Inspection: Flight Deck

Posted on 27 Jun 2016 @ 2:51am by Commander Terry Walsh & Captain Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Jonathan Kilmartin

1,703 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: Flight Deck
Timeline: MD 2 || 0815 hours

Harvey stepped out of the turbolift onto the bustling flight deck, the next stop on his ship-wide inspection. As he hadn't performed one of these in several weeks, he knew the crew would not have been prepared for his arrival. His eyes immediately noticed that lack of preparation. Already he could see unsecured ordinance and fighter parts laying throughout the flight deck, as well as the hulk of a Peregine fighter sitting in one of the bays.

"What... is that doing here?" he muttered, stopping and taking a good look at the crew shuffling about the deck. At least they were busy. Busy enough to not notice him. He reached up, adjusted the brim of his cap, and resumed his walk. He was on a schedule that he certainly needed to keep.

Terry ducked under the wing of a Valkyrie and hit his head on a part hanging from it. "Aw hell!" he exclaimed grabbing his head. "Get that...whatever...put back in there! Now!" He was ashamed to find his flight deck in such disarray, especially so soon after leaving Unity. He looked around at the crew and saw someone off in the distance with a hat on. As he quickly made his way over there, he called out, "Hey! Get that cap off your head! What do you think this is? Federation's Next Top Model?" Terry couldn't see much of anything else due to his stepping around containers.

Harvey recognized the voice of the Squadron Commander, prompting him to smirk at the remark. It was true, not many aboard the ship wore covers anymore as it was a lost naval tradition. Still, he turned to face the approaching Lieutenant Commander, allowing Terry to see the ship's patch embroidered to the front of the hat. "I might suggest you get one of your own, Commander," Harvey stated. "They are quite comfortable."

Terry caught sight of the Black Hawk's logo on the front of the cap. Then he saw the face under the bill. Aw crap, he thought. I'm gonna get it for sure, now. "Captain, uh, my apologies, Sir. I thought it was one of the maintenance crew. But as far as getting one of my own, I wouldn't want to cover this up," he said, running his hand over his bald head. "What can do for you, Sir?"

"You should try it anyway," Harvey quipped. "I think this ship has maybe ten of its original crew still aboard. When I walk by them wearing this, you should see the spring in their step." Smiling, Harvey added, "As to what you can do for me... I'm making an unscheduled inspection of the ship, top to bottom." He left out the part that he used to perform these daily.

"I bet it does serve as a pick-me-up for them," Terry replied. He then ran his hand down the back of head as the Captain mentioned his unscheduled inspection of the ship. That meant that this was an unscheduled inspection of the Fighter Squadron. He knew what the deck looked like and suspected that this wasn't going to be good. "Well Sir, where would you like to start?" He quickly scanned the surrounding area for Lieutenant Kilmartin. The last Terry knew, he was down here on the deck.

"The unsecured ordinance is a good place to start," Harvey mentioned, gesturing to the pile of torpedoes that were nearby. "Had I known we were going to lose Chief Griffin to Unity, I would have put up a bigger fight."

Terry looked to the torpedoes and then back to the Captain. "The unsecured ordinance will be taken care of, Captain," said the Squadron Commander. "And I too wish that Griffin hadn't been transferred. We really could use another one of him down here."

"Fighter Maintenance Chiefs are few and far between these days," Harvey remarked, beginning to walk towards the older looking fighter that did not belong with the others. "We're going to have to find one that's here already."

Terry nodded. "It makes sense, Sir," he said, falling to the Captain's left side. Putting his superior officer on his right side was a hold-over from the Corp. Whether Starfleet did it or not, he'd never really noticed. He did notice, however that they were heading toward the Peregrine, their new training fighter.

Lieutenant Kilmartin had been working on the Peregrine, trying to assist with some of the maintenance issues that were plaguing it. As such, he was now laying beneath the craft and was working away at an exposed section with the crafts new knuckledragger, Petty Officer Thomas, when they both caught sight of the Squadron Commander talking to someone that looked suspiciously like the ships Captain. "Crap," they mouthed at each other before Kilmartin slid out from under the craft and scrambled to his feet just in time for them to reach him.

It was impossible to ignore the two men scurrying out from under the Peregrine, and Harvey could only smirk in response. "Kilmartin, isn't it?" Harvey asked, approaching the Deputy Chief. They hadn't formally met. "What do you think about the old girl?"

"Kilmartin, yes sir," the Lieutenant spoke as he wiped an oily hand on his trousers. "She's a useful addition to our ranks Captain and she will ensure that our newest pilots will be fully trained," the deputy spoke.

Harvey hated to think that training pilots meant they'd be replacing someone lost in action. The road to overthrowing the Consortium would be a long one, and as much as he despised the thought of losing a soul, Harvey knew it was more than just a possibility.

"Good," the Captain simply said. "Although, I was more so meaning the ship itself. Fifteen years is a good life for a carrier."

Terry had thought that he meant the Peregrine as well. But when the Captain mentioned the ship itself, he smiled. He would have answered the same way that Kilmartin did.

"Oh!" Kilmartin grinned at the misunderstanding. "Well my first few days aboard were spent held up in sickbay and I haven't checked the whole ship out since, but, you have some highly competent crewmen here sir and if the ship is half as efficient as them, we've got a real fire cracker on our hands." the department deputy smiled as he corrected himself.

There was not enough willpower in Harvey to stifle his chuckle, after all, he did appreciate the Lieutenant's answer. And, he did intentionally lead him into that question. A glance to his left told him Commander Walsh didn't expect it either. "That's good to hear, Mister Kilmartin. I suppose you're eager to get into a bird."

"Well, eager to fly, not necessarily eager to get into a combat situation," the squadron deputy clarified.

"Sadly they go hand in hand these days," Harvey remarked, his smile fading. "How are the pilots with visual scanning?" he asked them both. "Sensors will not operate well in the nebula, no matter how small."

Terry spoke up first. "For pilots that have relied on sensors their entire career, I'm not so sure. I mean, we've got some that have pretty good vision and could handle it easy enough." He looked to Lieutenant Kilmartin. "How about you, Sunbeam? You did good at manually landing that Peregrine without the tractor beam or the automatic landing system? How would you fair at manual scanning?"

"I'd need a bit of flight time to hone the skill again," Kilmartin shrugged, "wouldn't take long. Personally, I believe we should encourage as much manual work as possible. You never know when you are going to be involved in a situation where automated systems wont function. In fact, the Commander here has allowed me to begin manual landings only in order to train the pilots."

Harvey nodded approvingly. "Skill will be everything in the nebula," he said. "Whatever you gentlemen have to do to get these pilots ready, do it. You'll have to be our eyes and ears out there. Flying without sensors in a fighter is one thing. Flying without sensors in a boat of over 500 people, that's another matter entirely."

Kilmartin looked at Walsh for further information.

"You've got it, Captain," replied Terry. "We'll make sure they have the proper training in visual scanning before we get there. I'm sure we can put together a similar nebula in the holodeck and have the computer put the proper restrictions into place. Along with a Valdor class and two Intrepid class ships randomly hidden." Terry paused a second, thinking about the comparison. "Yeah, I can definitely see the difference, sir. We'll be your eyes and ears out there. And I plan on having the perimeter at a far enough distance to give you time to act back here."

"Good," Harvey said, turning to take another look around the Flight Deck. "We don't have much time, a couple days at most," Harvey told the pilots. "I'll leave you to it."

The Captain began to walk away, only to pause and turn back after a couple of steps towards the mess of a Flight Deck. "I'll be back tomorrow morning, Commander. I hope I'll like what I see."

"Yes sir," replied Terry. "I think you will." He then watched for the Captain to be far enough away not to hear over the din of the work being done. Turning to Kilmartin, he said, "We need to get this Flight Deck back to what it should be. I'll coordinate with the Deck Commander and you coordinate with the Maintenance Chief. Between the both of us, we'll cover everyone and this place will be ready for his visit tomorrow morning."

"I'll get right to it," Kilmartin nodded before gesturing for his knuckledragger colleague to get back to work under the Peregrine. Sunbeam then gave a nod to his superior before heading off to get on with his newest task. Preparing the flight deck for another visit, just what he needed.

Terry nodded as he watched Sunbeam walk away to coordinate his side of things. Then he turned and tapped his combadge, "Commander Walsh to Flight Deck Commander, meet me in the Pilot's Briefing Room immediately. Walsh out."

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