Prepping for Departure

Posted on Thu Aug 6th, 2020 @ 1:34am by Ensign Lucas Miles

Mission: Distress Call
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Current

Lucas had been on the bridge a few minutes since he had been ordered here by the Chief Flight Control Officer. As a lowly Flight Control Officer, he understood what a privilege it was to be at the helm just as the ship was about to head out on an important rescue mission. It spoke volumes about CFCO’s trust in his skills and abilities, and Lucas intended not to let her down.

Arriving on the Bridge, the first thing he did was to find out as much information he could about the distress signal and the Olympia . Unfortunately, it did not contain a lot of helpful information. The distress signal from the freighter was short and was automated. All the Independence knew was that the freighter had requested assistance as it had suffered multiple system failures with only its life support system operating nominally.

Lucas surmised that it was fortunate that their life support had not failed nor was in danger of failing. The skeptic in him though found it suspicious that every system except life support had failed. But he would leave that to the tactical team to sought out.

As if on cue, the Bridge doors slid open and Lucas looked back to see that it was the Chief Tactical Officer who was stepping onto the Bridge, looking very immaculate unlike the current officer at the tactical station.

Turning back to his station, Lucas continued his analysis of the signal they had received. The Olympia was a Federation freighter but without additional information or a closer scan of the ship, he could not be sure of any additional information on this freighter. Apparently, there were multiple vessels in the Federation civilian starship registry bearing the name Olympia .

That said, Lucas knew the signal had emerged from a star system approximately ten light years away from their current location. His long-range sensors were able to track the ship and there did not seem to be any other vessels around. The Independence was the closest Starfleet vessel.

He entered the coordinates of the freighter into the navigational computer and watched the flight plan that the computer suggested. It was a standard flight plan that was reasonable. He did not see any reason to deviate from the computer-generated flight plan. However, he did note that at maximum emergency warp, it would take the Independence just over forty hours to get to the freighter.

Given the dire condition of the freighter, and the uncertainty about casualties and injuries, Lucas thought it prudent to get to the freighter as quickly as possible. The Independence did have a quantum slip and this seemed a sensible time to use it. Travel through slipstream would bring them to the freighter nearly instantaneously.

But that decision was up to the Captain.

Lucas instead logged in both flight plans into the system and sent it to the Bridge officers, including both the Captain the XO. He would be ready to provide a verbal report should he be asked for further clarification on his recommendation.

His primary tasks completed for now, he turned his attention to alerting Risa’s Flight Control that the ship would be departing shortly and was currently recalling its crew. It was more of a courtesy call but Risa being the busy tourist destination that it was had lots of space traffic and it was in the best interest of the ship to coordinate with the planet’s flight operations to minimize accidental collisions.

With that last task completed, it was now more of a waiting game until the full crew compliment was on board.

While he waited for the order to depart, he occupied his time by studying the star system where the freighter was located. It never hurt to have a better sense of the lay of the land the Independence was headed…


Ensign Lucas Miles
Flight Control Officer
USS Independence.