Rrrroutine

Posted on 10 Jul 2013 @ 2:12pm by Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh

791 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 12 - 1600 hours

[ON]

"Ensign, this is Flight Control. Rendezvous with USS Galileo on bearing 124 mark 47."

As the comm channel routed the guttural Andorian tones of the Venture's flight controller through to the cockpit of the Marina, S'Ranna ran through the final set of pre-flight checks. Her paws were darting swiftly over the consoles and her golden eyes flickered back and forth, mouth moving soundlessly as she went over every last detail. She rocked from side to side in her seat, unable to contain the excitement of, after days of mundane astro-plotting duty, finally being able to take out a new craft, but her long tail remained aloft, ensuring she retained her balance.

"And S'Ranna? This is a routine mission. Take the runabout to the Galileo and dock for your new assignment. That's it. Don't get fancy, Ensign."

She hissed in irritation, the dark tufts of her ears waggling back and forth. She resented the way she'd been babied aboard the Venture, never allowed to just stretch her tail and fly in the way she had been accustomed as a test pilot. She doubted things would be much different about the Galileo. But, for a few minutes now, the Marina would be her own ship, her own little world. Her own rules.

"Underrrstood. Rrrroutine. Prromise."

"Very good, Ensign. You are cleared for launch."

An alarm sounded and the shuttlebay cleared, an electric crackle signalling the dropping of the forcefield as the bay doors opened on the black void. S'Ranna's heart was racing and her ears flattened, while the fur on the back of her neck puffed out. The Volga-class runabout slowly glided forward as she set the thrusters to minimum, and a faint shudder that made her tail fur tingle announced that they were clear of the Venture.

She took a deep breath. "Computer ... disengage inerrrtial dampenerrrs!"

Even though the idea made no sense, she almost thought she could hear the yell of anger back in the Venture's flight control room, but by then, it was too late for the little Andorian to do anything about her. She had taken the Miranda to impulse, the engaging of the engines rocking her back in her seat, and she brought up the rendezvous coordinates with a practised flick of her paw.

The disengaging of the inertial dampers meant the ride was a little rockier than was strictly necessary, but still nothing that would cause any real concern, given all the runabout had to do was fly across to the Galileo and ease into its shuttlebay. Nothing, that is, unless S'Ranna decided to have a little fun first, to recall her days on the test flight range.

The new runabout class came with promises of great efficiency and functionality, and she certainly put that to the test, running through a series of flight routines she had programmed in aboard the Venture: an escape pattern that involved banking so hard she had to pounce out of the way of a box of spare parts as it flew through the reeling cockpit; an evasive manoeuvre that had the runabout snaking expertly around the only thing in the system she could find to avoid, a pair of tiny meteorites drifting along in a mutual orbit; and finally her famed Attack Pattern Kappa Alpha Tau, bringing the runabout in on a high impulse strafing run towards the Galileo's shuttlebay ...

... before slamming on the reverse thrusts a few kilometres out and bringing the runabout in on a gentle glide as the bay doors opened for her. The hangar was large - presumably, this was replacing some other model of runabout, and she turned over docking controls to the computer as it uplinked to the Galileo's system. Docking clamps hissed and an alarm sound indicated that bay had been sealed and environmental controls restored.

The inside of the cockpit was a strewn mess: every loose fixture had come flying off as the Miranda rocked and rolled its way aboard in a fantastically unnecessary series of manoeuvres. But amidst the chaos sat a beaming Caitian, balanced in her seat with tail held aloft behind her, the energy of those blissful few minutes stick crackling through her. She sat there a moment more before finally, reluctantly, retracting her claws, and moving to the door to bounce down to the deck and go report in.

As the door closed behind her, she remembered, and called inside: "Computer, reengage inerrrtial dampenerrrs." Didn't want the next pilot getting a nasty shock.

[OFF]

Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh
Junior Flight Controller
USS Galileo

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