RP Log: Worthington's Shopping List
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Stardate:
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| 2025-04-16 17:33 | |
XO's Office - Saucer <USS Phoenix NCC-170100-A>
- The XO's office is a mirror of the Captain's Ready Room on this deck. It is separated into two sections by a low railing and a small step. The first tier is at the same level as the main bridge, and is for more formal meetings with the Executive Officer, and includes a wooden L-shaped desk with a single chair on the far side, beyond it is a sliding door into a private lavatory.
- The lowered tier, down a single step between the low railing, has a long sofa along the outer bulkhead just below a window. A small glass oval coffee table is in front of the sofa. A food replicator is also available along the far bulkhead. A section of the sofa can pull out, revealing a single-sized bed, should the XO not be able to get below to their quarters.
- Out the viewport: The orange hue of the nearby star can be seen.
Worthington is seated behind his desk. He nods to the door as it opens.
Ramirez walks into the office and slides his hands up into the small of his back. "Sir?"
Lieutenant Hauser arrives from Main Bridge.
Worthington smiles to Ramirez and gestures to the sofa as the door opens again. "Take a seat please," he says.
Ramirez nods. "Thank you, sir." He moves to the indicated seat, and sits.
Hauser comes in with a smile in time to hear that and sits down beside Ramirez. "What's up, Commander?" She asks.
Worthington shifts his chair to face the pair of them. "Have a seat as well, lieutenant," he says. "I thought we all could chat. Ensign Ramirez and I have been discussing ideas for next generation flight suits, as well as a possibility for developing a cheaper probe designed as a mobile, semi-durable, and controllable target for weapons testing."
Ramirez nods. He looks over to Hauser. "We've discussed bits and pieces of this as well, Lieutenant. The XO and I have several ideas; you've asked that they be assembled into something that can be pursued. Hopefully none of this is coming out of left field?"
Hauser smiles ruefully. "I said, I think, that we had a lot going on, but that it was possible. I understand you're aiming for a warp capable target buoy or drone. That about right?"
Worthington nods. "Precisely," he says. "And I already have a chassis idea for you to consider. You won't need to add anything to it. Really, it's more like, strip things down from it. Take a class 7 probe, with a little less range, say, 10,000 light seconds instead of 14,000, and no active scanning capabilities. Maintain its remote control and comms capability. Basically, a slight modification based on an existing platform to make a system that can be more readily produced and more importantly, expended without issue."
Worthington pauses, considering. "The other concept is related to flight suits. In this instance, we have no prototype or model to base modifications off of for what we'd like to see, as we would both be removing some components and adding some. Removing armor, and adding a thruster pack and a more advanced comm system, particularly to include an emergency beacon with a longer range than what fighters can typically rely on for communications, much longer."
"That would likely require a feasibility study to know just what the hell we could even achieve with that without having pilots carrying around entire shipboard systems on their backs." He smiles. "These aren't super important, need to be done now priorities, but like the eva suit concept you worked on with Cris, these would be projects that would benefit us and possibly other units as well."
Hauser nods. "I could play around with a class seven probe and see what we can come up with. As to flight suits, if I've learned one thing from the EVA mods, it's that there are tradeoffs. Chris was to be chatting with the other pilots on board and maybe bring me some tradeoff proposals?" She makes it more a question than a statement.
Ramirez ahs to Hauser. "Yeah, the flight suit thing is separate from the remote target thing, for sure." Then he listens closely to Worthington, nodding in a few places. "To be clear, there are several concepts in the one idea the XO just laid out with the flight suits."
"First: an automated emergency beacon that has much better range than the existing comms system. It only needs to work for 10 or 12 hours in high power mode. The beacon should deploy automatically when you eject, and send last known coordinates out in a pulse." He nods. "And yes. These requests are coming out of the feedback I've gotten back."
Worthington smiles to Hauser. "Two of the active pilots are in this room lieutenant, so the feedback was easy to come by," he says.
Hauser winks. "Two more pilots onboard outrank you both, one by virtue of being our captain, and the other as your CAG." She grins at the pair. "But it's a start."
Ramirez shrugs. And seems to have nothing else to add.
Worthington glances from Ramirez to Hauser. "There are definitely tradeoffs," he says. "I doubt we'll get much if we want weight reduction. I personally think emergency comms are more important than weight reduction, but this opinion may not be universal."
He pauses. "There's something else. I would like to see if we can find a way to work in a directional comms array into the fighters to link up with the suits and broadcast a signal along a straight course instead of omnidirectionally as an option, to see if we could have better comms with the mothership. The emergency beacon idea is for ejecting. If a pilot is out in space and needing rescue, that emergency beacon is going to need to have enough range to reach a possible rescue ship."
Hauser nods slowly. "I'm gonna have to work with you guys to make sure even the prelim designs come out right. But it can be done."
Ramirez interjects, "The original memo I wrote about the EVA suit project was predicated on a general problem we had -- EVA suits are too bulky to wear unless you HAVE to wear them. 'Just in case' was never a design goal for the old ones. The new, lighter mass version can be worn in a 'just in case' scenario, though there are obvious tradeoffs."
"The flight suits can be more massive. Adding in an eva pack and emergency comms would be worth adding some mass, I think. Conversely, so long as the radiation shielding stays intact (a problem you solved with the EVA suit, lieutenant,) losing some kinetic and energy damage reduction capacity is fine. I think."
Hauser nods. "Do we have spare flight suits? Or just enough for the pilots on board? Meaning one fine gentleman aboard will have to surrender his for a while to be deconstructed and examined."
Worthington looks to Hauser. "Flight suits are manufactured on an as needed basis, and are specifically designed and fitted to each pilot," he says. "They're rather unique in that regard."
Ramirez looks over. "I suppose we could have a copy suit or dummy suit fabricated if the CAG or Captain signed off on it, sir?"
"Here's my idea, Commander," she says. "Let's make me," she taps her chest, "a flight suit of my own. Then, give me the chance to borrow a fighter for a couple hours so that I can see things as you pilots see them. Then, we'll redesign it. you see, I don't have any experience wearing your gear or being out in space in one of your fighters. I think that'd help."
Worthington considers Hauser, pondering. "We'll have to talk to the CAG," he says. "The suit, I think we can get that no problem. Actual flight time in a fighter lieutenant, that takes training and qualification before anyone sets foot in one, and while you are exceedingly qualified, overqualified in fact, for the duties you perform, I'm not sure on your level of experience in fighter operations. These are different from shuttles and runabouts, significantly so."
"I cannot promise you the real thing, but you can likely simulate much of the experience on the holodeck without any significant risk to yourself, the Phoenix, or any of the fighters. Unless you actually wanted to go through fighter training, which would be a reasonably significant commitment on your part."
Ramirez looks over to Hauser, and grins. "Trust me. You're never going to fly something as responsive or powerful in space, Lieutenant. There's nothing like it." He shrugs. "As far as basic fighter ops and such, sir?" He looks over to the XO. "I'm happy to help the good Lieutenant here in my off hours, if the CAG and Captain are okay with it."
Ramirez adds. "Someone else would probably have to /certify/ her, but that's a different thing."
"Overqualified to be chief engineer?" She grins at Worthington. "That's kind, sir. I don't think I need to become a fighter pilot, and if simming the experience is better, we can do that. I would like my own suit to play with. Because it will be that suit I take apart."
Worthington considers. "We can do a few things," he says, glancing to Ramirez. "Jessica, you can have unrestricted access to my fighter, on the deck. Not flying it, but poke around every system, know it inside out, get a feel for the seat, the interior, everything. I'd also like to see about bumping the cruise up on her, if possible."
"You can also get some sim time in with Cris, and he can walk you through some maneuvers. In the holodeck, you can have the computer fly the ship through more complex maneuvers, and you can get a feel for what it's like, how the controls function, the sort of forces that a pilot is subjected to, all with minimal to no risk to yourself. You can do all of that without any significant fighter training, just some rudimentary basics."
Ramirez nods. "And like I said, Lieutenant. I'm happy to help fill in the blanks on basic fighter ops. Hell. It's my favorite topic. You can ask whatever questions you have based on your self-taught lessons. Or we can sim. Or....whatever."
Hauser nods and grins. "Sounds like fun!" She says. "You'll have to tell me what Hatter says."
Worthington nods. "That we shall, Lieutenant," he replies.
Ramirez looks between the two. "Let me know if I can help in any way, XO, Lieutenant."
Hauser stands. "Thanks, guys. I better get back downstairs."