 September 8, 2012 - 7:40pm | Lt. Cmdr. Michael Bell - Astrogator's Log - 08/20/2399 Arrived on board the William Logan today and got aquanted with my astrogation station on the bridge. I'll have to say the new StarTech Astro-3030 station is definitely a step up from the old 3015 model on my last assignment. The huge holo nav display is wonderful. Looks like I'll have a direct link to the Engineering deck as the new station includes a FTL Drive monitoring component as well. That will nice to be able to see those status readouts while traveling through hyperspace. When the chief engineer arrives I'll have to huddle up with him and get the rundown on the ships drives and what to expect. The Skipper asked me to double check the jump calcuations to Vega even though we'll be going through the new gate. Not sure if this is a test or just the old man wanting a local opinion. Either way, I'll run through the numbers and see what falls on the floor. Side note: I'm not sure what the captain's short form for the ship's name will be. Hopefully he'll have one as 'The William Logan' is a mouthfull. It will probably just be "The Logan". But who knows, maybe he's got a sense of humor and will call the ship "Billy". Addendum: Looks like it is "The Logan" as I expected. Much easier to say. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 8, 2012 - 7:49pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 08-25-2399 It's been awful quiet up here on the bridge. The Skipper stops by occasionally but none of the rest of the command crew has shown up. They must be coming from a long ways away. Not that I have really minded. I've been up to my ears in astro calculations for the jump and the peace and quite has been nice. I found a discrepancy between my calucations and the ones from the Edon Gate guys a couple of days ago and I've been working like mad trying to figure out where the problem is. I must say that having that med pod on the bridge has been nice. I can just rack out there when my brain is too fried and I can't focus any more. I thought I was doing it on the sly but the Captain caught me napping the other day (I thought the old man was out inspecting the gate) but he didn't seem to mind and didn't say to stop so I guess it's okay for now. I'll probably have to stop when the rest of the bridge crew starts showing up. I've decided to do a little training down at the holo-training center in my off time. Been doing a little Environmentalist traning. It reminds me at bit of times as a kid back home and helps clear my mind from all the astro calculations when I'm really frazzled. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 8, 2012 - 8:02pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 08/30/2399 Apparently I'm supposed to use slashes instead of dashes in the dates in these log entries. The computer threw a fit with the last one. Dumb contract programmers. Even I know that it should allow dates either way and if it wants it in just one format, that's easy enough to automatically convert. It's supposed to be about ease of use. Enought of that. Figured out the calculation discrepancy. The Edon guys forgot about Vega Oort Cloud 1 in their calucations. VOC1 was discovered decades ago on a misjump in the early days of travel to Vega and has been far enough from the standard travel lanes to not really make a difference. Normally it can be ignored, in fact most people have forgotten about it. However its orbit is bringing it closer to the travel lane and with this new higher quantum jump tech it is starting to be important. Forgetting it is understandable but really inexcusable when dealing with this new jump technology. I called them on it and they admitted to their mistake. That's probably why that drone they tested the gate with last week got chewed up. Looks like it was a good thing the Skipper had me double check the numbers. Finished up my envrionmental training at the holo center and started in on a melee combat course. I've got an old friend back home that I'm meeting up with on holiday whose big into archaic weapons and always tries to drag me into a sparing match. I thought I'd surprise him a bit and give him a bit more of a challenge. We'll see how it goes. There is still no word on other memebers of the command crew. I think the Skipper is getting a little impatient but if so, it's not really showing. We'll see if anyone shows up over holiday. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 8, 2012 - 8:08pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 09/04/2399 Well my friend enthusiastically cleaned my plate with his quarterstaff. Just goes to show that basic holo-vid training doesn't make up for years of practice. But I did catch him off guard right at first and got in a couple of blows when he thought he was dealing with a complete noob. That didn't last long as he switched over to "expert mode" and soundly trounced me. Fun though. I might have to keep up this training regime. Finished the astro calculations today and stored them in the computer so we can call them us as needed. As long as the launch date doesn't slip too much. If we get delayed more than a week, I'll have to make some adjustments but for now we're good. Still no word on other memebers of the command crew. Now that I'm done with the calcs, it's awfully lonely up here on the bridge with no one to talk to. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 8, 2012 - 8:17pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 09/06/2399 Now I know the old man is frustrated with the command crew's no show. I heard him cursing under his breath as he was reading an update. Seems that some beauracrat trying to make a point or more likely is just incompotent and the security clearances keep getting delayed. Makes me wonder how mine got through. Anyway, I think the Skipper will get it sorted out now that he knows where the bottleneck is. Finished my melee training. I also did a bit of brushing up on some more basic tech skills. I forgot how much I like just building stuff. Haven't done some of that since grad school. I think that extra bit of refresher will come in handy since I'll be working a bit with Engineering and monitoring the FTL drive. At least I won't sound like a complete idiot. Seems like I've got more time on my hands, I think I'll try to squeeze in one more holo training session before we ship out. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 8, 2012 - 8:20pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 09/07/2399 Our Chief Engineer, Commander Kyrell arrived onboard today and promptly disappeared into the dark underbelly of the ship. Wouldn't be surprised if the Skipper had a list of jobs for him to do as soon as he arrived as well. I'll have to try to get some of his time once his initial lookover of the ship is done. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 8, 2012 - 8:30pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 09/08/2399 Our chief medical officer arrived onboard today and I take back my desire to have others on the bridge to talk to. Commander Forrest, apprently they call him Duke, wasn't on the bridge more than two minutes before he was harping on the state of the med pod. I cleaned it up a week ago but apparently not good enough (I couldn't see anything wrong with it.) Anyway, the doc and I got off on the wrong foot, I'll have to see what I can do to make it up to him. Addendum: Turns out Doc Duke is into chess and martial arts. Those kung fu guys like to show off by whipping people with weapons. Maybe I should challenge him to a sparring match. He'll probably trounce me and that will make him feel better. No way I'm going to go easy on him at chess though. I don't hold an expert rating for nothing (even if it is a bit rusty). A good chess match might clear the air as well. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 11, 2012 - 12:36pm | Lt. Cmdr. Bell - Astrogator's Log - 09/11/2399 Finally it's launch day. There hasn't been much to do since I finished the jump calculations, other than minor tweaks to keep them up to date. I did manage to sqeeze in one final holo-traning session that finished up yesterday in time for me to be back onboard for the final mission brief. That's it for now. Maybe I can squeeze some more in once we're back. Spent a lot of time the last few days just wandering through the ship. Having never been on an Icarus class cruiser before, I thought it might be good to get a feel for the layout in case I ever needed to get somewhere unusual in a hurry. I think it caught several of the enlisted crew off-guard to suddenly find a bridge officer roaming the halls and in their areas. I stopped and talked with a few of the crew, especially those responsible for areas around the sensor equipment I rely on. They seemed like good people and I think it helps them to see that the command crew are regular people too. Turns out one of the techs that maintains the main telescope is from a town not thirty miles from where I grew up. We had a good chat and a few good laughs about growing up in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure there are nooks and crannies that the enlisted crew know about that I'll never find but I think my aimless wanderings payed off and I have a good feel for the ship's layout now. The Doc seemed pleased by the prospect of some in flght chess games, sounds like he's been itching to play for a while. Now we'll just have to find some time when we're both free. I hope we don't have to resort to play by mail style on the computer and can break out a real chess set in the rec lounge. He's been busy up to launch getting his area squared away. Hopefully things will calm down once we get underway. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
