The beeping was absolutely relentless. The console just didn't quit: message after message after message, all from various people both within her department and from members of other departments, primarily Security. Annalynn took a deep breath; she was glad she was blessed with the patience to deal with this. Many others on the ship weren't so lucky to be gifted with such composure under as much stress. That said, it didn't help that her personal console was linked up to her personal handheld communicator, so every beep from her computer terminal was matched with a vibration on the desk.

Not that Annalynn was busy. She was just trying to fill the latest work requests from the Security department - various weapon upgrades to implement, ideas they had that could be implemented, et cetera. On top of that, there was the standard workload that Annalynn was hired to do, which was improvements to the [i]Audacia's[/i] weapons systems across the board. Nope, she wasn't busy at all. Her tech geeks were supposed to be cranking away at targeting software, trying to optimize and calibrate wherever necessary, but with the disappearance of Captain Ray, quite a few of her people were busy brainstorming possibilities for how the Captain disappeared and where she could have gone.

Just then, the door to her office slid open, one of Annalynn's ensigns standing at the doorway with a look of shock on his face. "Sorry to bother you, ma'am. We, uh... overloaded the simulation again, ma'am. The good news is that the signs from the simulations were positive while they lasted."

Annalynn sighed. This had been a common problem recently - the ensigns got a little overzealous, overtasked the computer running their simulations, and blew the whole damn thing up. "It's alright. I'll see if someone from engineering can send someone up. Dismissed."

The ensign saluted, "Yes, ma'am," and left the room. 

Annalynn turned to her console, ignoring the onslaught of messages before her to open two new drafts.

The first was as follows:

"Maggie, 

The kids did it again. Overloaded the computer and it burned itself out. Can you get someone to take a look when you can? Not a priority, as it's good practice for them to run their own calculations to support the simulations, but it'd be nice to have a working simulation computer again.

Thanks,
Bolts

PS Can somebody [i]please[/i] remind Security that Sciences is [i]not[/i] limitless in its operating capacity and that we do, in fact, have better things to do than entertain their endless requests for sidearm improvements?

PPS I think the kids figured out a more effective targeting solution for the [i]Audacia's[/i] guns. Hopefully, this will lead to less incidents in which we fire on our own people. Take a look when you're free so we can figure out how we can implement it properly and in coordination with Engineering."

Annalynn couldn't help but release a small smile as she hit send, both at her affectionate usage of "the kids" to refer to her people and at the rare expression of stress she just let out in her message.

The second message went to Security, and was notably less casual:

"Commander Kal Rama,

I understand your people's needs for personal firearm improvements, and they are being addressed by the Science team. However, relentlessly messaging me with demands to speed up your upgrade requests is, unfortunately, not going to change the reality that my people have more pressing tasks to deal with, such as the disappearance of our Captain. If you would be so kind as to alert your people to this fact, I would be very appreciative.

Many thanks,
Dr. Annalynn O'Neil"

Hopefully that would stop the barrage of messages Annalynn's computer was [i]still[/i] suffering. Annalynn nodded to herself and sat back in her chair, taking a moment to relax.