Bridge officer test - A practice

Posted on 22 Nov 2020 @ 11:09pm by Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant Xu Chang Lau

Mission: R&R - after facing the Planet Killer
Location: Holodek 1
Timeline: MD1 0600
1260 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Amelia stood in the bare holodeck waiting for the 2 officers to arrive. She had 2 PADDS in her hand.

Xu was the first to arrive, she smoothed her uniform down as she entered, wanting to make a better impression on the First Officer than the previous meeting. Her hair was pulled back into the severe bun with no adornments or colourings.
"Good morning Lieutenant".

"Good Morning. Welcome to the bridge officer training. Theses PADDS" She said as she handed them out "Are for you and you alone. They contain information relevant to your exam." So this is going to be a practice run of the engineering portion of the exam. Normally, for the final exam you will do this individually but for now, let's see how you work together. Are there any questions before we start?"

It felt as if the First Officer was pitching her in an engineering test against a chief engineer. Anyone else would have seen this as unfair but in truth she knew how good an engineer Hawkins was, she would stand no chance in besting him one on one so she took the letter of the XO's words to heart, teaming up. He was the engineer and she was going to use this as a learning experience. She took the PADD readily and started instantly to devour the information it contained.

Michael finally arrived at the meeting, he had been working on things in a Jefferies tube. He had gotten completely cleaned up, or so he thought, not realizing he had a smudge just under his chin. "Sorry I'm late." he said to Amelia and Xu.

He accepted the PADD from Amelia.

Xu raised a finger to her chin, indicating to her friend that he had missed a spot and her own experience last time with Lieutenant Fox had left a firm impression on the first officer being a stickler for presentation.

Amelia placed her hands on her hips. "Now many people fail the engineering part of the test. Just remeber it's not about knowing technical manuals and emergency procedures. There's more to being a bridge officer than that. Let's see how you do. Computer, load Bridge officers test, engineering qualification part 1 alpha."

Main engineering appeared with various engineers.

Amelia stood out of the way to one side. "Run simulation."

Red alert sounded. An ensign reported. "Sir's we've lost all contact with everything about deck 20. The warp coils are stuck in a feedback loop. Pressure in the core is building. We're looking at a core breach in about 5 minutes but the ODN relays have been severed. Core ejections systems are offline."

"Have you attempted a reset of the ejection systems or tried the manual override?" Xu jumped in immediately knowing full well Michael would be the one to figure this out from a technical point of view, but she needed to show to her friend Michael and the First Officer that she had been studying like a hell bent mad women for the last day or so.

Michael rubbed the lower part of his chin to clear off the smudge. He listened to what Xu suggested, and added,

"Hansen, rotate the isolinear chips to get communications while you do that, Erikson, get the radio data network back up running." Michael said before turning towards Xu. "Going to try to manually override the system. I had thought of just 'pulling the plug' but that will take ten minutes that we don't have in order to stop the core breach."

Michael then sprinted towards the warp core area to try to do what he said he'd do. The manual override wasn't working, somewhere there was a breach in the ODN network and it was getting in the way of shutting things down.

"Ensign" she waved a hand at the nearest body beside her. "Get into the tubes and check the relays are not burned out, you" she pointed at a blond women "Purge the injection manifolds and see if you can vent the excess plasma though the nacelles to buy us at the very least a little more time!"

"Plasma venting system is offline. Core pressure is rising rapidly. We've got minutes here!" A panicked voice replied from somewhere near the core.

"Of course it's offline" Xu's tone dripping with sarcasm as she attempted to bypass the apparent malfunction within the venting systems but with no joy. This really was beyond her ability. Was it a breakdown somewhere obvious... if so Hawkins would have likely spotted it immediately.

"Can anyone see anything that might indicate where the problem is?" she directed at the room rather than a specific person.

A female lieutenant came over. "It looks like the ODN conduit to the nacelle power control unit has been severed. We might be able to bypass."

"Core pressure is still rising." Another ensign blurted out over the din and in the background, a glowing white spot was starting to form on the dilithium crystal chamber as the blue doughnut-shaped lights of the matter and antimatter injection paths moved faster and faster.

Xu turned to the blond Lieutenant, Hawkins still working on the manual override, and snapped rather harshly without meaning too.
"Then bypass it... Now!"

Michael looked towards Xu, "The manual over-ride isn't cooperating. " He knew what it was that needed to be done, but wasn't going to say.

As the blond engineer headed in the direction she needed to go, time ran out. The warp engine hit breakneck speed, the white light expanded dimming everything and then swallowing it up in a blinding flash of light. Michael had covered his eyes, with one hand to shield them. Then, there was darkness, as the program ended and Michael found himself on the floor, blinking to regain his sight. They cleared with the yellow grid marks in the holodeck being prominent against the black walls.

Amelia, who had shielded her eyes in preparation for the blast, now moved her arm away. "That's the standard engineering qualification for the bridge officers test. Now, before you get disheartened, over 98% of candidates blow up the ship on their first attempt and before you ask, yes I blew it up as well on my first go," she added with a smile.

Xu was still none the wiser to the truth of the situation. Had it been a technical fault with something she and Michael had missed or was this their own version of the Kobayashi Maru, a no win scenario. It was clear she needed to go back to the engine specs and brush up even more, perhaps she would send someone in much sooner to repair the issue with the ODN conduit... unless the test changed with every attempt!

"Are you able to give us any hints?"

Michael was quiet, then he shook his head. "I don't think there can be hints. Just think over what happened today and go from there. I think it might come to you."

It was all he could think of saying, it probably wasn't of much comfort for Xu.


Amelia shook her head. “I’m afraid no hints. The first part of the test Will be this evening, Holodeck 1 at 1900 hours. You’ll find the details on your PADDs. Right then...” she rubbed her hand together “I’m going to get some breakfast before the morning briefing. I’ll see you both there.”

Michael gave a nod, " I will see you both at the briefing then, and.. at 1900. "

"See you then" she offered with a slight smile but still not understanding what had gone wrong.

OFF: