External Inspection

Posted on Tue Jan 31st, 2012 @ 12:42am by Lieutenant Markus Rubens [PNPC] & Ensign Lhamepha Kitonuh [Byrne]

Mission: Deep Space 19
Location: Shuttlecraft Baffin
Timeline: MD09 1000hrs

As Ensign Kitonuh entered the small shuttlecraft, she noticed that the ship's acting chief conn officer was already sat at the controls, cycling through the preflight procedure. "Good morning, Ensign," he said, as he noticed her over his shoulder as he reached up for a switch on the cabin above his head.

"Morning, sir," the operations officer replied, stowing away the small kit she had brought with her in the back of the small craft before climbing to the front herself, and settling into the copilot's seat. The type-8 shuttlecraft was very small, only just large enough for two people, with some room at the back for equipment and getting changed into environment suits, but it would suit their needs for today; they weren't going far.

In fact, the pair were only going just outside the ship; the chief engineer had surmised that the ring structure circling the centre of the station was most likely some sort of docking area, and numerous openings that could be shuttlebays had been detected on the ship's sensors, as well as a number of protruding hatches which may be the alien constructor's version of an airlock umbilical. Their job today was to perform a visual inspection of the ring, close-up, and try to determine how easy it would be to get it operational. Though the restoration of station power should have carried over into the 'docking ring', it seemed to have been blocked by some sort of surge protection protocol, and the ring remained stubbornly powerless.

"Preflight's done," Markus announced. "Ready to go?" he asked, looking over towards the Selkie. At a nod of her head, he activated the controls that would lift the small craft up off the deck, and hovered there for a few seconds.

"Shuttlecraft Baffin to bridge. Requesting permission to depart."

"Bridge to shuttlecraft Baffin, you're cleared for departure," the voice came back. "De-pressurising shuttlebay and opening the space doors.".

The shuttlebay they were in was towards the far rear of the ship, and as such the space doors opened in a curved fashion, reminiscent of the old Constitution-class starships. As soon as the large doors locked into place, Rubens hit the thrusters, and the small ship gracefully manoeuvred out of the bay doors, and curved to the right and 'down', relative to the ship's axis, the controls beeping and chirping as a feedback to the systems running through them.

As the two officers observed the ring, they made mental notes about its features, though they had all seen it many times in the schematics that seemed to be all over the ship since they had arrived here, almost two weeks ago. The ring itself radiated rectangular protrusions of varying sizes, length and distribution around the ring, at seemingly random intervals. Rubens, having spent a decent portion of his career as a starbase fight controller, guessed that the reason for the varied spacing was to accomodate starships of various shapes and sizes all docking at once; the differing lengths of the spokes as well as the height relative to the top and bottom of the ring should in theory allow some ships to be docked in an overlapping pattern; though the pilots of such ships would have to be extremely confident in their abilities.

The shuttlebay-like openings were slightly different. They were openings on the side of the ring structure itself, seemingly in locations to correspond to the protrusions in order for docked ships to obscure the shuttlebay exit zone as little as possible, and all seemed to be open to space; no spacedoors were discernable from where the two shuttlecraft operators were studying.

"Can you take us in closer to one of the protrusions?" Lhamepha asked, watching the scanners and the viewport as the lieutenant complied with the request and navigated the shuttle appropriately. Before long, the end of one of these such protrusions was mere meters from the viewport, and both shuttle occupants could see it clearly.

"It's definitely some kind of docking port," she said, as she looked at it intently. "Obviously that's the airlock, and those are the magnetic clamps to attach to the ship. But it's nothing like the standard used on starships and stations throughout the rest of the explored quadrant; if we were to use these, we'd have to completely replace this clamp/airlock system with one of our own."

"Agreed," Markus said, nodding. Of course, a starship could get away with manoeuvring as close as possible to a foreign docking port, utilising a tractor beam to keep themselves in place, and a forcefield to create the connection; but it was hardly the safest option, and hardly something a ship should be doing as standard practice. It wasn't even in any of the operating manuals depicting the manoeuvres starships could pull off safely within a margin of error. "I want to get a look at one of the bays," he said, as he piloted the shuttle away from the protrusion and under it, moving towards a point on the ring. The point he was aiming for was a large, perfectly rectangular opening, and as they neared it, they could make out a variety of fittings; marked bays for shuttles to be parked, maintenance lifts, and even a sealed control room.

"I'm picking up power readings," Lhamepha said, tapping at her own console again. "It looks like the powering up of the station itself did manage to get through to this section of the ring, but only minimally. There seems to be minimal power to the control consoles in that shuttle bay, and I'm reading a faint atmospheric shield over the door; there's no atmosphere inside, but if there were, it would be enough to keep it in whilst allowing shuttles to pass right through."

Markus frowned, intrigued. "Let's go for a closer look, then..."

----TO BE CONTINUED----

------------------------
Lieutenant Markus Rubens
Acting Chief CONN Officer

&

Ensign Lhampepha Kitonuh
Operations Officer
USS Endeavour

Both Played by Capt. Byrne