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

Paxton and Duncanson returned to where they had left Noonia after they had inspected the damaged fighter. the three met back up and enjoyed a brief reunion as Noonia took the opportunity to explain so far what he saw and what he believed. He also took note of the need for the two divisions, Engineering and Flight Operations, to work together. Paxton only laughed at the prospects of that, but it was Duncanson who spoke up, "Oh we have requested Engineering support on a number of projects. However the Chief Engineer,"

Noonia couldn't help but noticed Paxton mumbling something under her breath as she turned away from the conversation. He could almost make out the word abomination from what Paxton had mumbled.

Lieutenant Duncanson didn't miss a beat as if he was covering up for the clear disdain that Paxton felt for Lieutenant Medart. "would always reply with 'it will be scheduled'. We are still waiting on some of those 'scheduled issues' to be resolved."

Noonia could feel the deep emotions fueled by his suggestion. It was almost as if he had asked a starving man to simply ask for food, after that man had been begging for food all day. This rift ran deep and Noonia could sense that he had his work cut out for himself. However he was determined to make this plan work. He continued to express his willingness to learn.

Lieutenant Paxton turn to face Noonia nodded her head as she pulled off a length of cord from her EV suite, "Hollywood, we are all here to learn new paths." she said walking closer to him while handing the end of the cord to Noonia so that he could attach it to his own belt. Lieutenant Duncanson pulled off the same amount of cord and affixed it to Noonia's belt as well. "Before I was part of your Starfleet, I was in the Republican Guard" she explained as she doubled checked the cord and made sure that he was secured to her suite. It was clear that they were going somewhere without gravity.

"Would you believe that before that I was a artist" Paxton continued with a sense of sadness in her voice. She added, "I was young and foolish back then. I guess it is something that all races share in common. The ignorance of youth" there was something more to the story but their journey was appearing to take them over to a large cargo transporter pad with a type eleven shuttle craft resting on the pad.

It was the first time that Noonia had seen Paxton fall silent due to having nothing to say. Lieutenant Duncanson spoke up to cover the silence as they continued to walk over to the pad. "I was a Marine Infantry officer before I requested to be transfered here, Lieutenant" he explained as he moved by the shuttle craft. He smiled as he ran his hand on the shuttle, "this might interest you Lieutenant." he added, "This shuttle craft is rather special. There are only five like them in all of Starfleet. It was designed for our kind of operations" he said as he turned to look in to Noonia's eyes. "To extend our own sensor ranges and act as a secondary flight control during combat missions" he explained as the three of them moved next to the shuttle craft. "This one is about to support our continued search of the system. They have more sensors and tracking equipment than some small starships. A crew of five and the speed to hang with our fastest fighters. They are worth their weight, Lieutenant." He nodded to the shuttle as if it was a living being. "Because of their special missions, they are called Cat's Eye," he concluded.

After regaining herself, Paxton spoke up once more, "We are taking you to the flight deck Lieutenant." Noonia almost missed the fact that she didn't call him Hollywood. "There is no gravity there, nor atmosphere. Because you are not wearing an EV Suite, we have to keep these cords on you for your own safety. Also, we won't be able to hear you unless you key up your comlink." Both of his guides put their helmets on. Paxton also slid a sleeve over her tail and attached it to the back of her EV Suite. There were sounds of seals being made as both of his guides double checked each other and his own life support belt. From this point on, their voices were transmitted over communication channels. "Shall we show you the real business end of this ship?" Paxton's voice came over the comlink. There it was again in Paxton's voice. That kind of pride that no amount of humble demeanor could hide. Paxton gave the signal that they were ready.

Lieutenant Noonia noticed that there were two Craft Handlers along side of the shuttle and a safety officer. Like the two lieutenants with him, these three personnel were also wearing armored EV Suites and were armed with phaser pistols. However in this moment, each were going over the craft with tricorders and using their eyes. Anything that could go wrong with the craft was inspected, not once but at least twice. Despite the distraction that his little tour might have caused to the three crew members their focus was on the shuttle. The three personnel in charge of moving the shuttle craft up to the hanger deck focused only on getting the shuttle off the ship safely. Noonia had seen other shuttle bays in operation but none seemed to have their operations conducted like this one did. With a nod to the safety and a transport tech, the group along with the shuttle were transported to the Flight Deck.

The flight deck was all that it was made up to be. And only one word could best describe the deck, massive. The entire deck was well over four hundred meters long and just over three decks tall. A lone runabout was coming in for landing at the far end of the deck. It was moving at nearly full impulse which was not normal for Noonia. It almost seemed as if the craft was going to crash in to the ship till a set of tractor beams caught the runabout. As the tractor beams locked on to the runabout, they brought the craft to a slow as it was moved to over one of the transporter pads along the port side of the deck. A number of deck personnel moved towards the craft as they secured the runabout for transport. all wore the same colors as those below but these personnel were wearing armored EV suites. At each end of the flight deck, Noonia could see the force fields that protected the deck from the vacuum of space. It raised a question about why having them engaged if the deck was depressurized and didn't have gravity.

Noonia watched as the shuttle craft that he had beamed up with as it was moved in to departure position. It was strange for Noonia cause he knew that the craft could simply hover towards the large opening and depart under its own power. It in that moment that Paxton's voice came over his comlink, "There are a series of tractor and repulser beams along each end of this deck with a third set of tractor beams along the center. These make up our launch and recovery systems. They are splint in to three separate systems with the fore and aft systems mirrored with each other. Power is supplied to each system independently via the EPS networks. During none warp operations, we launch forward and capture aft. During warp operations, we reverse the operations" Paxton explained. This caused Noonia to almost gasps as the idea of launching during warp speed was highly dangerous. Let alone landing on a ship traveling at warp speed.

Noonia watched as the Deck Captain gave directions from the center of the deck near the departure end of the deck. Because there was no atmosphere here, Noonia could hear nothing beyond his own little force field secured bubble. Noonia watched as the shuttle craft was moved in to position under its own power. The Deck Captain took over issuing orders from the craft handlers. The pilot acknowledged this transfer by flashing the lights of the shuttle off and back on. With the deck crews backing away, the shuttle was ran through a series of tests before the Deck Captain was sure that the craft was ready for departure. Noonia watched as this silent operation played out. It was as if he was watching a silent play preformed by a elite troop of performers.

The entire operation played out before Noonia's eyes with a level of perfection that could not be denied. The repulsers took hold of the shuttle craft and started to build up tension to sling the craft out of the ship. "A slow moving target departing the ship would make for a easy target to enemy fighters or near by ships. Because of this, we rocket departing craft out at over full impulse speed. This is done so that they are not easy targets during combat situations," she explained. "We operate as if we are in combat at all times" Paxton added.

It was then that Duncanson's voice broke in, "we train and carry out our duties in such a way that regardless of rather we are in combat or not, we perform at the same level. This keeps our proficiency at the same high levels regardless of the situation."

Noonia was looking forward to watching the departure as everything was building to that point. It was if the entire world around him was hanging on this one moment. The Deck Captain was issuing the final orders to deck hands and pilots. He stood in a circle just off center of the shuttle as the craft slowly hovered. The repulser energy could be seen as it was building up the wave to hurl the shuttle out and away from the flight deck. Ever the engineer, Noonia could see how this operation was to work. The interlinked repulser emitters created a pull push energy base around the craft. His mind could see who each system in this operation was critical and how they worked with each other. It was if time had stood still as the Deck Captain pivoted on his heels as he dropped to a knee. He pointed down the departure end of the deck as he was clearly giving the launch command to those watching. It was the moment that Noonia was waiting for.

However not even seconds after the craft started to move, one of the safeties near a pedestal along the port side of the deck raised his arms in a cross like fashion. But it was too late, the repulsers had already started to vault the craft forward. In that moment one of the repulsers near the departure end of the flight deck, along the starboard side and halve way up the wall failed. There was a massive soundless series of sparks as the shuttle rocked violently. Without that set of repulsers, the shuttle was forced at a high rate of speed towards the starboard wall of the flight deck. Noonia stood in disbelief over what he was watching. The shuttle struggled against the other repulsers but to no avail. The craft slammed in to the starboard wall with a fantastic shower of sparks and flames.

The white glowing emitters of the forward shield that protected the deck from space flickered and failed as the shuttle tumbled out in to space. Its engines burning bright as it vanished from sight. Still large pieces of the shuttle were sent showering back in to the flight deck. The situation vanished from Noonia's view as Lieutenants Duncanson and Paxton both forced him down to the deck and covered his unarmed body with their own. Noonia only saw the deck as he felt the weight of the two on top of him. He heard nothing and he couldn't help but feel fear over what was happening. In that second, he felt the impact of something large slamming in to the mass of armored EV Suites above him. He couldn't tell if the ship had jolted or if it was just him. All he knew was that this was not the place to be without a functioning EV suite. Suddenly he felt so naked and all but helpless.

Lieutenant Duncanson finally helped Noonia up from the deck. Noonia's comlink had been damaged or was otherwise inoperative. Noonia could tell that Paxton was injured as a large section of her suite was dented inward. He knew that it was impossible that she didn't sustain some kind of damage from the dent. It took Noonia all of a few seconds to link the red and white paint on her green EV Suite to the large shuttle nacelle floating free a bit further down the deck. Noonia didn't noticed that the two Lieutenants were talking through hand signals as he took in the scene before him. What drew his focus on was the level of damage to the flight deck. Pieces of the shuttle were shotting across the flight deck like deadly shrapnel. There were at least five wounded deck hands and unknown number of wounded on the shuttle.

What snapped Noonia's attention back was when Paxton unhooked herself from them and used her thrusters to move towards the wounded. Regardless of what ever damaged she might have suffered under the impact with the shuttles nacelle, her focus was on her people. In that second, Noonia felt himself being transported. He had thought that he was being beamed somewhere safe. It was almost a disappointing thought that he might be removed from the scene. However, when the Flight Operations Center appeared before his eyes, he remembered what Paxton had said. Lieutenant Duncanson was still in charge of the deck and in this case the crisis. She trusted him to handle the crisis while she took a more hands on position within the crisis.