Joint Duty Log | Lt Henry Novak, Cn Christian Thomas | "Taking the Wheel"

Posted on Mon Sep 22nd, 2014 @ 6:19pm by Crewman Christian Thomas & Lieutenant Henry Novak

1,639 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?
Location: Holodeck Two

=/\= Holodeck 2 =/\=

Henry sat at the conn of the recreated Vindicator bridge in Holodeck 2, his fingers tapping at the helm console as he executed a delicate flight maneuver through a large asteroid field. He was trying to sharpen up his skills in case he found himself in a situation where they had to be executed in real life. Unfortunately so far the Vindicator had sustained several minor collisions as Henry attempted to navigate through the dense asteroids. Granted, it was a highly difficult scenario, but one that wasn't completely unrealistic, especially given the current state of things in the Federation. If a starship suddenly found itself with a reason to hide from something, an asteroid field might just end up being the only available option.

"Damnit," Henry muttered under his breath as another asteroid scraped the hull of the beastly ship. The bridge was empty, save for himself; the silence helped him focus. In reality that wouldn't be the case. The CO would be shouting orders and officers would be responding with damage and casualty reports; in short, it would be anything but quiet.

Crewman Christian Thomas had a daily routine from which he rarely deviated. Wake up at 0500, gym, breakfast (which always tasted better if he exercised hard), duty call, thruster calibrations, sensor alignment reports for RCS gyrodyne relays, and then some light reading while he collated the remaining reports from the other staff in the flight control department. It was a simple job, and he was rarely called to sit at the helm, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. Leave the tough flying to the officers.

Speaking of Officers, the newest addition to the flight control department had sent Christian a message that morning, asking to meet him in the holodeck. His routine was going to be turned around, and it wouldn't exactly fit into his regular schedule, but Thomas found himself more than a little excited that the Lieutenant called on him. It was like school all over again, and he was chosen... for something.

Thomas cheerfully tapped the chime on the holodeck door, making sure to exercise the utmost respect for the Lieutenant's privacy. Some people would just barge into the room and ask what he wanted... but no, not Crewman Christian Thomas. Crewman Christian Thomas was an upright, skilled, hardworking enlisted man with dignity and respect for his superior officers. He'd show Lieutenant Novak his was in the right field. Helm was the place to be on the Vindicator.

"Computer, freeze program," Henry said and got up from his seat. "Enter," he called and the door that usually opened out onto the turbolift opened up instead to reveal the corridor beyond and the person who had announced his presence. "Crewman Thomas?"

The doors opened in front of Christian and he froze. The Lieutenant was asking him a question. A simple question. He should probably answer. "Erm. I uh,... Yes, Sir! Yes, sir, that's me. I'm Crewman Christian Thomas. You called for me, Lieutenant? I'm not sure why so I apologize if I missed part of your message because that happens to me sometimes when I feel like I'm in a rush... which isn't always how I operate sir because normally I lead a very structured, developed, productive day in which I complete all my duties which I'm sure you also do too sir because that's important.

"I um... a pleasure to meet you, sir." He finally said.

"A pleasure to meet you, I'm Lieutenant Novak," Henry said as he walked across the bridge and introduced himself with a handshake. "Thank you for coming."

Thomas nodded, "My pleasure, sir!"

Henry glanced towards the viewscreen that displayed the static asteroid field of the simulation. "I've been practicing flight maneuvers," he explained. "I was hoping you could give me some advice on flying the Vindicator. Captain Ivanova mentioned that you had the most experience at the helm."

Christian scratched his head, "Well I suppose that's true. Are you having trouble with any of the systems, sir? Because I can personally look into anything you want. I can even do the report myself if that's what you want, sir, which is great because I do a very good job at least that's why my last super said when we had productivity reviews. I know the maneuvering thrusters were just rebuilt so if it's a problem with those we should look into it right away? Who knows what those Klingons did to the Vindicator sir, I say we shouldn't trust their handiwork as far as we could throw a runabout," he paused.

"Lieutenant, sir."

Henry laughed heartily. "That's one way to put it, Crewman. They certainly didn't bother to handle her with gloves on; from the sound of it, they practically shoved us out of the shipyard. Anyways, I don't think there's a problem with the maneuvering thrusters. They seem to be operating well within expected parameters. All the same, it's good to keep an eye on them in case the Klingons did muck up. What I'm having most trouble with is manual steering, as you can see... Computer, bring up score readout."

A readout of the simulation score appeared on the viewscreen, indicating just how many hits the Vindicator took from stray asteroids and which maneuvers Henry executed. Although the simulation took into account and expected there to be a certain number of collisions, Henry's number was a little higher than he would've liked.

"As you can see, the Captain wouldn't be too pleased if her ship ended up with several asteroid-sized dents in the hull." Henry walked back to the helm console and motioned for Christian to follow. He sat down in the chair and indicated the list of maneuvers he'd been performing. "Now, I think part of the problem is I've been executing these manually instead of letting the computer execute them. It gives me more control, but I think the Vindicator is too massive to perform these on-demand. I'm used to flying a Steamrunner that was designed to perform delicate maneuvers."

Christian nodded eagerly, "Sure, yeah yeah I see what you mean, sir." He moved up to the controls and started opening files and moving commands. His brow down as his focus turned toward the helm. "Well... let's see."

"The Vindicator has a more powerful navigational computer, so if I let the computer do the flight path pre-calculations and then make adjustments as I go along, perhaps that'll make for a smoother ride?" Henry suggested. "I feel like I need to make my input a fraction of a second faster because the ship takes that much longer to respond because of her size."

Thomas face lit up as he turned back toward the Lieutenant, "Sir you're flying the ship like it's going to avoid impacts with all those asteroids?" He asked genuinely.

Henry nodded. "I think that's part of the problem. I'm trying to fly the ship like it's half the size, which it obviously isn't, focusing on maneuvers only to get through the field. But that's not going to work, is it? No matter how fast my fingers are, she's simply not built for it, right?"

"Well, see the Discovery isn't equipped for tight maneuvers. If you thought flying a Sovereign through an asteroid field would have been tough it's going to be nearly impossible in a ship like this one. Large dreadnought class ships won't make it, and you're going to irk Commander Dahe'el with all those nicks and dents you'll put in the hull.

"My recommendation is to sync with the tactical or ops stations. Putting the deflector at full-power, and flying with RCS drift mode thrust only will probably get us past most of this. For larger ones, you can push them away with tractor beams, which is usually stressful on our power systems and will also probably make Commander Dahe'el unhappy... or you blow em up with point defense phaser cannons."

Christian pulled up a holo-display of the ship in front of the main viewer. The massive Vindicator took up most of the front of the bridge, and turned slowly as it suspended above the raised deck behind the helm controls. The ship was a blue grid of lines and panels, with details etched in for the deflector and other important systems. Along the hull were red circles paired together, and they stood out from the rest of the ship.

"The Vindicator has limited defenses when it comes to small things like asteroids or fighters. For especially tricky asteroid encounters, our own fighters will protect the ship and vaporize incoming objects before they collide with Vindicator's shields. For other occasions," he pointed to the tiny red circles, "our point-defense cannons will handle the rest."

"Thank you, that's very insightful," Henry said as he watched Christian explain the details of how the Vindicator's point-defense systems worked. "It seems it's much more a tandem effort than simply just executing a few evasive maneuvers and leaving it at that. I can see now it needs teamwork; tactical and helm working together is more important on a ship this size."

Christian nodded enthusiastically, obviously pleased his ramblings had conveyed his message well.

"Thanks again, Crewman Thomas, I really appreciate all the insight. It's one thing reading up about a ship and trying her out in a simulation, and another to get some advice from someone who's actually flown her," Henry grinned, patting Christian on the soldier. "You're an invaluable asset. I think I'm going to take a break here and come back later, this time with a new simulation that includes the tactical defense you suggested."

"Yes sir, of course. Have a good um... day, sir." Thomas quickly said, leaving the Lieutenant to his work.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Lt. Henry Novak
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Vindicator

Crewman Christian Thomas
Flight Control Officer
USS Vindicator

 

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