StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Geordi Laforge stepped out of the turbolift and into the Engineering section. He walked on the soft carpeted floor until he was standing next to the warp core. It was making a relaxing, soft humming sound, and he could see the light-blue reaction happening only a few feet away, through its conveniently transparent walls.

"OK Ensign, looks like we have to scan the warp core vessel for microfractures. Do you think you're up to it?"

"Yes sir." Ensign Jamieson beamed brightly. He was always eager to impress his superior officers.

"OK then, get to work. Report back to me when you're done." Geordi handed him a tricorder and a PADD.

"Yes sir." Ensign Jamieson replied smartly, then turned on his heels and began entering data into his PADD. This was going to be a good day.

Ensign Jamieson stepped out of the turbolift and into the Engineering section. He passed the Control room where the techs were monitoring every conceivable operating parameter of the warp core, under the suffocating but competent watch of the Chief Engineer, Geordi Laforge.

"Must be nice", he thought to himself. The Control room was such a peaceful environment, filled with blinking displays and ordered instrumentation. But he didn't rate the Control room quite yet, so he kept going, until he reached Q1: the first quarantine checkpoint. He walked into the scanning booth, putting his feet on the clearly marked yellow footprint markers on the gleaming metal floor plate.

"Sir, please extend your arms and put your hands into the receptacles" said the crewman. Jamieson knew the drill. He put his hands into the scanning receptacles where they would receive an even more thorough detail scanning than the rest of his body. Every possible contaminant would be logged, as would any sign of irradiation. This check was performed every day, every time someone entered or left the engine room. The light above his head glowed green, and a familiar computer voice said: "All Clear."

"Sir, you are cleared to proceed."

Jamieson nodded and continued into the locker room, where he got out his gear. He still remembered the instructions they'd given him on the first day he worked with a live warp core: check every seal, inspect every part. He sealed his suit, snapped his helmet onto the locking ring, and activated his helmet HUD displays. Oxygen, nitrogen, ionizing radiation detectors, vital sign monitor, all on-line. He pushed the button on his arm-mounted control pad and a series of green lights flashed inside his helmet: the auto-diagnostic checked out OK. He could barely hear the heavy clomp of his boots as he walked toward Q2: the second quarantine checkpoint.

"Sir, please extend your arms and put your hands into the receptacles" said the second crewman, in almost exactly the same inflection as the first.

The second scan always took longer, but Jamieson was in no hurry. One always had a sense of trepidation when entering the engine room. If the suit and the two quarantine checkpoints didn't make the gravity of the situation clear enough, the heavy doors on the airlock ahead made things perfectly clear. The light above his head flashed green, and he heard that droning computer voice again. "All Clear."

"Sir, you are cleared to proceed." the crewman's voice sounded in his helmet speakers.

"You sure you don't want to take my place?"

"Only if you'll take my place when I visit my mother-in-law next month, sir." the crewman responded.

"Fuck that," Jamieson grunted. "I've seen your mother-in-law." He marched into the airlock and waited for the secondary door to close behind him. He stood like a statue, looking forward at the heavy duranium primary blast door. The red alarm light over the blast door began to flash, and the two foot thick metal door ponderously rotated on its massive hinges until there was an opening just wide enough for him to pass. He could feel the powerful rumbling in the deckplates now, rattling his teeth.

He moved inside. Even with the active cooling systems and radiation shielding systems in place, the engine room was hot. Hot enough to explain why they called it the Hellhole. But the cooling systems in his suit were working properly, and the noise cancellation systems in his helmet kept the thunderous roar of the immensely powerful reactor down to a merely irritating level, as opposed to a deafening one.

"All right Jamieson", the speaker in his helmet crackled to life. It was Laforge's voice. "I don't think I need to explain to you that if we can't track down and seal that microfracture, we are in some serious shit. Start your scan with the primary containment vessel."

"Yes sir" Jamieson responded. He brought his microfracture scanner up to eye level, and began to work. This was going to be a long day.

Stofsk wrote:

Uraniun235 wrote:Survival suits would probably cost a fair chunk of change - in a franchise where they borrowed uniforms from DS9 for use in Generations, uniforms which didn't even fit the actors correctly.

I think that's more of a case of the budget being misspent rather than not available. Stewart, Spiner and Burton in particular commanded some heavy duty paychecks.

Sonnenburg wrote:

RedImperator wrote:It would have cost them next to nothing to at least put the engineering personnel in some kind of high visibility jumpsuit and called it fireproof. You can make them out of the same cloth you're using for the regular uniforms, just dye it flourescent orange. Really, there's no excuse.

That's a really good point. It's the too proud to whitewash philosophy: we're Star Trek, not some rinky-dink cheap cable show, so we won't reduce ourselves to spending two hundred bucks at Fleet Farm to whip up some costumes like those other shows would. Of course, we don't actually have the budge for that, so we'll simply do nothing and pretend it's not really a problem.

Of course, sometimes they did bite the bullet. Scorpion costs a pile of money, so that when it comes time for 7 of 9 to heal all they can do is put duct tape on her and call it magical names.

Count Dooku wrote:Could the noise be the artificial gravity units? Seeing as the noise is relatively uniform around the entire ship, that would make sense.

For whatever reason, I find it the background noise to make TNG more enjoyable. It's strange watching a show, and not hear anything. That little background hum seemed to add something - I just don't know what...

vivftp wrote:Well I would note in The Drumhead and Starship Mine the warp core was offline during pretty much all of both episodes and we still heard the low rumbling in the background at all times. So it's definately not the core itself doing that.

Darth Wong wrote:

Count Dooku wrote:Could the noise be the artificial gravity units? Seeing as the noise is relatively uniform around the entire ship, that would make sense.

Then why does Picard make a point of saying that he can feel a misalignment in the nacelles through the deckplate vibrations? It's pretty obvious that the vibration is supposed to come from the engines, so it should be much louder in the engine room than anywhere else.

For whatever reason, I find it the background noise to make TNG more enjoyable. It's strange watching a show, and not hear anything. That little background hum seemed to add something - I just don't know what...

I don't have a problem with the background noise. What I have a problem with is the fact that it's no louder when you're 10 feet from the warp core than when you're 500 feet from the warp core.

Darth Wong wrote: Either that or it's just sloppy sound editing, given Picard's comment. I suppose one could rationalize it by saying that the impulse reactor is still running, and that would be a noisy fucker too.

Interesting that they've never bothered showing the impulse reactor onscreen, on (to the best of my knowledge) any of the numerous Trek series.

I don't have a problem with the background noise.

RThurmont wrote: I actually do. Today, we have noise-cancelling technology (in fact, I think it has been on the market since 1997 or so), yet in the 24th century, apparently they've lost that capability. Not using noise-cancelling technology in areas where you might actually benefit from hearing irregularities (such as engineering) might make sense, but having the dull roar of the main reactor audible in areas such as crew quarters and Sickbay is absolutely retarded. It's a fairly constant sound, so even using the most primitive noise-cancelling technology availible, it should be feasible to eliminate it.

That said, this could also be the answer as to why the sound doesn't vary depending on your proximity to the reactor: perhaps Engineering uses some form of partial noise-cancellation/deadening technology, so that personell can still hear what is going on, albeit without being defeaned.

RThurmont wrote:

I don't have a problem with the background noise.

I actually do. Today, we have noise-cancelling technology (in fact, I think it has been on the market since 1997 or so), yet in the 24th century, apparently they've lost that capability. Not using noise-cancelling technology in areas where you might actually benefit from hearing irregularities (such as engineering) might make sense, but having the dull roar of the main reactor audible in areas such as crew quarters and Sickbay is absolutely retarded. It's a fairly constant sound, so even using the most primitive noise-cancelling technology availible, it should be feasible to eliminate it.

That said, this could also be the answer as to why the sound doesn't vary depending on your proximity to the reactor: perhaps Engineering uses some form of partial noise-cancellation/deadening technology, so that personell can still hear what is going on, albeit without being defeaned.

vivftp wrote:I think it's possible for a person to get noise-cancelling technology installed in their quarters if it really bugs them. For instance in one DS9 episode when Odo was tearing up his quarters over the thought of losing Kira, Quarks quarters were right below his. I can't immediately recall which episode, but IIRC Quark even noted that he could always hear Odo morphing about his quarters. Later on after Quark helps him out a bit, Odo states that he's having soundproofing installed in his quarters.

StarshipTitanic wrote: Their crew quarters are already luxury hotel rooms, they need a little engine rumble to keep them sharp.

Christ, why wasn't Quark bugging the shit out of Odo's quarters?!

vivftp wrote:Actually hasn't it been stated by some people that they find the rumbling of the ship to be comforting?

Uraniun235 wrote: Wouldn't surprise me. I like to sleep with a fan on in my room.

vivftp wrote:Actually hasn't it been stated by some people that they find the rumbling of the ship to be comforting?

Uraniun235 wrote:

vivftp wrote:Actually hasn't it been stated by some people that they find the rumbling of the ship to be comforting?

Wouldn't surprise me. I like to sleep with a fan on in my room.

Darth Wong wrote:my vision of a starship engine room

Bounty wrote:Since the sound is uniformly spread, it's probably coming from either life support or the EPS grid.

Actually, as far as I can remember the NX-01 didn't have the rumble, but the NX-02 with the redesigned poser system did - although the chances of that being intentional are pretty much zero.