Efficiency, thy name is Murgatroid
"Commander Khan, you may hand over the bridge to me. You are off duty until your next rotation." Khan, relieving Khan, was relieved to see Khan leave the bridge. Khan had clearly been there a couple of hours too long and needed a break.
mib_khan entered the bridge turbolift and stated as clearly as he could (given his state of exhaustion) "Deck Four". The turbolift doors closed, and so did Khan's eyes. The ride to Deck Four wasn't that far, but every second counted when it was a second of sleep he could have. He experienced a sensation of movement inside the lift, and then opened his eyes when he heard the doors open again. Looking out onto chaos, he rubbed his eyes, then blinked again. Nope, it didn't help. Everyone walking around Deck Four was upside down.
Someone walked past the turbolift door. Reaching out, Khan snagged the crewman's elbow and pulled him into the lift. The man did a flip in mid-air and landed right-side-up (per Khan's orientation), feet down on the turbolift floor. Khan sighed. This was clearly going to take more consciousness than he had to spare for the moment. He grabbed a hypospray and self-injected a short-acting sleep blocker. He gave it a second to take effect, then said, "Are you some kind of acrobat? What's going on out there?"
The crewman grinned. "Nope, but my Starfleet Academy alternate-g maneuvers are coming back to me pretty quickly. It's easy to get used to the change once you remember that we're in space. Why do all the decks have to be oriented the same way when you're in microgravity?"
Khan sighed again. "Crewman, you're making way too much sense. By definition, that means none of the crew's usual sots and imbiciles came up with whatever's going on. Was it ifix?" The crewman nodded. Khan dismissed the crewman, then slapped his combadge and ordered a point-to-point transport to the vicinity of Ifix. He was less sleepy, but no less exhausted, and he didn't want to have to climb or jump to the Chief Engineer.
The transporter system had either been programmed to orient him right-side up to Ifix or simply included protocols to reassemble transportees perpendicular to the local gravity gradient. Khan didn't care, but was satisfied that his brain wasn't further bent. The Chief Engineer looked up at Khan quizzically; he appeared to be stripping the gravity shielding off a gravstator at his desk in Engineering. A number of similarly-altered stators surrounded Ifix.
"Ifix, I was simply trying to go to bed. Please, for the love of all that's good and hallucinogenic, tell me why Deck 4 has been reassembled upside down?"
Ifix nodded. "Save energy. Improvements!" Khan slapped his forehead. This was going to take a while. Ifix sensed his commander's frustration and went over to a replicator. "Ifix sandwich demonstration display, open-face." He then ordered the same thing, closed face, and pulled a few green plastic soldiers off his desktop somewhere. The sandwiches were a layer of sauerkraut, swiss cheese, corned beef, Russian dressing and rye bread of the type colloquially called a 'Reuben'. Khan's mouth began to water...it had been a long time since food, too.
Ifix pointed to the meat. "Gravstator". He pointed to the cheese, which was on top of the meat, melted and fragrant. "Grav shielding." He pointed to the sauerkraut. "Underdeck, above ceiling. He pointed at the bread on top of the sauerkraut, and said "Ceiling, lower-deck", and at the bread on the bottom of the sandwich, "Floor, upper deck." He then grabbed the sandwich and flipped it over. "Normal state on ship - floor, gravstator, gravshielding, underdeck, ceiling." He stuck a couple of plastic soldiers on the top (previously bottom) piece of bread, and handed the first sandwich to Khan. He then grabbed the open-face sandwich, peeled the cheese off of it (and tossed it behind him, where it stuck to a wall panel) and began to point again. "Gravstator" - at the meat. He added sauerkraut to both sides of the meat, and then stuck bread on both sides of the sauerkraut, mentioning "underdeck" and "floor" in relation to the two components. When he finished his masterpiece, Khan had finished the first Reuben. And the soldiers. He'd been hungry. Ifix stuck soldiers on both sides of the bread, oriented feet-down to the bread.
Khan licked his fingers, then said, "Okay, let me see if I got it. The purpose of the grav shielding on the underside of the grav stators is so that crewmen walking on Deck Four don't get stuck to the ceiling...the underside of Deck Three. The grav stators have to be machined precisely so that the field of the stator on the decks above and below don't interfere with each other, and that requires the shielding...which adds to the mass of the ship and also requires power." Ifix nodded. "So, if we skip the shielding, and simply walk around on unshelded stators, with floor on the tops and bottoms of the stators...?" Ifix nodded again.
Khan blinked. "How much power and mass are we saving, out of curiosity?" Ifix turned around, pulled the cheese off the display, cleaned it with an elbow, and tapped a few keys to bring up a graph. Khan's eyes widened. Ifix shrugged apologetically. "Only Decks 1 through 5 converted so far. More yet to save!" He tapped the display again, and the graph extended further through time, showing additional improvements.
Khan looked at Ifix. "Did you tell Captain Storvik about this, yet?" The engineer shook his head no. Khan tapped his combadge. "Khan to Storvik. Captain, I recommend you take a point-to-point transport to my location. And bring your appetite." Khan munched gently on a plastic soldier. They weren't too bad, once you added the Russian dressing.
mib_khan entered the bridge turbolift and stated as clearly as he could (given his state of exhaustion) "Deck Four". The turbolift doors closed, and so did Khan's eyes. The ride to Deck Four wasn't that far, but every second counted when it was a second of sleep he could have. He experienced a sensation of movement inside the lift, and then opened his eyes when he heard the doors open again. Looking out onto chaos, he rubbed his eyes, then blinked again. Nope, it didn't help. Everyone walking around Deck Four was upside down.
Someone walked past the turbolift door. Reaching out, Khan snagged the crewman's elbow and pulled him into the lift. The man did a flip in mid-air and landed right-side-up (per Khan's orientation), feet down on the turbolift floor. Khan sighed. This was clearly going to take more consciousness than he had to spare for the moment. He grabbed a hypospray and self-injected a short-acting sleep blocker. He gave it a second to take effect, then said, "Are you some kind of acrobat? What's going on out there?"
The crewman grinned. "Nope, but my Starfleet Academy alternate-g maneuvers are coming back to me pretty quickly. It's easy to get used to the change once you remember that we're in space. Why do all the decks have to be oriented the same way when you're in microgravity?"
Khan sighed again. "Crewman, you're making way too much sense. By definition, that means none of the crew's usual sots and imbiciles came up with whatever's going on. Was it ifix?" The crewman nodded. Khan dismissed the crewman, then slapped his combadge and ordered a point-to-point transport to the vicinity of Ifix. He was less sleepy, but no less exhausted, and he didn't want to have to climb or jump to the Chief Engineer.
The transporter system had either been programmed to orient him right-side up to Ifix or simply included protocols to reassemble transportees perpendicular to the local gravity gradient. Khan didn't care, but was satisfied that his brain wasn't further bent. The Chief Engineer looked up at Khan quizzically; he appeared to be stripping the gravity shielding off a gravstator at his desk in Engineering. A number of similarly-altered stators surrounded Ifix.
"Ifix, I was simply trying to go to bed. Please, for the love of all that's good and hallucinogenic, tell me why Deck 4 has been reassembled upside down?"
Ifix nodded. "Save energy. Improvements!" Khan slapped his forehead. This was going to take a while. Ifix sensed his commander's frustration and went over to a replicator. "Ifix sandwich demonstration display, open-face." He then ordered the same thing, closed face, and pulled a few green plastic soldiers off his desktop somewhere. The sandwiches were a layer of sauerkraut, swiss cheese, corned beef, Russian dressing and rye bread of the type colloquially called a 'Reuben'. Khan's mouth began to water...it had been a long time since food, too.
Ifix pointed to the meat. "Gravstator". He pointed to the cheese, which was on top of the meat, melted and fragrant. "Grav shielding." He pointed to the sauerkraut. "Underdeck, above ceiling. He pointed at the bread on top of the sauerkraut, and said "Ceiling, lower-deck", and at the bread on the bottom of the sandwich, "Floor, upper deck." He then grabbed the sandwich and flipped it over. "Normal state on ship - floor, gravstator, gravshielding, underdeck, ceiling." He stuck a couple of plastic soldiers on the top (previously bottom) piece of bread, and handed the first sandwich to Khan. He then grabbed the open-face sandwich, peeled the cheese off of it (and tossed it behind him, where it stuck to a wall panel) and began to point again. "Gravstator" - at the meat. He added sauerkraut to both sides of the meat, and then stuck bread on both sides of the sauerkraut, mentioning "underdeck" and "floor" in relation to the two components. When he finished his masterpiece, Khan had finished the first Reuben. And the soldiers. He'd been hungry. Ifix stuck soldiers on both sides of the bread, oriented feet-down to the bread.
Khan licked his fingers, then said, "Okay, let me see if I got it. The purpose of the grav shielding on the underside of the grav stators is so that crewmen walking on Deck Four don't get stuck to the ceiling...the underside of Deck Three. The grav stators have to be machined precisely so that the field of the stator on the decks above and below don't interfere with each other, and that requires the shielding...which adds to the mass of the ship and also requires power." Ifix nodded. "So, if we skip the shielding, and simply walk around on unshelded stators, with floor on the tops and bottoms of the stators...?" Ifix nodded again.
Khan blinked. "How much power and mass are we saving, out of curiosity?" Ifix turned around, pulled the cheese off the display, cleaned it with an elbow, and tapped a few keys to bring up a graph. Khan's eyes widened. Ifix shrugged apologetically. "Only Decks 1 through 5 converted so far. More yet to save!" He tapped the display again, and the graph extended further through time, showing additional improvements.
Khan looked at Ifix. "Did you tell Captain Storvik about this, yet?" The engineer shook his head no. Khan tapped his combadge. "Khan to Storvik. Captain, I recommend you take a point-to-point transport to my location. And bring your appetite." Khan munched gently on a plastic soldier. They weren't too bad, once you added the Russian dressing.