S1-M10 A Race Against Time

[James A. Hawke]

[U.S.S. Shran Á¢â,¬"œ Bridge]

Captain's Log: Stardate Supplemental

For the last couple of weeks, the crew of the Shran has been on a journey home, Earth.  Truthfully, I have not visited my home planet in years.  Our crew is a little different than usual.  Starfleet Academy has requested us to take their Senior Cadets and give them first-hand training.  We are to train, drill and team the future of Starfleet.  Personally, I find this type of mission challenging. But, I am confident in most of the officers will help them in their training

As James finished narrating his short log, he tapped a couple of buttons in the Captain's Chair.  The message was saved.  James took a deep breath and looked around the bridge.  Most of the Station were manded by cadets from Starfleet Academy.  The cadet's grey uniform stood out, and he looked at all the Station.  He noticed how people and individuals on the ship seem relatively young.

Where we that young once? James thought to himself.

He could not help but give a small chuckle, and he thought about the future adventures waiting for them.  Today was not that day, today was to prepare them for the last frontier.

James stood from the Captain's chair.  And said "All stop.  We will be doing a basic drill."  He looked at the clock and merely said "Red Alert."

As finished he looks at his closer officer and merely "Let's see how long it takes them to get into Battle, Station, shields, and weapons ready."

[Kachina Filitov]

[U.S.S. Shran Á¢â,¬"œ Bridge]

Captain's Log: Stardate Supplemental

For the last couple of weeks, the crew of the Shran has been on a journey home, Earth.  Truthfully, I have not visited my home planet in years.  Our crew is a little different than usual.  Starfleet Academy has requested us to take their Senior Cadets and give them first-hand training.  We are to train, drill and team the future of Starfleet.  Personally, I find this type of mission challenging. But, I am confident in most of the officers will help them in their training

As James finished narrating his short log, he tapped a couple of buttons in the Captain's Chair.  The message was saved.  James took a deep breath and looked around the bridge.  Most of the Station were manded by cadets from Starfleet Academy.  The cadet's grey uniform stood out, and he looked at all the Station.  He noticed how people and individuals on the ship seem relatively young.

Where we that young once? James thought to himself.

He could not help but give a small chuckle, and he thought about the future adventures waiting for them.  Today was not that day, today was to prepare them for the last frontier.

James stood from the Captain's chair.  And said "All stop.  We will be doing a basic drill."  He looked at the clock and merely said "Red Alert."

As finished he looks at his closer officer and merely "Let's see how long it takes them to get into Battle, Station, shields, and weapons ready."

Shuttle Bay One

Katcha had the dubious duty of supervising the flight Cadets who were responsible for making sure the emergency and alert shuttles were ready in case of an emergency.

She had been watching as the cocky cadets boasted about what dangerous manoeuvres they could pull in the various types of shuttles that were on board. Her personal favourite, the Delta Flyer was almost ignored.

As per the Captains's instructions, she was supervising but not telling them what they should be doing. She was writing everything down that they did and more importantly, what they didn't do.

As the Red Alert went off, she could see the panic on some of the Cadet's faces as they came over to her.

"Vell, vat are you vaiting for?" She asked, her left brow raised. "Vat should ve be doing in ze case of a red alert?" She asked.

"Prepping the shuttles for launch Ma'am?" One of the bolder cadets replied.

"Ze alert shuttles should already be ready for launch Cadet..." She paused as she looked at her PADD. "O'Connor." She replied when she found the young mans name.

"Which ones are the alert shuttles Ma'am?" Another flight cadet asked.

"Does anyvone know vich shuttles should already be ready for launch?" She asked, scowling at the group of them.

A few moments later, one of the younger cadets, an Orion female put her hand up.

"Da Cadet... Naddu?" She asked.

"Two of the Type 15's and the Delta flyer Ma'am?" She asked nervously.

"Zat is correct. So vy are zey not ready for launch?" She asked the group, before focusing on one of the more boastful Cadets. "Vould you care to explain it Cadet Michaels?" She asked.

"Because we were messing around rather than doing as we were supposed to?" He replied, reddening and looking at his boots.

"Correct! Now zat ze alert has gone, ve are being timed untill ve can say ve are ready. So I suggest you get to it!" She replied.

Immediately the Cadets began to run around, trying to figure what they needed to do. Two of them went to get the stores carts to make sure the three shuttles were ready. Unfortunately, they were going too fast and managed to run the car into the side of the Delta flyer. This caused a large scrape and a dent on one of the nacelles.

"Vot do you zink you are doing?" She shouted at the hapless Cadet who was laying on the floor. "Not only have you been negligent in your duties, but you have rendered ze Delta Flyer unfit for flight until ze nacelle is inspected! Now get up and make sure ze ozzer shuttles are ready!" She glared at the cadets and made more notes on her PADD. This was gong to be a long day.

[Fala Awen]

[Main Engineering]

Caelene leaned against the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, as she watched the slew of cadets taking over Engineering. It made her incredibly nervous; she tried to not let it show on her face, at least not too often, but some of her nails bit slightly into her flesh as she clenched one of her hands. Engineering was one place where mistakes could be incredibly deadly for the entire ship.

A few of the cadets seemed a bit nervous, some seemed overly cocky, but the rest seemed to be a healthy in-between. Still, this was the first time they'd been working on a starship and the Trill hoped that they had enough common sense to respect what they were working with and the dangers they could produce.

Caelene wasn't entirely sure what all James had in mind for this little cadet outing, but she would be relieved when her actual department members were back in place. As it was, a smaller shift than normal was helping to keep an eye on the cadets, but mostly allowing them to carry on as they'd been taught.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a couple cadets arguing near the warp core. Gabriel (NPC) glanced over her, but she shook her head, indicating she would take care of it. Taking a slow, deep breath, Caelene stood and walked over to them, "What's going on here, cadets?"

"It's nothing, Commander. I was just running diagnostics, which seemed fine to me, but Cadet Kalev (NPC) thinks he knows better and was going to mess with the intermix ratio," a young red-headed cadet named Aileen O'Connor (NPC) said, her face red and eyes wide.

Caelene paused before saying anything, giving the young woman a moment to catch her breath, then nodded slightly before turning to Kalev, an Adorian with a defiant look on his face. "Cadets--"

Before she could finish addressing them, though, the red alert klaxons sounded. Engineering was bathed in a blinking red light and she heard several panicked gasps from the cadets. Of course, she and her staff had known a drill was coming, but not when. The Trill called out, "We're at red alert. Get to your battle stations and begin red alert protocol immediately!"

It was another several seconds before the cadets finally began moving. Half of them ran into each other as they crossed paths, but Kalev simply turned back towards the warp core station while Aileen froze in place, her face draining of color.

"Cadet O'Connor," Caelene said, trying to snap the young woman out of fear. "Cadet!" Still nothing. Finally she placed both hands on the Aileen's shoulders and looked into her eyes, "Cadet...you have a job to do. You know what it is, you trained for it. Now go do it."

Aileen blinked several times, then nodded quickly. "Sorry Commander. Heading to the power control station now," she replied, scurrying off.

Shaking her head slightly, Caelene nearly jumped as she felt someone tap her shoulder. The Trill whirled around to find a nervous looking Betazoid standing before her. "Yes, Cadet Etri (NPC)? We're at red alert.... Why aren't you at your station?"

"Ma'am...I...I....I lost my station," he said, averting his eyes.

"You lost your station? You mean you can't find it?" Where did they find these cadets? Of course, she shouldn't be surprised. Akos Etri had been asking her a plethora of questions all day. The five minutes before the red alert was the first time he'd left her alone for more than four minutes since he came on shift. Caelene pointed off to the side, "The engine propulsion control console is over there. Get moving, cadet."

Although she desperately wanted to have the computer turn off the alarm sound, Caelene felt it best to leave it on for the cadets. It made the situation feel more urgent. "Report!"

"We're getting massive power requests from all over the ship! I'm trying to compensate and smooth out the distribution so we don't overload anything, but everyone seems to be requesting too much. We can't handle the load," Aileen said. "I need to increase the power flow."

Akos called out in a panicked voice, "Commander...I...I think I miscalculated the plasma conduit flow rates for the warp nacelles... It's becoming unstable!"

This was going worse than she had feared. The cadets acted like they hadn't been at Academy for a few years, learning what they were supposed to do. It was a good thing they wouldn't all be going to one ship or it could be a disaster. Caelene walked over to Akos to help him. "Calm down, cadet...now look at the console. You need to fix this. You know how."

"No, Commander, I...I.."

"I have it, Commander," Kalev called out, obviously pleased with himself. "I just modified the matter antimatter intermix ratio to compensate." The Andorian smiled smugly.

"You did what?" Caelene shook her head in disbelief. The other Shran Engineers all looked towards her, their eyes wide. They knew what it meant...and didn't realize it was drill. All of them, including her, rushed over to Kalev. "Cadet Kalev, do you realize what you've done? You've de-stabilized the intermix ratio... If we don't correct this, we're going to lose containment..."

[T'Ra Jones]

[Bridge]

T'Ra observed the cadets from the corner of her eye as they scurried nervously about the bridge. While the vast size and grandeur of an Odyssey class starship was of great comfort to T'Ra, who loathed tight spaces, she could easily imagine how small it made some of the cadets feel, like they were going to drown in all the space.

And all the noise... the young woman positioned at the science console was visibly struggling not to turn her head at each and every little chirp made by one of the neighboring computers. The cadet reached up to pull her hair into a tighter ponytail, letting it drop with a sharp huff before pushing onwards. If nothing else, T'Ra could not fault her determinedness.

In the breadth of a few seconds, the atmosphere on the bridge had gone from one of vague anxiety to a downright frenzy. It was clear none of the young students had expected the red alert to come out of the blue, many of them blinking slowly as their eyes adjusted the pulsating, fiery lights. As the captain called for battle stations, the science cadet simply looked up at T'Ra, perplexed. "You're on the bridge, Cadet Novak," T'Ra told her. "Where is your battle station?"

Cadet Novak turned her head back towards her console. "Yes," T'Ra affirmed. "Now based on the star charts, what is our current position?" The cadet leaned in closer to the screen, her brows furrowing deeply in a frown, prompting T'Ra to repeat the question calmly. "Where are we, Cadet?"

"Errr... Ferenginar?"

"Is that a question, Cadet?"

"No?"

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Bridge]
Probies. Ardyn slumped as she looked over at the roster of who was supposed to get a "shadow" as the academy teachers euphemized it. In her opinion, though, It was more like a ball and chain, And as CFO, Ardy was first on the list to get one. Sinking into her seat on the bridge, Ardy pretended to not notice the gangly Vulcan cadet, who had lead the gaggle of his fellow cadets, come up behind her as she sat at the helm console. "Lieutenant JAY-ger, I presume?" He asked with a raise of his eyebrows.
Rolling her eyes, she swiveled around in her seat. "It's Yay-ger." She corrected with a hint of carefully concealed ire. "So, I guess you're the probies I'm watching. Well, come on. You two, Kian and Harper, Sit down on the Helm. I didn't give Ensign Murphy a day off for nothing." She said, pointing to the two probies in front.

Cadet Harper looked at the console in a state of next to terror as she scanned the console. Beginning the sequence to start the ship, she tapped in the button to make the ship go. It didn't. She tried the launch sequence again. Still, nothing happened. "Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?" suggested the gangly Vulcan kid, who was now looking at his fellow cadet with a look of amused condescension. "The what?" asked Harper.

However, before she got any response, suddenly, Steve jumped up on the Helm to get a look at what was going on. Stumbling out of his seat, the Vulcan gave a high-pitched shriek. Scooping the tiny raptor up, Ardyn turned to the gaggle of cadets, all who were now staring at the tiny dinosaur purring in her arms. "What Kian was trying to say before he got spooked by my little friend Steve here was that you forgot to turn off the parking brake. Now back to work!" already feeling a headache coming along,  the Red Alert sounded. Ardyn put her hand to her temples in frustration. It was going to be a VERY LONG day.

[Kira Wyman]

Bridge

Kira had been slowly teaching the cadets how to use the consoles throughout the past couple of hours. The cadets tended to split off into different groups: the focused, the confused, and the people who clearly didn't want to be there. Kira had worked with a few in the past couple of hours, and when the practice red alert sounded, the cadets she had at the time seemed to lose their grasp on things as soon as they heard the sirens. Kira turned away from the console and sighed slightly. Was she this bad as a cadet? She didn't want to know.

"Can you remember how to raise the shields?" Kira asked to one cadet, she turned to the other two and pointed at a cadet separately. "You're on phasers, you're on torpedoes. Distribute the weapons between each other." The cadet nodded and looked down at the console, staring at it for about 15 seconds and then raising his head again. "Er... How do you do it again?" The cadet asked, Kira frowned and walked over to the cadet. "I told you this 5 minutes ago, can you not remember?" The cadet went red in the cheeks and Kira let out another small sigh, leaning over and showing the cadet how to distribute the weapons again. She cancelled the order and looked at the cadet. "Now you do it." The cadet started to key in the commands, doing it right and smiling to himself. Kira walked back over to the cadet which she ordered to raise the shields.

"Need some help?" The cadet nodded as a reply and Kira went through the steps to raise the shields, diverting power form some of the minor systems to bring them up to full power. She turned towards the cadet. "Did you get that?" The cadet nodded slightly, and started to do the process, stopping half way and turning back to Kira. "I'm stuck. What do I do now?" Kira helped her finish it off and made her do it again, the last time the cadet finally did it correctly. The cadet brightened up and smiled, giving a fairly cheerful, 'Shields up, captain!', in reply to the red alert.

Kira looked at the cadets and noticed the small grin on their faces, they seemed to be happy with the little progress they had made. Kira raised an eyebrow in confusion, all they had done was raise the shields and distribute weapons, but for them it seemed like such a large achievement. Kira was clearly out of her depth teaching cadets, she'd worked with intelligence for the past few years, she forgot how little cadets knew when they started. 'This is going to be a long day.' Kira thought to her self, returning a smile to the 2 cadets.

[Fala Awen]

[Main Engineering]

Even as Caelene tried to impress upon the Andorian cadet the seriousness of what he'd done, Kalev (NPC) kept his confident smirk. Frowning, she glanced over at Arol (NPC); the Bajoran moved over to the console she'd been using and after looking at the screen, nodded to her. Caelene felt relieved; for the drill, she'd had the real systems' controls rerouted to one console that only she and other Shran Engineers had access to - the cadets were working on a simulated system for this very reason.

"Commander, there's nothing wrong with this ratio. In fact, it's just a slight modification of the original. The ratio you were using was incorrect," Kalev stated with a self-satisfied smile.

Caelene really missed simply working on the systems herself. Cadets like this one reminded her why she had such a difficult time with people, at least in part. "Cadet, have you considered that each ship might need to have a slightly different intermix ratio to work at peak efficiency. After all, each part will have a slight variance when created, so adjustments are needed. Components also don't necessarily work exactly the same after being repaired. We take various considerations into account when setting up something as sensitive and crucial as this... Undo the change, now. That's an order."

By this time, most of the other cadets had wandered over to see what was happening. Technically, they all should have remained at their battle stations, but considering what Caelene knew was coming next, they wouldn't have done so for much longer anyway. Aileen (NPC) was looking in their direction and seemed ready to join them, but kept glancing back at her station nervously. Akos (NPC) seemed frozen in terror; he gripped the edge of the console and looked over at her with wide eyes.

Kalev frowned and sighed loudly as he started tapping on his console, "Fine, fine. I'll change it back. I still say it would have worked bett-" The Andorian swallowed hard in the midst of his sentence and began to actually look worried. "Commander, I can't get it to adjust properly. It keeps overcompensating."

As Caelene stepped forward, she met Arol's eyes and nodded once. Before she could join Kalev, a white fog-like substance started billowing from around the warpcore.

Alarms blared and the computer's voice could be heard, "Warning, warp core breach in thirty seconds."

Panicked cadets froze, cried, or asked a series of ridiculous questions.

Caelene stepped forward and called out loudly, "Everyone out! We have to seal off the warp core so we can try to eject it. Those containment doors will not wait for you; get out now!"

A few cadets seemed to wake from their stupor and stumble out past the heart of Engineering.  Caelene and the other Shran engineers tried to herd the rest out of immediate danger, though some were on the opposite side of the room, out of reach.

As Caelene made her way over, the containment door was already starting to slide down. She pushed Akos down and watched as he was pulled to the other side. The white fog was filling the room now and the Trill began coughing. A few other cadets eventually made their way over just as the door slid shut. They huddled together, looks of pure fright on their faces as they looked at Caelene.

"Warning, warp core breach in fifteen seconds."

From the other side of the containment door, Aileen looked around and called out to Arol, "Sir! We're still missing Commander Tam and three other cadets!"

"They didn't make it out in time, Cadet O'Connor," he said quietly. "Ejecting the core now..."

Just as the Bajoran finished his response, an explosion rocked engineering and the lights flickered. Shocked expressions and silence filled the room, until they heard a voice over the shipwide comm channel.

=A=Tam to Hawke.... The Engineering cadets just killed us with a warp core breach.... Unless you want to do an evacuation drill, we might want to cut this one short; we have some cleanup to do here, Captain.=A=

A few minutes later, the containment door slid open, revealing an intact warp core and personnel as well as dissipating white fog. Caelene stepped through to where the rest of the engineers and cadets were standing, waiting until they all gathered together.

"Cadets, you're very lucky that that was not real. If it had been, four people would definitely have lost their lives and likely even more - perhaps an entire ship's worth of people. You have to obey orders and remember that you're working with sensitive, dangerous equipment. Something that may seem like a small adjustment could end in a catastrophe," Caelene said, looking each cadet in the eye, one by one. "I want you to seriously think about what could have happened today if this had really happened. Cadet Kalev - you'll be writing death notifications to the families of the cadets and myself; show them to me when you're done. The rest of you will get this mess cleaned up - all systems need checked and diagnostics run. Dismissed."

[Kachina Filitov]

Shuttle Bay One

Katcha was silently observing the Cadets as they hurried to finish prepping the two Type 15 Shuttles. They had been working for 15 minutes before she decided to act.

"You vill all stop vorking now and come over here and fall in!" She shouted

Seconds later, the cadets stood in front of her in two lines. She looked at them all, making sure there were no stragglers.

"Right. You vill stand here vile I inspect ze two shuttles." She announced before heading over to the first shuttle.

She spent several minutes inspecting the first one before going over and doing the same to the second. Once she had finished the two inspections, she headed back to the two ranks of Cadets.

"Zat vos disgraceful!" She said as she stood to their front. "First ze delta flyer is disabled by von of you running into ze nacelle vis a trolley. Zen ze first Type 15 has it's flight controls overloaded by an incorrectly aligned power core. And von of you has somehow managed to wipe ze last Type 15's computer. It vill not fly until e computer system is re loaded." She paused. "So congratulations! You have managed to cripple 3 shuttles zat may have been needed to save lives or evacuate ze crew!" She glared at the assembled Cadets before tapping her com-badge.

Filitov to Keptin. Ze cadets in ze shuttle bay have managed to render ze 3 shuttles inoperable. I recommend ze drill ends now.

[T'Ra Jones]

[Bridge]

"I'm sorry, Commander," Novak (NPC) mumbled quietly. "I suppose I just panicked, got butter fingers, and pressed the wrong key by mistake."

"I understand that you're anxious, Cadet," T'Ra counselled, "but a scientist needs to be more precise. Having 'butter fingers' generally results in something exploding." But given the nickname the Shran had garnered for itself as the Á¢â,¬ËœUSS T-Wreck', this would not be entirely out of place. Novak turned back to look sheepishly at her console, moving at a timid pace as if she were afraid the next button she pressed would cause the ship to go up in flames.

T'Ra took a moment to steady herself, quietly listening as reports came in from all over the ship. She was still not entirely sure it was altogether wise to have such a large number of cadets aboard a ship this size. It would be one thing if these were the Academy's finest, but they were far from it. It was bad enough that the cadets had managed to damage several of the shuttles, but after they had induced a warp core breach, T'Ra was beginning to wonder if this was Starfleet Command's idea of a joke.

She took a deep breath, trying to keep the emotion from flickering across her face. But the increase of hormones was making this difficult, and -- "Cadet Kian!" she snapped, turning on the Vulcan cadet. "Your behaviour is unacceptable. You must control your reactions better."

"Commander?"

"Mm?"

"I'm having trouble getting my console to return to the previous screen."

T'Ra walked back over to where the science cadet stood. She looked as if she were about to cry. "There is no need to worry, Miss Novak," she replied, opting for a less formal tone of address, hoping that would ease some of the tension. She tapped a few keys, arching a brow when she found herself to be no more successful than the young cadet. With a sigh, she tapped her badge.

=^=Bridge to Mr. Waring, it seems one of our consoles is having some technical issues. Did one of your cadets trip a circuit or the like?=^=

[Inzjana]

[PERSONAL QUARTERS]

After two weeks on Vulcan meeting with her mother, Inzjana had returned to the Shran to find that they were taking on cadets, thankfully for her, department heads had the responsibility to 'baby-sit' the cadets, leaving Inzjana with some 'me' time and research but not before she could have a sonic shower and change in to a fresh new uniform in time for her next shift.

Ordering a Coke from the replicator, a drink that normally Vulcans would find repugnant was a drink Professor Offenbach couldn't get enough of and at every possible moment wanted his prize student, come research assistant, to try and she had to admit it was "agreeable", as she would tell him and actually mean it.

Sitting down on her couch, placing the glass on the table after taking a sip, her Japanese Harlequin Mini-Lop Rabbit called she called Kara, came up to Inzjana and  stretched up Inzjana's leg wanting some attention from her 'mummy'. Being the only Vulcan in the universe with a pet Rabbit would usually be considered completely ludicrous but Inzjana really didn't care, she loved her Rabbit and that was that.

"Again, Kara?" Inzjana asked her rabbit out loud, realizing three things as she did: One, she was talking to a Rabbit. Two, she was talking out loud to a Rabbit. As she subconsciously picked up and cradled Kara in her arms on her lap while she took some more sips of her Coke. Eccentric her fellow Vulcans would say, illogical, after all only children had pets on Vulcan, but at least Rabbits were incapable of eating you if they didn't get fed, like Sehlats were known for.

After at least half an hour of petting her Rabbit, Inzjana put Kara back on the floor, she was toilet trained of course, well mostly anyway and after recycling the now empty glass, which had been refilled twice, again patted her Rabbit one last time and made her way to Science Lab 2 having to stop and help a human male cadet up off the floor who had just bounced off the much stronger but smaller female Vulcan as she was just about to enter the turbolift.

"Perhaps cadet, it might be more prudent in future to watch where you are going?" Inzjana stated stoically as the cadet got over his initial shock and embarrassment and became apologetic, "I am so very sorry ma'am!"

The cadet, who as it turned out was quite handsome - for a human - and obviously looked after himself with his well toned six foot four frame, against Inzjana's five foot ten.

[SCIENCE LAB 2]

Finally arriving at her assigned science lab, Inzjana heard the call for Red Alert, "What is it this time?" she asked exasperated. Yet another call for red alert on a ship that made the red alert call a constant companion. First picking up Petty Officer Mart'Ang off the floor who was the second person in the space of ten minutes to test the tensile strength of Vulcan physiology and apologize profusely afterwards, Inzjana accepted the apology making sure that the Klingon male's pride was undamaged she finally sat down at her console.

Inzjana to Commander T'Ra, science lab two stands ready to assist ma'am  Inzjana stated after tapping her combadge realizing that this was only a drill, with more than a modicum of relief Inzjana would never admit to.

[William Waring]

[Main Cargo Bay]

Will was pacing along the row of Cadets before him. In a relatively short time they would be commissioned and that was a scary thought considering the state of the Cargo Bay. All the Cadets were, like himself, in yellow jumpsuits. Not an uncommon sight for officers who worked in the Cargo Bay or other non-glamorous positions.

"Cadet Jensen, step forward" he said as a Cadet, not much younger then Will himself, stepped forward.

Y-yes sir?" Jensen stammered as he stepped forward.

"You were given the supervisory role of Cargo Bay Management were you not?"

"Y-yes sir I was"

"And in such a position you are responsible for ensuring all cargo is aboard, secure and filed away in its proper position, correct?"

"That is correct Sir"

"So tell me then why the cargo manifest shows Type 2 Phasers under..." he paused as retrieved a PADD from a jumpsuit pocket and checked the manifest "...Mess Hall consumables. Does the academy served weapons now Cadet?"

"No sir. I don't know how that happened sir."

"Not knowing how it happened is worse then." his sentence was interrupted by his chirping commbadge.

[Bridge]

"I'm sorry, Commander," Novak (NPC) mumbled quietly. "I suppose I just panicked, got butter fingers, and pressed the wrong key by mistake."

"I understand that you're anxious, Cadet," T'Ra counselled, "but a scientist needs to be more precise. Having "butter fingers' generally results in something exploding." But given the nickname the Shran had garnered for itself as the "USS T-Wreck', this would not be entirely out of place. Novak turned back to look sheepishly at her console, moving at a timid pace as if she were afraid the next button she pressed would cause the ship to go up in flames.

T'Ra took a moment to steady herself, quietly listening as reports came in from all over the ship. She was still not entirely sure it was altogether wise to have such a large number of cadets aboard a ship this size. It would be one thing if these were the Academy's finest, but they were far from it. It was bad enough that the cadets had managed to damage several of the shuttles, but after they had induced a warp core breach, T'Ra was beginning to wonder if this was Starfleet Command's idea of a joke.

She took a deep breath, trying to keep the emotion from flickering across her face. But the increase of hormones was making this difficult, and -- "Cadet Kian!" she snapped, turning on the Vulcan cadet. "Your behaviour is unacceptable. You must control your reactions better."

"Commander?"

"Mm?"

"I'm having trouble getting my console to return to the previous screen."

T'Ra walked back over to where the science cadet stood. She looked as if she were about to cry. "There is no need to worry, Miss Novak," she replied, opting for a less formal tone of address, hoping that would ease some of the tension. She tapped a few keys, arching a brow when she found herself to be no more successful than the young cadet. With a sigh, she tapped her badge.

=^=Bridge to Mr. Waring, it seems one of our consoles is having some technical issues. Did one of your cadets trip a circuit or the like?=^=

Will eyed the Cadets as he tapped the commbadge

=A= Waring here Commander. None of the Cadets under my direct command have done anything of the like. I'll be more then happy to take a look however. I'll be right up. Waring out. =A=

"Jensen, Arcaro. With me. T'Val, you are Cargo Bay super. I want this fixed when I get back. Dismissed!" He finished as he made his way to the Bridge.

[Bridge]

Will exited the lift with the two Cadets following close behind. "Commander" He said giving the Vulcan a warm smile "What seems to be the issue?" He inquired as he retrieved a hyperspanner from one of the many pockets on his jumpsuit.

[Amynta Lianez]

Amynta had actually been looking forward to having the cadets on board--she had fond memories of the academy and how excited she was when she was able to visit a real ship. Now that it was in progress, though, she wasn't sure how she could have ever imagined that this would be a fun, educational experience for everyone.

These cadets seemed like they had been at the academy for two weeks instead of two years, and the ones that did know what they were doing spent all their time bullying the ones who didn't. She'd already been sent two cadets who needed to recover after having a panic attack just from being asked to perform the simplest maintenance--and then the red alert alarms started ringing. She guessed right away that it was a drill (had things really been in trouble, there would have been some kind of explanation given, so that officers knew what they were up against) but the cadets clearly did not.

Immediately the frail human girl started hyperventilating again, and the young Bajoran sitting at her desk was trembling like a leaf and looked as if he might pass out at any moment. It was going to be a long day, if this kept up. She was sure to be sent several more people who couldn't handle the stress today...

None of her frustration showed on her face, however; she simply smiled reassuringly at both of them, and sat down next to Cadet Jacqueline Turner (NPC) on the sofa, putting a hand on her shoulder.  "It's alright, Jackie, you're perfectly safe. Slow your breaths. In, two, three...hold, two, three, four...out, two, three, four. The ship is in good hands, and this is meant to be a learning experience."

A small thud from across the room let her know that Cadet Jazper (NPC) had lost consciousness, and when she glanced up she saw that he had slid out of the chair and onto the floor.

"Oh, dear. Jackie, would you mind helping me move him to the couch...?"

(Feel free to send more cadets to counselling if they can't take the heat!)

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Bridge]

"I'm sorry, Commander," Novak (NPC) mumbled quietly. "I suppose I just panicked, got butter fingers, and pressed the wrong key by mistake."

"I understand that you're anxious, Cadet," T'Ra counselled, "but a scientist needs to be more precise. Having 'butter fingers' generally results in something exploding." But given the nickname the Shran had garnered for itself as the 'USS T-Wreck', this would not be entirely out of place. Novak turned back to look sheepishly at her console, moving at a timid pace as if she were afraid the next button she pressed would cause the ship to go up in flames.

T'Ra took a moment to steady herself, quietly listening as reports came in from all over the ship. She was still not entirely sure it was altogether wise to have such a large number of cadets aboard a ship this size. It would be one thing if these were the Academy's finest, but they were far from it. It was bad enough that the cadets had managed to damage several of the shuttles, but after they had induced a warp core breach, T'Ra was beginning to wonder if this was Starfleet Command's idea of a joke.

She took a deep breath, trying to keep the emotion from flickering across her face. But the increase of hormones was making this difficult, and -- "Cadet Kian!" she snapped, turning on the Vulcan cadet. "Your behaviour is unacceptable. You must control your reactions better."

"Commander?"

"Mm?"

"I'm having trouble getting my console to return to the previous screen."

T'Ra walked back over to where the science cadet stood. She looked as if she were about to cry. "There is no need to worry, Miss Novak," she replied, opting for a less formal tone of address, hoping that would ease some of the tension. She tapped a few keys, arching a brow when she found herself to be no more successful than the young cadet. With a sigh, she tapped her badge.

=^=Bridge to Mr. Waring, it seems one of our consoles is having some technical issues. Did one of your cadets trip a circuit or the like?=^=

[Bridge]
The cadet gave a very embarrassed glance over at T'Ra. "Sorry commander. Won't happen again." He mumbled embarrassingly, all the while looking warily at the raptor.

Startled by the sudden blood-red flashing of the red alert, a flurry of activity ensued. Harper squeaked, her face frozen in terror as she scanned the console like she had forgotten everything before.
Cadet Tremonton, a young man with fiery orange hair, immediately booted Harper off and took control of the ship. "Outta my way!" he said, hitting the acceleration and pitching the ship into evasive maneuvers. Pitching the ship, however, he overcorrected and sent everything and everyone sliding into the bulkhead.

Ardyn felt the floor starting to tilt underneath her and immediately hung onto the helm seats. Scrambling across the helm, she immediately corrected the pitch. As soon as everything was back in order, she gave all of the cadets a stern look. "Ok, Line up!" The cadets did, all looking rather guilty.

Ardy glared at the cadets.  "Are you %#&*ing kidding me? You guys cannot get distracted in this job! Tremonton, Kian, there are rules for all this! You may have heard I'm noted in the fleet for breaking the rules, and you might have thought I would let them slide with you, but thing is, you have to know the rules before you can break them well!!" she said, with more than a bit of anger in her voice. 'You guys can easily kill the whole crew with just one wrong maneuver, and warp speed is not forgiving of accidents."

Sighing in remorse, she stated,  "I've learned that the hard way and my copilot paid the price for that." She stared at them, trying to impress the seriousness of this whole business to them. Cooling off, and pretty sure she got the notion in their heads, she dismissed them. "Clean this mess up. guys."

[James A. Hawke]

[Main Bridge]

James looked at the cadets on the bridge and how they scrambled to reach their battle stations.   It was a simulation, and Hawke knew few things could prepare them for actual battle.  However, muscle memory and reactions are key.

As he looked around, he asked  Ada "Time?"

Ada answered "4 minutes and 50 seconds, Sir."

James rolled his eyes and asked, "Is everyone in their battle Stations?"

Ada responded "No, Sir.  Captain, if I may, there seems to be much chaos around the ship.  Monitoring comm. Signals and it appears there is ship-wide chaos."

James then said, "That is great!"  James mentioned in a sarcastic tone.

Before he could finish, he heard a message.

=A=Tam to Hawke.... The Engineering cadets just killed us with a warp core breach.... Unless you want to do an evacuation drill, we might want to cut this one short; we have some cleanup to do here, Captain.=A=

James reacted by scratching his eyes brows as he felt a sharp headache.

He wondered They Suck.  It was his duty as a Starfleet Officer to make them better, and it was their first time in a Federation vessel.

Hawke to Tam...Let me get straight...I just ordered battle stations, and we ended up "dead" with a warp core breach?  I miss the good old days where I could just whip people...never mind you did not hear that.  Commander, do what you need to do...that does not include taking a whip and beating people with it.  I'm pretty sure Starfleet has a regulation against that, Hawke out

As James finished, he sat down in the Captain's chair.  He heard second message.

-badge.

Filitov to Keptin. Ze cadets in ze shuttle bay have managed to render ze three shuttles inoperable. I recommend ze drill end now.

James rolled his eyes as he responded
Hawke to Filitov, three shuttles?  I did not even order the launching of shuttles.  Do what you have to clear the mess.  I almost want to rip my shirt off; I am doing so Hawke out

As James finished, he looked at the corner of the eye, and he noticed a young human cadet.  She was crying.  James took a deep breath and said: "Are you ok, Cadet?"

The human female said "I think, I am just overwhelmed, I was top of my class in the academy, and I am not used to failure."

James took another deep breath and carefully measured his words "I know, but the Universe is not as kind as the Academy, please report to the Counselor and talk to her, you are dismissed."

As he finished, he looked at the Cadet leaving.  James then said, "Cancel the Red Alert, put us on Condition Green."

As the ship was placed on Condition Green, he gave a ship-wide announcement

This is the Captain, not horrible, but I am not doing any cartwheels.  The enemy will not wait almost 5 minutes for you to get to battle stations.  In this situation, the enemy would have killed us by giving us a mean look.  Team leaders...you know what do.  Coordinate additional sessions.  Let's get is under 3 minutes

As he finished, he heard a Cadet says "We Suck."

James gave a reassuring smile and said "You are all bright...you'll learn.  Learn from failures. "

As he finished, he walked off into his Ready Room.

As he entered the room he contacted Meadows and said

Hawke to Meadows, I need you to report to my Ready Room ASAP

[Kachina Filitov]

James rolled his eyes as he responded
Hawke to Filitov, three shuttles?  I did not even order the launching of shuttles.  Do what you have to clear the mess.  I almost want to rip my shirt off; I am doing so Hawke out

Shuttle Bay One

Katcha heard the Captains reply and grimly nodded.

Da Keptin. Filitov out! She replied, closing the channel a her end.

She then turned and glared at the cadets.

"Right, ve are going to take von shuttle at a time. First ve vill make sure zat all ze damage is repaired and zen ve immediately prep each shuttle for launch. If you vill follow me, ve vill go to ze first shuttle."

Katcha led the group over to the first of the Type 15's, where she led them through the lengthy procedure of taking the power offline and replacing the flight control console. Once that was done, she reinitialised the power and the shuttle sprang to life.

"Right. Vot should ve do to make sure zat is shuttle can be used in an emergency?" She asked the group.

There was silence all round. Then the young Orion Cadet put her hand up.

"Da Cadet?" She asked, looking at the young woman, who was easily the best of the bunch as far as Katcha was concerned, all she needed was confidence in her abilities.

"Won't that depend on what the shuttle is to be used for?"

Katcha nodded.

"It vould. But since ve do not know vot ze shuttle may be vanted for, vot do we prepare?" She asked.

Again there was silence until one of the quieter male cadets spoke up.

"We make sure the shuttle has been fully serviced and signed off and that the power is at minimum required levels." He answered.

"Correct. Since ve do not know vot zis shuttle vill be vanted for, all ve do is make sure it can depart in a hurry. If ze Keptin needs anyzing special zen ve vill ensure it is loaded before departure. So zere vos no need to run around like ze headless chicken. All you needed to do vos check ze service sheet and ze power levels. I know for a fact zat zis shuttle vos serviced about 6 hours ago and ze power core vos at maximum level. Zerefoe you needed to do nozzing!" She said. "Now ve go onto ze next von!"

Katcha led the Cadets to the next Type 15 and again guided them through the procedure, this time to reinitialise the computer system.

"Does anyvon know vot zis shuttle needed to make it flight worthy?" She asked.

This time several Cadets raised their hands. Katcha nodded at one who had not yet spoken.

"I saw the service sheet and this one was serviced at the same time as the other one. I don't know about the power since the Computer system went down before I could check it, But from the colour, it looks to be low." The young Bajoran replied.

Katcha nodded and gave the Cadet a smile.

"Yes, vell done!" She replied. "So how vould you solve ze problem?" She asked the same Cadet.

"Request a new power core from the stores then power down the shuttle. Once the power is offline,
remove the old core and replace it with the new one. Then power up the shuttle to confirm."

"Correct." Katcha replied. "Now let us look at ze Delta Flyer." She added, before leading the Cadets to her favourite shuttle.

"So, does anyvon have an idea vot ve need to do for zis shuttle?" She asked.

One of the bolder Cadets put his hand up.

"Da?" Katcha asked, nodding at him.

"Remove the nacelle covering and replace it with a new one." He replied confidently.

"Niet!" Katcha replied. "If you do zat, you could cause a varp plasma leak! Vile it might come to zat, ve frst need to check to see how much damage has been caused." She added.

She then showed them how to test the nacelle's integrity and confirmed that the covering did not need to be replaced. They repaired it while in place and then she stood back.

"Is zere anyzing else ve need to do to make ze flyer ready for launch?" She asked the group.

The Orion girl put her hand up again.

"Da." Katcha replied, smiling at the girl.

"The same as the Type 15's and in addition, we need to check that the ordnance is full loaded."

"Vot ordinance is zat?" She asked.

"12 Photonic missiles stored in two magazines. 6 on each side." The Orion replied.

"Vell done. Did anyvon do zeese checks?" Katcha asked.

There was silence.

"I see. Vell I did and like the 1st Type 15, she was serviced and vis a full power core. All zat vos required vos to load ze ordinance." She paused and looked at the group. "Very vell. You 4." She said, picking 4 Cadets at random. "You vill change out ze power core of ze second Type 15. Vile you 4." She said, picking the 4 whom she trusted the most. "Vill fetch the missiles and load zem into ze flyer. Ze rest of us vill stand bak and votch." She finished.

She then lead the other 4 Cadets to the edge of the bay to watch the progress of the two groups. While the designated Cadets did as they were ordered.