| Interview With the Chief |
| Summary: | As Chief Atreus and Eve give an Ensign the hairy eyeball on maintenance, the conversation comes back to the Cylon's assault on Picon. |
| Date: | Date |
| Related Logs: | Related Logs Into the Jaws of Death, It's Hard For Thee To Kick Amongst The Pricks |
| Players: |
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[Chief's Office ][ Hangar Deck - Battlestar Cerberus ]—
The room is fairly small, to maximize the area of the deck itself. It contains a smallish metal desk with locking drawers, a computer terminal, a file cabinet against one wall and metal shelves filled with tools, spare parts, and manuals. There are two chairs facing the desk, clearly scavenged from somewhere else. One area of the shelving, nearest the desk, has been cleared and is clean. This holds a coffee maker that constantly seems to have some brew or other in it. Above the chair behind the desk, in a position of prominence, a framed picture has been hung. It is an embroidered image depicting Hephaestus with his two metal helpers. The work is beautiful and almost lovingly detailed. The god is laughing, one eye bright where a patch covers the other. He is held aloft by his helpers, one done in glittering gold, the other in silver.
[Condition Level: 2 - Danger Close ]
The scent of coffee hangs in the air, a pot percolating on a shelf off to one side. The Chief himself is sitting at his desk. At the moment, his screen has been blanked and he has a closed file in front of him. His expression is expectant, gaze focused on the hatch.
"Evenin' chief." Marko says, stepping into the Deck Boss's little domain. "Got a minute?"
Atreus is seated at his desk. Marko has just entered. There is coffee brewing and the Chief salutes the officer before he nods to a chair, "Sure, Ensign. Have a seat and tell me what is on your mind." The computer is either blanked or turned off and a file or three rest on the man's desk.
Marko returns the Chief's salute with one of his own before taking a seat and leaning forward. "Well, I heard from the CAG that you were looking to interview some of the air wing to see if we could help out down here on the deck with maintenance and all." he says, nodding in the direction of the stack of paperwork on the man's desk. "So, if you've got the time, thought we could go over it, see if you think I could be of any use to ya."
Petty Officer Eve Dekora sweeps her right hand through her hair and over her brows as she steps into the Chief's office, not fully but the young woman-in-orange does come to a pause at the entrance. "Chi-," the rest of the title is a touch murmured and broken off with her straightening up.
Atreus nods, a sparkle touching his eyes, "Indeed yes, Ensign. I will have to tell the CAG thanks for being so prompt." He is about to continue when the woman-in-orange begins to enter. Looking up, he smiles a quiet welcome, "Dekora. I'm glad you are here. I've a project that needs doing and I'd like you on it. Have a seat." Turning to the pilot, he adds, "You can help me grill the Ensign here." The other man gets a brief wink either in encouragement or sympathy. It is so hard to tell. Flipping open one of the files in front of him, Atreus picks up a pen and clicks it open. Ominous sound. "We'll start easily. How ofen do you change the oil on a…" He looks up, "Raptor or Viper? Which do you fly?"
Marko gives a polite nod and a little, friendly wave of the 'No worries, I'm just an Ensign' variety to the newly arrived Petty Officer. "Evenin', Petty Officer." he offers before turning his attention back to the chief. The wink elicits a soft chuckle and a little bit of a nod of agreement. Marko needs all the encouragement he can get right now. "Raptors, I'm an ECO." he explains, probably to help make him look a little less dumb if he flubs the question. "Eh…if we're talking main engine oil, I think it's every three hundred flight hours?" he replies, frowning thoughtfully. "Yeah…that sounds right. Every three hundred flight hours."
Eve tilts her chin up a bit at the greetings and they give way to her bobbing her head lightly in return, "Ah, not a problem, thank you, Chief." She smiles now, at least more readily than initially, and steps deeper into the constraints of the office, only to immerse herself into whatever it is the two of them are planning. Though, with her seat taken, for the time being she merely listens. No responses just yet from here, aside from an emphatic lift of her brows at the question and further when the answer is incoming.
Marking the answer on his sheet, Atreus nods. "Right." The questions and answers flow back and forth with a greater or lesser degree of detail depending on the Ensign's expertise or the Chief's meticulousness. As the 'test' winds down, it is clear that whomever prepared the test knew their stuff and expected the one giving the answers to as well. Finally, Atreus turns the questionnaire over and asks the final two questions, "Where did you learn to do this work and why do you want to?"
"A because it's my butt up there in that bird and if she gets busted on a mission and we have to put down somewhere to make repairs, there's not going to be a bunch of ace mechanics there to tend to her. It'll me, my Pilot and any Gods you care to believe in." Marko says, smiling but still serious. "That's a pretty good motivator. As for the other? Honestly, Chief? Because I'm about to drive myself half crazy with this Cylon thing." he sighs. "Starting to get scary-obsessive about it, to the point I can't even really see what I'm trying to see clearly. Pops always told me, you get to thinking too hard, use your hands and _do_ something. Might sound kinda frivolous, but…" the young ensign replies with a little bit of a half shrug. "There you are, Chief. This is a chance to do something that can be…measured, weighed, tested…."
Halfway through the testing, Eve has shifted forwards within her borrowed chair and clasped her hands together between her legs with her fingers lacing themselves together. In that position and looking rather thoughtful, she retains her quiet long enough to allow the questionnaire to follow through and the final two questions to be asked - and then answered. "Measured, weighed, tested… and after that, Sir?" It's not that she means to be any way of disrespectful or the like, but she would love to see an application that proves something innovative, at least after all of this talking.
Atreus finishes the questionnaire and nods, "My mom used to say the same thing, Ensign. Almost exactly. Only she told me to build stuff. It is more satisfying." He signs it, then turns it so Marko can do the same. A pen is provided and he parts his lips to continue when Eve takes over. He quirks her a smile and leans back to listen to the reply, apparently saving his questions for the time being.
Marko holds his signature until he's answered the PO 's question. "Well." Marko says leaning back a little and starting to talk with his hands as he starts to relax. "It's just that when you're fixing something, you know it's fixed." he tries to explain. "We've got the manuals, we know the specs, we know the parameters, so on and so on. It's not to say you're not _thinking_." he adds quickly, shaking his head. "Because you damn sure are, birds this complicated, diagnostics can be a bitch and a half." he says. "It's just that when you've got the right answer, you _know_ it's right, because, hey - the bird works now!" he grins.
Eve presses her lips thoughtfully and moves to sit back now, listening to the reply. She doesn't readily speak up and it takes her a moment to do it, speak that is, and only after a sidelong glance towards the Chief is given. "If this is the project, then, well," she starts with her right hand lifting up to gesture aimlessly between the three of them and soon enough it drops right back down into her lap and returns to being laced with its twin, "Then I'll show you at least three different ways to jury-rig the systems, in case of emergencies - in case there aren't any manuals around, Sir."
Atreus nods to Marko's reply, "I hear you, Ensign. When it is right, it works. It is relaxing in a way. At least, you can get so absorbed that nothing else intrudes." He flashes Eve a grin, then laughs quietly, "No, that was not my intent, but it is now. Put together something, please. I have a few fellows for you to teach that particular skill to." The smile dies then and he becomes more serious. "Now then. ECO, right?" Flipping to a different file, Atreus reaches up to scratch his eyebrow, "I need to ask you some questions about what happened on War Day. We are all trying to figure it out so we can find a way to keep it from happening again. So. Please tell me what your experiences were. Start with before the failures, tell me what you saw and how the Raptors came back online."
"Okay, okay, I walked into that one." Marko replies, hanging his head a little at the Petty Officer's response. "Just saying, fixed is…fixed. Theory is imagination with nothing to go on but more imagination." he says, wincing at how condescending his tone must sound to her. Fortunately, the Chief's ready with a distraction. "Okay…." Marko replies settling back into his seat. "Flight was Easy at the controls, me at the ECO station. We were in Harrier 307. Every light on my panel was nice and green. Nav, Comms, ECM, DRADIS, FTL, the whole smash." he begins. "Launched just fine, nothing at all wrong with the bird." he says. "Cleared the ship, formed up as per usual…" he says, waving the thought away. "Then…-zap- ..She just _shut down_, Chief." he says, shaking his head a little. "No reason for it. Nothing on comms, nothing on…anything, just…" he says, then slaps his right elbow with his left hand sharply.
With an appreciative smile, Eve bows her head a bit towards Marko and retracts from speaking up any further. Then again, now that intents are being brought up she can return to listening and figure out more fully what's going on in the near-future, or so she hopes. She might have a question or two, but she holds them for now. It's easier for her to listen and think than to readily speak.
Atreus begins to take notes as the Ensign speaks. He nods, looks up, nods and looks back to the paper to finish writing something. Then, the other hand lifts, "Hold up, Flasher." Yeah, the Chief knows these things. "Go back to before things frakked up, please. Do you recall seeing a flash of light? Red? If not, its not a big deal; I'll ask Easy. Just thought I'd check." He then turns his hand and gives a 'go ahead' sort of motion, "What next?"
"No, I've heard it talked about, but did not witness it personally, Chief." Marko replies, shaking his head. "So..moving on…I started to do the obvious thing, which is to check the hardware. Nothing. I pulled every panel I could pull in-flight, no sign of damage from where I was sitting." he continues. "The whole thing was just…_down_. It was like CNP just ate itself. Total freeze up." he says, frowning a little as he reviews that day's sad events. "Next step wasn't a big leap in logic, reboot from each individual system's firmware."
Atreus nods and makes another note. Might be someting like 'light / Easy' to judge by the strokes of the pen. As the Ensign talks, the Chief keeps making notes until something is said. He blinks, going almost painfully still. Slowly, he looks up at the ECO and nods, "Go on." His tone has gone almost painfully even, his expression intently still. He looks for all the world like a hunter on the trail who fully expects his quarry to come into view around the very next bend.
"Well….it worked." Marko replies with a shrug and a sheepish smile like one of the Gods who discovered sex. "Took a little doing, but it worked. After that, bird seemed to fly just like new." he adds. "That's got me thinkin', Chief, and I can tell it's got you thinkin' too…" the young ensign says. "Once we got back aboard, me and Easy hotfooted our ECO station's hard drive to CIC, handed it off to the Marines." he adds, lowering his voice as if divulging a particular secret. "This is just supposition on my part, Chief." he says. "But ….we got _hacked_ and hacked _HARD_ I can't figure how, because nothing I'm getting out of anyone's saying anything about malicious code….But…Chief, Petty Officer." he says, nodding to Eve as if to include her in the secret. "I wasn't always an officer and a gentleman. Used to do some pretty funny things with computers. I know a virus when I see one."
Atreus nods, though this time it is short and decisive. "Thank you, Flasher." He turns to Eve, his voice still low, still contained, though a different emotion shows in how he grips the pen he was using, "I want you to take Teresi, Bannik and your choice of anyone else. Go through the maintenance logs for every remaining Viper and Raptor. I want to know every change that happened in the time leading up to the attack, please." He turns back to Marko, "You and I; Flasher, are going to talk to Lieutenant Oberlin. I want you to talk to every other ECO who flew that day and see if their experiences matched yours, yeah?" Just as he finishes speaking, the pen snaps in two. The Chief blinks and tosses the pieces into a nearby trash with a muttered, "Frakkin' pens. Sorry."
Eve listens and she listens well. It's one of her strong suits ever since attending schooling and training to where she's at now, sitting here in the Chief's office. "Ah, investigate mysterious signals and faulty equipment, again," she pauses and wrinkles the bridge of her nose out of distaste. All of it is work she has to commit herself to again. "Not a problem, Chief." She pauses again, to look at the pen, before giving Marko a sidelong glance and allow herself a moment of relaxing and adjusting her posture, straighten up a bit. "Sir, your funny things with computers ought to help…"
"Chief, if there's _anything_ I can do to help take some of this work of you and yours, lemme know, okay?" Marko replies nodding to Eve and then back to the Chief by way of explanation. "My mechanical skills aren't the best. but I know computers. Oh…but I know them." he grins, perhaps a little malevolently. "I've got a few theories as to what it could be, the foremost being an asymmetrical backdoor…You'd never be able to use it, even if you could find it." he adds, growing more interested by the moment. "Not the only one thinking this way, either." he adds. "Rojas is even more eyeball deep in this as I am, only from a different perspective. Trask's probably hot on my heels, if not five steps ahead."
Atreus draws a partially used rag from his tool belt and wipes ink from his fingers. Still, though he seems vaguely distracted, he nods, looking up, "Okay. Here is what I want to do. I am going to ask Lieutenant Oberlin to talk to each of us. I am tired of everyone thinking circles around each other. It is time we all got together and hashed this out. Between now and then, we are going to find what evidence we can in the maintenance logs." He turns to look at a desktop type calendar, then nods, "Let's meet here on Monday evening after supper. I'll send Major Hahn word so she can get you all shaken loose to attend." Again, he focuses on the two young people, "Thanks, both of you. I think we all have work to do, yes?"