Checking in with the ship, Walter listened to the tale of the search. <<"Since there is a backup computer that can handle the short hop to Outpost, turn the main one off for the time being.">> he suggested. <<"We can have them look over the computer there since they have a better facility to handle starships and since it is a SDB, the techs should be able to isolate the problem easier since a lot of them are retired military. For all we know the modification could have been done at Outpost. If not, we can check the maintenance records to find out where it was done.">>

OOC:As long at the computer does not say "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that" I think we need to get rolling down the road.

  Walter's suggestion prompted more from Kaengarr. << "Good idea. Two things: are they linked, and can we shut off the hidden main parts?" >> It wouldn't do much good if those actually kept running on their own... << "Good answers to both and we shut it down and inspect along the way." >>


  Or "Look at you, hacker..."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:18, Tue 09 Feb 2016.

<<"Well, it has been a while since I played with a ships computer but if I remember correctly, backup computers tended to be isolated so that if one gets damaged or hit by a virus, they both do not get taken out in the process. Shut them both down and then start up the backup. Run that one and see if it is working right.">> he suggested

22:18, Today: Walter Zeller rolled 9 using 2d6+2.  computers? .
This message was last edited by the player at 03:19, Tue 09 Feb 2016.

  "One way to know. Let's try it!"

  Unless, of course, someone objected. Someone usually did.

Sam pitched in. "We need to do this ourselves. Because we need to be able to sort this out when we're holed by an asteroid, losing air and a long way from any expert. The thing is, though, until the computer is fixed, we're not going to be able to do much of anything else, as most systems will rely on it being working I would expect. But that's not a problem, we're in no hurry, so lets take our time."

She looked at Walter and smiled " so basically, what your saying is turn it off and turn it on again, and see if that works. Did you ever work in IT support?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:16, Tue 09 Feb 2016.

"Here's the problem, it's all about what the computer's ratings, the main computer (Model6 bisfib/R30+5) is operating at a rating of 20. The back up computer (Model 2bisfib/R10+5) has a max rating of 15. That means, Jump Control/3 (15) program basically uses all the ships computing power...which may or may not be important, but, if something happens while we are getting ready to jump, our ability to fight/evade is greatly reduced."

  "If we're caught in an attack we can abort the jump and switch to battle programs. We can also power up the main computer if it's an emergency; better to chance that if we're in danger of being dusted," Kaengarr shrugged. "But this is why I'd rather deal with it here."

"Alright, we finish up the ship inspections, and any other business. In the morning, after a good night's rest and with our new equipment, we try to tackle the computer problem. If we can't, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, how's that sound?"

  "Good to me," Kaengarr nodded.

Although frustrated with the computer problem, it's obvious, Count Cromwell was very keen on checking out the repair drones.

Drone bay, an individual drone, connects to system, taking time...is there anything special about these drones?

Darrel Cromwell rolled 12 using 2d6+5.  comp check, drones..time+.

Khea only mutters a relived "agreed" after having to listen how the grunts intend to fix sensitive equipment. Luckily they could be persuaded to do otherwise without her intervention.

With that issue more or less resolved for now Khea goes back and starts inspecting the general hull, but finishes her work early (for her) so she can try to get more sleep so that she is awake again when they start working on the computer tomorrow in case the Vargr get funny ideas again.

  Kaengarr, having already clarified once that he did not intend for them to destroy the thing by ripping it to pieces, only to pull it apart in the sense of examining its components - some hidden behind panels and bulkheads that they really WOULD have to pull apart - did not realize that he might need to clarify himself again to Khea. Since he did not intend what she feared, no harm was ultimately done, and once again material wrote itself for Darrel's next comedy.

  He did continue to assist Khea during the inspections though, and when she took her leave for the afternoon - Aslan sleep cycles, Kaengarr reasoned - he too decided to turn in. With his much shorter periods of somnolence it would give him a chance to examine some of the systems in the middle of the night when there weren't so many distractions, then be asleep and awake again before the new tools arrived.

 
  Khea would probably be terrified at the thought of what she thinks is a wrecking ball in waiting poking around those systems unsupervised, but... well, what she doesn't know won't give her a heart attack!
 
This message was last edited by the player at 02:15, Thu 11 Feb 2016.

Sam agrees to Darrells plan, and goes back to the bridge.

She will try investigate the bridge controls a bit more, trying to get a better handle on the piloting stations

Vonon looked over the repair drones. They looked like repair drones. They were lightly armored; even he could tell that, but he couldn't see that justifying the ridiculous price tag.

They didn't respond to his voice commands, but then he remembered there was a drone control station... a rather big one. Maybe they had to be activated first.

He was still painting names on them when Darrel joined him.


Darrel's inspection turns up the same results. Lightly armored, but nothing that would explain the high price. They were a tad 'beat-up'--scratches and dents from a century of making repairs, but otherwise they were intact. A few of the tools look they might have been replaced over the years, but half of them were still original.

His final analysis is that there is no way they could sell them for the price they listed at. They'd be lucky to get half the book value for them considering how old they are. His concern then is that if they did sell them, that would reduce the value of the ship by the amount carried on the specs. There is no way they could justify that extra cost for just empty drone bays.


Khea set about examining the hull. As she'd expecting, there are numerous scratches, dents, patches and repairs... no more than what she'd expect from an asteroid miner that had been operational for 20 years.

What she does find peculiar, though, is the number of plates that the hull is made of. She's aware that in the early days of starship construction, the hulls were built using large metal plates that were then fused together. More modern designs tend to use the 'continuous pour' method so that the final hull (except where hatches and are meant to go) is one contiguous piece of metal.

The argument is still ongoing about the merits of each. Supposedly, the 'continuous pour' hull makes for a stronger overall hull, but the fused plates have tougher seems. The 'continuous pour' hull is harder to repair, and once it takes serious damage, it winds up turning into fused plate version anyway.

Still, this hull has far too many plates, of various sizes, to make it 'normal'. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them, but that's what gives her a clue to the reason and function. The plates might be designed to protect specific sections, such as life support, controls, etc. Also, this oddly-modular design would make replacing a damaged section easier, and it would serve to protect adjacent plates, since a plate would tend to absorb the damage and give rather than transfer it to other plates--much like the impact bumper on a vehicle.

Clearly this would be advantageous on a mining ship that most likely got struck by various space rocks. She wasn't quite so sure it was practical for an SDB, but it would help explain the repair drones--each one could work a separate section independently.

When Darrel finds Vonon, he is chuckling to himself and has used a large, indelible marker pen to carefully print names on the backs of the four drones -- "Akela", "Buck", "Diefenbaker", and "Raksha".

Sharik gave the thumbs up to Darrel's proposed plan of inspections running into the next day.  One more day on the ground wouldn't kill them (presumably) and would likely give them more piece of mind.

However, the diminutive operative continued to poke around the various access panels continuing her search.  Shar had always considered herself reasonably detail-oriented; and though she enjoyed herself, Sharik also considered herself to be dedicated and focused when necessary.

This seemed one of those times.  So, she kept on with her torch and her multimeter testing out the lines and connection and comparing them to the reported schematics.  The reticule of her DD/R allowed her the luxury of doing most of those comparisons in real time, her personal agent software overlaying her field of vision with the augmented data streams.  She compared lot numbers, looking to see what the approximate ages and vendors for various components might be.  All would be potential clues in unraveling just what might have been done to the Long Shot.

Seeing Vonon giving the drones 'names', Darrel chuckles, "Well, I hope you have 14 more ex-girlfriends."

He heads over to the drone control panel and activates it.

"Hurr-hurr! Maybe not so many, My Lord," Vonon responds, placing the final flourish on Raksha, "There were only a few dozen other Vargr families, back in Cassandra's Belt.  Not a large dating pool. But there are only these four repair drones -- the ones everyone was so excited about."

Vonon pauses and frowns, "At least, I think these are the repair drones. They are different in appearance than all those others, stored on the port side." Vonon points across the chamber, "And these aren't names of my old girlfriends, they are names from vidnovels I've watched."

Pablo, having done all he could with the gunnery side of things at the moment, spent his time moving around the ship, fetching, carrying, and doing whatever grunt work would let the people with mission critical skills use their time more efficiently.

It was actually sort of nice having something concrete to do that did not, at least on the face of it, involve shooting holes in his fellow sapients. And it gave him an excuse to poke his nose into the various compartments of the ship and see what was what.

After activating the repair drone console, Darrell comms to bridge, "Vonon and I are at the repair drones station, please activate their program."


Smiles, "Ohh, well, once you're rich and famous, I'm sure your chances of companionship will increase, for years I had to fight them off, of course this was before I became rich and famous."

Looking on the names, "Anything you see about these things that makes them special? I mean beyond the names."

The drones can be activated from the dedicated drone console (hands-on approach) or the bridge. Once they are activated, the programs are up and running.


As noted earlier, the repair drones are lightly armored, which is unusual, but not inconsistent with a warship, particularly an on-station one that couldn't jump out of the fire.

Other than that, they seem consistent with other repair drones, especially old ones. The program has been updated about 20 years ago to be consistent with modern repair techniques and a large mining ship.


Sharik has no problem finding identifying serial numbers on all the components she finds. And while those numbers tell her the manufacturer and manufacturing date, any trail leads back 100 years and into the Imperium. She hits stone walls about 40 years ago. Anything later than that is consistent with what they already know.

OOC: Just to summarize what we have discovered so far in our examination of the Long Shot.

1. The ship is capable of M-6. The drives themselves are TL-14 and are 20 years old.

2. J-drive is very fuel efficient, saving 18 tons of fuel. It can also jump, even if 20% damaged. (not sure how that figures game wise?) The drive itself is TL-14.

3. Powerplant is smaller than the normal requirement to match J-drive/M-drive. It's 10 years old.

quote:

Had its last purge just under 60 days ago. The design is Imperial, but something that was manufactured within the last 10 years. It's 10% more compact, and actually has a 12% reserve!  This reserve doesn't show up on the ship's displays until the main level drops to 1%. It isn't normally displayed in engineering either, but she notices the 'secret' slide bar on the monitor because it is labeled in Throk.

Not sure what that 12% means? And was any of previous crew Throk speakers?

4. Turrets has a bio-interface program that lets fire control to work with a human gunner. (Roll for both and take the better result)

5. Med-bay, 2 autodocs (Sterilon Corporation;Spinward Marches.)TL 14, age 100 years. 95% functionality due to replenishment. [There are programs for every known species and apparently a few 'unknown' ones--ones that Darrel has never heard of... though one of them, the Skara, were in one of Darrel's movies.]The Med-bay itself needs a general re-stock.

6. Life-support; can be adjusted to a number of different species and living conditions, from desert to arctic. The life support is also zoned throughout the ship so that most staterooms can be set for specific conditions.

7. Sensors: Passive, Very Advanced Sensors. Active, ???

8. Comms: Very advanced comms. What that means is that they are quite powerful and can punch through any lesser jamming. They are also capable of sophisticated jamming. It is capable of handling up to 1,000 separate and discrete channels. It is also capable of sophisticated frequency scanning. It is capable of communication across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

9. Astrogation; Very fast with a huge database. Up to jump-5,000! (This makes me wonder about studies of mis-jumps?)

10. Main Computer(Model 6bisfib/R30+5); Has a sophisticated 'failsafe' program. As long as the program is not running, it can be disabled, recoded, or deleted. The command code can be reset, and the time increment can be changed. Extensive selection of games and entertainment files. Plus!  Count Cromwell's movies are in the database. These are all in a 'library computer'.
NOTE:Currently operating at Model 4.

11. Pilot/bridge stations; Detailed, see link to a message in this game msg #45...not sure but I think it's like a smaller version of holographic command bridge?

12. Repair drones, normal lightly armored repair drones.


I know there are some future issues we face, but, did I miss anyone or something that is pertinent?

One small thing, there is an unusual, small delay in engaging targets with the turrets.

Active sensors are probably the same as the passive sensors.

Passive sensors are the 'silent running' type... they only record what impacts them.

Active sensors are sensitive electronic fields that extend the passive sensors out to a certain range. They also include energy emissions, such as radar and ladar--sends out an energy pulse and records the rebound/reflection.


The J-5000 is a theoretical program limit; clearly, though, it can't run an actual jump program for that as the parameters of the J-drive don't support it.


The bridge displays are capable of 'heads-up' configuration, but since there really aren't any windows, just a viewscreen, it's more efficient to have the display on a screen where you can tap at the controls.

I was wondering about that, but, it seemed more of a safety measure...however, since you mentioned it, this ship, and alot of it's current set-up is still oriented towards that "SDB-mentality"...It does make me ponder....Why would a warship have a pause in it's fire-control system?

BUT, then again, this is one of those mysteries that I am sure will take time to figure out....later.