“Midshipman’s Log – Stardate Supplemental – We are currently on board the USS Omega, on-route to the USS Exeter for a vocational training cruise – this is the culmination of everything we have been working fo- ” “Cadet Hunter, are you paying attention?”

Ω

USS Omega – Danube-Class Runabout – Mellstoxx System 

Thomas looks up from his PADD to see Lieutenant V’en – the Vulcan pilot and Thomas’ direct superior officer for this training exercise staring back at him and raising his eyebrow in that inquisitive way that both inflicts a small feeling of shame and also demands a serious answer and explanation from the cadet.  

“Yes, Ma’am, you were explaining the Starfleet regulations concerning travel to and from starbases, with specific regard to the speed zones, which dictate how fast a ship may travel depending on its proximity to the station.” – Thomas wasn’t the type of person to try and sound smart when he was talking with others, especially Vulcans, who he thought very highly of when it came to intelligence, but this was a different situation altogether, for there was a reason that Thomas always overlooked that specific regulation. V’en looks slightly more impressed that Thomas could actually pay attention to more than two things at once, and continues in her questioning, more to prove a point of method to Sally and Victor that when she is talking, everyone should have their eyes and ears solely focused on her, rather than to actually stir up any kind of discussion. 

“You are correct, Mr Hunter, however in future I would like your full attention when I am quoting regulations to you.” – Thomas thinks carefully for a few seconds before telling the very studious Vulcan that she is wrong about the regulation, “Oh… look I’m sorry, I’ve just had that quoted to me a lot in class and it’s incredibly flawed to the point where there’s an article a few pages later that makes it completely redundant – and to be fair I just don’t think anyone noticed or much cared about it to bring it up to the regulation committee.” – The Vulcan is – well shocked and stunned wouldn’t be the correct words, but the logical way to describe it was that the Vulcan lieutenant was not expecting such a heretical response and needed some time to think of a response. “… are you telling me that you – a mere cadet – have found a flaw in Starfleet regula-” “Runabout Omega, this is OpsComm: USS Exeter, we have space for you on lading pad four and sent you a pre-programmed auto-navigation path once you’re within one thousand meters.” – Thomas welcomed the interruption and distraction, as arguing with a superior officer was very much not on his list of things to avoid, especially when it came to very strict, by-the-book officers, who worshipped the rulebook like it was some kind of ancient text. “Operational Command, this is the USS Omega. We are making our approach, automatic control codes have been verified and we are preparing to switch over to remote navigation.” The runabout flies towards the drydock yards, where a multitude of starships are in the middle of repairs, refuels and restocks. Among those ships is the USS Exeter – one of Starfleet’s cadet training ships, assigned to the Academy campus on Mellstoxx III.

As the Omega continues its approach towards the drydocks, it gets a warning notification and message on the viewing screen [‘WARNING: Remote Piloting Engaged’] followed by the overlay of a flight path appearing on the view screen’s heads-up display . The runabout makes a course-correction and diverts along the pre-programmed path to drydock twelve, where the cadets finally get a view of the USS Exeter for the first time. It had been a long time since Thomas had seen a Constitution II Class, in fact, the only one he ever saw was the Enterprise A, in the Starfleet Museum – a relic of a bygone era – but this ship at least had up-to-date engines, phasers and shields. 

The runabout flies around the Exeter giving the cadets a better view from every angle, before cycling round to the ship’s aft, where the shuttle bay is, “Omega, this is OpsComm, you are clear for entry and landing at pad two, door’s open, bed’s made, welcome to your new home for the next three weeks.” – V’en tells the cadets to grab their gear, as the runabout begins its landing procedure – rotating the Omega 180 degrees and touching down in the Exeter shuttle bay ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice and the mag-locks deploying to keep the runabout in place. Victor – still tinkering with his newly upgraded tricorder device, scrambles to put all of his components and tools away, while Sally has all of her items neatly packed away, waiting to be carried. Thomas always packs light and he’s already by the hatch, waiting to disembark the runabout. V’en unlocks and opens the Omega’s hatch, then runs a level two diagnostic, before leaving with the rest of the cadets – not necessarily a requirement or even procedure, but as a courtesy to the cadets, which will be taking over as the shuttle bay mechanics. 

Shuttle Bay – USS Exeter – Constitution II Class – Drydock 12 – Mellstoxx System

Leaving the runabout, the cadets step onto the floor of the USS Exeter for the first time – something that they had talked about and waited for, and now they take a look around and find the bay to be incredibly small compared to the other hangars and shuttle bays that they have visited throughout their time at the Academy. Lieutenant V’en leads the cadets to the shuttle control room, to show them around – inside the office is Chief Petty Officer Emilio Reyes, one of the Exeter’s skeleton crew, “Everyone, this is Chief Reyes. He is the ship’s Operational Command Officer. He will be in charge of the shuttle bay and coordinate your auxiliary craft training missions.” – The cadets greet the chief, as he rises from his chair and stands at attention “Hello, cadets. Usually a starship won’t be launching that many shuttlecraft at any one time, but on the Exeter, we have a number of simulated missions for our pilots to perform, while the coordinator will be walking you through your mission profiles and objectives.” – V’en thanks Reyes and then guides the cadets down the hallway to the pilots’ briefing room, which is similar in shape and size to the other conference rooms on the ship. “While most of your shuttle assignments will be simple courier or escort missions, which only require a quick docket read, it is standard procedure for a meeting between all members of the shuttle bay team and any other relevant crewmembers. The vast majority of these meetings will be held by Chief Reyes or a member of senior staff, depending on the content of the meeting.” – Lastly, Lieutenant V’en takes the cadets to their dorm room, which is once again a standard small room with four bunks, a table and a small food replicator, “This is where you will be staying when you are not on-shift or taking part in examinations, in the meantime, if you need anything please contact me and I will be at your disposal.” – V’en leaves the dorm, and lets the cadets get themselves settled before their first official shift as midshipmen on the Exeter.

Pilot Quarters – USS Exeter – Constitution II Class – Drydock 12 – Mellstoxx System

Once again, the cadets take rest and store their gear in the standard dorm room lockers, carefully arranging their clothes and personal items – Thomas approaches one of the wall-mounted display screens and opens up the side panel, then takes out an isolinear chip and inserts it into one of the slots, giving him access to family pictures, videos and some specially stored flight simulation programs, which the cadets like to play in their downtime. Sally has her PADD in-hand and is looking through detailed schematics for the Exeter’s cadre of shuttlecraft, runabouts and emergency craft and then translates that to Thomas, who begins building the craft in the simulator. 

Victor pulls out his micro-tricorder and multi-toolkit and continues to tinker, starting by carefully disconnecting the seal on the watch-like device, then opening the housing  and very, VERY carefully removing the motherboard with a pair of nano-tweezers, under a magnifying lens. Vic places the motherboard into a frame, then pulls out a component case and opens the lid to reveal a number of near-microscopic little gadgets and doohickeys, all separated into different compartments and sections, “Ah, there it is.” Vic finds the digital gyroscope and lowers it onto the motherboard, before soldering it in place, and hooking up a cable between the motherboard and his special coding PADD.

Thomas and Sally are halfway building the simulated Type-10 shuttle – starting with the basic chassis, then building the nacelles, one component at a time, affixing them to the main body and then building up the engineering system, connecting them to the warp core bay and the cooling units. After that, the two build out piece-by-piece until the shuttlecraft is finally complete. Victor continues coding and testing and coding and testing, until finally he works out all the bugs and glitches and runs a beta test, which consists of waving his arm around erratically. “Dude, what in any known universe are you doing?” Thomas has become used to Victor’s wild testing and his hyperfocus, but he still feels a novel intrigue to find out what his best friend has created. “Hopefully by the time I’ve fixed everything together and smoothed it over with this new code, I’ll be able to do everything much faster, just by moving – just gotta work out the kinks in this thing.” Victor extends his arm in front of him and rotates his wrist clockwise and anti-clockwise repeatedly until the small LED lights up and maintains the glow. “Ayyyy! Got it” – Vic checks his PADD for the readings, which prove positive, as he gives a few more tweaks to the code and then resetting the test. “If I am correct – which I absolutely am, then this should absolutely work.” and with one quick flick of the wrist, the torch lights up the room. “… and it is beautiful” – another flick of the wrist and the light deactivates, then another flick and the light is back on again. Vic returns to the PADD to make some adjustments and suddenly the light is red, then green, then ultraviolet and back to white. More typing and coding and the light beam narrows, then widens, then narrows again, then flashes intermittently and finally Victor gives Thomas and Sally a warning, before setting off a burst of blinding light that puts the ‘flash’ in ‘flashbang’. “Now that’s what I’m talking about”

With this line of experiments and testing finished, Victor runs one last level 8 diagnostic “just to be sure” that the code is in order and everything is working the way that it should. Thomas and Sally are similarly testing their simulated Type-10 shuttle, checking that it has been built correctly and how quickly. “Well we got the record time, and it’s top quality, just need to see how we are in practice, tomorrow” – Sally takes over the controls from Thomas and starts pushing buttons. “The quality check is one thing, but actually seeing if it’ll fly is another – so lets take this baby for a spin.”

Engineering Bay – USS Exeter – Constitution II Class – Drydock 12 – Mellstoxx System

While our intrepid cadets are in their quarters, the engineering team is taken straight to main engineering for their first assignment: to fix the ship and bring it back to full power, so that the rest of the ship’s crew can take their positions and the training cruise can continue. “Level 3 diagnostic complete.” The chief engineer directs the crew to look at the checklist of tasks for them to perform. “Everyone pick a task from the list and then when it’s done, mark it off for the next round of diagnostics.” – sixteen hours later, the ship is almost ready to launch….. almost.

To Be Continued…

Ω