ILLUMINARRPG: (2 - 1630) ACONN Ensign Alexander Dyson, Pilots LT Arthur Corday, Ensign Vic Montero

[Dieter Gregory]

*

Mission:  An End and a Beginning

Day: 2

Stardate:  2446.03.17

(USS Illuminar – Shuttlebay – ACONN Ensign Alexander Dyson – 1630)

After lieutenant Taylor had left, Alex had finished his dinner. He had 
then headed for the shuttlebay. During his original tour, he had taken a 
look at the shuttlebay, but he wanted to get a closer look at the craft 
now. The first thing that had gotten his attention were the three 
fighters. He was running his hand along the hull of one of the craft.

“Hello, beautiful.”

He found the control to open the craft and used it. ~Time to take a 
closer look at the cockpit.~ Alex climbed in and studied the controls 
and displays. ~Latest of the latest.~ Then he noticed something amazing.

“Neural interface,” Alex said. “I thought that was still on the drawing 
board.”


Arthur stepped around the ship and looked at the new pilot, “Nope. 
Actually we’ve been working with the neural interface since the war with 
the Xenolithe, but it lost momentum after the Civil War. We just started 
reapply the tech recently. It’s upgraded, will, most likely, not fry 
your brain out of your head.”

Montero looked at the newcomer, “Damned security, letting anyone come 
walk in to the flight deck,” he grumbled.

“Afternoon, lieutenant, ensign.”

“And you are?” Montero asked, cocking his head to look at Dyson.


“I’m Alexander Dyson, ACONN,” He climbed out of the fighter. “So, what 
is this lovely lady’s name ?” He patted the hull of the craft. And 
please, don’t tell me we’ve gone the drab route and only given them 
numbers.”


Corday looked over at Montero with a questioning look.  “To be honest, 
we have not named them.  It’s been my experience that fighters are given 
names by those who fly them.”


“Illuminar has a nice wing of support craft. But is it me, or is this 
bay a bit crowded ?”


Again Corday and Montero exchanged looks, “It’s you.  This is more than 
enough space for these fighters.  What’s your experience with fighter 
class ships, ACONN Alexander Dyson?”


Montero chuckled, “Does this fighter make me look fat?”


Arthur gave him a wry smile and said, “Yes.”


Alex scratched his beard. ~They’re going to find out anyway.~ “My 
previous jobs were all civilian. It’s nice to have a collection of 
uniform support ships. And an actual supply of spare parts. All the 
previous shuttles I flew were patchworks of whatever components the crew 
could get their hands on. Maintenance was a headache.”


Corday laughed, “Civilian?  Soooo… you’ve had no experience in a 
fighter?  In a fighter you don’t need all of the excessive space in a 
shuttle.  Shuttle pilots may find the cockpit of a fighter a bit… 
claustrophobic, just as a fighter pilot might find the flight controls 
of a shuttle to be quite spacious.”


“Great,” Montero said, “Are we so hard up that we’re drafting civilians.”


“Well the Grey wolf must think something of him,” Arthur said.  “She’s 
training him to fly the Illuminar.”


“And something tells me that she doesn’t hand over the keys to just 
anybody.” ~No matter what Starfleet Command says.~ If you didn’t cut it, 
you probably wouldn’t last long on the Illuminar.


“She’s the boss,” Montero replied.  “Means I can spend more time doing 
what I do best,”


“However these babie,” he patted the fighter, “these are mine, and I do 
not allow anyone to sit at the controls until they are trained.  You’ll 
find flying a Void Sphynx to be a different experience.”


“So then Ensign Dyson,” Montero said, “Did you go through pilot training 
on Mars?”


“Yes, three years at the Civilian Freighter School on Mars,” Which might 
not have been Starfleet Academy, but the instructors there were no 
sloughes. “I graduated at twenty-one and now I’m thirty-six. I’ve flown 
freighters, shuttles of various shapes and sizes and even some alien 
vessels.”


Alex nodded. “My favourite was 247, she was a Mark-VII Tholian cargo 
drone. Except we’d bolted on all sorts of bits and pieces to make it a 
habitable, working starship. She wasn’t pretty to look at and her tech 
lagged behind centuries in some places, but boy could she move. She was…”


He held his hands up to indicate a distance. . “...about the size of a 
Defiant-class starship. Have you ever heard of Battlestar Galactica ? 
Because that girl was like a Mark-II Colonial Viper. End over end in 
point three-five seconds. Of course, she would moan and she would groan. 
But she would always hold together.” He paused.


Arthur looked at Montero again, trying to figure out what this Dyson guy 
was talking about. ~Battlestar what?~. “Ummm… no is that a ship from the 
Alpha Quadrant?”


“Needless to say, that was nothing like flying one of these.” He 
gestured towards the fighter. “So, I have plenty of learning to do in 
that field.”


“Well, might have to invite you down to the holodeck and do some real 
seat of the pants flying,” Montero said with a wink to Corday.


“Sounds like fun to me.”


The holodeck was how Alex had learned of the Mark-II Viper and the 
Battlestar Galactica. ~Thank you, Mister Wallace.~ John Wallace had 
begun Wallace Programs Inc. in his backyard shed with just him and a 
single computer.


He acquired the rights to all sorts of old, forgotten entertainment from 
Federation worlds - books, plays, TV-shows - and turned said 
entertainment into holodeck programs. He then sold the programs in 
places where they still used money.


These days, Wallace Programs Inc. was a five-hundred employee company 
with a small company town in the Farius Prime system.


“Fun does not begin to describe how I feel about it,” Corday said. It 
was odd. According to Dyson he was at least ten years older than Arthur, 
but Arthur was thinking of him as less mature than he was, flight wise 
anyway.


Alex walked towards one of the shuttles, a Type-9A. “Now, these beauties 
I’ve actually flown,” He tapped the hull of the craft. “They are very 
popular with civilian operators and I’ve even run into several old ones 
that had been rescued from surplus yards by non-Federation folks. Very 
easy to modify into whatever you need.”


“That is it.  You’ll be wanting to get checked out on the Captain’s 
Yacht at some point,” Montero said.


“Has Captain Sekal actually used his ? I’ve heard that most Captains 
just leave theirs to collect dust.”


“Before the fighters came onboard, I had flown her on a couple of 
missions, and some extra test runs.  Got into a bit of trouble doing a 
slingshot maneuver.  She handles well enough.  Stable as all in the 
wormhole as well.  That was a flight, let me tell you,” Montero replied.

Arthur smiled and nodded.  He wasn’t quite ready to share his tales of 
daring do on the Rhyne. Not to mention making use of the fighters in the 
ships hanger deck and how he managed to fly five of them at the same 
time, remotely. Raid would get it, but he wasn’t sure about the Dyson guy.


Before Alex could continue the conversation, his combadge beeped.


=^= Chief Ywan to Dyson.=/\=


Christina Ywan worked in Operations. Alex had never heard of her, nor 
met her. So the look on his face was one of surprise. ~Who is Chief Ywan 
?~ He made a mental note to look that up later and tapped his combadge 
to answer her.


“Dyson here.”


=^= You have a communication incoming from Ferenginar, somebody 
called….Maggie ?=/\=


“I’ll take it in my quarters, Chief.” ~If Maggie calls, it must be serious.~


=^= Yes, sir. Kwan out.=/\=


“Sorry, guys, have to go.”


“See you in the O club later.  Be good to learn your story more, if 
you’re going to try to fly with the big boys,” he said with a smile.


“Sure,” Corday replied. “The O club. I’m sure we’ll see you there.


Alex bolted from the shuttlebay. Margriet Mackenzie was an old friend 
from his days in Ferengi space. And she did not contact people for 
random chats. So he just hoped that she and her family were okay. ~Only 
one way to find out.~ So he ran as fast as he could.


As Dyson left Arthur’s eyes followed him out, “What a strange little 
man.  A civilian trained pilot?  I wonder what Tempest sees in him?”


Montero turned to Corday, “I don’t know Snoopy, not getting a warm and 
fuzzy feeling from him.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Thinking that we run the 
Battle of Britain sim with him.  See how he adopts to flying by the seat 
of your pants.”


“Sink or swim?” Snoopy asked.


“Sink, most definitely.  Sink,” Montero said.


(reply None)(Posted by Al, Ruben, Tim)*
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