Grrreetings, Commander

Posted on 11 Jul 2013 @ 12:00pm by Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,365 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Bridge
Timeline: MD 12 - 1610 hours

[ON]

Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh stepped out of the turbolift with her customary pounce: though her tail followed whipcrack fast behind her, she harboured the same fears as many Caitians about getting it trapped in a prematurely closing door. The tall, slender, long furred felinoid was clad in a neat Command Division uniform, her claws retracted, the only concession to individuality the numerous carved bone tail rings she wore.

Padding over to Commander Holliday, she greeted him with a graceful bow and wiggled her whiskers in the traditional Caitian gesture of respect, but her slitted golden eyes did not linger long on him, instead sweeping over to the flight controls that she would soon be able to call her own.

"Grrreetings, Commander," she began, her voice slow and lilting, steeped in the accents of her native Ferasan savannah. Her tail swished behind her restlessly as she extended a paw to shake. "I have the honour to be Ensign S'Ranna T'S'rrr'Kharh, and I am joining you as a Junior Flight Contrrroller."

John had in fact been in the process of setting up the Beta shift for the day - most of the Alpha shift officers had left the Bridge, and the couple that remained were finalising their handover procedures before heading below deck for some well-earned rest. John had been able to avoid dealing with the docking procedures for the new support craft that Galileo had acquired, but nevertheless there was still plenty of reports for him to read up on.

The Ensign was one of only a half dozen Caitians that Holliday had encountered in his career - the rest had all been either diplomats or admirals however, and this would be the first time he would serve alongside a member of their species.

"Ensign. Welcome aboard. I trust your trip was uneventful? Our new support craft are settling nicely into the new shuttlebay since you came aboard."

Having only had chance to read the preliminary reports on the new shuttles that had joined the Galileo, John was relatively vague in his statement - what he meant to say was that as far as he knew there was nothing wrong - certainly nothing of note to be reported back to the Bridge.

"Thank you for reporting in so swiftly. I appreciate an officer with attention to efficiency."

S'Ranna nodded. In truth, her haste in coming to report in had less to do with a sense of propriety, and more with wanting to get cleared for duty as quickly as possible, but there was no need to diabuse the Commander of his positive impression.

"Verry uneventful," she said, conveniently omitting her little experiment in the runabout. "The Mirrranda is a beautiful crraft. Verrry nice rrunabout. Will be good addition to the Galileo, I am thinking. I am looking forrrward to flying it."

She moved away from the Commander, going down to the level of the flight controls and looking over the helm configurations. After studying them for a moment, she wheeled around sharply, her tail flailing like a violent whip behind her.

"I am thinking you are rrresponsible for duty shifts. I am wonderrring when I will be assigned to duty?" She expected that she would probably get a swing shift to begin with, as a junior officer. That was alright with her: so long as she got to fly, she didn't care what hour of the day - or night - it was.

The Commander was a little taken aback when an officer decided to turn away from him to examine a control panel - usually he would have expected a newly commisioned officer to remain rooted to the spot in front of him until he gave them permission to move.

"I will have to examine the rota - in all truthfulness I didn't expect us to receive our additional craft so quickly - the extra crew members that they have brought aboard are not yet in our manifest. That said, I expect you will need the time to settle in and acclimatise to the Galileo."

With his own experience at the helm of a starship, John knew exactly why the Caitian wanted to return to active duty as soon as possible - having lifted the Galileo from the surface of Earth when she was newly commissioned, Holliday had already experienced the pleasure of flying the Nova class design - whilst not the fastest in the fleet, she was certainly manoeuvrable.

"What's your experience prior to the Galileo? Any time at the helm of a starship under your belt?"

S'Ranna wiggled her ears, chewing over the answer for a moment before speaking. "This is my first starship flight contrrol position," she admitted. "I have had the honour to have been working at the Test Flight Rrrange in Austrralia for thrree years, with the engineers at the Advanced Technologies Grrroup. So most of my experrience is on small crraft, shuttles and rrrunabouts and support crraft."

She glanced over to the flight control station again, then looked back to the Commander, eagerness burning in her eyes. She was keen to make a strong impression despite her relative inexperience. "And I am not unfamiliar with the Nova class. I helmed a Nova trrainer rrefit on my cadet crruise, in fact." Her tail swish behind her approvingly at the memory: she had enjoyed the manoeuvrability of the vessel.

The XO was a little nervous at having someone at the helm who had no experience with a full sized starship. Galileo might not have been the largest in the fleet but she was still substantially more massive than a shuttlecraft was. As he thought on the matter, the control panel adjacent to the big chair sounded - and John absent mindedly backtracked to the chair that would be his home for the next few hours and pulled up the incoming data.

Confirmation had come in from the shuttlebay that the two support craft were fully integrated into Galileo's inventory, as well as a short comment about the somewhat adventurous flying of a certain runabout on it's way to the ship.

"We all have to start somewhere Ensign. I'm sure you'll get the chance to experience some full-scale flying soon enough...just as long as you...leave the intertial dampeners on next time?"

The fur around S'Ranna's ears ruffled - the Caitian equivalent of blushing - and her tail drooped. Her voice crackled as she answered: "Ah yes, you are hearring about that. I have been spending two weeks on the Venture doing nothing but plotting and charting: a little excited when I finally got my chance to fly. I will be morrre carrreful next time. I am rrememberring I am no longer on the test flight rrange."

She stepped back up to him, some confidence returning to her voice, and her tail rising again in accord. "Commander, I assure you will I will be doing my best, and that I am looking forward to being on the Galileo. I will be arrranging some time on the holodeck beforre my first helm shift, so I can be making sure I am familiar with the Nova systems."

"A sensible precaution. Very well Ensign, carry on."

John was impressed with the attention to detail from his new pilot - they had been a little thin on the ground at the helm since they had left Earth, and the idea of having extra resource was more than appealing to the XO. Galileo was finally starting to look like she would have her full crew complement before long.

S'Ranna bowed slightly, her tail flicking behind her in a more extravagant gesture. "Thank you, Commanderr. I am looking forward to serrving underr you."

A little chastened by his lack of faith in her, but relieved at least that he agreed with her plan of action, she headed off for Flight Control to seek out a good holosimulation that would acquaint her with the demands on the Nova flight controls.

[OFF]

Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh
Junior Flight Controller
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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