Practice Practice

Posted on Sat May 30th, 2020 @ 5:38pm by Lieutenant Bianca Lee

Mission: Around The World in 8 Days
Location: Flight Simulator, Starbase McKinley
Timeline: During Shore Leave

Bianca smiled at the Ensign that accompanied her and that had helped her into the flight simulator, "Thank you Ensign Carter, Ah know that having somewhat random people come in to maintain a low level of certification in flying fighters can be annoyin'. Ah really do appreciate the help."

"It's not a problem, ma'am." The young officer smiled at her, "It's not going to affect the pilot training in the slightest, not with this stage of the training be where most of the washouts happen. We'll be running you through Nav Scenario Three and if you want..." He smiled slightly, "I can slip in a combat scenario?"

Bianca's eyes opened wide, "No, no, no, Ah'm not qualified for that, Ah'm just here to keep my certification for ferry flights." It was common knowledge in the flight crews that it also meant Intelligence data dump pickups, something that Intelligence and their Strategic Operations subdomain wouldn't trust to a 'mere' pilot. The speed and maneuverability of the fighters were the primary reasons of their use.

Carter nodded once and shrugged, "It's all right, no problem, ma'am." He patted her on the shoulder and tugged at her straps to make sure they were snug. "Nav Three coming up." He dropped down and the cockpit closed.

The next hour and a half passed as expected, Navigational Scenario Three, meant as a pathfinding course through three different systems, the final one being a warp in, dash to a waypoint and out and then warp out, a hostile system, the key to completion being the lack of detection by the residents. Everything had gone perfectly, the waypoint behind her and now it was just sit back and relax for a handful of minutes until the warp out ended the scenario.

Suddenly, a burst of fire ahead of her caused her to reach out and grab the control stick and jerk it to the right, "What the Heyll?" She came out of the roll and was forced to do it again, but to the left as another volley impacted her shields and ahead again. "Carter! Aye said no!" She screamed as she tried to put her fighter in an unpredictable course only to have her shields hammered as she failed miserably to shake the pursuer.

As the starfield outside whirled around in ever different directions, Bianca's hand reached out for the top right of the console where the manual switch to turn off the simulation resided, but it never got there. If she canceled it, it would turn into an automatic failure and she'd either not be certified, or would have to sit through the same scenario all over again. Her hand retracted and returned to the stick with the other. There was another way and she literally made her hands move as randomly as she could while reaching out for propulsion controls.

She jammed her fingers down randomly at first and the ship shuddered, alarms going off as it virtually stopped dead and slewed to the side, then she hit the keys to send the fighter to warp, even as her stomach lurched from the view. She caught a glimpse of a Dominion fighter overshooting her own craft before the starfield went black.

The cockpit opened and the small woman struggled to free herself from the straps, then flung them to the side as she scrambled to her feet, sweat streaking her face and she furiously rubbed at it even as the red-uniformed Ensign came strolling up to the side of the simulator, "What were you thinking?" She yelled at him, "Ah said, no combat simulation!"

He at least had the grace to blush in embarrassment, "I, I thought that you were just pro-forma saying no... Ma'am." He added at the end, " And that you actually did want to, I'm, I'm sorry."

She slid down the side of the simulator and stormed up to him, "Ah meant none! Ah'm not a fighter pilot, Ah'm a courier when it comes to flyin'."

"Of, of course, ma'am." Carter stammered, quickly punching something into the PADD he held, "I, um, I have your results here, ma'am, congratulations, ma'am, you've passed, ma'am." He proffered the PADD to her.

Bianca snatched the PADD out of his hands and looked over it, scrawling her own signature and handed it back, no combat sequence involved in it apparently. "Good." She stepped in closer, "No one hears of it. Get it?"

"Got it." He replied.

"Good." And she walked out. Time to get back to the ship, work out some frustrations.

OFF:

Lieutenant Bianca Lee
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Astraea

Ensign Aaron Carter
Flight Training Center
Starbase McKinley