Unusual Business as Usual

[Tachyon 0]

Duty Log Stardate 0501.04

Lt.jg. Arthur Dent

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With more personal matters aside, Dent was confronted with the task of getting Aegis operational again. He was in the same boat as everyone else aboard: everyone was constantly doing something to get the station running. Aegis was the cornerstone of coordination in the Cardassian sector, but right now it wasn’t coordinating too well.

 

To his dismay, the docking systems aboard Aegis were a complete wreck. Not only had physically havoc been dealt to the pylons and docking ports, but the computer systems had decided to corrupt Dent’s carefully managed database of docking information. He did have multiple backups, but with the state of the computer systems he decided to delay downloading those until later.

 

For the past two weeks, he has laboured to reconstruct the system as best as he can. Dent, while not an engineer, at least knows which button to push. However, he found that over the course of the repairs, pushing the right button wouldn’t always give the right result. His life had been spent mostly on the Control Tower, with occasional jaunts to various locations that were relevant to his task. Never had he been more aware that a starbase’s docking facilities were one of its most essential systems.

 

“Computer, reinitialize the airlock cycling routines for docking ports 1-8,” he requested of the computer.

 

“Requested function is not available,” the computer stated in its confident monotone.

 

“Explain.”

 

“Please state the nature of your medical emergency.”

 

It appeared that the computer had decided to spontaneously malfunction again instead of rendering a helpful troubleshooting service. He was about to move on to another task when the computer interrupted him and said something unexpected.

 

“Synonyms for juggle in submitted context: handle, manage, deal, care.”