Troubled Shuttle Part 1

Posted on Sun Jul 19th, 2020 @ 6:51am by Ensign Lucas Miles

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Current

Lucas had read up on everything Chief ch’Thranne gave him on their shuttlecraft project. It was more of a pet project although there were obvious benefits to the ship and crew from the project.

In a nutshell, the flight crew of the Independence had completely retrofitted an old Danube class shuttle to create a shuttlecraft that was for all intents and purposes a multi-purpose, medium-range interstellar shuttlecraft. In the process, the project had taught critical technical skills to the engineering, mechanical, electronics and general support technicians involved in the project.

The completion of the shuttle would also serve to enhance the capabilities of an away team and would be able to support a variety of mission types ranging from diplomatic to troop transport, or even to cargo transport.

The typical Danube class, or Federation runabout as it was popularly known, comprised of three components: the command pod, which housed the ship’s control systems; the cargo module, which was directly behind the command pod and came in multiple variants to accommodate cargo, transport or hospitality; and the warp sled, which was, for lack of a better description, the part of the craft that houses the engines, both impulse and warp.

A lot of work had gone into the work the crew had done and truth be told, Lucas was impressed.

The next part of the project, it seemed was the space worthiness phase, which is where Lucas’ piloting skills were needed. It seemed that it was also at the stage that the craft was experiencing significant issues.

Lucas was not sure on the full details yet, but it seemed that whenever the impulse engines were engaged, there seemed to be a power overload that causes a cascade of system failures. It was the issue that Lucas had been brought in to help the Crew Chief and his team sort out.

It was a straightforward assignment as far as he was concerned. He was for all intents going to be a test pilot, flying the craft through a series of designated maneuvers while the techs poured over the sensor readout to identify the cause of the anomaly.

The shore leave of the crew afforded the flight team the perfect time to try and test out the shuttle, hence why only a small number of personnel from the flight department were actually on Risa. Most of the crew (especially the technicians) were focused on this shuttle project.

As the newest member, Lucas no doubt drew the short end of the stick among the ship’s pilots to be involved in the project. But that suited him just fine. He would rather be out there among the stars than on any beach any given day.

“Chief,” Lucas greeted as he entered the maintenance alcove that was underneath the deck floor of the shuttle bay. “I read over the information you gave me. When do we get started?”


Ensign Lucas Miles
Flight Control Officer
USS Independence.