Flying, Running, and Flying again (part IIB of You Could Cut the Atmosphere With a Knife)

Posted on 19 Jun 2015 @ 5:28am by Lieutenant JG Tinaro Cyi

1,138 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 5 - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD02 - 1800

Lieutenant Junior Grade Tinaro Cyi hurried through the ship. Though he had no where he needed to be specifically the hurried pace he adopted discouraged anyone from speaking to him as he passed. He wanted to be alone. He needed to be alone to clear his head. He couldn't go back to his quarters, he shared them with a roommate. The disadvantages to being on a Nova class ship. There just wasn't a place to go to truly be alone. After a while he found himself in front of the holodeck. He knew how he could relax.

"Computer, load Flight Training Program: Helio Plexas Run 4. Maximum difficulty. Load specialty shuttle from file: Delta Flyer with experimental engine: Cyi Version 18.9."

=/\= Program loaded =/\=

Ti entered the holodeck and sat at the controls of the small shuttle as it awaited him to begin the program. Before him was the Gauntlet, one of the most inhospitable areas of space imagined by the Federation. Riddled with subspace micro bubbles and flux gravity wells as well as asteroids and random flux nebula, it was the ultimate test of piloting. It normally would take a piloting team days to cross at various speeds. Tinaro wanted to get though it in an hour.

Ti double checked the modifications he made to engines warp manifold. They looked stable, then again the always looked that way. Only one real way to test it out.

"Computer, disengage safety protocols and erect a level 1 containment field. Authorization Cyi-Delta-8-3-Froggie."

=/\= Safety protocols disengaged. Containment field Engaged. =/\=

Tinaro lowered his telepathic and empathic blocks and took a long deep breath. NOTHING. His nimble fingers struck at the familiar controls and the shuttle came to life. He was more relaxed than he had been in a while, his full attention on flying and not having to devote part of his conscious thought to blocking out the thoughts and feeling of others.

The shuttle leapt into warp flew into the Gauntlet. It danced around hazards agilely and with no wasted movements. Ti felt that he was getting stronger now-faster, surer, more confident in himself. Maybe it's because of that, but the warped space feels wider suddenly, closer even. Like it's right on the tip of his tongue as he flies through it. Now he can soar at fantastic speeds and leave the universe behind a nanosecond at a time, find a moment where he's floating and there's nothing in the universe but him, the shuttle, the hum of the engines.

It's his flight-he can flash through it as he wishes, the only person that exists at all there because he's raced so far ahead, waiting as the rest of space to eventually catch up way behind him.

Ultimate freedom. Ultimate solitude. Peace. Quiet.

And while Ti loves it, he can't help but think it's something to be enjoyed for just a second, just once every now and again. He's learned that time matters. It would be far too lonely to be like that always, after all. Alone on your shuttle with the universe running after you, forever trying to catch up. It's okay for just a moment-- a minute or two-- but not for forever.
He's beginning to learn that leaving the path behind him open, letting himself slow down-- so that he can be grabbed, be touched, be drawn back towards the ground-- isn't such a bad thing after all. He knows how high he can go now, how fast and how far. So when he's caught it's only because he wants to be. Because time matters.

This thoughts turned to Rick and his fingers flew the shuttle themselves, his own mental autopilot. Long suppressed emotions fall out of him and he comes back into his feelings a millisecond at a time and it's like slow motion suddenly, he and his inner self moving to meet halfway-- the fire not so much fire as arms reaching out to catch him.

Memories.

"Tired already?"

"Maybe," Ti breathes, and his cheeks are flushed from the wind.

"Can't keep up?" Rick replies "Had enough?"

"For today," Tinaro allows, and stretches his arms above his head languidly, looking up at the sky with a broad smile.

Rick grunts and cups the smaller man's chin between his fingers, yanks that upward looking face back down towards him hard, one arm still holding the thinner boy's weight aloft. TI shivers and smiles and lets himself be pulled back.

Rick sets him on his feet then, lets them touch the ground for perhaps, the first time all day, or so it felt like after the run. "I love you," he says in a near whisper and leans forward. Ti inhales when their eyes meet, and it's the familiar sensation of the world slowing down around him all over again.

Tinaro kisses him right there in the middle of the street, but it doesn't matter because this is their road now, and the only things that exist in it are the two of them, speeding ahead while they wait for the rest of the universe to notice it's been left behind. Waiting for the world to catch up.

Sirens blare as the shuttle suddenly larches sideways, blasting Ti from his revelry and out of the chair. Slamming his shoulder into the hull. He scrambled to maintain control of the shuttle but he already knew it was futile. His fingers moved across the navigation controls in a blur but to no avail.

"Computer end freeze program." Tinaro said moments before his shuttle would have ripped itself apart. He arose and realized his arm was broken.

"Damn it." Ti said to himself as he cradled his arm and looked around, a hole was being to rip open a hole in the left drive wing. "Computer, re-engage safety protocols. Input character: Bertha from file, Tinaro-Medical-Consult-No-Sickbay."

A moment later a figure shimmered into existence next to him. I tell you, Child, one day you going to kill yourself in one of the simulations of yours." She scolded as she reached into her bag and pulled out several medical devices. "I know you prefer holograms to the real doctors, but if you keep on with this recklessness you're going to break something that I can't mend."

Ti simply clinched his teeth as she worked and scolded and scolded and worked. Soon his arm was not totally healed but in workable order. Nothing a shot of pain reliever couldn't cure. He thanked her and deactivated the program after making several mental notes on the engines failure and ways to improve it on the next version.

Ti looked around and took a deep breath before resurrecting his mental barriers.

"Computer end program and lower containment field."

Off:
Lieutenant Junior Grade Tinaro Cyi
Asst. Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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