Sticking to the Stick

Posted on Mon Nov 9th, 2020 @ 7:21am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Victor Barclay de Tolly

Mission: Season 4: Episode 2: Rest And Relaxation
Location: USS Elysium Flight simulator
Timeline: Current
1453 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

Lt. Victor Barclay de Tolly received a message from Ensign Miraj Derani to meet her at the Flight Simulator as she had a project about switching to a stick control for QSD might be better for fine control in the corridor. He walked to the destination and looked around for the Ensign. Seeing a lady who matched the profile he comes up to the Officer. "Ensign Miraj Derani I assume. I am Lt. Victor Barclay de Tolly. How may I help you?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you for coming sir." She beamed at him. "I know you're fresh to Elysium and only seen the QSD in action once, but Lt Hoffman and I were working on testing a theory about it. There's still a lot of fluctuation in the corridor, and a stick based control might give us better reaction times to straighten up. She was putting together a simulation, based on our flights, so we could get some test data."

"Let us not let al this hard work go to waist," Victor says as he kept the fact he had experience with the QSD in the reality he came from. "So what can you tell me where the two of you left off before she was transferred."

"Not very. We were needing a few more QSD runs to get Elysium specific data to add to the general data we had from Planetia Utopia when they fitted it. And we've had two more now, so I was hoping you could put it all together, and let me run through a few simultations with stick vs standard interface."

"Wow," Victor exclaimed, "Smart thinking about the Simulator. "My experiences about stick controls, any great pilot can fly the ship better if he or she knows how to use it. Plus stick controls are better when you have to do it manually. Do you agree?"

"Everything's better manually," Miraj agreed. "You only get the best when you feel the ship, flying shouldn't be like typing."

"Agreed,"he says in agreement. "Plus it reduces the risk of danger."

Victor began to do what he needed to do. His assistant Ensign Louis Bordeaux helped him as they "Miraj. While we are doing this, I am going to put another stick on the Battle Bridge. No matter if it is the Elysium to a shuttle, there should be a backup in case the bridge or the cockpit gets hit."

She looked at him like he'd just offered to buy her a puppy. "You will!? Oh that would be awesome! I don't know why Starfleet is so adverse to manual steering columns on the big ships, especially on battle bridges, when you just need to be able to do so much more in such less time. And quite frankly, not having one for QSD is nuts. I've seen the Delta Flyer specs. It was stick."

"Because danger decreases how far the person is away from the situation," Victor says he was making mental notes. "Will there be any other changes you want Engineering to do for you. I will type up the request anything I see that needs approval. If it is just something you need like a drink cup holder, I will just do that in my one. Another words, anything how small or big, ask and you may receive."

Miraj laughed. "I think I'm pushing my luck with wanting stick, I think I'll leave the cupholder until the captain is used to me having one. Is the simulation ready?"

"It is," Victor answers. "Computer record Ensign Miraj Derani's responses and suggestions and please remove expletives from recordings." Victor says to Miraj, "I always do that last part for your protection, so feel free to say anything to me good or bad. I can take it."

Miraj grinned. "I never thought of that." She stepped forward, and the the doors opened onto a simulation of the helm. There was a single stick, with several extra buttons and a hat-switch. "Very sexy." She slid into the seat and wrapped her fingers round it. It was exactly the right size, all the buttons in easy reach of an instinctive move. She gave it an experimental pull, and it moved easily, gliding like silk over polished chrome. "Very very sexy." She was definitely going to have to prove sticks were better. She wanted this.

"Red or blue button to enter Slipstream?" she asked.

"Blue because red usually means stop but in this case, red means come out of Slipstream," He says smiling. "I saw you noticed the hatswich. This has multiple functions so you can have multiple views as well as bring up menus. In case of a battle happens this other red button is a fire button. Flip this switch is an auto fire allowing you to concentrate on maneuvers while firing on the enemy. Some had complain about getting carpal tunnel syndrome in the old days but as you can see, I have taken care of that."

She gave him a horrified look. "I don't kill ships. That's horrible."

"It is horrible but if we're ever at war again and the bridge is hit with the whole weight of what happens next be it enemy ship, Borg Cube or some unknown threat," Victor says calmly, "I am sure you rill do what needs to be done because I do not fear the enemy, I only fear of failing at what needed to be done when it needed to be done. I know you all experienced conflict in the Mirror Universe and I know we all have seen plenty of it. Now back to the Slipstream which is the reason why we are here. Please put it through the ringer. Another words break it if you can."

Miraj turned away, not sure she agreed with his words. She couldn't pull the trigger, not even for a Borg Cube. Which was why she was in Flight Control and not the air group. "Alright." She checked the read outs on the console, everything was in order. "Going to slipstream in three, two one." She pressed the button.

The screen lit up with the turquoise light of the Slipstream corridor. The corridor parameters started to scroll past on the console and the corridor fluctuated in turn. her hand wasn't doing much more than twitching, but the ride was already smoother, the small turbulences in the corridor were quickly corrected for and the Elysium was holding steady in the stream. She relaxed a little, knowing it was working. "How are we looking?" she asked.

"You are a natural," Nicholas says as he was making notes in his head. "How are your hands, neck and back?"

Miraj smirked. This was nothing. "Fine. This is practically a spa compared to other things I've had to fly. Make the corridor more turbulent, lets see how bad we can make it."

Victor pressed a few buttons on the console. "It will gradually climb. Computer is also monitoring your responses and if you need a safe word, it is Strawberry. There will be waves of turbulence like in real case scenarios, it will build up and go a down a little then go up higher. You will get the hang of it."

Miraj sighed. She never knew what to say when strangers assumed she was a relative beginner. "I'll be fine, sir. Bring it on."

The turbulence began to build. The simulation was perfect, she couldn't feel the true Elysium underneath as she did on occasion in the holodeck. The simulator was far better insulated. She quickly found that state where she felt herself dissolve into the sensations of the ship, and the decision to react bypassed her brain entirely and just came with breathing, the stick twitching as she corrected for the variances, tiny or sudden or slow or large. Her eyes were focusing on the read outs on helm, but they told her less than what her body felt. Which was that the corridor program was getting really violent.

Victor examined the data and he observed what he saw. "Mam. If we ever have to fly through a wormhole, I would want you to be the pilot. Your reflexes are off the chart and you have great levels of being focused. You continue as long as you want. I am going to sit down and relax."

"Lets drive this to the limit, I want to be able to show the captain just how much potential leeway we've got. The more we can adapt to the tunnel, the longer we can stay in, the further we can get. Where no-one has gone before."

"Agreed," Victor says with his trademark boyish smile. "After all, we signed up for adventure."

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