Bumpy Lane

The Hellcat was streaking towards Mirisam V at Transwarp 15.1, just over her maximum rated speed. M'eko was monitoring the controls for the engines, when her scans ahead of the ship started to change.

"Commander, we need to adjust heading by two point three degrees starboard. There is a pocket of methane gas ahead. I wouldn't recommend hitting it." M'eko said as she glanced up at Lieutenant Commander Barker.

"All right. Helm, do it." Chu said to Shale.

"Actually, it would be a lot easier if I were to have helm control, Commander. I am certified for small and mid-sized craft. The Hellcat is well within my training. There are numerous small disruptions that could kill one of our engines if we hit it wrong." M'eko stated to Chu.

She hoped she was not overstepping her bounds by asking so straight out, but the engines required the absolute best space available to continue to work above their maximum rating.

"Lieutenant." Chu replied. "I know you've got a lot of engineering experience, but the Hellcat's drive is different to anything you will have encountered. Plus the ship is far tougher than you think."

"Commander, with all due respect I think we need to take care of the engines. We're running them pretty hard and I don't know who much longer they will last." M'eko replied. "If we don't try and at least avoid the worse of the "weather", we may lose everything."

"Mister Shale, how's the ship handling ?" Chu enquired.

"We are starting to pick up some sub-space drag." Rick replied. "We should really drop out of the slipstream for an hour or so and re-calibrate the SIF."

"Lieutenant J'ross." Chu said. "How quickly can you re-calibrate the Structural integrity fields ?"

"I could have it done in about thirty to forty minutes." M'eko replied.

"I could help." Lieutenant Shale offered. "We'd get it done a lot faster with two of us."

Chu sat back in the command chair.

"Mister Shale, take us out of the slipstream." Chu ordered. "Switch to standard warp drive and remain on course. I'll take over the helm whilst you and Lieutenant J'ross re-calibrate the SIF."

"Exiting the slipstream…" Shale commented. "Transferring to normal space. Course set and locked, warp nine."

The large shuttle left the quantum slipstream behind and returned to normal space. Seconds later, it accelerated once more towards their destination, this time at warp. Shale rose from his chair at the helm and Chu stepped down to replace him. Although Chu wasn't the best pilot on the Hellcat, he was for the moment the only person with enough understanding to be at the controls.

"Lieutenant J'ross, I would like to get back to full speed within fifteen minutes." Chu remarked. "And Mister Shale, whilst you and the Lieutenant are working together, see if you can't give her a few tips on piloting the Hellcat in the slipstream."

"Understood Commander." Shale replied, stepping upto the Engineering console. "This way Lieutenant."

M'eko rose from her own seat and headed back to the small engineering room at the back of the vessel. Once there, Lieutenant Shale opened up a hatch next to the control array for the SIF. He began working as M'eko started working on the power transfers they would need to get the SIF back up.

"So, Lieutenant, how much experience do you have piloting ?" Shale asked, half occupied by the panel in front of him.

M'eko glanced up at him and started talking while continuing to work. "Well, I'm rated roughly through the Steamrunner Class size and weight range, but the largest ship I have actually piloted was the Sabre Class USS Youngstown, my first posting. That was on my first month out of the academy in 2373. We were near the Cardassian Border at Minos Korva alongside the USS Tian An Men. Our ships were transferring personnel and supplies to one another when the Tian An Men suddenly received orders to go to the Setlik system. I never found out exactly why. To cut a long story short, the Tian An Men was destroyed and a wave of Hideki Class ships came after us. I was on the Bridge and was the highest rated for the helm. I evaded the squad through an asteroid field, and got back to Starbase 212 as fast as I could."

"Must have been interesting getting that pancake (The name many in Starfleet called the Sabre Class vessels) through that field." Shale said looking back.

"Well, it was thin, so I had to flip it like a coin a lot." M'eko laughed as she said it.

"The Hellcat is a lot smaller though. It takes a good control to keep it stable. There are things out there that a big starship can fly right through, but could cripple us." Shale continued

"Well I have you to inform me, don't I." M'eko asked. She looked up at Shale and smiled.

Shale and M'eko continued to talk as they worked through the re-calibration. Fifteen minutes later, they had finished and returned to the Bridge.

"All done." M'eko announced as she entered the command centre.

"Excellent Lieutenant." Chu stated, running his fingers over the helm console.

The small ship dropped out of warp and Chu secured the ship before rising once more from the Helm. "The helm is yours Lieutenant." He announced, returning to the vacant command chair.

M'eko took the central seat at the forward console array and looked over all the helm controls. Shale sat down to her right and re-configured the tactical console to work as a backup helm.

"Some of the controls and read-outs are a little different." Shale stated. "But in essence they're the same as a Danube runabout. I'd concentrate on the slipstream sensors, they're the ones that will show if the slipstream is beginning to destabilise. The computer can compensate for minor fluctuations, but you'll probably spend a lot of your time doing the computer's job. Apart from that the only difference is the way the ship manoeuvres in a slipstream, which are altered by this set of controls."

M'eko studies the small set of controls, which allowed the helm officer to vary different areas of the subspace field projected ahead of the vessel. They basically worked as thrusters and M'eko nodded as she listened to the rest of Shale's advice.

"I'll monitor the tactical sensors and keep an eye out for anything in our path." Shale announced. "Then I'll relay the co-ordinates to you and you can make the adjustments."

"Lieutenant J'ross." Chu said. "How are we doing ?"

"We're ready to enter the slipstream." M'eko replied.

"Enter the stream." Chu ordered.

M'eko brought the slipstream drive back online and activated the main deflector. The Hellcat was pulled back in, on course for Mirisam V. It took her ten minutes to finally get a feel for the way the vessel moved. It was more like steering a boat through water than flying in a vacuum, there was a lag between the commands being entered into the helm and the ship actually moving.