Operating on Borrowed Time
Posted on Tue Nov 12th, 2024 @ 2:43pm by Ensign Davna & Lieutenant Commander Lylja Tigerlilly
1,222 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Terrorpin
Location: Ops Office
Timeline: MD 01
Davna was grateful Luka put together an 'Emergency Plan' for if something weird occurred. The first weird, according to him, was the Io crashing into the colony. The emergency response at that time was as expected; there, but disorganized. He did not expect perfection out of catastrophes and emergency responses, but when he saw a need for improvement he reacted.
Most of the plan, according to the file, was more how other departments would respond. These were sent in from the department heads, and included lists of known resources that needed allocation. Power supply, any sort of space that they would need, known bits of equipment. Of course, with how unpredictable things were, there were also contingencies on each plan and what to do and who they were going to contact if more resources were needed.
But Min was taking care of that heavy lifting. Unlike Luka, who would descend upon the civilian epicenters and try his hardest not to leap in and play an extra doctor, the temporary CO was the type to go around to the leaders involved and see what was needed. Davna went one step further, gathering up the lists, and was now on her way to the Operations Office. If there was anyone who could get the resources to where they needed to go quickly, it would be the source.
She barely waited for the door to the main offices to swing open, before stepping through.
Lylja looked up from her desk, a cloud of holographic screens floating at various heights above and around the Caitian.
"Commander Tigerlilly? A word?"
"Of course, Ensign," she said tapping one of the holograms closed. "Make it quick. There is a world of work out there."
"Well, that was what I was hoping to help with." Davna offered a bright smile. "Mm, more touch base with the Quartermaster and also see how I can assist. There are a number of requests I have received from Medical and some of our emergency response teams. Supplies that I am hoping we can accommodate. But I do have a bit of Ops training if there is something I can do for you as well."
Lylja gestured to a seat. "You know the local area better than I. Rank them in order of need and I can get them approved. While our resources are not unlimited, they are sufficient. I just regret this had not waited, I was already working with engineering on building out our power resilience."
"If we need to divert power from non-essentials in our Command Center, I can move that along much faster," Davna offered. "This is our first natural 'disaster' so to speak. Most of our issues tend to stem from other things." She was already seated and moving things on her PaDD. She had already taken the initiative to put them in order, but the more she thought, the more things needed moving around. "I actually thought you'd have the best experience on the matter. Not a whole lot of Operations chiefs choose to come back to a colony. We had a couple issues finding one that would stick. Something about too many moving parts to keep up with, I suppose. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm grateful to have someone who understands a colony better than most."
"Colonies are interesting, while they may have more moving pieces," Lylja said, finalizing a power transfer. "It is rarely catastrophic if you do not keep everything running perfectly. But if something on a starship fails . . ." She sighed. "I am happy to be on a planet again. Things seem . . . solid and I need that." She flicked through set of holograms, sorting them by priority. "There is a lot of minor damage that will take time to repair but that can be safely shunted to the later column."
"Do we have word on the cause or if there are likely to be more shocks?" she asked, flipping through more holograms. "I did not prep an earthquake response as I though the colony area was geologically stable."
"That's the thing," Davna started, brow furrowing, "All Captain Seong was talking about an hour ago was how Haumea was not anywhere near a tectonic plate as the science team had them laid out. So, the short answer is no. Sensors should have picked up something anomalous, but they haven't. And no one is drilling or doing anything that we would assume to be interfering with anything in the ground - after someone blew a hole through a cliff, I think we put a stop to most non-filed digging attempts until we could calibrate sensors accordingly."
Davna stopped herself, eyes narrowing. She didn't like thinking about their Galactic Dynamic representative in a suspicious light, but even she had to think of all the options. "... Maybe there are other angles we should investigate before it gets to be too late. Regardless, we don't know what to expect. Triage is quick to respond, and luckily damage is minimal, but earthquakes were not something even we had much preparation for."
Lylja nodded. "Never a dull day in Operations. So, as soon as we have sorted this out, we need to start preparing for more until we work out the cause."
"Very true. And having an answer could appear now... or a week from now." Davna took the moment to attach herself to one of the other consoles, eyeing the energy levels of everything in the colony. It was not going to be a good look at anything but the general area, but her suspicions were getting the best of her. "Is it safe to assume we've ruled out the more... exploratory types? We can keep track of what the science labs are doing, but any of those private sector communities... Maybe I should ask if anyone's disappeared..."
"I find it hard to imagine a private concern doing something that would trigger an earthquake," said Lylja flipping between screens. Flagging items for Engineering to look into as it had time. "It would require a atomic reaction to generate that sort of energy, yes?"
She called up a map and checked some data. "Luckily, the transmission systems are quite resilient even with routing around damaged lines, we should have enough power where it is needed."
"About as much power as whatever sent kids back in time last year," Davna pointed out. She shrugged her shoulders. "It's less their power output and more what they find while they're working. We had to tell the colonists working to grow food they weren't allowed to dig under a certain depth just in case there was something we were missing. But there are teams on both sides analyzing every little thing to prevent weird occurrences. Or as many as we came prepared for. And sometimes people don't listen." She tilted her head. "If someone wants to dig, they're going to dig."
"People are people," said Lylja.
Davna stood from her spot, as if realizing something. "Lieutenant Commander, I sincerely appreciate your time. I'll make sure to come check up on you later." She added a small wink. "Don't want you overworking yourself while you're trying to do all this."
"Overwork during emergencies is part of the job," said Lylja with a wave. "A job I willingly signed up for. Be careful."
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