[IRW D'era (Endless Sky)]
Desert landscape, jagged rocks, and a bright burning sun made up the dusty brown globe rotating at the center of the room. Itsak's eyes glimmered as he stared at the planet. He reached out and slid his fingers through the holographic projection causing it to fizzle at his touch. "Thhaei" He murmured the Rihannsu name of this harsh place- a hot and desolate place inhabited by a heartless people. He closed his eyes and remembered vividly.
"Why are you leaving? What about Itsak?!" He could still remember his mother, on her knees, begging and pleading. "I have given up everything to be with you Somok! My honor, my status, my family! How can you just leave? Do you feel nothing?!"
His father just stared at her- a cold emotionless veneer. "I have come to the conclusion that our relationship is not tenable. It is for the best that I leave." He turned away- she grabbed his shirt and he jerked away pushing her off. Without even looking at them he left…simply left.
"Are you certain?"
Itsak shivered slightly as he twisted around to look at Hanaj who was standing directly behind him. Hanaj's thin frame slowly strolled across the room and right through the projection. It twisted awkwardly to accommodate his passing form before returning to its spherical shape. "Is this truly what you want Itsak? I have known you since the war college- I knew you held hate in your heart for your father, but, do you truly wish to eradicate an entire race?"
"I want to bring them sadness. Terrible, terrible, sadness."
"Then we have a problem." Hanaj said "apparently the Vulcans were able to cause more damage then we initially believed. The primary control console for the wormhole system has been severely damaged. Our engineers say it will take time to repair it."
"What?" Itsak gritted his teeth in rage, after a moment to process what Hanaj had said he continued "how long did they say it would take them?"
"A month at the earliest- but that is unlikely. They believe it will take them at least two months to rebuild the panel but without the Vulcan engineers it will be impossible to know for sure if they will be able to fully render the panel operable again." Hanaj spoke his next sentence cautiously "we should not have allowed those Vulcans to leave on Charon. There is also a second problem…" He barely finished his sentence when the door burst open again.
"Why are we still on course for I'Rak Prime?" The Political Officer stormed in, her obsidian uniform obscuring most of her form in the darkness, but the dusty brown light from the projection illuminated her irritated expression. Her eyes immediately focused on the diagram rotating at the center of the room "Vulcan?" She uttered curiously but her attention quickly turned to Itsak "you have been given the coordinates to where the Vulcan ship should be delivered. Why have we yet to alter our course?"
"The second problem." Hanaj said.
"Second problem?" She asked glaring at Itsak.
"Indeed." Itsak turned to her and bowed his head "forgive me- it seems we have a problem. I don't intend to give the agency this weapon." He turned to the projection and pointed at the dusty planet "I am going to kill every being on that planet." Itsak smirked "you of all people should understand the benefits of this. Be rid of them once and for all- and without them Federation will be crippled beyond repair. With the Klingon's still in economic disrepair we can become the dominant power in the Galaxy."
"I understand now. This is why you kept a sample of the Memento Mori?" She scoffed and shook her head "I cannot allow you to waste such technology over a trivial pursuit. Change course immediately."
Itsak's eye's narrowed as his brows creased. Without warning he unsheathed his honor blade and impaled the Political Officer through her abdomen. Her eyes grew and quivered as she stumbled backwards pushing the Vaek'Riov away from her. He pulled the blade out and readied for a finishing blow but she pressed her thumb to her neck and dematerialized. Hanaj was soon at his side cursing "we won't have much time now."
"Disable all communication relays in this entire region and tell the other commanders to rid of their political officers." Itsak glowered at his second "we do not have time to waste. We need the Charon."
"Shall I have us change course?" Hanaj asked.
"No- I will take another ship. We cannot waste time. D'era must get the Temep'Shar to I'Rak prime as soon as possible. We must offload the technology and have our scientists prep the new samples of the Memento Mori. We will soon need it."
Hanaj nodded, bowed his head slightly, and then looked up curiously "what if Shiarrael refuses?"
"I will kill her precious crew."
[USS Charon]
Shiarrael felt a cold intense pain shoot through the base of her neck. Rubbing it gently she looked out her ready room window at the passing star field. It has been a long year- but it is almost over, she thought absently and went back to her work.
[End]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
[USS Charon] SD241004.27|| Joint BackLog "Vulcan on Ice" Part II || Lt Cmdr Sakarra Tyrax, Brevet 1st Lt Brent Warren
=/\= USS Charon, Shuttle bay =/\=
She couldn't help it. Even Vulcans cannot always resist temptation, not when it is this marvelously sweet. Barely a split second after flight ops had cleared them for launch, the fighter shot forward and raced through the forcefield in a shower of rainbow sparks, impulse engines howling with delight.
Another split second later every atom in her body vibrated as they passed through Charon's warp field and the awesome power of their own warp engines hummed to life, hurtling them away in a spiral that would have sufficiently confused any potential attacker trying to pick off fighters when they were most vulnerable.
"Unpleasant and 'not an easy ride' being euphemisms, yes? In any case, I will try to not make this an unpleasant experience, so if my flying causes you discomfort, please do not hesitate to point it out."
As if to underline her words, Sakarra throttled back and the Valkyrie described a perfect, slow arc while in the canopy stars glittered and turned around them and Charon became visible as a tiny speck of silver traveling high above.
Brent grinned at her response. "Have you ever known me to be really boring or do things in uninteresting ways," he said to her as he dialed he camera controls in and began to look around. A few ideas wandered into his head of things that he had done that she had characterized as 'interesting' but he figured that she could understand the innuendo that he was trying to imply, and began to dial in the camera's controls and figuring out how to focus it.
It turned out that Brent had gotten the hang of it just in time, as Sakarra took off out of the ship Brent managed to capture the surprise look of one of the deck officers. "Hey now, I make a decent photographer," Brent said as he fumbled around with the controls on his RIO station until he finally was able to send the picture of the perturbed woman up to Sakarra. "Maybe I should get a camera..."
Brent heard her ask about the euphemisms and how she would try not to make him lose his lunch. "They are euphemisms yes; they were lessons in abject terror and horror, especially the hard drop. I should be fine for most of this flight though, I have an expert pilot here to give me the tour."
The picture was certainly … unique. The moment it showed up on the small auxiliary screen at her side, Sakarra felt both brows climb by a considerable margin and she had to silently agree – Brent seemed to have another hidden talent.
"To be honest, I have not. Quite the contrary, in fact." The Valkyrie lazily banked to starboard and ever so slowly began to overtake Charon still cruising above while the young woman in the pilot seat did her best not to think of the exquisitely interesting things her companion had surprised her with recently.
"I shall endeavor to keep the abject terror to a minimum, although I have been told repeatedly that what a pilot may consider a rather pleasant little spin can produce said horror in unprepared passengers."
Propelled into the vast emptiness of space by her cheerfully pulsing warp engines, the little fighter was about to overtake the shimmering blue and white speck under her wing the very moment it came into view, but Sakarra had timed their approach precisely and dropped out of warp in a flash of light before falling into a perfect roll. Right above the canopy, the comet's tail loomed, harsh and cold, illuminated only by distant stars and chunks of ice sizzled on their shields.
"Beautiful, no?"
"Good. I'd hate to think that I've been boring all of this time," he said keeping the 'sweetheart' that was on the tip of his tongue to himself. Brent watched as the stars flew by in streaks of light. He smiled, thinking that he was fairly certain that he would never see something like this ever again. Unless of course Sakarra took him out. He was interrupted when she mentioned keeping the terror to a minimum. "Thank you then. I'm loving this so far, it's amazing."
As if to punctuate his words it was then that Sakarra dove down against the comet as Brent let out a slow breath at the beauty outside of the cockpit. "That's magnificent," he managed in a soft voice. He forgot about his camera for a few moments before Brent began to take several snapshots of the comet as it passed on by.
Deeply gratified by not only the tone of his voice but the obvious enjoyment Brent was deriving from this little flight, the young Vulcan nearly did not see the brief flicker on her console.
"Hm."
To her knowledge, Charon's sensors had not detected any silithium, but for just a moment it had shown up on hers. Unfortunately, a fighter was not equipped for scientific research, but if she could get close enough ..
"Are you still interested in the 'blowing up' part of our excursion? I should point out however that the 'ride' could get slightly bumpy."
A gloved hand pointed towards a large chunk of ice trailing in the comet's wake while the Valkyrie's nose tilted downward "I would like to get a closer look at this part of the comet but we will need to clear a path."
Brent was busy taking several pictures but he immediately heard Sakarra talking about blowing something up. "Hmm explosions huh? You know that's something that we Marines pride ourselves on you know," he said in a very serious tone of voice. Brent began to fiddle around with the controls again before finally discovering the weapon systems on the fighter. He took control of the phaser turrets and moved them back and forth a few times before he let out a burst of energy from them and grinned like a child in a candy store. "Yeah I think I could get the handle of this," he said idly as Brent moved in and zeroed in on the comet.
Focusing on her target, Sakarra nodded and still had to resist the urge to comment on the most seriously presented 'pride and explosions' statement. Unseen by the Marine who was cheerfully familiarizing himself with the Valkyrie's impressive weapons array, the young Vulcan smiled.
"Tally Ho."
Her targeting system beeped excitedly and Sakarra swerved to avoid another block of ice tumbling towards them – as far away as the blue giant behind them was, its gravity well was enough to pull away considerable pieces of accumulated dust and frozen water.
"A two second burst should suffice, unless you wish to make matters very interesting indeed."
Just as Brent had figured out the weapon systems well enough he heard Sakarra speak again that they were incoming to the target and that a two second burst would suffice. Brent thought that was far too little and made a face like a disappointed child would upon hearing that. "Yeah... Two seconds doesn't sound like very much fun to me," Brent said as he found something that looked like it needed to blow up and proceeded to shoot at it for a period of time.
"The sentence 'I should have expected that' appears to become a recurring theme in this relationship."
In a mad dash, the fighter dove under splinters and massive chunks of metallic ore that had been hurtled out of their paths by debris and weapons fire. Ice and rock vaporized in a kaleidoscope of colors as twinkling running lights reflected off the ice, mingled with the far sun's blue tinted light and the phaser beams lancing out against tumbling obstacles.
"Two o'clock, inbound."
She had barely finished when the massive boulder was blown – literally – to pieces, a good portion of which were of course still aiming straight for them. Undeterred, Brent picked out the biggest chunks one by one, apparently having what humans referred to as 'a blast'.
But even though this had turned from a leisurely cruise to a wild combination of swerving and dodging, Sakarra had to admit she was … having fun. Lots of it.
And they were getting so close to the comet itself, the silithium readings showed up bright and clear.
"One might almost assume you have done this before." Another brow was quirked, unseen but somehow heard in the young Vulcan's voice when a piece of ice measuring easily 500 meters across was vaporized right before the Valkyrie's nose.
Just a heartbeat later, the fighter was skimming over the rugged surface of the comet itself, having left the tail behind and unfortunately, the readings as well. Before them, something that would have qualified as a minor mountain range on a planet, came racing towards them and Sakarra pulled the craft into a steep climb. Spiraling away, she could almost physically sense Brent's disappointment that he had run out of targets.
Brent was simply having too much fun. This was great, and he enjoyed letting the turret fire to almost the point of overheating the phase coils before he stopped for a few moments, only to start firing again as he noticed the fighter turning away. He didn't even bother commenting at her about if he had done this before. Brent was too busy having fun and laughing like a kid at his fun. It was only predictable as Sakarra turned the fighter away he had to make a comment. "Hey! I was still trying to blow it up..." he said the pout almost audible in his voice as he strove to get a lock on the comet again, the phaser trails still going off fruitlessly for almost a minute after till he gave up.
=/\= To be continued … =/\=
Brevet 1st Lieutenant Brent Warren
Marine Commander
Lt Cmdr Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helm
USS Charon
[USS Charon] SD241004.27|| Joint BackLog "Vulcan on Ice" Part I || Lt Cmdr Sakarra Tyrax, Brevet 1st Lt Brent Warren
<<Yet another one taking place en route to the Stellar Nursery>>
=/\= USS Charon, Deck Nine, Shuttle and Fighter storage =/\=
The Valkyrie sat on the elevator, gleaming silver and giving off an air of quiet menace with her downturned wings and sharp, sleek lines. Unfortunately the effect was ruined just slightly by the fact that one of the engine maintenance hatches was open and the lower half of a rather small built person in a flight suit was sticking out of it while feet clad in heavy boots were scrambling on the deck.
Under the bewildered looks of several maintenance personnel, the little pilot finally seemed to have reached whatever it was she had been looking for and stood on the tips of her toes while a patient, copper haired woman nodded and handed a phase compensator into the hatch.
A pilot circling a fighter, running her fingers over the hull and talking as if to a lover – that they were used to, more or less. It had barely elicited comment, even when people realized it was a Vulcan doing it. But same pilot jumping head first into a maintenance hatch to tinker and play, that was not an everyday sight.
"What is she doin'?"
"Dunno. Ask Hadley."
"You'd think we don't know how to do maintenance on those birds."
"Bah. Pilots. Let her play. Or you wanna argue with the Helms-Vulcan?"
"Yeah. About as much as I want a migraine. Hey, you got the diagnostic results of the Fortis?"
"Nope but I got some coffee."
"That'll do, too."
"Ma'am?"
"Miss Hadley, I believe I mentioned…"
"Right. No ma'am-ing. Commander. Anyways. What's this going to do?"
Rebecca tried to peek into the hatch but all she could see was a tight flight suit outlining a very nice hourglass shape and the dim light of an open power conduit.
"I am merely familiarizing myself with the craft, Lieutenant. If incidentally I can fine-tune the power output ratio of the warp engines, you may consider it part of my pre-flight routine. Ah, interesting."
"Huh?"
"May I assume you were responsible for those upgrades?"
"What? Oh, yes."
"My compliments."
The dark haired Vulcan emerged from the hatch and handed the tools back to Rebecca who promptly put them away.
"Thanks."
"You are welcome."
The hatch was closed and sealed and the beaming human was about to waltz back to her office when she nearly dropped her toolkit on her foot. In the blink of an eye, something you could damn near call a smile had shown up and disappeared on the Vulcan's face. She followed the gaze of black eyes and saw the Marine Commander himself stroll into her little corner of Charon – and of course Vara was nowhere in sight. The poor Trill would be fretting for days. She'd already been fretting when Robert had officially declared that Vara's crush had succeeded where Merl had failed – though the betting pool on the exact nature of that success was still gaining steam.
Giving a polite wave, Rebecca scampered off and resolved to keep an eye on the two from a safe distance – both for Vara and the possibility to gain an advantage in said pool.
Fighters. Brent had a almost love hate relationship with them. He was dating a fighter pilot now; Sakarra had made that much clear when they had first started dating. He looked around at the fighter bay only to find Sakarra with her sleeves rolled up apparently having been working the fighter craft. He didn't know that she knew how to repair the craft or make adjustments. He supposed that would be something that most fighter pilots would pick up in their spare time, provided they had the spare time. Brent watched as the other woman disappeared from the fighter and to the far side of the bay. So they would have an audience then. So be it, Brent was fairly certain that every single one of his men knew that he had a relationship with Sakarra, it only figured that soon enough all of Sakarra's department would know as well.
"I don't believe I've ever seen you with your sleeves rolled up like that," he said with a smile on his face as he offered her two fingers as she had done to him so many times before.
"Hm?"
It took Sakarra a half-second to realize he was speaking literally but rather than adjust her flight suit immediately, she returned the gesture, fully aware that they were being … watched.
She could have stopped at the usual light touch, the tender greeting that was no more than the briefest brushing of lips against the other's cheek. But something about his smile and the fact that he seemed intent on showing affection in the crowded hangar sparked a tiny flame of mischief and she let her fingertips graze across his cool skin for just a moment. The effect was as immediate as it was satisfactory when deep blue eyes widened just a fraction and the sensation of a not entirely innocent kiss echoed through the mindlink and dispersed.
"Yes, it does seem to be an unusual sight, judging from the reactions of the deck crew."
The perfect image of Vulcan equanimity, Sakarra smoothed out the sleeves and motioned to the flight suit and helmet placed neatly on the Valkyrie's nose. "I had to approximate your measurements, but seeing as I am in the fortunate position to … know your physique," the words were spoken low enough to be heard only by Brent, but the tone was impeccably calm nonetheless "it should fit quite well. If you can be persuaded to act as my RIO for this flight of course."
Brent looked at the fighter suit for a moment and sized it up a little bit. It looked like it would fit just fine actually. Apparently she had quite an intimate knowledge of his physique. "Well I think I can be persuaded. So long as all the RIO has to do is look around and maybe press a few buttons hoping that nothing blows up in the process," Brent said as he picked up the flight suit and slowly began to pull the suit up and over his uniform. "Where will we be flying at hm? Just around the ship a few times to make sure the bird can still fly properly?"
"I should discourage you from pressing any buttons that will cause things to 'blow up' as it were."
Though the prospect of actually doing a target run was … alluring in its own way. Sakarra quirked an amused brow at the Marine and swiftly climbed up the ladder before settling in the pilot's seat with a most satisfied air about her.
"As for where we will be going – I seem to have neglected to file more than a most rudimentary flight plan. Though there is a most intriguing comet nearby which currently has the science department pushing the sensors to maximum resolution. I assume they would appreciate some close up scans, even if they come from the comparably inadequate array of a fighter."
With an ease that came from long practice, the young Vulcan went through her preflight and listened for Brent literally fold his tall frame into the RIO's seat. A brief nod to the ground crew and she secured her helmet while the canopy closed and the elevator slowly lifted the Valkyrie up into the shuttle bay.
"I am aware you had some rough shuttle flights in the past." Now that their conversation was limited to the comm between them, the young Vulcan allowed for the silent humor to echo in her voice at last "Not the least of which was partially my doing. But have you ever been 'riding shotgun', to borrow the phrase, in a fighter?"
"What about shoot things that go boom? Is it ok if I press those buttons," Brent said as he borrowed a phrase from basic training when addressing recruits. 'Things that go boom' were things that recruits should not play with unless directed to by a DI. "A comet huh. Sounds good to me. Is there a camera on this bird? Maybe I can take some pictures and make noises like I'm blowing things up," he said eagerly as Brent managed to fold himself into the cockpit.
"No drop ever made on Dominon held land was ever an easy ride down," Brent replied across the static of the communications line. "But to answer your question no I have never been riding in a fighter. Just the back ends of shuttles and drop ships. Even did a hard drop once, now that was unpleasant let me tell you."
"To borrow yet another phrase from she who was my squadron leader – only if they go boom in interesting ways." Inside her helmet, Sakarra tried her very best not to chuckle but her focus shifted quickly when the elevator stopped and the ground crew scattered to clear the way.
It never ceased to be an exhilarating sensation when engines sprang to life, humming with restrained power, ready to fly loose. In perfect unison with her craft, the Vulcan tensed ever so slightly with joyous anticipation and as always, her breath and heartbeat seemed to echo loudly in the sound of the engines.
Gently as an autumn leaf picked up by the breeze, the Valkyrie rose off the deck and lazily turned towards the slowly unfurling shuttle bay doors.
"And yes, there is in fact. The controls are situated to your right."
=/\= To be continued … =/\=
Brevet 1st Lieutenant Brent Warren
Marine Commander
Lt Cmdr Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helm
USS Charon
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