Test Flight

Posted on Fri Aug 30th, 2019 @ 2:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Arianna Sky Kamar & Major Naomi Sylan Griffiths & Lieutenant Commander Yarinna "Fanthom" Hawkins & Lieutenant Oscar Vladinchi & Lieutenant Thegog Grun & Lieutenant JG Ryan North

Mission: Onboarding & Departure
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Episode 001 Day 007 Morning

Commander Kamar stepped out of his ready room and onto the bridge, the officers were arriving at their stations to begin the pre-launch sequence to leave Starbase 11. Standing on the bridge of Pennsylvania and watching the buzz of activity he couldn't help but swell with pride at the accomplishments of the crew and the finalization of the refit. Frank sat in his chair in the centre of the bridge and then addressed the entire crew via the ship's internal communication system.

"Good Morning crew of the USS Pennsylvania, we will be leaving the Starbase shortly, please report to your duty stations and prepare to stand your watches. We will be putting the Penn through her paces today, so we will be conducting quite a few training evolutions. Department Heads please contact the bridge and notify the Chief of Operations that you are ready to depart. Thank you for your patience as we prepare to disembark."

Yarinna arrived on the bridge and assumed the helm station. Running her standard checks and her navigational systems, she input the usual commands for helm control and navigational guidance.

Arianna stepped off the lift and took her station and ran her diagnostics. Checking the antimatter containment levels and satisfied that the containment fields were up to snuff as well as IDF and SIF fields were 100%, she did the final check of the warp core. Finding that satisfactory, she looked at Yarinna, "Engines and related systems are in the green helmsman."

Yarinna answered, "Good, helm and navigational systems go."

Both looked at the captain, "Engineering and helm ready for departure", Yarinna and Arianna said in unison giggling.

As the lift stopped on Deck One from inside the lift Naomi could hear giggling, putting on a disapproving frown she stepped out of the lift and looked at the two females "please no giggling on the bridge?" she asked in a firm tone, then as she heads to the XO seat she looks at Kamar "message from the lower decks Captain all is green and ready for our wee journey" she said.

“Thank you, Major,” Frank replied. “Helm, notify the Starbase we are departing. Engineering, Verify the airlock has been sealed.”

Thegog looked up from his console. "Sir, Medical and Tactical have all checked in. Everything is 5 by 5. Standard sensors are operating at peak proficiency. Reading clear skies ahead. Sensor pod is finalizing its self-diagnostic, and will be fully operational in less than 5 minutes."

"All astrometric and science stations are reporting in. Labs are secured and ready for departure," Ryan said, looking up from his station.

=/\=Starbase 11, this is USS Pennsylvania, ready to get underway. Please clear all moorings=/\=, Yarinnia said clearly.

Arianna verified that the airlock was secured and was sealed. "Captain, the airlock is sealed and secured. We are clear to leave.

Yarinnia gets the all-clear from the moorings being dropped. " Captain, Starbase 11 signals we are clear for departure.

Frank waited for the clearance from the Starbase before speaking again,” Helm, quarter impulse power until we clear the Starbase, then go to full impulse power.” Turning to his second in command Frank spoke to the Major, “Once we clear the area I want to begin by giving the engines a good shakedown let’s slowly ramp it up to warp 9 and let’s see how she handles. Once we check the engines we will let the Helm have some fun and practice evasive manoeuvres.”

"One quarter impulse aye sir", Yarinnia said as she slowly manoeuvred the Penny away from the Starbase gently. Slowly the Nebula class ship inched away from the Starbase. Yarinnia was going by the book on this one. Once the ship was away from the Starbase, she punched it up to full impulse. "Captain we are now at full impulse", she said.

Arianna was making sure there were no glitches to hinder Yarinna's piloting of the Nebula class ship. Thanking Kahless at the same time that the warp core was performing in the manner it was meant to do. "Captain impulse engines performing as expected. Warp Engines are at your disposal", she added.

"Sensor pod fully initialized and online," Thegog said.

Sitting back in her seat "to boldly go where few have gone before" Naomi said altering the mantra used by Starfleet a little, she looks over at Kamar "you as nervous as I am Captain?" she asked.

“I’m not nervous, just ready to see what this ole girl will do. Helm set to warp 2, Science, let’s fire up that scanner and see what’s hanging around. If we’re alone, I’m going to let the Major have the conn and put the Penny through some evasive manoeuvres.”

"So it is only me then, good to know, Warp 2 a bit slow to the catapult is it not Captain, I can understand the full impulse and low warp until we clear all stellar objects, or do you want to gently ease her into it?" Naomi said ending with a question.

Kamar turned to Naomi, “these engines haven’t had to propel the ship in months because of the refit and repairs, we have to ease into warp 9 and make sure nothing goes wrong. We don’t want to give Arianna extra work on our first day out. Once we are clear of all the stellar objects ease her up to warp nine. Then we, lol energize a few targets into space to test the weapons and make sure they’re sighted in. I'd hate to get into a fight only to miss .”

"Understandable, but is that not what the CEO is for?!" Naomi asked jokingly, but the weapons test is logical and I can understand it she paused You said warp 9, I did not think this ship could do that speed, what the hell modifications were done to the Penny?" She ended with a question.

"Major cruising speed for the Nebula class is Warp 6.1, the max sustained speed is warp 9, Today we just want to see if our engines can get to Warp 9," Frank replied to the Major, taking advantage of the moment to share some knowledge.

Griffiths simply nodded "still learning Captain, thank you for the information" she responded.

Arianna looked at the captain and XO, " Well she can and she will prove herself. I am sure of it", Arianna said with confidence.

"Warp 2 Captain aye sir", Yarinna said and she pushed the Penny into warp 2. "Warp 2 achieved sir", she said looking at Arianna winking.

"Helm continues to climb slowly up to warp 9, we don't want to make a big jump, let's shake the dust of the engines first," Turning to his engineer, Frank said, "Commander Sky, keep an eye on those engines if anything appears amiss notify us immediately and we will back the engines down."

"Commander Sky, I am detecting there is a slight variance in the matter/anti-matter intermix," Thegog said while checking his readings. "It looks like there is a little leftover residue in the chamber from the refit."

Hearing that, Arianna's hands danced over her controls. Indeed there was a 0.002 variance, opening her combadge, "Arianna to Jack, check your intent mix ratio. We have a 0.002 variance up here. We ate going to push her to warp 9 slowly. Get that variance back to 1:1", she said.

"Understood Chief, will get it back to 1:1 asap Jack out", and the com closed.

"All systems functional, Captain," Lieutenant Oscar Vladinchi reported from his station, shortly after the Chief Operations Officer. He had arrived around the time as the others, though true to his file he had remained quiet until this point. "Deflector and Shields are holding nominal," he concluded, "no Fluctuations.”

Frank turned and stroked his beard speaking to the Major with a slight hint of sarcasm, “He does speak, and he reads an instrument panel correctly, he’s already better than the Ensign that was here this morning, eh Major?”

Looking at the Captain and raising an amused eyebrow "be nice Captain" she said with amusement in her voice, but quietly enough so only Kamar could hear "you are not wrong!" She said.

Frank chuckled at Naomi's comment and then focused on the display screen as the stars went by streaking by.

Yarinna began to push the Penny from warp 2 to 2.5 until she made warp 3. From there she continued slowly till she made warp 6. Turning to the Captain, " Warp 6 achieved", she said. Now looking to Arianna, all systems ok to go to warp 9 Chief?", she asked.

Arianna double-checked her readings and saw that the intermix ratio was now 1:1, "Board shows green Yarinna", she replied.

"Easing to warp 6.5, warp 7", Yarinna said as she continued to increase to warp 9. "Captain we are at warp 9 sir", she started looking at the captain and XO.

Frank stood and looked over Yarinna's shoulder and confirmed they were indeed at warp 9. "Engineering everything still good?" he asked Arianna.

"Engines are 100% fully operational, thank Kahless", Arianna replied.

"Helm let's bring her down nice and easy to Warp 6 and we can give Science the chance to play with the Scanner, while Security prepares for the weapons test," Frank said as he sat back down in his chair. "Engineering and Helm, well-done ladies."

Thegog confirmed with his console. "Sir, it looked as though there was a slight power drop in the sensor pod when he hit warp 9, but it appears to have worked itself out. May just have been a slow relay transfer. Lieutenant North, you are clear to run your tests when you are ready."

Oscar looked up from his console, quickly stating, "Captain, but there was a slight variation in the forward phaser array. It happened around the same time as the reported power drop, but has since levelled out to nominal perimeters."

"Sensors are functioning as they should be," Ryan said. "All systems seem stable under warp conditions."

As she was sitting in her seat Griffiths felt some rumbling, first she thought it was her stomach, but then she noted it was the ship, so quickly standing up she headed over to the rear Engineering station and tapped in some commands and loudly cursed "^&$%^$% sonofa %$^$" she said.

The Chief of Security felt the odd sensation, then watched the Major move briskly. They appeared to sense the same thing at the same time. He quickly tapped across his console, trying to ascertain which systems were redlining at the moment from his end of the spectrum. "You felt it too, Major? Any ideas?"

Yarinna brought the Penny down to warp 6, turned in her seat, "Arianna what the hell was that!"

"Fek' lar...Augusfratt...what in the name of Kahless!!" Arianna growled. Slapping her combadge, "Engineering! What is the name of Kahless is going on?", she bellowed.

"Engineering here, the boss we got a problem here. Both SIF and IDF fields just hickupped. We are trying to find the glitch as fast as we can. It happened around the same time we hit warp 9. We are checking the intermix ratio just to make sure it wasn't that. Odds are it is in the power relays or power converters", Jackson said.

"Well get it fixed and fast or you're FIRED! Is that understood?", Arianna growled. "Of all the incompetent......", and left the sentence dangling.

"Is there a possibility that the forward phaser array is responsible?" Oscar asked as he continued to check his console. "Looking back on the spike, it took in around 0.59 per cent more power, and I suspect it was responsible for the prior power drop."

Frank wanted to interject and take control but he had to let his department heads learn to work together. Instead of speaking he pulled out a new unlit cigar and fiddled with it before putting it in his mouth. He sat and continued listening to engineering and operations do their work.

"Damn Warp Core, it is reading power surges" Griffiths announced and pressed the Communications button "Bridge to engineering, the bridge console is saying power fluctuations in the warp core, you mind looking into that?" Griffiths said into the communications.

"Understoop Major", Arianna said and she started to run her diagnostics and came up cursing in Klingon as they were not giving her the proper readings. "Engineering WHAT the hell is going on down there?", she barked.

"Engineering to bridge, something is playing with all the system sensors. They are giving false readings andvwe haven't found out what yet but we are already working on it post haste", came the reply to the Major.

"Yarinna take the warp engines offline. I have to see if it is in the warp core itself or just the computer system relays.

"I am reading massive power spikes all over the ship." Thegog said. Then. "Wait, now I'm reading a hull breach on deck 4 and 5. No, their gone. How I'm reading full power loss on main bridge." He paused and looked around at all the power that is still on. "I get the feeling that something is playing tricks on the internal sensors."

"Sir!" nearly shouted Oscar, surprise in his voice. "We've fired four photon torpedoes! No, wait! I-"

Visibly disturbed, the Chief of Security flew his fingers over his console, similar in fashion to a pianist in a crescendo. The sounds the presses made almost, in some weird way, singing a tune reminiscent of a famous tune. He looked up then, perplexed and confusion apparent.

"The computer is telling me that we've fired photon torpedoes, and phasers. Sensors show no such occurrence. I think tactical systems are jeopardized in some fashion."

"Wait! All this looks like two things have happened.......either sabotage, invasive program in the computer core that someone bypassed the safeties or it just might be "Q"! ", and in either case Arianna didn't want to think about both. "There are too many things happening at the same time for me to believe otherwise", Arianna replied.

"Captain, security reports no evidence of boarding. At least nothing physical, so unless this is something we can't see messing with our ship, I'm under the impression a few diagnostics must be done," Oscar added, then, "With your permission, sir?"

Ryan arched an eyebrow at the jump in conclusion to that they were only two possibilities.

"Jumping to any conclusions seems a bit... premature," Ryan said, making some adjustments to the sensors. "But I agree, I think running a diagnostic on all systems seems... prudent."

"Right away, sir," Oscar stated. His fingers flew over his console as he began the diagnostics for his station.

Arianna was already running level three diagnostics and being optimistic of the results did not trust even the level 3 diagnostics. "Engineering, I hope you are running diagnostics on every system on this ship", she said.

"Chief, we been doing diagnostics since this sleigh ride began. Nothing is showing up as out of place. However when we inspect the systems, they are definitely screwed up. We are physically fixing the systems but it is going to take time. How much time.....that is for you to say", Jackson said.

Arianna growled, ,Fek'lar! This isn't happening! Damn it, I checked those systems myself visually and tested each one myself. The engineering logs will prove that!", she growled. Clearly Arianna was rabid like a wounded targ. Short of leaving the bridge, she continued to run the diagnostics using a different algorithm to see if the diagnostic would give a correct reading.

Frank stood and began pacing the bridge while stroking his beard, "Let's stay focused here. Grun, shut down that scanning array for a few minutes. Arianna, continue the engineering diagnostics. North check the computer itself and run diagnostics, we have a bug in the system somewhere and we need to run it down. Helm, let's got to quarter impulse and take the time to determine the issue.

"Shut down initiated. Full power down in three minutes" Thegog said as he punched at the console. "Also running diagnostics on the pod in the meantime."

"My console is not reporting any further issues, Captain," Oscar reported. "I am heavily leaning towards a hardware fault here as has been stated. I can assist with repairs, if you require it, sir."

Griffiths leaving the rear console to an engineer and returns to the front and looks at the Captain with an unlit cigar hanging out of his mouth.

"On the bridge Captain!! Really?" she asked indicating the cigar.

"Diagnostics aren't showing anything at the moment," Ryan said. "30% done with scanning through the main computer files."

Yarinna brought the Penny down to impulse as ordered and ran her navigational diagnostics as well.

"Major, it's not lit," Frank said as he toyed with the cigar. "Let's figure this one out Bridge, we need to get this resolved so we can continue the workup tests.

"Sir, Diagnostic of the pod have completed. I think I found the culprit." Thegog said while poking away at his console. "It appears that a few of the Multiphasic gravimetric distortion couplers were misaligned. When the pod got up to full power, this created a feedback loop and overloaded the systems. I believe if we realign them, that should solve the problem."

Arianna looked at Thegog, "Are you absolutely sure of the misalignment?", she asked. If that was the case, someone was going to have their head handed to them especially if it was one of her people.

"Arianna gets an engineer up there ASAP, once that sensor pod is offline we can proceed with the weapons testing and tactical manoeuvres." Turning to face his new Chief of Security, Frank asked, "Lieutenant Vladinchi, would you like to go next sir, and then our Assistant Helm officer can put the ship through her paces as we return to the Starbase?"

"Sir, with respect, without the sensors operating at max efficiency I will be unable to place up dummy targets. I recommend in lieu of the sensor decoys that we launch probes," Oscar said. "Is this acceptable?"

" Right away", Arianna said, giving a short look at Frank as he used her first name before she communicated with engineering. "Engineering, get Jackson up to the sensor pod yesterday and get the Multiphasic Gravametric Distortion Couplers realigned NOW!", she growled as she swore in Klingon under her breath.

"Engineering here understood chief. Sending Jackson there now to get it done. We will take the pod offline to do the job. Engineering out", and the comm went silent as Arianna's blood boiled and all she could do was roll her eyes.

While all this was going on the background Grittihs gave her Captain the look, one that she would likely be giving a lot of the time she assumed, but quietly she said to Kamar "Sir, lit or unlit, you are the Captain and it is somewhat unprofessional for the commander of this vessel to have a stogie in his mouth, even if it is unlit, I would not be a good First Officer if I did not bring this up" Griffiths said.

Frank pulled the cigar from his mouth for a moment and replied," Noted Major," before putting back in his mouth.

A short while later, Frank stood on the bridge and removed his cigar, "Team I'd like to commend you all on your hard work today as we put the Penn through her paces. You have all performed admirably. Helm, take us back to the Starbase. Upon arrival, shore-leave will begin immediately. I'd like to meet all of you tomorrow evening in the Lounge at 2000 hours for a meeting. Frank sat back down in the captain's chair and couldn't hide the grin behind his beard and cigar. He felt a sense of pride in his crew, they performed their jobs well, and they would all be relying on each other in the very near future.

"Understood sir", Yarinna said and happily turned the Penny towards home.

Oscar visibly relaxed somewhat after the Captain spoke, grateful the event was over. He did some final checks on any systems he might have missed.

Still sitting in her seat she watched the Captain stand and shook her head wistfully oO he is going to be a handful Oo she thought to herself, and then quietly said to herself "It is not the beginning of the end only the end of the beginning" she did not know or really care if anyone heard her, it just felt right.

Arianna was still fuming as she tripple checked the engineering systems out again. She knew exactly what was going to happen when they got back to the star base, massive level 1 diagnostics of every system on the entire ship!