A Bird's-Eye View (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 21 Feb 2012 @ 5:00am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant JG Robin Hilyer MD & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,310 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 00 - Pre-Deployment
Location: San Francisco Fleet Yards, Shuttlepod 7
Timeline: MD 05 - 0915 hrs

[ON]

Inside Shuttlepod 7...

Sitting at the forwards controls inside the small and cramped pod, Lirha looked back to make sure the Chief was with her and ready to depart. She began the craft's startup sequence and noticed the back hatch was still open. "Can you close that for me?" she asked him, then brought the main thrusters online. A small cloud of moisture began to materialize underneath the pod as the jetstreams of hot gas poured downward onto the tarmac.

Markum reached behind and closed the hatch then made sure it was sealed. "Aye, sealed and ready to go sightseeing." He watched the grey dreary sky as the pod lifted off the tarmac. "Is this your first non-orbital inspection ma'am? These are easier, but the best way to find out if your hull has imperfections in it is to let the vacuum of space discover them."

Lirha glanced over at her Chief Engineer and gave him a wry smile. "That's rather 'old-school', don't you think?" she said, then delicately piloted their craft towards the drydock. They reached their destination in about thirty seconds and she parked their shuttlepod into a low hover underneath the saucer section and in front of the main deflector. She pulled her PADD out and began to take notes as they inspected the underside of the primary hull.

Markum smiled. The new skipper and he were going to get along just fine. "There is a discoloration at the primary, port joint of the Waveriders outer holding doors. It could be nothing more than a bad paint job, but I'll be sure to add it to my list."

The comm channel inside the pod activated and Lirha heard Commander Holliday's voice echo crisp through the cabin. ""Pod 8 to Pod 7, hows it looking over there Ma'am? Everything looking good here so far."

She tapped a button on the communications console and responded, "We're finishing up with the ventral saucer section, about to move on to the secondary hull. There's a piece of hull plating which looks loose around the forward torpedo launcher, but everything else appears to be in excellent condition."

Markum nodded and made a note of the location on his PADD, "Aye, I see it now. Probably got bumped when they were installing the torpedo tubes outer frame section and were in a rush. Good eye there Skipper. You should of been an engineer with your attention to detail."

At the mention of becoming an engineer, she gave him a sideways glance. "I've had my share of repair duties when I was working in Operations and you're not the first one to try and recruit me. The chief engineer aboard the Mackenzie took quite a liking to me after I helped him repair the entire communications grid after a plasma storm shorted out every relay." she said, recalling the two days of hell she had spent working with the man.

Lirha maneuvered the shuttlepod closer to the ground and began a slow inspection of the underbelly of the secondary hull, starting with the main deflector array and working back towards the nacelles. "See anything, Chief?" she asked him, curious if he had spotted any imperfections or missing components.

"Yeah..I mean..yes ma'am, I do. Port Nacelle strut has three micro fractures proximal to the running light. It's not bad, but I'd hate to be cruising along at Warp eight and lose a strut." Markum had been through his share of new ship walk throughs, so far, it wasn't as bad as compared to some. "That's a pretty simple fix. Funny how the geniuses that put these together, never seem to have to fly them."

"I can't imagine how the first Earth astronauts felt being stuck inside a small and cramped pod, not knowing whether it would take them into space or break apart in the atmosphere." she replied quietly, then entered in some more data to her PADD.

After a few minutes of careful inspection, she brought their shuttlepod to the very rear of the ship to examine the aft torpedo launcher and shuttlebay. She noticed a few dockworkers putting a final coat of paint on the bay's landing strip.

"Shuttlebay looks excellent, how about the aft launcher?" she asked.

"Looks good so..." Markum stopped and looked closer, squinting his eyes. "Could you bring us in a little closer ma'am to the aft launcher? I think I' may be crazy, but it looks like a bird, a rather large bird, has made a nest inside."

Lirha piloted the pod as close as she could get to the rear torpedo tube and stopped several meters from it. She focused the craft's exterior spotlight inside the opening and peered inside. Sure enough, as the chief had suspected, there was a large circular nest made of tree branches, mud, and twigs. Two baby golden eagles poked their heads up and looked curiously at the shuttlepod, and a larger adult bird walked from behind the nest towards their craft to investigate.

The Orion captain stared at the avian for several moments. She had seen Earth birds in the skies and from a distance, but never so close before. "What a beautiful creature." she remarked as she looked at its yellow eyes, brown feathers, and gold-trimmed beak.

"The day is done, and the darkness, Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward, From an eagle in his flight". The Engineer smiled at the site of the two birds. My favorite poet, ancient Earth, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The came to see us off, or ask if they can come too."

She briefly considered putting in a request to have them relocated to the Galileo's arboretum. Though the family of birds would have been a nice addition, she knew all-to-well that a starship would be a cruel place for a bird of prey to live. They were wild animals and as such, needed to be free to roam the world as they pleased. "I think they're supervising and looking after our new home." she said softly, then recorded a brief holovid of the family from the shuttlepod's forward sensors. She tapped a few buttons on her LCARS display and transmitted the graphics to both hers and the Chief's PADD. "Do me a favor...send this image to one of the dock workers and see to it that it is painted on our hull. Rear quadrant, starboard nacelle." she said to her chief engineer. "They will be our guiding light in our journeys to come."

"Aye-Aye Skipper." Markum smiled broadly at the holographic on his PADD. "The Dockmaster still owes me twenty gold-pressed latinum coins from our last poker game. I don't think it'll be a problem ma'am. You'd think gambling would be outlawed by the Federation." Markum chuckled as he entered the request into his PADD, and then sent it directly to the Dockmaster. "So, from what I can tell, the rest of the area is clean, and flaw free."

"Excellent, Chief, I think we're about finished here then. I've got notes on all of our observations and I'll send them to the dockmaster when we land."

The comm system in the shuttlepod activated again and Lirha heard the Commanders voice as he addressed them. "Pod 7, we're about done here, ready to head for home?"

The captain tapped a button on the side console. "We're finishing up as well, about to head back. See you on the tarmac." she replied, then brought the shuttlepod about and headed back for the landing pad.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Robin Hilyer MD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CWO Markum Quinn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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