Those who stay behind... Part VII

Posted on Sun Jan 30th, 2011 @ 2:41pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant Xishaal Idrani

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Bridge, USS Arizona

Captain Nathan Cowell entered the bridge proper and set his sights on the back of the Andorian woman who was currently manning her console at the forward most station on the bridge. Nathan had no doubt that the woman could handle the task he was about to dish out to her, he was just curious to see how she would react to it.

"Ms. Indrani, how many auxiliary craft do we have currently on the ship?" Nathan began his battery of questions, knowing full well they had 2 runabouts and 4 shuttles at their disposal.

"Captain Cowell, forgive me, my initial impression of you was not of a man given to displays of humor," Xishaal replied flatly, her voice neutral and emotionless, "We have 6 auxiliary craft assigned to us however 1 shuttle due to return to the Arizona within the next 20 minutes."

"It wasn't a lead in to a joke, I wanted to know if we had any craft in repair for any reason," the Captain said evenly, "How many pilots would you say you have right now that can fly all those craft competently?" This time he didn't know the answer, and the response would dictate the entire rest of his conversation with the Andorian.

"...Outside of myself and my two reliefs.. I don't see anyone who's rated high enough to be considered competent enough to pilot any one of them successfully. This is not what I expected and certainly not good for the ship. What do you think about me conducting some accelerated refresher courses for some of crew who have some familiarity but don't get the opportunity to operate them? Mr. Akron can be used for whatever operations you require along with a trainee. I will take the bulk of the operational shifts while we get more of the crew up to speed."

Taking a moment for Cowell to consider her proposal, another thought occurred to her. "Captain, we will also need to ensure that should the Arizona need to separate for combat operations, we will basically a total of nine personnel trained to handle flight control for each vehicle in addition to being able to pilot any auxiliary craft. Normally, I along with my two reliefs would handle flight operations but additional bridge crew should also be trained to handle flight control as well..."

"We can get to that later," Cowell said, "What I need from you is I need six people given a crash course in shuttle piloting. Enough knowledge to get those shuttles off the ground and into orbit if it comes down to it. I may be leaving some people behind but I want to give them a fighting chance to get off that rock if something happens while we're eyeballs deep in chaos ourselves. I don't care who you train, but it needs to be done yesterday, and those shuttles need to be boots on the ground before ten hundred tomorrow morning. Anything else can just wait."

"Captain, I will need to know who you are planning on leaving and I will require unrestricted access to the holodeck for simulator training as well." Xishaal folded her arms across her chest, holding her chin in thought. "Ensign Price can begin the first round of training, He's fresh from the Academy, I have some ideas about making sure the shuttles are ready for whatever may be required of them..."

"I don't really care who is involved or how you do it, I just want some pilots ready to evacuate the away team if need be. I'll have Lieutenant Marion free up all the holodeck time you need. Make it happen, Ms. Indrani," Nathan ordered.