Out in the Open

Posted on Fri Jan 21st, 2011 @ 7:33pm by Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Alessandro Reynaldi

998 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Triad
Location: USS Ranger, Outer Hull
Timeline: Entry into the Nebula

CAST:
Lieutenant Alessandro Reynaldi, Engineering
Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd, Security
Lieutenant j.g. Karra Telana, Engineering
Chief Petty Officer Charles Watson

**

The two little shuttles sat against the hull at a radical slant, side by side, sheltered from sight on the neck of the saucer section. Behind and below them, the red maw of the impulse engine glowed menacingly, its light slowly diffusing into the particulates of the nebula as the Ranger eased into its search pattern.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Lieutenant Telana's voice managed to sound honey-smooth even over the slightly autotuned EV suit communicator. She adjusted one of the arm-thick conduit lines lacing between the starboard nacelle of the Leopold and the port nacelle of the Roosevelt.

"No," Reynaldi said, re-twisting the conduit line she was working on the correct direction, but not mentioning her failing, "but no one had any better ideas." He adjusted his headpiece and sighed. "God, I can't wait to get out of this damn suit!"

"You and me both, sir," came the voice of Telana. "And not even in a good way. This angle is playing with my equilibrium something fierce."

Shepherd considered her comment for a moment, taking stock of the situation. The trio was standing on the hull, but the angle made it look like they were riding the Ranger down into the nebula, the ship angled sharply underneath them. To one side, the direction the shuttles were faced, the saucer curved over and away from the group, and space was visible there in all its vast glory. To the other side, the glow of the ship's impulse outport colored the particulates of the nebula, casting the stern of Ranger in a red glow, her fantail shuttlebay appearing hiked high above them.

"You'll be fine," Shepherd said with a chuckle. "Once you get in position, just lock down and stand there."

"We've rigged the shuttles to the impulse reactors through auxiliary power conduits," said Reynaldi. "When the QAR attack, we can use the shuttles' engines ... assuming it's safe to do so without blowing half the ship away. Shuttle and ship systems aren't always compatible," he finished, nodding toward the circuit breaker-type machines connected to the engineering panel.

"So, run through this with me again," said CPO Watson, checking his own instruments from the pilot's seat. "We sit out here on the hull, maglocked down."

"Right," said Reynaldi. Next to him, Shepherd absently looked out at the void of space, deep in thought.

"And we wait until the QAR hit Ranger with their energy-drain weapon," continued Watson. "Why is it a when? Why can't it be an If?"

"It is an if," Shepherd answered reassuringly, flexing his fingers in his suit gloves, and adjusting his position so he could see the nebula's swirling colors beyond the hull. "It's always an if. But if the if becomes a when, best to be prepared."

Watson grunted thoughtfully, and was silent for a few moments. "So," he began again, "if and when we get hit, we wait a few seconds for Ranger's power to start dissipating, and then we connect our power conduits."

"Right," Telana nodded, her head moving visibly behind her otherwise immobile faceplate. "It's our job to cut into the power system and try to keep the flow stable while the QAR weapon's effect runs its course. Maybe even cancel it out completely."

"And this'll work, right?" asked Watson.

Reynaldi and Telana looked at each other, the rigged coupling, the conduit in Telana's hands, and then back at each other. "Probably," they said, more or less in unison.

"Because either way, the ship will drain the core on these little type-9s like nothing. So if it doesn't work," Watson added, in a tone that made it plain he'd said it before, "we'll be on a dead shuttle latched onto a dead starship that can't even beam us back aboard."

"Yeah," Shepherd replied absently, watching the nebula's grainy kaleidoscope as it filled space. "Always an adventure."

The little quartet fell silent, hoping this one shot wouldn't be the last.

"Of course, It's always a viable option to use the shuttle's power to get away," Alex said through clenched teeth as he finished the latching.

Shepherd laughed aloud. "Go pirate? You might have something there. I imagine Lieutenant Telana can make us some introductions."

"Yes sirs," Telana's voice was tinged with a smile. "I know people who know people. Who rob people."

Running away had never been Alex's style. "That's not what I meant," he said, not seeing the humor in the implication, which wasn't surprising considering his personality. "I meant we could use the shuttles' power to move the Ranger away from the QAR attack."

"You mean like a sideslip?" asked Watson. "Because once we plug in, we're not going to be able to move at all. Ranger will drink our core power like coffee in the morning."

"Only main power. Emergency generators will still be functional," Alex replied.

Telana looked toward her boss with a raised eyebrow. "If we wanted to power the impulse engines with emergency power, we'd have to divert it from everything ... including life support."

"We're wearing EVA suits; what do we need life support for?" Alex said with a hand gesture toward his own suit. "We could at least get away. It's not an important element to the plan but we should at least keep it in the cards just in case.

"Just so I understand," said Shepherd, "You're suggesting that after we drain these shuttles' cores into Ranger, we scrounge whatever reserve power we can find in them to, if needed, tug Ranger away from a battle?"

"That's about it," Alex nodded.

"Fair enough," Shepherd shrugged. "I agree we should remember the option, just in case. For now though," he looked out into the nebula again, "it looks like we wait."

**

 

RSS Feed