Mirror, signal, warp drive! (Part 1/2)

Posted on 26 May 2012 @ 1:42pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Kiri Cho

2,873 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 06 - 0030hrs

[ON]

Having only finished his duty shift a short time ago, John found his energy levels starting to wane a little. It wasn't as if his body had decided it was ready to sleep, in fact serving on a starship, most officers soon found that their internal body clocks had managed to give up relying on time to decide when to rest. With a 24 hour shift pattern, it was more a case of "on duty" or "off duty" and finding crewmembers wandering the halls at 2am with an engineering kit in hand was nothing more than a standard day onboard.

The holodeck was thankfully, a miniscule distance from the Bridge, and it almost seemed that the turbolift had arrived before he had even had the chance to finish speaking his destination. Rubbing the back of his neck to try and wake himself up somewhat, john tapped a few conmmands into the panel to the left of the holodeck doors, selecting the training version of the Nova class Bridge. With the computer bleeping to confirm that the program was ready, he headed inside.

It was almost as if he had suddenly experienced deja vu, stepping through the doors was much like he had just stepped off the turbolift back onto the bridge he had left only a few moments ago. The setting was identical, albeit without crew, and the vessel being virtually stationary in space, waiting for it's instructions.

Kiri arrived just in time to see Lieutenant Commander Holliday enter the holodeck. Still dressed in her uniform having been spending time in the sensor suite since working on the shuttlecraft. She arrived exactly on time, pausing only to check the program that was running. Then with a deep breath she entered, a little apprehensions. Using holodecks was something that she only really did at the academy, this was the first time on a ship though. Inside it was exactly like the bridge she was used to being on by now. Seeing it empty was odd though, other than the man she was now alone with. Standing to attention she spoke up as the door hissed closed, "Reporting sir."

"Nice to see you Ensign...and on time too, excellent"

John turned to acknowledge his new pupil as she entered through the holographic turbolift that masked the real exit to the room. Feeling a sense of pride the XO had to be careful not to slip back into his typical Instructor attitude from his previous assignments and start a longwinded speech about correct Starfleet protocol when at the helm of a starship. Right now he felt that the best thing he could do is stick to what was easiest, keep things low key and informal so as to get the best out of a one-on-one training session.

"Ready for this? Take your station Ensign" He nodded, pointing towards the helm and backing off a few paces to give her easy access to the chair and the console at the forefront of the Bridge.

Nodding her head Kiri briskly walked to the conn, sliding neatly into the chair. It felt weird to be this far forward on the bridge, everyone else would be behind her from here, rather in front. Though she rarely looked up from her work station it was nice to know she didn't have people behind her. Not so much here, it felt a bit pressured, even with just the two of them. Very fast little fingers flashed across the expanse of buttons as she followed through her training. Starting first her preflight checks, that the engines were on-line, that they were functioning properly, that the warp field was programmed properly. Ships power inertial dampeners, defector control, navigation. Everything that need to make a ship move and keep it safe while doing so was ready. It took her a few seconds longer than maybe it should have but she covered everything, "All systems operational sir." Her voice showing a little nervousness. Fighting if she should be turning round to look at him as she wanted or keep her focus on the maze of buttons in front of her.

She had trained to do this, most practice was on larger simulations or shuttle craft. What she wanted was more than just knowing how to pilot the ship, but how to do it well. How to do it in the worst possible situation.

Watching as his new pupil moved her hands over the controls, John was pleased to see that she had remembered what would have undoubtedly been taught to her at the Academy. Each starship was different, each one calibrated to its own exacting standards with engines and support systems built to make that particular model fly. Trying to compare between a Nova-class and something as large as a Sovereign or a Galaxy was just asking for pilot error. Many new pupils at the Academy would forget this particular nuance of starship piloting and wonder why they were unable to perform a barrel roll as they expected in a starship as large as a small town.

"Very nice....now, let's just focus on getting the ship moving...set a course bearing...oh I don't know....032 mark 7 at one quarter impulse....make sure you align your navigational deflectors before engaging the engines..."

This was always a little bit scary, there was a lot to focus on. Taking his advice to hand she first set the course into the computer, scanning the direction by reflex from the auxiliary controls at the right far side of the console. Aligning the deflector while she using the manoeuvring thrusters to bring the ship around. Directing it and the ship the direction she wanted to go, turning it on the spot. Then with a check of her direction, that inertial dampeners were on-line, that the reactors were ready. She slowly pulled up the power levels with her left hand as she watched her readings, "Course set zero three two mark seven, one quarter standard impulse," With the course set she started to adjust the power levels from the reactors. Starting to power down the higher level directional thrusters, setting ready for cruising.

"You've done this before I can see" John smirked, looking down at the console in front of him and nodding with approval as he scanned for anything that might look wrong or out of place inside the myriad of data, readouts, and panels that lay in front of his face. The manoeuvering thrusters had done their work, the deflectors were operating perfectly, and as far as he could see, the power being delivered to the impulse engines was pretty well balanced.

"Ok let's try something a little more complicated...this is very much a useful manoeuvre, especially in combat....when I give the word, I want you to increase speed to full impulse, then deliver a surge of power through to our port thrusters....now don't be alarmed when the readouts in front of you say something is wrong, it's just the computer not quite catching up with your actions. That extra burst from the thrusters should be enough to throw you into a barrel roll to starboard....pretty good for getting out of the line of fire in an emergency.....give it a try......now"

As soon as he started speaking, guiding her to something new Kiri was already starting to carry it out. Making ready to increase speed, powering the manoeuvring thrusters back up, warming the reactors back up to higher performance levels. When he said now, her heart skipped a beat. Hands flashed again as she brought the ship up to full impulse as fast as regulations would allow. Then in a similar manner she started to shunt plasma from the warp core along to the port side of the ship. Warnings did start to flash up silently, but she kept every level at safe limits. Pushing nothing over the boundaries that were considered safe. What she was asked to do though, was really pushing those boundaries. At this speed? Unsure but aware it was only a hologram she pressed the button.

The ship juddered and automatically yellow alert alarms flashed up around the bridge. The ventral port thrusters and port thrusters opened up, shifting the ship starboard, lifting the port side upwards as it did so. After a second she shut off the port , lowering impulse speed slightly, two seconds later deactivating the ventral thrusters. Due to inertia the ship still drifted to port, its stern still tilting against its direction as it came about. The computer gave out a warning that bit deep into her skin, "Warning, hull breach on deck eight!" She had forgotten to boost the initial dampeners to the lower decks. The pull had been too much and overwhelmed it, she made a mistake. Emergency forcefields were already in place but she had damaged the ship already. Her heart dropped, uncertainly she froze for a few seconds. Taking a deep breath she brought the ship back under control. Levelling out but letting it still drift with the speed it had already built up. The deflector alignment was the last thing she changed to point in the direction they were now moving. She expected to get scolded now, even though she already knew what she did wrong.

"Aaaaaaand we're all either dead or exposed to the vacuum of space....nice job Ensign" John laughed to himself as he recovered his footing after the last few seconds of rather energetic manoeuvring. In truth, the XO had fully expected her to make a mistake, what he was asking her to do was generally beyond a starting pupil's abilities, and this time it had gone exactly as he expected.

"My fault...I felt like pushing you a little....consider it a lesson - messing up at the helm is no different to messing up at tactical, or in engineering....every ship has a limit....the art form is in finding the perfect balance.....lets try that again shall we?"

Patting the young Ensign on the shoulder, John moved to the opposite end of the helm console, tapping a few controls to see exactly what had gone wrong and the extent of the damage. Apart from the rather substantial hull breach, there were ruptured power conduits throughout the propulsion system, and he was pretty sure that some of the inertial dampeners were totally fried. In fact, if this had been a real situation, he was pretty sure the Galileo would have been more than a little crippled.

"Computer....reset the program and replay"

Failing by a little or a lot was the same to Kiri. It felt like a crushing weight on her shoulders, draining her entire body of enjoyment, fun, sense of achievement and even value as a person. She was a disappointment, a failure. Her instructors at the academy were nothing like this, she was never asked to do something that beyond her ability. Things that were hard, even things that she didn't get right the first time. But they never asked things they didn't expect her to do. The meaning he put behind doing it also pained her. Did he think she didn't care, or that she thought this was easy? Surely there were better ways of getting a feel of a ship? This was barely an after thought, all of the tremendous weight she felt she placed on her own faults. The physical contact was also unexpected, her entire body tense, heavy and stressed.

The settings reset Kiri went through exactly the same motions again, setting the ship in the way that made sense to her to carry out the requested action. This time she didn't forget to adjust the fields to compensate for the changes in direction. She remained quiet, focused, trying to shake the feeling that was eating away at her.

"Looking good so far....deflector alignment is pretty much perfect....power distribution looks accurate....pilot looks more than a little uptight though....I recommend she calm herself a little to remain within operational procedures..." John called out, reading from a console ahead of him. Holliday knew this was going to be a challenge. He had always preferred to push his students beyond what was necessary for nothing more than the sake of pushing them out of their comfort zones. As far as he was concerned, the best way to learn was when every sense a person had was heightened, and this was the perfect setting.

"Ok let's try this again but this time send us to port....you know the ship's limits now so just feel your way into the turn...I've got plenty more tricks to show you if you can get this one under your belt Miss Cho"

What he was saying felt negative, Kiri was starting to regret this a little. She was trying her best right now, how could she relax? He was asking for too much, didn't he realise? Succeeding the second time took the edge off but still her mind was is a bad place. Doing her utmost to keep it on task, she had to show she was good enough. That would make him and her happy right?

Again she repeated, changing the direction wasn't much harder once the power was shifted, but that wasn't enough. With deep breaths she imagined if they really were being attacked. What should she do? So While she started to roll towards the port, halfway she started to alternate. The ship strained and there was some minor damage but this time it was much less ruinous. Then with an even better balance she brought the ship port again, taking it all the way this time. She didn't know how that would go down with him, something still had gone wrong, it would take a day or two for the engineering team to fix the micro fractures if it was real. Still it was more complex than what he asked, that was impressive right?

"That's more like it!" John chimed in as he watched the sensor readouts. The Ensign had taken it upon herself to push both the ship and her abilities a little further than he had originally asked for, but it was not a problem as far as the XO was concerned. In fact, he was rather pleased. It was unusual for a young officer to go outside the boundaries of orders set by their superiors, but when it came to anything that would give a tactical advantage, thinking on their feet was one thing that Holliday enjoyed seeing.

"Nothing a few engineers can't sort out...it gives them something to do at least! Ok, now...enough of impulse manoeuvering....how about you take us up to warp? Same heading but at a speed of, say, Warp 2.5?"

Succeeding in impressing him brought some of the pressure off Kiri, that he didn't mind the damage. Things were starting to turn around, slowly she started to relax slightly. He even asked for something else that she could do without much trouble. Warp Theory was something she had more understanding in than the layman, the mathematics behind creating a stable warp field. The computer still did most of it, assuming everything was working properly. Brining the ship to high impulse to give it a running start. With the deflector, inertial dampeners and warp field all set, warp drive ready. Again with a deep breath she did everything by the book, running the fingers of her left hand up to dial up the power. Powering down impulse and thrusters to keep other systems online at warp. Pausing and speaking a little too quietly she announced, "Warp two point five established, course steady sir."

"I think you're a natural at this ensign....sure you didn't take some extra courses at the Academy I'm not aware of? How about we try a mid-warp course change? Adjust our heading 35 degrees starboard"

Plastering what he said over her negative feelings Kiri felt warmer still, more confident. She hadn't taken extra courses, she did though pass basic flight training with high merit. It was hard things like what he was asking that were not covered in great detail. In normal situation it was enough, adjusting course at warp without dropping out, was advanced and more dangerous. Still, while not something she had done before, she understood the theory. More carefully this time she set up a series of commands to execute all at once. Adjusting the deflector and boosting its power for the turn, reducing power slightly to the starboard engines, adjusting the warp field to match. Checking sensor readings that course was clear and computer for known hazards, both were fine. Initial dampeners ready, everything she could think of was done, it was something she had only read about though. Engaging with a single tap, the ship juddered. It turned, 37 seven degrees, while not the smoothest action the ship was in one piece. The warp core power levels fluctuated slightly but returned to normal. Kiri would much rather drop out of warp to change course than do it this way.

[To be Continued...]
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ENS Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr John Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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