by Wayne23 » Sun Jan 23, 2022 4:27 pm
9/11: We lose the SG. We offer to a PG.
9/18: We get the 2 Cs, #60, #61. Still chasing a guard.
No early season tourney this year.
9/25: We lose the PG, offer to another.
10/2: We lost another PG. 1st day of practice. Lots of competition for every position so we're going to try lots of combinations over the next few weeks.
We're not planning to go near the comet. We'll get our info via video and photos from the probe.
10/9: We lose yet another PG. Frustrating!
10/16: A near catastrophe last night, in the middle of the night. Oxygen system died. This sets off the loudest alarms we have and the brightest flashing lights. Everyone needs to find their hazmat suit very quickly, obviously.
As it turns out everyone did, and those with young children managed to get the kids into Hazmat suits.
That gives us 6 hours of air.
At the 5 hour, 45 minute mark the system was still not fixed. People headed for the shuttles. The shuttles can provide a theoretically inexhaustible supply of air once their launched. Unfortunately, we don't have enough shuttles for everyone on board. It became a children and parents first scenario.
As the first suits began to run out of air the system kicked back in.
The Captain called an immediate Council meeting.
“As your Captain I need to propose that, as quickly as possible, we 3D print enough shuttles to hold everyone on board.”
“There are 922 on the ship. Where in hell are we going to store all of those shuttles!”
“We'll figure that out, Clarence. It needs to be done. A few more minutes and there would have been 280 people on board. Everyone else would have died.”
“Captain, this is a once in a blue moon occurrence. It may never happen again.”
“And it may happen before I adjourn this meeting. I'm asking the Council to support me on this.”
“Captain, I Do support you but Clarence's point is well taken. We need to solve the problem of storage, a not insignificant problem, before we build all those shuttles.”
“No, Jacqui. We need to start building shuttles. It will take at least a week to build as many as we need. That gives us a week to figure out the storage issue.”
It was a long, heated, and pretty much pointless discussion. Everyone saw the need for the shuttles, and I'm pretty sure everyone knew we'd figure out the details, but still, everyone was heard from, and many were heard from several times.
I finally had had enough:
“Look, I've pretty much lost my night's sleep at this point and we're talking in repetitive circles. I move the question.”
Lots of shouting. It took awhile to restore order. My motion was passed 7-5.
“Okay, that means we vote now. All in favor of building enough shuttles to house the entire crew raise your right hand.”
Everyone did.
“Good. I assign a committee of Clarence, Jacqui, and Jed to find a solution to the problem of storage and to report back to the Council in one week.”
Damn! This was the last thing I wanted. Clarence is difficult to work with and Jacqui has a short fuse.
10/23: We met nightly for the first four nights. Those two both love to hear the sound of their own voice!
On the fourth night we went with a plan Jacqui proposed on the first night, and which I had no doubt would be what we would recommend. Why it took four meetings...
We're going to store the shuttles on the hull, outside of the actual ship. Yes, I know, that's very obvious. But it's not that simple. The hull is vital space and a lot happens there.
First, we store other things, many of them. Second we need space uncluttered for visuals- telescopes and such, to see around us. We can't afford ANY blind spots. So storing 25 additional shuttles on the hull is going to mean lots of adjustments and lots of things being moved. It won't be quick or easy.
Meanwhile, the damned shuttles are in every vacant space on the ship and a royal p.i.t.a. For people to work around.
“Meeting is called to order. We're meeting tonight for the sole purpose of hearing from the committee. Jed, Jacqui, Clarence, what did you come up with?”
Since it was Jacqui's original proposal we let her speak.
The Council was not kind and did not like our solution.
Two hours later no viable alternative had been proposed.
“We need a trailer. We can build a trailer to house most of the shuttles and drag it along behind us.”
“No, Jamal, we can't. That would cause a huge blind spot, and we can't have any blind spots.”
“Put the visual stuff on the far side of the shuttles facing in the direction we need to see. How is that different from having the visuals attached to the hull.”
A long silence...
“As Captain, I don't see a reason why this couldn't work. Let's take three days to think it over and meet again. If we still think this will work we'll start building the trailer. Monty and Rhea, you're a committee to design the trailer. You've got the skills and the experience. Have a plan for us when we meet again in three days.”
10/26: Monty and Rhea came up with a great design that was very efficient. No one had come up with any major obstacles. The vote in favor was 12-0.
We'll be annoyed by the shuttles for a couple of weeks or more before we can get them to the trailer.
We'll start bringing shuttles inside, a few at a time, immediately, if we have another breakdown in the oxygen system.