Lee Carter just stood for a moment and marveled. She had to think hard for a few seconds to remember when she's been in a hangar as large as this one was. It had been years ago, on the colossal Jupiter Station. There, everything was built on a scale to match the prodigious proportions of the Jovian giant around which the station orbited. The hangar she was in now was not quite as large as that one had been, but was quite impressive in its own right, especially considering the fact that it wasn't part of a station, but rather a starship!
The Nebula class starship USS Sutherland, newly refurbished with a special hangar pod above and to the rear of its saucer section, had been assigned to transport Lee Carter and her teammates and their fighters on the long route to the edge of the Federation, through the Briar Patch, and then drop them off at Supply Base 901. The distance was much too great for the tiny Banshee fighters to cross on their own -- they were nimble and fast, but lacked the necessary range -- so a larger transport had been required, and given the tense situation out in the area of New Canada, Starfleet HQ thought it best not to risk sending a cargo ship, but rather to send a fully-armed starship.
The Sutherland was about to enter the Briar Patch, then after a slow and hazardous journey through the subspace "brambles" inside the nebula, emerge three days later within range of the station. Lee sighed with impatience. Three days until we get to take the Banshees out.
Three days later -- although it had seemed like three eons to the members of Banshee Squadron -- Carter slid back into the pilot couch in her fighter. Looking left and right across the hangar, she saw the other members of her team -- Max, Sam, Jo and Kim -- doing the same. Pulling the neurohelmet onto her head, she began running through the preflight checklist. Moments later, the huge main doors of the hangar slid open, revealing the roiling mass of the Briar Patch in the distance, and New Canada and SB901 in the foreground.
A green light projected onto the inside of Carter's visor indicated launch was authorized, and her hand gently squeezed the grip of the fighter's joystick control. The Banshee craft rose a few feet off the deck and gracefully slid out into the black of night, followed closely by four others.
The neurohelmet began meshing the Banshee's bio-neural computer systems directly into Carter's brain synapses. To her perception, it was as if all her senses became intensely sharpened, and a mere thought was enough to guide her ship through any maneuver she cared to perform. Pilot and machine became one, faster and more dangerous than either one on its own.
And so, it was with just a thought that the five shiny new fighters were guided into their new berths on the Supply Base.
Carter and her wing were met in the staging area by a gold uniformed man. He approached Carter, and shook her hand, saying, "Welcome to Supply Base 901, Lieutenant. I'm Garek Loran, Chief Engineer."
"Thank you, Commander," replied Carter. "When will we meet Captain Wallace?"
"He's not on the station at the moment, Lieutenant. In the meantime, I'll take care of anything you might need," Garek said and smiled charmingly at the ladies. His eyes seemed to linger an extra second on Kim.
"She sure is a beauty!" he said appreciatively.
Kim gave a start and seemed taken aback. "Excuse me?!?"
"Your ship, I mean," said Garek. Then realizing his statement might have been taken the wrong way by the young lady, he suddenly became a little embarrassed and stammered, "Oh, uh.... I didn't mean to.... That is, I...."
Kim came to his rescue by laughing and said, "Yeah. The ships. They are pretty cool, huh?"
Garek and Kim walked deeper into the hangar toward the Banshee fighters to "Ooh" and "Ahh" over them for a while. Jo laughed softly and said,
"Looks like Kimmie's found a friend." Sam and Max just looked at one another and shrugged. Sam said, "Engineers...," in mock disgust, and they both laughed too.
Carter smiled. Looks like they'd be welcome here.