Lockdown
16 Jun 2020Korzhakov
I arrive on the bridge of the Archangel early this morning, the ship is a alive and the crew is verifying one last time that everything is ready. I take my chair next to the Captain as she is overseeing the bridge crew running down the final jump checklists. All stations are green 30 minutes prior to jump initialization. Interior lockdown of all hatches will automatically take place just prior to the jump. The crew make any last minute trips for coffee and then get into their positions for the jump.
My job as the owner of this capital ship is to sit here, keep my mouth shut and just stare in awe at the ship and her crew. The Captain, Bailey is informed by the navigator that we are ready for initialization, she says to start spool up at exactly 1245 hours to jump at the 1300 mark.
1245 and the jump cycle is started, the screens light up as the massive FSD starts the warm up cycle, the comms on the bridge go into overdrive and every station is a flurry of activity. Flight control is allowing last minute traffic to arrive and depart until just before the jump.
I set my coffee into the cup holder on my chair and watch as Bailey is responding to her bridge crew and they to her. "Ma'am, all personnel are in jump positions, all departments and systems report green" calls out the watch officer. "Proceed" the Captain responds.
"Warning, a hyperspace jump has been initiated, please complete all business in system" flight control says at exactly 10 minutes prior to the jump. They are getting close to the lockout time. At 7 and half minutes flight control warns pilots of the lockdown sequence in 5 minutes. Any pilot landing will have to ride out the jump in their ship.
Archangel begins to hum as the FSD continues to spool up. I didn't make the jump from the pickup system to here, I met the ship in Diaguandri so this will be my first jump on her, and the sights, sounds and activity are exciting to me.
"Carrier is in pre flight lockdown, all services have been suspended" flight control warns everyone in the area. "Sir, prepare for jump"Bailey says to me and it startles me slightly as no one has said a word to me since I walked onto the bridge.
The menacing sound of a capital class portal opening up rings throughout the ship and the lighting associated with it is impressive. I sit in my chair and watch as we enter the portal, once inside it looks like a regular hyperspace portal, then we begin to emerge from the other end and it's slower, much slower than a small ship as it exits and then established orbit around the target planet.
We are here, in Col 285 Sector GI-I A39-0 for our mining expedition. The ship emerges from lockdown and the crew goes about their duties preparing the ship for normal operations. We won't have as much traffic as this is an uninhabited system, but it's for our use anyway, so I am not worried about that.
I head back to my quarters to get ready to start mining later today.
What a awesome experience, watching your own capital ship jump from the bridge.