Star Trek: Eventide 777 - runabout-uss-gillespie

She found her spot in the cockpit, the engines were already hot and everything was online, Mona already sought clearance from the command center. Then went to pressing on multiple LCARS panels going through multiple flight checks.

She crutches over and lowered herself into the co-pilot’s seat, tucking her crutches under the console. “Alright, this is just like at the Academy. You can do this, Hopper.” She took a deep breath. “Evenin’, Cap. How are the plasma manifolds?” She asked, a little awkwardly as she calibrated the nav computer and received coordinates from the Starbase.

“Online and ready, I’ve laid in a flight trajectory right toward the distress call.” She said continuing to mess with the various LCARS panels. “Let’s bring shields to standby. I’ve received final confirmation from the command center, we’re good to go.”

He walked in without thinking and hit his head straight onto a metal bar on the ceiling of the shuttle, curling up and groaning loudly as he held his head.

2

1

"Captain, all crew are aboard, and the preflight check is done." Zeza saw what happened to the Ensign. She put her arm around his shoulder to make sure she didn't fall. "You alright, Ensign Pendleton? Need me to take a look at that?"

“Ready when you are!” She replied with a smile, brining up the shields. “Oooh! That sounded like it hurt! You okay, Wheatley?” She asked, turning her chair around and leaning forward.

"Ooooough... That was spot on my forehead... I-I'm okay, it just hurt. Gonna be alright soon!" He reassured the both of them, smiling a little.

There was a nod from the captain toward Wheatley for his bravery. “Here we go.” She said already pushing for the space doors, it wasn’t long until the runabout made its way out.

3

1

She gave him a compassionate smile before turning back to her conn. “And away we gooo!” She said excitedly.

Zeza let go of his shoulder. "Alright then, I will keep an eye on you." Then took a seat. Next to the OP's station, none of her officers would suffer an injury without her staying by their side.

2

He nodded and took a seat, rubbing his (now bruised) forehead.

As she made her way out, the runabout passed seamlessly though the shields, and made the relatively short trek to the outer perimeter of the station, to the distress signal. “Full stop, we’re coming up on the signal.” Mona tapped her panels again and the ship halted and held position. “Start scanning, life signs, registration numbers. Whatever you can find.”

“Already on it!” She replied, subjecting the thing to a full array of scans.

As they scanned the pod was small, barely big enough for anything human. On top of this it showed no life signs, but there is faint electrical activity. Still the signal was moving meaning it was most likely not a trap due to its speed.

"Oh what is that....?" He squinted a little, trying to see if there was anything going on with the pod. But nope, nothing was happening.

Looking down at the scans on her console, she was confused as well. “Have you ever seen anything with this configuration?” She looked to her copilot who seemed confused as well.

"Hmm.... Should we get closer to it?"

As they watched it they could detect the signal was fading fast. Each pulse was weakening to the point where the last few pulses were almost undetectable. It seems the pod was almost completely out of power at this point.

"Captain, it is losing power. We should beam aboard for further analysis. We can put up a forcefield, and I attached a connection between the pod and our secondary power reserves." Zeza calmy suggested as she saw that the pod at run out of power. She was a trained officer no need to get excited she knew her team could restore power to the craft.

“Excellent, let’s go ahead and set up a site to site transport, establish a level five force field just as you’ve suggested. Once we’ve got it aboard sever our power reserves.” She directed while holding the craft steady, shields were lowered so that the transport could be done .

Zeza moved to the console at the back on the run about next to the transporter pad she beamed the Pod on baord and immediately erected a force field around herself and the craft. Then tried to find where she might connect the craft with the secondary power reserves. It was all so different where was the pod's main power core and how was she gonna make an adapt between it and the runabout. (edited)

“Is everything okay on our end?“ Mona inquired from further up in the cockpit, still at the helm, she had gotten successful confirmation that the pod was indeed aboard, but she didn’t sent course for the station just yet. They had to be sure this thing wasn’t harboring some kind of virus.

From the look of the small pod the only connector was on the back, it was of an odd origin, but most likely it would be able to be connected to. As for what was inside of the pod it looked like a person. They were in a full suit with plate armor on the outside. Currently they were unconcious and were not moving even though they were in the warmth of the ship.

"Yeah, I am having trouble adapting the connection between our ship and the pod." Zeza called out. "There is someone inside the pod, Captain, permission to see if I can open the pod. They could require immediate medical attention." Zeza said frantically, trying to come up with options for the Captain to proceed.

“You’re not going alone, and grab a phaser.” She said surrendering the helm to her copilot, then she took up a handheld phaser, and a tricorder, fastening them to her holster then she made her way to the aft section where the pod had been presumably been placed.

*As they approached nothing happened. However, the pulses have completely stopped. From what they could see the pod was completely inactive as it sat there. No noise came from it, and it was freezing cold still due to the emptiness of space wicking away all heat it had. The person within wasn't moving either.

"I am going to open it up now." Zeza grabbed her tool kit and began using a coil spanner to pry open the pod as best she could without damaging it or the person inside. Her mind was racing could she save them. Who are they? What are they doing out here? For now, though she had to focus on the task at hand.

Mona stood right behind her, tricordor in one hand running continuously, phaser still holstered but set on stun and ready to go. “Be careful, we don’t know what’s in there, it could be a borg drone for all we know.”

As the pod was pried open a synthetic voice was heard. It sounded monotone, but curious. "Power low on unit L1, current power remaining, one percent." It says, though it sounded like the voice came from the person within. From the sound the voice was not borglike in any way.

Wheatley stood next to Hop, nervous as hell and wondering what would happen.

“That sounds like some kind of computer.” Mona said to the CEO then she referred to her tricorder then back to the pod, she couldn’t quite get a good look at the thing just yet. “Can you understand what I’m saying? If so, who are you? Where are you coming from?” She inquired.

The pod once again beeped letting out the message again. "Unit L1 power critical. Please input 120V at 13.5 Amperes. Minimum wattage needed, 1200W." The voice stated in a monotone way.

She looked at Zeza once again. “Can you make the proper adjustments to our auxiliary power systems? I think the best thing is to do is to plug this thing in. But be sure it has no other access to our other systems, lock out the main computer.”

She held the ship steady we’re they were, awaiting more orders. “Do ya think it could be one of those 21st century stasis pods?” She whispered to Wheatley.

"An android?" Zeza had only heard stories never actually seen one in the flesh well synthetic polymers made to look like it. "Perhaps if we can find a way to power the pod we can find a way to recharge power to the android. I think that is our best option Captain."

“I agree, but I don’t know the first thing about engineering but the secondary power systems may be the best way. Although it may just provide a trickle charge to keep it from going offline. I’d rather not have it drain our power systems completely, we’ll have to take it back to the station to give it some real power.” She said with a nod, was that all it could say? How intelligent was this thing?

"It might be... Man alive, this is- This is so.... Wow! Though I hope we can power it." Wheatley replied to Hop, looking around the shuttle.

From her arm a wire lead into the pod. On the end was a seperate socket. That and a range of others in a set as if designed to be as compatible as possible. Currently it was plugged into the pod via one however. For now they had a range of possible combinations they could use, all properly set to the specifications stated.

Just plugged her directly into the secondary power grid after setting the specified parameters.

“Thats rather convenient isn’t it, Commander?” Mona continued her scans, there seemed to be no change as of yet, but she most certainly wasn’t going to hold her breath.

The cadet felt a glittering excitement run up her spine. She could barely prevent herself from wiggling with excitement in her seat. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! An android?? I've read all about these! But I thought there were only a few ever built. Where do you think it came from? If I'd known they were just floating around in space, I'd have come up here sooner!"

After a few seconds her body shifted and turned in every way, almost looking as if it were convulsing. However, it only lasted a few seconds. Soon her eyes opened as she looked around. Staying still as the charger was inserted she put on a warm smile. And said greeting in every language, then asked what language setting do you wish for me to talk in. Once again in most languages known.

"Oh it is an android!! But wait.... What is it doing here? Wait- Have they been floating through space for all this time?! Man alive!" Wheatley exclaimed, clapping before sitting down. His legs were getting tired.

3

"I know!! I can hardly believe it! Think they'll let us help with the research?" She asked excitedly, craning her neck towards the back of the runabout to catch a glimpse.

"That'd be bloody amazing for sure! What if they still have things from that century with them?? Ohohoho, I'd love to ask them some questions." He gave Hop a wide grin, getting all excited.

“English..?” She said although the universal translator could probably pick up on most languages, it was no use straining the translator matrix when the Android was capable of speaking English from the start. Mona had one hand on her phaser which was still holstered although fully ready to be deployed should this one show signs of wanting to assimilate them, she had never seen such configuration before as androids were still quite rare.

Hearing the command L1 nodded then began to speak. "Greetings, my name is Thali o'ira. My creators have given me the designation L1, I dearly apologize. At the moment the smart AI databank has been... twenty percent corrupted. Time of recovery... two days. For now the emergency AI has been enabled. Sadly it is not as advanced as the smart AI." After saying this she seemed to shut down. After she rebooted with another soft smile. "Welcome to your new life assistant. I was created to assist in living and to be a companion for those who can not help themselves. What do you wish for my name to be madame or sir." *L1 says as she looked over the group. From the look of her she had no borg implants.

Mona immediately raised a brow, she had NEVER encountered a life form like or even close to this one, it appeared to be some kind of servant or something along those lines, she most certainly wasn’t looking for an assistant. “The default name.. what did you say L1..? Is fine for me, who built you and why did they do so?” She pushed, then she took her hand off the phaser and focused on her tricorder.

“A personal assistant AI, huh? Odd that it’d be hanging out in space…” She mused.

Looking between them L1 smiled. "L1 selected, thank you... I was made by the Arenian android company. They only produce two thousand per year. I am a first generation smart AI, but as stated the smart AI will be unavailable for the next two days." L1 says as she stood there smiling with a soft smile.

"Seems oddly suspicious. Can we ask them what they were doing in space later? I'm curious to see what knowledge they might have!" Wheatley questioned, smiling a little.

Mona was quick to tap her badge seeing as the rescue was completed, “Caddel to the helm, set a course back to 777, maximum impulse.” She then tapped her badge again closing the line. “My name is Mona Caddel, I come from the United Federation Of Planets. But something tells me you’ve already been programmed with this information, as you know we were able to power you using the runabout’s power systems, I intend to take you back to the station to consider our next steps.”

Nodded as she laid there letting the charger do its work. "As well I dearly apologize for the inconvenience this unit has been in stasis for... four years. Record state cargo ship Griffa was destroyed in a pirate attack searching for unit L1. Of which they were lost in transit and subsequently replaced with unit L2 from a backup of AI subsystems." L1 read off in a monotone voice.

"Tough break. Sorry to hear you've been out for so long!" She said, though the android probably couldn't hear. She turned the runabout around and headed back to the ship. Flying wasn't her expertise, so she was glad the computer was doing most of the work. "Requesting perms to dock!" She called out to inform them.

“Understood, take us in nice and easy. And alert the station about our guest.” She called up, then turned back to the Android. “Do you seek asylum? Is someone after you?”

Danger... unknown. From calculations I am... 1.3 billion kilometers from the attack site. Conclusion, no danger. I do not seek asylum, but if you need assistance I will be glad to help. It's what I am programmed to do." *L1 said with her usual warm smile.

“Well I personally don’t seek assistance. When we get back to the station There may be a security detail awaiting our arrival, don’t be frightened it’s standard procedure when we come back with an unexpected guest.” Mona declared, snapping her tricorder shut and fastening it to the other side of her waist.

Nodding she held the warm smile. "Of course, it is only fair for someone to wish to defend themselves." L1 said as she bowed inside the pod. After a small ding let them know she was finished charging. "Thank you for this, auto disconnect to prevent damage to my internal power cells is enabled as a part to keep unit L1 from damaging itself."

“I guess they really thought of everything when they designed you? Can you stand up?” She said changing the subject, Mona noted that the android charged incredibly quick, a,though she should’ve probably expected as much from people who were able to build an A.I this sophisticated, aside from Soong, she had never encountered an android in person, only heard about them and read about them in stories, and some of them not very good.

Looking to her L1 nodded and slowly stood. Taking her time she made sure to calibrate her movement servos as she walked. After the first few awkward steps she made things normalized leaving her walking in a more human way. "Yes madame, is there anything you need?" She asked in a more monotone voice.

“I don’t think so, you certainly don’t serve me, so you don’t have to follow my orders, consider yourself a free individual here.” Mona half expected she wouldn’t understand, after all she was programmed for this sort of work, but somehow, she still felt strange about giving a life form orders.. well she gave orders every day, but those officers chose to follow her directive, L1 never had a choice.

"I know myself as a free android. This is programmed to me, but so is the wish to help. In times of need I am programmed to help. Even if it's to make small talk, or to repair something that needs to be fixed." L1 said with a warm smile.

“We’ll touch down in a jiff!” She called to the others. “She said she was a personal assistant. I didn’t know anybody made androids like that. I really wanna talk to her! Pick her brain about her r and d!” She said to Wheatley. “What are you most excited for?” She quickly sent off a message to the station too.

"I'm excited to see if they got any knowledge about their time as an assistant! Who knows, we might discover something nice.... or interesting.... Or terrifying, even! Only time'll know." He shrugged, his leg bouncing crazily as he sat there.

2

“I have to go oversee the docking procedures. Sit tight.” Mona then gave a nod to the Android, then made her way to the forward cockpit taking her position at the helm. “I’ve never seen anything like them,” she said taking her seat and starting conversation with her copilot. “I can hear you both getting excited from back there, so I guess you lot have never seen anything like that either?”

1

Wheatley turned to the Captain and grinned, "Indeed we haven't! Or well, i haven't in this case. In the last ship i was stationed at, i spent all the time down in the lower engineering deck so i barely got out! It was.... Err, not so cool as one would think."

She couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at Wheatley’s enthusiasm. “Well I can most certainly concur with you.” With a small jolt, the runabout had touched down inside of shuttle bay 2. “Disengaging engines and securing thruster exhaust.” She said tapping the panels again. “We’ll wait here for the escort, they should be along soon enough.”

"Got it. Y'see, i was almost a part of security to... Escort things... And people, you know! Almost, because i just thought of it once and it gave me nightmares. I mean, how can someone like me be a part of security? It'd be... Well." He gulped a little, visibly frightened. "...not good."

Ughaz'udan was visible from the cockpit window.

Poor Wheatley just turned around and was now face to face with Ughaz'udan, jolting so bad he slipped and fell with an audible 'THUD'.

“I’m starting to see what you mean.” Mona exhausted a sigh. “It appears our escort has arrived, and very punctually indeed.” She arouse from her seat to get the door so that Ughaz could step inside properly.

He peered through the entrance ramp soon after, dark brown eyes settling warily on the one person not in Starfleet uniform. Clearly this was the one - right? "Where is this new 'friend' I was told about?"

He quickly got back up to his feet and tried not to pull any more attention to himself, dying inside with embarassment. Great, Wheatley! Now what will you do?

“The aft section is where the Android has been secured. She’s shown no signs of hostility, yet she’s some kind of service model programmed to make lives easier.”

"Yeah she seems quite harmless, Lieutenant." Zeza piped up as she continued to reiterate the captain's remark to the new officer who came on board the craft. Zeza seeing the Ensign fall moved over to him and whisper. "You alright Mr. Pendleton?" Not trying to bring attention to his recent incident. "

"Gonna be, Lieutenant..." He mumbled, looking downward and almost curling up.

“Let’s move L1 up to the habitat ring. We’ll have to arrange some quarters for her, it shouldn’t be too difficult.” She gave nod to the new Lieutenant and Zeza, in all honesty she wanted to get this over with and go and check out the progress on the ship. The station commander would expect a full report no doubt.

"Agreed. I think we have a few places available." Zeza said as she smiled at L1. "Welcome to Starbase 777, by the way, L1. I hope we can accommodate any needs you require. I am Lieutenant Commander Zh'ashrellil. If you need anything, just let me or Chief of Operations know, and we will be happy to try and help." She said now that they had landed now. Zeza felt safe to welcome L1 to the Station.

She hauled herself up and crutched over to the others, giving Wheatley a reassuring pat on his arm. “It’s okay. I fall all the time.” She whispered with a friendly smile.

2

"Thanks, Hop." He smiled a little, getting all bashful.

2

Ughaz'udan allowed them to talk before escorting the android off the shuttle first. Job first, talk later.

[D] Ughaz was transported into the ship with two very surprised mercs looking at him one was the Gorn Captain from before.

Perfect. Ughaz'udan grabbed his phaser and fired on the mercenary that wasn't a Gorn.

He immediately fell to the ground stunned. The commodore was on the floor unconscious next to the now phasered merc.

He then fired upon the Gorn, aiming straight at his chest.

The Gorn fell as well. Ughaz was now the only one on the ship who was conscience. Autopilot had been engaged. Commodore Treville was bleeding really bad.

He dropped into the pilot's seat and disengaged autopilot, then guided the runabout back to the starbase. Good thing about Federation small craft: they were somewhat easier to pilot. Yay.

He made it safely back to the Starbase. (edited)

He tapped on the runabout's control panel and had himself and the Commodore which he carried in his arms beamed to sickbay.

He made his was to the dark cockpit, taking his seat at the helm. “I’ve always wanted to fly one of these.“ After tapping his dark panels, the LCARS system came to life. Warp core is online, powering impulse engines, can you get us through the doors?” (edited)

He suddenly tensed up... the doors... how could he forget about the doors. He spoke nervously. "Well... no? I thought you knew about how to deal with the doors." He began bickering with Susan.

“You think I could work the doors? I’m a crewman! I don’t even have authorization to flush the executive officer’s toilet! It can’t end like this!” He said desperately trying to tap the panels he didn’t want to go to a penal colony.

She climbed into the gillispie and pulled out her phaser set on stun. "What do you two think your doing?" She demanded with narrowed eyes at the two tactical officers bickering in the runabout.

He leaned back in his chair, trying his best to play it cool. "Oh us? We were just running a diagnostic on this here shuttle. You know the job, keeping all the tech up to par."

“Yeah.. a diagnostic. That’s it, the guys you want are across the hall.” He said, with his crooked, broken nose, he once again showed a chip toothed smiled. “It wasn’t us.”

"It would be really cool of you if you could open that door for us though. We need to test the thrusters in a zero G atmosphere." He tried his best to unconvincingly lie, giving her a toothy grin.

"Oh you know what? I can totally do that for you." She said sarcastically. "Either way, I'm not dumb. You guys aren't even in the right uniform to run diagnostics on the runabouts." She said flatly. "Word of advice, next time you wanna lie make sure it's believable." She said flatly. "Your under arrest for disturbance of peace and for assaulting a superior officer." She kept her phaser aimed towards them cautiously.

He didn’t have any fight left in him at this point. His hands shot up in the air right away. “Fine! Just don’t shoot us please!” Well, it was off the the penal colony for a long time. Well, he thought there would be an office in tactical for him someday, looks like the office could go to someone else.

He placed his hands out to be arrested. "I submit to be arrested, I really need to lay my head down anyways." He was feeling sick from all the drinks he had. Maybe he really shouldn't have been drinking. Either way he just wanted to lay down in a brig cot.

Kassell entered the runabout with a phaser of his own, eyeing both McChad and Buhner. However, some relief relaxed his mind seeing how they surrendered. He gave a small nod to the Ensign. "McChad and Buhner. You have no idea what you've just done." he said in an irritated and furious voice. With his phaser on stun, he pulled the trigger after aiming at them. He was not going to risk another assault from these two idiots.

Her eyes widened and she turned to the Cardassian. "They were allowing themselves to be arrested, there was no point in shooting them." "She frowned.* "They posed no threat and hadn't even made a move to attack."

Kassell looked at Emin. "And they're intoxicated. They may have decided to surrender now, but halfway to the brig they could've tried to escape again. I'm not taking any risks. Not after finding Chief Ughaz'udan beaten and bleeding in a corridor." he said. He then glanced back over to them. "Now, take them to the brig." he ordered.

"We would have had them in hand-cuffs by then." She frowned. "And we have them out numbered rather than the other way around. Security protocol states that one cannot simply shoot someone surrending because of something they might do. Especially not because of a personal vendetta." She argued before holstering her phaser and hauling up one of the unconscious officers, well soon to be ex-officers. "Perhaps next time you should go over the security protocols before interfering." She suggested as she hauled McChad out while gesturing with her head to another security officer to collect the other one.

"Well then my apologies, Ensign. But they're apart of tactical personnel and thus it's also my duty to handle them. So I did." he affirmed, holstering his phaser while exiting the runabout. He may have been wrong on the subject but he was rather angry, and acted quickly. However, in the back of his head he knew she was right. But would he admit it? No. At least not yet.

She gave him a reassuring smile, albeit slightly strained. Whether it be because of the tactical officer she was carrying or because of the tactical officer in front of her she didn't know. "Well thank you for the apology." Taking care of his officers by stunning them after they had surrendered sounded...very Cardassian. Ruthless and cutthroat, she tried not to assume of course but, she wouldn't. Assume or judge that is. Cardassians weren't like they were during the Occupation were they? Not anymore. Well most of them anyway. Besides, what he had done with the Ferengi and his guards made up for a simple misunderstanding of protocol.

1

With Namika and the device aboard, departure clearance was given.

’Alright. Time to take the baby for a spin,’ thought Namika, as she started the engines and gently took the gillispie out of the shuttle bay. It was one procedure that she’d done many, many times and sitting behind the consoles gave her a feeling of professional confidence. Pushing some buttons and switches — which probably looked very cool and knowledgable — she carefully put the shuttle to impulse power. It was a delicate thing to send a shuttle out into an ion storm, and Namika was already bracing for disturbances; however, all of her initial insecurity and frustration had faded away. She was now completely focused as the shuttle left the station.

3

As the runabout left the safety of the airlock it was immediately hit by the ion storm. With its shields up it was completely safe, but the craft shook a little and vibrated a lot.

Namika remained calm even as vibrations violently shook up the shuttle. She checked the shield integrity and kept the shuttle on course. She was headed for the first destination for the first device, but she’d have to get farther away from the station — and therefore closer to the storm. “Computer, run a simulation whether I can take the shuttle to full impulse without endangering it,” she said, her voice ridden with concentration and her hands remaining steady on the consoles.

“The possibility of causing damage to the shuttle at full impulse it 23.4%.”

The shields were remaining stable for now.

With 6 fuck-this-storm-up-devices still in her cargo bay, Namika did not want to take that relatively high risk. Not yet. She could do with the slow speed for now, even though she was getting closer and closer to the ion storm. Because she had the starmap and the coordinates all memorised, she could calculate the ETA in her head, but she still took a look at the computer to double-check.

The ETA to the first set of coordinates was roughly five minutes.

Just as Namika had thought. She decided to pass it on to the #command-deck and to the other shuttles in the space. “ETA for the first device at four point six minutes from now,” she said. Yes, she’d calculated it precisely in her head. “Are comms lines holding stable?”

[Comms] "Acknowledged and yes. Good luck, by the way."

“Thank you, Sir,” replied Namika, smiling slightly at the sound of a familiar voice. That was something at least when you were steering right towards an ion storm. Not that this wasn’t the kind of radical thing that she would enjoy doing. She carefully proceeded towards the coordinates, trying to work against the turbulences at times and then at other times, using them to give her a small speed boost. Couldn’t hurt, right?

The turbulence-speed-boost strategy worked for a while, almost until she had reached the coordinates. But then the computer warned her to avoid any pockets of high electric concentration (that’s a thing, right?) that were causing the turbulence. She was nearly there, she just had to avoid one large pocket.

Namika adjusted her course according to the information that the computer gave her. She needed to slow down a little in order to fly around the pocket instead of right into it. She manually reversed thrusters for a second to slow herself down, before letting the shuttle dip underneath the pocket and dive back up behind it (not that there was up and down in space, but you get the gist). All the time she kept an eye on balancing out the forces from outside that were weighing down on the shuttle. If that relatively easy manoeuvre worked, she’d reach her coordinates. (edited)

3

The maneuver worked, of course, because Mika was a skilled pilot, and she got to the coordinates exactly, coming to an all stop. The fuck-up-the-storm devices sat in the cargo bay, ready to be deployed.

“Ejecting the first ‘fuck-up-the-storm-device’ now,” Namika informed whoever was listening. She’d never been given a name for the things, so yes, that was their name now. She hoped that the people on the command deck could have their laughs about it while she was out here being shaken (not stirred) by a storm. She pressed a button to eject the device out of the airlock at the coordinates.

Out popped the first device, and the storm crackled angrily. It appeared to be working, slowly.

Funny, that's what he'd been calling them in his head. [Comms] "You good?"

“Never better, Captain,” responded Namika rather truthfully. “Device seems to be working, I’m headed to the next location.” She was tempted to ask about the status of the other shuttles and devices, but she restrained herself. It was better to focus on her own shuttle for now. She continued through the storm, checking hull integrity ever so often and adjusting her course to avoid balls of high electric concentrations. Again, she calculated the ETA in her head.

She did an excellent job avoiding lightning pockets, and soon reached the second location with ease. Mika, after all, was a highly qualified ~~Mo obsessed~~ pilot.

1

“Ejecting fuck-up-the-storm-device number two,” she said, pushing the ejection button. She then focused on getting the shuttle going again and steered towards the next location. It would require her to get closer to the ion storm this time… “Hey, quick question; do these things just activate themselves once they’re all out there?”, she asked, eyes fixed on the ion clouds in front of her.

[Comms] "They are programmed to do so, I would have informed you if you needed to activate them."

“Just making sure,” muttered Namika, already more concentrated on flying again than she was concentrated on the conversation. She surveyed turbulences and shield integrity. Just to play it safe, she said, “Computer, run a self-diagnostic and keep me updated.”

The self diagnostic was run, and everything was fine… Until it wasn’t. Bang! Mika apparently missed a giant pocket of lightning, knocking the shuttle of course, exploding a console behind her, and a piece of the interior wall shattered. The force of the explosion probably threw Mika into the console, covering her back in burns of the third degree, skewering her with shards of metal.

1

2

1

Namika saw the screen and then she registered the noise, the vibration, and the fact that she’d made a mistake of some kind. The world dipped to the side. No, actually, she did. The next thing she knew was pain and a painful scream. She was surprised to find that it came from herself, and she clenched her teeth together the next second. There were shards of metal buried into her flesh, but she pulled herself up onto the console, gasping. Her eyes darted around the shuttle, trying to see whether anything was still on fire. And then her immediate move was to ignore the pain to the best of her abilities and try to put the shuttle back on course.

4

There was fire, actually, a raging one right behind her. The runabout was beat up and barely holding itself together. The navigation system was fucked, Mika was flying blind (read: using only her eyes).

1

[Comms] "Nami - status, Grey?"

2

Namika’s voice was strained when she replied, “Shields are down, shuttle’s on fire, this is fine!” Insert here the meme of the dog in the burning house. She didn’t even have time to think about Mo nearly slipping and using her first name, she was busy being in pain and handling a fucking situation here! She quickly took the emergency fire extinguisher and put the fire out. Then, with a sharp intake of breath, she returned her attention to the consoles. “Gotta attempt to get myself back on track,” she hissed through gritted teeth, “C’mon, baby, you’re not that broken yet!” At this point she was talking to the shuttle, just in case that wasn’t obvious. She tried to manually reroute the shuttle and get it back on course. Meanwhile her back was bleeding, but who was keeping track?

6

5

Bleeding and burning? Wow, Mika had the worst luck. It was about to get worse, because the shuttle’s systems were slowly shutting down. The lights went out, it looked like life support was next.

“Oh, fuck me,” muttered Namika. She’d been having fun, but now that was over. At least her glasses were still intact. Not that it would help her with the lights being cut out. The only light that came in was the starlight from outside. When the shuttle was somewhat on course, she ran towards the panels in the back, pulling all registers of engineering knowledge that she had. Top priority: Stabilise life support. Directly underneath that: Lights back on, please!

Somehow, Mika, who had worked on mostly hoverbikes, managed to get life support up, and the main console back on. Navigation was spotty at best, but it was there.

“Oh, sweet Jesus and whatever other deities there are,” she sighed. She’d never been a religious person, but who knew? Maybe a(nother) near-death-experience would finally convert her! She went back to the console and practically collapsed into the pilot’s chair. Her back hurt so much. She didn’t lean back against the backrest, that would only push the shards of metal deeper into her flesh. She was happy now that she’d practiced blind piloting on the holodeck earlier. No navigation system? No problem. Mika would become the navigation system! “I’m nearly at the next spot,” she said, her voice coming out weaker than she’d intended.

[Comms] "Acknowledged. Don't do anything reckless."

“What makes you think I would, Mo?”, she gave back huskily. Apparently, she hadn’t lost her sarcasm, even though she was losing blood. Upon reaching the next coordinates, she waited for the next flicker of life from the console, and then ejected the device into space. Three gone; three to go. She could do this. She could do this, she could do this…

The shuttle, held together by spite, assumably, was still puttering along somehow. The console was staying alive (Hamilton reference?) pretty well, getting Mika where she needed to go.

If Mika were less almost-dying-from-pain right now, she surely would have thought of that Hamilton song, but right now her mind was otherwise occupied. As she steered the shuttle to the next location, the burning sensation on her back only got worse. She gritted her teeth, shutting out all other thoughts. She only focussed on the mission now; she only focussed on not letting that breathtaking pain take over. Then she ejected the next and fourth device. This time, she didn’t say anything. She was too preoccupied with steering the shuttle half-manually and with keeping the pain at bay.

The storm outside was slowly dissipating with each device ejected. Mika was making good time, but the longer she was out here, untreated, the worse her burns and other various wounds got. (edited)

And that was when Namika — obviously — did something reckless. She needed to get outta here fast, needed to get this done quick! (Hit em quick, get out fast; Chika-plah!) In order to get to her next location, she increased impulse speed. This was Hoverbike Mika now. Welcome back!

2

No reply for a bit. Concerning. And it (probably) looked bad from where he was sitting. [Comms] "...I hope you're gettin' close."

2

“Yeah,” she gave back, ditching the ‘Yes, Sir’ for something that was easier to say when you got yourself cut open with metal shards and covered in burns. Then, she finally ejected the fifth device. “Only one more to go.” At slightly accelerated impulse power, she took the shuttle towards the next and last location. She only hoped the hulls could take it, but at least the storm was dissipating already. That should make it a bit easer for the Gillispie to Stay Alive.

The hull could barely take it. It was rattling its protest as she neared the final drop sight. (edited)

[Comms] "Once you have placed the last device make sure to leave the layer of operation, you'll die with a probability of 92.4 percent if you don't."

“Oh, those are lovely odds,” said Namika because she might be dying, but she was not past making sassy comments. “Just in case, my will can be found amongst my personal logs.” She was not planning on dying, but it was better to let them know. She’d hate for people to not know her last will if she died. She slowed down a little, giving the hull a break. And then she came to a full stop. She gave the hull a moment to regenerate while she prepared for ejection. The next few things would have to happen in quick succession. The role player will be describing them after giving people a chance to reply to Namika’s sassy and dark comments. (edited)

[Comms] "If you were using the reserve devices it would be 98.6 percent. You have approximately 15 seconds."

[Comms] "And you can find sass whatever state you're in, apparently."

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Sir.” And with that, she did the following things in quick succession: She tried to boost the shields with auxiliary power, then ejected the device, and then immediately went to impulse power and tried to get back to the station and out of the operation radius as quickly as humanly (or alienly) possible. She really hoped she wouldn’t die right now, because that would be a pity. Really, she’d never see Mo in a pirate get-up and she’d never be able to tell Isaac she wanted to remain friends and she’d never be able to try Vulcan food in that new restaurant on the utility deck… She’d never make Captain, she’d never get back in touch with that girl from the Academy, she’d never challenge Styre to an ultra-competitive 3D chess match… (edited)

The devices were deployed successfully and the helmsman managed to escape at the very nick of time. The cloud of the storm shook the shuttle a little but all was well.

“Preparing to dock,” said Namika, relief obvious in her tone of voice. But also exhaustion. “The devices have all been launched… I…” The blood loss was getting to her. The vibrations of the shuttle had caused several shards to slide out of her back and open the blood flow. “I might need medical attention,” she muttered. She could already see the docking port in front of her. And then she could see only darkness. She passed out, sliding from her chair and hitting the ground with a thud. The pain and adrenaline and blood loss was too much. Her body had decided to shut off. And the shuttle was driving free in space, gently but also uncontrollably towards the docking port.

Placed briefly under tow, the Gillespie came to a halt before being controlled remotely by the Command Deck. It was soon returned to the #main-shuttlebay, and a Medical alert had been put out for Lieutenant Grey.

Avignon upon boarding quickly ran for the cockpit. He had a bit of sweat dripping down his forehead, he was just a little bit nervous for whatever suprise was awaiting him. "This is Doctor Avignon, can you hear me." As he opened the door to the cockpit.

There was no response. Namika was out cold. Upon entering, Avignon would find her lying on the ground with her face down. Her back was covered in third degree burns and additionally there were pieces of metal sunk into her back. Some of the slashes were open and bleeding heavily. Namika’s glasses had fallen off and they were lying next to her on the ground, shattered. She was breathing, but it was rattled.

"Dangit." He rubbed his chin as he looked over Mike. He quickly popped a dermal regenerator out of his doctors bag. For now he skipped the pain killers, her injuries were bad and a knocked out person wouldn't be able to feel the pain anyways. He gave his attention first to the open wounds. "I'm gonna get you out of this, don't worry." He said that more to himself then the pilot infront of him. Presumably she wouldn't be able to hear him anyways.

Nope. Namika couldn’t hear a word. The dermal regenerator would work, but since most of the pieces of metal were still stuck, he wouldn’t be able to heal her up. Those shards would have to be surgically removed. God only knows how deep they were in. Actually no, the role player knew and it would be revealed by a tricorder scan.

He ran a scan over her. Atleast the bleeding was now stabilized but the prognosis more likely then not would be surgery. Based on just looking at her it was clear she had eaten a fair amount of shrapnel, that would need to be removed whenever she became stable. [COMM] "This is Avignon to transporter I'm most likely going to need a beam out to medical."

The scan would show that some of the shards had cut through the muscle and tissue all the way to her ribs and shoulder blades. She was lucky none of it had damaged her spine, or her lungs — only by a few millimetres. She would definitely need surgery.

He decided she was stable enough to be relocated to sickbay. The doctors there would be much more prepared to treat her. Not to mention the better equipment. [COMM] "Transporter, this is Doctor Avignon, I need two to transport to sickbay immediately from the USS Gillespie."

The two were beamed out.