good, it would be nice if more people would do that. The silence was a drawn out one before nervously she answered, "Yes, I need to collect some replacement fuses and fiber-optic cables," Her voice grew stronger as she spoke, she forced it to. She couldn't make it something she wanted, it at least had to be for something work related.

Aurangzeb nodded, smiling sweetly as he extended a hand; "I don't believe I caught your name."

Looking at him questionably for a second Kiri took his hand extremely lightly, as if she was afraid of breaking it. Her smile was thin and covered how uncomfortable she was feeling, "My family name is Cho." While with other officers it just made her uncomfortable, there was something wrong about the crew calling her by her first name.

He saw the flicker of hesitation in Cho's eyes and it confused him. Had she not wanted to tell him her name? And if not, why? They would be working together after all; in knowing each others name, they would be able to better communicate and exchange a friendly, yet professional banter during the repair process. Perhaps it had already been decided that she didn't like him or maybe she didn't prefer non-work related conversation; the latter of the two didn't bother him in the slightest, Aurangzeb preferred the quiet rather than frivolous conversation while on duty; well, that's how he would have felt normally. Yet after learning of the death of his roommate Josef, discovering the corpse of one of their fallen comrades while conducting a damage assessement on deck five and then narrowly escaping his own death in the process of saving Peers and a Vorta from a shuttlecraft explosion, he thought perhaps letting down his guard even a little bit might help him to make a few new friends.

"It's nice to meet you." He said quietly, uncertainty inflected in his tone of voice. "I'm Ameen... but most everybody calls me Mouse." He continued, believing that perhaps Cho would prefer his formal name rather than the alternative given to him by a few of the other damage control specialists and technicians.

"It is nice to meet you also Ameen," A frown twitched across her face for a second, "Mouse?" Unless it meant something different in another language it didn't seem like a very nice name. She didn't want to call him something she saw as negative. Taking a step towards the door she tried to think of if she should be talking to him. If she did then what about? She didn't know him, what he liked, what would offend him.

As the two exited the sensor suite, Aurangzeb tried to explain; "I was sort of given the nickname because I'm relatively quiet... I don't tend to interact with a lot of different people on a regular basis... I guess I prefer the silence." He gently rubbed the back of his neck, noting that the hair there had remained damp from his earlier shower. "I guess I also move rather quietly too, I tend to 'sneak up' on others." He paused for a moment before quickly adding, "not intentionally, of course... I guess I should just better announce myself when I enter a room or something. I dunno, I guess it just stuck." He finished, rolling his eyes in subtle annoyance at the nickname. Asa had said it best when he described Aurangzeb to another person.

'He's like a mouse, one minute he's there and the next not; what's even worse is that you don't ever hear him coming or going... he just sort of appears and scares the shit out of you in the process.' Of course, Asa had been careful where and to whom he said this, but in an eerily ironic outcome, Aurangzeb had overheard two technician's gossiping in the transporter control room. They musn't have heard him come... or go. Shortly after that, the nickname started to circulate around the enlisted ranks of engineering, the vast majority using it out of complete ignorance (perhaps after overhearing another use the alternative) or affection; there were only a few that used it as some kind of slur.

Kiri didn't see it as a negative thing, she was hardly loud, "It is good to be quiet. It is polite and shows respect," At least as she understood it, "Though its a good idea to announce yourself." At home all the doors made noise, even on the ship, you couldn't enter very silently. Having a name made up by other people like that was something Kiri definitely wanted to avoid. She wrung her hands for a few seconds before placing them behind her back, looking decisively uncomfortable for a moment. This man talked a lot, not that it was bad, but what did she say? Really say rather than answer something he put forward? Looking at him for a few more seconds she finally pulled out, "Have you been on the ship long?" Her voice dropping slightly from her formal tone for one that swung slighting in pitch. Sounding much better in Mandarin rather than translated Standard.

"My father once told me that 'words are a vitally important part in the development of a civilized society, they need to be used sparingly and most carefully'." Aurangzeb intentionally spoke with an emphasized accent, tone of voice deepened slightly in an attempt to match the timbre of his father's. "I was always a relatively quiet kid and I think he appreciated that most about me." He shrugged at this, venturing the assumption without any concrete evidence that he cared to share. "No, not at all... I've only been on board a short while. You?" He returned the question, glancing toward her as they passed a few crewen on their way to the supply compartment.

There was second when she wanted to say, me too. It was her grandmother that told her that a proper person took great care when speaking. That it was best to be silent and say nothing until spoken to, to be completely obedient. It was her mother that tried to teach her to counter that, the real difference happened here though. Unlike back home being submissive stopped her from making friends it seemed. There was also the matter that she'd been trained to be an officer, not something she could be completely submissive about. Overall desire to make friends pushed back that part of her personality, it still twisted her interactions though, warping them. It showed in her answer, "Five days." Nothing more than the most basic answer. Despite yearning to be close to people, she was scared of it in just about every way, fighting against herself at every step.

After a pause she kept looking uncomfortable, almost tripping over herself as she forced herself to say something, "Do you, I mean, what do you like?" Like Peers he had something in common with her. Peers was too busy, or didn't actually like her, could she be friends with just a crewman though?

Aurangzeb nodded, "Me too." He paused for a moment to consider Cho's question, appearing almost as equally uncomfortable. He jammed either hand into the jumpsuit's pockets as they navigated down the length of corridor; "Well, umm... let me see, I-well, hmm..." He tripped over the words as if they were completely foreign, working against the grain of his father's teaching's; in retrospect, his primary language was Hindi, but the universal translater did well enough to translate properly, even in his use of muddy words. In truth the question had been surprising, as difficult as it was to believe, he'd never been asked such a question before, he'd not known anybody to have held an interest in his personal hobbies. His mind was blank.

Glancing nervously towards Cho, he winced an apologetic smile; "I'm sorry, I, um, I've never been asked this before; what is it about my hobbies that you'd like to know?" He wondered, questioning whether there was anything in particular she'd like to have known... maybe in an interest they shared.

That plan was shattered as soon as it started, she had no idea. When other people had asked about her interests, she had struggled but answered them. Confidence seemed to be sucked out of her for a few seconds as her eyes fell, what should she say? She was even starting to fall between her officer persona and her personal one, not sure which one should actually be used. The one she settled with might well be wrong the situation, "Just, what they are, if you don't mind saying?" Officer, if it was the other she'd have just apologised and said she didn't know. Showing her social ineptitude to lower ranks, also didn't seem like a good idea. Her stance remained the same, her words in Mandarin translated perfectly to Standard.

Aurangzeb mulled over the question for another few seconds before venturing an answer, a little self-concious that Cho might judge unnecessarily. "Well, I enjoy photography... it's a rather rewarding hobby, actually, especially when your camera skills improve. I like to read and write." He paused for a second, thought evident in the creases of his forehead. "I enjoy music, but I'm rather picky in what I listen too. Otherwise, I'm an avid outdoorsman... I like to camp and hike, to canoe and white water raft, to four-wheel and other fun outdoorsy activities." As he finished the statement, there was an increased level of self-confidence in his tone of voice. He smiled proudly, nodding once to signal that was all he would be willing to share at this time. There were many more hobbies, of course, but they were a bit too intimate to share. "What about yourself?" He wondered, curious to know if she shared any of the same interests.

It was a long list, Kiri made a note of each one, they might be useful. She was working towards his final question as well, sadly, her answer was as expected, not really. The only way was to make half connections, share a little bit of her own. She was the more uncomfortable of the pair, "I like mathematics, stargazing and I guess, sometimes I used to do outdoor things." Walking outside, sometimes gardening, that was about it. It wasn't long before they would be at the storeroom, unlike him she seemed more deflated as they talked more.

Aurangzeb shrugged, "I suppose it's kind of hard to maintain those interests on a starship, duty always takes precedence and there's been a lot of that lately. I know these are rather... unique ... circumstances, but I've not had much time for anything other than work, not even eating or sleeping." He paused, raising a cautionary hand as if to warn off any misinterpretation of his words, "understandably, though." He was aware that their current situation was by no means indicative of the Galileo's every mission; this genuinely was a unique circumstance, but a dire one none-the-less. "Is the Galileo your first?" He asked as they came upon the storage compartment.

Trying her best to muddle her way though it Kiri smiled and nodded, "Yes, my first posting since the academy, a week ago." She waited for him to enter the room first, rather pensively she asked in turn, looking meeker, "Do you really not eat?" While she didn't do it conventionally often, not counting that morning Kiri made sure to exactly as much as she needed.

He couldn't help the amused chuckle that escaped from between pert, peach-colored lips; he stifled it with a broad, goofy smile. "Well, yes... of course." His head sashayed from left to right for a moment. "What I meant was that there isn't a lot of time for either of two with so much work ahead of us." He contemplated this for a passing second. "Actually, I feel a little guilty if I'm at rest while countless others are working so hard just to ensure that the Galileo stays in one piece so that we can... get home." He mumbled uncomfortably, the timbre of his voice dropping unsteadily, wavering as he considered this in silence.

That wasn't right, he shouldn't miss eating. She looked concerned at him, she didn't have time but she found ways around it, even if the ships doctor disagreed with her. Kiri knew it was perfectly fine, it was much better than not eating at the very least. Very slowly she asked, "Have you eaten today?" Adding after a pause, "Have you considered adapted rations if you don't have time?" If he wasn't in shape to help her, she should report him to his commanding officer.

[OFF]

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Crewman Aurangzeb Ameen
Damage Control Specialist
USS Galileo


Ensign Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

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