Kobayashi Maru (Part 1 of 5)

Posted on 17 Feb 2015 @ 6:10pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Edited on on 19 Feb 2015 @ 4:15pm

2,558 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 43 - 1010 hrs

[ON]

With her signature mug of steamy hot chocolate clasped in her hands, Lirha walked with John through the corridors of Deck 5 towards Galileo's holodecks in preparation for the two pending training simulations. It had been quite a while since she'd personally participated in the Kobayashi Maru test, and it was certainly her first time acting as an instructor. She briefly recalled her own performance during the simulation many years ago which had been less-than-stellar. 'Atrocious' had been the actual term her instructor had used, and it wasn't an experience she ever thought she'd forget.

Now, with two new groups of officers all vying for their bridge certifications, Lirha was curious to see how the two acting COs and their crews would perform. "I suppose I will supervise Miss Stace's group here in Holodeck 1, and you can take Miss Warraquim's group in Holodeck 2?" she proposed to Holliday as they came to a stop at the adjacent holodeck doors.

John, clad with his equally signature raktajino in his hand nodded in agreement with Lirha's analysis. With two command officers it made sense that they each take a group and proceed from there.

"Agreed. I will meet up with you following the conclusion of the mission and we can compare notes?"

Excusing himself with a curt nod, he turned to move through the doors into the other holodeck, leaving Lirha to begin her own proceedings.

As Holliday departed towards the other training room, Lirha entered the first holodeck and was greeted by its familiar black and yellow checkered walls. "Computer, load Kobayashi Maru zero-zero-alpha," she quickly instructed before taking a sip of her warm beverage.

A confirmation chirp sounded from the computer, and the surrounding walls shimmered and were quickly replaced by a familiar Starfleet bridge layout complete with a captain's chair, viewscreen, and several consoles. Lirha recognized the configuration as a standard Miranda-class bridge module, and situated above and behind the aft-most station was an observation booth with several instructor consoles. She took a quick glance down at the chronometer on her PADD and patiently waited for the 'students' to arrive.

Stace, in a rather fast-paced stride, made her short way down the corridor of Deck Five after alighting from the turbolift. As she paced, the fiery clutch of red hair that cascaded from the back of her head bobbed around from its grip, whipping about from one shoulder as it then licked the other. Her uniform was pristine, something that the scientist in her couldn't always boast and she gently tugged at her jacket before rounding the corner. The nerves that had begun to well in her belly at 0800 hours had now been all but quashed but for the jittery tremor still firing through her cold hands from her fifth cup of coffee. She arrived at the main holodeck doors, stopped, took in a deep breath and then walked through.

"Commodore," she nodded, a brief smile fluttering upon her lips. "Good morning. I trust you're well." As the awkward words fell from her mouth, she started; a slight cough in the back of her throat as she attempted to cut her own self off.. She was never usually this formal. In fact, Stace counted herself as one of the more light-hearted members of the crew but with the ceremony of the test now before her - the Miranda class bridge in all its magnificent fashion - she seemed to snap back to military unfamiliarity. "Sorry," she interjected her own stream of consciousness. "I mean, I think I'm a little nervous, perhaps."

Olsam practically crashed through the doors into the holodeck, struggling with an emergency medkit and seven different PADDs. He juggled the devices in his arms on the way to the helm controls, managing to keep all but two of them in his grasp. The other two he quickly retrieved before taking his station and arranging the PADDs on top of it. Each seemed to be filled with different information about the ship's navigation system. "Hello, good morning, nice to see you all, thank you, hello, looking lovely."

Following after Mott was an equally as nervous Asahi, who was absolutely absorbed in one PADD. He made up for his lack of items for the number of times he knocked into various consoles before finally taking a seat in the Science chair. After going over one more science-related procedure, he set the PADD down at his feet, taking a deep breath and smiling as weakly as he could toward the others. He was unfamiliar with the Kobayashi Maru simulation, only hearing about it in passing, but it couldn't have been awful, right? Riiiight?

Finally back to full duty, T'Vanna was surprised to get a summons to participate in a Kobayashi Maru scenario. Not having followed the command track in the academy, but rather the diplomacy one, the half-Vulcan woman was familiar with the scenario in name only. And OPS, at that...what did she know about OPS? Then again, it couldn't be that difficult could it?

She entered the holodeck carrying a single PADD, then stopped dead in her tracks when she was faced not with a Nova class bridge, but with a Miranda-class one. "What the..." she exclaimed in surprise.

Olsam heard the exclamation behind him and turned in his seat at the helm, winking and grinning at his "wife" Norvi before turning his attention to T'Vanna. "I know, isn't it quaint? It's like stepping back in time... I wonder what we're going to have to do? I bet we encounter some old-timey Klingon ship, and they're all angry, you know, like they used to be." He puffed himself up and lowered his voice in what seemed to be an imitation of a Klingon warrior. "Federation petaQ! Prepare to die for the glory of the Empire! And then they try to board the ship, and we have to repel the boarding parties in hand-to-hand combat. They'll swagger in, overconfident, but that will be their downfall because little do they know about what they'll have to face." His eyes went unfocused and he stared off into the distance, as if recalling distant memories. "I know a hundred thousand ways to kill a man...."

"Sorry I'm late" Jaana said as she entered the holodeck and quickly went over to the Tactical station. She wasn't really late according to the chromometer, but as she was the last to arrive she felt late. Glancing at the tactical console she felt the panick attack surfacing again. Just as it had when she read she was assigned to Tactical. When she signed up for this assignment she assumed she would be manning the science console.

T'Vanna smiled at her as she walked to the OPS station, placing her PADD on the console. "For the record, I have never manned an OPS station before," she stated calmly, though her face was a mask of excitement.

The commodore listened to the friendly banter with a slightly amused expression played across her green features. She nodded politely to Stace and acknowledged her greeting, then moved closer to put a light hand on the taller woman's upper arm and quietly tease her. "It seems you have your work cut out for you this morning," she mused while flicking her eyes towards the collection of new bridge officers. Mott, in particular, seemed a bit out of place at the flight control console, but such was the purpose of the exercise -- to familiarize those who might not be familiar with all of a starship's systems. "You will be fine," she added with a reassuring squeeze of Norvi's shoulder. "I was nervous as well my first time...it would not be an effective simulation without such feelings."

Stace took in a breath to steady herself, and as the inner peace within her confidence began radiate out through her, she managed to relax somewhat. Silently, her eyes surveyed the surrounding simulation, an eerie realness settling around the bridge. She took in another breath and relaxed her features, looking to Lirha with a soft, unbroken smile. "I think it's both nerves and nostalgia," the Trill admitted. "This isn't the first time I've taken it, is it? But it seems so long ago now that I can't even remember what happened!" She shot a glance to each of her officers, faces who, over the past few months had become more than just acquaintances. Hell, one was now even her husband in an alternate reality. She seemed to centre herself and then landed her attention back on the commodore. "I'm ready."

"Very well." Lirha moved into the middle of the holographic bridge and casually rested her green hand on the back of the captain's chair while she addressed the entire group. "Thank you all for your interest in acquiring your bridge qualifications --" she looked at Stace and added, "and your command qualifications. This training simulation is called the Kobayashi Maru, and has been used by Starfleet for hundreds of years as an effective method of evaluating officer candidates as well as currently serving officers."

"The simulation will place all of you aboard the USS Antares, a Miranda-class starship currently on a training mission en route to Gamma Hydra which is located near the Klingon Neutral Zone. Once the simulation begins, you will face a difficult scenario that will test your decision-making, discipline, character, and command abilities as you attempt to complete your mission to the best of your ability."

Lirha motioned towards each of the stations now currently occupied by a member of the training team. "Each of you has been assigned a station with which you are most likely unfamiliar. You will be expected to operate your station with efficiency and perform the duties asked of you by your commander, Miss Stace. One of the requirements of receiving bridge qualifications includes the ability to operate every critical station aboard the bridge, and there will be times in real life when circumstances will force you outside of your comfort zone. Lieutenant Mott, you have the conn; Ensign Voutilainen, you are at Tactical; Ensign Murray, you are assigned to Ops; Lieutenant Kita, you are at Science; and Lieutenant Commander Stace will be in command."

Lirha pointed back towards the observation booth at the back of the bridge. "I will be watching and evaluating each of you in the observation station. The LCARS displays there will allow me to see data from each of your consoles as well as external strategic views of the scenario. I will not stop the simulation nor pause it until it is complete. You will be on your own and expected to work together as a team to accomplish your objective."

Pausing for a brief moment to let her words sink in, Lirha then gave them all a curt nod. "Good luck," she added before turning and heading back to her overwatch area. "Computer, begin scenario and record from time index zero-zero-zero-zero." A confirmation chirp sounded and suddenly the bridge came to life. The large viewscreen blinked and suddenly displayed a high-definition image of the star-filled space in front of the ship, and each console lit up and became fully functional while displaying a plethora of information for each operator.

Stace cleared her throat ceremonially and then turned about on her heel to survey her staff and their stations. "If you'll all take your posts, please," she said as she herself walked over to the command chair. She stood for a moment, looking down over the familiar yet daunting seat. Her eyes flashed at the memories and echoes that came flooding back from her belly and she held out her hand to lay her slender fingers on the armrest. She was exhilarated, yet nervous. A subtly unique combination that, unless commanding a vessel heading out into the unknown, could not be found anywhere else in the universe. She took in a breath and held it in her lungs before exhaling, turning about and taking her post. She lowered herself down into the chair, as its support held up her slight frame. Now with both hands gripping the armrests, she smoothed them forwards as she sat.

"Systems check?" she called out to the four officers assisting her as her now stoic gaze looked on to the viewscreen.

"Right, systems check," Olsam muttered to himself, turning around to the console. He shuffled the PADDs - his reference material - off to the side to get a clearer view of the ship's navigation systems. Well, nothing is flashing or blinking or turning red, sooo... "Everything's okay. I mean, the engines are on. Wait." The Bolian picked up one of the PADDs and spent a moment looking between it and the console, then nodded in the affirmative. "Yep, the navigation systems are functioning within normal parameters."

"OPS station is running within defined paramaters of operation," T'Vanna reported seriously, while checking all settings. She too, like Mott, peeked sideways on her PADD on occasion.

Asahi's response was delayed, if only because he was reading what the little green lights were telling him. "Science is all clear, Ma'am."

Jaana was nervously tapping her foot while near to hyperventilating. Come on, stop acting like a baby and do your job! she reprimanded her job. "Tactical system are all operational and standing stand by." she spoke with a soft voice, just loud enough to be heard by the others.

"Very well. Lieutenant Mott, lay in a course to Gamma Hydra, warp six."

Olsam's face was twisted in concentration as he racked his brain to remember how to lay in a course. With great hesitation, he pressed a button that, in turn, prompted the console to ask him if he wanted to eject the warp core. That seemed like a bad idea at the time, so he declined and then tried the button that had been next to it. That one opened the navigation menu. Well that's a stupid place to put that, he thought. A few moments later he managed to cycle through various sets of coordinates until he located Gamma Hydra then programmed the computer to select the best possible route at warp six. He quickly double-checked the course against the ship's sensor data to make sure they weren't going to fly into a rogue planet or anything, then turned to look at Norvi over his shoulder with a very serious look. It was, after all, a very serious simulation.

"Aye, sir, course laid in and set." I think.

"Engage, Lieutenant," she said clearly. Suddenly, the still, silent blanket of pitch pin-pricked with starlight began to sparkle. Then, the familiar streaks streamlined past the viewscreen.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer / Helmsman
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer / Tactical Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Medical Officer / Science Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Ensign T'Vanna Murray
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer / Operations Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

Lieutenant Commander Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer / Commanding Officer
USS Galileo / USS Antares

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