Breathing Life into the Wing

Posted on Sat Nov 1, 2025 @ 5:03pm by Lieutenant Commander Curtis Thibideaux & Lieutenant Sarah Mackenzie

1,448 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Chicken Run
Location: Air Wing Planning and Ops Center?
Timeline: MD001 Early

Curtis paced through the various decks, levels and corridors he needed to get from his small Strategic Ops office to the facilities that had been set aside and were still getting stood up for the Station's Air Wing.

Despite modern technology, his fit chip told him he'd been averaging fifteen thousand steps since he'd come aboard to join and that was fine with him. Walking gave him more time to think. It was also along the same reasons he'd chosen the smallest office the Admin staff would assign to his posting. He could do a large amount of his work through is HUD and through subvocalization, he could accomplish a great deal.

As an added bonus, if he was out of his office, he was harder to find. The manual prescribed that he had to have some sort of office hours, but they didn't say he had to be chained to the place. Thus far, he was getting away with an hour in the morning.

His HUD blinked subtly, letting Curtis know he was reaching his destination and the hatch cycled, letting him into what probably see a great deal of use in the near future as the Wing stood up.

Standing in what was currently an empty flight deck, Sarah was imagining how this place will look once the fighters arrive. Maintenance crew running about servicing various craft, deck crew moving around preping the next patrol flight. A well oiled machine running like clockwork.

Sarah would be lying if she didn’t admit that she felt completely inadequate. This was her first time leading such a large operation, and she hopped she could measure up to the task. Taking out a thin gold ring with an emerald mounted on it, she gave it a rub, “god Galli, I wish you were here. I could really use some of that sage advice right now”

Walking across the empty deck, Curtis's HUD picked up the CAG and heard her plea. "Well, I'm not Galli, obviously. But they say it's better to be on the ground, wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground," Curtis said lightly.

Jumping in surprise, Sarah quickly tucked the necklace away before she turned to Curtis, “sorry commander, I didn’t hear you come in. Is there something I can do for you?”

"I see you're checking out our small craft with the cloaking devices that apparently have been left on? I'm Curtis Thibideaux by the way."

"Sarah Machenzie, it's good to meet you" Sarah said, turning to him, "and yea, I thought the cloaks were a nice touch. Really makes the bay feel roomy. But in seriousness, I assume my fighter wing hasn't arrived just yet?"

Curtis kept himself from looking about the empty bay and smiled. "Unfortunately, Lieutenant that's a no. Bu'Ships hasn't seen fit to actually assign us craft yet. Instead, we can pick from what they have on hand and then wait to get them ferried out." Taking an orb from his pocket, he tossed it in the air and it hovered, then projected various space frames. "There are ships available," he commented as he reached out and touched a couple of the holo-images, his touch interfacing to move and stop the images.

"There's also a change in taskings to go with it. We'll be getting a consignment of newish runabouts for missions where your pilots might need more than a fighter. We'll have to go over manning, qualifications, things like that. But I can assure you, you'll be overworked. There's always a shortage of qualified personnel."

“Hmm, maybe we should form a dedicated runabout wing?” Sarah thought, looking around the empty space, trying to picture her fighter wing.

"From a TO&E standpoint," Curtis said, hands going behind his back in thought as his gaze joining the CAG's, measuring the space. "The Station having it's own Wing which can encompass multiple squadrons. That's the easy part. The hard part is getting bodies to man those frames," Curtis said thoughtfully. "I'm thinking we'll have to ghost up the different squadrons, bring in those frames under the Wing's TO&E. Bu'Ships and Bu'Admin won't care if Bu'Pers hasn't filled rosters yet. Your pilots are going to be pulling a lot of double duty through different squadrons I think."

Sarah nodded in agreement, “until we find the people, it’s going to be a struggle. Perhaps we could enlist the help of some of the stations other officers. Not for the fighter wing, but for shuttles and runabouts. Most command staff and security staff are qualified on basic shuttle piloting”

Musing, Curtis said, "If they want to keep their flight qualifications and endorsements, that's a good idea that can become an order. Last time I checked the training manual, instructors can dictate actual flight time rather than simulator hours to make do. That might not make us popular, but we'll get a window of regular flights. For a while anyway."

“Sounds good to me, I’d be more than happy to run the crew through their paces. Starting with the Command Crew” Sarah replied.

"We need hulls first," Lieutenant. "So we either wait or go get them. That's what we need to figure first. By the time anyone gets space to ship them, we might be getting close to retirement," Curtis drawled. Only mostly joking.

“Could we put an order in with engineering to build a couple while we wait? I know the station is being repaired, but maybe they could spare a few engineers?”

"We have our own shipyards," Curtis said as he brought up the image of another ship. "I had the same thought and pulled a super rough design from the archives that is basically a flying wedge. Too much engines. Maybe no warp speed but over powered and over gunned with Defiant scaled pulse cannons. Crew of three if you cram them in, but you can get by with one since its an intersystem patrol craft..."

Sarah looked over the design, “huh, it’s an interesting idea. We might be able to take it down to a few of two. Pilot and RIO?”

"Two would help with running everything," Curtis agreed. "I think the next step would be to get with one of the yard birds and see what they think is possible. I know the Commodore will sign off. Either one will take some time though." Sighing, Curtis looked at the projection moodily. "I think we're going to have to go get ships or find a carrier to divert."

Sarah nodded, “agreed, if you’d like, I’m happy to coordinate with the yard superintendent. Perhaps we could have them construct a few simple frames?”

"I love volunteers," Curtis said with a smile. "And sold. You work with the superintendent. I'll work with Bu'Ships and see what we can dig up. There might even be some wrecked hulls we can repair enough to make due. Or even borrow some from the station...."

“Sounds perfect. Building a fighter with from the ground up. I like it” Sarah said, her eyes gleaming with passion. “Hopefully there will be a few schematics in the station database”

Reaching out, Curtis pushed one of the hologram streams out and it popped open to scroll through engineering details. "Roughly eighty seven thousand images here from Bu'Ships," he stated with a smirk. "You can kinda take your pick. I just think simpler might actually get you hulls soonest."

Sarah's eyes went wide at the sheer number of prototypes in the database. She hadn't expected there to be this many already, "oh wow, guess this is the benefit of having a shipyard nearby." She said, flicking through several designs from the strange to the standard. "we could really make something worthy of the fighter corps."

"Well," Curtis said, "A lot of those are the same frame, just variations and updates. But not all pigs are equal. Some updates aren't all they're cracked up to be." But it's a place to start." A notice started flashing in his HUD and he checked the time then said, "Lieutenant, I'm sorry. I have a meeting so I will leave you to browse through and do some thinking, then get back to me with thoughts? Maybe narrow it down to a two or three and we'll see what we can beg, borrow or steal."

Sarah quickly nodded, “yea of course, I’ll put together a short list for review.” She said, turning to the holographic display. “Might put forward a suggestion for an interceptor and an ECM flight”

End:

Lieutenant Sarah Mackenzie
CAG
Deep Space 5

Lieutenant Commander Curtis Thibideaux
Strategic Operations
DS5

 

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