Golden Retriever
Posted on Sat Sep 7th, 2019 @ 12:25pm by Captain Aviram Drell & Petty Officer 1st Class Corbin Sullis & Petty Officer 3rd Class Mara Stavros
Edited on on Sat Sep 7th, 2019 @ 6:50pm
Mission:
Episode 01: "Vestal Hearth"
Location: Shuttlecraft Belor
Timeline: Day 01, 1410 Hours
ON: [[Shuttlecraft Belor, Day 01, 1410 Hours]]
The parameters Stavros had been given for the next part of her examination called for very specific flight procedures. They would have to stay low and travel as fast as possible, preferably without hitting anything or overshooting their target zone. "Course laid in," she announced, "speed, six hundred fifty kph."
Corbin nodded for the younger Petty Officer to engage, and the Belor began its paces. In trying to keep its altitude fixed, the shuttle bounced, rolled and otherwise jostled its occupants around.
"Last time I shook up a shuttle this much, I was plowing through a gas giant. What about you, Stavros? Which was your roughest mission?"
A little busy right now, Stavros thought to herself. She realized Sullis was probably just making friendly conversation. That, or he could have been assessing how she handled multi-tasking while flying. Either way, she didn't quite understand why he felt the need to ask her right then and there. This kind of close-quarters, high speed maneuvering wasn't something she'd done all that often. Only once or twice outside the holodeck, in fact. She knew she needed to concentrate.
So she ignored him...for the moment, at least.
The shuttle banked sharply around a large outcropping, then turned the opposite direction to continue following the ravine they were in. Stavros brought them back to center and checked the charts. They were only a short distance from the location Sullis had ordered her to. Seconds passed and they emerged from the ravine into a broad open space filled with trees and rolling foothills.
"...and we're clear," Stavros said with an inward sigh, "Reducing speed. Initiating search pattern."
Once the search pattern had been established, Stavros felt like she could relax a little, at least enough to finally answer Sullis' earlier question. "It was a recovery mission, actually," she told him, "We'd picked up an emergency transponder signal inside this asteroid field, but the field was too dense to take the ship in, so we had to use the shuttles. Solar radiation interfered with the sensors, created these ghost echoes all over the place. Took us three weeks to locate the beacon..."
Oh, you´re going to love the last bit of this test... Sullis mused to himself. ¨Yeah, I imagine the Vesta will have a fair share of that in her time.¨
Once the Belorslowed to a comfortable hover, Corbin stood up from his seat and headed to the rear door. ¨Alright Stavros, nice and steady, drop us to half a meter! We´re picking up grunts that can barely walk, don´t want to knock them out with a shuttle.¨
"Aye, aye, sir."
Dropping to a knee, the senior Petty Officer opened one of the rear weapons lockers and pulled out a phaser rifle, setting it to its lowest setting, and fired wide into the forest, just to add a little realism to the situation.
The sudden burst of phaser fire might have startled Stavros had she not already through the two previous scenarios Sullis had given her. A little unsettling, perhaps, but not surprising at this point. Her hands moved steadily across the surface of the helm as she eased the shuttle into position. At exactly one-half meter above the forest floor, she brought them to a halt. "Holding at one-half meter, sir," she called out over her shoulder.
Now, assuming Sullis didn't decide to spring any more surprises on her, it was likely they could have held that position as long as necessary without too much trouble. For one thing, they weren't actually being shot at. For another, being that close to the ground often made it easier to keep the craft steady, given that there was a clear frame of reference and less chance that the wind or some other factor would affect the shuttle. However, Stavros doubted it would last long. Certain that Sullis still had something up his sleeve yet, she kept her hands at the controls and waited for his next instruction.
Once the Belor settled its thruster wash to a steady stream, Corbin set his rifle back into its case and hopped out of the shuttle, running over to the nearest tree and pulling down a branch full of acaci berries. "Ah, perfect!"
Sprinting back to his co-pilot seat just as quickly, Sullis closed the rear hatch and marked the appropriate high marks into Stavos' evaluation. "Good hold on that retrevial. Now, combat ascent, full impulse and straight away!"
"What are those for," Stavros asked warily.
Corbin chuckled at the question, and popped one into his mouth. ¨A little present for a fellow crewmember. And an excellent demonstration by you in low-altitude control of a six-ton starship.¨ The instructor double-checked his control panel ¨One that is about to lose its shields from Jem´Hadar weapons fire if you keep hovering in the extraction zone.¨
OFF
Petty Officer 1st Class Corbin Sullis
Auxiliary Craft Pilot
USS Vesta (NX-94200)
Petty Officer 3rd Class Mara Stavros
Auxiliary Craft Pilot
USS Vesta (NX-94200)
