Book 4: Chapter 18 “Run Saturn Run”
“Chapter 18 explanation & dialogue.
Two days later in Commander Ramirez office attached to her residence on the Battlestar Saturn.
Commander Maria Ramirez looked annoyed and amused at the same time. She sat in front of a meal that did not appeal to her. It looked like some kind of pasta with vegetables in it.
In the chair opposite the commanders desk sat Captain Phil Langer, call sign “Tiger” , recently promoted to Commander Air Group due to the radiation sickness of Captain Woods, call sign Acorn.
Ramirez frowned when she looked at the report in engineering. A FTL jump was being urgently demanded by CIC. The Cylons were closing in on all sides and were tossing small nukes at the battlestar. Though they were being detonated by point defense weapons and a few raptors and vipers trying to facilitate combat landings by the rest of the air wing.
Link to video segment 1
“It says here that Major Keynes found that one of the FTL coils was shorting out and sending high voltage to the sensors and control systems. This was why the FTL was showing offline to the CIC, while everything seemed to be working in engineering. She pulled the bad coil, and conducted a high risk part replacement on the core.”
Langer sighed.
“Because I fly raptors, I understand the basics of FTL engineering. That part replacement she did normally requires a cold FTL coil and 2 hours to perform. She then signaled CIC and told us to force the jump, while she and another engineer lifted the FTL coil and installed it. The coil was jammed and would not go in. She then took a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and tried to bang the unit in place.”
“There was an energy surge and it fed back the coil exploded when the actuators created the FTL field. She was killed instantly by shrapnel.”
“So the root cause was the repair?” Commander Ramirez asked.
“No, the replacement part was not tested after fabrication, before it was put into parts inventory. Major Keynes knew about the problem and had already updated the procedures in our fabrication equipment. This part was sourced from Mercury, which had not updated their manufacturing processes.” Captain Langer looked angry as he looked down at his copy of the report.
“So she is a hero, she saved us from near certain death, violating safety procedures. She knew the part might blow up in her face, but she also knew if the FTL could not make the jump then we were all dead.” Ramirez looked up from the report.
“Is that what you are going to say at the memorial?” Langer asked.
“I have a couple hours to decide that.” Commander Ramirez leaned back in her seat.
“Are you going to eat that?” Langer asked. He had been eyeing the salad for several minutes.
“No Phil, go ahead, knock yourself out.”
Captain Langer scooped up the plate and began to eat. “I can’t remember the last time I ate.”
Commander Ramirez, looked over the report she was flipping through and frowned slightly.
“So what do you think we should do about engineering?” the commander asked.
“I don’t know. Lieutenant Calahan seems over her head. It’s not like we have a deep bench full of engineers. I was wondering what you were going to do about the XO slot.”
“Well we need something. I can’t be barking out orders in CIC and be an expert on FTL drives.”
Commander Ramirez sighed. While Langer slurped in pasta salad, the commander jumped on her laptop and started searching through the personnel database, such that it was.
“Something is wrong with this frakking database. Every time I search for FTL engineers, I get an md5 check sum error. Somebody messed with the database.”
“It says here that Major Keynes found that one of the FTL coils was shorting out and sending high voltage to the sensors and control systems. This was why the FTL was showing offline to the CIC, while everything seemed to be working in engineering. She pulled the bad coil, and conducted a high risk part replacement on the core.”
Langer sighed.
“Because I fly raptors, I understand the basics of FTL engineering. That part replacement she did normally requires a cold FTL coil and 2 hours to perform. She then signaled CIC and told us to force the jump, while she and another engineer lifted the FTL coil and installed it. The coil was jammed and would not go in. She then took a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and tried to bang the unit in place.”
“There was an energy surge and it fed back the coil exploded when the actuators created the FTL field. She was killed instantly by shrapnel.”
“So the root cause was the repair?” Commander Ramirez asked.
“No, the replacement part was not tested after fabrication, before it was put into parts inventory. Major Keynes knew about the problem and had already updated the procedures in our fabrication equipment. This part was sourced from Mercury, which had not updated their manufacturing processes.” Captain Langer looked angry as he looked down at his copy of the report.
“So she is a hero, she saved us from near certain death, violating safety procedures. She knew the part might blow up in her face, but she also knew if the FTL could not make the jump then we were all dead.” Ramirez looked up from the report.
“Is that what you are going to say at the memorial?” Langer asked.
“I have a couple hours to decide that.” Commander Ramirez leaned back in her seat.
“Are you going to eat that?” Langer asked. He had been eyeing the salad for several minutes.
“No Phil, go ahead, knock yourself out.”
Captain Langer scooped up the plate and began to eat. “I can’t remember the last time I ate.”
Commander Ramirez, looked over the report she was flipping through and frowned slightly.
“So what do you think we should do about engineering?” the commander asked.
“I don’t know. Lieutenant Calahan seems over her head. It’s not like we have a deep bench full of engineers. I was wondering what you were going to do about the XO slot.”
“Well we need something. I can’t be barking out orders in CIC and be an expert on FTL drives.”
Commander Ramirez sighed. While Langer slurped in pasta salad, the commander jumped on her laptop and started searching through the personnel database, such that it was.
“Something is wrong with this frakking database. Every time I search for FTL engineers, I get an md5 check sum error. Somebody messed with the database.”
The commander went into geek mode and started digging into the system. Langer finished his mean and walked around the desk to look over her shoulder.
<Several minute pause.>
“What happened?” Langer asked.
“Somebody used my command authentication and tried to remove his record in the personnel database? Pretty nifty work, just did not make the md5 checksum signature work. What the frak?”
“Master sergeant Victor Torres has been working in the starboard deck gang, doing viper repairs. He has a post graduate degree in Faster Than Light physics from the University of Virgon. A degree in Physics from the Tauron Institute of Technology. What the frak is he doing messing around with Viper repairs?”
“Get his sorry ass up here right frakking now!” The commander was speaking in a low growl.
Victor Torres was about 1.85 meters tall, athletically built with a mop of nonregulation hair pushed back behind his shoulders.
His uniform was worn out from many months of use. His eyes darted between commander Ramirez and Phil Langer.
He looked suspicious at this meeting with the top two live officers on the damaged Battlestar. He had spent years keeping his profile low to avoid the attention of senior leadership. Now he was being called into a meeting with commander Ramirez.
This did not go well for his plan to hide his education and skills.
Link to video segment 2
The commander went into geek mode and started digging into the system. Langer finished his mean and walked around the desk to look over her shoulder.
“What happened?” Langer asked.
“Somebody used my command authentication and tried to remove his record in the personnel database? Pretty nifty work, just did not make the md5 checksum signature work. What the frak?”
“Master sergeant Victor Torres has been working in the starboard deck gang, doing viper repairs. He has a post graduate degree in Faster Than Light physics from the University of Virgon. A degree in Physics from the Tauron Institute of Technology. What the frak is he doing messing around with Viper repairs?”
“Get his sorry ass up here right frakking now!” The commander was speaking in a low growl.
Victor Torres was about 1.85 meters tall, athletically built with a mop of nonregulation hair pushed back behind his shoulders.
His uniform was worn out from many months of use. His eyes darted between commander Ramirez and Phil Langer.
He looked suspicious at this meeting with the top two live officers on the damaged Battlestar. He had spent years keeping his profile low to avoid the attention of senior leadership. Now he was being called into a meeting with commander Ramirez.
This did not go well for his plan to hide his education and skills.
“Welcome Sargent Torres. Can I offer you some coffee, perhaps something to eat.” Commander Ramirez gesture to platter with three or four 1 day old pastries on it.
“Action stations, CO is offering me food!” Torres said in a low, audible voice.
Commander Ramirez poured a cup of coffee after Sergeant Torres nodded. She poured black then and then offered him sugar and cream, which he declined to add to his drink.
“Sergeant Torres. You have spent the last two years as a knuckle dragger. You are flagged by the chief as the go to guy for complicated viper or raptor repairs.” Phil Langer said.
“Any problems with my work Sirs?” He nibbled at a bit of a pastry that had a bit of cinnamon visible.
“Were you aware of the fact that we had serious FTL issues and nearly got blasted out of the sky because of them?” Commander Ramirez asked.
“Why would a knuckle dragging NCO care about that?” Torres asked.
Langer made eye contact with the Virgon crewman. He spoke in a voice that did not hide his anger.
“I don’t know why would a knuckle dragger hack into the database for the colonial fleet and cover up the fact that he’s qualified as an FTL engineer?”
Sergeant Torres looks confused. His eyes darted from side to side, and he seemed to be flustered by this information. “What are you talking about?”
“You are busted. You have a four year degree from Virgon University. You have an advanced degree in FTL physics from the Tauron Institute of technology.”
Phil Langer’s voice grew slightly louder and angrier. “Are you crazy? Or do you just have a death wish?”
Torres stammered. “I just didn’t want the responsibility. If I make a mistake on a viper repair we lose one pilot. That is a tragedy, but at least everyone else stays alive after that. One mistake with an FTL repair and we all die. That’s too much responsibility. I don’t want it.”
“The mistake you made was to try to pull this hack on my ship. I started out this war in IT. Sergeant Torres you’re out of uniform. Congratulations you are our chief FTL engineer. Get your sorry ass out of my office and into engineering. I wanna report on FTL status in three hours.”
The commander stood up and offered a set of captains pins for the former NCO’s uniform.
Torres remained seated, looking like he had just been hit by a truck.
“When your commander stands up, you stand up captain.” Phil Langer said in a low, angry voice.
Torres stood up and offered a hand to receive the rank pips. “Yes Sirs“
“Are you waiting for an engraved invitation to get to engineering? Get down there and get to work on that report!” Langer ordered.
“See the quarter master for a new uniform captain,” commander Ramirez ordered.
Torres stammered and spoke to himself as he finished his coffee and exited the commanders, Quarters.
Link to video segment 3
Commander Ramirez stood at the podium in the layout pilots planning theater.
“Some announcements. Sargent Victor Torres is now Captain Victor Torres. He is our chief engineer, due to him having sat for undergraduate and post graduate degrees in FTL physics and systems. Our short term mission is going to be to stay away from the Cylons long enough for Captain Torres to overhaul the FTL control systems and verify that all the various parts pass quality assurance testing. May we all pray for his success.”
“Major Langer is XO and a non flying Commander, in our Air Group. We are going to need to keep the Cylons from hitting us with weapons and making this repair job harder.”
“All right, settle down people. We have some information dumps that indicate some places where we can snag some parts. We have three jumps planned in this operation. Squadron commanders, you have work assignments in the hand held computer. Make sure your pilots coming off medical leave have ACTUAL medical sign offs permitting flight status.”
“Do not allow them to bullshit their way on if they have not been medically cleared. Is that clear?”
Major Langer pressed a button on his blue tooth headset.
“All right people. Prepare for a combat jump. Land the Combat Air Patrol!”
“Contacts! DRADIS! 4 gunships, 1 is on CBDR collision course. They found us. Continuing jump sequence.”
“Air wing!”
“The enemy is launching raiders!”
“All undamaged tubes have planes ready for combat launch.”
“Jump Key!”
“Jump Keys inserted. Board is green!”
“FTL!”
“FTL board is green.”
“Fifty, five zero missiles heading for the port flight pod.”
“NAV!”
“Nav computers are synched.”
“Combat Jump go!” ordered commander Ramirez
“Combat Jump”
“Jump Complete.”
“Launch the CAP,” Ordered commander Ramirez
“DRADIS, maximum range!”
The radio crackled with the male voice of one of their most experienced viper pilots. “Lots of crap out here.Gonna be hurting to fix any targets.This is plumber, Combat air patrol has been established.”
The distinctive sets of high-pitched peeps came from the DRADIS Console. Other series of noises indicated FTL jumps.
“Contact! Three gunships, two smaller targets, are launching raiders. Three groups of 25-30 inbound missiles. Constant Bearing Decreasing Range!”
Major Langer made eye contact with the commander, who he had known for almost two decades, and knew there was no chance of a tactical withdrawal. Words were not necessary between the two.
“Launch the air wing. Gun Crews spin up on manual mode. Comms make sure every plane knows our engagement zone. Begin crash turns, tactical. At the end of turn 3 Flak is cleared for automatic.”
“This is Angel. Green squadron. Enemy fighters are not challenging us. We’re going to engage the inbound missiles.”
“Orange squadron. Plumber. Split into two tactical groups! Group A engage the inbound missiles. Group B stand back and take out the stragglers.”
Video segment 4
Link to fullstory video on youtube.
