Lesson 1 - Don't Be Late...

Posted on Thu Oct 15th, 2009 @ 6:01pm by Lieutenant Commander Mark Anderson & Captain Benjamin Byrne

Mission: They Arrive on Tuesday...
Location: Holodeck 1, USS Endeavour
Timeline: MD07, 0805

ON: [[Holodeck 1, USS Endeavour, MD07, 0805]]

James (NPC) ran down the corridor, dodging personnel and equipment. "Sorry," he called out as he buzzed past a woman carrying a stack of relays in her arms. Why, of all days, did he have to be late for his first lesson? He'd been looking forward to this ever since he'd found out his proposal had been approved. What a way to show he actually cared about this...after all the work he'd done...

The young man rounded a bend in the corridor and came to a halt when he saw Chief Aaron Whitcomb already waiting outside the holodeck. Still trying to catch his breath, James tried to spit out an apology. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to...there was...well, I mean...It won't happen again."

"Yes, well it had better not," the Senior Chief Petty Officer said, his voice layered with the suppressed bite that seemed only home to military instructors. "How do you expect to get a starship to its rendezvous on time if you can't get yourself here on time, hmm? How do you expect to complete the reconfiguration of a shield matrix before it is needed if you can't get yourself here on time?"

"Sir," James began, "I..."

Whitcomb didn't wait for the boy's explanation, and instead headed into the holodeck, the pneumatic groaning of the doors cutting off James' sentence. Through the other side of the holodeck doors was a massive docking bay, one of the 'smaller' ones situated aboard a Federation starbase. Its interior was lined with shuttlecrafts and runabouts of varying classes and ages, and crews were busy moving around the bay on small carts, seeing to the various crafts' maintenance procedures.

Whitcomb ignored it, and walked straight ahead to a type-11 shuttlecraft sitting in the middle of the circular landing and take-off zone marked on the floor of the bay. Without a backwards glance at James, he stepped inside its hatch and disappeared.

Disappointed with how his first lesson was starting and nervous about spending the next two hours with this man, James followed him across the bay and climbed aboard the shuttle. It was nearly identical to the one he and his father had flown from the Houston to the Endeavour. He paused on the threshold of the main cabin, waiting for instructions.

The Chief was already sitting in the co-pilot's seat, with a PADD in hand which he was presumably reading through. He turned in his chair slightly as he sensed the young man's hesitation. "Well sit down, then," he said, motioning to the pilot's seat.

James moved forward stiffly and took a seat next to the Chief. He wasn't sure if he should look at the man or face forward, so he stared at the control surface in front of him instead.

"I understand that you have some prior experience at piloting shuttlecraft, Mister Anderson," the Chief said, his attention once again focused on his PADD. "Today we will see how far that experience goes. Take us out of the shuttlebay, please." Though the word 'please' was added to the end of it, the sentence was clearly an order, not a request.

Nervously, James gently set his hands on the console before him. His movements were slow at first. They were deliberate, as though the slightest error might earn him a serious consequence. "Primary and secondary systems are online," he reported as he moved through pre-flight, "Main power is stable."

The shuttlecraft lifted gently off the deck and eased forward toward the large bay door where James could see the stars. They passed easily through the atmospheric forcefield and he adjusted the shuttle's heading so as to bring them a safe distance away from the station to avoid and traffic incidents.

Whitcomb made a few notes on his PADD, careful not to give any signs - positive or negative - in regards to the piloting skills the boy demonstrated. As the shuttle cleared the station and the view from outside became apparent, it was clear that the simulation was in the sol system, with the station in orbit over Earth.

"Set course and engage at warp two for Mars orbit." Whitcomb ordered, leaving the boy to access and set the correct bearing for himself.

Knowing that he would have to take traffic and planetary position into account, James made a few adjustments to the shuttle's trajectory. It was never wise to make adjustments while at warp unless absolutely necessary, especially while in a planetary system. James was just about to engage the warp engines when he realized that he had neglected to double check the deflector controls. Withdrawing his hand, he tapped in a different set of commands and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the deflector assembly was aligned properly.

Reaching forward, James activated the shuttle's warp engines and watched as the Earth slipped past. The stars streaked across the viewports as the small craft accelerated past the speed of light. Less that three seconds later, the shuttle dropped out of warp. They were now the same distance from the sun as the planet Mars. After checking to be sure that they would not be encountering any traffic, natural or artificial, James glanced over at the Chief for further instructions.

As the Chief continued to enter notes in his PADD, not saying a word, a console to James' left began bleeping for attention, a red light flashing on its screen. The data scrolling along underneath it registered an unusual overload in the power circuits responsible for control of the warp drive - if the overload continued, the ship would jump straight to its maximum warp speed, regardless of what lay ahead of it.

James noticed the flashing light and his face paled slightly. Even the shuttle's small warp core contained enough matter and anti-matter to destroy the entire ship. There were procedures for such an occurrence, but it appeared that the automatic safeties had not kicked in. Trying to remember what he was supposed to do, James promptly angled the shuttle away from Mars and pointed it toward open space. Hopefully, if his next plan didn't work, at least they wouldn't hurt anyone else.

Once the shuttle was headed away from the dense traffic around Mars, James tried to manually disengage the intermix chamber. A resounding alarm indicated that the chamber was not responding...and neither was the coolant. If they took off at warp, or worse, lost containment, that would be bad for both of them...even if it was just a holodeck program.

James looked at the Chief for some sign or hint of what to do, but the Chief remained motionless except for his note taking. "Computer, eject the core," James ordered.

The computer chirped at him. "Unable to comply. Locking clamps have been fused."

Nervousness was starting to escalate into panic, the last thing James knew he needed in a situation like this. If he couldn't lock down the core or eject it, there had to be some other way to prevent the core from going critical. "Computer, is it possible to eject the anti-matter pods," James asked quickly.

"Negative," The computer replied.

Realising that the young man was starting to panic, and wondering to himself whether he had pitched the test a little too high, the Chief made the decision to offer a little guidance to the boy. "Think about the problem," he said, his calm completely at odds with the simulated events. "We have an excess of power running into the warp core. We cannot shut down or eject the source of the power, and that power needs to go somewhere. If it continues going where it is, we will jump to warp speeds."

James took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on what he had learned about shuttle systems. If he could find something to send the power to that didn't matter that much, he might be able to bleed it off. The shrill of the alarm was making it hard to think and he knew he only had moments left to act.

Suddenly, a thought came to him. The young man's hands began to dance across his console as he began shunting the excess power to the shuttle's shield grid. With no enemy vessels to worry about, there was less of a threat if the power were to overload the shuttle's defenses.

As the power overload began to reach critical levels, the shield grid began to flash warning signs at the two occupants of the shuttle, and through the viewscreen, electric charges from the excess energy could be seen dancing across the transparent surface. The shuttle began to shudder slightly, and one console towards the back of the cabin exploded in a shower of sparks. But the ship stayed where it was, and the effects passed, with power returning to normal levels.

Nodding his approval, the Chief returned his attention back to his PADD. "Please return dock at Utopia Planetia, Mister Anderson. You will find the appropriate landing bay in the ship's database," he said, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

Startled at the near miss, James brought up the information the Chief had indicated and laid in a course for the Utopia Planetia shipyards under impulse power. There was no doubt in his mind that this had been a test, but maybe it had been a little over the top for a first time. As the skeletal drydocks of the most famous shipyards in the Federation came into view, James wondered what might have happened if he had not tried shunting the power to the shield grid.

As the shuttle touched down on the floor of the landing bay and the ship's systems began shutting down, the Chief turned in his chair to face him. "Very good, Mister Anderson. I realize that this session - whilst an entirely plausible situation - was a little... advanced, I felt it would be best to properly assess where you stand currently in terms of your skills. As I'll be organizing your lessons, it means that I can start you off next time on something at your own level."

So he was going to be continuing lessons with the Chief. Hopefully the man wasn't as gruff and silent as he had been through the "test". If he was, James knew that there were going to be days where lessons would be quite...long.

As the Chief saw the boy's expression, he couldn't help but crack his face into a grin. "Don't worry, I'm not always this gruff, and I won't always be administering the lessons; merely organizing them. On occasion, other members of the crew with more experience in the topic will be teaching you," he paused, his face becoming slightly more serious. "But don't expect any friendly attitudes during exercises. You need to learn how to deal with an respect authority, and I can assure you that most of the training staff at the Academy are nowhere near as nice as I am." He paused once again, and then nodded to himself, satisfied that the boy had taken it in. "Dismissed. Computer: Exit."

The arch shimmered into view and the holodeck doors slid open to reveal the corridor beyond. James didn't linger around. He started out into the corridor, already processing what he had just experienced. The Chief's words reassured him that he would be getting the training he would need to be on par, if not ahead of the game, when it came time to sit the Academy entrance exam. A smile crept across his face as he entered the turbolift. It was back to the quarters to study. If he was lucky, his father would be able to get off for lunch later and James could tell him all about the first test.

OFF

Senior Chief Petty Officer Aaron Whitcomb (NPC)
Chief of the Boat
USS Endeavour
Played by: Commander Benjamin Byrne

and

James Anderson (NPC)
XO's Son
USS Endeavour
Played by: Lt. Cmdr. Mark Anderson