Brainstorming Trouble

Posted on Tue Aug 10th, 2010 @ 6:46pm by Commander Fala Awen & Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: USS Pandora, Chief Operations Officer's Office
Timeline: Day 16, 1745

ON:
[[Chief Operations Officer's Office, Day 16, 1745]]

Khloe (NPC) walked into the Chief Operations Officer's Office and paused inside the door. It felt odd to be going in, let alone to be sitting behind the desk. In a way, she felt like an intruder, though she knew that was - to some extent - silly. Technically, she was only Acting Chief and that had only happened because there were few other choices and she was the Assistant Chief. Khloe was actually looking forward to having someone else in charge, but for the time being knew she'd do her best.

Stepping around the desk, the Betazoid finally sat down. Technically speaking, Khloe was officially off-duty, but she wanted to check on a few things and perhaps run some diagnostics overnight. Once she'd navigated to the proper control screen on the console, she started reading through the statistics.

Mali breezed through the doors just as Khloe was getting settled into her seat. "Well hello there," Mali strode toward the desk and sat down across from it hard, simultaneously draping one leg over the other at the knee. "I hadn't expected to run into anyone else in the office at this hour. May I ask what you're working on?" At least, Mali assumed Khloe was working, even if she wasn't exactly adhering to uniform regulations at the moment.

Tilting her head ever so slightly to the side, the Betazoid regarded the young woman before her for a moment before replying, "Well...I wanted to get some diagnostics started so they could run overnight. A few systems seemed a bit sluggish and I was hoping to target the problem."

"Which systems in particular are you referring to?" Mali perked up at the idea of a mystery to solve. Though she hadn't exactly been invited to, she rose and moved to stand behind Khloe so she could peer at console.

"The long range tactical sensors, close range science sensors, communications arrays, and the deflector grid," Khloe replied. Tapping a few more commands into the console, she brought up the performance graphs and moved slightly aside so Malia could see as well.

Mali leaned in to trace the data with her eyes, lips moving silently as she internalized the information on the screen. One finger rose to touch the screen. "What were we doing here?" She tapped the point in question. "Any intentional disruption on our end; diverting of power to one point or another?"

Khloe looked at the point Malia was drawing attention to, then looked at the time. "Well, some of the resources were re-allocated to the sensors around that time...but it shouldn't have affected the other two systems." She paused to consider the idea, "Unless there's some link between them that ended up with them being affected as well...but there shouldn't be."

"Is it possible something was affected that then affected the areas seperately? Happenstance isn't common, but even that occurs sometimes," Mali mused. "Maybe there's just a lag in main power?" Malia wondered when the last time this had occurred in these particular systems and asked Khloe to check, since she was the one in the seat after all.

"Many things are possible," Khloe replied with a slight smile. "Coincidences do occur, but considering how everything in the ship is tied together in one way or another, it's usually a rare occurance. In most ways the systems are separated, mostly so that we can isolate them when reallocating or in case one system needs worked on. I'll bring up a graph of main power for the same time frame." The Betazoid tapped a couple commands on the screen, then swiped her index finger to the right. The main power graph appeared, which Khloe then overlayed on top of the other graphics.

Malia allowed a grin of slight amusement to play at her lips. She was thankful that Khloe had such a cut and dried approach to analysis and problem solving; but if Mali had a holocredit for every time she'd ever heard the words 'that's not right' or 'that shouldn't be possible' ... well, she could probably take an extended vacation in holo-Fiji. Upon examining the overlayed graph, Mali noticed that there was in fact an oddity charted during a reroute. Partially out of repsect for Khloe's longer standing relationship with the Pandora and partially because she was actually curious, Mali glanced over at the other woman. "Thoughts?"

Khloe looked over at Malia, sensing her amusement, then back at the screen. "I'd narrow it down to two possibilities," she said as she started ticking them off on her fingers, "One, an issue with power delivery to the systems - which we'd need to discuss with Engineering. Or, two, the PID control variables are off in our reallocation control program. We might need to adjust the proportional or integral variables...or we may need to add some feed-forward control."

Mali nodded while pish-poshing the idea of entertaining Engineering prematurely. “I’d say that since Engineering probably already knows everything already, we should keep this between us for now and see if we can work it out on our own.” With a chuckle the Ops officer gave her co-officer a mischievous wink as if to say ‘if you don’t believe me, just ask one of them’. “I think the control variables are a pretty good place to start; after the scans at least. Just in case they pull up something we’re not considering … our off duty time is just too valuable to waste on an unnecessary endeavor.” Malia considered the number and size of the systems in question and was impressed that Khloe had the foresight to run them overnight.

Chuckling at Malia's comment, Khloe then replied, "I like that plan. I'll get the scans started now and we'll see what they reveal in the morning....did you have some exciting plans for the evening?" Khloe had nothing going on that particular evening - partly why she had decided to go back to the office for a little while.

"I try to make all of my plans as exciting as possible," Mali returned, nodding in agreement with Khloe's decision. "It makes them more worthwhile that way. Of course, sometimes having no plan at all leads to some interesting evenings. Which," Mali moved back a few steps so Khloe didn't feel like she had perched on her shoulder, "is actually rather the case tonight. Listlessness tends to push me toward office work when I shouldn't be doing it."

Khloe smiled and looked over at the young woman, who had oddly seemed to read her mind. "You aren't part Betazoid, are you?"

With a chortle and a beaming prideful movement Malia ran her fingers through her long dark hair, moving her head to give it a light swish at the ends. "Sister, you're looking at a one hundred percent crossbreed," she dropped her arms to her side and favored Khloe a look of mock uncertainty. "None of which is supposed to be Betazoid." Mali actually rather enjoyed the Betazed natives - it was always a good time to watch them try to rein in their abilities around others. Before her mind set off on a path of wonderment about beings who were constantly assaulted by extra perceptions, she mentally shook it off. "So tell me, Khloe, as I don't think I've ever inquired before ... how long have you been stationed on the Pandora?"

Laughing, Khloe finally replied, "Well, you could've fooled me, Mali." As she turned her chair more, the Betazoid replied, "This is my first mission aboard the Pandora, but I was with the majority of the crew on the Tethys before we were transferred over."

"So when everything is working fine and all the department heads are semi-satisfied ... what do two youthful intelligent young women occupy their time with?"

Khloe simply smiled.

OFF: JP brought to you by:

Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Pandora

and

Lieutenant JG Khloe Dovil (NPC)
Acting Chief Operations Officer
USS Pandora
played by: Lt Cmdr Fala