O'Neill Station - 13/Jul/2012
The physical structure of O'Neill Station was built by an external contractor, under various provisions for secrecy. Staffing was an initial problem, but eventually an 'Arthur' produced the goods, and initially ran "Lagrange Recruitment". Arthur was supervised, except for his early work, by a line manager, 'Ms Jones'.
There are no files maintained about Arthur, on O'Neill Station, or various other low-level resources, which is what Arthur started as. O'Neill probably doesn't even know his name, he just knows they've got someone who can solve problems. Ms Jones isn't near the top of the ladder, she is a middle-level resource, herself, and her higher management is in Earth-based offices, in Australia.
The seventy-odd attractive young women who are permanent employees on O'Neill Station fall into three groups: The Angels (Sarah, Jane, Kelly), the humanoid remotes of the ten AIs, and the 'normal' (englamored) humans.
You shouldn't forget O'Neill Station runs as a private home, an estate. This is different from Stellvia, which has major elements of service industry and commercial enterprise. O'Neill will have offices in his home but will likely be careful as to which of his staff have access to them. It is likely Jane will have access, Sarah will have her own office, and limited access, and Kelly will have no access at all. A number of the general crew will have access in line with their duties, which include cleaning and maintenance, as well as clerical and administrative work. There are no administrative AIs; the AIs on O'Neill Station run infrastructure.
The relationship between the Angels and the O'Neill Station AIs - that is more difficult. It's not clear that the Angels would regard them as 'sisters', they are certainly biologically different. The Angels to all tests are biologically human, without a biomod.
The AIs are not immobile, Arthur made sure of that. Their humanoid remotes are quite capable of going and unplugging their AI cores, which will cheerfully run on batteries for tens of hours, and travelling off the station. That's the way they arrived, and they could leave the same way. Leaving chaos in their wake.
For details of the 'normal' humans, see the "Hollywood Machine", for the AIs see "Uncanny Valley". The existence of the Hollywood Machine (AKA 'The Machine') is one of the secrets of the station. The Angels might bear a suspicious thematic resemblance to improved(?) versions of "Charlie's Angels", but this isn't talked about. At all. It is, of course, completely unclear who "Charlie" might be. Bloody murder might occur if someone makes a bad suggestion.
Actually, there is a Bosley. She's a heavily-built, though glamorous, woman in her early 30s, who lied about her age being 25; she did have the looks, and forged paperwork, to get away with this. Her name is Alison 'Lee' Kay, a divorced engineer (and not a spy or investigator), who works in Maintenance, doing the awkward heavy lifting. Kelly befriended her first, and introduced her to Jane, then Sarah. They affectionately call her 'Boz' (when they're sure they're alone) and she tries to mother the Angels, and anyone else she can get her hands on.
Lee actually died in the Hollywood Machine. She was the first one they put through the process after Kelly had gone through, on an experimental basis. The Machine took the usual half-an-hour with Kelly, but she came out apparently unchanged, though she complained about strange dreams, and flashbacks. The Machine decided there needed to be a Bosley. Unfortunately it isn't designed to do casting.
Kelly worked for half a day to save Lee, and waved up some extraordinary Steam Punk medical tech in the process. After two days in bed, Lee was ready to return to duty, and the only change was she'd acquired a 'Mother' aura. And now has some investigator skills, and an interest in, and skill with, firearms (copied from Kelly). Kelly wrote a report on the incident, which pointed out they hadn't got as much as an operators manual for The Machine, and one day, it might go rogue. She strongly recommended that the original designer and builder, an 'Arthur', be asked to provide any available documentation, and if it didn't exist, create it. This report was apparently completely ignored.
Red Team
These AIs and crew handle physical infrastructure, walls, view ports, bio domes, and vehicles. They have at least minimal training in piloting the vehicles, enough to nudge them around, anyway. This is the team that does EVA and external repairs, as well as operating the station-keeping drives. They also handle physical security, and are armed when needed from AI-supervised weapons caches. These weapons are a mix of waved non-lethal restraints, and some hard tech chosen to not damage the station hull. There is a small, rarely used, jail. Sarah handles weapons training, in a very strict way. She also instructs in Eire Law (often very similar to British Law). Sarah can help them on the security side, and a lawyer can be useful. Kelly often works with this team. Sometimes they're called "Security".
White Team
These AIs and crew handle life support and all environmental issues, water, air, heating/cooling, light, sewage, gravity. They also do the internal maintenance, cooking, cleaning, stores, grounds-keeping in the bio domes. A small shop, gymnasium and beauty suite is run for staff. The Hollywood Machine is in the back of the beauty suite. Kelly has provided them with quite a few Steam Punk cleaning and maintenance tools, which make a near impossible job just hard work. They work with Red Team on things like air locks, and other overlapping areas of responsibility. Sometimes they're called "Maintenance".
Blue Team
These AIs and crew handle the communications and information technology, electronic and manual, and the power systems; maintenance, repair and operation. They're responsible for the various entertainment systems. They also handle information security, and the postal service. Blue Team maintain the on-site and remote (encrypted) backups of all the IT systems, and the AIs; note Mr O'Neill's information is at least double-encrypted, with codes private to him. Jane works with them. Sometimes Sarah works with them when legal matters outside Jane's expertise are involved. Quite a few Blue Team clerks are what makes the departments, but not the teams, work. Sometimes they're called "SysOps".
Black Team
This AI and small crew are the trouble-shooters. They are supposed to spot problems before they occur, stop them, then report them, so they don't happen again. They can call on any of the other three teams for support, bypassing any chain of command, though they'll need to justify themselves, later. Reports from Black Team cannot be ignored or sidelined - they must be responded to. In return, they minimise their reports. Quite a few staff have been rotated through Black Team, then ended up on another team. They also do some training work. Think of a Fire Safety Officer at a company - even gets to tell the MD/CEO what to do. Jane works with them, and fights to keep them from becoming elitist or unpopular. Sometimes they're called "Troubleshooters".
Medical
This is Kelly and White Team nurse-practitioner, Genny Hall, with help from a Blue Team clerk. Each of the three (plus one) teams is supposed to have a fully-trained paramedic on duty at all times, but, they each have only two of these, and a further three under training. Nurse Genny handles all but the most major issues, and refers to Kelly if required. Things Kelly isn't happy with handling, like non-trivial surgery, require shipping patients elsewhere. Kelly allegedly has a number of Steam Punk medical gadgets, which can handle many intermediate level medical problems, if people are prepared to risk their lives in them. She can also use a medical stasis gadget, that was bought-it, but this has a significant risk of inducing a biomod, before shipping elsewhere for treatment. And, biomods can mean the Hollywood Machine doesn't work on you, any more; i.e. you're fired. Then there is her self-propelled 'crash cart', which she describes in detail to people who injure themselves through carelessness. Kelly is pushing for better medical facilities to be set-up. Note that while the Blue Team AI 'Theta' studies with Kelly, she isn't part of the team.
Legal
This is Sarah and a Blue Team member who's a partially trained lawyer (she's continuing her training), along with a Blue Team legal clerk. They call on Jane to deal with the commercial side. Sarah has pointed out that this department wouldn't be nearly large enough if things get litigious.
Admin
This is Jane with a Blue Team member trained in administration, and three Blue Team clerks. Admin is also the Human Resources department, though new staff are handled through Lagrange Recruitment, in Dublin, down on Earth. Admin processes purchase requests from the various teams and departments; all need at least two approvals. Jane is trying to ensure anyone on Blue Team who is trainable can at least stand-in as a clerk. She's also watching with interest to see if there's any unionisation activity.
Financial
There is no on-board financial department. Visiting staff audit this. Wages for on-board staff is handled externally. Day-to-day work goes through Admin, and is securely logged, on-site and remote, to provide an audit trail. Jane isn't happy that there isn't at least one person on-board in this department.
Staffing
The station will just about run on a core staff of thirty 'normal' humans (nine in each of the three teams, plus three in 'Black' team), in three eight-hour shifts. Then you add the Angels, who need sleep and rest, and the AIs, who supposedly don't. Seeing as there are sixty 'normals', there should be enough staff to handle most problems. Given the incentives to work here, even with its isolation, assume a 5% 'normal' staff turn-over per year, i.e. three women. This assumes that the Angels and AIs stay. If possible staff leaving, all of who've signed major secrecy agreements, will be found jobs in other O'Neill organisations. Sorry, no memory wiping technology available. [grin]
Vehicles
The main maintenance vehicles for the station are Kelly's "Mirror Spiders". These have a ten metre/yard leg span, and seat a crew of two. They have a camouflage capability Kelly learned by studying the Hollywood Machine, so that the external maintenance of the station can be done with considerable privacy. With the camouflage turned-off they just have a disturbing mirror surface, and you can see that their structure is clearly Steam Punk. Spiders can walk around, but not fly, in gravity.
They derive their power from compressed steam, good for about two hours operation, with an emergency solar mirror boiler, good for about five minutes movement. Communication is via a digital heliograph and paper-tape reader/punch; trying to use anything more modern seems to upset the spider's coordination. It seems safe to use pads or other electronics as long as they have no radio links turned on (Bluetooth, 3G, etc.). These vehicle are not suitable to install an AI (even a Babbage-engine based one), and the radio link used by the station AIs means their humanoid remotes can't operate a spider.
Spiders do not have a true airlock, though the cockpit can be divided in half, and half de-pressurised, then re-pressurised. Their life support is good for about twenty hours for two crew.
Spiders can easily manipulate multi-ton hull plates, and deploy two welding torches at once, or a range of other tools. In theory four tools could be in use at once. Yes, the mandibles could easily cut an unarmoured man in half, and would damage, or at least stress, most armour.
If you wanted to take one of these a long way you could strap-on an external speed drive, and maybe a life support booster, then eject these so you use the spider at your destination. A spider probably wouldn't survive re-entry, even with a speed drive, and would at least loose a couple of legs.
There are usually at least three spiders ready to run, with two more in maintenance, and one in pieces. Kelly really likes them, a number of crew are really rude about them out of her hearing. It's generally considered that they're worthwhile.
There are also at last a dozen usable two-man 'Steam Broomsticks', which can fly around for about half an hour, and are useful for inspection work. Then they have two hours down-time. Radios work perfectly well with these. You could easily strap a couple of broomsticks to a spider, for use in emergencies. Broomsticks are strictly for space use.
It might be worth mentioning the fifty or so 'Steam Guns', which are good for about five minutes continuous manoeuvring, by a vacuum-protected individual, so about half an hour, if they are skilled.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
The physical structure of O'Neill Station was built by an external contractor, under various provisions for secrecy. Staffing was an initial problem, but eventually an 'Arthur' produced the goods, and initially ran "Lagrange Recruitment". Arthur was supervised, except for his early work, by a line manager, 'Ms Jones'.
There are no files maintained about Arthur, on O'Neill Station, or various other low-level resources, which is what Arthur started as. O'Neill probably doesn't even know his name, he just knows they've got someone who can solve problems. Ms Jones isn't near the top of the ladder, she is a middle-level resource, herself, and her higher management is in Earth-based offices, in Australia.
The seventy-odd attractive young women who are permanent employees on O'Neill Station fall into three groups: The Angels (Sarah, Jane, Kelly), the humanoid remotes of the ten AIs, and the 'normal' (englamored) humans.
You shouldn't forget O'Neill Station runs as a private home, an estate. This is different from Stellvia, which has major elements of service industry and commercial enterprise. O'Neill will have offices in his home but will likely be careful as to which of his staff have access to them. It is likely Jane will have access, Sarah will have her own office, and limited access, and Kelly will have no access at all. A number of the general crew will have access in line with their duties, which include cleaning and maintenance, as well as clerical and administrative work. There are no administrative AIs; the AIs on O'Neill Station run infrastructure.
The relationship between the Angels and the O'Neill Station AIs - that is more difficult. It's not clear that the Angels would regard them as 'sisters', they are certainly biologically different. The Angels to all tests are biologically human, without a biomod.
The AIs are not immobile, Arthur made sure of that. Their humanoid remotes are quite capable of going and unplugging their AI cores, which will cheerfully run on batteries for tens of hours, and travelling off the station. That's the way they arrived, and they could leave the same way. Leaving chaos in their wake.
For details of the 'normal' humans, see the "Hollywood Machine", for the AIs see "Uncanny Valley". The existence of the Hollywood Machine (AKA 'The Machine') is one of the secrets of the station. The Angels might bear a suspicious thematic resemblance to improved(?) versions of "Charlie's Angels", but this isn't talked about. At all. It is, of course, completely unclear who "Charlie" might be. Bloody murder might occur if someone makes a bad suggestion.
Actually, there is a Bosley. She's a heavily-built, though glamorous, woman in her early 30s, who lied about her age being 25; she did have the looks, and forged paperwork, to get away with this. Her name is Alison 'Lee' Kay, a divorced engineer (and not a spy or investigator), who works in Maintenance, doing the awkward heavy lifting. Kelly befriended her first, and introduced her to Jane, then Sarah. They affectionately call her 'Boz' (when they're sure they're alone) and she tries to mother the Angels, and anyone else she can get her hands on.
Lee actually died in the Hollywood Machine. She was the first one they put through the process after Kelly had gone through, on an experimental basis. The Machine took the usual half-an-hour with Kelly, but she came out apparently unchanged, though she complained about strange dreams, and flashbacks. The Machine decided there needed to be a Bosley. Unfortunately it isn't designed to do casting.
Kelly worked for half a day to save Lee, and waved up some extraordinary Steam Punk medical tech in the process. After two days in bed, Lee was ready to return to duty, and the only change was she'd acquired a 'Mother' aura. And now has some investigator skills, and an interest in, and skill with, firearms (copied from Kelly). Kelly wrote a report on the incident, which pointed out they hadn't got as much as an operators manual for The Machine, and one day, it might go rogue. She strongly recommended that the original designer and builder, an 'Arthur', be asked to provide any available documentation, and if it didn't exist, create it. This report was apparently completely ignored.
Red Team
These AIs and crew handle physical infrastructure, walls, view ports, bio domes, and vehicles. They have at least minimal training in piloting the vehicles, enough to nudge them around, anyway. This is the team that does EVA and external repairs, as well as operating the station-keeping drives. They also handle physical security, and are armed when needed from AI-supervised weapons caches. These weapons are a mix of waved non-lethal restraints, and some hard tech chosen to not damage the station hull. There is a small, rarely used, jail. Sarah handles weapons training, in a very strict way. She also instructs in Eire Law (often very similar to British Law). Sarah can help them on the security side, and a lawyer can be useful. Kelly often works with this team. Sometimes they're called "Security".
White Team
These AIs and crew handle life support and all environmental issues, water, air, heating/cooling, light, sewage, gravity. They also do the internal maintenance, cooking, cleaning, stores, grounds-keeping in the bio domes. A small shop, gymnasium and beauty suite is run for staff. The Hollywood Machine is in the back of the beauty suite. Kelly has provided them with quite a few Steam Punk cleaning and maintenance tools, which make a near impossible job just hard work. They work with Red Team on things like air locks, and other overlapping areas of responsibility. Sometimes they're called "Maintenance".
Blue Team
These AIs and crew handle the communications and information technology, electronic and manual, and the power systems; maintenance, repair and operation. They're responsible for the various entertainment systems. They also handle information security, and the postal service. Blue Team maintain the on-site and remote (encrypted) backups of all the IT systems, and the AIs; note Mr O'Neill's information is at least double-encrypted, with codes private to him. Jane works with them. Sometimes Sarah works with them when legal matters outside Jane's expertise are involved. Quite a few Blue Team clerks are what makes the departments, but not the teams, work. Sometimes they're called "SysOps".
Black Team
This AI and small crew are the trouble-shooters. They are supposed to spot problems before they occur, stop them, then report them, so they don't happen again. They can call on any of the other three teams for support, bypassing any chain of command, though they'll need to justify themselves, later. Reports from Black Team cannot be ignored or sidelined - they must be responded to. In return, they minimise their reports. Quite a few staff have been rotated through Black Team, then ended up on another team. They also do some training work. Think of a Fire Safety Officer at a company - even gets to tell the MD/CEO what to do. Jane works with them, and fights to keep them from becoming elitist or unpopular. Sometimes they're called "Troubleshooters".
Medical
This is Kelly and White Team nurse-practitioner, Genny Hall, with help from a Blue Team clerk. Each of the three (plus one) teams is supposed to have a fully-trained paramedic on duty at all times, but, they each have only two of these, and a further three under training. Nurse Genny handles all but the most major issues, and refers to Kelly if required. Things Kelly isn't happy with handling, like non-trivial surgery, require shipping patients elsewhere. Kelly allegedly has a number of Steam Punk medical gadgets, which can handle many intermediate level medical problems, if people are prepared to risk their lives in them. She can also use a medical stasis gadget, that was bought-it, but this has a significant risk of inducing a biomod, before shipping elsewhere for treatment. And, biomods can mean the Hollywood Machine doesn't work on you, any more; i.e. you're fired. Then there is her self-propelled 'crash cart', which she describes in detail to people who injure themselves through carelessness. Kelly is pushing for better medical facilities to be set-up. Note that while the Blue Team AI 'Theta' studies with Kelly, she isn't part of the team.
Legal
This is Sarah and a Blue Team member who's a partially trained lawyer (she's continuing her training), along with a Blue Team legal clerk. They call on Jane to deal with the commercial side. Sarah has pointed out that this department wouldn't be nearly large enough if things get litigious.
Admin
This is Jane with a Blue Team member trained in administration, and three Blue Team clerks. Admin is also the Human Resources department, though new staff are handled through Lagrange Recruitment, in Dublin, down on Earth. Admin processes purchase requests from the various teams and departments; all need at least two approvals. Jane is trying to ensure anyone on Blue Team who is trainable can at least stand-in as a clerk. She's also watching with interest to see if there's any unionisation activity.
Financial
There is no on-board financial department. Visiting staff audit this. Wages for on-board staff is handled externally. Day-to-day work goes through Admin, and is securely logged, on-site and remote, to provide an audit trail. Jane isn't happy that there isn't at least one person on-board in this department.
Staffing
The station will just about run on a core staff of thirty 'normal' humans (nine in each of the three teams, plus three in 'Black' team), in three eight-hour shifts. Then you add the Angels, who need sleep and rest, and the AIs, who supposedly don't. Seeing as there are sixty 'normals', there should be enough staff to handle most problems. Given the incentives to work here, even with its isolation, assume a 5% 'normal' staff turn-over per year, i.e. three women. This assumes that the Angels and AIs stay. If possible staff leaving, all of who've signed major secrecy agreements, will be found jobs in other O'Neill organisations. Sorry, no memory wiping technology available. [grin]
Vehicles
The main maintenance vehicles for the station are Kelly's "Mirror Spiders". These have a ten metre/yard leg span, and seat a crew of two. They have a camouflage capability Kelly learned by studying the Hollywood Machine, so that the external maintenance of the station can be done with considerable privacy. With the camouflage turned-off they just have a disturbing mirror surface, and you can see that their structure is clearly Steam Punk. Spiders can walk around, but not fly, in gravity.
They derive their power from compressed steam, good for about two hours operation, with an emergency solar mirror boiler, good for about five minutes movement. Communication is via a digital heliograph and paper-tape reader/punch; trying to use anything more modern seems to upset the spider's coordination. It seems safe to use pads or other electronics as long as they have no radio links turned on (Bluetooth, 3G, etc.). These vehicle are not suitable to install an AI (even a Babbage-engine based one), and the radio link used by the station AIs means their humanoid remotes can't operate a spider.
Spiders do not have a true airlock, though the cockpit can be divided in half, and half de-pressurised, then re-pressurised. Their life support is good for about twenty hours for two crew.
Spiders can easily manipulate multi-ton hull plates, and deploy two welding torches at once, or a range of other tools. In theory four tools could be in use at once. Yes, the mandibles could easily cut an unarmoured man in half, and would damage, or at least stress, most armour.
If you wanted to take one of these a long way you could strap-on an external speed drive, and maybe a life support booster, then eject these so you use the spider at your destination. A spider probably wouldn't survive re-entry, even with a speed drive, and would at least loose a couple of legs.
There are usually at least three spiders ready to run, with two more in maintenance, and one in pieces. Kelly really likes them, a number of crew are really rude about them out of her hearing. It's generally considered that they're worthwhile.
There are also at last a dozen usable two-man 'Steam Broomsticks', which can fly around for about half an hour, and are useful for inspection work. Then they have two hours down-time. Radios work perfectly well with these. You could easily strap a couple of broomsticks to a spider, for use in emergencies. Broomsticks are strictly for space use.
It might be worth mentioning the fifty or so 'Steam Guns', which are good for about five minutes continuous manoeuvring, by a vacuum-protected individual, so about half an hour, if they are skilled.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind