USS Malinche NCC-38997-A

<Jun 12 2384, USS Thunderchild 0400 hrs>

<Bridge>

"Captain," The tactical officer alerted. "We have a wing of small craft inbound. Unknown origin."

"Open a channel" He replied. "This is the Federation Ship USS Thunderchild. Identify yourselves and your intent."

They waited a moment. No response. As he looked back to the tactician, the ship shook slightly as consoled began to beep. He braced on his seat.

"Report! Red alert! Shields!"

"They have opened fire. Apparently they are aware of our ship's layout. The primary torpedo launcher is offline!" The human said with a tense tone.

"Shields are offline! They have been sabotaged, Sir!."

The captain's demeanor sank as he held his face, looking between his spread fingers.

<L'randil N'rass, Quarters 3>

The young caitian rolled over in her bunk, in the midst of a dream when the red alert sounded. She sat up with a jolt. Being flight deck crew, she was on call for the red alert status.

<Flight deck>

"A mean time to have a drill, Captain." She muttered as she got dressed quickly and rushed down the corridor. The ship was a rush of crewmen getting to their stations. Flight deck was echoing of engines and equipment as they prepared the fighters for deployment. Due to the relatively peaceful nature of the scenario at the time, only a couple of the fighters were ready to fly. The rest were in varying degrees of maintenance. A policy that young Ensign L'randil disagreed with heavily but was disregarded when she proposed the position to her chain of command.

The crew on duty had already launched the first two fighters when she got to her workstation.

"N'rass, get fighter 11 ready." Her commander shouted among the noise. "It is the closest to being ready. Jones, assist." They nodded and ran over to the fighter. It had been offline for thruster calibration, so it was a matter of closing it back up and reactivating it.

Jones, a middle aged human male lifted the panels as L'randil fastened them on. In short order it was sealed and ready and the pilot in the seat. He ran through the checklist then gave the high-thumb. The pair of engineers saluted and ran to the next fighter.

No sooner did they see him go as one came in the landing side of the deck. It was one of the original units and had apparently suffered from being out numbered. It slid into the deck as the nacelles smoked from damage. A couple crew ran over to help the pilot out to see if he was injured.

"Let's get rockin, Randil" Jones said as they hurriedly got the next one working. They worked together quite often, so he used that nickname frequently. This was the first time she had been in a conflict since joining the fleet, but it felt like this was her place.

"Randil, get that relay active!" Jones shouted above the commotion. He started collecting panels in preparation for her. She grabbed the large rotary lever and it clicked into place.

The ship continued to shake from hits, then they saw a detachment of marines rush across the deck to the engineering department's direction. The pair looked at each other and raised eyebrows at the sight.

"Done. Close her up" She replied, stepping back enough for him to place the large panel on. She snapped to the latches in place and they pulled back for the pilot to do his thing.

They high-fived as they raced to the next one. As the lights flickered on the deck, they looked out the bay doors to see a bubble flash around the ship. The deck crew cheered.

"Thank God." Jones commented. "The shields are back online. It's a matter of time, now."

Regardless, the hustle continued much the same until the red alert deactivated. It felt like an eternity until it happened.

"This is the Captain," The intercom said, "We have repelled the attack. All ships not destroyed are in retreat. Well done crew. I will want damage reports from all departments when they are available. Thank you."

L'randil sighed in relief. Jones came over and patted her on the back and motioned for her to come over to the replicator for some coffee.

"Nice hustle, Ensign." The lieutenant said, holding his coffee cup.

"Thank you, Sir." She replied. "So I wonder who that was that did all this?"

"Don't know, Don't know." He trailed off, looking out the doors which were still open with active forcefields.

"It didn't seem like Elyshans. They usually use bigger ships." The caitian suggested.

He nodded. "I think it's more like pirates or terrorists. Rather bold of them to try to take us on. At least it didn't work." He replied as they walked back to the line. The fighters were starting to return home, some with decent damage.

It was still a mystery to her why the shields were offline that easily. Being a combat ship, the shields and armor were supposed to be of a higher rating against small craft than that. Nevertheless, it was over.

<Flight deck USS Thunderchild, 1900 hrs, Several years ago>

"Gadget, toss me that spanner." The crew chief shouted down to L'Randil. "Catch, this one didn't work. Put it on charge."

"Yes, Sir." The young caitian said as she threw the other one up. The human was standing on the rear upper fuselage of a fighter craft. She walked over to the base cart and plugged the tool in, then returned to her assisting post. She was still getting used to being subordinate to a crew chief after being a crew chief in the shuttle company, but Franks was a good one to work under. He taught her wherever she asked to learn and put up with her blunt attitude.

"So, what's the deal up there?" She asked, crossing her arms and flicking her tail slightly.

"Seems like the plasma control interface is decoupled. Come on up and have a look. You should see it."

She smiled at his suggestion and hopped up the ladder, though with a little stagger still from her accident. "Oh, wow. That really did decouple. Good thing there is a secondary on this thing."

He smirked, since he knew the spark inside her mind. "You will be a good chief one of these days. See this? It should be made out of a better conductor. They spec these jumpers on them but they don't last very long."

"Why would they do that?" L'Randil asked.

"They have it setup so that when it gets overloaded it won't draw the secondaries offline. Even so, it could be better." He explained. She nodded.

They continued with these sessions long into the evening hours on many occasions. He enjoyed having a student and she enjoyed the teacher. There was a lot to learn about the nuances of starfleet technology. It was a far cry from the caitian mining equipment in both development and refinement.

When the time came that he was to be promoted, she was summoned to the captain's office. Lt. Franks was leaning on the wall next to the window and the captain was in his chair. Franks turned around when he heard the door.

"Sirs." L'Randil greeted, standing at attention. She had no idea why she was being called upon.

"You probably know Lt. Franks is getting promoted to Head of flight operations." The captain said.

"Yes, Sir."

"This is hard for me to say, though it is probably going to be harder to hear." He paused long enough for her to get nervous. "You would have been in line as far as hours logged and proficiency is concerned for getting to be Assistant Crew Chief, but you are still an ensign. I have taken the liberty to bring in another chief from the fleet to fill the slot."

The caitian was getting annoyed at where this was heading. Her tail was flicking intently and both men could notice.

Franks put a finger up, looked at the captain and continued. "Gadget, er L'Randil. You have been a skilled asset to me and I do not want you to think I don't see that, but we have our protocol for ranking. As such, I put in the request for you already to be transferred to the USS Malinche as their small craft specialist. I will miss having you around, but you will be better off there. This ship will hold you back in your career process."

"Thank you Lt." The captain said. "I concur with Franks. Your skill set would serve on the Malinche quite well. The transfer is effective immediately."

The news made her think for a moment. It took her by surprise. "Thank you, I think."