Home Again, Home Again

Posted on Thu May 10th, 2012 @ 11:51am by Captain Tobias Naros & Lieutenant JG Miranda Blackfur
Edited on on Sat May 19th, 2012 @ 5:42pm

Mission: Episode 1.0 - "Enduring Legacy"
Location: Cape Henry
Timeline: Mission Day 07, 1423 Hours

ON: [[Cape Henry, Mission Day 07, 1423 Hours]]

Asteroid A-4563 almost could have been classified as a planetoid, yet its mass was a bit below the standard of the classification. It was huge, airless rock of various elements, the most abundant being Nickel and Iron. The surface was pocked-marked from other meteors and space debris. Where it came from was another mystery, the subject of speculations amongst many scientists and geologists. There were several areas big enough to land small shuttles, runabouts and other crafts as well as several domes festered with antennae, solar panels, and small buildings. Their roofs could be seen dotting the landscape for extra equipment storage and computers to run the various scanners, sending data to the appropriate place and a continuous warning to passing ships in case the ship crews strayed too close. All in all, it was an excellent place for Flight Evaluators to use and for couples with a small shuttle to to watch the dustmotes race.

Tobias eased back the Cape Henry's impulse engines as they entered what would have amounted to an orbit of the asteroid. A quick sensor sweep of the surface identified at least half-a-dozen possible locations suitable for landing the shuttle as Lieutenant Blackfur had directed. He immediately rejected the first two because of their proximity to nearby antennae clusters and settled upon the third instead. "What do you like most about serving aboard a Federation starship, lieutenant," Tobias asked as the shuttle began descending toward the asteroid's surface.

"I'm just happy be amongst the stars, Captain," Miranda purred softly as she spoke, being vigilant, ready to assist the Captain as a second pilot while being the Evaluator for this flight.

"Sounds like a pretty valid reason," Tobias observed. He glanced once more through the shuttle's forward viewport before turning his full attention to the readouts before him. While he was certainly capable of making the landing on visual reference alone, there was no need to disregard the credible information provided by the shuttle's navigational sensors. "Five thousand meters to target and closing," he announced.

Miranda watched, making brief notes. Nodded, acknowledging his read out. "Confirmed," she said, glancing at her screen with it's multiple subwindows open to various functions of the shuttle. She felt the soft thud of contact with the asteroid, looking thoughtful as she had felt worse from previous pilots on their evals. She just purrred softly, nodded to Tobias, indicating he could take off and continue back to the Yorktown.

The landing had been rather textbook as far as Tobias was concerned, given they were not dealing with any sort of major interference or variability which might have made their approach more difficult. "Home again, home again," he muttered mostly to himself with a small smile as he guided the shuttle back toward where the Yorktown remained docked at the station.

[[Main Shuttlebay, USS Yorktown]]

Miranda had looked back through the notes and Eval Checklist as the shuttle returned to the USS Yorktown. "Passing score of 69%," she told him, "You're re-certified till the next one is due in three years from now. You can retake the Evals for a higher score later. You'll have a full report on your desk by 0800 hours ship time, Captain."

She smiled at him, as she disembarked the Cape Henry and wondered how he would react to that, seeing his last few scores from previous Re-Certification were impressive and this one was the lowest by far. Miranda suspected a lot of his past subordinates in the flight department probably gave him the "Pencil Test". If this assessment cost her slot aboard the Yorktown, at least she could hold her head high as she had done her job and informed him where he needed improvement in. She also took into account him being Captain of a larger ship...that sure took up a lot of his time.

"Lieutenant," Tobias called after the departing Catian from where he stood at the top of the Cape Henry's boarding ramp.

Miranda paused as she half turned, looking over her shoulder at the Captian. "Yes sir?" she asked softly, demeanor once more professional.

"Thank you for your time," Tobias said, "I look forward to reading your assessment in greater detail."

Miranda nodded. "Yurrrr welcome," she purred back softly as her tail swished behind her gently. She turned and moved toward her office up in Shuttle Flight Control, directing the Shuttle Maintenance crews to service the Cape Henry and place it in it's assigned stowage slot.

Tobias watched as Lieutenant Blackfur disappeared into her temporary office before descending the ramp to the deck plating below. Despite the fact this flight marked the lowest assessment he had received since graduating the Academy, he still considered the trip to have been quite productive. It had given him a chance to get to know a little bit more about one of his senior staff.

OFF

A Joint Mission Post by:

Captain Tobias Naros
Commanding Officer
USS Yorktown

and

Lieutenant JG Miranda Blackfur
Chief Flight Officer
USS Yorktown