Setting Up Science

Posted on Fri Sep 18th, 2009 @ 3:03am by Commodore Samantha York

630 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Prelude: Blowing away the Cobwebs
Location: Main Science Lab
Timeline: current

ON

Lieutenant JG Samantha York walked into the main science lab and looked around. Piles and piles of boxes were stacked everywhere. It reminded her of her first look at the main science lab on the Republic. It seemed strange to be back at drydock in a new ship so soon, but sometimes life just worked out that way.

Sam had already determined what was going where. Now she organized teams for each science department and began to coordinate the move. For the rest of the day she and the other scientists on board moved boxes. Anything that wasn't clearly labeled was opened, labeled and resealed.

The supplies that stayed in the main science lab were stacked along the back counter near the computers. The rest were slowly moved to their new homes. By the end of the day, the job was done.

Tomorrow the various teams would begin unpacking and setting up the equipment. Her job would be to set up the computers in each lab and the two databases. Every lab would have at least two computers, one for the main computer and one for the secondary database. The larger labs would have more, based on need. Two computers would also go in her office, along with another large bookshelf.

She’d set up her office tonight after everyone else left. There was plenty of time for her own stuff later. Now she needed to get everything else set up.

Sam dismissed everyone else, then walked into her office and began to unpack boxes of books. The entire back wall of her office was a bookshelf. She’d had it specially ordered.

Samantha preferred paper books whenever possible. She loved the smell and feel of books. And, a majority of the history books she dealt with weren’t available in electronic format. They were too old and not of interest to anyone who wasn’t into history like she was. But that was fine with Sam. She and some of her fellow academicians would scan in their books and send copies to each other. Sometimes Sam would print one out to add to her collection. It wasn't the same as finding the book herself, but it was an excellent way to add to her collection.

Every time Sam went to a new town or planet she would look for books. She also had several connections who would contact her from time to time when they ran across something she might be interested in. One of her contacts was a Ferengi trader. Sam was a goo customer so he kept his eye out for old books.

Sam sang to herself as she worked. When the books were all unpacked, she turned to her desk. Now to set up her computers and start the security process. Once they were done, she’d be able to extend the security protocols to the other computers in the science database.

Samantha set up her computers, then loaded her security protocols and encrypted files. That took more time. She not only had to load them, but update them then run several diagnostics. When she was finally done, it was very late.

Sam thought about just crashing on her couch, but decided against it. At least for now. She knew there would be times in the future where she would work late and be too tired to go back to her quarters. She didn’t want to scare off her team quite yet. She’d already given her new CO enough headaches. He didn’t need to have members of her team complaining that she never left her office.

Chuckling, Sam shut everything down and locked it up, then walked quietly back to her quarters.

OFF

Lieutenant JG Samantha York
Chief Science Officer
USS Orion

 

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