Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!wn14feed!worldnet.att.net!attbi_s52.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: Rain Mitchell Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Message-ID: <2004100216422116807%rainmitchell@gmailcom> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: [ORIG] - STIB - San Francisco - #4 User-Agent: Unison/1.5.2 Lines: 121 NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.219.22.224 X-Complaints-To: abuse@mchsi.com X-Trace: attbi_s52 1096753336 12.219.22.224 (Sat, 02 Oct 2004 21:42:16 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 21:42:16 GMT Organization: MediaCom High Speed Internet Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 21:42:16 GMT Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative:160961 X-Received-Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 14:42:16 PDT (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) "So?" Jim asked. He was pacing back and forth behind the Bolian, who in turn had settled comfortably behind a terminal at the Great Lakes Training Center. The center had seen better days. The décor wasn't as bad as the Presidio, but it was obvious that this center didn't receive the attention that Starfleet Academy did. "Catastrophic loss of structural integrity." Turnal said. "At least that's what the accident report will say." Jim had gotten used to the Bolian's arrogant tone, he was very nearly always right. "They lost the SIF?" he asked. He'd seen it before, but not often. Generally their accident reports showed 'pilot error' as the cause. It was more true today than ever that the machines performed flawlessly, their operators less so. "Looks like, we've got good telemetry. Enlisted Engineering is one of the primary courses here you know." The Bolian let the various sensor readings fly past him on the screen. He wanted to see the data raw before he let the computer tell him what he was seeing. Jim was the same way, it was one of the reasons that Turnal had been on Jim's team for more than 3 years now. Previous engineers hadn't met Jim's expectations for what an investigative engineer should be. "Pull the maintenance records, now we get to slog back through why that system failed." Jim said. He didn't hear the 'way ahead of you boss' that Turnal muttered under his breath. "Porter to Navarro." Jim said, after tapping his comm. badge. "Yeah Boss?" Jose's voice came back. Jose and Nana had dropped them off and then gone on to scan the debris field for survivors, unlikely though that may be, or remains. "How does it look Chief?" Jim asked. "Skipper, we got bits of shuttle spread from Madison to Winnipeg. Clean up's gonna be a bitch." Jim could tell that Jose wasn't telling him everything though. There was something in his voice. "What else?" "We ahhh, well we haven't exactly been able to track down any remains yet skipper." That was unusual. The sensor suite aboard the Watson was very sensitive, meant for this type of investigation. The biosensors could be tuned to the DNA signatures of the victims, if they had those signatures on file, which they did in this case. That usually made recovery of remains, or infrequently survivors, a quick matter. "You check your systems?" Jim asked. "We ran a level 5 after we didn't find anything in the first ten minutes. We really haven't had time for anything more. We didn't exactly get a lot of time to reset everything after Europa." The chief said. "I know." Jim said. "Why don't you come on in and grab a few cadets to help with a level 1? Turnal and I will grab the SAR logs, we can use those as a start." The SAR mission's sensor logs should show remains locations. The SAR boys used the same sensors as those carried on the Watson, they were the ones that got to recover survivors, Jim and his crew usually picked up the pieces. Jim walked back to Turnal and his station. "Looks like that bird was Murphy's personal chariot." Turnal said as Jim walked up. "Down over 30 times last year. Mostly for issues with the EPS system, but at least three occasions to deal with failed SIF generators, just one in those cases." "Who's the crew chief for that bird? 30 down checks in a year, they should have sent it back to the ship yards for an overhaul." "Well, crew chiefs are kinda a touchy subject here Boss." Turnal said. "What do you mean touchy?" Jim asked. He'd joined Starfleet out of the University of Montana's Mechanical Engineering Program. He hadn't been indoctonated by either Starfleet Academy's engineering courses, or those here, at an enlisted training center. "Well, these are student's ships. The instructors are the official crew chiefs, but the students are the ones that maintain the birds." Jim grunted disapprovingly. "Alright, well we'll follow that up later. Right now Jose and Nana can't find any remains, pull the SAR mission's sensor logs." He said. "Couldn't find any..." Turnal began to ask, but was already pulling up the SAR mission's logs. "Those sensors just detected the soup that was left over from orbit over Europa." "Yeah." Jim said. "I know, but lets see what the SAR boys mapped for us." "Those records can not be found." The computer told them. "What do you mean can't be found?" Turnal asked the screen. He punched a few more buttons, searching. Jim stepped away quietly. Something had clicked in his mind. First Talbert had taken him aside and told him to watch his back, now there were problems finding remains, and accessing the SAR flight's mission logs. "Turnal, don't worry about the logs." He said, gravitating back behind the Bolian. "Go help Jose and Nana with the Level 1, don't wake any of the cadets to help. I need you three to do that diagnostic." He said quietly, distantly. "Okay, but what's up with the SAR logs?" The engineer asked. "You worry about the sensors. I'll do the investigating." Jim said. "What's going on Jim?" The Bolian asked, standing up and facing him.
 "I don't know yet, but I'm going to try to find out. Right now I need you working on those sensors." He said. He could see in Turnal's eyes that he didn't believe him, at least the part about the sensors. The gravity of the situation hadn't sunk in yet. The Bolian was too close to the data, to trying to find an accidental cause that he didn't see the larger ramifications of the night's events. "Right. Sensors." Turnal said, leaving in a huff. Jim grabbed a PADD from the desk and did a quick sync of the information he thought he'd need, and then disabled the PADD's network link. He dropped his comm badge on the terminal and headed for the transporter room. NewMessage: