One With The Ship

Posted on Thu Feb 24th, 2022 @ 6:58am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Commander Rin

Mission: Season 5: Interlude: Darkness Abounds
Location: Not to far from Elysium
Timeline: Before start of current mission
1851 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Miraj had no intention of setting foot in the intelligence department any time soon, not after the last time had left her wheezing her lungs up in sickbay. Even if the doctor assured her the treatments meant it should be fine. So she settled for lurking outside the gym when she new Rin ws in there, and ambushing her on her way out with a perky, "Hello ma'am, do you have a minute?"

"I do, Ensign. How are you feeling now?"


"Good, thank you, ma'am. I'm allergic to lieutenant Sh'iss, the doctor thinks. He's going to brew me some sort of potion for it. to be honest, I stopped understanding anything he said after "immunotherapy", but he assures me it will help. Any how, that's not why I'm here. I have a question to ask. Because I was having one of my petty officers check all the records for the certifications and we found pretty much everyone's. But not you. So I need to ask.. Do you know how to fly, ma'am?"

Rin tried and failed to swallow a smile on the subject of allergies. Realizing Miraj must have noticed just made it worse, and she succumbed to a chuckle. "I'm sorry. I'm very glad you're ok. But...I've never had someone under my command be identified as an allergen. I'm sorry."

She finally managed to get her game face back on. "I do not know how to fly. Is that a mandatory certification for this vessel?"

For a moment, Miraj was still as her brain glitched out and the concept of a Starfleet officer who couldn't fly. She'd been sure it was just missing documentation, a mistake. But no. She opened her mouth a few times why she processed. "Why not?" she said, in the tone of voice akin to and why don't you eat, sleep, or breathe?

"I mean, I can do a basic point A to Point B in a small craft, but I'm assuming that's not what you mean. I've never had a need for anything more. Are you willing to teach me?"

"What?" Miraj still couldn't believe someone couldn't fly. "yes of course? What, not even take offs and landings? Emergency manoevres? Manifold purging? 3D maneovrability and clearence?"

"Well, take off and landing is part of points A and B. But, no, that's about it. I've wanted to learn, but it's part of a very big list. I would welcome the opportunity to learn from you."

"Cool, I can do that. Okay. When would you like to start?"

"I'm free the rest of the day, if you have time."

"To fly?" Miraj eplied. "I alwasy have time."

----

They ended up in a Types 9 shuttlecraft, small and easy to handle for anyone, and Miraj had kept up a full conversation abut the different types of shuttles and why types 9's were perfect for beginners whilst she'd piloted it out the shuttle bay and away from galaxys station, with barely a glance at the controls. Once into some quiet space outside of the station ATC, she flicked on the auto pilot.

"Okay, first lesson." Miraj got up and moved further back into the cabin, kicking off her boots and standing in barefeet. "Connect to the ship. Feel it in the bones." she shrugged off her jacket and her top so she was just in her vest, chucking the garmets at a seat without caring i it landed, and settle herself down at the back, back resting against th side of the shuttle,knees drawn up do her feet were flat to the floor. "Come sit here and you;ll see what i mean."

"People tend to get upset at the thought of me intimately connecting with technology," Rin commented dryly as she pulled off her shoes and sat next to Miraj. She closed her eyes and let herself experience the moment, noting the feelings that came with it.

"Slight vibration from the engine, low pitched hum from life support, and my butt is cold," she reported. This was a silly exercise. The ship was a machine, nothing more, a sum of its parts. On the other hand, if she directly interfaced with it, see through its sensors, feel the operations of every system....

Stop it, Rin, she reminded herself.

Miraj laughed. "Its not that bad. We can increase the heating if you want. but you've got the hang of it. "Computer. Warp 4, heading zero-four-two, mark zero-three." A slightl pulse was added to the overal; vibration. "Feel that, thats the warp core underneath. They're small, and often lateral in shuttles, so you don't get beyond Warp 4 and a bit. When it comes to it, you need to feel this, know what the ships telling you. Sensors can break, but ships never lie. Echo won't scream at you the way some will, she's a good girl." Miraj took a deep meditatitive breath, "Now just breath it in for a few moments, let her bleed into you."

Rin reminded herself not to be so resistant to the lesson, even if it was fairly non-traditional. The ensign had a point about only being able to trust sensors to a certain degree, even if she could do without anthropomorphizing the ship.

She gave it several more seconds. "I think I'm getting it," she said, despite having some reservation about the truth of that.

Miraj beamed at her. "Excellent. So now we'll head back to the pilots seat, try not to loose that feeling, and then bring us out of warp." A thought occured to her. "Do you need me to show you how to do that?"

"I think I've got it." Looking over the control panel, she familiarized herself with it and hit the buttons to come out of warp. "But it's good of you to ask. Too many instructor forget their students are there because they don't know everything."

"Well, we'll go as slow as you need." Miraj promised. "Alright, the helms set up for track pad, so speed on the left hand, attitude on the right, put your fingers there - not the whole hand- see those two rings. Inner one is yaw, thats spinning round the vertical axis. Outer one is roll, and thumb manages pitch on that line there. brings the nose up and the bottom down. Just play with it, go crazy. Gravity and inertial dampners will mean you won't get thrown around, but the view will go a bit crazy. But that's okay, just need to get the feel for it. Go."

An outside viewer might have found the entire thing amusing as the ship wobbled drunkenly. After about ten minutes of that nonsense, it started to move more gracefully, and Rin had to admit she did, indeed, have a "feel" for it. It's one thing to travel on a ship, but quite another to do so under your own control.

"You're doing great," Miraj patted Rin on the shoulder. "Whatever idiot thought that putting a 3d control system onto a 2d interface is a moron, but you've got the hang of it. And now you know how to move, we're going to follow a course. There's a couple of traffic control markers over there. You're going to go over, and do a couple of figure of eights round them. They're only about half a million kilometers apart, so it will be tight, but doable. This panel here shows you the route. just keep the arrow on the line and you'll get there."

Rin nodded, fingers sliding across the console. The ship gave a few wobbles as she tried to keep it lined up with the displayed route. She frowned to herself. This should be easier, she thought.

She had to come back around after missing the first marker. But after that less than graceful start, the managed to get the shuttle sweep rather gracefully into the figure eight route Miraj had planned out for her.

"Doing real good. We're going to get a bit faster now. one quarter impulse. Feel how the engines change, feel the flow through the thrusters as you manoever" Miraj waited until Rin was up to speed, and then said. "Whats it like? To..um..intimately connect like you said? With your ship?"

"You make it sound dirty saying it like that." Rin chuckled slightly as she said it. "You and the ship would be one and the same. You aren't just reading sensors - the sensors are a part of you, just as much as your eyes are a part of you. Anywhere the sensors can see, you can see. The hum of the engines, the vibrations, that's all direct experience, not something you witness. You move by thought. Control panels can be frustratingly inefficient."

"Sounds glorious." Miraj said wistfully. "And you're not wrong about the control panels. It would be so nice to be able to go deeper than just touch."

"Of course, there are a few downsides. Losing a part of your brain to the necessary hardware. Also, the conversation is lousy," Rin quipped as she increased speed and glided the ship around the beacon.

"Maybe." Miraj said. "Can you interface directly still? Or would it only work with a cube? Could you use it on anyship. Just jack in and become one? Does it hurt? Is it a rush?"

"If the tech was modified, theoretically yes. Can't plug into an outlet that doesn't exist, so to speak. Starfleet has never been keen on the idea. Lots of reasons, security among them. But, ugh, somedays...LCARS! At least I can program in some pretty sophisticated verbal commands for data analysis. And I've had Lt. Redal reconfigure the computer panels in my office."

"I don't know. Imagine the things you could do with a helm if you could just... slip inside, like its a coat or jumper of something."

Rin chuckles. "Maybe Starfleet will come up with technology someday..."

The thought was interrupted by an "Ah, fuck!" as the ship started to roll as she took a turn too tightly.

"Don't panic, it never helps, rotate your fingers together slowly, realign the rings." Miraj glanced at Rin's fingers, to far splayed apart. And anyway. Outhere, it doesn't mean anything. Up, down, left right. Kind of irrelevant. Just breathe, and realign. Then turn back towards the station, and you can back us into Elysium."

Rin nodded as she kept her focus on the console. "I'm beginning to understand why you want a helm setup that provides some tactile feedback."

Rin considered dialing down the inertial dampeners just a bit, enough to feel the movement of the ship. But that probably would defeat the point of the lesson. It also would likely leave them both space sick.

So she needed to conceptualize it. The physics of an object in space were pretty straight forward. If she couldn't feel the ship, she could at least break down the math.

Her fingers relaxed as the ship leveled out.

Rin smiled to herself as she wheeled the ship around and sent it back toward the station.