Fighter Shakedown

Posted on Tue 22nd Nov, 2016 @ 3:47am by Warrant Officer Moklor of the House Karn

1,326 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Murder on the Silent Night Express
Location: Moklor's Fighter
Timeline: MD1, 0930 Hours

Two of the fighters were clear of the mass of engineers and equipment. They were prepared to launch. Inside the lead fighter was Warrant Officer Moklor. He was the tall Klingon, who wanted nothing more than to get in his fighter since he arrived on the station. His wingman, a Bolian woman named Hiaxea Tragg, shared his enthusiasm for flight.

But there was lots of work that had to be done on the engineering side. The goal was to get the fighters ready by this time tomorrow. These two ships were set to go off on a shakedown and sensor sweep. Two other fighters had completed a cruise the previous day.

"Control, this is Caledonia One", Moklor called out after activating the comm system. "Request clearance to rotate." The sound came through in Tragg's fighter, being dialed into the other ship's comms.

=/\= Caledonia, Control... Rotate.=/\=

That was the command they had been waiting for. Moklor was the first to start his engines and bring his fighter to a hover. Both fighters left the shuttlebay floor and began to move towards the center of the shuttlebay. They were soon on approach to the large shuttlebay door. Their engines had a distinct hum, almost an electric buzz.

Several of the mechanics stopped work to watch the little ships glide down the runway. Soon they slipped out of the door's force field and entered open space. Out there, everything was quiet.

"Set course two-seven-zero, mark zero-niner-zero and stay on my tail."

The course would take them to the left of the station and down towards the bottom.

"Affirm, course two-seven-zero, mark zero-niner-zero."

"Half impulse."

Both pilots had their ships running scans of the local area, including the station. It was basically a test of the sensors. They moved away from the station. Soon there was a cushion of safe distance between the fighters and the station.

Moklor grunted over the comm to WO Tragg, "Now we need to test the systems under stress. Lets work on some aerobatics."

Tragg giggled over the comm. She looked over at the station. They were just off to the side of the Promenade. Anyone looking out a window might see the fighters.

"I'm game. What's the routine?"

"Let's go loop, loop, slow roll and then punch it full impulse and then curl and roll back this way. Then let's practice our slow roll again."

"Affirm that", the Bolian exclaimed excitedly. Aerobatics was one of her favorite parts of the Academy. It sounded like a quick explanation of the maneuver, but all pilots were trained in these maneuvers. Tragg was fresh out of the Academy. This was her language, the pilot lingo.

Moklor led Tragg on a looping curve, turning to line up with the Promenade and that half of the station. "In 3, 2, 1... Loop."

The two pilots punched back on the control, turning their fighters up and up until they slowly came to a loop and began their course back down along their original path. It looked a little sloppy, there was some distance between the two ships. But for their first maneuver together, it wasn't half bad.

"Loop."

The two fighters pulled the maneuver off again. This time it was a little tighter.

"Slow roll."

This was a trickier maneuver. Tragg had to keep her fighter just off Moklor's wing, anticipating his roll and adjusting accordingly. The computer was also helping the two coordinate, but pilot skill still came into effect. Since this was space flight, they were free of the extreme G-forces these maneuvers would pull in an atmosphere. Pilots could still sometimes become disoriented, as space combat had its own challenges.

"Punch it."

The ships jumped to full impulse leaping away from their position farther forward into space.

"Curl."

The two fighters banked up in a half loop and headed back in the direction they came at a high speed.

"Roll it back, roll it back."

The two fighters rolled from being inverted, back to being upright compared to the original course.

"Come to half impulse." Moklor punched his fingers on the scanner noticing a Danube class runabout coming in on approach. "You see that on the scanner?"

"That runabout?"

"Affirm. Our other two pilots are on that ship. Let's go give them a wave. On me." The pilots were supposed to get in earlier, but their ship had been delayed.

The two ships came about, changing course towards the incoming runabout. They punched to full impulse and raced to intercept the Federation ship. It had just come out of warp and was chugging along slowly at half impulse. The two Razor fighters approached from the rear, they slowed to half impulse and lowered attitude until they were level with the runabout on opposite sides.

They slowly increased throttle, sliding in front of the runabout. On the viewscreen, the runabout's occupants would see a razor on each side of the screen. As they got farther ahead, they'd be more clearly in view. Moklor's ship on the left rocked side to side, a pilot's wave. Tragg did the same.

Next the fighters disappeared in a flash as they leapt away to Warp 2. They were speeding off towards the edge of the station's science sensor range. They were going to run a full sensor sweep. They would temporarily boost the station's signal and pickup transmissions from deeper space. A lot of times, information gets stored at a relay station until a passing ship picks up a processing transmission and ferries it.

The fighters had been assigned to a sector that a ship hasn't approached from in awhile. Travelling at Warp 2, it took some time to get to the sensor's edge. The two made small talk about cuisine. Moklor talked of how he liked his food alive. Tragg just spoke of loving anything from the sea. They shared a laugh about how humans couldn't handle either of their foods.

A comet many light years away was the most interesting information they picked up. Their info would detail the exact makeup of the comet. Maybe the science section would have use for that. There were also 3 SMS messages waiting for relay. So somebody would be getting a letter. It was hardly a task for a Klingon warrior, but at least Moklor was making himself feel useful.

After about 10 minutes, Tragg came over Moklor's comm.

"I'm having a failure with my long range sensors."

"It looks like a relay inverter issue", Moklor said after scanning her fighter. "Let me finish my scans and we can get out of here."

They spent a few more minutes there before speeding back to the Starbase at Warp 4. Moklor wanted to test the fighters at Emergency speed. Right away, it had an effect on his fighter. The temperature inside his cabin rose to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The Klingon fared with it well, all things considered. He even flew two more laps around the station after they arrived. There were still more systems to test after all.

They finally found what they were scanning for. There was some space junk far enough away from the station to make for good target practice. Tragg stayed on Moklor's wing as the pilots approached from what they determined to be the underside of the wreckage. It appeared to be a shed piece of docking mooring. Moklor hit it first with two pulse phaser shots. Tragg fired next glancing the target. It finally de-molecularized from the phaser shots and vaporized.

The temperature inside Moklor's fighter had now grown to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. He sweat heavily in his flight suit.

"Cleaning up space junk", Tragg started, "Ferrying love letters. Scanning comets. So this is life aboard a starbase, huh?"

Now that everything had been run through its paces, the two ships called up control and began the landing procedure. Their shakedown was over and the mechanics would have a few more things to work on with each fighter.

"We'll get our day", Moklor replied. "We'll get our day."

 

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