Long Distance Assistance
Posted on 07 Oct 2020 @ 4:52pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant Commander Lance Quinn (*) & Master Chief Petty Officer Saoirse Barmeadow
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD04 AM
1967 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure
Calliope held a small object about the size of a skipping stone to her chest protectively— excitedly even— and kept checking the time displays as she made her way down to Engineering. She hadn't called ahead to let Lance know to expect her because the news had only just come through that her request was acceptable. Calliope hadn't anticipated such immediate response. She'd thought things might take longer to arrange, but on a project like this, she was coming to realize that Starfleet really was prioritizing many of her requests.
As Calliope spotted Lance, a 30 second up-link timer chimed on the little device and it began to shine in her fingers.
"Commander Quinn..." Calliope said as she approached. "A moment, please."
"Yes?" It took him a moment to see her face and realise it was her. "Yes." The second time was a little less irritable.
"I'm sorry this comes very suddenly, but I've secured you a project advisor who should prove absolutely invaluable." Calliope looked thrilled with herself, like she'd found the perfect gift.
"I see. When can I expect their arrival?" he asked, looking around for this advisor she mentioned.
Emanating from the device she was concealing, a trilling noise like a digital bird rang up and down a scale, and Calliope set the unit down on the floor and motioned for space to be given. The device was waiting to initiate until it sensed clearance.
Holopresence technology wasn’t new to Starfleet by any means, but in the last ten years alone it’d grown by leaps and bounds. Holograms were no longer limited to the confines of a specifically calibrated holdeck; they could be anywhere in a ship at any time for any function. But the most effective of all the types of holopresence was the kind that allowed the individual on one end to manipulate the world around them on the opposite. With the proper connection between the two points, it was as good as being there yourself. An easy way to do work with colleagues lightyears away without leaving home.
As the device sensed clearance, it began to compile the hologram, starting with a pair of black boots and rapidly growing into the figure of a human woman, arms on her hips, waiting impatiently for the technology to render her on their end, and them on her end. She was an average sized woman in almost every respect with light blonde hair and fair skin. She gave off a timid and uncertain air, but it couldn’t have been farther from the truth of the matter. She was a veritable force to be reckoned with.
She looked around the deck materializing on her end of the holo, feeling a deep pang of regret that she wasn’t there to put things in order. It had been her desperate wish to get things settled before she was sent back to Sol, but Starfleet insisted and no matter how high she complained the answer was the same. Go home. Rest. Recuperate. Letting that nostalgia dissipate, she looked to the new faces waiting for her and smiled patiently.
Calliope made the introductions. "Lieutenant Commander Lance Quinn, meet Master Chief Petty Officer Saoirse Barmeadow, Engineer and the Commander of Obsidian Command's Skeleton Crew over the past 18 months."
Lance looked between the image and his wife for a few seconds, not entirely sure what to make of it. "A...hologram?" he wondered out loud. He'd worked with a couple of holographic assistants back on Earth, especially prior to the Mars incident. Since then, not so much. "Is this a good idea?" he wondered at Calliope.
"No, not a hologram," Calliope said low, "This is the real McCoy! Well, the real Barmeadow! She needed to return to her family on Sol right away, but has agreed to work with us from a holodeck subspace uplink. I secured this emitter from the Caelian. Through the wonders of techno-wizardry, Barmeadow will be working right along side you; meanwhile she'll be able to spend her off hours with her family." Calliope was beaming with the cleverness of the solution. To demonstrate, Calliope stuck out her hand to shake Barmeadow's. "I'm Commander Calliope Zahn, taking over here on Obsidian Command as first officer. I was the one requesting this arrangement. You'll have to forgive me for the intrusion. I truly believe you should have all the time needed on leave, but I'm so thankful you'll be helping us make the transition to come online. I think it's going to save us immeasurable set backs by working together, or else I'd never have intruded with my request!"
Barmeadow offered her hand, stepping forward, “Thank you for calling, Commander. I’m not sure I could take another day of silent meditation,” she complained, “My husband seems to think I’m an invalid,” she added, turning to Lieutenant Commander Quinn and offering her hand. “Saoirse Barmeadow,” she greeted him, “We’ve never met but I’ve read several of your papers. Of particular note was your paper on subspace inflections at Quantum velocities. It was a variation on the principles you cited that I used to keep OC from falling into the void immediately. Gave us time to get people out,” she explained, happily shaking his hand. “I’m not sure how they got you out of research, Commander, but whoever did made a good choice. How can I help you?”
Calliope was the color of impressed. Although she tried to keep up with news of Lance's various published papers, she couldn't parse anything beyond the abstracts, and that often only with the aid of scientific interpreters writing in layman's terms. That his work had been applied and in just this one instance saved thousands of lives made her swell with a fresh sense of pride on Lance's behalf, though it seemed to her to indicate quite the opposite of Barmeadow's summation— How good would it be for general progress if he was rebuilding fusion cores instead of furthering his research? Calliope looked to Lance to see what she could glean from his own reaction.
Surprise was the first thing that registered to him. That she would openly reveal that at first encounter was unexpected. But it did make him rethink his initial annoyances. "Clearly you are far better educated than most of the rank-and-file they normally station out here on the frontier," he remarked. He folded his arms and leaned against the console. "Well, I'm sure you know the state this place was left in. It's taken me nearly two days to get two fusion reactors restarted and minimal acceptable power levels. Don't get me started on the mess the stardock was left in." He glanced at Calliope. "Commander Zahn suggested you might be able to walk me through the workarounds your team made. Perhaps we can unravel some of the chaos."
Saoirse smirked, "I requested Obsidian Command," she explained, "And it was my home for several years. Believe me, there's no place I'd rather be right now than there with you putting things back together. But Fleet Command won't hear it," she frowned, now folding her arms across her chest. "This will have to do," she added with a sigh. "Now... as for what happened..." she said, now pacing away towards the nearest, unfunctional fusion core. "The variable subspace inflection I created to keep the station from falling into the void immediately put an almost catastrophic strain on the cores. I needed at least three of the cores to be functional to hold the inversion, but they wouldn't hold out on their own so I had to keep rotating the power drain between them all," she outlined, gesturing to them individually, "The result was that rather than wiping out all the cores completely, and leaving us with no power in the void, I caused catastrophic, but reparable damage to them all," she said, tapping the nearest of them. "The intent was to power all but one down, commit to repairs and then bring them online one at a time, bringing the station back to full power. The problem was, the nature of the void itself put an ambient drain on our power systems. I couldn't take anything down without risking life support. It meant repairs were off the table. Building a replacement core wasn't an option either. We were low on resources and there wasn't anywhere in the void we could run a shuttle to pick up more. I had no choice but to run them all into the ground."
Swearing under her breath, Calliope looked on, riveted, more at the tale than the tech. "It must have felt like you were watching the candles die out...."
"Like watching a loved one die," she nodded solemnly, letting that hang on the air for a moment. "But we're going to bring her back to life, right, Commander?" she asked, looking to Quinn with a hopeful smile.
"Hmm? Oh. Yes." He was morbidly fascinated about the prospect of running the cores in such a way, with the constant draining effect. He'd read a few reports, of course, but the physics of this 'void' were remarkable. A pity, for sure, that many had lost their lives. But the data would make for interesting study. "Well, as I said, we have two of them back online. And I must admit, some of the workarounds are rather inventive. However un-working them appears to be a problem many of the crew we have here are unprepared for. It has been like untangling a bundle of wool at times."
"The way I see it, we have to work it two ways. Part one, we fix the cores themselves," she said, gesturing to the one she was standing in front of. "Part two, we work backwards from the docking bay power conduits, repairing the flow manifolds, regulators and conduits themselves," she explained, "Each time that one of the cores was about to go catastrophic, I vented the core through the docking bay conduits," she explained with a guilty shrug, "I knew we weren't going to have guests and I didn't really want to vent it out through the ventral ports and possibly melt down the subspace antenna," she shrugged, "I wasn't exactly spoiled for options."
"As decisions go, you clearly made the better call. Even if there are a few flight crew on clean up who beg to differ. It was a hell of a call and a hell of a mess." Calliope commented before taking a step back and shaking her head. She touched Lance's shoulder. "I need to go attend another meeting. I don't know how you'll manage without me." Calliope applied a little self-deprecating humor in the knowledge that she was, more than likely, holding them back as they tried to include her in the summation of the situation.
"Hmm. Yes. We will." Lance half-waved at her a little dismissively as his brain processed through the Master Chief's explanation. Mentally he worked through the chain of workarounds, before nodding approvingly. "Well, that does explain the stardock. And why the manifolds are in the worst condition I've ever seen..."
"You'll call me if you need anything?"
"Yes, yes, I said so." He waved again dismissively, then paused and gave her a faintly guilty look of apology. "We'll be fine."
Smiling, Calliope reached to shake Saoirse's hand again. Maybe she was laying it on a little thick, even though she tried to be natural about it. To her mind the skeleton crew were heroic. "I'm glad you're joining us, Master Chief. Please, contact me if there are any issues with the subspace connection or if there's any aid we can lend from command."
Saoirse nodded back, "Thanks, Commander. I'm just glad to be back... sort of."
