Standard Formalities

Posted on 24 Feb 2016 @ 1:40pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 01 Mar 2016 @ 1:11am

1,102 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge
Timeline: MD89 1100

[ON]

After the yeoman had left her on the bridge to go drool over her older brother, Miraj settled herself into the conn, feeling the fit of the chair to her back. It would need a few bits of adjusting to be perfect and fit her like a glove.

Like the other Novas she had piloted, this one had the sweeping arc of its conn segmented, a design point that she found intensely annoying as it stopped the smooth movement across positions that added fractions of a second to response times. Only the far end of the panel was illuminated, noting the continued offline status of all engines, and the ship running off auxiliary and umbilical power as it sat at the docking port at Jupiter Station.

The floor under her bare feet was barely humming, the low power levels barely touching the infrastructure. She knew once they were underway it would pick up, and she would feel every jump and jolt and thrum of the impulse engines just below and behind.

"What do you like?" She asked the sleeping ship. "Long runs as fast as you can go? Flip flops? Whifferdales? Lazy corkscrews? Or do you go for terrain? Want to dodge black holes and wade through Oort clouds?"

"Following the orders of her Captain rates quite highly with the Galileo I believe." Came the voice of the ship's Commanding Officer, stepping from his Ready Room and back onto the Bridge for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"You'll have to watch her on take off from planetary landings however. The atmospheric thrusters can be a little sluggish at low power."

Miraj jumped from the conn chair like it had given her ten thousand volts, and she scrambled to stand up, forgetting to put her boots on. "Sir," She stammered. She hadn't heard him come onto the bridge. "Ensign Derani, reporting for duty sir. I'm your new Chief Flight Control Officer."

"At ease Ensign." The Captain replied, realising that had he startled her any more she probably would have jumped so high the hull would have breached.

"I can see you've found your station. I've sat here myself a few times in my time - not the most elegant conn design, I prefer the single consoled Defiant class myself, but you'll get used to it."

"This isn't my first Nova." she assured him. "I've done rescue flights for four others, and I managed to squeeze in a little bit in the the simulator once I knew I was coming here. Not much. Fifty hours or so. Enough to know that I want to rip the whole helm panel apart and rebuild it."

"Indeed." Holliday replied with the merest hint of a chuckle. He wasn't exactly fond of his ship's helm, and given the next chance for a refit he would certainly be insisting on a few modifications in that respect.

"She isn't the biggest in the fleet but she gives most other frigates a run for their money when it comes to manoeuverability. I'm glad to see you did your homework Ensign."

She glowed at the compliment, "Thank you, sir. Though I'm not sure I'd call it homework. Simulators may not be the real thing, but its still fun. Though," she looked down at her bare feet, and looked back up, hoping he hadnt' looked down with her. "I wasn't expecting to get Department Head. I hope I'm up to the task."

"We all have to start somewhere Ensign." Holliday replied, thinking back to his own days aboard his first posting as a junior officer.

"I was a Lieutenant Commander when I stepped aboard ship - thought I'd be here for one tour of duty and then head for reassignment. I wasn't expecting to end up her Captain."

"Right now I'm happy just to log some hours at the Conn. If Galileo has surprises in store for me, I'll be happy as long as I get to fly." Unconsciously she reached out to rest her hand on the conn. "Have you been on Galileo for long, sir?"

"Since she was just out the wrapper Ensign." Jonathan replied, with a hint of pride in his voice as he thought back on the first day he boarded the ship and found the rather unfinished Bridge that he would spend many hours on.

"In fact I believe I was the first one to take her engines to flight mode - suffice to say I was a little nervous myself."

"I find that hard to believe sir." It seemed a safe enough comment. She didn't want to make any negative comments about his piloting by accident. "Ships are born to fly. A newborn shouldn't give anyone problems. They aren't cleared for flying if they could, after all."

"Try telling that to my nerves at the time. Imagine if I had needed to tell my CO that I had scratched the paintwork..."

Holliday replied, before thinking that in reality it probably would have been their then-Chief Engineer Quinn who would have really bust his chops if anything had happened to his new bird.

"That said I wouldn't mind getting my hands dirty once in a while - the Captain's chair is perfectly comfortable but I spent longer with a console ahead of me than in the big seat."

Miraj felt a stab of possessiveness, but said instead. "You're always welcome sir, though I might have to have words if you put dirty hands on that console." She smiled, to show she meant it as a joke, but with the segmented conn, anything that would reduce the sensitivity - like greasy fingers- would compound the design flaw and reduce responsiveness even more. Only by fractions of a second that most pilots couldn't conceive let alone feel, but she could.

"I...shall do my best." The captain acknowledged. Her offer to let him take the conn once in a while was of course more a gesture than an actuality - Command probably wouldn't think favourably of a Captain taking the helm unless it was absolutely necessary, but it was appreciated just the same.

"This time next week we will be departing Jupiter Station. Hopefully this little ship won't disappoint. I'm due for a status report to Starfleet - you'll have to excuse me."

"Off course, sir. I look forward to it. And its was pleasure to meet you." She gave him a sunny smile, relieved to have kept a lid on her eccentricities.

[OFF]

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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