“Midshipman’s Log – Stardate [July 2402] – It is the morning of our first shift. The engineering teams have been working through the night and the Exeter is coming up to being at full power. Today we will be assisting the day shift in examining the exterior of the ship and seeing if it needs any repairs, while the bridge crews will be testing the ship’s functionality and the science crew runs tests on all of the lab equipment and conducting many, many calibrations. It’ll be good to get behind the controls of an aux-craft again, though… been too long.”

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

Midshipmen Thomas Hunter, Sally Tang and Victor Murphy enter the briefing room and take a seat at the big meeting table, where they are later joined by Lieutenant V’en and Chief Reyes, who hand out some PADDs to the cadets and begin the briefing. 

Chief Reyes:

“Welcome pilots. Feel free to replicate yourselves a drink, grab yourselves some breakfast, pull up a comfy chair and pick up your PADDs. This is how I run my briefings. I want you relaxed, but attentive and alert – not everywhere will run a briefing like this – command have their own way, ops, engineering, medical, they all have their own methods, one day you will need to find your own and what works best for you.”

Our intrepid heroes replicate themselves some breakfast, Sally gets herself some buttered toast and a green tea, Thomas has a simple bacon sandwich and a milkshake, and Victor – Victor likes to eat, and doesn’t have much room-reading abilities, so he replicates himself a very large stack of pancakes, drizzled with syrup accompanied by a few scoops of rich chocolate ice cream a double espresso and a black coffee. Victor places his plates and mugs down on the conference table and arranges the items carefully and deliberately, just the way he likes them, then scoops the ice cream into the black coffee and pours the espresso into the glass and mixes them together to gradually melt and break down the ice cream, all while the Chief and Lieutenant look on in shock and amazement, both raising their brows with morbid curiosity:

Reyes:

“Murphy… What in all the stars is that abomination?”

Victor:

“Wha? – Oh this? – I was pulling some late nights and needed a strong coffee, so I brought together a black eye and an affogato, but with a stronger aroma to balance out the flavours, you should really try some.

Reyes:

“You know, I’ll pass on that, but thanks for the offer – Now, if everyone is settled, you should all know that we’re gonna throw you in the deep end, with your first practical exam. Once this briefing is over, you will all make your way to the main shuttle bay, where you will have one hour to read through a list of auxiliary craft, tools and equipment and select what you think your team might need throughout the training exercise. Once you have completed your requisition list and locked it in your choices, the examination will be complete and your choices will be discussed and marked by the exam board… Are there any questions?”

The cadets shoot each other some knowing glances, for in their downtime, the three had often spoken about designing their own shuttle and maintenance bays – this time, they get to put their knowledge into practice.

Thomas:

“I assume we are talking specifically about this ship being manned by this flight crew and not just a hypothetical ship”

Reyes:

“Yes, the test is designed for this specific ship and its current mission, as a training vessel.”

Victor:

“What if we think of something that isn’t on the list, or something that needs to be customised in some way?”

Reyes:

“If there is something that you need, we don’t expect  you’ll need anything highly specific or hard to procure, but if you want to think outside the box or simply can’t find something, then there is a section for write-ins in your PADD.”

Victor finishes the last bite of his stack of pancakes and takes a final big gulp of his coffee, as he stands up from the conference table, along with Thomas and Sally. With everyone’s breakfast finished, Lieutenant V’en gives a subtle beat and then urges the cadets to follow him to the maintenance bay – maintaining a complete silence, so as not to begin the test too early or have any marks deducted. Finally, after a few minutes, the cadets reach the maintenance bay, where V’en gives each of them one of the exam PADDs and sends them into the bay.

Lieutenant V’en:

“Your sixty minutes begins from the moment the door closes. All the information you need is in your PADDs. I wish you luck and efficiency in your examinations.”

The Lieutenant gives a noble nod and a small bow, then exits through the doors, as they begin to close behind him. The timer starts the countdown and the cadets are left to their own devices – They each take a look at each other, give a smile, and a nod and they get to work.

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

The three cadets stand together and leap into action before they even start to speak. Victor begins looking around the room, checking the stations, analysing the space and building up a list of tools and equipment in his mind. Sally quickly dives into her PADD and begins looking up the shuttle bay’s auxiliary craft compliment for the Constitution II Class starship, then begins looking up the craft that are available for the team to add to their requisition list.

Thomas – always thinking outside the box – begins looking through the PADD for some additional hints and tips, as to what kinds of shuttles and fighters they may need for each mission. Eventually, Thomas finds the itinerary list for the training exercise, including a large number of mission profiles that the acessors have planned:

Thomas:

“So the USS Goddard will be arriving in the system tomorrow to drop off everything that everyone is putting on their requisition lists – including auxiliary crafts, so I’m going to assume that there will be more practical examinations with whatever we choose.”

Thomas continues to look further into the itinerary, where he finds mention of a plan to have pilots checking the exterior of the USS Exeter, in order to acess damage. Another assignment appears to be a series of test flights and combat exercises.

Thomas:

“Judging by the itinerary, we’re gonna need some worker bees, a few fighters and some transport craft – shuttles or runabouts, I’m not sure cause I have no idea what the standard compliment is for this thing.”

 Sally:

“Standard for a Constitution II is six work bees in the main bay and six shuttles in the parking bay, which was pretty good for the time. I think we can switch it up a little and maybe try for less quantity and more quality – means we can make room for a runabout.”

Thomas:

“I like your thinking. Okay, let’s say we only get three worker bees, but aim for – what? – a type four or five, maybe, rather than a type three?”

Sally takes a moment to consider her options. Currently the Starfleet worker bees range from the type three’s, more commonly found on old transport ships (like the Exeter), to the slightly more advanced type six’s, which can be found on transport ships and cruisers, to the type nine’s, which are found on battleships.

Sally:

“Gotta be honest, I wanna push for the type six – I know it’s outside the class, but I can fly it bow to stern in less than a minute and I can find microfractures anywhere in the hull – Plus I just really don’t like the others.”

Thomas looks through his PADD and opens up the search function to find the worker bee tab and then sifts through the craft’s lineage – from the original prototype developed from the DoT-7 mechanical worker bot, to the type one, which went into full production during Project: Refit in the 2270’s. The type two was introduced with the USS Excelsior, with the type three’s coming with new ships and new technologies during the “lost era” before the massive development of Project: Galaxy, which required two different worker bee types in the types four and five. Finally, the types six and seven were made for ships that were designed for fighting the Borg, and later for the Dominion Wars, giving them increased sensors, thrusters and tactile responses, making them overkill on a Constitution Class training ship in their correct numbers, but would still suffice if their number were reduced by half.

Thomas

“I’ve added three of the type six’s to the requisition list. Just gotta sort out what we’re putting in the emergency launch bays.”

Sally

“I say we stick some Valkyries up there – a pair of heavy fighters we can emergency launch at a moments notice and we can fix ’em up to do what we need.”

Thomas

“The Valkyrie is great and I’d love to fly her, but we need a weapons officer for that – or we’re flying together and we’re both better pilots than that.”

Victor

“You’re damn right you’re both better pilots – which is why I’ve got something special planned for that, just need access to the Valkyrie’s schematics.”

Thomas

“You know what, I’ve got in faith in ya – I’m gonna add two Valkyrie’s to the list and we’ll see what you’ve got. Everyone ok with that?”

Thomas adds the two fighters to the requisition list, then moves on to the list of runabouts, while Victor continues to add items for his personal workbenches. Once the designs for the bench-tops were finished, and the holoprojectors and magnifyers are put on the list, Victor looks through the individual tool list of box-wrenches, sub-micron scanners and hyperspanners, and begins adding them to the requisition list.

Thomas

“Looking at the runabouts, there’s quite a few options, but I’m narrowing it down to the Danube, the Arrow, Delta and New Atlantic – anyone got any insights?”

Sally

“Runabouts? I think we should focus primarily on search and rescue and infil/exfil. We’re looking at a multi-role ship with heavy weapons, strong shields and a large cargo capacity.”

Victor

“The Danube and the Delta have the weapons, but not the capacity – the Arrow is great, but requires a larger crew compliment to work efficiently. I’d personally recommend the New Atlantic – it’s smaller, sleeker, more heavily armed, can occupy a hundred evacuees in an emergency and requires a maximum crew of six to run smoothly.”

Sally

“… Plus the NA was designed to be modular, so we could can switch out modules depending on the mission profile – good for variety, but might have a drawback in the emergency response time.”

Thomas

“I’d rather be fully equipped for any eventuality than launch into a danger zone unprepaired.”

Sally

“I’d prefer the Arrow Class, but we’d need the full crew compliment – after that, the New Atlantic is the best option, if everyone is going with that.”

Thirty-seven minutes into the exam, Thomas adds three New Atlantic Class runabouts to the requisition list, while Victor has moved from equipping the maintenance bay to the remaining three decks of the Exeter’s shuttle bay. With the New Atlantic Class requisitioned, Victor adds the New Atlantic’s modular components, along with the grav-crane, which works to afix different modules.

With the upper bay’s launch pads repurposed for emergency response, Victor requisitions an advanced console programmer, which would allow him to code and edit his own modules to the operational control room, rather than using the pre-programmed modules that the other consoles use.

Finally, Victor adds some hand phasers, phaser rifles and tricorders to the list – standard issue for all restricted areas on Starfleet ships and are stored in secure weapons lockers.

Victor

“I’d say I’m all about finished with the list – when you’re ready, we can have a look-through and see if there’s anything that you want to add to the list.”

Thomas

“Beautiful! – We are literally just talking shuttles, if you’ve got any preferences?”

Victor

“There are nine shuttle types in the requisition list, but only four of them are in current active rotation, while the rest are completely outdated”

Sally

“The type ten was designed to be a combat shuttle, the type eleven is a long-range transport craft, type twelve is a short-range scout shuttle and the type fourteen is a VIP transport vessel.”

Victor

“The type eleven doesn’t have any weapons, so I have my reservation about that. In fairness, we’re looking to get six shuttles in total, so we could always get two each of the rest of the shuttles.”

Thomas

“Are we all agreed then?”

Victor and Sally nod in agreement and approval. As the timer is quickly approaching, the requisition list comes together at last – it just needs the finishing touches from Thomas and Sally, who take a quick look through the list to see if there’s anything missing.

Thomas

“Dude, this is really great – a very comprehnsive list, but I wanna add some mark two mobile emitters, a type two holoprogrammer and some class seven flight suits – I believe you know our sizes.”

Sally

“Can you get me a Hotas type nine and an advanced console programmer? Need to reprogram the flght controls and reconfigure the operations system.”

Thomas

“Oh well if we can do that for the Valkyries, I’ll take the type twelve – the one with the profile switch and extra rear controls.”

Victor looks through the requisition list to try and find Thomas and Sally’s ‘party favours’ despite them being very niche items designed only for Starfleet fighter pilots to use. Shockingly, he finds several different types and configurations of flight stick / thruster controls, and quickly filters through to find the Hotas mark nine and twelve and add them to the list.

In the last remaining minutes, the requisition list is checked and double checked, before finally being confirmed and sent off to the Academy Exam Board for analysis and grading.

The shuttle bay doors open – Lieutenant V’en and Chief Reyes enter, along with the USS Exeter’s Captain and the Dean of the Stinsfor Pilot School near Mellstoxx VI.

Dean Wright

“Cadets. Let’s see what you have done.”

To Be Continued…

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