Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Jefferies Tubes- Conspirators Unite!

Posted by Warrant Officer Walker Darach (Chief Operations Officer) in Jefferies Tubes- Conspirators Unite!

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Jefferies Tubes- Conspirators Unite!

(snip)

She let out a carefree laugh, seemingly at ease for once. “Come on, Chief, let’s go make your day.”

After locking down the area so it wouldn’t affect the rest of the systems and also not get accidentally tampered with, Faye led Darach down to CS Lab 2.

The lab was a rather tidy place these days as Faye didn’t need most of the spare parts on a regular basis. There were still several crates tucked neatly along the back wall, but the central work table remained clear and for the most part Faye only needed the three large displays she had set up to work together along the bank of consoles that formed the workstations. There were some task chairs at the monitors.

Faye unlocked the lab and showed him in knowing the lab itself was nothing special. It was the work that went on inside that was why they were here. “Pull up a chair,” she said as she took up one herself, situating herself in between Monitor Two and Three, so he could sit between One and Two and see what she was doing.

She unlocked the system with a highly encrypted procedure and set about pulling up the root files. Then with graceful tap of her fingers, she let the code slowly scroll so he could parse it. Her code was very much like she was and yet somehow more elegant than she ever would perceive herself to be. It was clean and to the point, but where the parts had to merge with the rest of the Manhattan’s systems, it seemingly got messy. However, if you looked closer, a skilled programmer could see the logic behind the forcefulness of the program. It didn’t play by the standard rules and even broke them at times but it did so with exceptional delicacy.

“So, I know the issue isn’t the programming, but perhaps we can devise a solution with it,” Faye commented.

~Faye Calloway, Data Specialist

As Faye unlocked the door, Walker followed her in looking around. He wasn’t quite sure what he had expected, but he kept looking around, taking it all in. “You know, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s almost to plain,” he said as he pulled up a chair. As the code started sliding across the screen, he let out a low whistle.

“Dude, my head is cluttered enough. I don’t need that in my work space,” she said without taking her eyes off the screen.

“That is more what I was expecting.”

As he watched the code scroll across the screen, he could see Faye in it. It was elegant in its design, simple and to the point. And when it had to interact with other systems, it did so in an unconventional way. Raising his hand he scanned over one section in particular. It was definitely a unique solution, but he could see how it would interact with the ships systems, without leaving behind any evidence of doing so.

Shaking his head, he turned and looked over at Faye. “I definitely would not think the issue is within your code. You can only predict the unexpected so many times, before some engineer will come up with something out of right field. But I think we can come up with a patch that will help stop this specific brand of crazy engineering.

Faye chewed on her lower lip. “I don’t mind a patch… I think.” It wasn’t typically her style, but the system was too far developed to go and start ripping things out to make it as tidy as she preferred.

“So,” he said clapping his hands together. “What we found was that they replaced a power coupler, and for some reason it flipped the polarity of the relay. What sort of power conditioning is on board your device? Or is it just pulling a straight feed?”

WO Darach - COO

Calloway shook her head. “Are you kidding? Straight feed is what led to things blowing up in my face. You were there. It’s not pretty,” she said with a smirk.

“Basically everything flows through converters. Now it’s possible that R&D sent me some bad ones, but I did pre-check them all before installation and while I am not infallible, I’m not that sloppy.” It bothered her to think she possibly missed something so crucial, but it was neither here nor there.

~Faye Calloway, Data Specialist

Walker smirked, “Just had to check.”

He tapped his fingers on the console as he thought about it for a moment. “But what if the converter just isn’t rated for that sort of flip flop. Not that it was a bad one, or you missed it. What if there was a surge at the same time the polarity switched. Basically a one two punch to your converter.

“R&D is good at coming up with ideas, but they don’t always catch the simple things that might happen. Or maybe I’m just losing my marbles here.”

WO Darach - COO