Posted by Gamemaster Sinister Two (GM) in Engineering - Red Alert Stations

Posted by Lieutenant Sural (Chief Engineer) in Engineering - Red Alert Stations

Posted by Gamemaster Sinister Two (GM) in Engineering - Red Alert Stations
Posted by… suppressed (15) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Red Alert designated all off duty crew to join damage control teams - at least engineering crew - while those on duty to halt unnecessary repair and ‘busy’ work and to muster at critical areas. It meant that most stations were double or even triple staffed - such as it was in the main engineering where everyone was at a console rather that one covering many for routine readings. Sural let the crew do their thing; they knew what to do, or at least where to go. He needed to figure out the ‘what’ next portion of the puzzle and the ‘what’ to do with a bunch of crew at stations with no emergency to attend or prepare for. When all the engineering staff reported in that they were at their positions, he tapped his badge.

=^= Sural to all engineering staff. You will be attended by medical and security in a routine drill. Those at stations marked as critical infrastructure I want teams to physically examine them for tampering, damage or any attempts at subterfuge. Remain in your teams. Do nothing alone. Report anything suspicious. =^=

=^= Sural to the Captain. Engineering staff report at stations. While awaiting examination they are conducting on site analysis for subterfuge at critical systems. =^=
Sural

Crawford leaned sleepily against a bulkhead. The excitement as mostly past and now it was hurry up and wait, at least in his books. Which meant slow down. His stomach couldn’t take another one of those klingon coffee butchery drinks - it’s no wonder they moved to prune juice, which told one a lot about their taste buds and gastrointestinal make up. But for now he was hearing his stomach rumble from the first drink as he watched the teams scramble to their stations. The Chief was standing at the main console looking at it as if it would suddenly yield up some answer on its own. Vulcans needed some help sometimes. They might think logically and methodically but they leave no room for intuitive leaps. Pushing himself off the bulkhead he approached Sural, stifling a yawn.
“Hey there Chief. Seems that someone is working to pull the wool over our eyes here around this Gully feller. What say we do a trace on him from the time he left his quarters yesterday morning. See what we can find out. Security might have some idea of things but us engineers can do a lot with replicator use, station log in, computer voice commands, comms use, turbolift commands and the like.” Well, it sure beat tearing down a workstation to see if there were any voles behind it.
Sural appeared to consider that without turning his head, then raised a brow slightly and turned toward him. “Very good, ensign. Good thinking. Please proceed.”
Stretching, Reno took a seat and began to check on any noted activity by this Gully fellow over the past day.
-Sural and Reno

Sural pondered things. There was no activity just yet. His people had reported in and he was giving them ‘busy’ work to do, as his Academy instructor in Command 101 had said. He had argued that it was an illogical thing to do at that time. Now, as he considered it, it did seem the logical action. Even as he had been waiting for something further from the bridge or security or medical - after all - the captain’s command had relegated them to a post and not to be mobile - he had been recieving a number of maintenance tickets in on things that were either being fixed or deficiencies noted and were being logged for repair. Something good was coming out of this, even if it was more work.
- Sural, CE

When the second set of bulk orders had been received, Sural raised his brow. That was not the typical computer voice. It was not to say that it could not be changed to another. Voice options had been available for centuries, though usually on a Starfleet vessel ‘standardization’ was key for uniformity. Since Kirk’s day that had been all the more in motion. Vulcan’s did not see the necessity to adjust aesthetics for its own sake to ‘mix things up’ as the Terrans said.

“Mr Crawford, please confirm the message by running a level 6 diagnostic on life support.” That was a swift diagnostic on primary systems and would take the computer seconds to perform and report. If he could.
Reno shook his head. “No can do, chief.”
Sural leaned over and tapped in his authorization and commanded the same diagnostic. It ran through as it should.

=^= Sural to bridge. Has there been a change in ship status regarding command code authorization? =^=
- Sural, CE

The diagnostic ran until it got to viral areas of the life support and kicked back an error. =/\=Clearance level BLACK required. ENDING DIAGNOSTIC CYCLE.=/\=

-GM

Sural’s brow rose. “Has anyone heard of this clearance level?”
Everyone shook their head or gave a negative.
=^= Sural to bridge. In attempting a routine diagnostic I received a notification that ‘clearance level black’ was required. What is this clearance?”

=^= Computer, what is ‘clearance level black? =^= he asked after sending the message, curious whether it would answer him.
- Sural

The computers new deep baritone voice answered, “Clearance level BLACK is only given to ships Security Officer and Commanding Officer.”

-GM

His hands clasped behind his back as a brow rose. “Fascinating.”
“What about the XO?” Reno said in a low voice.
=^= Computer, under what circumstances does one enact ‘Clearance Level Black’? =^=
-Sural

The baritone reply, =/\=Clearance level BLACK may only be issued by commanding officer or overseeing Security Officer. Designated fail safe for locking command level computer commands. Your request for information on this clearance level has been logged and flagged. Imperial Inquisitors will contact you shortly with appropriate punishments for violating information sanction 213.=/\=

-GM

Reno let out a low whistle through his teeth. “We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto.” Then he looked up to Sural. “You’re in it now, chief. Whatever Information Sanction 213 is.”
“Indeed.” Sural rocked on his heels. “Imperial Inquisitors. Does this strike any memory, Mr Crawford?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, Chief. Imperial reminds me of the Roman Empire but that is about it. I was working LEGO not History.”
“Indeed. History was not my pursuit either. Have engineering personnel arm themselves. I believe the computer is logging protocols that are not ‘ours’. I will attempt to reach the bridge.”

With that, Sural would head to a locker and arm himself, and the Engineering crew around him.
Then, departing there he would attempt to reach the bridge.
- Sural
OOC: Does he manage to do either, good GM?

Ooc: there is freedom of movement within the ship. Just command codes are fried at the moment. Getting emergency weapons would be fine, but any armory area would be codified under clearance BLACK.

-GM

“Reno,” Hillchurch said, looking about as though he were being overheard. Which, given the technology within the mammoth vessel, was likely true. “there’s been a call to attend Gully’s quarters for an investigation. I asked about leaving here given the computer said otherwise and well, you know how it got after the chief. What do you think?”
NE Crawford, left in charge for the moment with Sural’s departure let out a long yawn. He was way past his shift end. “Go on. Looks like the chief got out so you should be able to as well. Mind what you say and keep your phaser close. We do still have a mystery here.”
“This reminds me of one of those horror holo’s where the computer’s AI has been rewritten or went off the rails. I’ll keep you posted. And have another coffee.” With that Winston turned and left …
Another coffee. Hate this stuff, but it’s keeping me going. He called up another and sat back down, rubbing his eyes, and poked around on the main console to see whether he could at least bring up system status on ship functions - those things that engineers rather needed for keeping the ship going - and whether there was anything to report to the Chief.
- Hillchurch and Crawford

System status seemed to be accessible. Navigation system locked. Weapons system powered down and locked. Shields barely above structural integrity level and locked. Power levels in the ship lowered slightly in all areas. However a peak of power drain in an unused area of the ship near the belly.

-GM

“Where there’s a desert there you’ll find the rattlers,” Reno said, squinting at the screen. Didn’t look like much was happening on the ship at all. But what was this power drain? He was afraid to actually try to call it up for fear of the scary computer threatening him with honey and ant torture or something like that. They’d have to check that out in person. Not that ‘that’ isn’t scary enough, he thought.

He isolated the systems reports and sent them to Winston - he was supposed to be with security - and Sural on the bridge - each on their PaDD’s. If he didn’t get a reply soon he would gather the lads and check it out himself.
- Crawford …

Crawford knew that diagnostics would send a lot of red flags about, but he could see ship status including those power levels. “Hmmm,” he said to himself as he brought up the schematics for each deck. If he could isolate the deck that had the power spikes or drain, then they were half way there already. Now to just get the information … he thought as he tapped from one deck to the other and scouring each on power utilization curves to find out what .. and where.
- Crawford

The power spike showed like the drain of master consoles such as those used on the Bridge or Engineering. However, these would not be located like the draw. It is centered behind the deflector in an unused section of storage rooms used for parts.

-GM

“What the devil?” Crawford said, leaning in and squinting at the diagram and readings. He chewed on a nail that given his tension was more like whittling. he needed to take that up again, though Sural would probably pull a classic Vulcan ‘frown’ seeing wood shavings all about the console. Might be worth it and would help feather his gerbil’s cage. Sonny and Cher would probably welcome some new shavings. He took a screen shot of this data and saved it as ‘Curious’ and sent it to Sural over his PaDD. If anyone was looking at the mail it might seem less a concern for any paranoid computer filters.
- Crawford, Eng

Ooc: love how you are bypassing the computer on that one. Lol

-GM

OOC: <EG>
IC:

Crawford looked at the text he just received. Turning, his tired eyes scanned the broad room and caught sight of one of their new arrivals. “Hey, Pierce! Ollie! Over here!” he called in his Texan twang which seemed to get all the thicker as the morning went by.

He waited for him to come over. “Chief called. Wants you to get a tool kit - don’t forget your phaser - ready and meet him in Sickbay. If I might suggest some kind of cutters in the kit too. Don’t use the computer if you can help it.” He recalled that Ollie didn’t use it much anyway but with the way the ‘voice’ was going it was worth saying again. “Chief’s heading there now.”
- Crawford