So much has changed and yet nothing at all

Posted on Tue Sep 1st, 2020 @ 5:24pm by Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jasper Offermans

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Engineering
Timeline: TBD
897 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

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Jasper made his way through the main entrance of Engineering and glanced around, He had a smile on his face as he took in a deep breath, "same old engineering," he muttered as he glanced down at the PaDD he was carrying.

Up in his office, running through the latest diagnostics, Burnie heard someone out in the engineering bay. Of course there were often other engineers there, but this was a voice he didn't know. Sticking his head out, he spotted the man. "Hello," he called. "Do you need something?"


Looking up at the sound of the voice Jasper smiled at the man, "Jasper Offerman, operations, looking for the chief." He nodded at Burnie, "wanted clarification on this regenerative circuitry on deck eighteen in Jefferies tube B, seems a new installation."

"You've found him," Burnie informed him, waving for him to come up to the office. "And yes they are. I have all the information up here, as well as the plans for the next round of upgrades."

Jasper nodded and made his way to the open lift and up to the second floor where the chief was, "Nice to meet you, I'm returning crew you might say, been gone for a bit." Smiling the man held out his hand, "sorry I don't think I caught your name chief."

"Michael Burnstein," he said, taking the hand firmly. "though most people call me Burnie. Anyway, have a seat." He quickly picked up a stack of PaDDs sitting in the one open seat in front of the desk, and having originally moved them to make room for the equipment half-disabled on his desk, he shoved them onto a back table, right below a large poster of an old cartoon character proclaiming Where's the KaBoom?. Burnie smiled apologetically. "So what are your questions?"

Seeing the picture he smiled broadly and shook his head, "well, the schematics I don't see a dedicated COM link, and it's my understanding at least that a type three connection would need to be fixed to the system for it to be controlled and be monitored properly."

"You're right; there's no COM link and for standard installation there should be a type three." Burnie smiled. "But then, technically, regenerative circuitry shouldn't be an option for a ship of this class anyway, so we had to make some mods the standard. Fortunately, I have a Romulan assistant who had some suggestions based on their technology." He opened a screen on a PaDD, displaying those schematics.

Jasper looked at the offered image on the PaDD and raised an eyebrow, "that is impressive." He smiled as he sat back in his seat, "seems I have some catching up to do." The man tilted his head and looked at the Chief, "I once knew everything about this ship, but at that time it was brand new, now I'm spending a lot of time catching up with all the changes."

"So you're the returning original crew Liha mentioned." Burnie nodded understanding. "You have to expect some changes over more than a century. Honestly, it took me awhile to catch up on those after I signed on. I'll be glad to share my notes if it'll help."

"That would really be helpful," Jasper said with a nod, "I realize I'm ops but I was used to working together with Engineering on projects, I was a crack programmer and knew the ships core like the back of my hand, but now, now I really can't claim to be among the best." He chuckled, "at any rate I think our two departments will run better if we work together. I'm not talking competition but cooperating on the big projects to ensure they run smoothly, and we all know this old girl needs quite a few of those if we are to continue calling her home."

"No worries. I've never seen Ops as anything but a partner in making a ship run right," Burnie agreed. "The more you're up on what we're doing, the less likely that something will fall through the cracks."

"Thanks," Jasper said with a nod, "I appreciate it."

"Now," the Operations man continued, "I better check out why there is a requisition in for 112 hydrothermal couplers, any idea why we have a hundred twelve of them?"

Burnie paused, pursed his lips thinking. He could take a good guess - he hadn't set it up, but there weren't many engineers who didn't have some knowledge of do-it-yourself stills as well as the signs of one operating shipboard. "Most likely to support a project in hydroponics," he replied neutrally.

"Are they expanding it?" Jasper wrinkled his brows together as he heard the explanation then shrugged his shoulders, "I'll begin replicating them because I have no idea when we can reach a port to purchase them."

"Yeah, or talk to Jinx - she's our chief science officer - or Avalon in hydroponics," Burnie suggested.

Jasper smiled as he thought about the almond-eyed woman he had left behind when he left, "that sounds like a good plan, I've been needing an excuse to go see Avalon anyway."

"Okay." Burnie said, getting up. "It was good to meet you. If you don't get answers from her, come back and I'll try to track it down from my end."

"Sounds good," Jasper said with a nod, "it was good to meet you too Michael."

 

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