One With the Ship

Posted on 26 Aug 2016 @ 5:12pm by Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 08 Sep 2016 @ 8:42pm

2,215 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD -7 1900

[ON]

Samantha loved to fly. That was the reason she trained in similators as often as she could. In this program, she was at the helm of a Defiant. Tough, agile ships with poor longevity. They relied on a good pilot to escape many dangerous situations as a result.

For that reason, Sam ran a rigorous asteroid belt program to test her reflexes as well as skill. She would swoop down to avoid a moving asteroid and juke right to escape the next narrow miss of a stagnant one.

Collision warnings sounded as multiple rocks came at her. Normally a tactical officer might shoot down the rocks and blast a path through, but that was not the exercise.

Sam spun the ship in an upward barrel to evade the collision but found she was clipped on the port nacelle. The simulation declared her dead on the starry mock-viewscreen in front of her. She also beat her distance score of getting three-fourths the way through.

It was only then she turned around to see the ensign. Young kid, Sam knew, which was generally dangerous to field units with ensigns that did not listen to sage advice of their NCOs.

Sam smiled and stood up in respect of her department head's rank regardless. She even gestured to her seat.

"I run this program often, Ma'am. If you would like to have a go, I don' mind. Or was there somethin' specific you needed?" Sam inquired respectfully to Miraj.

"No, sorry, I didn't realise this once was in use. I didn't need anything." Miraj stammered. The woman was older than even her brother. She wasn't used to people that age deffering to her. Normally they were offering dire warnings over what would happen if she didn't get her grade up or of the ship came back in less than showroom condition

Her eyes slid to the screen, with its ranking, and the tantalising view of asteroids tumbling towards them. "I wouldn't want to kick you out."

"I don' mind, Ma'am." Sam moved to give the officer the seat. "It's randomized, so you can't cheat. But the further into tha field you go, tha more difficult it becomes."

Miraj's ability to resist a flying challenge was close to 0. She slid into the seat, adjusted it for her height, and pushed her boots off. "how many times have you done this?"

"I used ta run it four times a week for the past eight years, Ma'am." Sam took an almost protective posture behind her younger boss as she watched the screen. "A ship this limited in resources, I only run it once a week."

So. 1700 attempts, plus or minus, to get to 76%. It obviously wasn't a proper asteroid field. You could pilot through those with your eyes closed. the real ones weren't that dense. "Sounds pretty nasty. Start her up."

"Reset program an' start," Sam commanded to the computer.

"Program ready," the computer came back after a quick beep.

"It aint supposed ta be winnable, Ensign. It'll get harder tha longer you're in there," Sam explained, for a great many of pilots bruised their egos on the first attempt.

"It's got a percentage score," Miraj adjusted the helm position and dropped the nose of the ship a couple of degrees since the first few asteroids were looming dead ahead. "Therefore it has a finish line. "

"No-win scenarios are the bread and butter of OTS and NCO leadership school, Ma'am," Sam respectfully tried to convey. "There's always a better pilot out there than you, Ma'am."

Three actually, two if you didn't count people who'd retired. the chances of her meeting a better pilot was really low. "Theoretically," she allowed, making a couple of minor adjustments around the marginally denser field. "Infinitely diverse universe, and all that."

"Agreed, Ma'am." Sam smiled and simply watched the young pilot. Youth had that impulsiveness about them. A good thing if utilized right in flight operations. But mostly a burden. Sam was interested to see how her department flew.

Miraj made a few minor adjustments and the simulated ship twisted gracefully around a stream of space-boulders that came at them in an almost straight line. She looked at the progress bar. Five percent. "Does this thing have a fast forward or something?"

"I believe that'd be cheatin', Ma'am." Sam could only smile at that question.

"Its not cheating." She slalomed around a small barrage of rounder rocks without even looking. "I just want to get rid of the training wheels section."

"Trainin' wheels are often useful for people who aren't familiar with tha objective, Ma'am," Sam explained respectfully.

Miraj rolled her eyes. "I know the objective. Fly to the end. Don't die." She didn't even look at the helm as she swung the simulator around a cluster or tightly packed asteroids.

Sam nodded. The young one could flew, that much was clear to the older pilot. But there were some things you did not rush into. Sam did not feel she had the right to chastise her department head for it either so she stood quietly and stoically as she waited for Miraj's final score.

Seeing the CPO wasn't going to let her skip to the good bits she gave the progress bar, 35%, a glare and settled back. "How long have you been flying?"

"Since I was a teen," Sam answered instantly. "So nearly thirty years, Ma'am. An' you?"

The counter crept upwards. As it passed the 50% mark, Miraj switched her attention from Sam to the helm. "Fourteen years flying solo," She gave a shrug, "I stopped counting when I hit 20,000 hours. Can't think of anything I like doing more."

"Drivin' ships like this one aint like flyin' civilian stuff," Sam explained respectfully.

"I've flown all sorts. Federation civilian ships, starfleet ships of the line. Even a galor class war ship. And about a zillion hours in simulator likes this when I don't have a real bird to fly. I hate simulators. Real..ships..are...better," she said, words drawn out as she skipped around a flurry of obstacles, throwing the ship up and down, left and right.

Sixty percent. There were a few minutes of peace, then Miraj frowned at the screen, and the sensors. Huge asteroids the size of cities were converging on them "I hope you haven't eaten anything recently?"

"I'm a dust cropper... I can deal with it," Sam assured Miraj as she sat down at the ops station.

Two asteroids, almost big enough to be planetoids were tumbling towards them, one just behind the other. "Good. Hold tight." And she executed a barrel roll that wrapped them up and over the first and sliding down under the other, scant meters between the belly of the simulated Galileo and the upper asteroid.

"Take it easy!" Sam felt like she was chastising a greenhorn in flight school. "This aint a fighter. You'll rip her hull doin' crazy stuff like 'at, Ensign."

"No i won't. we didn't even shake." Miraj kept her eyes on the screen, and the scanner, in case anything started coming in side on. The progress bar at the bottom announced seventy percent. "This is deep space. We don't have orbital mechanics to worry about, and a little roll like that wouldn't exercise the inertial dampeners at all. Novas have great maneuverability."

Sam decided not to react at this point. Clearly the young officer was one of them arrogant sorts.

Seventy Five Percent. The asteroids were coming at them like catapults, including one twice the size of the Galileo. "Crap." Miraj said. "Hang on."

She pulled up hard, but the asteroid was still coming. "Crap! Crap! Crap!" the forward tumble was going to clip them. she needed a sharp turn. Thrusters were'nt enough. She needed to clubhaul. She touched the controls, and the tractor beam lanced out to clamp onto another large asteroid, this one tumbling down and away. she flicked the external inertial dampner on the off to cancel and forward moment, and the pull of the asteroid flicked them up and out of the path. Proximity alerts screamed as they whizzed past the smaller rocks, but Miraj could see a clear path, and slapped the terminal to leat go, and they catapulted into a brief patch of clear space, whilst her hands scrambled all over the conn to right the vessel and slow their motion enough to not hit anything else.

"Shit, that was nasty." Miraj gasped out, and then had to wrench her hand across the conn again to narrowly miss an asteroid coming in at an oblique angle.

And before either woman could say any more, the proximity alarms were blaring. Miraj said a rude word. The progress bar was oonly at 85%

Three space rocks were coming in at all angles now, different sizes, different speeds, butevery one was enough to give the little frigate a really bad day. Miraj couldn't believe it. There had to be a way through. she glared at the screen.

And saw it.

"Buckle up." she told the CPO. "Now. Take everything that isn't propulsion and maneuvering off line and give it to the inertial dampers." she made some quick helm adjustments. "That includes life support and gravity. Now." Miraj's voice went up half an octivae as she pulled back hard on the helm, making Galileo rear up. "Now, now now!"

She threw the frigate sideways so it came down perpendicular to its original plane, lurched it forward and dropped the nose hard, swinging the nacelles out the way of a rock the size of a runabout cutting across their stern.

She felt the strain across her skin as the alarm for the inertial dampers screamed and red lined. The extra power kicked in, her bunches floating up as the gravity was cancelled. She ignored the alarms, and swung the nacelles up, hit the power and the frigate dived under the oncoming asteroid, thrusters reversing suddenly before it hit the long almost rectangular rock that sailed in to block the path.

Ops reported hairline cracks along decks six and seven. Miraj ignored them, one eye on the screens showing her what was in front, and the scanners on the helm showing her everything else. she banked hard to port, flipping over till they were almost belly up, swung back to her original plane and shot forward, and then rose up again, jerking around the flying debris in something too jerky to be a proper barrel roll but involved far too much maneuvering to be smooth flight.

She held her breath, not from fear, but becuase she was so busy concentrating on the piloting she had stopped doing anything else. The frigate corkscrewed around and around as Miraj skipped them out of the way of asteroids which now seemed to be missiles flung deadly precision to almost block her way.

more cracks were appearing along the hull, alarms blared everywhere, but Miraj kept her eyes on the course she could see opening up, and she gunned the thrusters, wanting to be across that line as fast as possible. Ninety five percent

They burst out of the cloud of asteroids "Yes!" Miraj hissed as the huge debris field.

"No," Sam said

Miraj looked at the screen. "That's cheating."

They weren't asteroids. They were planets. to big to go over or under or around, not at this speed. There was a tiny gap between them. Miraj glanced at the helm. Just over thirty meters wide. Miraj's jaw dropped. Galileo was thirty four meters deep.

She made a decision, and altered roll and yaw, lining the ship up as the gap rushed towards them. "Seal off Deck 8. Full integrity fielding, close all the bulkheads."

She could sense the petty officer's surprise and disaproval. But it was done, and not a moment too soon. Galileo rolled onto its edge, and they were into the gap. The screech of Deck 8 being ripped away echoed through the bridge. The sound was fingernails on the blackboard of her soul, and her stomach cramped at the hull breach, even though the back of her mind insisted it wasn't real.

There was three heartbeats of alarms screaming and then they really were in open space. Miraj brought the ship to a stop, reinstated gravity and life support. and breathed out.

The screen flashed in two foot green figures:100%

Miraj sat back in the chair, not knowing when she had worked herself to the edge of it. She'd got to the end. No lives lost. There were cracks in the hull big enough to put a hand through, but the integrity fields were holding. She'd flown. She nodded to herself at a job well done.

And then she realised. "Oh. Oh! I'm so sorry!" she put her hands over her mouth. The Petty officer was almost twice her age, had spent hours trying to beat this program, And she'd swanned in and done it in the first sitting.

"That's alright, ensign," Sam stood up, her face so neutral Miraj didn't have the first clue how the woman really felt, and excited the holodeck at a brisk pace, leaving Miraj staring after her.


[OFF]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Smatha Winston
Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo
NPC Benice Gyce

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