Just because it's science, does not mean it's not important...
Posted on 2025, Sat Jun 28th, @ 1:11pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Larry Lamontagne & Commander Cormac Situs
1,129 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Episode 1A "Shadows of the Empire"
Location: Deck Four Upper forward Sensor Array.
Timeline: Pre-Launch
Larry stopped at the Interface panel for the Hydroponics stations. Larry did a quick level 4 diagnostic of all system it was interfaced with. No Errors were found. This was the first time things were going good enough to not return two or more errors. Larry pulled up his tricorder and scanned the panel just to be on the safe side... No Errors, or bad Circuits. Stepping inside the Lab for Hydroponics, he used his tricorder to scan the sensor systems and then the power distribution
conduits, and then the now upgraded Gel packs that were part of the back bone and nerve center or neural pathways that made the brain of the Halo work so way. Everything looked normal, until he sent a test packet from the main control panel to all of the hydroponic Planters. Number #37 came back with an error. Larry looked up what it held, which had ... Pumpkins... why pumpkins, he wondered... No matter. Hitting his comm badge, /=\ Csci, Senior Chief Petty Officer Lomontagne of Engineering, I am just checking the status of your systems. They installed new Equipment, added upgrades, and a few Ship alterations that were installed in the hydroponics have a few bugs. If you have a few minutes, we need to fix a few things.../=\ ..
Situs was staring on the roof of his quarters, eyes barely open. His body was practically begging him to go back to sleep. His mind was begging him to reply with ''Mr Lamontagne, do you have any idea what time it is?". But his professional instinct took over. Too many times, his own subordinates would conceal problems from him. And now, of all people, someone outside his department was offering help. He would not let this go to waste. He rubbed his eyes as he tapped his combadge on is nightstand. /=\ I'm on my way, mr Lamontagne, you can tell me in person /=\
Fifteen minutes later, Situs joined Larry. He was not as awake as he'd like. ''Good evening, Chief. I see you started without me"
Larry had jsut finished getting Planter #27 correctly connected and talking. Larry was now waiting for the latest test sequence to return a result, when it did, Larry shook his head...
"Commander Situs." Larry said, "We are showing the Ship Alt for the hydroponic planter was installed, but the sensor suite does not show its compatiblity with our signal distribution system. were going to have to take the sensor system and distributed control system off line and program each planter manually, until I get a engineering repair team here. Sorry."
Larry hit his comm badge /=\ Engineering Officer Of the Watch, Larry, Send an Engineering Repair team to hydroponics on deck 5, the Ship Alt Voyager-A-395441B for Hydroponics was installed, but it's not tuned to communicate with the multiplexers or the Gel packs, and the Command network. /=\
Larry, used his advanced tricorder to interface with the planter systems. "I can talk to each on planters," Larry said. "But not the main control console. Just how hard does that make your job...Oh, and the Planter #42, shows it's off line... it has what... " after a second his diagnostic completed, showing the Coffee Bean planter was not caring for the vital product. " Yea we will fix that first." Larry said as he walked towards planter #42.
Situs was not an engineer. He was not a morale officer either, yet he understood the implications of the crew going without the vital earthen beverage. “Chief,” Situs said, stepping closer, “tell me this is just a calibration issue.” he was interrupted by another warning beep from a planter further on the line. The pumpkins. "Chief, what do you recommend? Because I am not about to tell the commodore that her pumpkins just got three times the water they should when she wakes up"
Larry looked up from his tricorder, then said. "It's worse than that, the systems thinks everything is fine, that communication packets are returning with completed delivery returns, and that the signals from the planters are normal. As if it was a simulation. I can not find any simulations running, anywhere. Now were more into your area, a simulation running some where in the computer..."
Larry 's train of thought was interrupted when a team of four Engineer's arrived with several over sized took bags, and there new looking Engineering Coveralls, Indicative of some one who had at least several hours of sleep.. One handed him his Large, wide Non-slip bottomed, Titanium, 1.5 Liter Hot-Coco cup. Taking a large gulp, he looked at the P.a.d.d. Noticing it was 0330, Larry turned to the Csci, " I just realized what time it was." Larry said," Sorry to wake you so early."
Situs squinted his eyes and wore a tired smile "Better to wake me than the Commodore"
The Engineering Repair Team took all of Fifteen minuets, to find two faults. Isolating the system and re-wire/program the Hydroponics planters to the main control consoles took longer.
It was relatively easy to program a patch to make things work for now, until the completed program could be re-initialized, and the system could be placed online. Further testing indicated that the system was quasi-stabilized.
Larry turned to Commander Titus, and said, "I think we're good Commander... ISH... Yes, I know, but it is a correct assumption. We will do more testing later, but I think the major problems have been fixed. I will get my team your of hair, so you can have a long talk with your pillow. Sorry again about the time.
Situs placed both his hands on his mouth as he yawned quietly. "Think nothing of it, thank you for informing me before anyone else. That said-" He tapped his badge and ordered several people to come to the bay. "When your team leaves, the botanists and I have a lot of pumpkins to inspect."
Larry did a quick last-second diagnostic. All returns from the system indicated all conditions were stable and indicators displayed green. Not having any red lights in the system display indicated mostly everything was working with in specified parameters. Larry yelled, "We are in the green, pack up, return your tools and kits to Main Engineering. Quarters at 0900. Get yourselves a bit of rest, and some hot food. We will have more problems to fix tomorrow. Larry then began herding his techs out the door. It was like herding cats. Just trying to get them all going in one direction was a lot of work, pain, and ended up with no reward at the end. Then there were the downsides: headaches, scratches, and if you're lucky, not wearing an eye patch. Although not wearing an eyepatch should be a good thing. His thoughts were all over; he really needed a nap.
/=\ End Transmission/=\