Posted by Ensign Kovan ch’Sirhc (Engineering & Communications Officer) in Side-Sim There Is A Severe Lack of Science Happening

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side-Sim There Is A Severe Lack of Science Happening

Posted by Ensign Kovan ch’Sirhc (Engineering & Communications Officer) in Side-Sim There Is A Severe Lack of Science Happening
The console to Kovan’s right chimed as a new maintenance request came through the ticket system. Kovan set down the PaDD of reports he was browsing. XO Alden requesting an engineer to the biology lab for diagnostic and repair of malfunctioning science aparatas. Interesting. Certainly a better use of his time than catching up on reports. Kovan claimed the ticket and gathered his equipment.

He took the lift to deck nine then walked into the labs, but not before stopping to check that En Scott wasn’t around. He and the En did not get along to say the least. When he didn’t see the En after a cursory glance he finally stepped into the lab proper. XO Alden wasn’t difficult to locate. Kovan found him beside what he assumed to be the malfunctioning piece of equipment from the ticket.

“What seems to be the matter?” Kovan asked, diagnosis PaDD in one hand and hyperspanner in the other.

En. ch’Sirhc COMMO/ENGR

It was morning, between the morning time when Rand helped with the morning reports, and lunch time, when she came and played with Nibbles. Roman was trying to run one of the final tests on the venom of the dangerous alien snake known as a “crimson cobra”, given its name for its colouring. His sequencer was on the outs, spitting out nonsense readings. Roman had tried recalibrating it. Nothing was working. He needed this done. So, he put in a ticket to Engineering. He didn’t expect an immediate response, and that was frustrating. But it would have to be that way. So by the time Kovan showed up, Roman had a small alien lizard on his shoulder. The lizard was about a foot tall, and three long including the tail. It looked mostly like any lizard from Earth, except its eyes were extended on long stalks, half a foot long, maybe a little less. When Kovan walked in, the lizard was frightened by the unfamiliar officer and its eyestalks disappeared into its head, making its eyes look like.. well, normal eyes all of a sudden.

Roman turned and frowned. “You’ve frightened Mushu. How unfortunate.” Then he pointed, with a PaDD stylus, at the broken sequencer. “That piece of equipment right there is ‘the matter’. It’s giving all sorts of results that don’t make any sense, and this test takes forty-eight hours. My deadline is in three days. I need it fixed right away.” His English accent was rich and heavy as ever.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Kovan had noticed the lizard and was attempting to ignore it. He didn’t like or care for any kind of animal and showed no reaction to having ‘frightened” the creature. Who cared if he scared some test subject? He chose to focus on the malfunctioning piece of equipment and connected his diagnostics PaDD to the machine. “I’ll do the best I can.” Kovan answered carefully. An engineer never promised definitive time frames. Never give the expectation that a problem could be an easy fix. His PaDD began to display various readouts and numbers, processing for quite a while with no signs of slowing down or stopping. A subtle dread began to form in Kovan’s gut.

On some instinctual level he knew this would be no easy repair. Or maybe it was the obvious tension about XO Alden that made Kovan’s thoughts drift towards the worst case scenario?

En. ch’Sirhc COMMO/ENGR

Roman put the lizard back in his enclosure. Having him out when Roman’s full attention wasn’t on him wasn’t safe. He turned to Kovan, arms crossed, waiting for an answer. He knew it would do no good to push for a time frame. It wouldn’t make Kovan finish any sooner. But he would stand there and stare over his shoulder as if that would somehow help.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO