Pt 2 of 3: Quandary - Crew Seeking Exploding Consoles

Posted on Tuesday 16 October 2018 @ 16:24 by Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal
Edited on on Tuesday 22 January 2019 @ 14:59

Mission: The New Collective
Location: USS Merlin - Deck 30, Engineering Support Labs
Timeline: 23950826 -After Briefing on New Borg
2418 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

After the doors closed upon them, Sav let the way over to the workbench and the marked holographic flooring area. She activated it and a mockup of the bridge command consoles with their chairs appeared. She sat down in one and motioned for Miles to sit in the other one.

As he sits he moves around as though trying to get comfortable, he murmurs, "I prefer my station, the chair is much more comfy..."

As Sav had said she would answer Miles' question about who hurt her, she decided that this was as good as time as any. Plus, as he was just getting interested, if he needed to get away from her because of what happened, it wouldn't hurt either of their feelings, well, much, anyways. She looked over him as she gathered her courage.

Sav now said, "Ayuh, who hurt me... ummm. Okay, here goes. Mah experience fer mah first time was not yer typical romance." She swallowed, then as she looked at the floor, she continued. "I was captured by Mr. Thompson for his Orion Sex Slave Network when I was 17. I spent four months in his dungeon to become a proper S&M slave. Then Federation Councilman Diostros Eurytlus bought me for my virginity, life, and pelt. I was hoisted into the air while he put on.. uh, terrifying female slicing enhancements. He was in the act of taking me and killing me, I was pretty much dead, when I was rescued by the IPA Marshall service. The Starport Hospital was going to put in a mesh weave to hold my insides together so I could heal, but the Federation Star Fleet Strom Thurman Medical Research Institute took me from the Hospital at the behest of Diostros to put a Cadaver mesh laced with nylon and toluene glue to continue small tears inside while also poisoning me, to kill me to keep Diostros from being found in the wrong."

Sav's reactions as she was reciting this were very telling, as though she was reliving it while saying it. In a sense, she was, as she had to relive those experiences for the psychic blocks to be removed, so they were still very fresh in her mind. She continued, "When I survived despite that, the Institute implanted five psychic imprints to cover up the crime, erase my memories, and put in the 'proper ones'. At that time, they implanted th transporter, but my tail natural protective fields prevented them from using it. Thankfully, they did not know about my natural telepathy, stunted as it is, and telekinetics, so I was able to fight the imprints and survive. However, the six years after that was pretty much a haze, with me living in pain and never able to say why because of the imprints. Starfleet Academy was rough as I was targeted by the powerful because I was still alive."

Sav now bore a forlorn expression across her face and body from remembering those times. Then her personality seemed to spark as she recounted the next. "However, just nine months ago, umm, my time as I lost over half a year in cyrostasis, the mesh and damage was discovered as the Toluene poisoning had me down to 18% functional.. at 15% I would have been dead and its work completed. So the bad mesh was removed and reconstructive surgeries were done, including replacing my left kidney, left ovary, pretty much my lower torso internals, and making my feminine bits look normal for my race. After that, Starbase Counselors removed the psychic imprints, freeing me from their influence and allowing me to finally speak of what happened, like now."

Sav grimmaced, knowing what would be coming next, as she concluded, "So... ummm, yeah, sorry, I umm, have probably a bunch of not good reactions. You see, I am terrified of counselors, representatives, diplomats, posturing males, and the like, and Ah am verah damaged goods. So, ifin yah want to run away now, pahlease do so, Ah won't hold it against yah. Ah... am not yer typical damsal, ifin Ah can be called that." Her entire presence seemed to be now waiting, waiting on Miles to react.

Miles will slowly reach over and hold her hand, "Run away no. Plan to make some people disappear should I ever encounter them, yes. Being Cardassian, I grew up understanding pain and hurt, and only my time with Starfleet and my Grandparents has shown me a possible galaxy without either."

Sav looked up from the floor and onto his hand holding hers. She seemed confused that he was still there, but a light churr sounded out and showed she was actually delighted he was.

Miles raised her hand to his mouth, nuzzled the back and front of her hand and then laid a gentle kiss upon her knuckles as he says again with his mischievous grin, "How does your cute behind feel comfy in this stupid console chair on your duty days, these things are not ergonomically friendly and my tailbone is already hurting..."

Sav followed his nuzzle, and kiss, with a wondering expression. Then she broke into a grin, and then a churr-laugh about the console chair. She shook her tail as she was finally able to respond. "Asa t'ere isna an openin' fer me tail, Ah have tah sit back ontah it, ana asa girl, ah have extrah cusion in mah tush ana thighs, yah see. Still, would beah nice tah have an openin' fer me tail and ah bettah seat fer sittin." She managed a shy grin to him and asked, "Whateyah got ina mind, Sir Knight?"

With a grin and still holding her hand, Miles stands up and helps Sav up from her chair. "Computer, reconfigure the chairs to be six inches wider to accommodate for memory foam padding and create a space for Commander Tillatix's tail to comfortably exit the back side of the chair. In addition, add memory foam padding to the rest of the chair, plus add personal shielding to keep the seated person in their seat during an explosion." Still holding her hand he says, "Lets see if this idea works, a comfy tushy makes for a happy crew..." he tries to say that with a straight face, but fails, ending up snickering while waiting for the holochair to be reconfigured.

Sav gladly accepts Mile's help up and then watches as the changes are made to her console chair. She starts to add in a small change when Miles delivers his punch line. Sav looks over at him with a raised eyebrow, then says, "But Ah thought Males liked tah wear buns-o-steehl ana leave the padding fer t'e fems fer curves ana eye candy?" She turns back to t'e chair and adds, "Oh, padding tah help tah males not bruise, Ahh see, t'eir egos ara so delicate...", then she breaks down into giggles with her churrs sounding lightly in the background.

"Delicate ego's? I'm Cardassian, there's nothing delicate about us, except apparently my tail bone, and maybe my forehead," he rubs his slight scar for his console and wall crashing down on his head, all the while smiling.

Sav takes in a breath to stop her giggles, then looks slyly at Miles while she states out loud, "Computah, mahke opehnin's ona cohnsole chahirs be open tah left fer left ana rahght fer rahght." She watches as the oval openings in the back now shift to include an open space to the side the chair was on. She looks up at Miles, then goes to the right side and then siddles into the chair, the fully open right side now accepting her tail without her trying to thread it through an oval opening in the back. She churrs out as she wiggles her backside into the memory foam while saying, "Hmmm, cushy fer t'e tushy.. Feehls good, Mihles."

For a moment he seems stunned, "Why didn't i think of that, duh. How many other crew members do we have with tails or extra appendages that might enjoy thee chair changes, hmmm." Miles says this more to himself than to Sav.

Sav snorts out in light humor as she answers his question with a, "Several." She stands up and looks over the console with a sigh. She looks at him and now says, "Whahle fun ana all, Weun need tah get back to solving the power surge front side claymore design of the consoles." She touches the computer control console for holographic display and the chairs disappear while the console itself 'explodes' outward into module assemblies suspended in air for each moving and maneuvering to facilitate changing, removing, and adding various equipment. She looks over to Miles and says, "And, there we go. Ready to try our ideas. Once we make our changes, we can compress back to normal and see if it fits and how easy it is to maintenance."

"Computer, create a power sensor and shunt beneath the flooring of the console. Reroute excess power during a console explosion into a system of foam canisters to fill the extra space beneath the floor and into the console with air hardened foam. Create and add a secondary buffer and shunt in the console itself, to reroute power down into the floor buffer and shunt. Once you have made the changes, run a simulation of the console exploding like it did when the Borg ship attacked us."

The computer created the changes. ""Power sensor and shunt attached to main routing plasma conduit at junction to console. Shunt now attached to concussive activated foam release module. Secondary buffer and shunt attached to console buffer attached to main power plasma conduit inside of console with attachment to first foam release module. Rerouting and remounting sub-control MCU modules for room, selecting redundant module control for elimination. Process complete.""

Sav watched with interest with what Miles had ordered. Being a DCO meant she immediately saw a couple of issues arise, with a very obvious one that would prevent repair of the console for some time. But, she let it play out and would chime in after the scenario.

The computer now reassembled the consoles into their 'pristine' forms, except see through grid-lines with the changes marked in blue. ""Commencing simulation."" The surge power flowed through the main plasma conduit, its rating handling the surge. That surge plasma entered the console as the main power conduit went up into it, then back out. The actual console surge buffer, rated at two times console power, blew up as the surge rating of the main plasma conduit was several hundred times its own rating. The buffer still managed to send power through its shunt down to the other shunt, which then activated its foam canisters. However, shrapnel was already leaving the console to play havoc on the bridge as the foam tried to play catch up. The scenario completed with the console filled with shrapnel and fire resistant foam with shrapnel embedded into the Helm chair.

When he saw what had happened, Miles' sighed heavily and murmured something 'mantra-like' in Klingon.

Sav stifled a giggle as she said to Miles, "Klingon cuss words, huh? You'll need tah teach me sometime." She now moved over to poke at the foam, then asked, "Computer, what does it take to get rid of this foam and approximately how long to do so?"

The computer replied, ""Special solvent applied over layers to remove. Solvent on Deck 30. Time to remove from console approximately 17 hours before repairs could commence.""

Miles' sigh this time sounds more like a growl as he says, "Best laid plans of Humans and Cardassians..."

Sav churred slightly as she heard the 'growl'. She replied to him saying, "Ah thought it was best laid plans of mice ana men?"

Sav now snorted out in a quick laugh while saying, "17 hours... ouchie." She looked over to Miles and asked, "Say, Miles, what about cutting the power conduit out of the console, joining it at a junction beneath the floor in its armored causeway, bringing power up through a double buffer in the causeway with a shunt just beneath the floor of the console, then have the power coupler for powering the console coming up into the Console itself. Then, instead of foam canisters, What about some hardened foam panels offset from each other among the modules of the console? That way, the main power plasma is away from the console, any surges has to get through two buffers below the console, and then if a surge managed to somehow take out the console power coupler, the foam panels help stop any shrapnel, and since are now 'modules' of the console, are easily removed and replaced by Damage Control Teams?"

"Ok computer, clear all this away, lets try for the double buffer in the flooring, with a tertiary buffer midway up the console itself to shunt excess power back down to the conduits running under the floor. Insert fire resistant foam panels were there is space within the console and replace the panel cover with as thin of a sheet of transparent aluminum tricarbonate as possible for the screen to work." MIles will look over at Sav, "If that stuff can hold whales, it should be able to help us here." Then he turns back, "Ok computer, rerun the simulation with those changes in place please."

The simulation exploded outwards once more into module sections as the computer made the changes. The main plasma conduit was now fully inside its armored causeway. The double buffers were turned 180 degrees of each other so that there was no direct path for a surge or shrapnel to go directly through the power conduits going up into the console. Another buffer was added into the space where the power conduit used to be so that it was inline with the power connection from the main plasma feed to the console feed itself. There were return lines rated at its overflow rating going back to the buffers in the causeway. In the console itself, three panels of hardened foam were put in so that they overlapped each other somewhat while still providing complete coverage going upwards. Then, a transparent aluminum panel was put between the top of the console and the interactive control console panel.

Sav whistled in appreciation at that last precaution. She churred, "This looks nicer...."

TBC

OFF:

Commander Save'ena Amilia Tillatix
Chief Flight Control Officer
Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin

Lt JG Marbim "Miles" Rejal
Chief of Operations
USS Merlin