I Have A Life?

...Outside Starship Tech-ery?

Late yesterday the Stardrive was down to a low enough level we could get someone in the Drive Room. I was fiddling with some of the display systems on the bridge when the call came in: Handsome Dave had been making a sweep of field-strength sensors, changing out the bad ones -- we lose a few every transluminal leap -- and it happened he'd worked his way back aft when DQ confirmed the 'Drive was down to "idling" levels.

It took several tries but with me at the controlling end and him at the controlled end, we managed to kill the remote system dead. (Yes, this is a good thing: intermittent flakiness is difficult to find and fix; a hard failure usually points to itself). Power supply, what else, and no spares out there; I've got a request into Stores & Cargo, but by the time he and I were done, it was well into the second watch and with all due respect, S&C keeps their bright lights on First. I'll have to follow up today and hope for the part by the day after. There's no hurrying them -- push too hard and they will get surly.

I know, I know, "Starfleet" is always happy, organized and on the bounce on the TeeVee; see, this is that messier thing, Real Life, where problems don't get solved in 45 minutes, just in time for the credits to scroll by. I could give S&C a big song and dance about how it's horrible dangerous and zomg we're all gonna die if they don't get a move on but there's a limited number of times you can get away with that; see "they will get surly," above. Just as soon save it for when it's true, which, heavens permit, should be never.


There's a little good news, IT reports the ansible we installed some weeks back is workin' fine; it only links up when we're outside rational space. IT's equipment spends the entire hop on the Internet, grabbin' whatever's new and sending back e-mail and so on from our previous planetary stop. There was some concern time before last but it was something semi-arcane in their servers, which they have found and fixed. So that's one thing we don't have to worry over. E-mail to the Hidden Frontier is slow and there's nothing like the level of access you enjoy; but it does get through. --Also, now some of the vagaries of what's left of Usenet might be making more sense to you.

Connectivity is one of the things the Lupine and her sister ships trade in, a "cargo" without mass. But it keeps my paycheck (such as it is, once the Starship Company's deducted charges for insurance, housing, food and good fresh-ish air) from bouncing!