The Wainwright's Cadets
Posted on Wed May 27th, 2015 @ 8:53am by Commander Jordan Gunning & Cadet Senior Grade Corbin Darhov & Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Master Warrant Officer Vestara Stronghold & Lieutenant Yzhara & Cadet Senior Grade Errowyn St. Cloud & Enlisted Cadet Jasmine [P: Steiner]
Edited on on Sun Jul 12th, 2015 @ 3:35pm
Mission:
The Wainwright's Cadets
Location: Main Bridge [Deck 1, USS Wainwright]
"Well class," Gunning announced with undue glee from where he stood just in front of the Wainwright's viewscreen. "If you think that your flight management and officer of the watch classes don't have enough practical, then practical you shall have."
He looked around at the half-terrified group of cadets sitting at the main stations of the Wainwright's bridge, their instructors positioned beside them, some seated and some hovering menacingly.
"Today we're going to take the USS Wainwright out on manoeuvres. Your extra credit will come from how you handle the situation. If you hold your nerve then you may well receive a passing grade." He swung his head round to the chronometer on the wall. "Eventually."
CSG St.Cloud looked over those assembled as she listened to Commander Gunning speak. She was terrified deep down to her core. Even though her classroom and lab work showed great promise. She figured that she would be assigned to the Starbase Operation. Not a Ship of the Line. She fidgeted a bit that was normal for a person listening in on a lecture that could easily be passed off for eagerness or pre-mission jitters. She knew she had the hardest job on the ship and signed up for the extra credit on a dare. Then proceeded to each of the instructors to get the signed out of classes to take this cruise.
He slapped his hand down on the most noticeable concession of the Wainwright to being an academy ship, a large console which faced back onto the bridge like a lectern. "I will be monitoring your performance and reaction times on this console."
CSG St.Cloud jumped at the sound of impact of flesh hitting the console. It was bad enough that she was here. But was the podium slapping necessary?
Cadet Phelps also visibly jumped from the science station at the rear of the bridge. So far she sat through classes, lectures, and practical labs, but this was the first time the cadets would be expected to run their systems and departments with minimal supervision. There were a couple of officers besides Gunning on the bridge, but their roles were mostly as a precaution, to make sure the cadets didn't screw things up too badly. Emma hoped that she would be safe at the science station, but depending on what they ran into on this training cruise, she wasn't so sure.
Cadet Jasmine took wallflower position on the bridge before being dismissed off to corridors and machine spaces. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the cadets smiling with his eyes at the tactical console. A girl with good eyesight, she could see that he wasn't actually taking notes with his PaDD. He was gleefully amazed that this cadet training ship was carrying real tricobalt bombs. She closed her eyes and thought to herself, ~Oh no... one of those. There's one in every class.~
Corbin Darhov was easily fooled and Gunning could see by his face that he believed the tactical readout, showing a full complement of torpedoes. The naivety of youth. In reality the Wainwright was carrying just enough photon torpedoes to get them out a jam should they find themselves in trouble. He decided to leave Cadet Darhov to his misapprehension.
Being a trainer of officers in all things Operations and occasionally Engineering fields since the two intermingled often, Vestara was watching Commander Gunning from the back of the Bridge. She noted how some of the cadets were trying to hide their nervousness, hell she would be in their shoes and wouldn't make it worse but had to be firm.
Being calm and focused herself helped those she instructed take on the same mindset she found. The unjoined Trill held her hands behind her as she waited for the Commander's lecture to end and the mission to begin.
"You've all been given the opportunity to nominate a cadet in command. Who did you select?" He waited for someone to come forward- it wasn't a good sign that they weren't already in the centre chair. He rolled his eyes in Stronghold's direction.
St.Cloud looked over the assembled Cadets, going through her options. Then a wide grin spread across her face, showing an unaccustomed confidence and boldly moved from Ops to the Centre Seat. The Command chair. She boldly sat in it. "I nominate myself!" Daring others to challenge her audacity.
Emma shook her head. She wanted to be a scientist. At this point in her very young career, she had no interest in the center chair.
Vestara rolled her eyes back at Gunning with a smile. She slowly walked around the Bridge and held her hands behind her back. She was amused by the self assured St.Cloud and since she was in operations going to see how she handled command of others.
St.Cloud looked around her at the other Cadets wondering which one would challenge her for the Centre Seat. It was comfortable as all get out. A lot better than Operations seat. Hopefully less worry. And to see if those command courses she was taking as an elective would pay off. This would look good on her resume' later in her career.
Jasmine offered a sweet smile. Getting a Shokirian to accept a command role would be as unlikely as convincing a Klingon to go Hello Kitty.
Yzhara's antennae pointed in two different directions as she watched the exchange unfold. On one hand, she admired the the bravery and ambition of one of the cadets, but on the other was a little disappointed with the with others. Still, too much ambition could get people killed, a lesson that the Aenar hoped St. Cloud wouldn't have to learn the hard way. She didn't speculate out loud though. Her job was to fly the ship and to make sure the cadet covering helm duties didn't crash.
At this time Vestara was by Gunning's side and leaned over. "Looks like Cloud is it sir," she said with a smile.
"Give the order then, Cadet." Gunning said. "The mission is yours."
CSG St.Cloud stood up to gather herself, taking a deep breath and let it out slowly, Reached down to activate the Ship wide P.A. System. "This is Acting Captain, Cadet Senior Grade St.Cloud. Prep USS Wainwright for Departure in 15 minutes. All Departments report in for Departure Readiness." She paused as she spun slowly around to look over the rest of the bridge crew, giving herself time to still the excitement rushing through her. Her face a bit flushed with the heady power of being the one to call the shots. "Operations, call the station flight control for clearance for departure in 10 minutes with a window of 10 minutes incase of unexpected delays and departure vector."
St.Cloud subconsciously rubbed her palms against the her uniform pants legs as she sat back down with an obvious casualness that barely covered up her nervousness. She knew she was only good as the crew under her. Hoping for the best. She had seen a few of them during the course of the previous years at the Branch academy on SB-332. But never took the time to even greet them. Maybe a nod in passing as she never knew she would be leading them.
Not a bad start. Gunning thought to himself as he watched the Cadet run through a few of the pre-flight checks. This was her comfort zone though- the operations side of a starship was her specialty. It remained to be seen how she'd do once they got out there.
Given the go-order, Cadet Jasmine departed for the vitals of the ship. Inspired by observing Chief Steiner, she also wore an ergonomic wrist holo-padd. As she hurried down the corridors, she opened up a screen to look at the systems map. First order of business was to reach a command panel to put select redundancies on manual override. On another starbase, she had heard cadets lament about how fleet trainers threw them a cyber-virus curve during first cruise.
"Security is reporting all decks are ready to go, Captain," CSG Tim Sutherland said from his console. "We're ready when you are."
"Uh, science teams are reporting ready, Captain," Emma Phelps replied nervously from her station at the back of the bridge. "Sensors are operating at full capacity."
"Tactical systems prepared, Captain." Corbin Darhov reported.
"We have the window for launch on vector 230." Her replacement at Operations spoke up.
CSG ST.Cloud kept mental track of all the departments status as they reported in. She kept an eye on the time and listening to her replacement at Ops. "Operations and Helm, release the docking clamps and all connections to the ship." She paused, thinking of a really cool command as other Captains have their signature execute commands. Once getting the word they was released. "Standard Patrol around the system... Lets rock n roll!" Smiling as that was going to be one of her Signature execute command.
Vestara had approached Cloud's side and leaned closer. "Cadet, you are aware that you are actually describing what each cadet under your command exactly what to do? Do you not trust in their knowledge about how to perform their duties?" She asked softly and if Cloud looked at her she would see a soft pout, she'd not appreciate that kind of micromanaging against herself if she could help it.
Errowyn sighed softly, whispered, "Do you trust people on first meetings, Warrant Officer?" Taking a deep breath to steady herself as she did realize she was micromanaging. Continued to whisper, "sorry. Shouldn't you be at your post MWO?"
She hadn't quite expected such resistance but smiled at it as it showed the Cadet's confidence. "I hardly think this is the first time you have met these cadets, right?" Vestara asked in a whisper. "If not then I'd put it down to trusting in the Academy to have trained your colleagues in what they need to do to run a starship, if you see someone struggling then offer advice, quickly and discreetly, while on this mission. Meanwhile have faith that they can prove themselves to you and us that they can do what they trained to do."
"You telling them what, and how, to do will diminish their confidence." Vestara added still in a hushed voice. "How would you respond if you were told what, and how, to do by another when you know already?" She asked straightening and then leaned back in. "Don't forget to offer encouragement when appropriate," she added quickly before returning to her casual height and walked over to the back of the bridge still observing the others.
Gunning's face flashed a wicked grin for a second before returning to its stoic norm. This was going to be an interesting field trip.
Commander Jordan Gunning
Officer in Charge
Enlisted Cadet Jasmine
Life Support Technician & General GoFor
CSG Errowyn St.Cloud
Acting Captain/Operations.
MWO Vestara Stronghold
Boatswain & Trainer
CSG Emma Phelps
Acting Science Officer
Lieutenant Yzhara
Flight Control Instructor
