Operations

On the bridge of a starship, the Ops station allowed the Ops officer to manage the allocation of resources (including power) to the various systems, departments, and personnel aboard ship. Since there were so many things going on aboard even a small starship, the conflicting needs for resources had to be resolved quickly to avoid disrupting the conduct of anyone’s duties. At the Ops station, the Ops officer could quickly and easily handle complicated scheduling and resource allocation issues (routine matters are managed automatically by the computer).

Essentially, the Operations Department monitored and controlled the use of all ship systems not ostensibly involved with propulsion, navigation, or combat. The Operations Officer on the bridge often had to coordinate directly with the Chief Engineer to ensure that all of the ship's systems were maintained at optimal performance. When no engineer was on the bridge of a starship or operations center of a space station, the Operations Officer saw to any engineering matters that might arise.

Although the transporter systems were Engineering Department assets, it was the Operations Department that put them to use. With regards to special environmental conditions required for alien crewmembers or visitors, the Operations Officer had to coordinate with the ship's Chief Medical Officer.

The Ops Department head position was in charge of the recreation areas of the ship or station as well, such as the various lounges, recreation rooms, gymnasiums and holodecks.

Computer Maintenance

One of the tasks that Ops officers handled off the bridge was to maintain the computer systems aboard the starship.

Computers controlled virtually every function of a starship in some way. They regulated the power flow in the warp drive system, operated the sensors, and help the Tactical officer accurately fire the weapons. Without a working computer system, a starship virtually shut down. While the Federation had never managed to build a reliable fully sentient computer before Thea (who doesn't have full access to all systems), starship computers contained such sophisticated artificial intelligence subroutines that they sometimes seemed sentient. They could understand, and respond to, ordinary speech, including contextual cues within that speech. Crewmembers interfaced with the computer system via the Library Computer Access and Retrieval System (LCARS), which let them use voice commands and graphic interfaces to access data, modify ship systems, and write programs. The LCARS contained the equivalent of trillions upon trillion of pages of text, and more data is added every stardate.

A ship’s computer monitored everything occurring on that ship, including the location of everyone aboard ship based on their communicator badge (the Tactical officer could track down anyone aboard, even persons not wearing communicators, but this took some time). When emergencies or crises occurred (such as a failure of life support or hull integrity), the computer evaluated the situation and notified the appropriate personnel. However, that was about all the computer can do; it cannot operate the ship for extended periods, or in other than extremely routine circumstances, without crew control.

Unlike Thea, a standard Starfleet computer lacked the judgment, intuition, and emotions which a sentient humanoid possessed and could apply to complex situations. It could only follow the instructions given it by its programming and the crew. For example, unless instructed to do so, the Starfleet computer would not report that a crewmember has left the ship. Starfleet computers used miniature subspace generators to process data at faster than light speeds. They stored information and programs in modules of isolinear optical storage chips. Each module held 144 isolinear chips. Approximately the size of a microscope slide, an isolinear chip held up to 2.15 kiloquads of data. On large starships, a computer core was a cylindrical structure ranging from about 20 to about 100 meters tall and 10-15 meters in diameter which held thousands of modules containing hundreds of thousands of isolinear chips. Rearranging the isolinear chips within a module, or installing new ones with specialized programming, could interfere with, alter, or in some cases enhance computer operation. If the ship had saucer separation or multivector attack mode capabilities, each “piece” of the ship had to have its own core computer

In addition to the computer cores, ships had a network of subprocessors throughout the ship. These subprocessors help to improve the system’s operation by handling some of the computational load. They could also provide some redundancy for the computer cores. If a ship had two or more computer cores, Starfleet protocols required that at least two operated at once—that way, if service to one was somehow interrupted, the other could instantly, and without loss of significant ship functions, pick up the computational load. In addition to the main computer system, several systems aboard a ship had dedicated computer systems. Examples included the navigation computer and tactical computer.

Optical Data Network (ODN)

Data transmission throughout a ship was accomplished by means of an optical data network (ODN), a network of multiplexed optical monocrystal microfibers. Most ships had from three to six redundant ODN trunks linking their computer cores and the various subprocessors and control panels throughout the ship. Damage to the ODN might have hampered the ability of the ship’s computers to operate the ship.

Bio-Neural Computer System

On some of the latest, most advanced ships, the computer core had been augmented with a bio-neural computer system. This system, which included bio-neural gel packs installed throughout the ship, used organic substances which link with standard computers to create a very powerful information storage and processing device. The gel packs contained synthetic neural cells in a gelatinous organic medium. These neural cells replaced the processors and isolinear chips of the standard Starfleet computer. For lengthy computing tasks, the bio-neural computer system reduces the time needed by 10% (round up; the minimum time for any task is one round).

Although faster and more powerful than standard computers, bio-neural computers were vulnerable to viral infections and other attacks to which organic substances are susceptible. Infections could slow the system down, or even destroy it entirely. Unlike standard computers, which required repairs from engineers when they don’t work correctly, bio-neural systems also needed a doctor’s care when they malfunctioned. For example, to treat an infection, the gel packs might be heated to give them a “temperature” which killed off the virus. Standard regulations regarding the number of computer cores per ship and how many must be operational applied to bio-neural computer systems.

Sensor System Maintenance

While Engineering personnel might assist with these systems, Ops personnel still had to handle the software parts of the starship sensors.

Sensors were a starship’s “eyes.” They allowed it to detect not only phenomena visible to humanoid sight, but an enormous number of electromagnetic and physical phenomena which humanoid senses cannot perceive. Every starship had many different types of sensors (Explorers, Scouts, and Research/Laboratory vessels tend to have more or better sensors, for obvious reasons), divided into four types: long-range; lateral (or short-range); navigation; and specialized. Sensors were rated for three characteristics: the range over which they work accurately; their “gain,” or strength and efficiency relative to their power input; and their strength, or ability to overcome interference.

Caveat: Standard Starfleet sensor technology, as extremely sensitive as it was, did not detect some 15,000 substances. The regular sensor settings did not include certain unusual, rare, and/or exotic materials. It excluded these from the standard analysis routines because they occurred so infrequently that it was inefficient to search for them all the time. Crewmembers could re-calibrate sensors to detect many of these substances, but this usually required them to “blind” the sensors to something they normally registered. Detecting the other types of exotic particles required special sensor equipment and/or analysis programming.

Long-Range Sensors

The long-range sensors, located behind the deflector dish, included narrow- and wide-angle active electromagnetic scanners, a parametric subspace field stress sensor, a gravimetric distortion scanner, an electromagnetic flux sensor, a lifeform analysis instrument cluster, a passive neutrino imaging scanner, a thermal imaging array, and a gamma-ray telescope. Long-range sensors usually involved active scanning. They worked better at high resolution, but this limited their range to five light-years. Their maximum range (at medium-to-low resolution) was typically in the 14-17 light-year range. The arc of detection was usually about 45 degrees in front of the ship, though this narrowed slightly at longer ranges.

Lateral Sensors

Lateral sensors, so called because their sensor pallets were usually located along the edges or sides of various parts of a starship, were shortrange systems which could detect a wide range of phenomena from any direction around the ship. The individual sensor pallets were located all over the ship’s hull to maximize signal gain and system flexibility, and to provide redundancy in case some pallets were damaged. On most starships standard Starfleet sensor packages occupied the majority of a ship’s lateral sensor pallets, but the remainder were open for mission-specific sensor packages. The standard Starfleet science sensor array consisted of six pallets, each containing one to six specific sensory devices.

Lateral sensors were both active and passive. Among their many uses, they were employed extensively in combat situations to monitor enemy movement and activities. Their maximum active range was approximately one light-year.

Nav Sensors

Navigational sensors, which helped the helsman steer the ship in the proper direction and avoid space debris, included a quasar telescope, passive subspace multibeacon receivers, stellar graviton detectors, a Federation Timebase Beacon receiver, and various IR and UV imagers and trackers. The ship’s guidance and navigation (G&N) relay handled the flow of sensor data and converted it into usable information with three- and four-dimensional flight motion software which fed directly into the flight control system.

Fighter Bay Ops

As a specialized division of Ops, the Fighter Bay Ops (FBO) crew spent a whole lot more time with Tactical CONN than the Ops department. They are, however, a ship asset, not a fighter squadron asset. The Tactical CONN department depended on FBO, however, needing the fighters primed and ready to go, and if a pilot would have an issue with the condition of his or her allotted fighter, s/he could take it to the affected FBO crew first. Then, if there is no resolution, s/he would go to the SCO (Squadron Commanding Officer) with the issue. The SCO could first try to talk to the Chief of the Deck about the issue, and if that doesn't yield the results needed, the SCO may go to Chief of Operations, and after that, to the First Officer, and lastly the Captain.

However, Tactical CONN officers are responsible to do things in the Fighter Assault Bay too, which involved the upkeep of the fighters. Tasks mandatory before and after flying, and they are required to do these tasks so that FBO can do their jobs - meaning that the Chief of the Deck can make such demands to the pilots, and if they don't comply, he goes to the SCO, and then to the XO, and lastly the CO.

As for the warp fighters themselves, they are neither Tactical CONN's property nor Fighter Bay Operation's. They are commissioned to a starship or a starbase, and therefore the Commanding Officer of the ship. They are Starfleet's property, where the CO would be responsible for the fighters just as much as the starship and shuttles aboard. Tactical CONN's duty is to fly them, Fighter Bay Operations to make sure they work, just like CONN officers' duty is to fly shuttles, and Ops are to make sure they work.

FBO Organisation

Image: Sten Covington, Former Chief of the Deck.

Fighter Bay Ops considered of a total of 125 personnel, spread across 3 shifts.

Command & Administration

• Chief of Deck Operations (COD): Sten Covington (Deceased, replacement pending)
• Shift Safety Observer (rotating shift duty among all)
• 6 Spacecraft Inspectors
• 6 Landing Signal Warrants

Maintenance & Operations

• Head of Weapons Maintenance & Armaments & Asst. COD: Liam Herrold
  • 18 Weapons Technicians
  • 12 Ordnancemen
• Head of Fighter Propulsion: Eun Sae Ji
  • 30 Mechanics
• Head of Avionics, Sensors & Computer Systems: (Nameless NPC)
  • 18 Technicians
• Head of Spaceframe & Structure: (Nameless NPC)
  • 30 Repairmen

Disclaimer Notice

Starfleet Operations Emblem used with permission of Gazomg Art - granted Nov 24, 2016