They are SUPPOSED to be Backwards Compatible

Posted on Tuesday 27 September 2016 @ 21:36 by Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Major David Scarlet

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: USS Merlin, Deck 40, Drop Bay Lower Level
Timeline: MD8: Afternoon
2309 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

==== Deck 40, Drop Bay Lower Levels, Maintenance Area ====

Sav was in the drop bays checking up on the maintenance of the fighters. She had brought in a batch of repair parts the day before when she arrived to the Merlin from the USS Basiliskos. While her Valkyrie was supposed to be the 'Deck Queen', the ship raided for spare parts, it was discovered it was newer than the existing Valkyries and so the old CAG Valkyrie was retired to that dubious duty. Sav was happy for that as she felt she had a great connection with Venita, her name for her Valkyrie. However, there was the rest of the fighters and their status to go over and understand, so here she was.

Crewman Aumento beamed, her PADD in hand. Mr. Scarlet had given her the first of what he referred to as 'OJT', She was to follow the CAG and get a feel for what Saveena did and how she interacted with her crew and co-workers. It was meant to give security crew an idea of how other divisions worked and other styles of command. As well as letting them see other fields and disciplines in case they found something they liked and wanted additional training down the road. She was more than happy that she was assigned to shadow the CAG. She gave her coffee.

Sav smiled over to Brenda, then continued her walk along the back side of the bay to the maintenance area. She looked around the bay, realizing the arrangement would always block part of what was happening, unless she got and aerial view. She looked overhead, and found what she was looking for. "Crewman Aumento, I am going into the overhead to get a better view of what is happening in the bay for repairs. No need come with me, you can follow along the ground easily enough." She removed her shoes and quickly climbed up into the overhead. With her shoes off, she could keep traction along the maintenance decks and its hazards.

Mephetians were a tree dwelling race, naturally at ease among heights and various 'ledges' of scaffolding and the like of a maintenance bay. On the plus side, for the maintenance workers, even though Sav was not a Terran, she was eye candy, even if she downplayed it. If the fake truth was known about what happened to her when she was 17, the ribbing would probably be excruciatingly rough, but it was what it was, especially as Sav was forced to not tell the truth of what actually happened to her, too many bigwigs in the cross-hairs.

Sav leaped off of the catwalk and onto cross beams, then fast trotted in short steps along those beams, watching the crews work. She hoped that Brenda would NOT follow onto those beams, there were no safety measures out here, it was just a sentient with their skills and abilities to be along the tree road.

Crewman Aumento watched the graceful movements of the CAG and realized that she'd never keep up in climbing. She frowned for a moment and then decided to hell with it and quickly tucked the PADD in her waistband and followed Saveena up the ladder and after a few near stumbles, out onto the catwalks.

Sav heard a noise and did a quick check behind her. Brenda had went ahead and followed her up into the scaffolding. She watched closely making sure Brenda made it okay onto the catwalks and their protective barriers. She sighed with relief when Brenda was safe. 'Well, I told her not to follow, but at lease she is in the clear,' she thought to herself. She turned back forward, continuing her journey along the equipment bearing beams.

As she got further into the bay, Sav heard some swearing and saw two chiefs and several crewman around a Broadsword fighter. She scooched in for a closer look and listen.

The three crewman were showing their results to the Chiefs, while also showing where they had progressed on trying to get the fighter repaired. Multiple hatches were open, cables hanging out, modules in partially attached states, and the phrase 'deck queen?' being bandied about.

Sav needed to investigate, so she turned to Brenda and motioned she was going down. Next, she dropped down on top of the fighter, then onto its wing and then landed behind the crewmen. The Senior Chief saw her land, even though he did not hear anything. The Chief and crewmen did not notice.

"Not even attempting that..." Aumento muttered as she scanned around for the nearest ladder back down. After finding one a few feet away she began the climb down and hoped she didn't miss anything important.

Senior Chief Calleday snorted out in humor as he said, "Attenhut, CAG on deck." The three crewmen came to attention.

Sav churred out in humor, "At ease, everyone." She came around the three crewmen, "I heard the swearing and came to check it out. What's the problem?"

Crewman Detores cringed, "Are we in trouble, Ma'am?"

Sav churr-laughed, "Nope. I thought cussing was SOP for getting new modules to fit where they are supposed to but won't." She looked over the diagnostics, "So, spill the beans, what have you found?"

SCPO Calleday nodded to Detores. Crewman Detores spoke up, "Well, Ma'am, the new modules are in, diags check fine, but in initiating ECCM systems, the aft systems are saying their doing the sweeps, but our sensor box is saying they aren't. A tricorder check shows they are down. We have double and triple checked, even changed out the ECCM Modules, but no luck. We are getting at an impasse."

Sav nodded, "Hency why I overheard 'Deck Queen' coming from this direction." At this time, Sav noticed Brenda had made it over to the pit, once more on the ground. Sav performed a motion for Brenda to come closer, then returned her attention to the gear laid out to diagnose the Broadsword.

Sav saw what she was looking for, and so she smiled at SCPO Calleday, "May I have a try?"

The crewmen let loose some quick chuckles and jabs among themselves. They knew pilots didn't know anything about their birds other than to fly and to know how to activate the redundant systems. SCPO Calleday gave them 'the look', and they settled down. Chief Burstant moved to the side to observe and record how the new CAG interacted with the Crewman and Chiefs. It would be good to know how she treated them and pass the word to others.

Sav winked to Calleday, then faced the crewmen and snorted in humor, "Don't worry, All I have to do is activate the redundancies, right?"

"Yeah, uh-huh, sure, you know it" and other such terms rang out from the crewmen.

Sav grinned, then got to work. Much to the crewmen's surprise, she went over and grabbed up a multi-IO logic analyzer and attached it quickly and easily to the Sensor cables. As she did, she touched the aux computer IO panel as though using it for balance. In truth, she quickly dove into the ship, checking what it was saying versus what each sensor was saying. And, there it was, what was wrong. Now, how to...

As Sav ran her diagnostics, Calleday coughed gently. Sav responded, "I know, I have a 1984. She is actually doing an 'OJT' to learn about different duties so as to be able to perform her job better. If you know what to expect, the not ordinary is easier caught. So, as long as she doesn't also have to OJT me in the fresher as well... "

One of the recruits began muttering and another elbowed him to shut him up.

Sav shook her head gently, then flicked her ears and said with a musical voice, "I heard that..."

Blushing immediately appeared on the crewman's face. Calleday looked at her.

Sav remarked, "Not to worry, no trouble, and rather flattering if you think about it."

Calleday could now easily guess at what was said and would have a word with the crewman later. Didn't he think the larger, directional shifting ears wouldn't catch what he said? He looked over at the Security personnel. Now that he knew what was going on, as long as she didn't interfere, and was truly wanting to learn, he didn't mind.

Sav returned to her task, looking for a pattern on the analyzer to show how and what she had found, a trail for others to have.

Sav churred out as she found the pattern she needed. She said, "Okay, hit ECM, full passive, ping out test units and verify test patterns."

The crewman did so, and Detores called out, "All good, patterns correct."

Sav nodded, then said, "Switch to ECCM, full active, but leave the pattern on the display. Now receive with test units."

Crewman Detores called out, "Front half ECCM good, back half nothing even though reporting good, and.. hey... wait a minute, the back half ECM pattern is still there. Only the Front half shifted to the new active pattern. That would mean, The aft sensor EW module is stuck in ECM mode."

Sav deftly removed the Multi-IO logic analyzer, saying, "And that would be correct. Now, lets see why..." She reached into her duty sashe and brought out a cable, connecting it to her wrist computer and then attaching it to the module in question. She tied it to the Sensor test unit display and the code paths, as well as the data paths of the module, were displayed.

A couple of the crewmen were surprised at finding the thought to be large crystalline ornament on her arm was actually a diagnostics computer. A couple whistled as the Data appeared upon their sensor test unit's screen.

As the traces flowed, Sav spoke out, "Okay, key the ECM.. good, now the ECCM... there. That data path, lines 61 and 62 of the IO interface, their backwards. Fine for ECM, but not for ECCM."

Calleday shook his head, "The data mapper should have caught that and reconfigured the in/out for proper usage"

Sav, in stepping through the code, pointed out, "And, there. Hey Detores, what do you see?"

Detores looked, then shook his head. "That code section is being bypassed by a stepping point, probably left over from test code. Umm, Ma'am, can you remove it?"

"Let me see what I can do, since you asked." Sav's right hand played over her wrist computer. The code whizzed by as she checked for any and all debugging stepping points, removing them. Next, she went through the switch code, finding the actual line buffer coding missing. she copy and pasted from another section that was working. Stepping through it again, it worked. She saved the code into the module, then disconnected her wrist computer. "And, there you are. Now, backup this module, then copy it to all the others and you should be good to go."

She stepped back out of the way as the crewmen got busy with the task. She winked to Brenda, then turned and smiled to SCPO Calleday, "I'm a Bridge Command Specialist, DCO in aux computers and controls. This was right up my alley. And, I just happen to also be a darn good pilot. Not as good as Lt. Jones, but I try."

SCPO Calleday chuckled in humor, then nodded towards the Module. "So, on the module..."

Sav snorted out in humor, "No worries, no ego to bruise. Please get the module with my code to an engineering sensor specialist to make sure I didn't miss anything. I just removed debug check points and put in the data transmorph code for that data line pair. It would be prudent to make sure nothing else is amiss. However, as the specialist will take several days to do that, for right now, just do a full run level 4 diag on this puppy, and if everything checks out, then change out the rest of the fighters who need the module. Just be prepared for another code update if the specialist finds something else amiss, okay?"

SCPO Calleday saluted, "You got it, Ma'am. Enjoy the rest of your day, even with your shadow."

Sav churred, "I sure will try. Too bad there isn't a Lingerie store nearby, we could go shopping for delicate feminine unmentionables, then she could guard those treasures as I carried them back to the ship." Sav winked, knowing a ribbing was expected when accompanied by a 'shadow', the term for somebody following your every move to try and learn a job. She finished with, "Good day, Senior Chief."

Leaving the laughing Senior Chief with his men, Sav motioned to Brenda she was going up again. "Crewman Aumento, you don't have to follow. If I spot something, I'll let you know and join you on the ground, truly."

Crewman Aumento shook her head. "Don't you dare sir. I'm YOUR shadow. I will follow you wherever you go, and you're not to change your routines because of me."

Sav churred out in gentle humor as she turned around to take her path back into the overhead. She went to the edge of the Broadsword, then swung up onto it, went up to the cockpit, grabbed onto the open hatch, and leaped for a pulley rope. She used that to climb back onto the scaffolding, and then resumed her walk to check out the rest of the maintenance bay.

With a single huff, Aumento wiped the sweat from her brow and began to climb back up the ladder again. Once this was over... she was getting a sundae... and a soak... and a back rub from Donaldson whether he knew it yet or not.

OFF:

Lieutenant Save'ena Tillatix
CAG/Uroboros Squadron Leader
Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin

Crewman Recruit Brenda Aumento
Security
USS Merlin