Bored Waiting

Mess Hall - *U.S.S. Appalachia*

Chu sat at a table in the mess hall of the Appalachia, which was almost deserted. Most of the crew were either working on the re-fit or on shore leave, the only other people in the mess hall were two engineers discussing ways to increase the matter\anti-matter flow rate.

He sat looking at his plate of synthetic steak and started to move it around his plate. Since coming aboard the Appalachia, he'd spent most of his time just wandering around, talking to anyone who would give him the time of day. Apart from working on the EMH systems, he'd done no actual work. That in itself was an accomplishment considering this was not his ship. However, he had to keep himself busy somehow. He remembered sitting in the lounge waiting and drinking toasts to the wonderful new ship that he was not on yet. He checked on it frequently and wondered when it was coming back to Earth. Ensign Barker let out a sigh as he sat back to remember.

After toasting the Leviathan for the third time with Ray, Ensign Barker's communicator gave three quick beeps and the base computer announced.

<Update on arrival of *U.S.S. Leviathan*>

Tapping his communicator, Chu listened as the base computer system gave more information.

<The status of the Leviathan has changed. The current position is enroute to Betais Theta IX. No arrival time at Starbase One is available at this time.>

"Computer, What is the mission status of the Leviathan." Chu asked.

<The Leviathan has been ordered to Betais Theta IX to study the supernova event that is about to take place.>

*OK, I've got a few days to wait, I guess I should find something to occupy my time* He thought.

"Computer, Is the *U.S.S. Appalachia* still in Spacedock"

<The *U.S.S. Appalachia* is currently at Spacedock Five.>

It had been the *Appalachia* that had been provided by Starfleet to act as the test-bed for the transpectral sensor array tests in the Badlands. It had also been the *Appalachia* that had brought Chu back to Earth.

"See you later Ray, I've got to catch-up with an old friend." Chu left the bar and headed for the nearest turbo-lift.

"Computer, when is the next scheduled shuttle to Spacedock Five"

<The next shuttle to Spacedock Five is departing from Shuttlebay Four in eight minutes>

"Ensign Chu Barker to the *U.S.S. Appalachia*."

[This is the *Appalachia* Ensign Barker, how may we help you ?.]

"Request permission to come aboard and address Captain Jaegar."

There was a short pause and then the communications officer came back.

[Permission granted Ensign, the Captain sends his regards]

Thirty minutes later, Chu was at the port airlock of the *Appalachia* shaking hands with her Captain.

"So what's all this about Ensign ?. I thought we'd seen the last of you. Shouldn't you be the Assistant Science Officer on that new ship of yours by now ?." Captain Jaegar remarked.

"My luggage has decided to go off exploring without me I'm afraid." Chu explained.

"This is why I am here. The Leviathan has been sent off to monitor the supernova in the Betais Theta IX system, so I've got a couple of days to 'kill' and I thought I'd come over and see how the refit was going."

"Well the warp core has been refurbished and is back on-line, the new shuttlecraft arrive tomorrow and we've now got metaphasic shielding."

"Handy thing to have on a Science vessel" Chu remarked.

"Yes, We're due to leave Spacedock in a couple of weeks to study the Somme Beta binary star system. We're hoping to fly in the plasma stream between the two sun's and we obviously couldn't do this without metaphasic shields. The only problem we've got is with the new EMH. All the holo-emitters in sickbay and the new EMH computer system have been installed, but we're having trouble getting the EMH to interface to the main computer core. The engineering team said that it was a problem with the bio-neural systems of the EMH overloading the computer core sub-processors." Jaegar explained.

"Maybe we can 'tweak' some of the sub-routines to get a little extra speed." Chu replied.

"Sure, do what you can Ensign, maybe we'll have a drink after you're done." Captain Jaegar said.

Ten minutes later, Chu was in the computer section looking at the interface subroutines

*This shouldn't take long.*

Main Computer Core - *U.S.S. Appalachia*

Two hours later, Chu had 'tweaked' the subroutines as much as he could. The computer had calculated that the increase in transfer efficiency was 35%, good but still not enough. *I need to check this out from Sickbay* Chu thought.

Sickbay - *U.S.S. Appalachia*

Walking into the empty sickbay Chu announced, "Computer activate EMH program". The Emergency Medical Hologram slowly faded in, faded out again and finally faded back in again.

"Good evening Ensign. Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The holographic doctor announced proudly.

*Good evening Ensign !. Looks like someone's finally got around to giving the EMH a bedside manner. Not a very sophisticated one, but it's still an improvement.*

"Doctor, this is an interface test, please run a level one diagnostic on your database systems."

"Certainly Ensign, level one diagnostic initiated, this diagnostic will take five minutes, please wait."

Chu went over to the computer console and monitored the results of the doctor's diagnostic.

After eight minutes, the EMH announced "Diagnostic complete, will there be anything else Ensign?"

"Computer, please explain the reason for the delay in the level one diagnostic just performed on the EMH database system."

<Delay was caused by a data overflow at computer transponder seventeen A within the main computer core>

"Computer, Identify computer transponder seventeen A"

<Computer transponder seventeen A is a level two data transponder, designed to receive and transmit data from the central core database systems at a rate of two point five giga-bytes per second.>

"Computer, How many level two data transponders are there within the computer core"

<There are sixty-four such transponders within the computer core. Sixteen of these are designated as dedicated backup transponders>

"How many of these backup transponders are directly connected to the EMH computer system"

<Two, transponders seven B and twenty-five B>

*Right, let's see if we can't use these somehow.*

After twenty minutes of configuring, modifying and testing, Chu finally managed to complete a sub-routine to access the two backup transponders.

Turning to the holographic doctor, Chu asked 'him' to re-run the level one diagnostic on the EMH database.

Four minutes thirty seven seconds later, the doctor announced that the diagnostic was complete, some thirteen seconds ahead of estimated schedule.

"Ensign Barker to Captain Jaegar."

[This is the Captain, Ensign]

"Your EMH is fully operational sir."

[Thank you Ensign, you've earned a rest. I'll meet you in the mess hall later, Jaegar Out].

Chu turned to the EMH and said "Goodbye Doctor. Computer, deactivate EMH".

"Well Ensign, you look as if you could do with some adventure."

Chu looked up from his plate at the voice and saw it was Captain Jaegar.

"I've got some good news for you Ensign, your luggage should be back in a couple of days, I've sent a subspace message to the Leviathan saying that you're here, but we've not received a reply as yet."

"Thank you again for getting the EMH up and running Ensign. Your idea of using two of the backup transponders as dedicated input and output data-stream controllers was so simple, I don't know why no-one had thought of it before"

"Anyway Ensign, carry on with your steak, I'll let you know when we hear more about the Leviathan." The Captain left the mess hall and Chu looked around. Since he'd sat down, the two engineers had finished their own meals and had left.