Pilot Problems - Part II
Posted on Sun Jul 26, 2026 @ 5:19am by Lieutenant Raiden Kosugi & Lieutenant Commander Curtis Thibideaux & Commander Billie Jo Rhodes & Lieutenant Morgana Mallard "Darkwing" & Lieutenant JG Juanita Sanchez "Puma"
2,030 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Jubilee
Location: Space around Deep Space 5 and Pangaea
[PREVIOUSLY]
"Trumpet flight, this is Ops," the haggard operator called out. "We have a flight of what looks like five craft just tore past and are heading towards Pangea. No radio contact with us, though they appear to be communicating with each other. Might be a race or a bunch of joy-riders. Regardless, back up Raiden at or about point Gecko. Go to buster, clear for micro-jump along provided bearing where traffic is clear for fifteen seconds."
[CONTINUED]
"Roger Ops," Curtis responded, "Trumpet Two. Form up on my wing and we'll jump and sort this out later."
His fighter was already coming around and the warp drive charging for a micro-jump. He watched that with one eye as his forward screen darkened and the targeting system showed the projected flight plan and the target information being relayed.
“Copy that, flight lead, I’m on your wing” Sarah replied, pulling her fighter around information. Keeping her movements slower to maintain her position with the bulkier fighter.
"Pangaea?" Juanita was already in pursuit, but now she sped up. "Those payasos are playing a stupid game of slalom. Maybe they no read so well, but they can hear Pangaea is off limits."
An unfamiliar voice came over the comms. "I heard you folks needed some help. I'm two minutes out and heading for the planet. Name's Phyllis. Call sign, Sorceress. Too bad we can't play pinball with those ships, but I'm here to show them what a real pilot can do."
Raiden heard that call sign before and an ear to ear grin appeared, it being evident in the way he spoke.
"Of all the gin joints in all the world, she walks into mine." Raiden's quote came through the commlinks.
"Sorcerous, it’s been too long, we gotta have a drink together. My uncle says hello." Raiden added.
"Kosugi? What brings you to this little dogfight?" She laughed loudly. "I always avoid gin joints. You never know who you'll run into again. Now, if I could find me another Bogie..." She laughed again.
Raiden grinned once more. " Someday you may. So, coffee or tea we can have either, I'll meet you once we are done with this run. Great to hear you. And looking forward to seeing you. Kosugi out." Raiden closing his comm it seems that this part of the universe seemed to have a draw for those who find their way here.
"Definitely. I want to hear all about how you're doing...and what your father's up to." There was a definite smile in Phyllis' voice. "Oh, the stories I could tell...but I promised not to."
"Sorceress?" Another female voice came over the comms. "I didn't know you were stationed here."
"Darkwing?" Phyllis began to laugh again. "Still barnstorming?"
"Of course," Darkwing replied. "With the chaos out here, where else would I be?" Another fight was dodging ships as it came up to the others.
For a brief moment, Curtis's canopy display blurred as the fighter completed its micro jump with McKenzie's fighter still in near perfect formation after her own jump. His HUD and sensor array updated and his comm squawked, "Trumpet Lead, this is Ops. Vectoring two other roamers to give you a hand. Call signs Darkwing and Sorceress. Assigning you all to Tac channel twelve for localized traffic."
"Roger Ops," Curtis responded as he switched the channels obediently. His Pegasus was already humming at one hundred thousand km/s. Their course gave them about thirty seconds to overtake the trespassers. Opening the new comm, which linked automatically to all of the fighters he said, "Darkwing. Sorceress. This is Trumpet one, let's get caught up to the kids and tell them to get off our lawn, yeah?"
Raiden gave out a laugh. "As I live and breathe, Darkwing, it's been a little bit. This is my lucky day, never thought I'd come across you again either. " Raiden gave a frown when something caught his eyes.
"looks like we've got a transport ship having some trouble.” Raiden said over the comms. "Going to go check it out.,"
Five minutes later, the fighters were closing on the racers and Raiden on his transport.
Curtis painted all of the racers with his combat computer and designated targets, through his Command set. "Painting targets and vectoring. Sensors are coming back as small shuttle-pod classifications of differing manufacture. Great...Pod Racers. The station's been hailing them for five minutes. Enough is enough. Vector in, weapons free: engines only before they get any closer to Pangea. Make sure they're in stable orbits and we'll leave them for the Cutters to collect. Probably only take six or seven hours. We just need to make sure they're out of transport range of the planet. Go get em."
"Darkwing, this is Sorceress. There's a ship just ahead of us. Let's take it on a vector approach. If it won't slow or answer comms, we'll do as the boss says and take out engines. My concern is that if we're not careful, we'll knock it into the atmosphere. Copy?"
"Copy, Sorceress. Let's come in as you said, then parallel the pilot. That should make him see the error of his ways." Morgana liked the idea of eyeballing the pilot and telling him to pull out and go back to the station. But if not, she'd make sure he went down in the ocean. He could easily be picked up there and hauled off by the Marines.
"On my way." Phyllis adjusted her approach and paralleled Darkwing as the two came up on the hotshot and mirrored it.
"Sorceress to unknown pilot. As you can see out your port and starboard, you're flanked by two of Starfleet's finest. I suggest you pull up and head back to the station before we force you into the ocean. I hear there are some nasty critters in there that don't like humanoids. I suggest you alter course before you become their supper."
The pilot sped up, but was easily matched by the two fighter pilots. "Unknown pilot, this is Darkwing. There's only one pilot that can beat me at barnstorming, and that's Sorceress. We'll match anything you throw at us and we can pull out of a diver faster than you. Don't make me do paperwork and pull up now."
The pilot tried a few moves, including diving to five meters above the water, but the two fighters kept with him.
"Three strikes and you're out," Sorceress said over the comms. "Pull up now, or we shoot you down and leave you for the Marines--if they can get to you in time."
"Current ETA: twenty minutes," Darkwing added. "And there's definitely something moving around in the water down there."
The pilot maintained course for a full minute, then pulled up. "Fine. This ship is borrowed, anyway."
The two fighters escorted him until he was halfway back to the station, then turned to see what other trouble they could forestall.
Juanita took a high orbit around the planet, looking for any more ships. She had no idea how many hotshots were still out for trouble, but she was tired of these idiot pilots who weren't as good as they thought and believed the rules didn't matter for them. "Puma to Kosugi, I got nothing what you got?"
"Transport Alexis I'd advise you to shut your engines down, " Raiden called to the transport,
"Puma, I am getting an odd reading from the transport, can you do a double check for me? It seems to me that there is glitch happening. Maybe a cascading of some sort." Raiden was a bit worried.
A call from the Alexis. "We're not showing anything. "
Raiden send a message to the flight group, just their channel. "Does anyone have the code handy to shut down a civilian transport?"
"I do," came a southern drawl. "Sending it your way, Kos..."
"Son of a bee sting!" Billy Jo yelled a moment later. "Someone just stole my Pussycat. All pilots, be on the lookout for some yellow-bellied thief in a pink shuttle. She's my baby and if she gets scratched, I'll have their hide!"
"Pussycat? Which way did it go?" Phyllis almost yelled. "Darkwing, you're my backup."
"On it," Morgana replied, turning to follow Phyllis.
Both fighters received coordinates a moment later and Sorceress accelerated to take on the stolen shuttle.
"Thank you Billy Jo." Raiden replied,
As he went to get slightly closer to the transport.
A shape darted out from the tail of the comet blasting past Puma.
This pilot seemed to know what they were doing. A voice came from over coms, "You know gotta have that lucky dust in order to create magic."
Raiden growled, "Puma, I'll take care the transport." as a flash of brilliant blue darted away.
As for the transport, Raiden sent in the code to the transport.
It looked like the engines were shutting down, then, a flash of light like an explosion. Kosugi disappeared, there was just space where both Kosugi' and the ship had been,
Then they were there again.
"What happened?" Puma yelled.
""What are you talking about?" Raiden replied. "The engines are shutting down and we will need someone to come get the ship and tow it in."
Raiden was confused as to what Puma was saying.
"You were there, then you weren't. You just...disappeared," Puma explained.
"I have no idea as to what you are talking about, but then again, we can check the ships sensors." He paused, I'm not going to call you a liar as you are not one to make up stories either." Raiden's voice went quiet. "Maybe I need to go get a checkup once we get the ships to safety"
"Ask flight command," Juanita said. "They'll confirm it. It was just for a moment, but..." She paused, shaking her head. "The sooner this comet leaves, the better I'm going to like it."
Vectoring in on their own quarry, Curtis toggled the intra-ships comm and said, "Trumpet One to Two. Before we got all tangled up, I was going to suggest you take point. I'll back you up. The two fighters were angling after a pair of racers that seemed determined to match up as they raced for the planet.
Noticing the tails, the two racers circled the planet, then sped off into the pack of shuttles and small ships to lose their tails, then dropped their speed to blend in again.
Sorceress and Darkwing caught up to the Pussycat and took a position on either side. "We're the cavalry and if you don't take this little shuttle home, we'll just have to take out your engines and make you walk back," Darkwing said cheerfully.
"And if you think you can outrun us, I should tell you that I was a pilot before there was a Starfleet. I know every trick in the book 'cause I wrote some of them. So, unless you want to spend the next ten years scrubbing hull plating, I suggest you turn around now." While Sorceress didn't know what the pilot's punishment would be, she would definitely recommend that Billy Jo make the thief do just that—either before or after a stint in a penal institute.
in a pen
Just because she could, Darkwing flipped her fighter so she was above the shuttle, looking down in it. Then she smiled, waved, and went back into position.
"No showing off," Sorceress said. "You know better than that."
Morgana did, but she thought the move might give the thief something else to think about.
It did. Or it was Sorceress' words. Either way, the shuttle slowed and turned. When Billy Jo caught up with them, she took a position in front of the three and escorted them back to the yard.
A Post by
Station Operations
Lieutenant Commander Curtis Thibideaux
Head of Station Operations
Deep Space 5
Sarah Mackenzie
CAG
Deep Space 5
Juanita Sanchez "Puma"
Fighter Pilot
Deep Space 5
Lieutenant Phyllis D'lar "Sorceress"
Visiting Fighter Pilot
USS Orcrist
Lieutenant Raiden Kosugi
Fighter Pilot
Deep Space Five
Lieutenant Morgana Mallard "Darkwing"
Fighter Pilot
Deep Space Five
Commander Billy Jo Rhodes
Director of Dyson Repair Yards
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