Star Trek : Wisconsin - Launch

by Mashal Wisconsin

Join the newly formed crew on the new USS Wisconsin- a Constitution II Class otherwise known as an Enterprise Refit ship. Join as Captain Joshua Jeremiah Jacobs as he leads the crew into their first adventure while traveling to Starbase 5. A distress call diverts the crew to track down hostages taken by an old adversary of the Federation.

2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Launch

The USS Wisconsin settled back into orbit around Earth. Captain Jacobs got up from the Captain's seat and turned to his Chief Engineer, Dominic Santini. The two had become close over the last two years of Wisconsin's building. Santini had an unusual knack with machinery, a good quality in engineers. He also had his Italian fire as well. Jacobs learned he could point Santini in a direction and fire him off and get things done. "Dom, you have the conn, get her ready for departure, I don't think this is going to take long."

"Aye aye sir" And Santini took the Captains Seat. Jacobs and Leonaidas stepped in the turbolift.

Leonaidas was extremely fit for his age. His background was in the Starfleet Marines, before they were disbanded and absorbed into Starfleet Security. Leonaidas was an average height man of Greek background, a short beard, and had the eyes that was always studying people. Leo twisted the handle "Hangar Deck, Josh, how long do you think we'll be with the Admiral?"

Josh turned "Not long, Admiral Kirk sent me a message that he wants this ship out patrolling the Klingon Neutral zone ASAP. The ship's been commissioned already, the shakedown cruise is finished. We can resupply at Starbase 5 on the way out to the neutral zone. You have your reports?"

Leo nodded "All right here" and he held up a datacard.

The turbolift doors opened. "Good, let's get this done and over. I'm eager to get underway." The two stepped out and walked over to Raptor 1. Beside it was Lt Mike Knabe. Knabe was a tall German who had a very clear baritone voice. "Captain, it's all preflighted and ready to go. Sure you don't want one of the shuttlecraft?"

"Thank you Mr. Knabe. I'm sure. This is a whole lot more fun to fly than those shuttlecraft. How's the retrofitting going for them?"

Knabe laughed "Pretty well, considering they weren't designed for manual input. I've been getting dirty digging underneath the floorboards installing the manual flight controls."

"You're the man for it, you retrofitted the Wisconsin well, Carter thinks it handles great."

"Thank you, sir," and Knabe stepped back from the hatch as it closed behind the Captain and XO.

Jacobs settled in the right seat while Leonaidas buckled in the left. Leonaidas had a strange look on his face "You know that the other shuttles don't even have seatbelts."

Jacobs finished the preflight sequence "Are you complaining about the Raptors already?"

"No sir, just the pilots. You and Carter have infected them all with this manual flying stuff. This is why autopilot was invented." The raptor eased out of the shuttlebay.

"No autopilot can replace the reflexes of a current pilot. It's important to stay current in all manners of flight." With that Jacobs shoved the translation lever full down and the Raptor dropped radically from the Wisconsin. Pushing forward on the stick he nosed the ship over until they were pointed down at the earth at a steep angle. He shoved the stick to the right and twisting the translation controller's throttle. This had the sickening effect of rolling the craft right 180 degrees and pushing them back in their seats.

First time Leonaidas rode with Jacobs was years ago in a Raptor, just before they were decommissioned. It was a special ops mission- rescuing a VIP from some Orions. Jacobs was assigned as Pilot and Leonaidas was team leader. The team got the VIP out and bundled into an EV suit for the run back to the Raptor. They were running on a surface of an airless moon toward a ravine where the Raptor was hovering just below the surface. The coded signal was sent and Jacobs came hovering above the edge and yawed sideways exposing the door. As they were getting inside, the Raptor took a hit knocking it backwards, Leonaidas fell out the door and into the ravine.

What happened next was the best flying Leonaidas ever saw. Jacobs rolled the Raptor on its side and let the ship fall. He gently maneuvered the ship so Leonaidas simply floated into the door. Leonaidas grabbed the door, pulled himself inside looking at Jacobs looking back over his shoulder at him flying all the time. The RIO closed the door and said "GO!"

Jacobs rolled/pitched and hit the throttle, the Raptor shot forward down the narrow ravine. "Arm a decoy missile."

The RIO climbed over all the people sprawled across the floor and armed a missile. "READY."

Jacobs fired the missile up out of the ravine. The decoy missile looked like a torpedo, but it emitted a sensor signature of a Raptor. Jacobs flipped the raptor and now was heading in the opposite direction down in the canyon, inverted. A couple of Starfleet security people started vomiting as well as the VIP. The Raptor at a convenient time gently rolled upright.

After what seemed like eternity of low-level flying, they climbed out and returned to the carrier. For this bit of flying Leonaidas recommended Jacobs for an accommodation.

Leonaidas like to give Josh a bad time about his flying, but truth be known, he trusted him. Jacobs and Carter had the opinion that Starfleet pilots/helmsmen were depending too much on autopilots and not enough on stick skills. New starships were even being constructed without manual controls as well as shuttlecraft. In a pinch, nothing replaces a competent pilot. Also, you always had to give that pilot a bad time on their flying. "I see you found the down button"

Jacobs smiled as he looked around "Oh, that one, let's see if I can find the button marked 'land'".

Leonaidas smiled "It has one marked Land? I thought the button must be marked 'Bounce'"

The two had a good laugh and uneventful flight down to Headquarters. Arriving at Kirk's office they walked in, Kirk stood immediately "Gentlemen, please have a seat. Good flight down?"

Leonaidas chimed in first "A little bit of turbulence on reentry."

Kirk smiled and looked at Jacobs "Those Raptors up for the flight?"

Jacobs smirked "We'll work on it."

"Good, I've been reading your reports. Final Reports?"

Leonaidas turned over the data card. "It's all here, nothing really noteworthy."

Kirk nodded, "I really want to know a couple of things. First, how are your manual controls working out on the Wisconsin?"

Jacobs leaned forward "Lt Cdr Carter says it handles beautifully, complements to Shoreview Controls on the system. Lt Cdr Santini had no problems installing and Carter says that it handled as specified during the shakedown cruise."

Kirk nodded "Good, we may consider installing that as backup on future starships. Let me know how it handles during your tour. Next is your security. I've got a lot of flak from the Admiralty on your concept of Security."

Jacobs nodded "We anticipated that; I think that Leonaidas can better talk about that."

Leonaidas leaned forward. "Lt Cdr Bauer has proven himself in the formation of the security squad on the ship. As we talked about before, he and I felt that normal security is largely inadequate for ships out there. Security has taken a beating and casualty rates are horrendous. We felt that additional training would be a benefit and adopted the MACO training regimen for Wisconsin's security personnel."

Kirk sat back; this was a headache politically. "All fine, but you don't have the authority to reinstate the MACOs. Mr. Bauer can train as he wants, but the fleet doesn't want the MACOs reinstated."

Leonaidas looked at Jacobs, Jacobs nodded "Well, sir, I have an answer. The security force on the Wisconsin is standard fleet. We've had a volunteer program that takes in extra training, extra responsibility, so forth. It's similar to SWAT for police agencies."

Kirk nodded as he thought about this. "What is your training regimen?"

"Actually, it is a shipboard version of MACO training. Graduates are just like MACOs a hundred years ago or Marines two hundred years ago."

"Sounds good, what is your enrollment in the program?"

"100 % of current security personnel." Leonaidas beamed.

Kirk looked surprised. "What do you call them?"

Leonaidas looked at Jacobs. He nodded. Leonaidas presented a picture of all 40 security personnel, dressed in black camouflage combat suits, wearing phasers, holding the new tactical phaser rifle. "We call ourselves the Badgers."

Kirk thought this over and smiled. These two, specifically his newest Captain, had foresight. It was perfect that they are heading out to the Klingon neutral zone. Kirk always felt that Starfleet Security didn't have the "fear factor" that they should. The photo of this troop on the hangar deck is intimidating. Each one of these guys looked like they could go 1 on 1 with a Klingon. "Very well, I've detained you enough" They all stood up.

Kirk came around the desk "Captain, status of USS Wisconsin."

Joshua smiled and shook Kirk's hand "Fully operational"

Kirk shook Leonaidas' hand, "Then as of Stardate 6302.4 you are fully operational. Report to Starbase 5 in two weeks for resupply of items, make preparations for patrolling near the Klingon neutral zone."

Both men said "Aye Aye sir" and turned and left.

The way back up to the Wisconsin was uneventful. Jacobs was giving a flight lesson to Leonaidas "Around 300 knots you can switch the collective to translate mode, the ship is producing enough lift from the air."

"What about when we get into space?" Leonaidas was a good learner.

"By that time, you really don't care, because all your motion is relative. The engines providing big velocity changes. You just point and burst."

"I'm rated as a shuttle pilot, but this is really different." Leonaidas pitched up a little.

"That's it. Remember that standard autopilot controls are still available."

"No way, you got me hooked on this. What about landing?"

"That should be fine, just have the flight director correctly programmed. You can switch back to the Starfleet Standard autopilot approach if something goes wrong. I liked the look on Admiral Kirk's face when you showed him that picture."

Leonaidas smiled, he adjusted the pitch a little more, "Jack and I thought it would be a nice touch. He didn't object. I think he may buy off on the Badger's uniform."

Jacobs nodded "It's kind of like the MACO's of years ago. I like the fact you guys were able to get a 100% pass rate. That will put peer pressure on new guys to match the new mark."

Leonaidas nodded "They have standard Security Red until making the grade, then it's black with the patch."

Jacobs turned "Patch?"

Leonaidas nodded toward the controls "Your plane"

"My plane"

Leonaidas pulled out of a pocket a unit patch. "We did some digging into the Wisconsin's history. It is a good history, as you well know." The patch was a cartoon of a Badger walking with a big stylized 'W' on its sweater, and looked like it was ready to fight. "The Badger is the State animal. It seemed appropriate."

Jacobs laughed "I like it. I need to talk you through something, see the Wisconsin?"

"Yes, we're coming head on to it."

Jacobs thumbed the comm button "Wisconsin, Raptor one approaching, requesting manual approach."

Lt. Joreau's voice came across "Raptor one, enter downwind, call LSO on downwind. Welcome home."

Jacobs transferred control back to Leonaidas and pointed to the autopilot controls "Leo, even with a manual approach, you still set up the autopilot just like you always do with normal shuttlecraft, nothing different with the Raptors. All you have to do is follow the flight director for attitude and translation commands."

Leonaidas had been trained as a shuttle pilot as part of Command school. It wasn't standard for security people to have shuttle training, but when one rose to command level, an officer was trained in a wide range of basic shipboard operations. As a shuttle pilot, he could operate Raptors on autopilot only, just like normal Starfleet shuttles, but needed special training to hand fly them. Starfleet decided that piloting was best done on autopilot and had actually been producing shuttlecraft with no traditional flight controls for years. This philosophy also applied to starships as well. Jacobs thumbed the comm. Panel again "Flight Deck, Raptor 1 on downwind."

One of the raptor pilots, Theodore Calvin 'TC', responded "Raptor 1, LSO, cleared for manual approach, call the ball. Who gets the score?"

Captain Jacobs transmitted "Commander Leonaidas does."

TC was in the observation room looking at displays monitoring the approach. Each shuttle landing was graded, but the manual ones were what pilots bragged about. The Wisconsin wasn't a full carrier- those were all decommissioned years ago. So landings were a special event.

Leo followed the flight director as it guided him along the ship's port side, level with the saucer. Jacobs continued his narrative, "With approach selected, the autopilot will link with the ship's computer to fly a particular ship's class's pattern. For Enterprise refits, we typically do the pattern saucer level, but others like the new Miranda class will be above the saucer. The key is to be thinking ahead as to where the flight deck is on the particular ship. We stay wide of the ship, fly beyond and then turn around and line up on glideslope."

Leonaidas followed the directions through the turn "What about speed?"

Jacobs leaned forward to look to the left and follow the progress of the turn. "The standard pattern is flown about 5 feet per second. We want a nice gentle pace. Combat landings are a bit different, especially since there is no autopilot equivalent. Only Raptors are able to fly true combat landings, but you won't be able to follow the flight director, because the ship will always try to do the Starfleet standard landing. That will be for another day.

Leonaidas continued to follow the director commands when Jacobs spoke up next "Turning final, make sure you keep switching your vision from inside to outside. As you get closer, notice our meatball on the left. That's the best indicator for glideslope. Also, down the middle you have the line painted that's a pretty good indicator for left/right. Lastly, we have our fast/slow indicator in our periphery on the windshield post."

Leonaidas was working all the controls, even though the raptor was gliding along at a pace he had seen on a hundred 'normal' landings, things were happening fast. Jacobs helped him with the radios "Raptor 1 has the meatball, gear down."

TC looked from his displays up at the Raptor. Leonaidas was working hard, and this was an easy approach. Still, he liked the fact the XO was going through the trouble to get manually qualified. "Roger that Raptor 1, cleared for landing."

Leonaidas was working hard, he was starting to yaw to the left crossing the threshold. Finally, he plopped on the deck and pushed the translation controller full down. TC threw a switch and normal gravity resumed on the flightdeck and Raptor 1 was down.

TC's voice came through. "Raptor 1, you're 20 degrees off from facing straight ahead, two feet left and four feet long. Grade is Fair."

Leonaidas winced. "TC is tough. Any chance he can give new guys a break?"

Jacobs laughed and shook his head. "Not in this world! Everyone toes the line."

"Even you?" Leonaidas asked.

"Especially me! TC is tough, but I know that he will call an abort on anyone, even me. That helps everyone to be better. Same principle you applied to the Badgers."

After landing, they got off the Raptor and walked over to the comm panel. Jacobs pushed a button, "Bridge"

"Lt. Joreau here, Welcome back Captain."

"Thank you very much, staff meeting in the briefing room 15 minutes please. Tell them bring final status reports."

"Aye Aye sir"

Jacobs turned the com panel off and looked at Leonaidas "Leo, see you in 15."

BRIEFING ROOM

USS WISCONSIN

As Jacobs entered the briefing room, everyone stood up "Thank you, please be seated" and he took his seat at the head of the table.

Looking around he assessed their performance the last couple of weeks. It was time to get the show on the road. "Thank you all for all the hard work getting us launched. I want to start this deployment properly, Preacher, please ask the blessing." The staff immediately stood and lowered their heads.

After the ship's chaplain asked the blessing on the ship, all sat back down. The Captain turned to his left and asked his most junior officer present "Mr. Agathon, Navigational status"

Karl Agathon pushed a button and the viewers at either end of the table came alive "Navigation fully staffed; all systems operational."

The Captain went around the table getting the status reports from each station and finally ended with the XO. Leonaidas put his checkmark on the screen. Jacobs nodded and smiled "By order of Admiral Kirk, this Stardate, we are now fully operational. Mr. Leonaidas, please give the mission briefing."

Leonaidas pushed a button and the viewers changed to the Klingon Neutral zone. "Starfleet wants us to deploy to the Klingon Neutral Zone. We are to stop at Starbase 5 to pick up mission-specific supplies before patrolling the Neutral zone. Specifically, we are going to try out a new sensor array- specifics will be given to Mr. Hotchner and Mr. Santini for installation and operation. We are then to proceed to this point here," pressing another button revealed a Starfleet symbol on the map "and report on station. Further orders once there."

Santini looked at the Captain and Jacobs nodded "How much time to install this array?"

"Starbase personnel anticipate 2 days." Leonaidas pushed a button, the screen showed a schedule for installation.

Jacobs leaned forward "Starfleet is worried about recent activity on the Neutral Zone. Intelligence reports that Klingons have adapted more starships to use their cloaking device and we need some way to detect them. This array is an experimental array, as such, we will be having about 10 more personnel embark with us."

Bauer leaned forward "Starfleet personnel?"

Jacobs answered "Mostly, but all have security clearance for this vessel. The civilians are mainly technical people sent to run and evaluate the array. We'll meet and discuss their access to the rest of the ship later. This is just a general overview for you to present your staffs. Let your people know that we're heading to the Neutral zone, with the potential for blackout once there. Any questions?"

Nobody offered questions. "Very good, Mr. Santini, how long before we can go to warp speed?"

"I have the engines already online. We can go anytime you want."

"Very well, we warp in ten minutes, see you on the bridge." Everyone stood and there was mild chatter, they all looked excited to be operational.

Leonaidas was just about to leave when the Captain caught his eye. "Nice job Leo. I think you'll make a good XO."

"Thank you. Anything bothering you?"

"Not really, just that we just got done shaking this ship down and now we're going to be testing an experimental piece of equipment. I would have rather settled in first."

Leonaidas nodded "Josh, I think if you talk to anybody that has overseen a ship after shakedown, they all wanted the first few months to settle in a routine, but that never happens. It seems like to me that a ship is continually growing, every time we pull into starbase, we get an upgrade, there is always something new."

Josh laughed "You're right, let's get underway."