Tactical Touchdown

Posted on Thu Jul 13, 2023 @ 9:03am by Lieutenant Elijah Cooper & Captain Jason Faulkner

668 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: MD 03, 1230

Having escaped from sickbay, Jason was eating a quick lunch in his ready room when he received notice that the ship's new tactical officer had arrived a bit ahead of schedule. He thanked the yeoman for the head's up and kept scarfing down his soup and sandwich while waiting for the man to show up.

Elijah had never been aboard a ship with as wide a corridor as the Challenger. The Iowa was cramped and tiny in comparison and although the Challenger was no starbase, it was certainly more expansive than anything that he had served on before. He even had his own bathroom in his quarters instead of the communal areas that were more common on the Saladin class of starship. All and all, this posting would be a step up...assuming he was up to be in charge of an entire department.

He stopped at the doors and taped the call button.

"Come in," Jason called, hastily setting his tray off to the side.

Elijah stepped through the door, glancing around ready room. It looked similar to the captain's ready room on the Iowa only much bigger. "Lt. Elijah Cooper reporting for duty sir."

"Jason Faulkner," Jason said, standing and extending his hand. "Nice to meet you. Please, take a seat."

Elijah did as instructed. "Thank you sir."

"I understand you're just coming off leave. Do anything interesting?"

Elijah thought for a moment. "Not really sir, I honestly thought they would be sending me back to the Iowa so I stayed close to home. I did some hiking around the Amazon and got caught up on some reading."

Jason nodded. "Well, at least you got to relax. As for your assignment, as I understand the folks at Operational Support Services found some cracks in several of the Iowa's warp coils. They're going to have the replace the entire nacelle and probably yank the core for refurbishment while they're at it, so she'll be in spacedock at least a year. I think most of the crew's moving to new positions."

Elijah nodded. "She was a good ship sir, a lot smaller than the Challenger."

"Oh, you don't need to tell me," Jason said with a laugh. "I was a destroyer man myself for the last few years. A Larson's a big bigger thanks to the hull extensions for the hangars, but they certainly aren't the equivalent of our secondary hull here."

"I almost got lost coming from my quarters," Elijah said.

"Just remember the saucer's mostly the same layout as on a Saladin, at least the front two-thirds or so. More science labs on three and four, I suppose."

"Good to know sir," Elijah said. "She also packs more of a punch then the Iowa for sure."

"That's true. Not what quality I'd emphasize, but true."

"I am the tactical officer, so I guess that's why I noticed it," Elijah said. "But she's impressive to be sure. I'd like to get to work on running some diagnostics on the deflector shields and phaser banks."

"I won't keep you, then. Take a look at the forward torpedo launchers as well. They raised them a bit during the refit to make it easier to maintain the forward phaser bank below them and had to move some of the fire control circuits. I don't want them burning out the first time we run the phasers a bit hot."

Elijah made a mental note. "Will do sir, anything else you want me to focus on?"

Jason considered what he knew of Elijah's background, which mostly had citations related to space combat. "You should expect to be protecting more landing parties than before, especially ones that aren't going in expecting hostile contact. A wider range of potential threats, too, and more delicate diplomatic situations. Keep that in mind when getting the security side ready to go."

"Will do sir," Elijah said. "Anything else?"

"No, that's everything. Get yourself settled into your quarters and then get to work. Dismissed."

"Will do sir."

OFF:

 

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