Corey Wall Research Facility/Control Deck

The Control Deck is a location on Sublevel -5 of the Corey Wall Research Facility. It contains the Master Control, Power Control, Targeting Control, Systems Control and Experiment Supervision sections, which are all located within the same room overlooking the bridge generator. All stations within sections incorporate intercoms which allow those on the deck to communicate amongst themselves and with other facility personnel. As a Reality Critical designated area under the Dimensional Security Accords, the control deck requires two-person integrity at all times, and all personnel present on it must be both cleared and licensed appropriately.

Sections

Master Control

Master Control is a section right at the front of the control deck where the Operator in Command (OIC) and their co-operator (OICO) directly control the bridge generator. It contains controls linked both to the manual and automatic start sequences for the generator; and allows it to be overseen. This is also where the OIC and OICO authenticate to the PALIS (Permissive Action Link Integrity System) to unlock the generator and commence the experiment.

The consoles at Master Control display the most important safety metrics out of all metrics reported by the bridge sensors; it is the operators' duty to identify any discrepancies not detected by the automatic safety systems and algorithmic Deviation Monitoring System, investigating and responding or triggering an emergency shutdown if necessary.

Being responsible and directly accountable for the safety of the experiment, and by extension of the Dimensional Security Accords, reality itself; they possess the authority to request any of the other sections, such as ordering Power Control to raise or lower power on a specific injector or requesting Targeting Control to repath the bridge during initial alignment. However, this authority is not absolute, and any station may challenge a request if it requires clarification or is deemed to be unsafe.

Power Control

Power Control is a section at the left of the control deck where the Bridge Power Supervisor and Bridge Power Engineers (BPEs) manage the energy demands of the bridge. Due to the significant energy demands required by bridges (up to a constant 1TW), power requirements require significant external coordination, and it is from here those demands are managed.

The central power consoles in this section display bridge power demand as well as any surplus or deficit, and allow the multiple sources to be re-routed to ensure the power supply remains stable throughout the experiment. Phones are present here to allow the BPEs to directly communicate with the Power System Operator for load shedding purposes.

Targeting Control

Targeting Control is a section at the right of the control deck where the Chief Targeting Engineer and their targeting engineers directly manages and controls the bridge generator's targeting computer. Their role is most critical before and during bridge start, and is one of the most complex and involved out of all control deck staff, as they are responsible for cross-checking all automatic calculations, identifying discrepancies, and re-routing unroutable T-space manifolds.

All targeting operations are constrained by the facility’s targeting computer to the parameters in the cryptographically encoded packet authorised by Raven, allowing the engineers to have free rein, but only inside the defined authorised ranges. Targeting Control is a high-security position in the control deck, because malicious activity could still be used to affect targeting in potentially unpredictable ways.

Once the bridge is open, the role of Targeting becomes largely inconsequential, which allows targeting engineers to enjoy a much-needed respite from their labour. However, Targeting still remains on-call to respond in situations where the bridge manifold must be reset, in which case the targeting process must start over from scratch.

Systems Control

Systems Control is a large section at the middle of the control deck where the Chief Technical Engineer and their subsystem engineers oversee all of the supporting subsystems of the bridge generator, including cooling, cryogenics, containment, vacuum, optronics, sensors, particle physics, and RF. It is one of the largest and most complex sections on the deck, with the most number of stations out of all.

Experiment Supervision

Experiment Supervision is an elevated section right at the back of the control deck where the Experiment Supervisor oversees the progress of the experiment and reports this information back to key stakeholders, such as corporate sponsors, scientists, the Chief Science Officer, and the Facility Director. The station has a large read-only display which aggregates together all status information from the other stations.

The section also houses the Experiment Regulatory Liaison Officer (ERLO), whose job it is to keep Raven Reality Control in the loop about the progress of the experiment. And it also houses the Experiment Safety Officer (ESO), whose job it is to oversee the procedural safety of the experiment and communicate actively with other key safety stakeholders, including the Chief Safety Officer (CSO), the Radiation Protection (RP) Manager On Duty, and the Exosecurity & Biosecurity specialist teams. Occasionally the Chief Science Officer or Facility Director will also personally sit in at the Experiment Supervision section.

Safety

The control deck of a bridge laboratory employs a precise type of safety culture. As previously mentioned, no individual is permitted alone on the deck, and most stations work in pairs. Adherence to documented procedures is mandatory, and deviations require prior written approval. All critical instrumentation is at least triple-redundant, and safety-critical operations must be verified and cross-checked. A technique called pointing and calling is also used to minimise operator error and ensure clear and accurate communication of actions. Every action performed on the control deck is logged and attributed to the operator who performed it, ensuring total accountability; data, audio and video feeds from deck are also stored on-site at the CCS bunker and transmitted live to Black Mountain.