Getting ready to fly-by

Posted on Wed Apr 4th, 2018 @ 12:46pm by Lieutenant JG Seamus MacDonald Jr & Major Patrick Smith

Mission: It's a Whole New World
Location: Flight Deck/Providence Club

Seamus headed back to his office to touch base with his people. He turned the final corner and saw his two assistant department heads. "Frenette and Matheson, please pass along to whomever is on bridge duty to maintain a constant lock on our away teams that beam down to the planet. I'm not expecting anything untoward, but I want to be ready, just in case something does happen. Captain Harrison is in charge of security at the base and I have complete faith in him and his team, but we're a team and if he asks for anything, he's to get whatever he asks for."

"Umderstood, sir." Frenette answered. "Where will you be?"

"I'll be with Major Smith conducting arial surveys. We should be available by comm if you need anything, but I'm confident you won't." Seamus replied.

"We'll get things done, sir." Matheson said.

Seamus smiled and stepped back into the corridor. =/\= MacDonald to Smith. Are you available to get things ready for tomorrow? =/\=

Smith was once on the flight deck inspecting the new fighters that had been delivered to Iota and loaded on board during the layover. "Sure am Lieutenant. Down on the flight deck at the moment but I can meet you in Providence for a bite to eat if you'd like?"

“I wouldn’t mind taking a quick peek at your new toys, in all honesty. We can head to the club afterwards?” Seamus replied.

Laughing, "Sure pop down and I'll show you around," Smith replied. "If you can't find me I'll probably be inside mine wearing the seat in. It's the one with the red stripes."

Seamus smiled and hopped on the nearest transporter pad and beamed down to the flight deck. He looked around, impressed with the sleekness of the new fighters. He found the Major’s fighter and walked over to it. “These are some fine looking machines, Major. I look forward to seeing them in action and repairing them if you’ll let a fleeter touch them.”

Pulling himself out of his seat and sitting on the roof of the cockpit, feet on the chair Pat laughed, "If I didn't let fleeters touch them we would never get any maintenance done. Most of the grease monkies who work down here are fleeters, not that you'd recognize them in overalls."

Seamus laughed. “I suppose so, all uniforms look the same when coated in grease and oil. How do these handle compared to the ones they’re replacing?”

Hopping down from the fighter Pat cleaned his hands on a rag lying on a nearby toolbox. "Chalk and cheese. New propulsion, new customizable weapons packages, better defenses. They're proper fighters for a change."

Seamus let out an appreciative whistle as he walked around the fighter. "That's pretty sweet. While aesthetics don't help their effectiveness, they look good on top of their bigger bite."

"Lies and slander my good Lieutenant. Better looking ships go faster. It's a fact of life dating back to cars in the 20th century," Patrick responded feigning insult.

"If you say so, Major." Seamus said with a chuckle. "Let's head to the Providence before my eyes roll more than what the good Doctor can fix."

Smith followed behind Seamus carrying on, "No seriously. Why do you think I have strips on mine? Faster. All the fastest ships have strips and a sexy body," he insisted.

“Ok, I’ll give you that racing stripes and a sleek body can improve speed and manueverabiloty, but how does that help with her bite?” Seamus said, shaking his head.

"Ahh. Thats what the pulse cannons are for. Newest design and kick ass. let me tell you you don't want to be on the receiving end of these bad boys," Smith answered excitedly as they stepped into the transporter padd and beamed to the civilian section. "Add on the heavy weapons suite and while your gonna lose that speed full starships need to be wary."

“Fair play, Patrick. I see and agree with your points.” Seamus said as they stepped off of the transporter pad. “I’m looking forward to checking out the Providence Club. I’ve only been to the mess hall and never got around to going to the club.”

Looking at Seamus judgingly Pat answered, "I know what you did there. Club is just around here. Good atmosphere and Mack is great."

Feigning innocence, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Seamus replied. "Sounds good. Shall we?" He said motioning towards the door.

"Let's," Pat replied leading the way inside. Being lunch time the club was understandably seeing some traffic. While not completely packed out yet the atmosphere was pretty good so far. Walking to the counter Pat negotiated with one of the waitresses for one of the booths so any planning they did wouldn't be overheard. Taking their seats he thanked her and opened up his menu. "Hmm. Oh. All day frys. That man is trying to suck up to me."

Seamus scanned the room as they went to their booth. “Busy place, it’s good to see the crew taking time to eat properly.” Seamus said, grabbing a menu. “There have been too many times I’ve grabbed something on the fly without actually enjoying it.”

Looking through the menu, he wasn’t sure what he wanted. He looked up at Patrick. “Are their fries any good here? Have you tried their poutine?” He asked, thinking something drowning in gravy and cheese curds sounded good at the moment.

"I honestly don't know if the fry is any good but I fully intend to find out," Smith announced setting the menu down rather triumphantly. "As for the poutine. I'm not going to lie and even pretend to know what that is."

“Fair enough. Poutine is a cholesterol booster that doctors wouldn’t appreciate.” Seamus replied. “A basic poutine is French Fries with cheese curds on top with both layers drowned in gravy. An old shipmate who grew up in a small town in Quebec Canada introduced me to it.”

Pats face lit up in retaliation, "Ohhhh a chip cheese and gravy. Man haven't had one of those in a while. "French fries, lovely grated mature cheddar and a nice stocky gravy. Yum."

Seamus laughed and shook his head. "Well played Patrick. Let's order and hopefully I'll be able to remove the fish hook from my mouth before our food arrives."

Spotting both menus down the waitress appeared pretty quickly. "Alrighty then what can I get you two this afternoon?"

"I'll take the fry with extra back and an extra soda farl. Oh and sack the beans if you wouldn't mind," Pat asked. "I'll take water to drink," he added before quickly heading off the jibe he sensed, "Gotta at least pretend to be healthy."

Seamus smiled. "You can pretend all you want, today's my cheat day!! I'll take a double bacon poutine and a pint of Guiness, please." He said, handing the menu's to the waitress.

When the waitress left Pat very quickly swapped to business mode. "Alright then. We have a pretty big job ahead of us. Boss wants us to do surface fly overs of the planet to see if we can find anything the ground team can use. After that its an orbital survey of all 5 other planets and 42 moons in the system, and then a quick fly through 7 more nearby systems."

"Oh, is that all?" Seamus said rolling his eyes. "In all seriousness, though, what type of sensor array's are the fighter's outfitted with? Would be benefit from adding a couple of more flight hours during the fly through's of the nearby systems to increase the information we gather?"

"Thats what we are gonna be using. Four groups of two fighters with one in each pair being outfitted with an advanced sensor suite. It mean sacrificing some armaments but it get's the job done. it'll be the second pilots job to protect the first," Pat answered.

Seamus nodded in appreciation. "Sounds good. I'm actually starting to look forward to it. We're essentially getting back to basics of when Starfleet first started in space and exploring a system that we don't have much information on and expanding our knowledge and information."

Just as he finished, the waitress brought their orders. "Thank you." Seamus said, liking what he saw on his plate. "I'll have to avoid the good doctor for a day or two for my cholesterol to drop back to normal, but it's worth it."

"Back to basics for sure. I'll have you fly as my co-pilot if you like, we will escort the sensor craft and we can have the new squadron leader I'm getting tonight take one of the other recon groups," Pat suggested tucking into his own lunch.

“Sounds good to me.” Seamus said between bites. “So, you’re getting some new blood? Any idea of her credentials?”

"His," Pat corrected. "Honestly haven't had a moment to read the file properly. Boss man cleared them on board so not a lot I can do anyway plus the files are total crap. Best in their class this, amazing pilot that. Until you see them fly for real you never know with most."

"I definitely hear that, mate. So, what time did you want me on the flight deck for pre-flight prep?"

"Once we arrive we have to drop the away team in. Probably an hour after that?" the Major suggested nearly finishing off his food.

"Sounds good." Seamus said as he finished his poutine and taking a long sip of his drink. "Well, I think we've covered what we need to here. Any plans for the rest of the evening?"

"Finishing off the last of the fry Pat took a huge gulp of water before answering, "Busy busy on the flight deck. We have a last squadron coming in and we need to make sure the refit packages are out properly. They take up a fair bit of room and there was no set way or storing them. Gonna be an all nighter I think."

"Sounds interesting." Seamus replied. "Well, thanks for going over the game plan for tomorrow with me. I'll meet you on the deck once the away team's been beamed down."

"Awesome. I'll catch you later, gotta get back to the grind," Pat said hopping up and practically running back to the flight deck."

Seamus got up and headed back to his office for some last minute final touches on his end.

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Major Patrick Smith
Starfighter Wing Group Commander

&

Lt(jg) Seamus MacDonald
Chief Security/Tactical Officer