Calling flight control
Posted on Fri Mar 8th, 2024 @ 7:37am by Lieutenant Commander Lylja Tigerlilly & Lieutenant Naota & Ensign Delia Sil
1,223 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Crossed Wires
Location: Ops Hub
Lylja has posted to the flight control team, and the civilians who worked with them, that she wanted to meet up and this was the first available time that worked for everyone. She strolled in with a large pink box and set it down on a nearby table.
"Hello, flight control, I am Lylja Tigerlilly, the new Chief of Operations, and I am here to meet you and work out how best to work together," she said. "And as a bribe, I have brought pastries," she added opening the box. She stepped back to allow people to get to the food and to preserve people so she could but names and faces to the actual live people here.
"Excellent bribe, Commander," Delia said as she picked out a fruit jam danish. "Ensign Delia Sil, pilot, pleased to work with you."
Lylja grinned. "I am looking forward to working with all of you. Now, fair warning, my last stint in flight control was back in the Academy and I am only a fair shuttle pilot at best. So, I will be relying on you to mostly sort yourselves out. You have obviously been doing an acceptable job as my message queue is not overrun with complaints. Let us try to keep it that way, yes?"
A small, disheveled boy came in, his nose buried in a padd as he blurted out, "Delia, did you know about this Sheliak transport that's making an emergency st--"
When the boy finally looked up, he realized that it wasn't Delia that was in front of him. His neck went back further until he found himself starting at something with silvery-blue fur.
It looked like a warm kitty.
It looked like a soft kitty.
As little balls of fur practically danced in the boy's large eyes, Naota chimed, "KITTY!"
Yes, he'd said that part out loud.
No, that was not his inside voice.
Of course, the soft kitty warm kitty little ball of fur also outranked him. Did he know the new CHOPS was a Caitian? Should he know that the new CHOPS was Caitian? The answer ws probably yes, but Naota rarely put much thought into these things. So, trying to start over, the boy tried to change verbal course. "Oh, I mean, Comm-- Are those donuts!?"
Yes, the effort at correcting himself had already succumbed to a two-second attention span.
"Yes, please have one," Lylja said amused. "As I was saying, I am looking forward to working with you in Flight Control. Now, what about a Shiliak Transport?"
"Yes," the boy chirped, triumphant, as he plucked out a donut and promptly popped it into his mouth. Taking a bite, bits of pastry clung to his face as he answered, "They say they're experiencing a malfunction that's impacting multiple systems, including life support. They've requested a safe harbor in orbit while they make repairs. Something called Sheliak Corporate has been broadcasting something called the Treaty of... I dunno, Arm-n-Hammer, Armus, some kind of treaty thing."
The donut disappeared in another two bites. "I doubt the treaty gives us room to decline the visit, but the Sheliak don't view humanoids as lifeforms. We've tried broadcasting our traffic flow and have provided them with an entry vector, but they won't acknowledge our signal, so I imagine we're going to be re-routing traffic around them when they arrive."
"Tag in our Starflet diplomats on all communication with the ship and with Shiliak Corporate and I will send word to Federation legal," said Lylja, instantly shifting to all business, her datapad almost magically appearing in her hand. "Can you predict their route and clear traffic and satellites from the area? Also, I want their ship orbited by warning beacons, we do not want anyone getting too close and provoking a Shiliak response." She sent out a flurry of messages.
"They have a few areas they'll need to adjust course around before they have a straight path to Haumea," Naota remarked. "We won't be able to project their entry until closer to arrival, but at warp three that should still be time to shift the pattern before they arrive."
"Well, never a dull moment with Starfleet, no?" said Lylja, "Do we know the size of the ship?"
"So it seems," Delia agreed, though she couldn't help but think of a long string of very dull moments patrolling after the Captain had disappeared. had anyone told the new Ops Chief that the first CO had disappeared? Probably. But if not providing that information was not the role of an ensign. "The Sheliak ship is about the size of an Antares class, just over 250 meters long."
Lylja did some quick mental calculations.."So we would need two tractor-beam equipped shuttles to guide her to a safe planetary landing? Do we have enough shuttles to keep two in full readiness during the Sheliak visit?" she asked.
"I'd recommend we use the Atala if it comes to that," Naota countered. "That should provide a wider range of options should the Sheliak transport need assistance."
"Noted, if the Atala is assigned to this task will other ships need to be shifted to cover her usual duties? And let us make sure the tractor beam systems on all of the shuttles are at full working efficiency, just in case," said Lylja firing notes off to the maintenance crew.
"The Atala doesn't really have usual duties. It's more of a in case of emergency, break glass sort of asset. It has its own maintenance crew that provides for a skeletal crew to bring it to operational capacity when needed, though I've been hearing a rumor that Starfleet may be trying to have an additional vessel assigned to us."
"Well, we will need it fully operational by the time that Sheliak transport arrives," said Lylja. "Is it in our chain of command or Tactical's?"
"It's kept at ready on the orbital platform," Delia replied. "You should have authority to deploy it."
"I hope so," said Lylja typing out a sequence on her datapad, "as it looks like I am authorizing the use of the Atala. We need to have her ready just as insurance against the worst." She looked around at the assembled team. "Good work everyone, you aid is greatly appreciated. Now, make sure we have the shuttles as backup in case they are needed. Have the revised routes and flight plans ready to slot into place once our uninvited guests arrive. Anything I am missing?"
"That's probably enough for one afternoon, assuming we can keep Captain Jor'hai from piloting while intoxicated," Naota noted. "Unfortunately, they finally finished the repairs from the last time he had clearance to depart. But, those departures usually provide great training in towing operations for our shuttle pilots."
One had to view these things for the positives, after all.
Delia rolled her eyes - she'd had enough training on the score for a life time. "I think everything else should be in order, ma'am."
"Very good, I will not keep you then," said Lylja. "Let us plan on weekly meetings from here on, just to keep everyone in contact and updated. Nice to meet you all and feel free to contact me about any issues or problems."
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