Drivers Ed

Posted on Mon Sep 13th, 2021 @ 3:43am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Nevada McKay

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Elysium runabout Styx
Timeline: After Quelish away mission
Tags: #challenge mission
1435 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

"Morning Doctor McKay!" Miraj said cheerfully as the scientist approached across the shuttle bay. "Are you ready for you piloting assessment?"

Nevada, ever one to be a Snarky asshole Smiled wryly and looked over Her junior. "Last Time I flew I ended up on penal colony...just warning you," she said softly with a low chuckle. "Something about not going warp nine to close to a planet or something like that."

"Okay." Miraj picked up her padd. "I'll just check to see if they lifted the flight suspension then. This could be a lot quicker if you're actually banned from piloting."

Nevada chuckled to herself and tilted her head to the side. "I Never actually got banned...though I wish I had..." she muttered. "If I had my way I'd never actually leave a planet...all this Star ship nonsense if just because I can't transport across the galaxy at a whim."

Miraj frowned. perfoming a suicidally dumb manoevre, and getting caught, and having it deemed bad enough that it resulted in a stay at a reform commune and she hadn't had her licenses revoked? She kept scrolling, no intention of taking Nevada's word for it. Especilly when she was laughing after the fact. "So when was this?" She kept scrolling through the file.

"Oh, that was whats called a joke," Nevada said with a chuckle. "My Stay At a Penal colony was entirely unrelated to my inability to fly," she then turned serious, her face taking a grim expression. "And I was Acquitted as it turned out Even my imprisonment was in error."

"Oh." Maybe she should have realised that. Miraj looked away to hide her awkwardness. "Well, In that case, we're taking Styx out. You need to run preflight, head out to this point, and then back to Elysium with a clear landing, all on manual."

Nevada sighed and rubbed her arm as she looked over the shuttle, a sudden anxiety filling her as she pulled her PADD from her belt and started to tap some commands into it. "All on manual...," she muttered quietly. "Wouldn't it be better to ...Do a preflight test on the holodeck?" she asked with a wary grin. "In case I am truly that horrid at flying?"

"I can't judge your flying if you're not actually flying. People don't react the same where there's no real consequences." Miraj indicated the door to Styx. "Ready?"

"I'm Sure I'd be just as terrified to Crash one of thsoe damn Holodecks as I am an actual shuttle," Nevada muttered as she tapped her PADD, Causing the Door panel to hiss open. "But sure,"

"You're going to be fine. There's not a lot of things to crash into out there. Its space. Its huge and empty." Miraj assured her. "Nothing to hit."

"Other than the ship," she points out as she wandered into the Shuttle and powered its Core up. "

"You can't do any damage unless you either go to warp inside the ship, or hit her at high speed when shes got no shields up. Or dump a critical warp core. None of which should be even remotely possible." Miraj said brightly, making notes on her padd. "Your course is the trip library. Certification Plan Delta three. Load it up, and in your own time."

"I'm going to wing it," Nevada said with a sudden malicous look filling her face. "My ancestors were dive bombers, so how Hard can this be," she said as she tapped in a sequence of commands. In truth she was fully intending to stick to the flight path, and maybe Weaken the inertial dampeners just a tad.

Miraj nodded. She'd helped coach ACM at the fighter school, once they realised that whilst she could outfly every single one of them, she couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at five feet with targetting assistance. She'd heard, she thought, every bluff going. "You do you. I'm just going to watch. And judge."

"Honey, No one judges me Harsher than myself," she said as she Punched the throttle, Jerking the shuttle out through the Hangers Air containment fields.

Miraj noted the rocky take off, but said nothing, waiting until they cleared the nacelles, and the universe screeched to a halt as they passed out of the warp bubble. "Allright. Off we go."

"Sweet, Quick run back to Risa for some Ale and back?" Nevada Chuckled.

"Sure, if you can tell me, without looking it up, how far it is from here to there at warp 4." Miraj smiled. "I'll be kind, you can round to the nearest week."

"Warp 4?" Nevada Scoffed an insulted look crossing her seemingly ageless face. "I'll take warp 9.9 or bust," She said with a playful firmness as she keyed in the shuttles flight plan. "Actually I'll settle for one quarter impulse and RCS thrusters for the maneuvering test."

"Good choice." Miraj replied. "And its two weeks. Well Fifteen days actually. Fifteen days, 16 hours and about 5 minutes"

"And you know that off the top of your head why?" Nevada asked with a smirk.

Miraj shrugged. "I just do. I'm pretty good with navigation. Kind of goes with the flying. I bet you can do all sorts of chemical equations stuff in your head."

"Nope...When I'm operating on a patient I usually need a tutorial video," Nevada said as she piloted the Shuttle through its course.

Miraj watched, noting strengths and weaknesses. "Was that a joke?" she asked, not sure if the other woman was joking or not.


"What...no," she says quietly. "Do you realize how many sets of organs serve in star fleet?" she asks. "I'm an expert with Human and Andorian Physiology, I need Guides for Other species," she said quickly as she pulled the Shuttle into a gentle turn back towards the Ship. "Like...once wrong laser scalpel on a Vulcans Liver and you've got a Corpse, but the same place will Curtail liver failure in Deobulin."

"Oh." Miraj hadn't met a ship she couldn't fly, to a certain extent there was only so many ways humanoids could set things up, once you removed the nuance, moving in 3 directions worked the same for everyone. "I'd just kind of assumed people were like ships. Everything's broadly the same, if you can fly one...?"

"With bodies its kinda the same....sorta," Nevada hummed as she shifted the shuttle to land back In the shuttle bay. "The Hull's are basically the same, with one or two exceptions, but everyone's structured differently on the inside to the extent that A Vulcan trying to operate on a Caitian using human education would probably mess things up worse."

"So not like flying at all. I've got into the ships from all over, with just my education and i don't mess anything up. No manuals needed. People are way more complicated ships." She wasn't paying any attention to the monitors, but pointed out, "You need to trim on the portside thruster or you'll spin and the inertial dampners won't like you."

"Its just like putting a singularity core inside A Scale replica of the phoenix," Nevada gritted her teeth as she Adjusted the shuttles trim, her fingers pushing to white knuckles as she almost over compensated. "At least if they die I can just clone them though..."

A singularity core? That was a black hole wasn't it? Why would you put a mini black hole into a model? Then again, people always asked her why she bothered with flight simulators when she was at a real helm 8 hours a day. "Its not as hard as that. You just have to breathe, and feel it. let it flow through you."

"Eh..." Nevada said warily. "If I breath to hard on a Tholian he'll shatter," she points out as she gentle settled the Shuttle back into the bay, unintentionally Thunking its Rear down with a bone Jarring crunch. "Eh..eheh......landings always were rough for me."

Miraj winced as the bad landing reverberated through her bones. The poor shuttle. "Alright. Well I've seen worse. But Its not good enough for a straight pass. You need to review the flight training basics for sharp turns and landings, and then we'll do this again in a month. If there's no improvement, I'll have to pull your license, but honestly, a few hours of practice and you should be back up to spec."

The Doctor merely shook her head as she stood. "I think we're good enough for a combat license, but your the expert," she said after turning towards the hatch.

"Nice try, Dr McKay," Miraj smiled. "See you in a month."