Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Stella Gagnon (Communications Officer) in Colony: Engineering Team

Posted by Gamemaster Nosferatu (Gamemaster) in Colony: Engineering Team

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Ashley Walker (Engineering Physicist) in Colony: Engineering Team
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]
Guy wondered if the light generator wasn’t something that had worked before it was taken apart. They had been given a list of the things that worked and those that didn’t earlier. It seemed that internally powered machines worked but those that required a signal did not. Guy picked up a tool from the table. He was playing with it and read the inscription on it, Starfleet Mk. 3 Micro-Resonator. Danger Radiation. Warning. Can result in aggressive hickeys. Always use tools carefully. Guy didn’t know quite why, but he just had a good feeling about this tool. But what did he know, he was only a redshirt.

Ashley found that there was nothing wrong with the light generator as it had an internal power source, but as it was the main generator it did send signals (think blue tooth) to other smaller light generators which were of course not working as these small ones needed the signals to work themselves. The Larger light generator worked just fine though and there was nothing wrong with the nodes that sent power to other generators, they just did not send the required signals. It was obvious that the crew needed to find the source of whatever it was interrupting the signals.

“Guy. I know that we may just be red shirts. But we do have a purpose. Not dying. But we do have a job as starfleet officers. Never forget that. I know I may not be the captain. But we all care.” She said as she was putting the bigger generator back together as she started to work on the smaller light generators.

The smaller generators were also in good working order, just missing the power signal to turn them on

“Guy could you come and help me with all of this. Get the power signal to turn these smaller generators online and running?” She asked Guy.

Guy walked over to her, still with the Micro Resonator in his hands, and his finger accidently still on the on switch.

“I’m no use with anything technological,” Guy told her. “I haven’t even worked out what all the buttons on the communicator are for yet, but that big lighting power generator thing there… isn’t sending power to this smaller one here… and they are all working as they should be… which would mean that something was interfering the communication between that and this???”

Stella who had tried to do a bit of anything and had failed miserably was at the moment trying to figure out how short she should cut her hair if they became stranded in this sort of humidity for much longer. Hearing Guy though. She could only pause in her musings. Finally, after she thought about just sitting down, she told Guy. ” Make a list. ABC. If it’s not thing A go to thing B and so on. Starting of course with A being the most obvious and then working your way to the most outrageous. “

“That would explain everything. Hmmm. Stella would you like to help me work on these things and see why there is some interference going on

Stella was concerned at this point by all the orders she had received. She finally gave herself a mental shrug and replied to Ashley. ” Sure, why not? What do you have going on?”

“There is some sort of interference to these small light generators to the bigger one. They all seem to be in working order but however I would like to have the extra set of eyes and hands help me work on these. That way we have some sort of lighting in here as well”. She said to Stella.

” Sure. Stella said. ” Just tell me what you need me to do, and I’ll get on it right away!”

She smiled at Stella. “All we gotta do is get the signal connection between this bigger generator to these smaller ones. What is your solution Stella?” She asked her. “The only way to get the signal Conn to work is what’s not doing it’s job.” She added.

Stella listened closely. Paused and wondered if she should say anything. Mostly she knew about comms. How they worked, what might interrupt them and to what extent they might be interrupted. She also knew how to get communications to get through the normal disruptions. But thus far to Stella’s chagrin nothing on this planet seemed to be normal by Earth standards. She hesitated to say what came to her mind first to Ashley. But it should be the A part of the equation in any sort of problem like this, but it had to be asked. ” Well, have you checked the generators to see what sort of electromagnetic fields they are producing? Sometimes the frequency of those can alter radio waves as well as stop other generators from producing energy.”

She thought about it and thought about it good. “Hmm. Good idea. That actually sounds like a good idea for it. I’ll see what I can do.” She then started to look at it and started to work on it. She however, thought radio waves. Radio waves might be the cause of the whole thing.

Guy came in closer, in order to see what they were doing. He really wanted to help them, but he didn’t have a single clue how to do that. If he had only been a little more academic, then he could have passed those Starfleet Academy entrance exams at his first sitting (or even at his second), and instead of becoming a mediocre officer on the security pathway, he could have been an engineer like Ashley or in communications like Stella, and he’d now have some kind of a future to look forward to. Heck! If he could’ve passed exams he might understand all of this techie stuff they were discussing right now, but he’d struggled to answer even those simple algebra questions without any support.

“So, are you saying something is interfering with the signal that isn’t related to the equipment?” Guy asked them. That made sense to him, because the equipment must have worked on the ship, before he had hauled it all out of the lockers and cabinets, and before it was put away last time it was used. However, some weird supernatural influence on this planet was affecting the equipment since they brought it down here. This was a concept that he could understand. It didn’t make his brain hurt in the way that temporal dynamics and subspace distortion geometry had.

“Maybe those Klingons or Romulans left something behind that’s the cause? Like they’d thought, ‘if we can’t have the Dilithium, we aren’t giving it to you either’? Or, maybe it was something that was always here? Some kind of measly poltergeist or vengeful spirit? This planet is giving me the heebie-jeebies!”

He didn’t realise it, but he still had his finger on the ‘on’ switch of the Micro-Resonator that he’d picked up earlier. The same Micro-Resonator that he’d had a feeling might be important somehow. The same Micro-Resonator with small print that he couldn’t read, but for all he knew might have North Central Positronics written on it’s side. As he came in closer, that Micro-Resonator’s field might even reach as far the equipment that Ashley and Stella were working on.

OOC: Ah! So sorry I totally did miss this!

IC: Amazingly as Guy fiddled around with the micro resonator, it must have put out some kind of field that protected the generators from the interfering signal and they all purred to life.

GM Nosferatu

Stella turned to Guy and frowned looking confused. ” I’m sorry is that what I said?” she asked. ” No actually I said it might be the electromagnetic fields from the generators interfering with each other and possibly our comms. She shrugged then said Generators produce electromagnetic fields in order to make power. If they were to different settings and set close enough to one another they may be disrupting one another.” Once again, she paused and shrugged her shoulders. ” I’m not an engineer though so I’m no expert. ” She then looked at Guy and asked him.” Hey, do you guys have phasers that can work?”

“Do we have phasers?” Guy repeated. “Well, I assume they work, but I guess I should try it out. Could everyone stay away from that wall over there, please. I need to test out my phaser on it.” Guy pointed at the wall as he spoke.

When he was sure that everyone was out of range, Guy fired the phaser at a spot on the wall near to a corner of the room without furniture or shelving, just above the skirting board level. He began with the lowest setting selected and for a very short bust.

Because the phase used rapid Nadeon particles rather than phase or pulse technology so Guy’s phaser indeed worked. A charred section began to appear at the bottom skirting of the building.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

As soon as the darkened patch appeared and the smell of burnt paint was evident, Guy stopped. “Yeah! They still work, I guess?”

• Guy, Sec

“Well all that matters is if they work they work.” She said. “I think I got it.” She tried the connection between the bigger power generator to the smaller generators.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

Stella like to peed. She jumped as Guy let loose with his phaser. She finally calmed down and patted Guy on the back and said with a large grin. ” Careful, there sugar! We don’t want you to go shooting all over and hurt yourself! Just a small itty bitty burst is enough. ” She then turned back to Ashley and said,” Well if we could see the light from the phaser. And we can see the light outside now then photons from light are getting through whatever is supposed to be stopping everything. As I recall photons carry electromagnetic forces and radio waves. ” Stella tapped her chin and scrunched her face. She wasn’t after all the smart one here. She was just tossing out ideas, ” Maybe it’s just a matter of adjusting frequencies on everything? Stella asked Ashley .

Stella Gagnon Lt.jg comms

OOC: Phasers in this era use Nadeon particles, not photons. See my explanation above. The way they work does not use any type of pulse or signal technology which is why whatever it is disturbing signals don’t effect them:)
Unfortunately the blue tooth(wireless type) of signal used by the generators and other machinery are still affected.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

OOC: In this case a photon is a basic bit of sunlight and magnetic radiation. If you can see things then you are seeing the reflection of these guys. The reference to Phasers had nothing to do with photons since photons are just packets of energy. Stella was pointing out that whatever might be blocking things either doesn’t exist or has something to do with the magnetic fields as are produced by the generators.

Bob

OOC: Hi Bob, sorry but could you please stop posting everything with four spaces before the first words written. Every time you do that, the system formats it into an extremely long text box that I have real trouble reading on my laptop, but which is practically impossible to read on a mobile phone. I think that you probably haven’t realised this yourself because it is okay once the thread is replied too, so I’m removing the > ‘s from this reply to demonstrate it here. (Sorry, It would be difficult to explain this to you in a private message.)

If you need/want an indent, use the style options or use a single space and then a slash - which will do this:

• Dave

OOC: Bob- okay…. Not sure if I totally get that:)

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

Bump for Ashley

• Dave

“I mean we can do that Stella. We could do that I like the idea.” She said with a nod and a smile. With some knowledge of making things being updated with frequencies they’ll be able to make things right.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

OOC: My apologies. Doing year ends and working on little sleep. Edited.

Okay Guy why don’t you pull a rabbit out of the hat, or in this case a random tool out of a toolbox, such as the microresonator. You can pretend to have a bit of mechanical knowledge on basic machinery and tinker with one of the generators.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

OOC: You’ve got confused. This team is down on the planet not on the ship. (And therefore not in communication.)

Clayton and Andrea are AWOL and Bob has taken a LOA. Guy is only a redshirt not an engineer or a scientist. I’ve tried to given very strong hints that the Micro Resonator might work like it did on the ship, but he cannot actually know that fact. You will need to give Christopher a little more leeway or we’ll never ever leave this place again.

• Dave

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

OOC: But Guy has done that already. I’ll highlight the relevant parts. I didn’t realise you hadn’t seen them. It isn’t surprising Guy feels overlooked!
- Dave

Stella sighed and walked around the generators.” Well,” she said as she began to speak in a tone which made her sound in a lot better mood than she was. ” The generator problem isn’t a problem. Tell these miners to cut back their operations or whatever they’re up to, to ten hours. The large generator that is working will take care of that load. And then as it gets dark, they can use it to power the security lights. If those guys want the two smaller generators to work, then their own engineers are going to have to take them into their shop for a rebuild.” She growled and shook her head. ” Men anyway. Can’t use a little bit of common sense. “

Stella Gagnon Lt.jg.

“I agree, Stella. We should do that.” She said nodding. However, she wasn’t sure how to word anything right especially to the miners. Since after all this is her first away mission, she still is learning everything.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

Stella saw Ashley’s reaction and she gave a small laugh. ” Yeah, I know it’s my first time doing this was well.” She shrugged her shoulders then and continued as she asked. ” What are they going to do fire us? These miners want our help they can quit being greedy and follow our advice or do it themselves. ” Stella crossed her arms over her chest and then looked at Ashley. She turned away and then looked at Ashley again as she said in a low voice. ” I’m ready to get out of this place anyway it’s not normal at all.”

Stella Gagnon Lt.jg comms.

She looked at Stella and whisper in a low voice as well but in her ear. “I agree. It’s not normal at all. I’m ready to get out of this rat hole as well. Not to be rude but it’s been nice you know. You me crewman all working together.” She said. As she was getting ready to get the generator moved right into place she had thought of something that she wanted to say something. But however, not really appropiate with the miners around.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

As Ashley was getting ready to move the generators they purred to life.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

Stella hearing the generators start to run commented, ” There you go problem solved. Earlier you couldn’t detect atoms let alone a magnetic field and now it’s running like a dream. I suppose they were just having a tantrum. “

Stella Lt.jg Comms

“I’m starting to think everything is having a tantrum don’t you think?” She asked Stella.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack