Pallets and Logistics

Posted on Thu Jan 25, 2018 @ 10:07am by Ensign Athyle sh'Paveress & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Operations
Timeline: MD 32 || 1400 hours

"Chief?" asked a feminine voice from behind Thomas. His ears instinctively recognized it as his trusty deputy, Ensign sh'Paveress. "Fabrication reports the sixth pallet is complete."

Tom's eyes continued its study of the holographic model of the USS Triumphant in front of him. In all, eighteen gravity wave generators would be produced, each in place of select sensor pallets. The public ruse, even aboard the Triumphant, was that malfunctions had been discovered in eighteen sensor pallets. Malfunctions so severe that entire sections would have to be replaced. Work on manufacturing and installation was progressing rather steadily, at the rate of one pallet per hour. Sensor cluster design was complex by default, and adding the wave generators without drawing too much attention was difficult enough.

"We need to work faster," Tom said to the ensign. It was, after all, a matter of time before the Commanding Officer would arrive and declare that his time would be cut short. Six pallets would not be enough. He had to have all eighteen.

"With respect, Chief," the ensign said, handing over a PADD, "the replicators can only work so fast."

Tom glanced at the PADD before giving it a firm shake to throw its contents into the holographic display. "What about taking some of the removed pallets and physically altering them?"

"It won't shorten the clock," Athyle admitted. "If anything, it adds five minutes per pallet."

The Ops Chief frowned, displeased with the answer he expected. The pallets were fairly large, so, naturally it took the fabrication replicators a long time to produce them. "But that's with how many people?"

"Twelve. There's only so much room to service a pallet as well. Add an extra hand, not even a pair, and not only do you increase the chances of poor construction, the more eyes you'll have on the pallets themselves."

His frown stayed. "What about shifting resources into pre-production?" he asked, referring to some of the staging areas Engineering hadn't lent to operations. "Replicator technology isn't too dissimilar from transporter technology. We could use the transporters to store several larger elements."

"But how exactly would that help?" Athyle asked. "The transporters can't assemble the pallets. That would still have to be done by hand."

Tom swiveled the holographic image of the Triumphant and zoomed in on a particular section. "Cargo Bay Three is relatively unused. If we can dump some raw matter into the transporter, and use that matter to build parts, we could double our manufacturing rate."

The Andorian deputy nodded, catching on. "Turning the transporters into elements of an assembly line. That's... that's unusual thinking, Chief."

Tom grunted, thinking of the original project that led him to this inspiration. He wondered, for a brief second, if the Commodore was ever going to figure it out, and there wasn't a chance in hell that he'd give anyone an idea of how he thought about utilizing the transporters like this. "Hey, if it works, then I'll give you credit for it."

Athyle chuckled, preparing to leave the room to set the new plan into motion. "And if it doesn't?"

"If it doesn't, then that's why there are Chief of Operations," Tom remarked with a smile.

The Andorian shook her head as she left the room. "Humans," she muttered.