Princeton - It's all a matter of speed

Posted on Thu Jun 6th, 2013 @ 3:47pm by Commodore Andrew Clifford & Commander Jonathan Coleman & Lieutenant Commander Holly Gillo & Ensign Anthony La Baron

2,076 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 83 - Recovery
Timeline: Mission 83 - minus 12 hours

Andrew was almost out of the door to the holosuite when he stopped and went back inside. As the door closed behind him he tapped his comm badge. "Captain Clifford to Commander Coleman"

Coleman was in one of the Engineering Labs, working on the updates to the various ships that were being upgraded when his combadge chirped. He tapped his combadge and replied, "Coleman here. Go ahead."

"I would like you to come to holosuite 3, please. It is not an order, it is a request"

Coleman gave a quizzical look when he got the message. "Sure, but do you mind if I asked what we might be doing in holosuite 3?"

Andrew smiled, "I'll explain when you get here", and signed off.

As he waited he had the computer reactivate his programme of the Princeton, and all the stress readings as the computer simulated travelling at warp 9.2.

Behind him he heard the door open.

Coleman walked into the holosuite and saw that the Princeton there, ready to do some speed tests. Coleman came up beside Clifford and smiled gently. "The Princeton, huh?"

Andrew nodded smiling, "Yup! And, here is the problem. The simulation is showing warp 9.2... on the old scale. On the current scale it is flat out at just under warp 7.5. If the Princeton is going to earn her keep out there I want to increase the speed capability up to warp 8 minimum, preferably closer to warp 9. If it can't go any faster than what we have here, we may as well have a Nova class out there. So, I'm really looking for an engineering fix to increase the speed without shredding the old girl. But one that is not going to keep the ship in dock for the next year tearing it apart and rebuilding it." He added, still smiling, "I think the Admiral would have me torn apart if I did that, but I'm not sure about the rebuilding bit".

Coleman looked at the simulation for a minute and scratched his chin, thinking of possible solutions to the problem. He knew of a few ways in order to increase the speed, but he wasn't quite sure how well they would take on such an old starship. He tried to apply them to the old Constellation starships, which were similar in engine configuration and design and had been applied already. He knew that it would take a little bit of work, so he decided that he would call in some help.

Coleman nodded, saying, "I have some ideas, but I would need a little bit of help in order to try and see if they'll work. Mind if I call in Lt. Gillo and Ensign La Baron for a wee bit of assistance?"

Andrew nodded, "By all means, Commander, feel free to bring in anyone who can help. " Silently Andrew was pleased. At least the request hadn't been dismissed out of hand as not possible.

Coleman nodded and pressed his combadge. "Coleman to Lt. Gillo and Ensign La Baron. Do you mind coming to Holosuite 3 for a little bit. Captain Clifford and I require you guys' assistance on a project."

Holly was not use to receiving comms that were requests not orders so she was taken back by the tone and the message for a moment before she responded. " Depending on if I am needed in or out of uniform will depend on my arrival but I'll join you for the project." It sounded interesting enough for her to give up attempting to find something in her quarters to entertain herself with.

As the two officers waited for the other to arrive, they wandered around the simulation hangin in space. Andrew looked at the Commander, "There's something about the refitted constitution class. It's a bit like the old earth battle cruisers that Germany had during the mid 20th century. The Scharnhorst and her sister ship. No matter what angle you look at it from, it's beautiful."

La Baron, making note of the communication wrapped up his work in the Lexington's science labs, and joined his fellow officers in the Holosuite.

"This is an odd place for a project." Anthony said with a snarky smile.

Coleman looked over at the two officers as they walked into the holosuite. Coleman looked at the Ensign and gave a wry smile back and said, "Yeah, but the Princeton is no ordinary ship to say the least and thus, is why I called you both here today. I was hoping you could help Captain Clifford and myself in getting the ship a little more up to specs for the time."

Anthony raised an eyebrow, trying to hide his excitement, "The heavy cruiser? It'd be interesting to see how those old duotronic computers would work with bioneural circuitry, then we could put a new sensor array in, new navigation computers, a better sickbay and, more efficient labs. I do hope we manage to keep the 23rd Century motif, it'd be a shame to refurbish such classic looks." Anthony caught himself rambling, "Sorry sir, I got a little carried away."

Andrew laughed, "No worries, Ensign. It is a design that inspires. The computer system is being upgraded to a Type 1, Isolinear Processing Core running LCARS 3.7. It's not going to be up to the latest spec, but it's lightyears ahead of what she was commissioned with. In fact the upgrade is nearly complete. The problem is speed. It was designed to make warp 9, but that was on the old scale. By todays standards that is nearly warp 7.5, slower than a Nova class. I would like to see if the old girl can be uprated to be capable of warp 8 minimum. But, and there is a big 'but'. any improvements have to made without keeping the ship in dock for another year. The Admiral wants her out there in a month, so the changes will have to be easy to implement. Any major works will have to wait until I can get her back in dock for an upgrade".

"We would need to completely gut the ship's sensors if we want to get ol' Betsy safely up to Warp 9. Those old duotronic systems couldn't keep up with that kind of speed." Anthony scratched at his stubble and continued, "Without a total overhaul our navigation sensors wouldn't warn us about a rogue star in our path until we plunged into the core of it. I'd like to avoid that if possible."

Coleman piped in for a moment. "That's where the new computer system comes in as well. While it's not the most up-to-date computer core we have, like Captain Clifford said, it's lightyears ahead of what it was when it was first commissioned. I might be able to tweak the sensors to work a little bit better with the sensors it has as long as we can figure out how to get the speed up a little bit. I have a few ideas myself, but I wanted some input before I continued and that's where you guys come in." He motioned towards La Baron and Gillo.

"Bio-neural circuitry would compensate for the outdated core. I'd recommend we replicate some for installation once the bigger projects are out of the way. I'm ready for anything. Idle hands are the devil's playthings after all." Said Anthony.

Holly was no engineer so her intent listing of the three men chatter was something that she was doing while running things in her mind as to how to update an 'old' ship into their standards of how to fly. There were things that couldn't be put off and things that could be. She was sure that the two officers that called them in had already formulated a game plan it was just a matter of secondary input now to get things going, so she made her comments brief but to the point as she could almost feel the excitement from the other three officers in the room.

"I'm not a technical engineer by any stretch of the imagination but I am sure that we'll have to re-enforce key areas of the ship's hull to get her even ready for another point five jump in speed to get her up to the eight that we would require her to be at for a max that she can achieve. There core is a good start, the gel a good enforcer but without at least the structural integrity field being updated we risk having the saucer section separate from the nasals and then rest of the ship, sirs. That is without even having her go into dock for outer haul enforcement and additional insulation to the actual engineering area to take on the extra 'heat' that she'll put out even at a fraction increase in speed."

Coleman looked at Gillo and nodded in agreement. "That's why we called you both here today. I have a few ideas on how to increase the speed, but we might need to tweak it to make it work. I believe there is a new type of crystal being implemented in the most recent rounds of starships and I wanted to see if we could use it in the Princeton, but I wasn't quite sure how to properly use it in the old ship and that's where you come in Ensign La Baron. I'll show you some of the specs on the starship engine crystals that we are using in modern starships and see if we can make it work for the old constitution class starships. As for you Lt. Gillo, while I know you aren't an engineer, I would like your input on how to possible boost the structural integrity field without having to completely gut the ship. Are you two up to helping the Captain and myself in fixing up the ship?"

"As long as I get to the Captain's chair, I'll be happy." Said Anthony, "When do we get to work?"

Coleman looked at La Baron and then at Captain Clifford and said, "Whenever the dear Captain would like us to start up."

Andrew had moved around the other side of the suspended model of the Princeton while the three had been talking. At hearing his name he walked back to the three of them, "Whenever you would like to start. I realise you all have your day jobs, and that must come first. But any help you can give, will be gratefully accepted. Don't forget I have two engineering teams working on the ship, so they will be able to implement some of your ideas."

Coleman nodded and said, "Alright, we can begin working on this after we come back from the mission we are about to head onto. I believe that the Admiral has a meeting set up for us in a few hours, so maybe the four of us can take a look at what we already have and the ideas each one of us already has and see what we can do to improve upon them and hopefully get the good ol' Princeton ready and rearing to go in a month."

"Any idea about what we are doing until then?" Anthony inquired.

Andrew wasn’t totally clear about what the ensign was asking about but decided to give him an update on the work carried out so far. “Well so far the ship has had a full structural inspection, which it passed with flying colours, and now the computer is being upgraded. The computer installation will be complete in a day or two, but that will need to be integrated into the existing systems. My requirement is to get the ship up to a warp speed where it will not be left behind in any rapid fleet movements, and that is where you all come in. Between now and the relaunch we will have to upgrade whatever systems we can to get the speed up to warp 8 minimum. If that means taking up some cargo space to install extra fusion reactors, then so be it.”

Andrew looked at the chronometer, “Unfortunately, I have to be somewhere else in a few minutes, so I’m going to have to call an end to this meeting. You all have my thanks for coming here on such short notice, and I’ll see you all again when we have finished whatever the admiral has planned for us in this meeting.”

With that he closed and saved the programme and they all left the holosuite.

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