Weclome to Flight Ops (Hanger & Flight Deck)

[Akirapryde]

Stardate: 53831.89
USS Thunderchild, NCC-63549
Deck 13, Hanger Deck
The Dragon's Lair
Lieutenant Arron Duncanson, Lieutenant Rebbecca Paxton, Lieutenant (JR) Mordecai Noonia

As the tour continued, Paxton continued to explain the operations of the hanger deck and how much is expected from each person. During simulations, the hanger deck is expected to turn around fighters at an incredible rate. It didn't take Noonia long to realize that once the division was fully equipped with its entire compliment of fighters, that the deck crews would be understaffed. It didn't add to his impression of the situation but it did offer some reason behind the rhythm. Paxton ran the flight hanger deck like she ran her own life, with little to zero room for error. At any given time, a position could be filled to make up for someone sick or otherwise missing from duty. The standards were set very high and the expectations in this division were equally high. This gave the division a greater sense of eliteness among the rest of the crew. Noonia didn't fully understand why this was till he had a chance to speak with members of the deck crew personally.

As Lieutenant Noonia was shown around, he had a chance to meet some of the hanger crew alone. Each were able to explain to Noonia what their roles were on the deck and the work load. The stress was there during flight operations but so was the pride. The tour was paused when Paxton and Duncanson were called over to inspect that damaged fighter. During this short break, Noonia had a chance to speak with a group of maintenance & cargo personnel. To his surprise, of the seven crew members and two junior officers, only two had any official training in working on warp engines. And those were limited official training. All of them had volunteered to work in the hanger deck just over a year ago. Most of their knowledge had come from cross training. Still, this didn't stop them from using their combined resources to overhaul a Attack Fighter's warp engine. Despite their lack of official training, Noonia could find no fault in their skills or in their work performance. In fact, their over all combined work was rather impressive given their situation.

Noonia also learned a valuable piece of information. It was because of this willingness to pick up where others refused, that was at the core of the discord between Engineering and the Hanger Deck personnel. Nearly all here saw the Engineering Division as filled with wasted talent and lacked any solid leadership. Officially, the Hanger Deck was supposed to send their smaller engines to Engineering for service. However due to delays on getting those engines back, this proved to be unworkable by the Hanger Deck personnel. The situation was further inflamed when the Commander of the Utopia Yards sided with the Engineering Division on a number of issues regarding support and priority of assignments. Before Paxton took over, Hanger Deck personnel were just expected to wait.

It was Paxton and Lieutenant Duncanson that changed all this. She demanded that what ever Engineering could do for them, they had to learn to do for themselves. This was what Noonia could point to the beginning of a rift between the two divisions. Paxton pushed her people to over come crew shortages and, in the eyes of many Hanger Deck personnel, intentional sabotage of the hanger deck's mission. Before Paxton took over, she used to complain about the lack of leadership on the Hanger Deck. Pushing the two Senior Officers regularly to stand up for the Hanger Deck. Both officers had been assigned only shortly before the Refit began and were Cargo Specialist. Under their leadership, the Hanger Deck was treated more like an extension of the cargo hold rather than the fully functioning hanger deck that this space was designed to be. From what Noonia could see, It was Paxton and then later Duncanson that had managed to turn the Hanger Deck around in to what he saw today.

Everyone expected more changes to come down the line, but word from the crew of the Hanger Deck indicated that those changes would arrive once the rest of the fighters were assigned to the ship. One thing that did surprise Noonia was that despite the desperate need for trained engineers, not one of his fellow engineers had even stepped in to the hanger deck let alone volunteered to work here. Those who had some kind of engineering background came from Utopia Station and had been part of the refit crew or had been assigned to the hanger deck prior to the major refit. This alone created a sense of deep pride and even deeper respect between the personnel that worked here. A comradery and harmony that simply didn't exist in the Engineering Division.

There was also something else that Noonia was able to detect from the crew members here. No one in this division felt anything other than the deepest respect for Commander Bonham and all were relieved when he was assigned as their CAG. That was all but Paxton. According to what Noonia could take from the simple conversations, Paxton actually hated Bonham but few understood why. Even though she hated him, even she held the utmost respect for the man. One statement from a petty officer gave Noonia a moment to reflect, "There is not one of us here, not even Lieutenant Paxton, that wouldn't gladly follow that man right in to the flames of hell. He IS one of us, pure and simple."