Upgrades
Posted on Sat Mar 20th, 2021 @ 6:06am by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Mission:
*CD*
Location: USS Liberty
Timeline: 8 Hours from DS9
Upgrades
"Time is 07:30 hours." The computer alerted her for the third time. She grunted and pulled the pillow tight around her ears. Some days fighting the alarm clock were worth it. Laying there, waking up gradually was more than a chore now, it had become a routine right of passage compared to her life back home.
"Time is 07:35 hours."
"Ugh!" She proclaimed before throwing her pillow at the wall, where it fell to the floor with a light thud, rolling over and pulling the blankets up over her head. If her father had been there, he would have told her she was being an irrational, emotional, child and she needed to get over herself. It was time to wake up and face the world head on with a smile and a pretty face. He was right of course. Her father always had a way of motivating her.
Before the computer had a chance to sound off again she uncurled from her cocoon, tossed the blankets off to the side and rolled into a sitting position. So far she was doing well as she smacked her dry lips together, yawned and stretched to her fullest extremes. "Computer list my daily itinerary."
The computer gave an audible acknowledgment chirp. "You have three early appointments on deck 5 section 24 through 29 Alpha to replace Outdated console equipment." She paused a moment to buffer before continuing. "You have one appointment on deck 23 section 4 Beta to correct a matter-energy conversion matrix issue which is causing the pattern buffer to display lewd images."
She rolled her eyes. "Computer reassign that task to Charlie. I'm sure she'll get a kick out of it more than I will." The computer chirped an understanding chirp. "Anything else?" She asked as she started to stand.
“Starfleet Command has issued an LCARS update to the main computer core for scheduled rollout when USS Liberty is next docked in port.”
Her eyes went large, her mind reeling. Upgrades. They were both wonderful and scary at the same time. Sometimes they went smooth, at others, not so much. Sometimes an update could cause system outages and localized problems, easily fixed with patches. Sometimes, like with the events that occurred on the SS Merryweather, the ship became a deathtrap that attempted to kamikaze itself and its crew. So, no pressure, she thought to herself.
Giddy with excitement she moved around the end of her bed and promptly found her tossed pillow with her feet, face planting into the floor with a familiar thud. Shaking it off, she stood again, picked up the pillow and tossed it back onto the bed before resuming course to get dressed and ready for the day.
An hour later, breakfast devoured, she sat in the computer core looking over the patch notes for the system upgrade. Some security patches, some tech upgrade notes, nothing major, and nothing that should cause issues, at least on the surface. She poured through the code, a requirement she had placed upon herself. It was better to be prepared for eventualities rather than issues.
The code would not be rolled out until they docked, and until she informed the chain of command, and of course, until she determined it was ‘safe’ to do so. She asked the computer, “Computer, when are we scheduled to arrive at DS9?”
“ETA to Deep Space Station 9 is 8 hours and 33 minutes at current speed.”
She tapped her badge to contact the bridge, “Computer Core to Bridge, this is Lt. Durnell.”
There was the sound of someone clearing their throat before the voice of the Captain replied. " Sorry Lieutenant, coffee went down the wrong way, how can I help you?" Kaylen asked as she coughed again, sounding like a small dinosaur.
“Captain, um, Starfleet has issued a computer upgrade to take place as soon as we are docked. I have been going through the code and believe the upgrade to be sound. I just want to make the bridge aware of the rollout plan scheduled for about 12hours from now. Will that be okay with you?”
Rhebora gut sank at the word 'upgrade'. No 'upgrade' she has ever been through was a simple and straightforward event. There were always glitches.
" Sure, I guess while we are at DS9 is the best time and place for it." Rhenora confirmed from the bridge. Thus was not going to end well, she could feel it in her bones. Hopefully, she'd be on Bajor with Remal and her mind a million miles away when this went down.
“As far as I can tell, it should be harmless. I am prepared to warn the entire ship to prepare their stations in the event something should go awry, but, well… no it should be good.” She corrected her own confidence.
" I have faith in your abilities there Bonnie, just make sure you get some shore leave in when the system is back up and running" the captain reminded gently. Nope, she was definitely going to be on Bajor...with wine. And then some.
“Yes, yes ma’am. I shall do my best ma’am.” Bonnie was sweating bullets, but smiling proudly. The captain had faith in her, so everything should go fine, right? “Bonnie, out.”
As the young technician signed off Rhenora backed up all the critical files she had onto a padd. Just in case.
She prepped her message for rollout for 12 hours. Each station, each individual would be warned that an update would be forthcoming. There were always those who ignored the message, who would rather be doing anything but waiting on loading bars and reboots of their machines. So many people refused to concede their daily work habits for the impact of a computer upgrade, no matter how important it may be. But she had her ways of forcing the upgrade whether those people liked it or not.
**WARNING**
The following terminal will be set to upgrade at precisely 2100 hours this evening. Please make sure to save and backup your work before this time as a reboot of the system will be necessary.
Any issues with this upgrade can be directed to your local supervisor or by contacting your friendly Computer Systems Department.
Thank you and have a nice day.
The message was direct, courteous and a warning. It was all she needed to get their attention. Now all she had to do was wait for docking to begin and prep the rollout to occur in phases throughout the ship. She sighed, it was going to be a long day.
TBC
