New course [engineering]

[tomcat]

Mr. Ramos stood and looked at the huge pillar warp core that hummed and flickered blue. She was a marvel of advanced engineering and she was purring perfectly. The engineer watched and listened closely to his engines making sure that nothing was behaving strange.

The Columbia had some shake down maneuvers to perform and engine tests, but he was sure that his baby was ready for anything the bridge could ask of her.

[tomcat]

Ramos looked up at the speaker mounted in the wall when he heard Grahm's voice, "Mr. Ramos, the ship will be entering the Katyon Cluster within the next ten minutes, or at least within its outer sphere of influence, to conduct recovery and rescue of the starship Merrimac. Please have a party ready on standby to transport to the Merrimac and be ready for shifting power needs. There is a lot of radiation within the cluster. Grahm out."

Like Downer on the bridge, Ramos had been paying close attention to the power demands being made throughout the ship. It was Grahm and the ship's deflector system  that was now making the highest demand, but it did not surprise Juan - the radiation of the cluster could kill everyone within minutes if the Columbia's shields were to fail.

"The Merrimac?" was the next thought that bloomed within the engineer's mind. "What's going on?"

[sdrotar]

"All right, everyone," Ramos said in a voice that rang our through Engineering.
"We'll be entering the Cluster itself within minutes on a rescue mission, so no station is to go unmanned at any point. Shields have top priority. Notify me with any changes of note immediately. The ship may be on Yellow Alert, but down here, consider yourself on Red - stay sharp!"

Juan went to his desk to double-check the data on the cluster; if the ambient radiation was apt to pose any risk to transporter use, he wanted to know about it in advance.

[tomcat]

Shawn, you can go ahead and give me a Computer Use (Retrieve) TN 15, to put together an analysis of what the radiation (at varying levels) will do to the transporters, and whether or not anyone could safely beam.

[sdrotar]

Computer Use (Retrieve) test TN 15
Ramos' Computer Use plus bonuses +6 (no Specialties)

Roll(2d6)+6:2,3,+6 Total:11 - FAILED

[tomcat]

Ramos pulled up the readings that Sorek had collated with his sensor scans. He tapped a few buttons and then numbers and words began to scroll up - percentages of radiation in every form. Ultra-violet, x-ray, gamma-ray, and more were displayed along with the intensity in which they bathed the Columbia. A three-dimensional schematic of the starship was also displayed and visually illustrated how the ship's shields would be deteriorated by the higher levels of radiation. Inverse to this was the power requirements needed to augment the shields so that they would be able to protect the starship and all of her inhabitants.

Ramos also allowed the data to run up against standard operating levels of radiation with other ship functions such as sensors, transporters, and tractor beams. The transporters were his primary concern (after the shields) and the engineer tapped in a few variances that the Katyon Cluster would impose. The computer responded with answers that were still within the safe zone. Juan nodded and turned away, content that the transporters would safely carry any crewmembers back and forth between the two ships.

What Ramos did not realize was that in his urgency to get an emergency team together, along with watching the ship systems fluctuate, he had run his safety data comparison in error by a factor of 10.

The engineering staff gathered the equipment that might be needed upon arrival on the Merrimac, and a six-man team was chosen to make the initial transport over.



Computer tests should be really easy within the starship, as the equipment would be top of the line - the high TN comes from the human element of entering hypothetical variances based on hard data. I am allowing the failure here due to Ramos running about with his staff getting ready... essentially, he forgot to carry over a 0 in his radiation percentages.

Understand, the ship's comp core will have its own fail safes with the data it collates from sensor sweeps, but we'll see how things work out.

If you want to spend some Courage against your roll, I will allow it if Ramos can roll a TN 10 Intellect roll. This will be seen as Ramos second-guessing himself and re-checking his numbers.

[sdrotar]

Intellect +2 (TN 10)
Roll(2d6)+2:4,6,+2 Total:12 - SUCCESS

Thank goodness! Seeing as I almost killed my engineering team with a typo, yeah, I'd better spend whatever Courage is necessary to pass. I'm pretty sure that, beyond the lifelong guilt, the ensuing court martial would have been the end of Ramos' career.

[tomcat]

Ramos watched as his team gathered the gear necessary, but something nagged at his ever-processing mind. It was not the team he had picked, nor their activity of getting ready. Neither was it the Columbia and her ability to withstand the amazing energies that even now played against her shields and helm. It was something...

Juan turned around and his eyes glanced back at the computer console still showing the data that he had just processed. The word transporters was bold across the top of the monitor along with a green [SAFE]. The engineer furrowed his brow and walked back to the panel, and it took only the second glance for the blood to rush from his face. Ramos saw the percentage carry-over in his hypothetical and it was off by a zero. He felt a momentary wave of nausea as he realized that he might have just potentially killed six members of the ship's crew. His hands danced across the keyboard and he corrected the calculation, which changed the green [SAFE] icon to a crimson [DANGER].

With beads of sweat now on his brow, Ramos hit the comm connecting him to transporter room 1, where even now Phillips and Sherman readied their teams.



Okay, Ramos spent 2 courage to realize his error. What this all means in game mechanics is that the normal TN 5 transporter test will increase to TN 20 within the clusters radiation and gravitational shear.