07-18-2026, 04:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-18-2026, 04:17 AM by Ethan Diaz.)
Try as he might, Ethan couldn't bring himself to just ride the autopilot all the way to the dock, so he leaned forward and went over his panel again, delving back into his memories of the Basic Flight and Navigation Course. Now that he was actually on the bridge of a real starship, most of the lessons were coming back to him pretty quickly. Being a new exploratory platform, the Ross-class brought a few changes to certain interface systems, but for the most part, the EMCs resembled those of most ships that had been built over the past 15 years or so. Ethan was so lost in all of it that he almost didn't notice Lieutenant Coppola rise from his seat to approach him.
"Welcome to the Bridge," he said, dropping down to one knee. "I have entered information into the system that can help, what we can do before structure failure and how to shore up sections to prevent it from happening."
"Thank you sir, I appreciate that," Ethan replied. The corner of his mouth curled upward in a nervous smile as he tried to find his next words. "I saw those direct input links for the emergency seals and damage control subroutines and whatnot. I'm guessing that was you. It's a good setup."
"We should go over a few things later, when it hits the fan we really need to flow together," Coppola continued.
"I'm with you there, sir."
"If you wasn't we can talk about these things in a few hours?"
Ethan considered it for a moment before nodding slowly. "I'm always open to instruction sir. Just let me know the time and place and I'll work it in to my schedule."
The offer made sense. Even though it was his first day on the job, it was important for a ship's Conning Team (the Officer of the Deck, the helmsman, and the navigator) to establish a solid rapport so they could anticipate and react to each other within seconds. The three of them would set the pace for the entire bridge crew, and when they all worked together and did everything by the book, they would operate like a well-oiled machine.
"Anything you want to go over now?" The Lieutenant added.
"Nothing comes to mind at the moment, sir. The system seems pretty intuitive. I should be ready to open up manual control once we're on the outbound run."
== Open Tag ==
"Welcome to the Bridge," he said, dropping down to one knee. "I have entered information into the system that can help, what we can do before structure failure and how to shore up sections to prevent it from happening."
"Thank you sir, I appreciate that," Ethan replied. The corner of his mouth curled upward in a nervous smile as he tried to find his next words. "I saw those direct input links for the emergency seals and damage control subroutines and whatnot. I'm guessing that was you. It's a good setup."
"We should go over a few things later, when it hits the fan we really need to flow together," Coppola continued.
"I'm with you there, sir."
"If you wasn't we can talk about these things in a few hours?"
Ethan considered it for a moment before nodding slowly. "I'm always open to instruction sir. Just let me know the time and place and I'll work it in to my schedule."
The offer made sense. Even though it was his first day on the job, it was important for a ship's Conning Team (the Officer of the Deck, the helmsman, and the navigator) to establish a solid rapport so they could anticipate and react to each other within seconds. The three of them would set the pace for the entire bridge crew, and when they all worked together and did everything by the book, they would operate like a well-oiled machine.
"Anything you want to go over now?" The Lieutenant added.
"Nothing comes to mind at the moment, sir. The system seems pretty intuitive. I should be ready to open up manual control once we're on the outbound run."
== Open Tag ==