Post #17 Inbound for Amandora

Posted on Sat May 9th, 2020 @ 1:20am by Captain Jackson Porter

Mission: Shake Down Cruise
Location: Shuttlecraft Cardinal Three
Timeline: During Shake Down Cruise
Tags: Captain Cyndi Song

The hum of the engines and the occasional sounds from the various panels were sweet music to Jackson's ears. As long as he could remember, he loved everything that had to do with flying. Fortunately, his dad was a shuttle pilot aboard a starbase in the Beta quadrant, and would sometimes take a young Jackson along on short ferrying flights.

On one such flight, Jackson and his father witnessed a training flight of one of the base's fighter squadrons. Immediately, he was fixated by their high speed and precision maneuvers. From that moment on, Jackson was hooked on fighters, and eventually decided to attend Starfleet Academy and become a Marine pilot.

While lost in his memories, Jackson was brought back to reality with a sensor going off. He looked over at the alert to see that he was approaching the warp destination. His hands flying over the controls, Jackson dropped the shuttle out of warp. As the stars returned to points of light, the looming hull of a Galaxy class starship floated in space directly in front of him.

Jackson whistled. "Man, that view never gets old." He opened a comm line to the ship. "Starship Amandora, this is Captain Jackson Porter aboard Shuttlecraft Cardinal Three, requesting permission to land."

=/\= "Shuttlecraft Cardinal Three, permission granted. Activate auto land procedure for Pad Zero-Niner." =/\=

"Zero-niner, roger. Cardinal Three out." Jackson entered the landing pattern into the computer and let the combination of the Amandora and the shuttle's computers bring him aboard. As it did, Jackson picked up a PADD from his personal bag behind him and reviewed his orders making him the new Starfighter Group Commanding Officer.

The shuttle came to a rest in its predetermined spot with a gentle thud. Jackson shut down the shuttle's systems, picked up his bag, and headed out the back exit where an officer was waiting for him.

"Welcome aboard, Captain. I'm Lieutenant Hayes, acting Shuttlebay Ops officer," the gentleman said.

Jackson shook his hand. "Hello, lieutenant. 'Acting'? Will you not be staying with us?" Jackson replied.

"Nope, the actual Ops officer will be arriving in a couple days. I was brought on to help the engineering teams finish setting everything up, but the Ops chief got delayed at Starbase 14...some missing paperwork. You know, the usual red-tape crap."

"Yeah, I hear that. Well, everything is looking good here, so thanks for holding things down for the time being. Do you know where the Captain is?"

Lieutenant Hayes glanced at the chrono on the PADD he was carrying. "She should be up in the Ready Room, but they can tell you when you check in with the Bridge."

Jackson nodded. "Thank you." He picked up his bag and headed out of the shuttlebay to the nearest lift. When the car arrived, he stepped in. "Bridge." The computer chirped and the lift headed to the destination. When it stopped, Jackson stepped out, still carrying his personal bag. A couple heads turned towards his direction, and one officer started walking towards him from the Security post.

"Can I help you?" she said.

"Yes, I'm Captain Jackson Porter, the ship's starfighter commander. I'm looking for the Captain, is she around?"

The ensign gestured over her shoulder. "Yes, sir, she's in her Ready Room."

Jackson nodded and headed down to the door to the Ready Room. He pushed the door chime and awaited a reply.