Piloting Priorities

Posted on Wed Jun 20th, 2018 @ 3:34pm by Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: Pilot's Lounge
Timeline: After the USS Hera leaves Granweh

Baroness Schwein von Alcott was sitting in the Pilot's Lounge waiting on the simulator to free up. She had an appointment in another half an hour, but she arrived a bit early to relax and enjoy a drink before she slipped into a fighter cockpit for an hour. She knew she could just use one of the many holodecks aboard, but there was something about the simulator in the Flight Controller offices that seemed better programmed to her and it just seemed more real to her for whatever reason. Besides that, the Pilot's Lounge had a nice view of the main hangar deck.

Sipping at her root beer, she set it back on the coaster and stretched her neck, her silver hair swishing across her back and the epaulets of her dress jacket. She needed to make an appointment with the Captain's wife soon too - her muscles were too tense.

As it turned out, the flight simulators had skill levels built into them, on a scale of 1 to 10. These corresponded to pilot ratings- if you could test out at a level, you were then rated as that level pilot on that craft. Thanks to considerable diligence and quite a bit of intruction from Ensign Gonadie, Lieutenant Rita Paris was qualifying well across the boards on the runabouts and the Hera herself, having achieved rank five in both. She had lower ratings on a number of other craft, and for fun she had established that on a starship class that hadn’t been in active service for seventy-seven years that she was a level 10 pilot.

Because once upon a time, she had been an ace helmsman. And she was determined to be one again in this future age, so far from where she belonged. She constantly felt stupid not knowing things everyone else took for granted, and it grated on her to be the slow kid in every conversation. The one thing she could do was fly, and she was absolutely determined to prove it- not just to the crew of the Hera, but to herself.

So when the level nine simulation piloting the starship through an asteroid field while evading pursuit by two cloaked Romulan D’deridex class starships went sideways on her because she couldn’t get the hang of fine tuning the inertial dampeners on the fly, Paris should not have been surprised. Skipping the steps in between meant that she lacked the knowledge base to properly apply her innate skills. But as the last of the shields failed and the simulator went dark, she was irritated and refused to give up. But the computer refused to reload the simulation, because another pilot was scheduled to use the simulator and Rita simply did not have enough time.

Not enough time made her snicker. Time, it seemed, was never on her side.

In a foul mood, Paris stormed out of the simulator, planning to see if she could get into a holodeck to try again, or try something else. Because being a useless antique grated on her and she simply would not have it.

Schwein stood up and stretched again, looking the buxom bombshell over as she headed out of the simulator. "Difficult time today, ja?" She then offered her white gloved hand in friendship. "I am Baroness Schwein von Alcott, personal family retainer of Captain Telvan."

“Rita Paris,” the dimensionally displaced dame took the offered hand and shook it. “In some ways this is so much easier than it used to be, and in some ways it’s harder. But I’ll get it. So... personal retainer? I don’t think starship captains had those in my day...”

Schwein definitely looked the part of a pirate retainer with her rather militaristic grey uniform and eye patch. "I believe ze Captain iz ze first pirate prinzessin in Starfleet, ja? Normally I have no job other than as message liason, but whatever she wishes, is my command." Shwein's accent was getting rather thick as she studied the somewhat out of place Chief Flight Control Officer. "You are the time traveling new Chief Pilot? How are you fitting in?"

“Oh, you know...” Paris tried to summon an optimistic lie, but failed. Shoulders slumped, she dropped heavily into a chair. “I’m the stupid girl now, like a caveman in a disco. Even in casual conversations I don’t know half of what’s being discussed. I want to contribute, but an expert on life in ancient times is not exactly in high demand outside a classroom. Even moreso if that history doesn’t match local history. So I’ve mostly been living in the simulators, trying to catch up on the one thing I can still do- pilot a starship. If I can just get these qualifications out of the way, maybe I'll feel a little better about being the idiot in the old uniform.” It was far more frank than she had planned to be with a stranger, and Rita was surprised at herself for having said so much. But her frustration had apparently been brought to a boil by the catastrophic simulation.

The pirate nodded in understanding, "I see. You feel as though history has left you behind, and it wasn't even your history to begin with. Very understandable." Sitting back down, she finished off her root beer before continuing. "I was created by a bygone era from a misguided version of history. Perhaps you are familiar with the humans and Earth first movement from when the Federation first formed. The colony I was created at was funded and supported by them. The Syndicate eventually learned of this plot and destroyed the entire colony, leaving me as the sole survivor. The Artan pirates rescued me and took me in. I learned that day that everything I knew was wrong. I owe Captain Telvan my life, and will gladly give her mine if she asked it of me. "

In point of fact, Rita was not familiar with that movement, and it just emphasized her point of not understanding half of what was said around her. The Baroness’ declaration of devotion smacked of fanaticism to her, which only disturbed her more, and she was regretting opening up to the woman. Outwardly she smiled a close-lipped smile and nodded. How the hell do you respond to that?

“Yup, she’s swell all right,” Paris offered lamely as she stood. “Well, the simulator’s all yours.”

Schwein smiled and stood with Rita. "That movement was before even your time, ja? That's how wrong it was. Will you join me in the simulator? Perhaps there we will learn more about each other than with words."

Internally Paris debated- step into the simulator with a civilian retainer who was a bit of a fanatic or walk away. But walking away would only serve to compound her isolation, while the Prussian nutjob might know a thing or two about flying modern starships. Like you have anywhere to be, Paris. Sonak always said taking chances was one of your greatest strengths. Thinking of her somber grey-eyed love still gave her heartache, but outwardly she smiled and nodded. “That sounds like an excellent plan, Baroness. Lead on.”

"Wunderbar," Schwein replied, leading Rita back into the simulator. "Computer, load scenario Baroness delta three, Queen's Desire final mission, exclude helm officer. Begin." As the ship was built around them, it became apparent that this was not only a civilian ship, but a pirate ship as well. all the controls were analog and either switches, knobs, dials, or similar, or straight up vintage 23rd century controls wired to semi modern systems. Wood paneling lined the walls and floor, while the bow and ceiling seemed to be all transparisteel. Even the Baroness now had on tasseled epaulets and a long flowing cape as she took her place behind an ornate sailing wheel, readouts and monitors, lining the area around her.

One of the pirates on sensors reported in first. "Baroness, unknown enemies on sensors. They've fired on the Basilisk and she's dead in the water."

Schwein responded immediately. "Order the rest of the task group to close in in a pincer maneuver to drive them into the asteroid field, Rita, do you feel up to dancing?"

While the look of the pirate starship bridge was a surprise to her, it struck the lost navigator that this was the first time since she had arrived here that anyone had actually called on her to be of any real use. With a smile, Paris nodded. “Yes ma’am... as a matter of fact, I’d love to do some dancing.”

Dropping herself into the pilot’s chair, it was nowhere nearly as ergonomically designed as the one on the Hera’s bridge- at least, the simulations of it she’d been in so far. But the harder chair was somehow more comforting to her, and as she reviewed the controls she understood most of them at a glance. Outdated technology, but this she could work with. Transferring navigation to her console as well, Rita read the sensor data and plotted an intercept course for the wounded vessel.

“Intercept course plotted, Captain. Shall we raise shields and draw their fire?” It was just a simulation, but being on a bridge with controls she fully understood and danger pending easily led the anachronistic astronaut to follow familiar patterns. Anticipate and request orders, be prepared to improvise. Go dancing, as the Baroness had so eloquently put it.

The Baroness leaned on the sailing wheel as she read over the small readout screens around her. "Yes, raise shields and reinforce the bow plating. Have the Manticore and Folly break off and try to lure them into the asteroids a bit further while we engage them. Target the reactor on the lead ship and try to draw it away from the other two. Use the asteroids as shields if you can. Those plasma weapons look nasty and I just had my ship painted."

Raising the shields was simple, and the bow plating was something with which Rita was unfamiliar, but the options weren’t rocket science, so she focused it forward even as she began moving the ship into position. The telemetry on the asteroids showed them to be mostly inert, with only a few moving in any sort of direction at all. That would work to Rita’s advantage as she brought up targeting and scanned the enemy vessels for power signatures to know where to target.

Outside the windows the fight raged, the pirate converted Miranda class Manticore easily taking a heavy beating as the somewhat organic stony looking ships kept firing on the small pirate fleet. The Basilisk, Folly, and Queen's Desire were all smaller Trill designed ships which were tough, but couldn't take quite the same beating as the Manticore, and the Basilisk had already been disabled in the initial assault.

As for the enemies, no profiles in the database were popping up and there were only three of them. On top of that they were using some unknown type of plasma weapons. In Rita’s experience, plasma weapons packed quite a wallop. But they had two disadvantages- they were slow to recharge, and if they could be interrupted by weapons fire, the results could be catastrophic for the plasma weapon equipped vessel. For now, she had the reactors targeted, and her weapons options were coming online. Calculating out a trajectory, Paris started doing he math for the navigation for the stunt she was about to begin.

“Reactor targeted, shields up, plating diverted and we are in range,” Rita reported. The Baroness May have ordered targeting but she had not given the order to fire, and Rita was old fashioned that way. "Intercept course plotted and underway."

"Just a little closer..." The Baroness kept her eye on the status readouts as they got closer. Then, when they were almost right on top of them, she gave the order to fire. "Now! unleash hell and fire all we have!" She left the torpedoes and forward weapons to Rita while the tail gunners gave a quick confirmation and unleashed their own barrage of phaser fire on the lead ship's reactor, slaving their targeting scopes to Rita's.

The range was too close for torpedoes, so with her eyes on the pop-up targeting viewer Rita lined it up and endeavored to show what she could do. Bright blue phaser beams lanced across space like carving blades. Engineering was practically carved off the enemy vessel, trailing plasma clouds that were in turn ignited by another phaser barrage to ignite massive fiery explosions in space. At an unsafe range, no less. Two seemingly meaningless torpedoes launched, not striking the enemy vessel but instead flying past it, on toward the asteroid belt.

"Target is crippled, not sure if they retain life support ma'am," Paris reported as she swung the ship wide round the explosion, maintaining approach to the enemy vessel as she continued on the vector to meet up with that pincer movement to do their part.

Interestingly enough, one of the other enemy ships flew right into the two stray torpedoes, partially crippling them. They weren't out of the fight yet though, as they fired at the Queen's Desire. Plasma raked across the ship, rocking her and sending light showers of sparks from a few of the conduits. She was well built though and held together well.

The Baroness flung one arm out, which made her cape billow dramatically, and called out a few more orders. "Dive into a corkscrew past that one and unload all aft weapons as soon as you've scrapped off some of their paint! What's the status of the Manticore and Folly?"

One of the other pirates called out a response to her query. "The folly is dead in space and venting atmo! The Manticore just disabled that third ship and is moving to assist them!"

"Excellent! Now let's make short work of this one!" Schwein should have been happy but she'd run this simulation several time with different tactics. She knew what was about to happen. There was nothing happy about it.

No one ever asked for a corkscrew, so Rita grinned as she tightened the inertial dampeners to twist her round, making the pirate vessel very hard to hit. But on the vector that she kept it, the lady had asked for scraped paint. "Brace for impact," she warned just in case she didn't pull this off. Impulse racing up to maximum, Paris slid them into a vector that brought them alongside the enemy vessel, even as she dropped off a a torpedo on a timer. As they realigned past the enemy vessel, the aft gunners took aim through Rita's telemetry, which was targeting a building plasma charge in the main guns of their opponents.

The resultant explosion was impressive, triggering the photon torpedo they had left behind to add a concussive element to the ship's fiery death, which Paris rode, surfing the shockwave with the hull integrity of the starship, counting on her to be solidly built. Which she was, and the Queen's Desire was flung toward the asteroid field, until Paris redirected the momentum to create an arc to intercept the Folly and bring them within transporter range.

Glancing across all three displays, the Baroness should be happy. All three of the enemies were down and they were rescuing the crews of their two disabled ships. "Have the Manticore lock transporters on the nearest enemy vessel and get us some booty! As for us, we'll check the one near the Folly and make sure her crew is ok."

They didn't have any time for 'booty calls' or rescue operations though, as a large ship twice the size of the Manticore, similar in design to the three they had just disabled popped out of warp right on top of them. The only indicator that it was even there was the proximity alarms at first. Then the sensors started blaring. "What the hell is that?" One of the pirates yelled, nearly crapping themselves at the ship now filling the forward windows.

"Hard to port! Evasive maneuvers! Spin up the warp coils! Helm, skim us past the nearby sun to mask our signature!" Schwein's heart sank as the cruiser focused on the Manticore first, disabling it in only two salvoes, gouts of flame sprouting from the old Miranda class ship that had been the centerpiece and muscle of her task force. With a bright flash, one of the active nacelles were hit, causing even more damage. The Manticore's days were now over and a warp core breach was imminent. Apparently the large enemy ship knew this as well and turned their attention to the Queen's Desire, causing a little extra concern to crop up in the Baroness's voice. "Engineering, please spin up the warp coils a little faster."

However, the Helm was not responding as ordered.

Instead, the proximity alarms were still going off, a loud and obnoxious alert that drilled into one’s teeth. But Paris was piloting the Queen’s Desire backward, keeping pace with the larger starship as the forward and aft phasers lanced out, carving directly into the hull of the new and larger enemy starship. With one hand on the helm making course corrections to keep the pirate vessel terrifyingly close to the warship, the other hand was targeting and firing the phasers at what the sensors indicated was the most likely location of the power plant for the enemy starship.

“Set the deflector to spray charged photonic particles in a wide burst pattern, at this range it’ll confuse their sensors,” Paris ordered the navigator beside her. “It might not mask our signature, but if they don’t survive it’ll be moot.” Paris did not spare a glance back to the baroness as she worked. “They’re idiots relying on scare tactics- this close our shields overlap, so they don’t protect at all. We’ve got dorsal guns and they lack belly guns. So we should be punching through their reactor…”

"Aye... Aye..." The navigator glanced over his shoulder at the Baroness for a moment and received a nod before complying, but he did his best once he did. The ship didn't have a very powerful deflector grid, but he could at least get a spray of photonic particles to come out of the forward array. "Initiating spray now!"

As for the weapons, a pair of torpedoes lanced out from the front of the behemoth ship and arced back towards the smaller Queen's Desire while they tried to penetrate the thick armor with their phasers. The two torpedoes slammed into the smaller ship, rocking them hard and throwing Schwein to the deck as she was the only one standing. "Shields are down!" called one of the pirates at an engineering station.

Quickly getting back to her feet, she barked out a few more orders. "Keep up that barrage on their reactor! We're almost through to it!"

Then the larger ship fired two more torpedoes. As they arced around, this time one seemed to lose tracking and went wide. The other wavered a bit, but continued to track the Queen's Desire as she continued to pour phaser fire into the other ship's armor, trying to melt through to the reactor.

Right before it hit, they made it through.

Time seemed to slow down as the bridge module auto-ejected and the torpedo shredded the ship, barely throwing them clear while both of the ships decided to blow up moments later.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit! I honestly thought we were too close for them to risk torpedoes without destroying themselves, but apparently that wasn't a consideration," Paris fumed. Competitive to a fault, she hated to lose, particularly when losing meant a ship and a crew were lost, simulated or not. "I'm sorry Baroness... I should have followed your orders and tried to run. This one is on my head."

Schwein stood there for a moment, clinging to the old fashioned sailing wheel as the bridge pod stabilized itself. After a few moments, the simulation ended and a score popped up with past scores, revealing this to be the only tie - all the rest were complete losses.

Bursting into laughter, she stepped away from the center stage towards Rita. "Well done! That was the final flight of mein ships and crews. Only seven survived that blitz, but I think if you were at the helm that day, far more would have been rescued, ja?"

The woman replayed out her last great battle, over and over, to see if she could find a way to win. She obviously didn't let it consume her life, but she came back time and again to try once more, to watch her old fleet be destroyed again, to try to save a few more. To see what went wrong and try again. And far from angry at being disobeyed, she was happy that Paris' daredevil tactical choices had changed the course of the battle significantly.

Despite herself, Rita Paris cracked a smile, that slowly spread into a grin.

"Yes ma'am, I'd like to think that might just be so," the leggy lieutenant agreed. "I like you, Baroness. I think we're going to get along just fine, you and me. What do you say we go find a bottle of something alcoholic and raise a toast to the Queen's Desire and your first tie."

"At least, until we can get you a win..."