Touring the Facilities, part 4: Flight Control/Starfighters (part 1)

Posted on Mon Nov 27th, 2023 @ 5:06am by Captain Maho Takahashi & Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Karen Kujo 'Union Jane'
Edited on on Mon Nov 27th, 2023 @ 5:07am

1,138 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Operation Tokyo Return
Location: Shuttlebay, Deck 3
Timeline: After 'Touring the Facilities, part 3: Engineering (part 2)'

The next stop on the tour route was the Myogi's main (and only) shuttlebay, for a joint inspection of Flight Control and the Myogi's tiny starfighter wing.

"And this, is our shuttlebay:" Maho introduced Taiga to the space. "We're not blessed with having multiple shuttlebays, so we make do with what we have: All our auxiliary craft operations launch from this shuttlebay, including our tiny starfighter wing. Now, I'm sure you're going to gloat that the Tokyo's fighter wing dwarfs ours, and Miyahara thought similarly, believe it or not: I had seen plans for a design that made the New Orleans class spaceframe into a carrier, with a larger fighter wing to boot, but now that Miyahara is a fugitive, I don't know what will become of those plans..."

Jane had been working with a maintenance team on the Reopon port impulse nacelle when she heard the door open and the inspection coming through. She had hoped this work would have been done by now, but diagnosing the problem proved harder than anticipated.

The parts she had been working with often got very dirty, especially when they were faulty, so the Chief Flight Control Officer's uniform jacket was off, hanging on a hook near the workbench. She told her team to keep working and made her way into view. "Pardon me, Captain, I just need to wash up."

"Perfectly understandable, Lieutenant:" Maho nodded. "I understand that working in the shuttlebay is quite a dirty job."

The pilot quickly used the sonic handwashing station, then fixed a few loose strands of hair, and put her uniform jacket back on. Once she was proper, she joined the inspection unit. "Captain, Captain, Commander," she nodded to the visitors.

"Lieutenant, I was hoping you might be inclined to show us around the Shuttlebay?" Maho said. "To give our guest an idea of what day to day operations are like in the sole shuttlebay of a one shuttlebay starship."

Taiga was just simply looking around at all the various different auxiliary craft. It was nothing compared to that of the Tokyo's, in fact it seemed rather pathetic to what she was used to. "Hmm..." she said simply as if thinking to herself.

"It would be my pleasure, Captain," Jane said with a friendly smile. The smile that she had been trained to deploy when dealing with hostile journalists. Sincere, but also concealing negative feelings. "Please interrupt me if you have questions as I go. This way please." She gestured for the group to follow her.

"At one time, single shuttlebay starships were the norm rather than the exception," Jane began. "Even ships with two shuttlebay doors, like the Miranda, tended to have just one interior landing bay. So I like to think of it as working the way our predecessors did, rather than feeling in any way restrictive."

Jane guided the group further into the landing bay, walking backwards as she talked. "Our mission profile doesn't require significant auxiliary craft. The occasional cargo or personnel transfer away from the ship's course, or deployment in situations where transporters cannot or should not be used, still come up, but not with the frequency of a ship that's out on the Federation periphery or exploring even further out. Reopon and Magamo work perfectly for smaller deployments in system. We use Usagi and Ahiru for longer range transit, as they're a bit more comfortable. Nothing beats Ankou or Kame for speed though. If we need combat support, our best assets are NightKid one and two, the Razor Interceptors. Finally, if it's to bring lots of cargo or people down somewhere, we have our Argo, the Godzilla. Though truthfully I've always wondered if we shouldn't Anglicize that one. I've thought about submitting paperwork to change it to Gojira but we've been busy."

She grinned. "Busy with what? You asked about our day to day. Every vehicle gets a systems check daily, and there's a rotating schedule for more complicated, time consuming, and resource intensive testing, like warp field stress tests, our equipment for which is brand new, received after some traitors to the uniform stole our equipment when they transferred out."

She walked them back toward the maintenance area. "Unlike bigger ships, the New Orleans class does not have a dedicated shuttle maintenance deck. We're standing right above holodeck 2 right now, if I'm remembering the layout right. So we have this corner here for maintenance work. We use the tractor beams, there and there," she pointed to a pair of emitter terminals and control stations, "to move the auxiliary craft within the bay. We don't have much vertical clearance, so as much as the other pilots and I might like to simply fly the vehicles around, it simply isn't practical or safe, and safety remains a top priority. My team here is working on the Reopon's port impulse nacelle. There was an EPS failure in the signaling system. Had it failed on mission, the shuttle would have been fine, aside from slightly sluggish controls. The backups all tested fine, but you never want to rely on those."

She gestured to a space on the other side of a window along the back wall, exactly opposite the launch door. "Back there is the control room, and next to it is my office, mostly for departmental paperwork and personnel management. I oversee the helm officers, the dedicated shuttle pilots, and the maintenance staff, as well as the shuttle flight and maintenance logs, the inventory for spare part, fuel, power, and replicator use, and liaise with security regarding systems for shuttle- and fighter-based weapons. Those systems remain under lock and key, and reports are issued to Command Misono and Lieutenant Commander Ebisuzawa any time the weapons systems are modified in any way. Just the other day, Chief Engineer Rori and I replaced a phaser coil on Ankou, which was due to be replaced. Restricted components like that are then given to Security for safe and secure disposal."

"Finally," Jane said, "we also keep our team members well trained, both individually and as a unit. We have the means to activate the shuttles' flight controls in a training mode and display simulation data to the pilots, allowing us to train in flight operations either one at a time or, occasionally, all of us at once. Just before launch, we did an evacuation test, where we simulate all auxiliary craft filling to capacity and launching inside three minutes and then corralling escape pods away from the Myogi inside of five minutes before a warp core breach."

She took a deep breath, grinning, after her presentation was over. "Any questions?"

To be continued...

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