Target Practice pt one

Posted on Tue May 3rd, 2022 @ 9:59pm by Lieutenant Talsi Carey & Ensign Sherri Element (Carey) & Lieutenant Commander Diane Doctrine & Lieutenant Etan tar-Lexros

Mission: Free write
Location: Battle bridge
Timeline: Current

Tal walked into the battle bridge, she had gotten herself used to the whole layout. "When Xavier wants to do something he doesn't mess around does he?"

"Thought you would know." Element replied as she took her position at the helm control.

Tal smiled, "He still does surprise me."

Etan had been called down to the Battle Bridge without much warning. He wasn't certain of the reason behind the summons, but when duty called, he answered. Usually, if this section of the ship was used in docked mode, it was for drills. Alternatively, it was possible that the vessel was going to be undergoing saucer separation, either for a mission or other exercises. Still, since it was possible, tar-Lexros contacted his staff and ensured that they were standing by to make separation if called for. They were also on call in case there was a combat drill of some kind, close to their battlestations (which, due to the nature of Starship Operations, meant that there were personnel under his command spread through every section of the ship, forming a cohesive web of communication). All of this was done smoothly, even invisibly, to the rest of the ship's complement, with minimal disruption in process and function. The Operations department was a well-oiled machine within the greater machine of the ship, agile and adaptable to any situation.

As he walked onto the Battle Bridge, he realized that Carey, himself, and Lieutenant Commander Doctrine were the ranking individuals on this bridge. He didn't know who would be given the XO nod of the two of them. While he technically was higher up the chain than Lieutenant Carey by dint of being a department chief, she was experienced in tactical scenarios. It wasn't his decision, so - proceed as normal until informed otherwise. He headed to his designated seat as Ops officer at the front of the Bridge, booting up the display and watching as data from across the ship streamed across. For some people, an Operations display was a jumbled mass of incoherent data, but for Etan it was a series of connections, a story told in numbers and formulae. He looked up, and in the fashion of so many Ops officers, he summarized their situation succinctly. "Commander, all departments in the secondary hull report clear. No alerts, condition green."

Tal went over the readings at tactical, "Everything reads normal Commander. Based on what Captain Carey has indicated this morning, he was planning a crash course for Commander Stoffels about starship separations. I thought it was holodeck, but I guess he went to the real thing." Tal replied as she linked up to the saucer section console.

Diane nodded, "All right then people, this is not a drill." She stood in front of the captain's chair but did not sit in it. "When we get the signal from the main bridge, we separate. We'll follow the saucer section unless the Captain signals us to do something else. Everyone ready?"

Etan nodded at Diane's request, checking in through text with his team. They were all standing by, and the umbilical locks were ready. The teams at each end of the turbolift shafts were ready as well. It was gratifying how well this ship could run when they wanted it to. "Umbilical connections are ready, turbolift irises report ready, sir."

"All systems go Commander." Tal replied from tactical console, though this was not going to be needed.

Diane slowly paced in the area behind the helm and operations consoles. She tried to exude calm but wasn't sure she was pulling it off. "Very good people, now we wait for the main bridge's signal."

Etan nodded as he watched for any pre-signal from the Ops station on the main Bridge to begin separation procedures. In theory, of course, it was a simple process. Lock the turbolift irises, disconnect the umbilicals, open and then recede the locks. His staff were in place to do just that. Everything else from there was on the Helm. In practice, it meant a widespread last-second effort to check that everything had been set correctly, that the turbolifts were not actively in use between the two sections, and that someone hadn't left one of the locks on. And then aboard the saucer section, they had to engage the auxiliary RCS packs without accidentally generating thrust just before the locks were fully disengaged. The secondary hull had no such concerns, since they just had the primaries and the warp system. The only problem, of course, was that coming from experience aboard an Ambassador-class vessel, he only knew the destructive kind of separation procedure, where the two pieces of the ship couldn't rejoin except at a drydock. Knowing that Commander Doctrine was overlooking his actions and those of the Helm gave him more confidence - she'd at least been aboard this ship for a while, they must have run this drill before. "Aye, sir. Waiting on their go-ahead."

"Communication from the bridge Commander, they are initiating separation procedure now." Tal replied as the lights dimmed, the alarm sounded indicating separation.

Once the two sections of the Resolution were free and clear to navigate independently Diane let out a breath. "All right, here we go, Helm adjust course and speed to follow the saucer Z minus one kilometer." Diane gave her first official order as the officer in charge of a vessel. She watched the main viewscreen intently as the saucer pulled away from them and stayed at a steady position near the top. She finally stopped pacing and sat in the command chair. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

Tal checked and rechecked the systems, Tactical is at the ready Commander."

Diane smiled. "If only we had something to shoot at," she facetiously commented.

"Well there is a big saucer in front of us," Tal suggested jokingly.

One side of Diane's mouth turned upward in a mischievous half-smile. "There is isn't there? We could use this chance to test our targeting sensor array. We could power down the weapon systems and practice targeting. It's a standard procedure." She seemed satisfied with her justification. She looked around the battle bridge to see if anyone would offer an opinion.

With most silence, Tal grinned, "Initiating red alert, confuring all weapons to practice targeting. Ready for your orders commander."

As soon as the word came down, the Ops department of the ship set to work. Irises closed, umbilicals closed, locks retracted. As the saucer separated, he watched both his display and the viewscreen, seeing the docking locks recede into the secondary hull and the spaces for them close on the back of the saucer. As soon as they were away from the saucer, the Lieutenant released a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. The Ops board seemed oddly lacking now, with only the data from the secondary hull. It was still about two thirds of the data he was used to, but he noticed it. He wondered how the Ops officer in the saucer section was doing, given that they didn't have access to the warp core, the sensors and all of that data. The secondary hull went to red alert, and that changed the datastreams on his board as Ops moved from engineering and operational support to tactical support. "Commander, ECM and ECCM systems are ready to jam enemy sensors on your command. Shuttlebay reports ready to dispatch secondary craft - all fighters and shuttles are standing by. Ready on your order, sir."

Diane grinned. "Helm, take out of their line of fire, tactical, target shield generators and weapon ports with phasers. Let's see if we can get the captain's attention."

"Aye sir," Came replies from both in unison.