Library Entry - Flame Sculptures
Kteaa Stories:
Contacts - Kteaa Aoweh - Itinerant Engineer
Defying Gravity
It took a few weeks, but Kteaa had settled into the instructional format of the Scholar's Tower faculty, and the University of Drinax. Kteaa knew her subject well. The knowledge base was going to take a while with which to become fluent, though. Kteaa decided to take up the teaching role as a priority, putting aside her desire to study the fountains, to earn credit with the Drinaxians. Kteaa had therefore taken up the role of teaching basic Gravitics. The lesson material was already in existence, and Kteaa could better focus on delivery in a non-native language.
It was surprising that so many students attended her classes. She had to move the venue on each of the last three consecutive periods, due to over-crowding. This was novel. However, the Drinaxian University had a much more fluid schedule and timetable structure than she had experienced in other learning centers. Most of them had been in the Darrian Confederation, and much more established schools. It was when Kteaa noticed a few of the 'auditors' in the back were some of the Faculty, and perhaps a maintenance technician or two, that Kteaa started to wonder.
It couldn't be the material. That was very basic and none too revolutionary. It had to be something else. She watched her students, and the spectators carefully. It wasn't unusual to have tired students in a class, but there weren't any of the people in the room nodding off, nor checking their eyelids for cracks. All the eyes in the class were on her. Note-taking was sparse, as well. As if the audience didn't want to look away.
Kteaa was not used to this. And she was at a loss as to why.
"No." Her mind refused the idea that popped into her head. "It couldn't be. That's crazy."
Kteaa would ask one of the Faculty auditing in the back after class. Why was he here, today, listening to gravity emitter basics. He was very good at the math, and the concepts, so it wasn't the material. The Faculty member's eyes were locked onto Kteaa's hands, following the movements. His head seemed to nod to the cadence of Kteaa's voice. Perhaps Kteaa wasn't crazy? Was her delivery that entertaining? It had to be the novelty. Kteaa could see that fading over time. She hoped it would fade over time. Bigger crowds would be annoying, and counter-productive to learning.
And at that moment, Assistant Bohxta broke into Kteaa's musings with a bang of the lecture hall door. Kteaa thought uncharitable things, and tried to dampen down the response. It wasn't Bohxta's fault.
"Respected Scholar Kteaa!" The collective heads turned. Most had unfavourable expressions, and were not at all reluctant to let Assistant Bohxta see them. Kteaa could very well imagine the reasons, if her crazy notion was true. The auditors had lost their entertainment. However, the students were even more unhappy. Not only were they going to have their class cut short...
"Gravity Projector 15 is in need of attention, Respected Scholar!" There was a collective groan. Not the expected response to a valid and critical emergency. Assistant Bohxta looked about the hall with a frown. "Students. You are being recruited to assist. An unscheduled learning opportunity presents itself!"
Kteaa bit back a quip. This was the second time in a week that her class was being press-ganged into repairing the aging systems of the Floating Palace. These students were paying to learn, not to contribute to the cost of repair and maintenance of the Floating Palace. Unpaid labour, dressed up as "Advanced Lab Experience".
However, the real reason the class was being diverted was Kteaa. She was far too knowledgeable about Gravitic systems. Her expertise was for exceedingly fine and delicate micro-projectors and compensators of very high tech levels. However, all her knowledge was directly translatable to city-sized monstrosities. And after the last two repairs Kteaa performed, she had become the go-to technician for bad problems.
"Class. Pack up your things, and those with tool kits, bring them along. Assistant Bohxta is very correct." Kteaa's voice was louder than usual, but retained the rising and falling notes of her usually lyrical voice. Her hands, as well, flowed smoothly and gracefully as she spoke. "This is a learning opportunity, and a few of the teaching points I was covering today will be key parts of what we will be doing with Gravity Projector 15. I ask that you engage your minds and memories as we work through the challenge with which we are presented." Kteaa used somewhat more deliberate movements, stressing visually and punctuating firmly her next words. "What we do today is exactly what you will be doing in the future, on ships or other vehicles, or heavy equipment in mines or loading bay pod movers. Do not fail to learn. I will continue to teach as we work, and you can put into direct practice your new-found knowledge. An Instructor could only hope that a student will better remember things done with their own hands, rather than knowledge absorbed through their ears."
Kteaa followed Assistant Bohxta out of the lecture hall, expecting her students to follow. None would skip this, even though they were likely to be hot, sweaty, dirty and near deaf, when done. Kteaa did not stint in sharing her expertise and knowledge. Students that participated came away with real experience and knowledge in these occasions. Kteaa did not stop teaching, and used the challenge to the best possible use. Kteaa just wished the problems could be kept to the scheduled lab time, not interrupt her teaching schedule with things to which the students hadn't yet been introduced.
Perhaps this teaching position needed to be reconsidered. Kteaa might be too busy with day-to-day work, and not have any time to learn about the fountains. Perhaps, this is what had been happening for the last two hundred years?
There were two figures well down the corridor in front of Assistant Bohxta and Kteaa. Kteaa turned to her students trailing behind, pointed to one, “Jip. Get the technicians’ attention, please.”
The student, Jip, drew a deep breath and shouted down the corridor with impressive volume, “Technicians!”
The two figures turned to look at the approaching group. Kteaa spoke loudly as she approached the technicians. “I will assume you are heading for Gravity Projector 15.” Kteaa stopped when she reached the technicians, and lowered her volume to more normal levels. “If you are, in fact, heading to Projector 15, please inform the class of your thoughts and intent. Let them learn the steps of Task analysis from the start.” The senior technician, indicated by his ID badge symbols, replied, “We are going to the Projector to start removing panels. We weren’t going to do any diagnoses or trouble-shooting, only set up the worksite. Projector 15 has been a b… Well, let us say, it has been particularly glitchy for a few years.”
Kteaa bowed to the technicians, with flourishes of hand movements. “All honour to your status and experience, Senior Technician Staxas.” Kteaa looked over her students. “Note experience at work, and the desire to assist. This is not misplaced, but in this very case, will deprive us of learning. I would like to approach this challenge from a fresh start, and I would like all of my students to look at this problem with fresh eyes. How could you not.”
Kteaa gave the students a benevolent smile. “Sometimes, doing the usual thing overlooks an apparently unrelated problem. In this case, a ‘glitchy’ unit is acting up. Again. By the words of an experienced technician, this unit is known to be cantankerous. Therefore, this will be a very good place to apply all our brains, and learn that the usual fix is not enough. Excellent. Technicians, I would like to have you stand by at Gravity Control, and verify our work from remote, if you would be so kind.”
The technicians bowed to Kteaa and departed in a new direction, toward the Floating Palace central control room. Assistant Bohxta followed after them. The Gravity Projector environment was not comfortable, and Assistant Bohxta didn't wish to experience the heat and noise.
Sometime later.
The panels of Gravity Projector 15 were propped up against Projector 14’s housing. Parts of Projector 15 lay about the floor, and the students were gathered around, watching the re-assembly of the power controller. As one of the students was replacing a part, the others were looking at tablets and scanners.
“What have we discovered so far? Anyone?” Kteaa looked at the group.
“Scholar. We have found nothing outside of normal parameters.” The student answering looked down at his tablet. “Parts throughout this unit have been replaced many times. Some units have been replaced on a weekly basis.”
“The results?” Kteaa again scanned her students, looking at furrowed brows and puzzled expressions. “What has all the work accomplished?”
“Nothing?” One student ventured. “All the replacing of parts hasn’t fixed the problem. The Gravity Projector still has a fluctuation in the output.”
“Exactly. The diagnostics didn’t find anything wrong, and the… STOP!” Kteaa suddenly shouted. Everyone froze, and the student replacing a conduit connector almost dropped the part. A quick fumble, but the student retained possession of the connector.
Kteaa pointed to the connector, “Examine that connector carefully, Student Airek. Note that it is very badly worn from repeated handling, and the markings are difficult to determine. Only because my eyes are different from Humans can I see from a distance what you obviously didn’t notice up close.”
The student blanched. “The connector color-way has been nearly rubbed off, Scholar.” The student bowed his head and sheepishly replied, “I nearly installed it backwards.”
Kteaa met the eyes of all her students as she looked around. “This is a lesson for those of you who will not be working on new, and pristine, equipment. Sometimes, ship parts are hundreds of years old. Mostly, parts are designed to be installed in only one way, and this is so mistakes are not made by tired, overworked, and rushed technicians. Or by novices. In this case, the part is a coupling between a power conduit and an operational unit. Still, this could have been designed better. What would installing this part do, if it was reversed?”
Student Jip responded, “Normally, it should do its designed function, transfer power from the mains to the unit.” He paused for a second. “In this case, I suspect the part has a directional component that would be damaged?”
Kteaa smiled. “Yes. In the Floating Palace, the gravity projectors are phase sensitive. Part of the control and monitoring features requires a feedback element, and the connector has a unit that, ever so slightly, reflects energy back to the sensors in the main power controller. If the connector is installed with the red arrow pointing to the projector, the feedback would not be there, and the unit would appear off-line. It might also burn out the reflective element, if Control attempted to boost the power, remotely, to ‘fix’ the lack of indication.”
“As Airek proceeds to install the connector correctly, would someone here tell me what we have discovered, in disassembling and reassembling Gravity Projector 15?”
“Nothing.” “Not a thing is wrong with the equipment.” “No fault found.” mumbled the students.
“Perhaps it is an intermittent problem? One that occurs only occasionally?” forwarded on of the students.
Kteaa nodded. “Check the history of the maintenance of this unit. You have access to the records. What does it tell you?”
“Parts have been replaced over the last 5 years, but nothing has fixed the fluctuations.” said Student Renndal.
“Which means? Anyone?” Kteaa gave them time to think it through.
She saw shaking heads, students feverishly looking through maintenance records, their notes, or technical manuals on their tablets.
After a few moments, they looked up to Kteaa. Kteaa looked to Student Airek, noting that the parts on the deck around him had disappeared into the gravity projector in front of him. Kteaa held up a finger to the surrounding students, stepped to the unit, and looked over the work. She occasionally touched a part, or gave a connector a gentle twist or turn, not budging it. She then stood up, and looked at the students. “We have done all the usual things. In this case, we’ve re-installed all the original parts. Have we failed as technicians?”
“We haven’t fixed the problem.” Came the response from several of the students.
“So, do we replace parts, as have others before us?” Kteaa asked her students, her hands spread out inviting answers from her students.
“All I know to do didn’t find the problem.” Jip stated.
“Perhaps, we are not looking in the right place. We are dealing with very complex machinery. The projectors are quite intricate, and could have many issues. But, by our own diagnostics, and the testing of all the individual parts that we can test, there isn’t a problem, at least not with this unit, nor the parts. Repeated replacement of parts has all but changed out this entire projector. Certainly, the problem couldn’t be the unit. So. Having eliminated all the obvious culprits, we must stop looking at them as the source.”
Kteaa looked at all the students, looking into their eyes for a glimmer of unique thought.
Student Airek had by now put away all his tools, except the panel driver. “Scholar, has anybody looked at the sensors or the detectors in the control room? Could there be an intermittent fault in one of the units reporting the fault?”
Kteaa nodded to Student Airek. “There is a way to check that. Students?”
More feverish tablet work ensued. In a moment, one of the students spoke up, “Scholar, the reporting units have been replace, as well, over the past five years.” The student looked slightly annoyed. It appeared technicians before them had thought of the less obvious answers, as well.
“This isn’t fair.” Kteaa said with a sad expression. “This problem is beyond the usual fault-finding techniques. But here we have a challenge of age, or perhaps of repairs that were not entered into the maintenance logs. This will happen on old ships, and on ships where expedient repairs happen in a rush, or with crews not particular about logging their every task. And then, in such environments, issues like Gravity Projector 15 crop up. Little, non-critical indications that divert resources and time that eventually add up to days or weeks of effort, and money spent on parts that really don’t need repair or calibration.”
Kteaa looked at the students, and suggested, “Where do we look, now. If we eliminate all the replaceable parts, eliminate the complex and expensive components, with what are we left?”
Student Jip replied with incredulity, “The wiring? You can’t have problems with wiring. There’s nothing but wire. It works or it doesn’t. If we lose inputs, you know the wire is broken, or cut. But if we have inputs, the wire is working.”
Kteaa nodded. “Conventionally, I agree. But in this case, we have eliminated all the other usual suspects. What have we left?”
Kteaa spoke into her comm unit, “Gravity Control, this is Maintenance Crew on Projector 15. Please power up the unit and advise as to status.”
The students could feel the pressure in the air increase, and their weight, as well. A very loud hum began in Projector 15 and became louder and higher pitched. Before it became painfully loud, Gravity Control responded.
“Projector 15 is working within normal parameters, but the fluctuation persists.”
“Thank you, Gravity Control. Panels on Projector 15 will be re-installed. The Maintenance Crew will be up to fill out the Trouble Ticket shortly.”
Within a few hours, the Scholar and Students of Grav Basics 101 had come to Control and discussed the situation. When the usual efforts had been discussed in detail, it was one of the students that forwarded Kteaa’s contention that the only thing left to test was the Floating Palace wiring.
Eyebrows met hairlines.
“We have tried everything else. Your maintenance logs suggest that everything we can do has already been done. Many times. Without effect. We now know the parts are most likely not the problem. We haven’t just looked at the parts, either. I didn’t cover this with my students, because I haven’t yet gotten to the part in the syllabus for control units and software. However, I have looked at the maintenance logs for any diagnostics on the Palace software. There have been attempts. We know the wiring is hundreds of years old. Insulation may have been damaged, but not critically or catastrophically. Phase relationships in signals could be affected, if the shielding is compromised. Let us run diagnostics on the wires, and eliminate them as influencing the monitoring of the Gravity Projectors.
And that was when the Maintenance Technicians found faults buried in the cable bundles in one of the control panels. Someone had spliced in wires for some issue, probably five or so years in the past, and had not recorded the work. With the wire properly replaced, over the entire run from the Control Room to the Gravity Projector (one of the reasons for the expedient repair, most likely), the fluctuation disappeared. A lot of the maintenance technicians cursed the job, and the person that had spliced the wire initially, but the result was cheered enthusiastically, and with a lot of relief.
Kteaa’s reputation increased.
