Make sure everything is tied down well and then prep for damage control, probably. Cargo bay officers are probably under the Quartermaster’s purview, so there’s probably a lot they need to do to support repair efforts.
When you’re talking about a ship’s capacity that’s approaching five digits, that stuff would have to be moved around a lot.
Foodstuffs from the Conestoga is behind the new sensor package from Starbase 80, but we can’t install the sensor package until we get to a drydock, so we have to move it over there and get the ingredients for Thanksgiving out–but we’re also supposed to deliver half of the potatoes from the shipment to the Boyle when we pass them at Deep Space Two, so we have to crate them into a separate container, and the stasis container we need for them currently has Vulcan plomeek bulbs in it for a diplomatic function on Tendar IV, so we can’t move them over until Wednesday. Meanwhile, in Cargo Bay 2, we literally have a whole entire shuttle that for some reason the commander of the shuttle deck decided just had to be put here, but that means that the restraint units are inaccessible, so we’ve had to jury-rig some force fields to hold everything together. Plus, because of some sort of requisitions mistake, we got sent a double pallet of PADD-xe’s, when what we really needed were PADD-xt’s, so that was taking up every spare parts locker and case in Cargo Bay 3 until we could offload them to some environmental observatory or something, but then Lt. Cmdr. La Forge had this weird idea yesterday to pull 250 of them and try to network them together for…something?..and they’re still strewn all across the floor since he left to deal with a plasma injector leak yesterday afternoon, so I guess we should put them away? I mean, I don’t even know if they’re still functional–and THIS is when the Vendorian terrorist leader decides to pull up and have a tentacle-measuring contest? Does he have any idea how busy we are right now? I don’t have time to deal with artificial gravity fluctuations or inertial dampener overloads today, I’ve got potatoes that are about to rot!
On the bridge, so officers can look cool. No way the “we have first backup, but what about second backup” federation doesn’t have redundant, localized inertia damping in the cargo bays.
Yeah, but after you’re ultimately responsible for breaking the spine of the Klingon officer who almost certainly outranks you, you make sure that cargo doesn’t budge even if the ship does a barrel roll without dampeners and gravity going on and off.
Yeah, but they’re maneuvering at appreciable fractions of the speed of light when they travel at impulse, so there’s no way anyone survives if they’re all offline. They have to mean that the primaries are offline, or they’re offline in certain sections, or something like that.
I would imagine civilians’ biggest responsibility in such a situation would be “stay out of the way and lock the doors.”
Okay then, what did the officers working in the cargo bay do when they were told to go to their battle stations?
Make sure everything is tied down well and then prep for damage control, probably. Cargo bay officers are probably under the Quartermaster’s purview, so there’s probably a lot they need to do to support repair efforts.
Everything isn’t tied down anyway? That sounds like a terrible way to run a cargo bay on a ship that regularly takes unexpected moves.
Edit: Also, they damn well better lock shit down after the incident with Worf’s spine.
When you’re talking about a ship’s capacity that’s approaching five digits, that stuff would have to be moved around a lot.
The ship has interia dampers. It doesn’t take any turns in a gravity sense during normal operations. It’s just smoothly level at all times.
Battle or red alert can knock interia dampers off line, so that when you would need things locked down.
Dude, have you ever watched TNG? The dampers go offline constantly.
On the bridge, so officers can look cool. No way the “we have first backup, but what about second backup” federation doesn’t have redundant, localized inertia damping in the cargo bays.
Yeah, but after you’re ultimately responsible for breaking the spine of the Klingon officer who almost certainly outranks you, you make sure that cargo doesn’t budge even if the ship does a barrel roll without dampeners and gravity going on and off.
Without dampers, the entire crew become jam splotches on the back walls when the enterprise makes any maneuver
And yet, “inertial dampeners offline” is a really common phrase in Star Trek shows.
To the point that you can literally get it on a shirt.
Yeah, but they’re maneuvering at appreciable fractions of the speed of light when they travel at impulse, so there’s no way anyone survives if they’re all offline. They have to mean that the primaries are offline, or they’re offline in certain sections, or something like that.