New ship, new opportunities, Part 2
Posted on Fri Apr 21st, 2023 @ 11:15am by Lieutenant Njalia Sayffier
Mission:
Shakedown Shake-Up
Location: Operations Office
922 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure
Njalia looked around the Operations Office and looked at her datapad, she called up images of the others department head offices, they were all identical. She sighed and showed the images to Doug. “Notice anything?”
Doug looked at the images and back to Njalia. “No, should I?”
“Each department has a different focus, sometimes radically different, so why would they be identical in every respect?”
“Oh, I see,” his eyes flickered as he reviewed data. “Apparently they are all designed to the Starfleet maximum efficiency standard.”
Njalia’s antenna quirked. “There is not any such thing. We are too diverse for there to be any efficient standard that works for all of us. An arbitrary ‘most efficient’ will be uncomfortable for everyone and positively painful for a few.” she paused. “Speaking of which. Computer, environmental system, set room to Ajzure Standard 3.”
“Azjure Standard 3 not recognized,” replied the computer.
“What? For goodness sake,” said Njalia. “Uploading Andorian standard suites to the environmental database.”
“Confirmed.”
“Now, initiate Azjure Standard 3.”
“Cannot comply, New environment standards that put certain species at risk must be approved.”
“What species would be put at risk?”
The computer rattled off the three most radically hot climate-adapted members of the Federation. Njalia checked her datapad. “None of those species has crew on the Nelson, or on the Starbase we are visiting.” She checked further. “There is only one in this quadrant serving in Starfleet. Request approval for environmental setting Azjure Standard 3.”
“Denied. Approval for such a change can only be given by Command as this requires Level 7 access.”
“Really? Then set it to the lowest allowed temperature,” said Njalia.
“Complying.”
Njalia looked at her datapad, the temperature was shifting to .5 degrees Celsius cooler. “This is unacceptable.”
Doug watched all of this with fascination. The idea that people would not be happy with the regulations was a new one and one that he was sure he could not have had without the personality matrix. “But what can you do, Lieutenant, the rules are the rules.”
“Bad rules are worse than no rules at all,” replied Njalia. “Computer, initiate Program Sayffier IM-prototype hologram.”
Crystalizing into existence was an idealized Andorian woman wearing a gown of crystals, crystal rings glinted on her fingers as she luxuriously stretched. “Oh, this is nice.”
Njalia’s breath caught, she had forgotten how, well, sexy she had designed Ice Maiden to be. She had been at a low point in the Academy when she built her image and she had obviously poured a lot of her frustration as to how she perceived she was being treated into making the Ice Maiden as attractive as possible.
Doug was similarly affected, though stunned might be a better word for him.
“You look amazing,” said Njalia, “the holographic rendering is exquisite.”
“I know,” the Ice Maiden replied. “And full haptic feedback, oh, you should not have, my dear.” She reached out and stroked Njalia's cheek which caused the Andorian the shiver, a rare experience.
:
Njalia cleared her throat. “I am glad you are happy. Can you venture into the system here and find out how many things I need to do my job are blocked by not having proper access? The design seems to be a bureaucrat’s dream with no sense of how a starship actually runs.”
“Must I?” the Maiden sighed. “We, only if I get to report back in person , , , as it were.”
“Of course,” agreed Njalia and the Ice Maiden dissolved into a flurry of snow and was gone.
“What . . . who was that?” blurted out Doug.
“That is the Ice Maiden, a quasi-AI I programmed back in the Academy and my helper,” Njalia watched the last holographic snowflake melt. “She is really something, is she not?”
Doug nodded.
“Doug, can you get me some iced chocolate milk from the replicator, version Sayffier-3, please.”
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
Njalia took a seat behind the desk, it was every bit as uncomfortable as she had expected and the desk was just the wrong height as well. “Computer, holographic array, Sayffier Standard.”
“The system recommends that you use the Inquiery-class uniform layout, Lieutenant,” said the Computer.
“Of course it does,” muttered Njalia darkly. “OK, let us see the uniform layout then.”
The holographic controls resolved. Njalia sat stunned.
Doug set down the chocolate milk. “Is something wrong, Lieutenant?”
Njalia gestured hopelessly to the holographic display and reached for the glass to take a deep drink. The display was easily two meters wide by a meter high with everything displayed in distinct primary colors. Along each side were changing usage graphs, while a text crawl at the bottom noted the location of the non-holographic crew.
Doug looked at it and back to Njalia. “I do not see anything wrong with it.”
“Of course you don’t, you are built to process data,” she sighed. “Computer, initiate Sayffier Standard display.” The display shrunk to a very clean design with minimal active data feeds.
Doug watched with interest. “That seems like so much less data, Lieutenant.”
Njalia laughed. “Because it is, Doug. But this display what I need right now not just showing me everything I might, maybe, possibly need at some point in ever-changing bright colors so I cannot focus on anything.”
“Oh.” said Doug.
“Oh, indeed,” agreed Njalia. “Computer, Operations override, code Sayffier, Psi-Two-Seven-Sword-Epsilon. Set the system display default to Karulean Academy Advanced-4, this is effective for all system displays immediately.”
“Now at least people will have something they can use and will not try and send them into future shock.”
. . . to conconcluded?
