Obviously Perfect Space (aboard the Astraeus)

[Mei'konda]

I had to send an appreciation out to Esa Kiax for this great description her player came up with for the Ops center of the Astraeus!

((Operations Centre, Deck Four, USS Astraeus))

Esa had spent the first four days on board the Astraeus familiarising herself with the ship, it’s layout, and generally getting herself settled in her new quarters on Deck 5. They were much bigger than her quarters on the Chin’toka and Atlantis – possibly even bigger than the square footage of them both combined, but of that she wasn’t certain. Now, however, it was time to ingratiate herself with the 206 new members of the Ops team. Well… not all of them were new. But the Astraeus had a much larger crew compliment than the Chin’toka, so the majority would be.

The moment Esa had arrived on board, she’d been told by the transporter operator that she should really check out the Operations Centre when she had a moment. That moment was now. As she stepped through the doors, she was instantly halted in her tracks by the sheer scale of the room before her. The double entrance doors actually didn’t open out directly into the room, instead forming the end of a short tunnel-like section. As she walked toward the centre of the room, it became clear just how much of a central hub for all shipboard operations this room was. Along the wall directly opposite the door was a large Master Systems Display, with a number of smaller displays showing a variety of different monitoring states. In the centre, an interactive 3D-hologram of the ship was lazily spinning in the middle of a small plinth, surrounded by a number of small stations. Several officers and petty officers alike stood at the stations, manipulating the holographic ship as they went about their tasks. Every now and then, a group of other officers would rotate in and use the projection to zoom in on a specific area of the ship, helping them visualise the resource use in that area and enable them to make more informed decisions.

Around the edges of the room stood a number of large stations for mission ops, shuttlebay ops, life support, environmental systems, cargo bays and logistics, and the holodecks. Along the left side of the room, raised above the pit-like hive of general activity from the bulk of ops stations, there were dedicated stations for the Transporter Chief, Quartermaster and Flight Operations Manager. On the right side of the room, atop the other of the raised platforms, stood a glass fronted office which overlooked the space. It was nestled in the back corner of the room, and cut the corner at a 45-degree angle. Emblazoned two-thirds of the way up the middle panel of glass was the traditional Operations insignia, with the words “Chief of Operations” printed underneath. Inside was a large, three-panelled half-hexagon shaped console against the window facing outwards, with a desk placed centrally behind it facing in, allowing the occupant to utilise the rotatable chair to switch between desk work and console work.

In the other corner, was a large open plan area, with yet another holographic projection unit, and accompanied by a few wall mounted stations and a large Plotting Table. The wall behind it was printed with large red letters that read “STRATEGIC OPERATIONS”. The plotting table was an interactive surface, showing a map of the current area of operations for the ship – the Par’tha Expanse – though it was fully reconfigurable to show any other areas as desired.

Esa marvelled at the space, and the sight of finally having all the individual areas of the ship that fell under her jurisdiction managed from a central location. She could already see the intra-departmental cohesiveness and collaboration increasing with such a space, and no doubt it would encourage a significant rise in inter-departmental cooperation as well. With this, they could work seamlessly with Noa and her Science department, and those in the Command division for managing shipwide activities. It almost reminded her of a mix between the historic Launch Control Centre at the Kennedy Space Centre, and the old European Space Operations Centre in Germany.

Kiax: I could really get used to working on these types of cruisers…

And with that, she set off into the fray – meeting and greeting all of her new officers.