An new flyer arrives

Posted on Tuesday 6 April 2021 @ 20:32 by Lieutenant JG Rylov Carter & Captain Melody Jones

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: USS Merlin
Timeline: 2 days pre MD1
1922 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Lieutenant Rylov Carter was relaxing after work in his quarters at Starfleet Academy, when the PADD on his desk chimed. He got up from his couch, made his way to his desk, and picked it up. He received new orders, “looks like my transfer has been approved” he mused to himself while scrolling through the instructions. He breezed past the normal verbiage about the logistics of the move, and down to the meat of his new posting. He had been granted his transfer as the Squadron Leader for Uroboros aboard the USS Merlin. He noticed the orders included an admin rank reduction. That made sense though, due to his request to be moved back to the active fleet. Rylov would need to prove himself as a leader under his new Captain. Rylov continued scrolling down the PADD looking at the coordinating instructions for the transfer. It looked like the ship was docked in Earth orbit for a bit of leave and to resupply.

Rylov quickly went to the replicator and punched in the instructions on the bottom of his orders for his new uniform. Rylov changed into the new uniform and corrected the rank on his collar. He then packed what little personal possessions he had into a small bag and put in a request to have the rest of his things, mainly awards and memorabilia from his previous duty stations, moved into storage at his Mother’s home. After that he made his way around to his friends and co-workers saying his goodbyes. There was no need to set up a temporary replacement for his classes, since there was just been a graduation about a week ago, and the other classes were on leave before starting the next year. That next year of classes wouldn’t start up for about another month too, so he didn’t need to worry about his lessons either. There was also plenty of time to find another instructor, and he was part of a team of instructors anyway.

As he walked out of the campus, he looked through the roster of some his prior students. He was mainly looking to see if any would be aboard the USS Merlin, but while he was in there, he also put in notes to try to get some of them transferred to the USS Merlin. Although it had been a while since the Dominion War, the starfighter ranks were still far from replenished and he wanted to get his new ship on the right path by filling up as many of the billets as possible.

Rylov finished his notes at almost the same time he arrived at the transporter banks near the Academy entrance. He scanned his orders off the PADD into the reader next to the transporter to enter his destination. He glanced at the destination to make sure he was tracking the destination, and had to do a double take. The destination was not the USS Merlin or the docking area in space as he suspected, but rather one of the starfighter shipyards off the Pacific Ocean near Japan. He pushed the button to begin the transport and stepped onto the platform.

As soon as he arrived a young Flight Crewman began making his way toward him. “Are you Lieutenant junior grade Rylov Carter sir?”, the crewman asked while looking at the PADD in their hand. “Yes, I am”, Rylov responded. “Perfect sir.” the crewmen stated while simultaneously turning around and walking away, “follow me sir, and I’ll bring you to your fighter. Rylov followed in confusion, and as if reading his mind, the crewman responded, “The Captain of the USS Merlin has requested that all of the new pilots reporting fly their fighter-craft to the ship, so she could evaluate their flying.” The crewmen continued, “we assumed she meant the brand-new pilots that were commissioned last week, but just to be safe your name was added to the roster.” That didn’t bother Rylov he loved flying anyway, and reveled at any chance to fly.

Rylov followed the crewmen into a locker room and was handed a flight suit from a replicator nearby, he changed out of the duty uniform and into the flight suit with practiced ease. After that he carefully folded his duty uniform and added it to his things in his small bag. When done he continued to follow the crewman out into the launch bay to see several gleaming brand-new AH-12 Phoenix Class Fighters. Standing nearby was a group of nervous young pilots appearing to be waiting for someone to arrive. The young officers came to attention as soon as they recognized their new squad leader.

Rylov came to a stop in front of the new pilots, and recognized all of them, as having been in some of his classes in the Academy. “Let’s mount up, and head to our new home pilots, “Rylov exclaimed. With that all of the pilots made their way to the fighters and began looking over the pre flight checks with the flight crew of the shipyard. Rylov made his way towards his while pulling out his PADD, walking up to the flight chief working on his fighter he pulled up the preflight checklist. Although he had been a pilot for over 15 years, he still went over the list every time. Like he had drilled into his students and pilots who served with him prior ‘The day you become lax or complacent when working with a fighter is the day you get killed’. Rylov finished the checklist and COMMed the control for launch permission.

As soon as clearance was granted the fighters launched and quickly grouped together with practiced ease. Rylov smiled internally, he was pretty proud of how quickly the were able to get into formation. This would be a good foundation to develop the pilots from. Signaling the other pilots Rylov opened their internal channel, “Alright pilots let’s show the Merlin and her Captain how we fly. Start with flight path Beta 2 at full impulse and transition into docking maneuver Gamma 6 at quarter impulse. The other pilots acknowledged his commands, and all began programing the flight into the controls of the fighters. The fighters all easily and smoothly flew the standard flight pattern, and flawlessly transitioned into the complicated docking maneuver onto the USS Merlin.
Once aboard the ship the deck crews scrambled from there positions to get the newly arrived to the correct position in the bay. When all the ships were settled the pilots worked with the crew members to get the fighter shut down and ready to travel. While Rylov was finishing up he noticed out of the corner of his eye a young human female ensign making her way towards him. “Welcome aboard the USS Merlin Lieutenant Carter.” She said in a friendly manner, “If I could just see you PADD sir I will transfer your quarters assignment, and a map of the ship to it.” the ensign continued. Rylov pulled out his PADD, and watched as the ensign pulled up the files on her PADD and with a quick swipe transferred the data to his. “Ok sir now you are good, oh and also the Captain is expecting you in her office.” the young ensign told Rylov. Rylov thanked the officer and headed to the Captain’s office to meet her.

Melody was in her ready room. They were still a couple of days away for departure but a lot of paperwork had built up while she had been on shore leave. She went over to the replicator. “One glass of carrot juice please.” She took a sip. While she liked the flavor, she missed her coffee and was not looking forward to another seven months without it. Her uniform was also starting to get snug around her mid section. That’s only going to get worse she thought to herself.

Just then her door chime sounded and she called out “Come.”

Rylov entered the Captain's ready room and stood at attention in front of the Captain. The first thing he noticed was how young she appeared for the rank she held, but her sharp green eyes showed a hidden strength that hinted at more experience than shown. Rylov's years as an instructor instinctually sized her up, and he couldn't help but think to himself 'She'd probably make a pretty good fighter pilot'. With his internal dialog over Rylov awkwardly realized he was standing there staring at his new Captain. "Lieutenant junior grade Rylov Carter, Uroboros Squadron Leader reporting" Rylov quickly stated hoping the pause hadn't been too noticeable.

"Ahh yes, Lieutenant Carter. At ease and have a seat." She smiled warmly at him and held out her hand. "I'm Captain Jones. Welcome aboard the Merlin." She put her drink down and went and sat opposite him. " I started out as a flyer myself. Used to scare the pants off my instructors at the Academy. Shaved 5 minutes off the best time on the Jovian run. Always trying to make them go that bit faster." she mused with a wry smile before continuing. "I Got assigned to the Merlin straight out of the Academy as her helm officer. I followed your approach in, pretty smooth. I think you'll find the rest of your squad more than competent. Commander Tillatix is our head of flight operations. She keeps them pretty much on the ball." She paused and suddenly remember her manners, "I'm sorry, would you like a drink?"

Rylov took a seat on the opposite side of the desk from the Captain, and looked up when offered the drink. "I'm good, but thank you," Rylov responded. "I appreciate your assessment of the pilots aboard the ship and am eager to begin working with them," Rylov stated continuing the conversation, "I have been too far from the fleet for too long." Rylov had requested a copy of the roster of his squadron members before leaving for the USS Merlin, and was planning to spend most of the rest of the day reviewing those files and forming his flights based on that info. If there was enough to those files he should be able to select his Flight Leaders. He also made a mental note to schedule a meeting with Commander Tillatix to go over the relationship between flight control and the air group. Rylov had been told the current Commander of the air group was retiring, and he was interested in learning what the plan was for the future.

Melody smiled. "Good. I'll make sure all the pilot records and training schedules are made available to you and I'm sure they're eager to meet you too. I'm sure Commander Tillatix would be happy to meet with you also and go over anything you need to know. Once we leave dock, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to work in some training flights so you can get a feel of who you're working with. Will there be anything else?"

"Nothing else from me Captain," Rylov replied. "I'll reach out to Commander Tillatix to set up a meeting as well, thank you." With the meeting over LTJG Carter got back up from seat and waited to be dismissed.

“Then I'll let you get settled in. One again, welcome aboard. Dismissed.”


OFF

●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin


○● Lieutenant JG Rylov Carter
Squadron Leader
USS Merlin