ODN Upgrades (2)

[Asyle 0]

Asyle looked at her pad with the seemingly endless list of ODN cables that needed to be replaced, after her discussions with her bosses about what she should work on next. The cables did provide for more bandwidth and therefore greater throughput. It sure seemed like a good idea to them, to get better performance from the computers. And the protocol analyzers supported that approach. There was a huge amount of computer to computer communication to be able to respond to the needs of the crew. Yet to replace them meant she'd have to disconnect those various computers. And no one wanted any down time…..

 

Ensign White had agreed to help her with this project, and he'd also said something about getting something to eat together. Her stomach rumbled, and with her frustration as how to achieve the goals of the project mounting, she needed a break.

 

She walked over to Ensign White who was waiting for her to finish her discussions. "Let's get out of here and go to the mess hall. I'm hungry, and I can't think on an empty stomach. What do you say?"

 

"Sure. I could use a bite to eat too." He started to get up, and Asyle said "Take your PADD on the specs for the computers too. Maybe together we can figure out a better way to do this" White picked up the PADD he'd taken to Laarell Teykier's quarters. "Got it. Let's go."

 

Asyle nodded to her ever-present security escort, whom she didn't know and hadn't spoken to. After her butting heads with the new Brikar security officer, security had not been sending officers to escort her. Maybe security had come to the conclusion that Asyle wasn't a risk any more. While still important for them to watch her, having a female crewperson to escort her was a better allocation of resources.

 

The three of them left Main Engineering and went to the turbolift. "Mess Hall" White said, as the doors opened and the three of them entered, the doors closing and the hum of activation started with them moving. Asyle held her PADD with the specs on the new ODN cable, and shaking her head back and forth with a frown on her face, tapped the screen with her finger. "Does it seem like there's something missing in this project? I mean, why would a 50% increase in throughput be the result of this upgrade. This cable seems like it has the potential for a 500% increase."

 

The turbolift doors opened outside of the mess hall, and the three of them exited and walked in. "Let's put our stuff down here, and get something to eat first," White said. The security escort went over to a seat on the other side of the room with some security people, sitting where she could keep an eye on Asyle, who put her PADD down on the table White had picked out.

 

The two of them walked over to the replicators, and White asked "So what do you want to eat, Asyle?"

 

"What are you going to have, Mr. White?" He replied "Call me Da'veed, okay? It's my first name." Turning to the replicator, he said in a way to answer Asyle "Hot Pastrami on Rye, with a Kosher Pickle and a glass of decaffeinated Tea, iced, with a lemon wedge."

 

"Sounds interesting, Da'veed. Make it two." He turned to the replicator and issued the orders, and momentarily the two orders appeared. They took their trays and walked over to the table and sat down.

 

An hour later, Da'veed and Asyle were still discussing their ODN upgrades. Asyle sat back with a satisfied look on her face "…and when we utilize the upgraded signaling processors on these network cards, we don't have to remove or down any of the computers! They just simply slide in to the open accessory slots, the system recognizes them and we upload the software drivers from the PADD, connect the new ODN cables, and bingo! New routes will be discovered, and the old ones will be kept until removed. We might as well leave all of the old stuff in, as overflow routes for the data."

 

Da'veed nodded. "Easy enough. And no one will notice any down time at all, just increased response times from the upgraded processors Tandaris had put in replacement to all of those that were damaged. They won't be waiting for the network to respond nearly as much."

 

Asyle asked him, "So what do you think the resulting improvement will be in performance of the network?"

 

"Besides the potential for further redundancy, and we should map out a different network design too, it could approach an almost 200% actual improvement, based on my experience with these kinds of projects. Let's get back to Engineering and key in these changes to the network maintenance and design application, and see what it predicts. We're on to something here that's going to make everyone's job aboard a little easier."

 

Asyle stood up with her tray now empty of food, and so did Da'Veed, taking Asyle's from her and his over to the return slots. Asyle picked up his PADD and hers, nodding to the security crewman that she was ready to leave.

 

"So Ensign Asyle, do you have a first name I can call you by the next time we have a bite to eat together?" Da'veed and Asyle headed out together, the escort joining them, but at a more discrete distance.

 

"Da'veed, Ensign White, look. I like you. That's a big change to how I've been feeling around here towards men in general, some in particular. Keep calling me Asyle for now, and I'll talk to you more about it, say at dinner tonight? You made a great suggestion for lunch, and I'm interested in how you got your names, too."

 

"Okay, Ms Ensign Asyle with no first name. And maybe the next time, you'll let me ask you out on a date?"

 

"What??" Asyle stuttered, blushed, and smiled.