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     Lt. SG Maiko D'rall |
The cargo shuttle was back in the air, Maiko mentally chiding herself for thinking the research team would even be so close to the third chamber if they hadn't responded to the evac order. For that matter, given it would have had to pass through the chamber at sub-light speeds and they were quite far along into the chamber... She shook the thought out of her head briefly even as she saw the transition into what the briefings called "No Man's Land" - or the near lack of transition. The wall there didn't quite seem to be able to make up its mind whether it existed or not, or it was just so clear that one didn't see it unless they looked for it. Beyond... The shuttle shimmied slightly under her and her sense of balance felt the shuttle tipping slightly over. After deciding to venture further out to find the team, she had disabled the shuttle's gravity generation and reduced the inertial dampening system to the point where she could 'feel' how the shuttle responded. It was something she had thought of after hearing the Admiral's plight in trying to pilot the dangerous space, something held in mind just in case she had reason to use it some day. An experienced sky pilot in Reor's atmosphere, she was accustomed to mentally tracking the movements of an aircraft through g-forces and her sense of balance. That's how she was aware of the shuttle taking a slight cant to port despite the flight board's reassurances they were flying a straight line. Correcting it, she looked up in time to see a not-so-visible wall ahead, one that she could only see by concentrating on a single small part of it at once. Beyond that... nothing. Or almost nothing - at some point, a dirt road had been 'laid' on whatever served as the ground beyond, leading towards the normally unmanned experiment area. Beyond that, existence, it seemed, ended. Despite her youth, Maiko had seen plenty of things in her life, among them being in the wilderness on an overcast night, and the lack of stars when Coronado had been briefly trapped with the Drohak ship. It still didn't give her a perspective on what lay beyond because there was simply nothing there. Or something. But it wasn't black. It didn't have any color at all or even seem to register to her mind. Almost as if before her was a giant blind spot. The shuttle continued to shimmy slightly as Maiko's hands automatically corrected using her sense of balance. Flying was becoming somewhat difficult approaching the wall, and she knew once they went beyond that it would be much worse. She spared a glance at Canterbury, who merely shook his head. No word from the missing team, and no sign of them in the immediate area. The unmanned experiment station - to her knowledge, the furthest anyone from Coronado, much less any of the expedition or science teams had penetrated - lay over 900 kilometers ahead. Mentally she tallied the problems: the cargo shuttle's speed while in an atmosphere was limited, though that would be less of a problem as the air thinned going further out. Even then, with the IDF down, she had to be careful about maneuvers lest she injure or even kill herself and the tactical officer. However, the briefings mentioned the struggle it was for most to make even a ten kilometer hike from the nearest landing pad to the experiment site. They didn't have the luxury of several hours or a ground vehicle - provided that even was possible. But staying here was also not an option. Without contact with the team, there was no way to order them back, and if they were on foot... A no-win situation. Going in was foolhardy, dangerous, and even for Coronado's daredevil pilot, far too risky. But they couldn't just leave either. Bound by order, duty, and honor, there was no real choice left. The cargo shuttle slipped past the realm of near-reality and into a whole new ballgame. The blue-black arc of lit Reor'san sky was joined by the system's star as sunrise came with a flash, reminding her briefly of the old flatvid that had been shown at school years ago. She was one of the few that truly saw Reor'sa as their home; though Earth would always hold some sentimentality to her, being a third generation Reor'san meant that the reminders of Earth had faded over time and didn't have as much 'grab' with her. The stories of 'Starfleet', the stories handed down by her great-grandparents and those reiterated by Commander T'Lara - now they were more real. Sadly, Maiko turned her head from the spectacle - one she had seen many times yet never ceased to enjoy - to more pressing duties. The third shift workers for Orbital Platform Q38 had trundled on after a weary day's work and were more than ready to return to their dwellings below. It would be Maiko's last load in a long day, and a yawn made it past her stifled lips almost as if reminding the orbital shuttle pilot that rest should be sought soon even as she undocked and took the shuttle the short distance to the atmospheric interface. The stars - gods, the stars that she had barely been able to see from the surface except on those rare clear nights - blurred around them as the tiny shuttle dipped slowly into the upper reaches of Reor'sa's atmosphere. The blue haze that built up around them was soon replaced by oranges and reds as the bottom of the shuttle heated during re-entry. Maiko's cool hand on the helm controls kept the shuttle at the perfect pitch for re-entry, the shaking of the craft from the heat currents wrapping around from the heated bottom of the craft easily ignored, just another day at the office. The heat licked at Maiko, the helmswoman slowly opening her eyes to see the conflagration that was her flight board in front of her. Lying half-draped over the armrest, her mind tried to trace back the events that had happened, but the constant drone of an alarm and a sharp hissing, half-mumbled by her brain, confused and clouded her mind. She pawed for the harness release - what good it had done her given it had clearly failed at one point - and was punished with an icy flame that ripped up her spine, slamming into her brain. The dash of water caught Maiko right in the face, the 25 year old woman gasping for breath even as her mother practically dragged her by the shoulder out of the bed. Protesting vehemently - angry that she had been woken up so early when she wasn't due for her next shift for another 8 hours, her words caught in her throat as she finally saw what her mother was gesturing at. The video unit was on, showing an excited news reporter talking, a blurry video of something landing on a hill Maiko was very familiar with. Something, she gathered from the video and the commentary, that was a starship. A FEDERATION starship. The lost sons and daughters of the Churchill had finally been found, Maiko realized as she simply stood there dripping wet and staring at the new arrival. Reality had suddenly shifted, her face bathed in persperation from having been close to the fire and in such pain. Mind still groggy, she rolled slightly until she felt the twinge of pain begin to return, then flattened back out before it overwhelmed her. A part of her numbly tried to figure out what the dark figure over her was doing, and what was being said in the background, but jumbled together discoherently. She was injured, hurt, but still couldn't remember what happened before, only next. Cursed by the sudden influx of people from the orbital platforms who wanted to see the Starfleet ship firsthand, it wasn't until the next day that Maiko actually got to see the craft at its landing point. For an entire day she had marveled alone on the fact that this starship was able to LAND on a planet, much less presumably take off again, making her wonder about what other marvels the ship bore from the advantages of 125 years of Federation science her people had been without. The second day she finally saw it. Relaying passengers and cargo from Platform 16 meant she was flying the Custer, one of a few Reor-built orbital shuttles inspired by plans from the Churchill. Though old, she had been serviced well and also provided the best view of surrounding space, a view that Maiko thoroughly enjoyed as the shuttle broke through the clouds. Today's flight path would take them almost directly over the newcomers, and Maiko was determined not to miss a second of it. The clouds cleared, for a moment bathing the new ship in golden sunlight even as Maiko gasped in rapture. The Reor'sans knew of many starship designs, from the earliest warp ships to the refit Constitutions, and yet this was so clearly different, so obviously advanced... Familiar to her at least were the round saucer and gently tapered engineering hull, but everything else was... different. Scores of odd hexagonal shapes dotted the hull where there were only a few on ships she knew - escape pods? For that many people? Breaking up the detail were even more notable changes - windows, for instance, and not just a few but dozens, hundreds - and the unusual breaks in the structure, as if the saucer were cut like a tartberry pie. The raked forward nacelles, familiar but... wrong... instead of being raised proudly above the deck of the saucer, held down and low, the struts continuing past the nacelles proper as if some sort of vestigial wing, and yet all of it somehow feeling... right. As if a cherished friend had gotten a makeover for the better. The great ship receeded in the distance as Maiko was forced to turn her thoughts towards the various s-turns used to reduce the shuttle's speed for a safe landing at the spaceport. One thought, however, persisted in her mind. Some day, she vowed, she was going to fly that ship. She had tried her best and clearly failed in flying the shuttle through the fourth chamber as she emerged from the fog, this time slightly more aware, especially of the mask over her face. A small portion of her mind, now somewhat cognative, dredged from the jumbled memories that it was an air mask, required after passing a certain point in the fourth chamber due to the lack of sufficient oxygen to breathe. A few moments later that same part realized she was leaning up against something and looking at wreckage. The shuttle, she dimly reasoned, was a total write-off, something she was sure to hear from Commander Smith... no, it was Commander Tal. Commander Smith had killed himself. On Xanadu. No, IN Xanadu. Skydiving. Through the air... ...and over them with a resounding rumble that toppled a nearby weak tree and sent Maiko and those with her tumbling to the ground, their mission all for naught. Apparently the mighty starship had other business to attend to now and she eagerly left the atmosphere, Maiko's hand trailing after it as if to hold onto it for a little while longer... ...and realizing that what she was reaching for was one of the nacelles, snapped off in the impact, laying a few meters away from her. Sheepishly she let the arm fall back to the side, her other arm motionless. The shuttle was ruined, Tal was sure to be furious, and Canterbury - no, he had to be alright because certainly she was in no shape to have extricated herself from that wreckage. From here she could see the fire now raging in the cabin; apparently while it didn't generate smoke, it also didn't need much combustion to sustain itself and as such had enveloped the carpet inside as she could see from a massive rent in the side of the craft, the crackling sound of the fire reaching her ears... ...with the crash of thunder as a wall collapsed nearby, forcing Maiko and those seeking escape with her into the open. The normally bustling spaceport was now a scene of carnage, half the craft lying split open belching flames, only a few even looking spaceworthy. The Custer lay a few dozen meters ahead of them, sheltered by an overhead canopy that fluttered in the breeze. It was scheduled for maintenance today and not out in the regular rotation, but now it would serve as one of the last means of escape from Reor'sa as the Pfhor closed in. Pushing herself hard, she reached the craft and opened the passenger compartment before running along the side of the craft closing various inspection panels in a rush. The last person who stepped onboard was herself, pausing only a moment to look out as another round of fire came in from orbit. Closing the door quickly to block the sight, she ran up the passenger compartment and slid into the pilot's seat at the front of the craft. Mercifully the old shuttle powered up with only a slight tremble in the frame, and the sensors, though clouded by Reor's natural radiation shield, were able to give her a sense of what was happening... ...Canterbury had rescued her from the shuttle and apparently gone ahead in search of the missing team. Her unresponsive arm, she found, was in a makeshift splint rigged from ripped cloth and a mostly-straight piece of duranium support rod. The shuttle's medkit, though dented, was just inches away from her, the medical tricorder already on and aimed at her to monitor her vitals, though her clearing mind was able to at least recall that death was not likely much of a vistor to the fourth chamber, nor... ...was Coronado's crew accustomed to suddenly finding themselves with a group of 'volunteers', although the term used by the crew were 'refugees'. It had been sheer luck that Coronado had been within range of the shuttle - and even luckier that the shuttle had managed to dodge the worst of the enemy flying through the platforms, then made it to the great ship. A part of Maiko marvelled at the ship even as she was escorted from the shuttlebay to the medical facilities and then to a tiny bunkroom with the other refugees. The people, at least, were familiar, having met some of the crew previously... ...and it was the people that mattered, she had learned. Anyone could build a starship and send it out into space, but it was the people onboard that made it work... ...people, she happily noticed, seemed to be just like her or any one of the other Churchill descendants, she mused as she slipped past a group of enlisted crewmembers chatting away towards the center of the party. Whereas in her youth she had to sneak out to the social event - well, social event and morale booster - now she could attend in confidence, and this year even be near the first 'fleeters to set foot on Reor in over a century. As much hero worship as it was, she knew from the start that she couldn't possibly talk to any of them, that she would either make a fool out of herself. After all, she had no true accomplishments to boast of, and even then, she had no true training, much less Starfleet training. Why would they even think of having her as a helmsperson... ...especially after THIS fiasco, she scolded herself. Loosing herself in her memories couldn't be a good sign - probably from having whammed her head hard during the crash, something her aching head agreed with. Then again, it was likely the ensign had given her a broad-spectrum painkiller and that she was mildly delusional. Or maybe it was just being surrounded by nothing but a burning shuttle, its debris, and a dirt path that had her mind a little thrown off whack. Any way she looked at it, at this point she needed to keep her mind on something else. Reaching with her good hand to the commbadge perched on her chest, she tapped twice, opening up an RF link, wincing as the taps and movement made something in her chest - ribs? - grate on each other. With a parched throat and pain from the ribs making each word an icy tickle of pain, she managed to finally get a few words out. "D'rall... to... Coronado...." ((OOC: Spuzzum, apologies for doing this to ya, heh. I'm assuming you're relatively uninjured and mobile... and hopefully searching for that science team as they can probably get us outta here. Maiko's harness failed so she kinda got thrown around a lot. The crash occured at some point AFTER the wall at 304km in, but before the 1200km experimental station the flag staff visited so long ago. As for the whereabouts of the team we were supposed to pick up, I'm operating under the assumption they were out doing studies in this part of the fourth chamber and are (hopefully) nearby. As I understand it, there is a pilot with them, so hopefully a ride back.)) |