RP Log: Painting With LePage
| Roleplay Log | |
|---|---|
| Participants: | |
Location(s):
| |
Stardate:
| |
| 2024-05-12 02:19 | |
- Main Bridge <USS Phoenix NCC-170100-A>
There is a chime as Saucer Aft Turbolift stops at this level.
Ensign Moncyu arrives from Saucer Aft Turbolift.
LePage is sitting at his Engineering station, with what looks to be a diagram of the shield system pulled up.
Moncyu arrives for her bridge shift. She She tosses a careless smile at the Chief Engineer as she passes by his station, but then notices the shield display on his screen and stops. She peers at it with curiosity.
LePage seems to be chewing on nothing, jaw clenching and unclenching. His eyes work back and forth over the diagram and the moment they stray enough to catch the Ensign in his peripheral he jumps, having been thoroughly engrossed in his work.
"I didn't mean to startle you, Sir," the Betazoid offers. "I just noticed the shield diagram there and... well... tactical officer, you know."
"Yeah, no you're fine, I... Tactical officer?" LePage says, turning around. "Oh! So you are. Good, you can help me with this" he says, looking suddenly a little less worried.
It's Moncyu's turn to be surprised. "I can?" she asks. "How so?"
"I'm going to be deploying... a bunch of particles and gasses to basically coat the inside of the shield and give us some protections" LePage explains. "As well as attempt to make it to where we're more susceptible to being pulled back into our own reality"
Moncyu pulls her eyes away from the display and stares at the Chief, apparently patiently waiting for more.
"I could use your overview to make sure that the shield isn't reacting adversely as well as to be a second pair of eyes as I deploy this" LePage says.
"Oh! I see," says the Engisn. "Of course, Sir. I'd be happy to help." She moves to the tactical console and logs in.
Ensign Moncyu mans Tactical Console.
Ensign Moncyu taps a control on Tactical Console.
Tactical Console beeps and activates.
LePage keys in the power settings for the shield, setting them to max rip. "Shields up please Ensign"
"Aye, Sir," Moncyu says, then enters a couple of keystrokes. "Shields up."
"Right... The way this is going to play out is that we're going to lay this down in three distinct layers. The substrate, which is going to be a binder agent for all these particles and keep everything playing nice with eachother, some anti-gravitons to offer some protection against extreme gravometric effects and them some quantum-doped particles which will... well I'm hoping it'll act like a sail or a magnet or something so that if we hit another rift, we'll be attracted back to our own universe"
Moncyu glances up at LePage, slightly amused. "Sounds interesting," she says. "That's going to be contained between the hull and the shield layer?" she asks.
"Yes" LePage nods. "And mostly sticking to the shield. Better than coating the hull plus a little easier I believe. When we're done, we should be able to drop the shields and let all this stuff... dissipate? Or destroy it. But either way it should be taken care of. Let's start by releasing some of the binder agent and... well make sure it sticks" LePage says before tapping a button. On the main viewer, the view changes to one of the ship's many particle emitters. An offwhite cloud of particles is streamed towards empty space. It eventually collides with the shield and spreads out.
Moncyu checks the sensor data to see where the viewscreen focus is directed, then compares the shield integrity in that zone to operational standards. "So far, the shields don't seem to be affected by the particals," she reports.
"I'll take that... Well. Let's get to painting" LePage says before directing the emitters to let out more of the schmoo and directing it to other parts of the shield.
Moncyu watches the tactical shield display, nodding to herself. "Shield integrity is unchanged."
LePage nods and carries on. "So then, how's the Phoenix? Your first posting, correct?"
"Aside from a brief Midshipman's cruise on an ordinance supply tender, yes, Sir," Moncyu replies. "It was a quick way to get my ordinance handling ticket." Her console beeps and she taps in a command. "There's a harmonic ripple in zone Sigma-32. Retuning the emitters in that area to compensate."
LePage checks his engineering graphs, quickly analyzing that. "Good compensation" he nods, continuing to spray now the aft portion of the shield. "She's nothing like old Phoenix"
Moncyu finishes smoothing out the shield disturbance. "You served on the old Phoenix?" she asks.
"Oh yes" LePage says. "Miss her every day" he sighs as he starts to painting the last quarter or so of the shield.
Moncyu glances up briefly. "You don't like this Phoenix? What's wrong with her?"
LePage purses his lips and tilts his head. "Nothin' really. Just... too big? Too fancy?" the Chief Engineer shrugs. "When I was getting wound up over wanting to be Chief Engineer, finally finding some direction in my career, it was old Phoenix that was my dream. But that's not to say this one ain't growing on me. She's got her own quirks too"
Moncyu scrolls through the shield status displays zone by zone. After a few seconds she says, "You know, there is something kind of... unknowable... about this ship. Like no matter how much time you spend aboard, no matter how deeply you delve into her systems, she's always going to keep you at a certain distance. Was the old Phoenix like that also?"
"If this ship is like that because she's big, Old Phoenix was like that because we were constantly surrounded by the ghosts of the old crew" LePage chuckles. "Tweaks and modifications made for mission after mission. The ship ran beautifully but I couldn't tell you why half the time. I'd ask my Chief and she'd say leave it well enough alone. Lots of fun that way... Okay, I think we're just about ready for the anti-gravitons. Let me get the emitters swapped over then" the Engineer says, shooting off some messages to the below decks teams
Moncyu smiles to herself. "It sounds like you're saying that the old Phoenix had more character than the new one."
"Same thing with Nutopia" LePage remarks. "Old Utopia Planitia was as hodgepodge as it got. Hundreds of years of ship building, modifications slapped together. It was a consequence of Engineers working there, they could bodge anything together so nobody ever sat down and said let's upgrade the whole thing" he says as he taps on his controls. The emitters begin to send out a red cloud of particles to the shield.
Moncyu winces a little at the mention of the old Utopia shipyards. "I've heard that was a very unique place," she says. "I guess it would have to be, with so much history."
LePage chuckles. "Yeah. One hell of a place to be" he says, smiling.
Moncyu eyes the engineer briefly with a sudden sense of understanding, then looks back at her console. "The antigraviton partical balance is a little uneven," she notes. "The shields are registering a negative pressure track along the under side of the forward saucer."
LePage sucks in a breath and stops the emission. "That's weird... why've you done that?" he wonders aloud to himself. He turns his chair around and starts staring out the viewscreen, flipping through views. It isn't until he gets about through the fifth view that the problem elucidates itself. A cone from the primary shield emitters to the main body of the shield has made itself known. The usually invisible energy transmission for the fore shields. "Oh, right. I forgot we have sort of an umbrella style shield pattern... Oh dear"
"Problem?" the Betazoid asks. "I'm not really a scientist, and I'm not sure how all this stuff you're trying to do works."
"I mean, less of a problem more of a design quirk. See this cone of energy coming off the front of us? That's the stalk from which the rest of the shield blooms. Didn't really account for that so have bit of an eddy current situation with that. Can't get rid of it or the shield goes away... Could do secondaries maybe... What do you think?" LePage asks
Moncyu checks out the portion of the emitter flow in question. "Oh, I think I know what you mean," she says. "We should be able to adjust the shield geometry from the lateral emitters to reduce the outflow in that area. You know... spread out the energy more evenly? Would that help?"
"Yes. That'd do nicely" LePage nods, sighing. "I maintain the equipment, it's you folks what know how best to run it"
Moncyu adjusts the shield emitters so that the primary forward energy stream is reduced and the slack is taken up by the surrounding emitters. She spends some time fine tuning the geometry, then asks, "How's that look?"
LePage takes a look and nods. "Pretty piece of work. How's our pressue issue?"
"It's... um... better," Moncyu replies a little hesitantly. "It kind of looks like the antigravitons are being a little sticky to the hull. It's taking time for them to defuse into the lower pressure areas."
"Hmmph. Just need to go a tad slower then. Or eject them faster away from the hull" LePage nods. He continues spraying, a little more dilligently with this issue in mind.
Moncyu watches her sensor data. "That's... yeah, that's better," she says. "A little more on the leading port edge... Yeah, there it goes."
"Right then" LePage says, setting about finishing his spray of the anti-gravitons. "Thank you Ensign, your help has been invaluable so far"
Moncyu smies. "My pleasure, Sir," she replies as she watches the pressure line even out. "Ok, it looks like we have an even distribution now."
"Right then. Time for the doped particles" LePage says, sending a message to have those prepared.
"Doped particals, Sir?" Moncyu asks. "I'm not familiar with that term."
"Basically taking a base material and coating it with a desired element or effect. In particular these have been doped with as much quantum emission as I can to make them all part of our home signature. So if we get into another rift, that should hopefully guide us back home. Maybe, I dunno but it's my best crack at it" LePage explains, beginning the emission of the radiantly blue particles.
"You mean like a... quantum magnet?" the Ensign asks.
"In a sense, yes" LePage nods. "It's going to make it very clear to the fundamental forces of a quantum rift that we'd quite like to be home because we're very out of place"
Moncyu laughs a little. "Well, let's hope they understand the language in which we've written our request."
"It's the best I can manage" LePage sighs, moving his spray to the aft of the ship.
Moncyu goes back to watching her board. "There must be a lot of pressure on you to get this right," she says after a long silence. "I apologize, Sir. I didn't mean to make light of it."
"No, it's fine. Glad it all seems easy to someone" LePage smiles. "Just tired, that's all. Almost done though"
This time Moncyu doesn't detect any problems. No shield harmonic ripples, no pressure differentials, nothing that seems concerning at all. "The distribution looks good," she reports. "Shields are holding steady."
"Right then" LePage nods. "Now we wait" he says, leaning back in his seat, sighing.
Moncyu glances between her console and the Chief. "Is there any way of knowing whether this will work?" she asks.
"Sure" LePage chuckles. "When we wake up and we're back where we belong"
Moncyu cocks her head to one side. "Well, in that case, it sounds like we should all go to sleep so we can wake up to find out if it worked," she says with a small smile.
"I've got a report to write, but you've put in your fair share" LePage nods.
"Thank you, Sir," Moncyu says. "I'm glad I could help."
LePage nods. "Grab something from the candy bowl in the Engineer's lounge if it suits you"