Around the Block, Part 2
Posted on Sat Apr 29th, 2017 @ 4:10pm by Lieutenant Yzhara & Cadet Junior Grade Emma Phelps & Lieutenant Commander Tyler Vorran & Cadet Senior Grade Errowyn St. Cloud
Mission:
Shadows and Whispers
Location: USS Wainwright- Bridge
Timeline: 0900hrs
Vorran stood behind the Captain's chair on the bridge awaiting the arrival of the cadets. Lieutenant Yzhara had gone to the transporter room to collect the cadet bridge crew. The Wainwright was ready to head out as soon as the Cadets took their stations, this would be a training cruise with only a few surprises for them. The cadets had done well so far in the simulator, only crashing a few dozen times. The Wainwright isn't meant to be crashed like a simulator so the cadets will have to be in top form.
Before long the turbolift door slid open with a distinctive woosh, and Lieutenant Yzhara led the way out of the cramped lift with a handful of cadets trailing behind her. "Alright, cadets, fall in."
Errowyn moved quickly to her spot amongst the other Cadets. She was looking forward for another run out into space. She stood at attention, awaiting orders.
Emma Phelps fell into line towards the far end of the line. Memories of the last trip out on the Wainwright were fresh in her mind, and she still remembered the near disaster of that voyage. Still, they had learned something, even if it hadn't been the intended lesson. This time they had a new chief instructor, so things could be a lot different this time around.
Yzhara's cold eyes stared off in the general direction of Vorran, her antennae twitching in reaction to nothing visible, but Yzhara seemed to pay them no mind. "They're all yours, Commander."
"Thank you Lieutenant." Vorran turned his attention to the cadets. "Cadets, take your stations. We have practiced this enough on the holodeck, this will be a simple run to the edge of the system and back. Any questions?"
Cadet Phelps took her position at the science station. On most modern starships science was not a bridge station, but she was fortunate enough that the Wainwright bridge was designed in such a way to incorporate as many stations as possible on the bridge for the most learning potential. She was mostly interested in science, but she did want to be on the bridge. Maybe even one day she'd command her own science vessel. But for now the command of the ship was to fall to the more senior cadets. She wasn't ready for that chair.
Errowyn glanced at the other Cadets that where lined up with her, then shook her head no as they broke rank and moved to their assigned bridge stations. She moved to her station, Operations. She looked over the her board as she brought up the general functioning of USS Wainwright on the big board. She watched as the display showed green and fully operational. Once that was done, she took a hesitant step towards the Centre Seat to take command as looked at the Instructors. "You want me to take command of this patrol run?"
"The center seat is yours Cadet. Don't worry we will be here to assist if need be." Vorran replied gesturing toward the vacant command chair. "As for the rest of you, the ship isn't going to run itself take your stations."
Senior Cadet St. Cloud nodded as she took Centre seat and sat with youthful delight. "Begin undocking procedures!" She sang out an authoritive voice with excitement showing. She settled back in her seat and watched the process of the USS Wainwright leaving its assigned berthing. She looked around and felt comfortable in being in charge. The Daunting task to say the least. She pulled out a pad and activated it. She looked at it. "I need status checks on all departments." She spoke to the other Cadets that were participating in the exercise.
"Science station standing by, sir," Emma replied. There really wasn't much for her to do at the moment other than run some diagnostics on sensors, but it was enough to keep her busy for now.
Errowyn listened to each department report in as the USS Wainwright made the circuit of the big space-dock under the umbrella portion of the star base. She checked each box on the data pad she held. "Helm. Once clear of station, bring the Wainwright up to full impulse on a vector of 180 degrees mark 0. A nice level flight out."
Yzhara watched carefully as the cadet manning the helm carried out the order. As much as she sometimes liked to play fast and loose with regulations when she was flying, she knew that she had years of experience. Some of these cadets had never flown a starship before outside of the simulators, and any time they were flying near anything it made her nervous. Her antennae twitched uncontrollably at Cadet St. Cloud's command, and even more so when the cadet at the helm started to follow them. "Make that thrusters only until we are at least 20 kilometers from the starbase. Then follow the flight path from dock control. There's no need to make their job any harder by having to direct traffic away from some out of control cadets."
Vorran gave the side eye to St.Cloud. " Not to mention the dockmaster's reaction would make a warp core breach look preferable. Remember by the book, this is a high traffic area."
St.Cloud nodded with a slightly dampened enthusiasm, "Yes Ma'am," But the expression she had wasn't dampened one bit. She was excited. Turning her attention to the Helms. "Follow as instructed, Helms."
A wide smile appeared as she relaxed back in the Centre Seat of Command. She felt invincible with crew and ship under her command. She wondered if more experienced captains felt this way when leaving the space dock and heading out into the starry void of space.
Yzhara breathed a little easier as the pilot reduced speed. "Good, cadet. Just take it nice and easy. We're not running a marathon."
Errowyn sat in the Command seat doing 'Look Busy' work that captain do when there is nothing to do but wait. She was doing an extra credit assignment that would boost her GPA level and put her in competition for the high honors when it came to graduate from the Academy and hopefully give her the chance at a better posting of her choosing.
After the assistance from the instructors, the helm cadet managed to keep the ship under control as it left station space. The trip was uneventful, though Yzhara did note that the dockmaster was giving them a wide berth on their flight path, something that she was grateful to observe.
Once they were in open space, she directed attention back towards Lt. Commander Vorran. "Commander, we have cleared station space and are under your command. What are the orders for the crew?"
"Set a course for Archa five our first stop on this trip. Be sure to keep an eye on navigational sensors for debris and vessels that may cross our path." Vorran ordered
Errowyn gave the order to the Cadet Helm Officer. She turned to the Cadet Science Officer. "... Science, scan the area ahead for debris and any ships coming into our flight path." She looked over her fellow Cadets, manning their stations with their Instructor Counter-parts.
"Yes, Ma'am," Emma replied. She realigned the sensors in the direction of their flight path, and began scanning for anything of interest. Mostly her scans picked up trace amounts of space dust, though there was a significant amount of tritanium ahead. Most of the pieces were rather small, and would have been deflected easily by the navigation deflector. She wasn't detecting many larger pieces, but since it appeared to be left over debris from the Battle of Archa IV, her guess was that the smaller pieces drifted further from the original explosion, while the larger pieces were recovered by Starfleet after the phasers had stopped firing. She didn't find anything of which the helm officer should be concerned. "Our flight path is clear, ma'am. I'm detecting trace pieces of debris from the battle, but nothing of concern."
Errowyn nodded in acknowledgement to the report. "Continue with current scans." Then looking around the bridge, "Engineer I need updates on ship status and send them to my console. Propulsions, Ship Integrity Field of the hull, Weapons. Other major systems. Once every 6 hours." She turn to Tactical. "You do the same, only with weapons and shields." She looked at her console and a tiny window in the corner to see if anything she had missed from her checklist. "Medical... " She floundered a bit then looked at her console to bring up the ship's roster to see who was the Cadet CMO for this flight. "...Status of the sickbay. Send it to my console." She gave herself a mental kick as this should've been done at the start of the mission. The checks. She muttered, "oh well... it'll keep them on their toes."
"Be sure to monitor the status of the deflector dish. One of those smaller pieces could punch a hole through the hull easily if we are at full impulse." Vorran cautioned.
Phelps nodded enthusiastically. She wasn't looking forward to getting tore apart by a piece of space junk. "Aye, sir. Deflector status is operating optimally. I'll continue to monitor the status."
Errowyn closed her eyes momentary as she should've thought of that. But her expression never changed an iota. She continued to read the status reports from each department, while she kept an eye on their progress and activity of the bridge crew.
Vorran walked over to Yzhara and spoke in a low voice. "Any thoughts on their performance?"
Yzhara shrugged and replied at a similar volume. "I think they're still struggling a bit with the routine things, and relying on the computer to warn them of any problems. It's probably safe, but not always the best practice. But repetition will get them to monitor system status without needing to be asked."
There wasn't much to do, except stay awake and look alert as the ship sped through space on a routine patrol. Errowin stood up and moved about the bridge, bypassing each station to get a glimpse of the occupants activity. Her mind began to wander at towards her thesis she was working on as she made her rounds. Avoiding the two Senior Instructors in conference. Even though she was dying to find out what they was discussing.
Lt. Commander Tyler Vorran
Senior Instructor
Lieutenant Yzhara
Associate Instructor
Cadet Senior Grade Errowyn St. Cloud
Command Cadet
Cadet Junior Grade Emma Phelps [P: Von]
Science Cadet
