“Cadet Koester, assume the helm.”

Gem Koester, dressed in her Fleet Space Cadet uniform, looked nervously at Captain K’danz. She then glanced in the direction of the conn station, gulping slightly, before looking back at the Captain again. K’danz nodded and smiled gently.

“Sit down, Cadet,” Lieutenant (JG) William Hyland III, who normally sat at the helm, said as he gestured toward the seat. “When the captain agreed to let you remain aboard the Dauntless, you promised you would help out as best you could. Qualifying on the conn will be a big help to watchstander flexibility.”

Gem knew she had little choice, and it was true, K’danz had gone out on a limb to let the teenaged girl stay aboard the Dauntless after the recent death of her father. With a sigh, she slid past the young lieutenant and into the seat behind the control console, which Hyland then explained in detail from how to simply activate the maneuvering thrusters all the way to programming a course into the console and engage the warp engines. It all seemed so complicated, though in reality it was not much different than piloting one of the starship’s shuttlecraft, which she had learned with ease two years prior.

“Okay,” Hyland said. “Slowly take us out of drydock.”

“Say what?” Gem asked, her eyes wide.

“Use your maneuvering thrusters. Slowly move us out of the drydock frame.”

Gem stared at the console, her mind suddenly a complete blank. Hyland helpfully pointed at the thruster control panel in the lower corner of the console interface and Gem, gulping once again, placed her right hand over it.

“Gently and easily. She’ll respond if you don’t stab at it like some old-fashioned button,” Hyland advised.

Gem moved her fingers on the control. The maneuvering thrusters at the aft end of the ship activated, a slight thrum passing through the hull. On the main viewer, Gem could see the delicate framework of the drydock surrounding the ship start to move back and over. Gem afforded herself a slight smile.

“Watch your attitude,” Hyland advised. “You’re drifting to starboard.”

Gem stared at the console, where indications showed the vessel was yawing to the right. She tried to compensate for the drift but only proceeded to move the ship in the wrong direction just that much faster.

“Starboard thrusters! Nose her away!” Hyland advised.

In frustration, Gem jabbed at the control with her finger, a big mistake. The ship turned back in the correct direction but had overcompensated and was now twisting to port, the aft end of the ship sliding around to starboard.

Gem heard the doors behind her open and noticed Hyland look back.

“Hold on a minute, Jo. We’re in the middle of a problem,” the helm officer said to whoever it was who had just arrived. “Port thrusters, Cadet!”

Gem, even more distracted by the arrival of someone else to watch her screwing up, did not react quickly enough. The reaction control system slowed the ship but the saucer hull still had enough momentum to strike the drydock framework with a severe jolt. Gem braced herself against the console and she felt Hyland grab the backrest of her chair and grasp whoever had just stepped out onto the bridge to keep them from falling. As alarm lights started flashing all around the space, Gem looked over her shoulder to see it was the Betazoid Lieutenant (JG) JoElla Faggio, one of the Dauntless’ engineers and Hyland’s girlfriend since the Academy Training Cruise they shared aboard the Dauntless who was standing there.

“What’s with the rough re-entry?” Faggio inquired with a bemused expression.

“Just conducting some training,” Hyland replied, his voice tinged with annoyance. “Computer, freeze program.” Immediately the lights stopped flashing and Captain K’danz froze in the command seat.

“You remember we had a date tonight, right?” Faggio asked Hyland. The helmsman’s expression turned sheepish. “You’re already fifteen minutes late.”

Hyland looked down at Gem and said, “Keep practicing, Cadet. You’ll catch on in no time. Just keep in mind that it’s just like piloting the Captain’s Yacht, except the Dauntless’ reaction time at sublight speeds is much slower. You just need to keep on top of things.” The lieutenant then turned toward the back of the bridge and ordered, “Computer, exit.” Immediately the heavy holodeck doors that Faggio had entered through reappeared where the master situations monitor had been and slid open, revealing the corridor beyond. Hyland and Faggio exited the holodeck, hand in hand, leaving Gem Koester by herself in the simulated helm seat.

“Computer, re…”

Gem paused, then contemplated whether she really wanted to continue or simply leave and find a couple of her friends to hang out with, like Emma, Annika or Dot. She stared at the console for a moment, then inhaled a deep breath as she straightened up and ordered, “Computer, reset and resume.” Around her, the scene returned to how the bridge had looked when she first entered the holodeck.

Space, the Final Frontier…

Star Trek: Personal Logs

“Learner’s Permit” By PJK

Several days later…

Gem Koester had periodically returned to Hyland’s program on the holodeck, occasionally accompanied by one or more of her friends, like the Chief Operations Officer’s daughter Annika, who in spite of her youth seemed much closer in age to the fifteen year old Gem thanks to the Trill symbiont implanted in her abdomen, or Emma Foster, one of Gem’s closest friends and a fellow Fleet Space Cadet, but those sessions generally degraded into laughing fits as Gem crashed the ship over and over. In between the simulations, classes, homework, her duties with the Dauntless’ FSC division under Gunny ‘Olly’ O’Laughlin and occasionally hanging out with her friends outside of the holodeck, she had little time for serious practice alone, with the program usually ending in the same results; the simulated starship colliding with the simulated drydock, another nearby vessel or the interior of Starfleet’s massive spacedock. Gem was becoming quite frustrated with the whole program, but Lieutenant (JG) Hyland kept stressing how important close-in maneuvers were, especially in situations requiring docking the ship.

Another day several weeks into her training, Gem neared the holodeck, pausing in front of the large, heavy red painted doors and looking at them with apprehension. Slowly, she started shaking her head and quickly turned around, heading back down the corridor, wandering aimlessly.

A few minutes later, Gem found herself standing in front of the airlock that connected to the egress of the captain’s yacht. Touching the control panel, she was pleased to discover that dispite the change of command, she was still authorized access to the yacht. Sitting down in the familiar pilot’s seat of the first auxiliary craft she had learned to fly solo in, she thought back several months to when she and her late father had used the yacht to go on shore leave, Gem piloting the small craft from the Dauntless to a lovely park-like world more than four light years away.

“Computer, activate control panels,” she ordered. The computer acknowledged with a bleep and the shiny black panels around the cockpit lit up with various controls. Gem stared at the helm control panel in front of her, recognizing some of the similarity between it and the conn station on the bridge.

“Computer,” she said, suddenly having an idea. “Reconfigure helm console. Eliminate all controls that do not correspond in position and function with the primary conn station of a Sovereign-class starship.” The computer bleeped again and almost half the panel went dark. What remained Gem recognized as the reaction control system manual controls, course entry and propulsion displays.

“Well, it’s a start,” Gem remarked as she started from scratch, learning the functions that would maneuver a class-one starship at close quarters.

* * * *

“Request permission to launch the captain’s yacht,” Gem Koester asked, presenting a padd with the request in writing to Captain K’danz, the Dauntless’ commanding officer. The captain looked at the display screen with mild puzzlement before looking back up at the Fleet Space Cadet.

“Purpose?” she inquired.

“Flight training,” Gem replied. “I can program the yacht to react just like a large starship and get a better handle on my helm responses. The simulations on the holodeck are just not helping. I don’t know if it’s because subconsciously I’m aware it’s a simulation and my mind doesn’t want to play…?”

“That’s possible, Carrie,” Counselor Tanzia Gera said. “Some people learn better by doing the real thing then by using all the simulators in the galaxy.” The red-haired joined Trill woman smiled at Gem.

“Well, I’m not about to let you go out there all alone,” K’danz remarked. “If your dad were still with us, he’d go nuts if I allowed that.”

“I’ll go with her,” offered Lt Colonel Sean McIntyre, who was manning the tactical console. “I taught her to fly the yacht. I’m confident she’ll be fine out there.”

K’danz appeared to consider the idea for a moment, finally nodding her head.

“Very well. Cadet Koester, you have permission to launch the captain’s yacht, on the condition that Colonel McIntyre accompanies you.”

“Aye, Ma’am,” Gem replied, turning to face McIntyre. “Colonel?”

“After you, Cadet,” Mack replied, gesturing toward the turbolift.

As young Koester and the Colonel entered the turbolift, K’danz called out to Gem, “Cadet!” Gem paused and looked back at the captain in her command chair. “I better not see so much as a scratch on the paint of my yacht when you get back!”

“Uh… No, Ma’am,” Gem nervously replied before disappearing behind the doors with Mack, K’danz sharing a wide grin with Counselor Gera.

* * * *

Several minutes later, after the simple procedure of undocking the yacht and deploying the nacelles was complete, Colonel McIntyre looked over at Cadet Koester, who sat in the pilot’s seat, and asked, “Now what, Gem?”

“Computer, reconfigure helm console panel as outlined by the parameters of program Koester, G-One-Alpha.” Immediately the control console in front of the teenaged girl changed to resemble the bridge conn.

“Reconfiguration complete,” the computer’s pleasant feminine voice announced.

“Computer,” Gem continued. “Configure RCS and propulsion systems to mimic the reactions of a class-one starship.”

“Warning!” the computer announced as a single alarm blare sounded from the speakers. “Requested parameters will severely impact vessel maneuverability and reaction time. Procedure is not recommended.”

“Computer, override and reconfigure,” the Colonel announced. “Authorization McIntyre Gamma-Gamma-Two-Two.” He then looked at the young space cadet and said, “I think I understand what it is you want to do. I just hope it works.” He then looked up through the forward viewport, where the bulk of the Dauntless’ saucer hull loomed.

“Propulsion systems reconfiguration complete,” the computer confirmed.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Gem remarked as she touched the manual controls. In seconds, the yacht Jutland was moving forward and away from the starship.

* * * *

The Jutland dropped out of warp and slowed to a relative crawl of only two hundred twenty five meters per second.

“So far, so good, Gem,” McIntyre complimented. “I think you’re really getting the hang of it now.”

“Here comes the real test,” Gem said, looking up and out the front viewport at the starship Dauntless moving quickly closer. “It’ll be like docking a starship inside spacedock.” The young space cadet touched a control on the helm, which still mirrored the conn console on the starship’s bridge, and slowed the yacht even further to only one hundred meters per second.

“I have confidence in you,” Colonel McIntyre assured.

“Jutland to Dauntless,” Gem announced after opening a hailing frequency. “Requesting permission to dock.”

“Permission to dock granted, Jutland,” replied the voice of Chief of Operations Setton To’Lock Arbelo. “Approach primary hull lower docking port. Advise bridge when docking clamps are engaged.”

“Permission to dock at primary hull lower docking port acknowledged, Dauntless. Jutland, out.” Gem slowed the yacht to maneuvering thrusters as it started moving under the starship’s primary saucer hull. Once she was satisfied with the small vessel’s speed and attitude, a maneuver she had taken the Jutland out to practice, she commenced the pre-docking checklist, which included stowing the warp nacelles up against the hull and shutting down several secondary systems.

* * * *

“Approaching main docking port,” McIntyre advised. Gem looked up at the helm before changing a monitor screen to show the view above the yacht. The tapered nitch where the yacht would lock in place was already visible and the crosshairs on the monitor were just starting to line up with the target inside the docking port.

“Forward momentum has slowed to zero meters per second relative to the Dauntless,” McIntyre reported as he monitored the several critical readings the ops manager would be reporting during a docking procedure. Gem was now flying the Jutland strictly by thrusters, and the vessel, as programmed, was behaving very sluggishly.

“I’m not used to having to struggle with this ship,” Gem commented, her concentration divided between the docking monitor and the indications on the console.

“You’re doing fine,” Mack assured.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Colonel, how many times have you docked a starship?”

McIntyre appeared to be silently counting his fingers for a moment, pausing before continuing to count his toes as well before turning to look at Gem and saying, in a complete deadpan, “Um… None. Plenty of standard orbits early in my career, before I transferred to the Corps. Even a few not-so-standard orbits. Mid-course corrections. Speed changes. But I fortunately never had to dock a starship.”

“Wonderful,” Gem remarked before returning her attention to the task at hand.

“Closing speed; one meter per second.”

“Firing breaking thrusters,” Gem announced.

“Speed; point five meters per second. Range; twenty meters.”

“Stand by docking clamps.”

“Clamps at stand by.”

Slowly the Jutland moved up into the form-fitting opening in the starship’s hull, slowing ever more slightly.

“Two meters,” McIntyre announced. “One… Point five… four… three…”

The Jutland shimmied slightly as it settled into its port. Gem immediately shut down the maneuvering thrusters and locked the docking latches into place, which included the nacelle pylons slipping up into their slots, providing additional latch points.

“The ship is docked,” Gem announced with a smile before ordering, “Computer, return all controls and indications to default settings.” The computer bleeped acknowledgement as the control panel assumed its normal appearance and all propulsion systems were restored, so that the next pilot flying the yacht, perhaps even the captain herself, would not crash it expecting the small craft to behave like a small craft. “Jutland to Dauntless. Docking latches engaged. Vessel is locked and docked.”

“Understood, Jutland. Welcome home,” Lt Commander Arbelo replied.

Gem finally released a long-held breath as Colonel McIntyre said, “Congratulations, Cadet. Come on, let me buy you a drink in 10-Forward.”

“Make it a chocolate milkshake, Colonel, and you’re on!” Gem replied as they both headed toward the corridor.

* * * *

Two Months Later

“DS9 Ops to Dauntless, you have permission to dock at upper pylon two.”

“Thank you, Ops,” Captain K’danz replied. “Dauntless, out.” She then looked at the teenaged girl sitting in the chair at the helm. “Dock the ship, Cadet.”

“Dock the ship, aye,” Cadet Koester acknowledged. She then started to mumble to herself, “Which one is upper pylon two?”

“The one coming up on the port side,” Lt Commander Arbelo whispered before announcing, “Approach speed, fifty meters per second and slowing.”

The Dauntless had entered the Bajor sector after a brief patrol of the Cardassian border, monitoring rebuilding efforts on several colony worlds the Federation was sharing with the civilian Cardassian government. K’danz, after the events of recent months, had decided to grant the crew shore leave aboard Deep Space Nine. The only thing standing between the crew and a round of warp core breaches at the famous Quark’s Bar was one of the most difficult docking procedures known to Starfleet, thanks in no small part to the idiosyncrasies of Cardassian architecture.

Slowly, the Sovereign-class starship maneuvered above the docking pylons until coming to a complete stop almost directly above the designated docking port.

On the bridge, Gem took a deep breath to calm herself before engaging the maneuvering thrusters, moving the ship downward on its Z-axis. A small video monitor on her console showed the targeting site above the ship’s port docking hatch. Soon the pylon airlock appeared in the crosshairs and, with quick moves of her fingers, the Dauntless’ motion stopped. Firing another set of thrusters, the ship moved closer to the station pylon. Within seconds, the ship bumped up against the port.

“Engaging docking clamps,” Arbelo reported. “The ship is docked.”

With that pronouncement, Cadet Koester immediately placed all propulsion systems in standby, ready in case the Dauntless somehow slipped her mooring.

“Umbilicals connected,” Arbelo confirmed a moment later, prompting Gem to finally shut down her station.

“Very well, Monster,” K’danz replied before turning toward Master Chief Petty Officer Pono Kyman. “Liberty by department head, COB.”

“Aye, Skipper,” Kyman replied before passing the word to the crew.

K’danz stood from her command chair and walked over to the conn station, where Gem’s expression broadcast her disbelief that things had gone so smoothly.

“Good work, Cadet,” K’danz said before leaning close to the young woman and adding, “Your Dad would have been very proud.”

“Just glad I can do my part,” Cadet Koester replied, slipping out of the chair and turning to face the captain. “Request permission to go ashore?”

“Granted,” K’danz replied with a smile.

“Is Annika ready to go aboard the station, Commander?” Gem asked Arbelo, referring to the ops officer’s young daughter.

“She’s waiting in our quarters,” Arbelo replied.

K’danz watched as the teenaged girl headed toward the turbolift and, as the doors swished shut behind her, smiled.

The End

Return to 2385.

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