There's something on the wing

Posted on 12 Feb 2019 @ 2:23pm by Lieutenant Commander Rafe Cassidy (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Geneviève "Jenny" Lassonde (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War)

Mission: Ka Hakaka Maikaʻi - The Good Fight
Location: Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: 19 Jan. 2389

ON:

Jenny let out a wordless sound of aggravation and grit her teeth as she fumed over this latest rejection. Fine, if she couldn't get anyone to help her on her own, she'd move up the food chain, till she found someone who could order the help she needed.

=/\= "Lassonde to Cassidy, come and meet me down in the main shuttlebay, I have something I need to discuss with you." =/\=

=/\= "Cassidy here. Need me in person? On my way. =/\=

Cassidy was, perhaps, a trusting soul to let himself be dragged down to the shuttlebay rather than resolving a mysterious issue over the comm, or perhaps he was desperate to just stretch his legs and get out. Either way, he was sauntering into the shuttlebay within the next five minutes. He glanced about the scene before heading over.

"Lieutenant Lassonde. What's the problem down here?" They'd never formally met, but they'd had briefings together and he'd seen her presence as a blip on his console when coordinating Hawaii's flight group. Which made for a strange sort of acquaintanceship.

"Lieutenant Cassidy," Jenny greeted back. "I was hoping to use you authority to deal with a small maintenance issue that's cropped up." She figured she might as well be up front with her motives, it was usually the quickest way to find out who was on your side. "I can't get my fighters moved up in the repair itinerary, we're grounded until I can get some work done on them, but every request I put in gets rejected. Hilo and the shuttle compliment are fine, Science and Intel are all over the Aubrey, so I really think my valkyries are the top maintenance priority right now. And besides, there's something on my wing!"

He hated being asked like this; it was always harder to say no to somebody's face, and there had to be some sort of reason the fighters were being shunted in the maintenance priority. "Did anyone give you a reason on what's taking pr-" Cassidy paused, and squinted. "What do you mean, something's on your wing?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, there's something on my wing, and no one will get it off," Jenny retorted. "Here, take a look for yourself," she said, waiving him over toward where the valkyries were parked.

He briefly wondered if this was a joke, but decided he didn't know the squadron leader well enough to take that gamble, and headed over to her Valkyrie. "Look," he said as they walked, "I do agree we need the fighters in top condition before Canterra, but I'm not prepared to make promises until I look at the materiel manifest and worksheets..." His voice trailed off as they reached the valkyries.

"See?" Jenny questioned with a note of exasperation, taking in the fighter with a sweep of her arm. There, embedded in the port wing, was a jagged piece of dull green material. It wasn't very reflective, but managed to catch the light a little. "I tell them I'm ready to climb up there and take it out myself, but I keep getting some spiel about containment, whatever that means."

"The hell is that?" Cassidy blurted, moving to the wing to squint at, but not go anywhere near touching the jagged metal. "Was this from the battle?"

"Yeah, It'd have to be, one way or another," Jenny replied. "If you ask me it looks like a Gorn hull fragment, or part of a torpedo casing, should be simple enough to just pull out. But the maintenance crew say they can't touch it till Science has run a full analysis."

"Yeah, the Gorn have been coming up with all sorts of funky tech, and after that whole biohazard thing hitting the boarding party..." He moved around the wing, frowning to examine the object from a few angles. "You know, if they're afraid this thing is too dangerous to touch, it probably shouldn't be left where it is." He pulled out a PADD and began tapping some instructions. "I got to be honest, Lieutenant, I can't work miracles with the maintenance team priority. But there are a couple of things I can do."

He waved his PADD at the fragment. "To start, I can put in a higher priority request for a science team to come down and get this thing removed and off the flight deck. Easy enough to spin it as too dangerous to leave down here, if it's too dangerous for us to touch."

"Every little bit helps, thank you Lieutenant," Jenny offered. "I just want that thing off my bird, one way or another. And I really do hate to think that it might be doing more damage while it just sits there."

He tapped on his PADD, beginning to draft the message to the science teams. It might get more attention if it had his name on it as a department head. But as he mulled over the right wording, he gave a jerky nod at the debris. "Must have made for a hell of a flight when that thing hit you."

"To be honest, it hardly registered at the time, I was focused on maneuvering. I got hit a couple of times, but once I made sure everything was working, I didn't think about it anymore. It was only once I landed that I realized how...obtrusive it was. A bit closer to the cockpit, and it would have taken out the port nacelle, that would have been a wild flight." Jenny explained.

"I don't know if I envy you or not. Sure, a tin can like this can only take so much of a battering, but trying to get a fat lady like the Hawaii to dance when we had to fly evasively..." Despite his disparaging comments, Cassidy spoke with the easy affection any pilot had for his ship, and his description of Jenny's fighter was without judgement or venom.

He shook his head and tapped his PADD. "Right. Request's gone, I'll twist their arms if they're awkward. Anything else I can be doing to make things easier down here?"

"She may be fat, but when you power her up, the Hawaii sure can sing." Jenny commented, slipping easily into the flyer talk as she referred to the mothership's superior speed and range, at warp it could leave her fighters in the dust. "And thank you, but that should be all for now, my most pressing concern is getting some time behind real controls logged with our newest pilot. I'll be sure to let you know if anything else comes up."

"Any time, Lieutenant." Cassidy stepped back, gesturing with his PADD in farewell as he headed off. "You just get back to flying before this all goes to hell in a handbasket again."



OFF:

Rafe Cassidy, LT, SF
CONN

Geneviève "Jenny" Lassonde, LT JG, SF
FLT 801/CO