Alert Conditions
Minoru has a majority-human crew, and as such operates on a 24 hour clock with three shifts, called Alpha (0800-1600), Beta (1400-0000), and Gamma (0000-0800). Each crewmember is assigned to one of these shifts, depending on the needs of their department. Science, for example, is mostly assigned to the "day" shift, since they work together on projects more, while Operations and Engineering have more constant duties. In general roughly a third of the ship is assigned to each shift. Shift assignments tend to stay steady for mental health reasons, but are always subject to change. As a rule of thumb, each crew member will spend eight hours working (with a short break for a mid-shift meal), eight hours relaxing or pursuing professional development, and eight hours asleep. All of this depends on the alert level, of course. The ship-wide alert level can be elevated by command-qualified senior staff, as well as the current officer of the watch and tactical officer. Some specific alerts can be called by other personnel.
- Cruise Mode (Green Alert)
- Technically not an alert level, Cruise Mode or 'Green Alert' is the usual operating status of the ship as it cruises through space. Shift assignments proceed as normal, subject to any scheduling changes due to special circumstances such as ongoing planetary surveys, away missions, and so on. Alpha shift is on duty, Beta shift is off duty, and Gamma shift is asleep (although personal preferences can alter the last two a bit). Access to energy-intensive activities such as holodecks, industrial replicators, and certain scientific experiments is allowed without restriction. At least one shuttle is flight-ready and two more can be made ready within five minutes. Weapons and shields are on standby and unpowered, but can be activated to full combat readiness within fifteen seconds for shields and thirty seconds for weapons (minimal shield power is reached within three seconds).
- Yellow Alert
- Yellow alert is the intermediate alert level. It is used in situations where danger might arise quickly and an immediate response could be critical to the ship's safety. For example, the ship might be expecting the arrival of a threat force vessel or examining a dangerous spatial phenomena. Alpha shift crew go to their battle stations, while Beta shift crew are to restrict themselves to activities that allow them to reach their stations within two minutes. Gamma shift remains in bed. Non-essential holodeck use and other high-energy activities are shut down. Potentially hazardous experiments and maintenance are also ended. All available auxiliary craft are brought to five-minute readiness. Shields are usually raised or at least on hot standby. Weapons are also placed on hot standby, but not fully armed or targeted and can be brought to combat status within five seconds. These orders can all be altered depending on the exact situation, such as diplomatic concerns or an alert due to environmental hazard rather than threat force presence.
- Red Alert
- Red alert is the highest alert condition. It is used in situations of immediate danger. All crew proceed to battle stations. Most crew who are not involved in the direct operation or defense of the ship, such as science and operations officer, are trained to join damage control or first aid teams; any civilians or passengers aboard proceed to shelters at the center of the ship. All auxiliary craft are brought to immediate flight readiness. Shields and weapons are fully energized and all engines brought to full capacity. Typical response time to reach full combat readiness from cruise mode is only a matter of minutes with a well-drilled crew.
- Blue Alert
- Typically, Blue Alert is used on starships that are capable of separated flight or landing. The Akira-class is designed to do neither and attempting to do so is contra-indicated by the engineering staff. For our purposes, Blue Alert means a low-power and emissions-control mode. While we are not equipped with a cloaking device, by reducing emissions the ship can achieve a relative degree of stealth. These same measures can also be used to improve survivability in situations where power output from the reactors is limited. In particular, all non-essential functions are shut down, including in-quarters replicators (and, if necessary, mess replicators), holodecks, active sensors, and in some cases even the warp drive.
- Other Alert Conditions
- While Yellow and Red Alert are the generic alert conditions and are frequently used for any non-specific emergency, there are several other alerts that are used only in specific situations. These frequently affect only a portion of the crew or call for actions that go against standard yellow and red alert procedures.
- Intruder Alert - This signals the presence of unauthorized or hostile personnel aboard the ship or in secure areas. It can be initiated by any member of the crew, as well as the ship's computer. During an intruder alert, all critical areas are locked down to prevent access, and at the discretion of the security watch officer other internal doors and forcefields can be sealed. Security and/or Marine personnel will respond to the alert, and other crew are advised to be ready to defend themselves if necessary.
- Environmental Alert This alert is for hazards to the ship's internal environment, including hull breaches, toxic material leaks, and fires. Again, any member of the crew can activate this alert, although typically the engineering or operations staff will be the first to notice something is amiss. Crew in the affected area should evacuate immediately, assisting others as necessary, until damage control teams can respond.
- Biohazard Alert his is similar to an an environment alert, but specifically denotes the presence of a biological contaminant, typically some sort of organism or disease. The medical and biological sciences staff can trigger this alert. The affected area is sealed pending clean-up procedures and any expose personnel placed into quarantine for treatment.
- Man Overboard While it sounds a bit outdated, this alert is deadly serious. It's not uncommon for there to be maintenance or survey teams to be working around the hull or on a nearby asteroid, either in pressure suits or workbees. It's possible for someone to become detached from the hull or for their bee to loose power. As soon as it become apparent that this has happened, another team member should contact the bridge. The ship will immediately cease acceleration, drop a marker buoy, and prep a shuttle for launch. Under most circumstances, the lost crewman's communicator or suit locater beacon will be sufficient to achieve a transporter lock for immediate retrieval, but if for some reason this is not the case the ship will begin scanning for them. If necessary, all auxiliary craft will be scrambled to join the search. Similar procedures are used if a person is unaccounted for after a battle whenever possible.
- Missing Person If someone fails to show up for an appointment or duty shift, your first course of action should be to verify their current location using the ship's computer, check for any posted schedule changes, and contact them via communicator. If there is no response or their location can't be verified, you should notify the security officer of the watch, who can dispatch a security detail to investigate. If the person cannot be located, the security department will be mobilized to conduct a deck-by-deck search of all compartments and Jefferies tubes and all personnel will be alerted to keep an eye out for the missing crewman or any suspicious activity. If you plan to be incommunicado for some reason, such as interpersonal recreational activities, please be sure to set your comms to privacy mode, lest you be interrupted by a concerned friend.
