Ming surveyed the bay.  The conversion from the pre-war usages had gone well by all appearances and it presently held five attack fighters.  Peregrines he’d heard some call them which he liked the sound of.  He’d seen some visiting his mother in Arizona’s southern deserts somewhere around 450 clicks south of Northern Arizona Univeristy’s main campus in Flagstaff.   

They were beautiful and deadly at the same time which is how he felt about these fighters.   After he inspected them he walked up to Crewmen Mikaela Andrews with a bit of a smile.  “Ship shape and ready to rock by the looks of it Andrews.  Compliments to you, Chief Xellath and the rest of the flight crew.”

The human techncian beamed even as the Tellarite Crew Chief came up beside her and said, “Glad you think so sir.”

Ming nodded and added, “My fighter looks brand new…Not even a scratch or scorch on the exterior and the diagnostic results are the best I have seen since I first got her despite the fury the Dominion has rained down on her. The other four are looking better than specs too…Your doing?”

Chief Petty Officer Xellath nodded, “Aye sir.  The better they perform means the more likely they come home with their pilots.  Andrews here has been pulling more overtime than anyone else except for me.”

The human woman shrugged, “Just doing what’s needed, Chief.  Gotta make sure these birds come home with their pilots after all just like you said.”    

Before Ming responded four officers entered the bay together.  All three noticed their entry at which point Ming looked at the two members of the groundcrew and said, “Thanks again for the hard work.  If you both will excuse me..” 

The two nodded and returned to what they were doing, while Ming grabbed a PADD as he headed toward the newly arrived officers.  As he approached the quartet stopped in line and came to attention.  All had the single pip of an ensign, and were one human male, three women of Vulcan, Human and Andorian decent.   He had reviewed their bios the night before so he recognized them as his flight.   

He looked at each one in order and acknowledged each by name, “Ensign Esessa Sh’ivhohlol.  Ensign Jenna McPherson.  Ensign Günter Erickson.  Ensign T’Kown of Vulcan.  Pleased to meet you all.  I am Lieutenant Marcus Ming, callsign Lunatic, and I’m your new flight leader.  We will have our official debriefing and orientation at 15:45 this evening in conference room four however I wanted to introduce myself and introduce you all to the fighters we’d be flying.”

Tapping the first fighter indicating it to be his.  The second one he tapped, indicating it was Knight 2 and would be assigned to T’Kown.  Third, Knight 3, would be McPhearson.  Fourth would be Sh’ivhohlol and fifth would be Erickson.  

He said, “Get comfortable with your fighters.  With a little luck and even more skill they’ll be ours for a while to come.  Between now and our going into action we’ll be doing a combination of both live and holodeck drills to work on our unit cohesion.  As you should know that is as at least as important as our individual fighting skills.   As what I hope is an unnecessary reminder:  when we get into a furry hairball survival can just as easily come down to who’s got the better wingmate and how well everyone communicates with or anticipates eachother the best .” 

By the time he was done each pilot was standing next to their fighter and were focused on him.  He nodded and smiled a very slight smile glancing at an antique style analog aviator watch on his wrist before he said, “There’s about 95 minutes until the briefing so go ahead and start going through what you need to before then.  I have a few things to do to prep for the briefing itself so I will meet you all there at the appointed time.  I look forward to working with you all.  As you were!”

The other pilots relaxed and fell out of ranks.  He nodded to the group (who were all still watching him for the moment) and exited the flight bay.  As he did so he wished he caught up a bit more on sleep.  As it was he’d make do as he had since the start of the war.  The best way he could.