| Faster Than Mysteries |
| Summary: | Bannik and Marcion work to put CIC back together and discuss the Cylon Heavy Raider's FTL drive. |
| Date: | format: 13 Apr 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | None. |
| Players: |
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| Combat Information Center - Deck 7 - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| The central nexus of the ship, the fighting capability all stems from here. With entrances on both sides, an entire section of the wall will twist its armored glass and doorframes out of an air locked position and allow access. At the rear of the room is a standard hatch that allows access as well. Computer terminals sit in a semi-circle around the main plotting table in the center of the room. DRADIS and other essential readouts are displayed on screens that hang from the ceiling. Forward and aft are a set of glass plots that hang vertically from the ceiling and provide the crew with the ability to coordinate air traffic operations in the easiest way possible. |
| Post Holocaust Day: #46 |
CIC is a mess. Bannik is attempting to make it less so. He's in his deck coveralls, working with some of the Engineering crews on the DRADIS system consoles. "Can I get that blue wire down there?" the Crewman calls to one of the 3M hands that's been pressed into service as a gofer. He seems to be staring down at the manual for the system, using it to guide his work.
Lt. Marcion walks in, looking around and taking quick inventory of the situation. The damage is bad, and he takes it in for a moment before asking after 'Crewman Bannik." The gofer gestures him over, and Marcion carefully picks out a path through the detritus.
Bannik turns his head up at the mention of 'Crewman Bannik,' after plugging that blue wire into wherever it goes. "Sir?" asks the deckhand, his head turning towards the Engineering Lieutenant. "How can I help you?"
"Apologize for disturbing you, Crewman, but recieved message concerning Cylon FTL drives and just finished own repair shift. Was wondering if you could direct me to where I can most be of help. Originally assumed you could show me the drive itself, but can help you out here, as well, if you are shorthanded. CIC repairs likely higher priority."
"Uh. Well. The drive itself is with the other materials in the port-side repair bay," explains Bannik. "If you want, I can lead you on down there, but I was just helping out up here taking my cues from the Engineering teams." He gestures over to a Petty Officer that seems to be overseeing the repair crews. "Can I answer any questions for you, though? I've got a lot of it up here." He taps his forehead.
Marcion pauses to consider. "Was it easy to recognize as FTL? As in, 'hey, look, that's an FTL drive?' Or do you simply assume that it is an FTL drive because you don't know what it does and the Raider clearly was making FTL jumps?" He grimaces a bit. You'd think the FTL expert would be fascinated. This seems to not be the case.
"Oh, sure. It was pretty easy. In fact, the engines and FTL drive are the most normal things about it. It seems to operate roughly the same as it does on a Raptor — I'm an avionics guy, not a mechanical tech — but on a much more efficient basis." Bannik glances over at the repair manual, and then to the 3M tech. "Looks like I'm going to need a new frameboard for this next bit. Can you go grab me a blank one?" He then looks back to Marcion.
Marcion nods, tapping his lips as he thinks. "More efficient than standard Raptor model? But of a similar size." He looks down at his hands, considering. "Perhaps have improved on spinner configuration, not difficult in theory, though hard to accomplish in miniaturized capacity. Can only spin tylium SO fast, after all." He shakes his head. "Apologies, will have to take apart. Need help here? Handy with a soldering gun…"
"Uh. If you like, sir. Sure." Bannik steps aside to give the Lieutenant some access to his 'work space' in front of the console. "Yeah. I'm not sure how the principles work, honestly, how you would make it more fuel efficient. But it seems to be, just judging from the size of the Tylium fuel tank and the drive core as opposed to the Raptor's."
Nodding, Marcion starts tinkering with the control console a bit. "Bloody Cylons. Fuel effieciency. All the computing power in the world to improve their navigation and they focus on fuel. Typical. Save tylium for blowing stuff up." He pulls a tool from his pockets and starts attaching wire to where it goes.
"What were you hoping, sir?" wonders Bannik as he moves off to the side to feed the wires to the Engineering lieutenant. "I mean, admittedly, sir, I'm not sure how they do it. That was why I wanted you to come aboard and take a look at the systems."
Marcion shakes his head. "Suppose I was hoping the Cylons would have cracked the code, figured out how precisely FTL works. No one really knows that… we don't know WHY it works, just that it does. Guess Cylon scientists have bosses with priority charts, same as us." He glances around. "Got a #3 affixer? Don't like how these contact points are interfacing…"
"Yeah. Of course." Bannik reaches down into the tool kit and hands over the item, shaking his head. "Well, if they have, it's not in any way that I can read it. But the problem is that no one can read the Cylon pictographs. It's, well, totally alien to us, sir. And I don't know who would even have the skills to take a look."
Marcion nods. "If you don't mind, make me a copy of them, if possible? If related to the FTL, I could perhaps sort them out. FTL systems all work the same way IN THEORY, and if I know what the pictographs are describing I may be able to reverse engineer them. If not, I'll say that they are just random Cylon porn, translate THAT, and spread it around for the sake of morale. 'And then the toaster popped the bread, which was smoking with slight burnt crumbs on the ends…'"
"I'll make copies of the pictures I've taken and drop them off," promises Bannik, perhaps wisely deciding not to touch on the issue of 'Toaster Porn.' It's just too scary to think of. "Honestly, I can't make heads or tails of them. I can't even guess what they're related to."
"Noted, I…" Marcion looks up, confused. "Pictographs… interesting. Why use pictographs in an environment where information can be transmitted by wireless, and where those who would need to know could have all pertinent information compiled, anyway…"
"Lots of good questions, sir. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of good answers. Even worse, as far as I can tell, the Heavy Raider is meant to be piloted by a humanoid figure, but one with a lot more articulation and fine motor functions than the Centurions we've seen so far." Bannik sighs. "It's just one big pile of questions."
"Now am curious…" Marcion says, standing up straight. "Appreciate info, crewman. Think I will go and give it a look. Probably do more good there than I can here, anyway, back to soldering wires in the morning…"
"Let me know if you have any other questions, sir," says Bannik. "Petty Officer Damon's in the medbay, so I don't think he'll be available for a little bit to help you out." Now that the Engineering officer signals that he's leaving, he moves to take back over the work on the DRADIS console.