Departure

Posted on Sun 18th Jun, 2017 @ 9:22am by Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Zachary Hunt

680 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: For The Uniform
Location: Main Bridge - USS Warpsite
Timeline: MD-02: 0800 Hours

The Defiant-class starship, officially an escort vessel, began development around 2366 as a small, highly-powered, heavily-armed warship intended to defend the United Federation of Planets against the Borg. The USS Defiant (NX-74205) was the first prototype of what was to be a new Federation battle fleet. However, the ship had numerous design problems that were made apparent during its shakedown cruise. These flaws, combined with the decreased urgency of the Borg threat, caused Starfleet to table its plans for a battle fleet and put the Defiant in storage.

The Defiant prototype was pulled out of storage in 2371 when the Dominion threat emerged. After many trials and tribulations whilst being used from it's home station, Deep Space Nine, the Defiant class proved itself to be a formidable opponent against even capital ships. It's maneuverability and armaments made it hard to match.

Now, finally, the repairs to the mothballed USS Warspite has been completed. Drake gripped the sides of the chair... the material felt soft under his touch. It felt good to be back in the Captain's chair... despite Vanguard being an impressive beast, it just didn't have something that a ship had... namely a central chair!

He tapped the console to his right and started barking orders.

"Recalibrate phaser banks one and two" He said, noting an aye sir from his right.

"Initialise starboard and port thrusters, standby impulse power." He addresses the helm.

"Drake to Engineering... Standby to increase dueterium injection rate... configure driver coils for impulse speed... Set EPS taps at level three." He felt in full swing now, taking out a starship on a shakedown cruise was one of the most exciting times.

"Mr. Hunt, seal the airlock and release docking clamps." He spoke to the Executive Officer, who had taken the operations station to this left.

"Closing exterior hatches, depressuring the airlock. Detach umbilicals, clear all moorings."

"Thrusters at station keeping." He said to the young female Ensign on helm.

"Initialise deflector field.. docking clamps released." Hunt informed everyone.

"Ease us out, Ensign." Drake was calm and he portrayed as much in his tone. This was the part where most could go wrong and it was important that everyone remained calm and remembered their training.

"Port and starboard thrusters at one quarter, bearing 180 mark 0. Distance from docking ring, 50 metres, 60, 70, 80." She spoke, concentrating hard of what she was doing.

"Bring us about." Drake could see on his console that the Warspite had now cleared the station and needed turning.

"Hard to port, ten degree pitch, minimal power to aft thrusters." She replied. "Holding at five degrees pitch".

"We're coming around too fast." Drake knew that if this wasn't corrected the Defiant class would swing back on itself and possibly collide wth Vanguard. "Ease off on the port thrusters, pitch back to zero degrees."

"We're coming around to the starbase again, collision course." Hunt spoke up

"Ensign..." Drake said as calmly as he could... the best way for young officers to learn was to be put under pressure. He wasn't going to correct this for her.

"Pulse starboard thrusters, 0.5 second burst on my mark... mark" She was gaining confidence with every tap of her console.

Drake could see that her commands weren't being obeyed by the ship as fast as they should have been. "Drake to Engineering, helm control is sluggish, realign navigational thrusters."

"Ensign, let's take her for a test... Port thruster, two second burst. Double pulse port thruster, two second burst." He allowed her a second to tap the commands into her console.

"Response was good, sir" She replied, smiling.

"Bow thrusters, pitch up 16 degrees. Full power to port thrusters, half roll... engage." He didn't give her time to think.

"Maneuver complete sir, all response times within designated parameters.

"Very good Ensign... an excellent disembarkation"

She turned in her chair, beaming with pride.

"Standby for warp speed. Set intermix to point zero one. Initialise warp chamber on my mark. Three, two, one, mark."

With that the small Defiant class stretched out and was gone in an instant, leaving Vanguard a glowing beacon behind her.

 

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