One pilot to another

Posted on Tue Nov 26th, 2024 @ 10:34pm by Lieutenant JG Spencer Griffith-Bailey & Lieutenant Obav th’Villos

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Backpost
967 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Obav had been working on taking over the Flight Control department, it meant reading about the pilots under his command, looking at the maintenance schedules of the shuttle craft that now fell under his preview and ensuring they were all up to date.

For the moment, he was down in the shuttle bay. It was more of just a walk through and start to meet those that worked and maintained the craft. There was a younger Chief Petty Officer that was heading up the maintenance team that he took a liking to almost instantly.

As he approached the Hunley class shuttle, he spotted an Ensign working on one of the consoles. "Ensign... Bailey?" Obav questioned, trying to remember the man's name.

Spencer looked up at the voice of someone talking in his direction and noticed the man had Lieutenant pips so it must be the new Chief. "Griffith-Bailey, sir. But please, call me Spencer." He stepped away from the console and walked up to him, "You must be our new Chief, Lieutenant th'Villos? I've heard a lot of good things, sir."

"Spencer," He repeated, before taking a moment to size up the ensign. He's taken a glance at the man's file and was curious about his age. "So, you haven't heard everything then. I am the new Chief, figured I'd do a walk through of the bay."

Spencer clapped his hands together and smiled a chipped tooth grin, "Excellent. Where would you like to start?" He had a quick look around the bay, "As you've probably seen, maintenance crews are over there with their list of jobs, a couple of the shuttles have been glitching with their instrument so I've been running some diagnostics with one of the other pilots, and training flight logs have been kept up to date at the request of the XO." Just to rattle off a few of the things going on.

"For the time being, this was just a walk through. I wanted to see everything for myself before diving into the details. We'll have a department head meeting and start establishing all of that," Obav's antenna turned inwards towards each other for a moment. "How long have you been with the ship?"

"About six months, sir." Spencer replied after a moments thought.

"Long enough to get to know her, but not long enough to really call her home yet I suspect," Obav sort of asked. "What do you think of the ship? Any quirks I should know about?"

"She's definitely a beauty to handle, sir," Spencer nodded in reply. "I'm more used to smaller ships, that's for sure, but it's effortless with this one. I haven't found anything interesting worth noting though."

"I've flown enough ships that I can say each one is a little different. Not matter how much we try to manufacture them exactly the same they all have their quirks," Obav said with a half grin. "I do love the Sovereign class though. They are elegant."

"I can't say I've flown one of those ones yet," Spencer shook his head. "Quick question, a little bit off topic: when we're off-duty, what is there to do around here besides spending time at the bar? I mean, there's only so much training and exercise one person can do before it gets repetitive and boring." He laughed at the thought of it.

Obav chucked softly at the question, at the same time but antenna turned in towards each other in amusement. "Honestly, I'm still getting a handle on that. Most ships usually have events, like movie night. There's also the holodecks for whatever one could want to do."

It probably wasn't a good idea for Spencer to bring up the topic of illegal activities to the Chief he'd only met like ten minutes beforehand. "Random question, but have you ever been sky diving, sir?" It was a random question that he liked to throw out every now and then to see peoples reactions. "Or better yet, sledding down the side of an extinct volcano?" Nothing to do with flying, just pure adrenaline.

"I was part of Red Squad in my academy days, we went through jump school as part of our training. I admit I had a blast with it but haven't done it in a long while," Obav half smiled at the thought, his antenna turning inwards toward each other. "I do have some experience in a couple of shuttle racing leagues and I've been a practitioner of kharakom since I was a young boy. It's similar to some earth fighting styles known as kickboxing."

Spencer nodded as they continued to walk and observe the department at work. "Kharakom? I've heard of kickboxing and done a few training sessions on that, but I've not heard of kharakom before. What's that involve, it certainly sounds like something I'd be interested in learning." He needed something to focus on that wasn't flying or family related, and felt like he could get along with his new Chief if he was willing to teach.

"It's similar and can be brutal. It's a very striking focused martial art and the point is to be brutal," Obav replied, giving a simple nod. "I can show you some of the basics, but it's not for the faint of heart as humans like to say."

"You'd be surprised how far I can push things before I give up, Sir." Spencer grinned his usual lopsided smile and motioned to bring it on, "Try me out and let's see how we go!"

A call came through for both of them saying that they were needed elsewhere, so Spencer watched as Obav excused himself with a smile and a curt nod before disappearing back out the shuttle bay doors to leave Spencer there to go about his own business.



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