Do Herds Of Cats Listen To Org Charts?

Posted on Tue Aug 23rd, 2022 @ 6:38am by Captain William Maddox & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral

2,105 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: What Is Past Is Prolouge
Location: USS Daedalus, Main Engineering, Core Inspection Gantry
Timeline: Before The Icarus's Distress Call.

"You sure you've got it this time?" Maddox asked, peering over the edge of the gantry and looking down the five levels to the bottom of the shaft. Tilting his head back with a twist he got an even better view of the towering warp core rising into the distance.

"Sir, I don't ask if you can sit for hours in that lazy boy chair on the promenade deck," the Petty Officer said. He too was leaning out over the railing, but instead of gawking, he was holding a wide-necked net out over the edge.

"That reclining lever requires a deft touch, years of experience," Maddox said. He was about to say something else when a silvery blur went past his head. And right past the net. "2 for 2,"

"Thought I had it that time."

"Said every player in the deep field," Maddox said with a shake of his head.

"No, no, no, I told you to go more to the left," a voice from above said. Aarix stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at the Petty Officer. He looked slightly disheveled, very much like someone trying to catch a flying silver object. With an annoyed huff, he pushed his hair back with a little more force than necessary before looking at his PaDD, ignoring that his hair flopped right back into place. "Note to self: use level 3 containment field," he muttered aloud as he typed his words down. Looking up again, he saw the Captain standing next to the other engineer. "Not the way I wanted to show this project to you, Captain. Is there something I can do for you?"

"No Chief, just making the rounds to see what needs more help to get us ship shape-" Five levels above someone let out a cry, and another silvery object began its descent down the shaft. This time Maddox pulled on the neck of the net, jerking it to the side just in time to catch the silvery object that had been falling for over 45 minutes.

Except for this time as it dematerialised it took the net with it.

"You had to fit one of these ExoComp things with an internal short-range transporter didn't you chief?" Maddox sighed.

Aarix watched Maddox move the net before the net disappeared and groaned. "When it's working properly, the short-range transporter has benefits," he explained, a slight echo in his voice from the amount of air the gentry occupied. On a normal day, it was a sight to behold, but with flying tech it became worse than those ridiculous holodeck training simulations from the Academy. "Computer, locate ExoComp prototype zero-three and put a level 3 containment field around it."

"ExoComp propotype zero-three is in maintenance junction 12, section 36b." The computer replied.

A grimace briefly washed over Aarix's expression. "Why do they change the computer's voice every time a ship gets maintenance?" He asked aloud, disappearing from view as he left the rail. Aarix walked to the open lift, the one piece of technology Starfleet had yet to do away with, and rode the short distance to the level the Captain was on. Surley there were faster ways to traverse the many levels of engineering, but as long as it was functional... but at least the speed was faster. Impatience getting the better of him, he stepped off the lift once he gauged it was close enough to the level so he wouldn't fall and approached Maddox. Or at least, it looked like he was approaching, it wasn't until he got closer that one could tell he was walking past the Captain to a maintenance hatch. "I might need an extra hand in the tubes, sir, if you feel like getting your hands dirty."

"Given these experimental drones are meant to be supplementing our diminished crew compliment, I'm not one to leave a crewman stranded," Maddox sighed, dismissing the Petty Officer with a nod. "Get back to your post, I'll go get the net before it fouls up something important."

"Like valuable sitting time Sir?"

"Exactly that," Maddox answered as he followed Aarix to the hatch. "okay so answer me this, why do the prototypes always seem to transport into the maintenance ductwork? Never a cargo bay, or adjoining compartment, always a crawl space. And usually one furthest from an entry portal? Odds are we should have had one of the buggers rematerialise inside a bulkhead by now."

"It makes a degree of sense: the tubes take up more space on a ship than any of the rooms," Aarix explained, as if he had done this before. With a tug, he pulled the hatch off the wall and propped it against the wall on the floor. "As for why it picks the furthest section from an entry portal... your guess is a good as mine." Tucking the PaDD in his hand into a sleeve on his waist, Aarix led the way by ducking into the tube and crawling in. "Also, the first two did rematerialize inside bulkheads, and they sucked to remove. Why do you think the maintenance schedule got pushed back by two days?"

"I dunno Chief, I just reckoned it was my karma suggesting I can't have nice things," he said with a put-over tone to his voice. "But I also remember you saying these 'teething problems' with the drones were a thing of the past. That things would get better so that when we launch for the furthest corners of the Delta we can do so without sounding like a bolt in a ration tin. I fear we make a sharp turn we'll rattle."

"Yeah, and they will improve before we head out. But don't worry your head over the integrity of this ship, there's no way for these drones to damage things that badly." Internally, Aarix added, unless one rematerialized inside the warp core, but he had made sure that the programming forbade the drones from materializing inside the core on their own. Obviously machines could be reprogrammed, but it was built into their logic processor by default to avoid the warp core and cause an overload. "Fortunately, this is just a programming bug, and we can work out those issues in the holodeck where they won't cause any damage. The drones otherwise fly beautifully."

"Oh yeah, as a brick it flies pretty good," William shook his head. "You know what, maybe the antigravity thing is not the way to go with these things. Quadrupeds are stable work platforms, and with modern magnetics easy enough to get them to scale walls when needed."

Maddox looked at the ladder well and then up at the heels of Aarix's boots.

"I remember back in my days as an Ensign having to chase down some Cardassian voles that got loose on the Nightingale. Things were as smart as a salt shaker, but they could climb up vertical surfaces like they were born to it." Maddox grumbled, and took a hand hold to begin his climb.

Aarix sighed as he looked up the ladder. As much as he wanted the antigravity feature to work, Maddox was right, perhaps a quadruped would be more efficient. The motion and proximity sensors would be way simpler to construct. "I can give the quadruped design a shot, though it would be nice to have them fly. If we could get entire starships to maintain their position near large gravitational masses, surely it wouldn't be hard to make a metal brick levitate." Pausing on the ladder, he tapped a code into the nearby pad, opening the access hatch next to him with a click. "What I'm hearing from you, Cap, is that maybe I should only use Cardassian voles as inspiration for features instead of for physical design," he joked.

"This is what I get for poaching a genius," Maddox shook his head and laughed. "You've clearly never been in close proximity to one of those voles. They are a particular musk that is...remarkable for its ability to shake off industrial solvents. "

A huff of air signalled Aarix's closed-mouth chuckle as he crawled into the hatch. Once he was inside, he could very faintly hear the sound of something repeatedly hitting a forcefield. "I promise the drone won't emit any musk. But if it's a quadruped design, I'm thinking it might need some kind of counterweight, especially if you expect it to scale walls or uneven surfaces."

"Give it a tail. Nature does the leg work on design, no harm in cribbing on the final exam" Maddox crawled up beside Aarix. Ahead of them, contained by two shimmering grid patterned force fields, was the prodigal drone. Which was, as it demonstrated, was bumping up against the forcefield repeatedly. "And that thing knows it's in a forcefield, but it's still trying to get to work. Don't get me wrong, I like the work ethic. But maybe in the next model, we can see some improvement in the AI?"

"It looks like this one might not be detecting the forcefield, actually," Aarix commented, watching the drone bumble around. Shifting so he could sit, he pulled the PaDD out of the sleeve he put it in and began to run a diagnostic on the drone. "Ah, no wonder, its internal sensors are misaligned. I told Harry to watch the polarity of the sensor relay." Shifting again, he pulled his tricorder out of its pocket on his opposite hip and set up a connection to the drone's processor. "Oh yeah, the AI will improve. No random transports or mindlessly bumping into forcefields. Aaannd... die." He finished typing into the tricorder, and a second later the drone stopped buzzing around and thumped onto the floor of the maintenance tube. Aarix sighed, "another failure. At least we recovered the entire thing this time."

"Not a failure, Aarix. Just more data to make a better bot," Maddox smiled. "It's still one hell of an achievement, compacting most of an engineering toolbox into one of these things. Take that win away from this."

As Maddox spoke, Aarix worked to lower the containment field. "Thanks. It wasn't easy, I'll tell ya," he said, picking up the now immobile metal brick and looking it over. "So, a quadruped with a tail, huh? Sounds simple enough. And if it doesn't have to hold its weight in the air, it can actually be a little larger than this." He lifted the drone in his hand to emphasize its size.

"More bells and whistles," Maddox chuckled. "So long as it doesn't keep you from your work on the Daedalus I'm all for it. Just one or two of those drones did the work of six crewmen, I look forward to seeing what your proposal's compliment of sixty can do."

Aarix gave the man a smile and a nod. There wasn't much left in the way of getting the ship ready to fly, so he wasn't worried about it taking up too much of his time. He appreciated the flexibility to work on a project, however, one that could improve the efficiency on a ship. "Aye sir. I plan to demonstrate a, erm... correctly working drone before we depart. Once we have a working model, it will be easy to replicate the design. I bet I can make all 60 faster than it takes to warp across the entire Sol system."

"Given we're installing the warp nacelles next week, I think I might take you up on that offer Chief," Maddox said with a grin. He was about to say something else when his combadge began to chirp. He held up a hand in apology. "Sorry Chief, one moment. Maddox here."

"Captian Maddox, this is Starbase Operations. You're requested on the Op's floor immediately. Rear Admiral Tordon's orders."

"Copy that, I'll be right there. Maddox out," he sighed. "Sorry Chief, you know the boss of the Icarus Project: he beckon's you jump. You okay to get that thing back to your workshop?"

Aarix waved his hand to dismiss the idea that he would need help carrying something smaller than a toolbox back to engineering. "Yeah, I got it. I killed its programming so I won't get any surprise transports. I'll take the scenic route. Just know that I'm going to hold you to that unofficial bet once the nacelles are installed," he added with a grin of his own.

"Done," Maddox chuckled and began to climb down the shaft towards the exit portal. But half way down he paused, and looked up towards Aarix. "If the drones here...where's the net it took with it when it beamed out?"

 

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