Back To Basics

Posted on Sun Jan 20th, 2013 @ 8:40pm by

Mission: Heart of an Explorer
Location: USS Iapetus - Shuttle Bay
Timeline: MD42, 1200hrs

Following the short briefing in the Observations Lounge with the ship’s First Officer and several members of the senior staff, Ensign Thryskal made its way to the ship’s main shuttlebay under escort by two security personnel. As the Insectoid was going to be heavily involved with the transportation of materials to the planet Maltorra, it wanted to get a head start on getting prepared for its task. This included the preparation and inspection of the shuttlecraft it was going to be assigned to use.

Despite having spent such a long time encased in one of the Mjolnir’s escape pods, Thryskal was eager to return to duty. To occupy its mind with solving problems or even much simpler things such as setting a course into a navigational computer. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Thryskal was going to be able to do what it considered to be the most basic of things. Things that it had been trained to do. Things that had become second nature to the Ensign. It was going to be able to fly again.

Thryskal’s personal relationships with the vessels it piloted was a strange thing. For the most part, Insectoids operated on the simplest of levels. They received orders from their superiors high up in the hierarchy and then they simply did their duty. There was rarely any emotion or feeling involved in that process. For Thryskal however, and maybe as a result of its training at Starfleet Academy, piloting a spacecraft meant a little bit more to it. At least, more than it would for an ordinary Insectoid drone.

It felt like a kind of symbiotic relationship with the vehicle itself. It was like a sort of extension of itself between humanoid and machine. In order to be able to fly a spacecraft, the Ensign had come to believe that it needed to earn that privilege. It needed to be able to prove that it could handle such a responsibility. Sometimes the learning curve was a little more complicated. Sometimes there were bumps along the way, but in the end it always provided Thryskal with a deeper understanding of what any particular space vehicle could do. In order to be comfortable in the working environment of its upcoming assignment, it was imperative to the Insectoid that it build a rapport as soon as possible with the shuttle it would be flying.

As Thryskal arrived in the upper level of the ship’s main shuttlebay, he made his way towards the shuttle flight control centre. When he got there, he was greeted by a fellow ensign. Undoubtedly she was currently in charge of operations in the shuttlebay.

“It’s not everyday we get an Insectoid in here,” said the Ensign. She extended her hand towards Thryskal. “I’m Ensign Benitez, the Flight Deck Officer. Welcome.” Benitez looked off to the Insectoid’s sides at the security officers. “Why the escort?”

<”It is the Captain’s orders I’m afraid. I am to be under escort until they can adequately verify that I am truly who I say I am,”> answered the Ensign. As it knew that it was a Human custom to shake hands, Thryskal took the other Ensign’s hand and shook it lightly. <”I am... was the former conn officer for the Mjolnir. I was found, only yesterday, adrift in an escape pod close to this position. Your Captain... Krace, I believe his name is, wishes to make use of my piloting abilities.”>

Benitez looked towards the security personnel again but this time for confirmation on what she’d just been told. Both of them nodded to indicate that Thryskal was telling the truth. “Well, in that case I should have said welcome aboard. You got a name, conn officer of the Mjolnir?”

Thryskal nodded slightly. <”My apologies. My true name is long and is usually cumbersome for you Humans to pronounce. Thus, I go by the name Thryskal. It is shorter and much more efficient.”>

“Thryskal, it is then.” Benitez turned in place and started heading towards the other end of the room where there was a turbolift that would take them down to the lower level of the shuttlebay. “By here, I’ll show you to one of our shuttles so you can familiarize yourself with it.” The Ensign pressed a button on the panel beside the doors which caused said doors to open. Ensign Thryskal soon joined her and they stepped inside the turbolift. “So you’ll be making some runs down to the planet?” she asked.

<”That is correct,”> answered the Insectoid. <”It appears as if there is a terrible viral outbreak down there. We are going to try to find a cure if we can although the specifics of such a thing is beyond me. I am but a mere pilot. There are a few sensitive materials that need to be brought down to the surface via shuttlecraft. It is unfortunate that the transporters cannot be used in such an instance.”>

The Puerto Rican woman cracked a smile. “Well, if everything could be done with the transporters then they wouldn’t need us now would they?” she said smartly.

Thryskal’s mandibles twitched a few times. As did its antennae. It also made a strange screeching sound as if it was chuckling. <”That is very true,”> it replied.

After a few moments, the turbolift came to a stop and the doors opened. Ensign Benitez led Thryskal and his security escort into the shuttlebay and towards one of the shuttlecrafts. By the look of the shuttle, it appeared to be of the Type 11 variety which was slightly larger than most of the other types that the Iapetus had available.

“This is the one,” presented Benitez with an outstretched arm.

When they arrived just beside the vehicle, Thryskal placed its hand on the hull in an effort to ‘feel’ it. <”I have never piloted this type of shuttle before. Only those that came before it such as the Type-9.”>

“Well, as you can see it’s obviously bigger than the T-9. Less maneuverable than one too. It’ll get the job done though. It has more cargo space than an ordinary shuttle would. You could almost say that it’s a cross between the T-9 and a Danube,” said the woman.

<”I am certain that it will prove adequate for the mission at hand,”> replied the Insectoid. In truth, all it was going to need to do was transport materials to and from several locations. There was no need to do any fancy flying.

Thryskal and Benitez both circled the shuttlecraft. As they did so, the Insectoid pulled out the tricorder that it had picked up earlier and it began to run a few scans. The outside of the shuttle needed to be inspected thoroughly before flight. Thus far, it appeared to be structurally sound. When the Ensign was done, it returned the tricorder in its holster and then moved to the rear of the shuttle where it pressed a button to open the back door. Once the ramp was completely lowered and the door was fully open, Ensign Thryskal stepped inside. Benitez followed it in.

“I imagine that Ops will probably start to load up the shuttle pretty soon,” pointed out the woman. When they arrived to the forward portion of the shuttlecraft, she leaned against the doorway and simply watched the Insectoid. To her, seeing such a... humanoid creature was quite amazing in its own right. Evolution was pretty strange sometimes.

<”It is likely that will be the case,”> replied Thryskal. Before sitting down in the forward pilot’s seat, it turned towards the other Ensign. <”With your permission, I would like to commence the pre-flight checklist so that we can launch when everyone is ready.”>

“Be my guest,” said Benitez. She turned to leave but stopped short for just a moment. “If you need anything, please let me know.” Then, she was gone, leaving Thryskal in the shuttle for the moment with just its security escort.

When Thryskal was happy enough that it was more or less alone with the shuttle, it sat down in the forward-most seat and ran its long fingers over the controls. Soon thereafter, the computer hummed to life. It then entered in its security code in order to get access to the vessel’s systems.

<”Computer, initiate pre-flight check,”> ordered the Ensign. The checklist itself wouldn’t take very long to complete. A long time ago during Earth’s twentieth century, a pre-flight checklist would take a flight operator about fifteen minutes to complete. Space vehicles took much longer than that. Nowadays, with computers being as advanced as they were, the return of all the important data and information was almost instantaneous.

About a minute or two later, the computer made a short bleep sound that alerted Thryskal that it had just completed verifying the operational status of all the shuttle’s systems. The Insectoid reviewed that information carefully, noting that everything appeared to be operating within normal parameters. The shuttle was ready to fly.

Well, it was almost ready to fly. While not serious, there was one little problem that the Ensign wanted to deal with. It needed to have the back of the pilot’s chair removed, or at least altered. The standard seats on a shuttle did not have room for an Insectoid’s gaster. It made sitting down very uncomfortable.

As this was not the first time Thryskal had to deal with this particular situation, it already knew what it had to do. It knelt down beside the seat and reached up underneath the main section of the chair. From there, it began to unscrew several bolts with its fingers. When that was done, Thryskal deposited the bolts to the side and removed the back portion of the chair. The two security officers looked on in complete puzzlement. They’d never seen anyone do that before but when the Insectoid sat back down, it all made perfect sense to them.

Now Thryskal was comfortable. Now it could fly the shuttle.

Only one day had passed since Ensign Thryskal was retrieved by the Iapetus crew and in that amount of time, amidst a new group of people, it had already found a new purpose. While that purpose had the potential of only being temporary, Thryskal was just pleased to be able to do the simple things again. As each minute and hour went by, the Ensign began to consider itself more and more fortunate that it was capable of doing so.