Flight Of Fancying

Posted on Sat Nov 4th, 2017 @ 12:56pm by Captain Michelle Bartlett & Lieutenant Ilona Forrester

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Shuttlebay 2

The shuttle was coming in fast. Then it did a barrel roll and weaved back and forth, the pilot at the helm clearly a crazy man or possibly drunk. Maybe even both? Thirty seconds out, it drifted back and forth, horizontal aspect shifting up to thirty degrees to each side as if it were a luge climbing the walls of the tube. Shortly before it entered between the nacelles, it settled down into a direct approach to the shuttle bay and ACCELERATED HARD. Through the viewscreen a bright, grinning face could be seen if the magnification had been dialed high enough, then without any warning whatsoever, the shuttle flipped through a complete one hundred eighty degree flip without changing height, then twisted so that the down was once again down relative to the deck. A bright flash of the impulse engines and then the glow died as they were killed from the cockpit. Finally, still at a higher than normal speed, the shuttle came slamming through the atmospheric forcefield and a flare of emergency reactor thrusters slowed it to a few feet a second speed and it settled down soft as could be without any scraping on the deck.

After about thirty seconds, the rear hatch opened, the smell of ejecta wafting through the air as well as the groans of at least four people on the inside, "You'll be fine," The blonde-haired woman who stood at the top of the ramp said to them, before taking her first step backwards onto it, "Just give yourself a couple minutes, oh, and make sure you clean up after yourselves!" She called out, then spun and just about jogged down the ramp to the bottom, almost running into the blue-clad woman standing there. "Woops!"

"Right, well just make sure everything is ready to go by the time we...What the hell?!" Michelle said, having felt the being bumped into, and having seen the 'docking'... That should really inspire confidence where flying a shuttle is concerned. Hopefully Admiral Marquette didn't make good on her threat...

It was only through sheer luck that the short pilot only had to look slightly up at the redhead in front of her, "Sorry about that, chickie chickie, didn't mean to run into you! That was a rather exciting landing, if I dare say so, the guys in the back, though, well.. Whew, they didn't take it so well."

Michelle simply smirked a little... Okay... this woman wanted to have a little fun. "I'll be sure to arrange new uniforms for them." she said. "They might need it... Or maybe just send a bit of Aldeberan Whiskey to their quarters once they've settled." she said. "First time flying out of the Academy, then?"

"Hell no!" Cally sounded, "Flew assault shuttles for the Marines for four years, then jumped through an OCS course when I switched to the fleet before flying shuttles and ships for the last five, my last was an Akira, and let me tell you, those can really be a lot of fun!" She stuck out her hand, "Li-eu-tenant Calypso Skyie, but everyone calls me Cally. Just gotta find the Skipper on this tub to let them know I'm their head helm and shuttle pilot."

Michelle smirked a bit, then wiped it away. "The acting captain is a little occupied at the moment, but I'm the acting First Officer. Commander Michelle Chickie-Chickie Bartlett, at your service."

Cally's grin widened at the Commander's use of the term, "Well, if they're busy, I guess I can work with you!" She glanced sidelong at the first passenger wobbling off the ramp, "But my guess, then, is that this is addressed wrong if there's an acting Captain." She pulled a PADD out of it's place in her belt, "Commo from Major General Rozhenko to Captain Ross, no idea what it says, didn't know the encrypt, but he said it was important."

"General Rozhenko? I wonder what he needs." Michelle asked. Well, at least it wasn't Admiral Marquette... "I'll pass it along to her. I understand you have my Operations Officer?" she asked.

"Yeah, a Lieutenant Forrester, I think.. I also have a Petty Officer and a.pair of crewers." Calypso shrugged, "At least two of them lost their lunches, not sure which. But yup, she should be off at any time."

The redhead in the back unbelted. Daydreams of creating poltergeists and scrambling the controls in the flight officer's quarters capered wickedly through her imagination as she gingerly stepped over the piles of sickness in front of and off to the side of a couple of her fellow passengers on the unexpected roller coaster ride. It wasn't quite the entrance to her assignment she'd expected, but given the stark boredom of the conference she'd just attended, maybe she should be thanking the... Cally, was it, for the entertainment. Hiding an inner snicker at the First Officer's introduction, she paused beside the blonde FCO. "Commander Bartlett? I'm Lieutenant Forrester, your new Assistant Operations Officer."

Michelle nodded. "A pleasure to meet you. Looks like you, uh... flew in style." she said, thinking about the landing. "I hope everything other than the landing was all right getting here."

"You should have been there for the rest of it," Ilona snarked with a half-grin at the pilot.

"Oh I think that's quite all right." Michelle said. "And I'm sorry, did you say "Assistant Operations Officer?" she asked.

"I did, yes. Oh, please tell me I've been demoted already." Ilona quipped, though her eyes narrowed barely perceptibly at the ominous-sounding question. "Or did Cally take me to the wrong ship?"

"Of COURSE I took you to the wrong ship, Ilona... my devious plan has been found out!" Cally rolled her eyes, "Sure, a micro-jump in warp might have been uncalled for, I admit it, but it doesn't mean the wrong ship!" Cally whined in an over dramatic way, making sure it was obvious.

Michelle sort of gave a look, though there was a slight grin out the corner of her lips. "You might wish you were demoted. You're now the Acting Chief Operations Officer. Your predecessor was killed in an explosion."

"What happened?" All signs of humor left Ilona's face as her slightly stunned gaze drilled into the commander.

Michelle lowered her head a bit before looking back up. "Lieutenant Martin along with Captain Ross and most of the bridge crew were killed in an act of sabotage. The Captain's Yacht blew up after a volatile substance was used to ignite the warp core."

"How many bridge crew?" Ilona asked, as she simultaneously wondered how many officers were allowed to be on the same ship off the main ship at the same time. "Who did it? Are they in custody?"

"9." Michelle said. "And not yet... We have an idea who it is, we're just confirming our theory."

"Ouch..." Cally winced, "And I guess my to-be-assistant chief was the pilot on board?"

"Lieutenant Holt was our old chief pilot and she was killed. Her successor was presumably murdered today as well." Michelle said. "I wish I could give you a nice heartwarming lecture about how you've been assigned to a hell of a ship but today it's more you've been assigned to a ship plotting a course through hell."

Calypso shrugged, "Can't be worse than the drop on Tolren, the one time I knew, just knew I wasn't going to make it down and out alive. Was wrong though, Boss Lady Ma'am."

Michelle nodded. "Well.. I'm sure things will eventually get back to something resembling normal. But for now? You sort of landed into a shit sandwich. Almost as much of a shit sandwich as your shuttle landing. You'd best not be flying my ship like that."

With a flush of red, Cally glanced away, "Not sure a Sovy could pull that particular maneuver worth a damn anyways." She mentioned, "I will keep my flying of the ship to a reasonable level." She coughed to clear her throat, but if someone was listening carefully, the *might* have heard the word 'mostly' in the cough.

"I completely expect nothing less." Michelle said with a grin. "So.. congratulations on your, umm... assignments.. I guess."

"Good to be here, Commander Lady-buns, just wish it weren't so morbid." Calypso still had a smile on her face.

Michelle bristled a bit but kept her composure. I mean it's not like the one time an ambassador asked her for sex right off the bat thinking that she was her aide's personal hooker. That was a weird mission. "I promise at some point, we'll make it worth your while. Were there any other questions?"

'Lady-buns?' Ilona thought to herself as her gaze switched from stunned to blank, wondering if she was going to be witness to a courtmartial sooner rather than later, since anything seemed possible aboard this ship. "None yet, although it's quite likely after I've caught up on events."

"I'll make sure I find time to bring you up to speed. If there's nothing else, I hope you'll both excuse me. I have some other matters to attend to."

"I'm good if you are!" Cally chirped, then before anything else could be said, turned amd looked up the ramp where an obviously green human was finally stumbling off, then trotted up it and looked into the cabin, "Hey!" She called after the one rapidly moving towards the shuttlebay doors, "You call THAT clean?"

Michelle turned around... thought abotu saying something, and then realized there were bigger fish to fry today.

END