From: Masako GotoDate: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 01:12:31 -0500 (EST) Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: Are We Aware?
SD 90308.0540 ---------------------------- Biological Sciences Division ---------------------------- MD 2.1005 The main lab was swarming with students and researchers, it seemed. No one was doing much to make the situation any better; anyone standing up was walking around or running back and forth, and anyone sitting down was banging uselessly on the computer keyboards. Anne looked at her watch. The next wave should come right about...came a voice. "Go ahead, Derek." "All right, I'll get to it." "Did you hold that meeting the way you said you did?" demanded Anne. "Good, then everything will be just fine. I've got to see to the BSD now, Derek; they can actually damage something here." "Take care of it. You know the procedure as well as I do." There was a big sigh, then Fielding reluctantly said that he could handle the Computer and Intelligence Sciences Division himself. Anne was about to take a burner away from an overexcited Ensign when another communication came through, this time from Security. "What is it?" she asked, trying not to sound angry. said Ensign Keyrin at the other end of the link. "Yes?" Anne waited. The CSO sounded too relaxed to be heading down her way just yet. "No, but go ahead, Mr. Keyrin. No one can hear anything with all the noise." "Oh, no! I'd better see to that... Yes, it's a drill, and don't you dare tell that to any of my staff, or I'll call off the chicken research!" Anne scanned the room looking for likely perpetrators of the call to sickbay. said Ensign Keyrin good-naturedly. Anne located a likely group of students. They were huddled in a corner, half-paralyzed with fear and panic. "Did one of you call sickbay?" she asked. "Y-yes, sir," said a student timidly. "I see." Anne turned away, then contacted the medical facility, telling the nurse to cancel any alert that had come from the Science Department within the past ten minutes. Anne shrugged and slipped, unnoticed, out of the laboratory suite. She stopped by the PSD, but she couldn't get into the lab for the mob of students in the hallway. She stopped by the CISD, where she was able to get into the lab only to be nearly crushed by a horde of students and researchers. The MLD was a different story. Serak had everyone sitting calmly at their stations, apparently meditating. They weren't meditating, as it turned out; they all turned as one body toward the door when Anne entered the lab. "You are finally back," observed Serak calmly. "Is it time for the debriefing, sir?" "In ten minutes, Mr. Serak," said Anne, "in here." As she went down to the BSD labs again, she reflected that the MLD might not be as useless as she had originally thought. -------------------------------- Math and Logic Division Main Lab -------------------------------- MD 1.1045 "Absolutely deplorable," reiterated Anne, tapping the floor with a pointer that she had filched from the Physical Sciences lab. "Response time was excellent -- everyone mobilized within ten seconds of computer system failure -- but the *type* of response was all wrong! "Number one, you do *NOT* turn *on* the fire extinguisher WITHOUT ANY FIRE!" She glared at the Physical Science Division students who had done just that. "Number two, you do *NOT* call sickbay the second you have a psychosomatic reaction to an alert siren!" She glared at the Biological Science Division students who had panicked at the sound of the klaxons. "Number three, you do *NOT* shut off *all* systems of the computer WITHOUT RUNNING THE AUXILIARY SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS FIRST!" She glared hardest of all at the Computer and Intelligence Sciences Division students who had frantically unplugged all the computer consoles in the division. It would take at least an hour to get them back to functioning level again. "And the *rest* of you," Anne went on, looking at the Researchers, Specialists, and the executive officers, "you can't just stand around being pushovers! You must learn how to exert your authority! I want to see you," she said, indicating the division chairmen and her three administrative officers, "in my office at 1300 hours." She shook her head. "I cannot believe," she went on, "that it took you all forty-three minutes to realize that this was not a true emergency. *UNBELIEVABLE*! The only exception to this Department-wide condemnation," she added, "is the Mathematics and Logic Department. Lieutenant Serak, you and your staff performed remarkably well. You first did a cursory check of the systems and found the program in your auxiliary system; then you used your logic and programming skills to render it inactive. Very nicely done." She looked back at the department. "People," she said, "we have a *lot* to learn before we ship out of DELTA." She shook her head wearily. "Dismissed." "Sir," said Fielding, "are you to be condemned as well?" "Of course, Mr. Fielding," replied Anne, striding out of the lab. She brushed a piece of stray wire off her uniform. "I should've used the holodecks instead!" Respectfully submitted, Masako Goto Lt. Anne Murray, Ph.D. CSciO USS CHESAPEAKE NCC-31813 *NRPG* Lynnaea: I'm assuming Keyrin remembers the reference to the tough chicken... Chris: Anne will report to sickbay after her meeting with the division heads. Amy, Takako, Melvin: Has Anne totally done something bad? She didn't mean any harm... she just wanted to see how "green" these kids really were... James: She'll be contacting the Counselor (gasp!) after her physical.
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