The Choices We Made And Will Make

Posted on Tue Oct 10, 2017 @ 11:21am by Lieutenant JG Logan Hunter & Lieutenant Marisa Cheshire

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: CAG's Office
Timeline: MD 30 || 1030 Hours

Marisa tossed propped her head up against the desk as she went through the reports from the previous sortie. Lots of damage an injuries, quite frankly she was amazed that they had come away as unscathed as they had. Her eyes nearly missed the complaint, item 142 on her endless agenda. After she had read the report she sighed heavily before tapping her badge.

=^=Ensign Hunter, Cheshire. Report to my office please.=^= she said, staving off any exasperation from ebbing into her voice.

Logan was just finishing up a gymnastics workout when the page came over the gymnasium's speakers. He trotted to his gym bag and tapped his combadge. "On my way sir." He arrived a few minutes later, his gym shirt clinging to his torso.

Her lips pursed while she considered her phrasing, she'd never been good at disciplinary action and she always looked to her superiors for an example. Unfortunately the action conjured when she asked herself What Would The Red Queen Do was a little too extreme, bringing to mind images of a beheading to set an example to the others. And when she was called in the past, her commanders would beat around the bush, asking 'do you know why I called you here?' before tearing into her. She hated that just as much.

Marisa took a breath, taking one last look at the report before looking at the rookie pilot from her seat. "During yesterdays operation you sortied without your TSO." She said professionally. "Did you have a reason to breach protocol like that?"

Logan wiped a hand across the brow of his head and took a deep breath. "Well sir, we had just returned from a sortie. I was conducting a post flight rundown with the crew chief while Ensign Windsor delivered our flight report to primary flight control. It would have been several minutes before he would have returned and you had called for an immediate scramble to fight the Borg. I had a full ordnance load and 77% fuel reserves."

Marisa listened hiding her mouth behind clasped hands "I did indeed call for an immediate scramble," She said, folding her arms as she nodded affirmatively. "If I'm reading between the lines correctly I take it you determined that you were battle ready. Am I correct Ensign?"

"Valkyrie TSOs primarily handle deployment of countermeasures and the aft phaser emitters if the pilot is engaging targets forward." He paused for a moment. "Borg don't use fighter screens so and...I was capable of deploying countermeasures in need be." He took a deep breath before finishing his statement. "I was 85% combat mission capable, which is 5% above the non mission capability margin."

Marisa shook her head. "That data was calculated using veteran aviators during several Red Flag sorties. I don't want to give you the impression that I think you're a bad aviator Ensign." She said with a critical but even tone "But you are newly minted. 85 percent combat capable is a best case scenario, and you've got another thing coming if you think you meet that criteria. And yes," She continued with an exasperated sigh "the Borg don't normally field fighter screens. They are also the most dangerous enemy the Federation has ever encountered, known to be able to reconfigure entire 27 cubic meter ships to adapt to specific threats."

Logan nodded his head. "I made the call to launch my Valkyrie, I bagged two missiles, one of which was vectoring in on your command flight, I returned to the Triumphant with an undamaged craft minus my entire ordnance payload. Unless tactical evaluations have changed...I'd say that's a win."

"I'd say it was luck, Ensign." Marisa quickly fired back in a firm tone and a laser stare "I'm in no way discounting your achievements, but there will be the sortie when eighty five percent isn't enough."

She sighed and shook her head sympathetically "Look, don't think of this as an informal disciplinary hearing, more like an debrief." She said, looking at the junior officer with a much softer expression. "Now that I've heard your side I think you went through the right thought processes, but I disagree with the conclusion you came too. You could have waited, someone could have taken your spot in the tube, and we'd have been at the same strength. Not only that, leaving your TSO behind doesn't exactly foster esprit de corps. I mean if you really think that he only contributes fifteen percent of the work load" She lent forward with her hands clasped "I can reassign you to a Raptor or Razor if you want."

Logan took a moment to gather his thought. He hadn't meant to make a comment that disparaged the contribution a TSO made to a flight team. "I did not mean to imply that Ensign Windsor only contributes a little to our combat effectiveness. He performs a wide range of in-flight duties that let me focus on flying and engaging forward bearing targets.
However, flight assignments are your responsibility. If you feel I would be better utilized in a Raptor or Razor, then I will begin my qualification training for one of those craft."

"You don't get out of it that easy Zorro." Marisa cracked a sly smile. She took a shallow breath "You're Valk qualified, and retraining will take time, so I'd much rather keep you in one. However," She shrugged "it is more demanding than flying a single seat. Valks are, in general, more effective, but only if they have a good team under the canopy. You don't need to worry about your relationship with a computer in a single seat, you do need to worry about your relationship with your TSO. Its for this reason that Valk pilots are more valuable than Raptor or Razor pilots, and generally tend to climb higher."

"You're a Star Fleet officer" Marisa explained "so I know you have got the chops, it comes down to if you want to put in the extra effort. The choice is ultimately yours."

Logan breathed a silent sigh of relief. While he did have a desire to cross train in a single seat fighter, as most CAGs are often qualified in several types of fighters, he had no intentions of transferring out of a Valkyrie any time soon. He looked at Marissa in earnest. "I would prefer to stay flying a Valkyrie and retain Ensign Windsor as my TSO. I do understand that my choice yesterday could require you to take administrative action not in my favor, but I did feel that we were going to need every fighter in the fray as fast as possible."

"I'm not going to need to do anything of the sort." Marisa reassured. "You made a judgement call, I disagreed with it and we had a discussion about it." She settled back into her chair with a slight sigh "You're a junior officer, it happens. I'm satisfied providing we don't need to have this discussion again."

"Copy that," replied Logan. He was relieved that the discussion was more of an informal reminder of flight protocol and not a reprimand for a mistake in judgement. "Is there anything else sir?"

"Yeah.' Marisa continued with a slight nod. "I'll tell Ensign Windsor, but I'm telling you too. Next time you're on alert duty send your flight report over the network." She said with an exhausted tone "You don't need to hand deliver it, your private digital signature is sufficient authentication." she straightened up in her chair "If you have no further comments you are dismissed."

Logan knew when he got off easily. He didn't want to press his luck, so he chose to make a hasty departure.