What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Shorter

Posted on Mon Nov 28th, 2022 @ 3:54am by Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Ensign Asami Inoue & Chief Warrant Officer Mara O’Sullivan & The Narrator

2,278 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Song Of Silver Wings
Location: Holodock 1, DSRV 201 Training Sim
Timeline: Before Launch

The USS Icarus lay a thousand meters below them, wedged into a chasm cracked through the rocky surface of an asteroid. It had come down at an angle, gouging silvery furrows into the sides of the fissure before its long keel had snagged on something and jammed into it into place. One nacelle was missing, or it could be bent up and under the saucer section.

As if on cue the holographic feed flickered, washing out in time with the violet glare of the neutron star that was the system's primary. The rapidly spinning lighthouse of charged particles quickly rotated away, but it would be back in minutes. Each blast was an energetic bombardment of hard radiation and solar white noise that blacked out a lot of the rescue crafts systems. If it happened at a pivotal point in the rescue could spell disaster for the crew of the rescue ship, and the USS Icarus below.

The tight confines of the crew bay, just aft of the narrow cockpit module, did nothing to help the mood. As a training sim went this was less of a 'familiarization' flight, and more a 'curve ball with a live photon grenade'. At least the holodeck safeties were on.

Or should be on.

"Site and perimeter are secure," Suda reported. It was simple enough to confirm, but nonetheless, it was a vital part of the operation and perhaps his sole dedicated task.

"How can you tell?" came a voice from the ceiling. The three glowing eyes of the FELINE that had found a perch amid the overhead displays and conduits looked from the holographic display, and then back to Suda. "With the proton wash from the neutron star, traditional signal tracking has become erratic. At this point, I would surmise the visual scan of the area on optical is more accurate than other sensory inputs."

"No shit, you talking night-light," Suda snapped. "I used my fuckin' eyes to determine we're clear, and I will continue using them to assess the situation and watch for threats as they present. Unless you're rated for Security and phaser-certified, then how about you shut up and let me do my job?"

Silently soaking up the horrifying ambience of the scene from his place in said narrow cockpit module, Fox pushed past that first stomach turning fear for the folks who'd be inside the Icarus if it was real rather than a simulation. Would they be alive...? Where the hell was that robo-cat?! Didn't matter right now. Focus. He took in the scant information he could glean from the fritzing holo-feed and spent another moment seeking timing and rhythm in the cosmic carnage of radiation and noise. Then he checked his harness and his gear, and switched off the holographic interface.

"Gonna need some extra eyes up here," Fox said without turning his head. "Cos we're operating without instrumentation." Wouldn't be the first time, though this was definitely the most expensive set of pretty lights he'd ever turned off. "Promise I'll try to be gentle. It's only a kilometre down," he added, cheerfully.

"Prep skydive configuration for EV suits," Suda said. "Just in case."

Squeezing her way around the others in the tight and yet some how open space, Asami slid into the co-pilots chair. Reconfiguring the console to display both flight and sensory information she continued to try and work on the ship's sensors to try and get a more accurate read on the situation for them and the Icarus. "Sensors are definitely scrambled all to hell... but with all the solar radiation I might have an idea..." She wasn't sure it would help or even really improve their chances but the idea of trying to navigate a debris field with just their eyes was exactly ideal.

"I would be intrigued to hear your supposition," the FELINE said from its perch, turning its turret-like head back to look at Suda. "I am phaser certified, as are all FELINE models. I am a learning computer system, and through interaction with my assigned team my performance will improve. Your comments have been filed for later data base assimilation."

Suda had quickly put the FELINE out of mind as soon as he had scolded it, so it took him a moment to realize it had been talking to him. "Does this damned thing have an off button?" he asked no one in particular. "If not, it's getting tossed out first."

"I am vacuum rated, and my fission carbon battery has an expected lifetime of four hundred and eighty-nine years. But to answer your question, I do not possess an off button," the FELINE's head cocked to one side, and then it pulled it back into the overhead ductwork. The little skittering sound of it making its way through the overhead was unnerving, to say the least. "Proton burst wave will align with us in approximately eight minutes. All complex unshielded computer systems will be down during the waves passing. If we remain here we will need to commit to another orbital period before attempting another landing."

"I won't be able to get the sensors fully operational in Eight minutes, or probably much at all..." Asami glanced out at the ship below them.

"We won't need them," Fox said. He focused on the DSRV, the sense of it around him, the dimensions and specs that he'd spent the previous night studying in detail. He tried hard not to think about the damn cat-bot talking at Suda, though the sound of its voice was hard to ignore in the confines of this small craft. That then paled into insignificance when the furless mech leapt up into the roof space. Ice shivers pricked the pilot's skin at the thought of where the cat might be, and he did the only thing he knew how to do.

Move.

"Strap in," ordered Fox, and he forced full control to his console then switched almost all the sensors back off. Just the basic old school 'proximity alert' remained. "I don't need the distraction. We're going down," he announced. "If the Icarus can fit down there, so can we."

Shields up. Then a steady nose dive straight down with a slight nose uptilt so that he could visually see either side of the prow.

"I need not remind you, pilot, that when the proton wave washes over the asteroid the surface will become unstable, possibly allowing for explosions of trapped gases beneath the surface." the unnamed FELINE reported.

"Then we'd better hurry then, hadn't we?" Suda groused at the felinoid.

"Fast and furious it is," stated Fox, sending them into a steep, fast downward dive straight for the Icarus's port side. He matched their descent angle to the safer (non-gouged) side of the far bigger craft and adjusted as needed based on any proximity squarks assailing their ears. "Elevator to hell. Going down!" He whooped to anyone who didn't already have their fingers in their ears.

The rocky surface of the asteroid raced towards them, and in the viewport, the Icarus loomed ever larger. This close, and coming in on the less damaged side, it was easy to think of the ship as in dock. A holographic icon appeared on the hull, highlighting the docking port set into the hull.

Asami let out a little woop as the ship suddenly accelerated and decended into the extreme gravity well of this asteroid. A bit of excitement. Surprise and fear mixed in as she felt the ship's inertial dampness strain against the fluctuating g forces. Doing her best to adjust to the movement Asami shifted herself forward trying to call out any potential bits of loose debris which could cause them trouble.

Time had felt like it slowed as they dipped, ducked, dived and dodged in and around the asteroid to get to the Icarus. For all his bravado and annoying tendencies Fox was a good pilot. Arriving with barely a scratch to the hull, the DSRV settled into a comfortable holding pattern near the stuck vessel.

More cautiously now, executing a full visual survey with the old Mark One Eyeball Technique, Fox brought the shuttle in right up close to the Icarus' hull and slunk in sideways towards the inviting icon. He tried communications with the Icarus itself first. "Daedalus Shuttle to Icarus - anyone home?" Then scanned the docking port with any optical systems that felt like working in this proton heavy wash zone to see if it looked safe to connect with.

The comm-link remained open, fizzing and popping with the echoes of distant stars.

"The hull is still radiating thermal energy from the ship's life support system. It either means life support functionality ceased only recently or is still on going in emergency backups," the unnamed FELINE said from the rafters.

With its skittering feet quiet and furry frame out of sight, the disembodied voice was somehow less horrifying. "So they're alive," Fox noted, optimistically and mostly to convince himself. Simulation or not, he needed to believe that.

"Minor power fluctuations from within the hull of the Icarus..." Asami reported. Sensors were still scrambled all to hell, but a signature as large as Icarus was going to cut through most interference. "Main power is off line.. i can barely read the backups... At least Near-field comms are available but are currently all locked out by command crew override... even the Emergency Channels?" Asami glanced at the kore senior officers. Emergency Channels werent supposed to be able to be locked out. Someone would have had to reconfigure the main computer to do it.

As they got closer the ship shook and one of the shields began to fluctuate in and out of phase. Hands flying across her console Asami quickly silenced the alarm and rerouted power to the downed shield sector. "There is a... huh weird..." Asami trailed off as she read though her limited sensor readings. Realizing she left the others hanging she blushed and continued. "There's a electro-magnetic static charge on the hull of the Icarus, enough so that the hull is coated in a fine layer of asteroidal dust which seems to be amplifying some kind of disruption effect. "I recommend polarizing the hull plating so none of the dust gets attracted to the DSRV when we dock.

"Shields are still up?" Fox's certainty shifted to a question as he replied. "They'll handle it... unless you think they won't." He looked to Asami, then followed up decisively, not hearing any alerts now the Ensign had re-routed. "I'm gonna risk it. Docking with the Icarus," Fox confirmed, and barring anything else going crash, bang, or pop goes the weasel, he gently slapped shuttle hatch against ship access port and proceeded to run through all the relevant manual safeties. "Checking internal atmo," the pilot confirmed, as the two craft aligned and readings transferred between their two airlocks. He really wasn't liking the sound of a command crew override on emergency channels - didn't make any logical sense - but that didn't make it any less of a problem.

"Ready to open hatch, Commander?" Fox asked, looking over his shoulder to the bigger ranks behind him.

"Point-breach ready," replied Suda. He knew his role. The leader never went first, and he didn't trust these gonks to go first.

The inner hatch opened and would have revealed the universal docking adapter with its smart matter collar ready to attach to the outer hull. But instead, it showed the corridor outside of Holodeck 1. And open the deck before it, the glossy black and composite-shelled menace of Morpheus.

The captain's FELINE, ad de camp, and general evil little shadow.

"SAR-1. Congratulations on successfully docking to the Icarus. I am encouraged by your ability to work together," the little vile mechanism stated. "Your metrics could use improvement, but as a whole, that is acceptable for biological beings. I am sure you will improve somewhat."

Suda fired his weapon at the condescending, little cybernetic homunculus. The shot dissipated at the threshold to the holodeck, but the sentiment was no less satisfying. "Didn't I already improve your face with the bottom of my boot?"

There was an audible laugh from the helmsman, but Fox didn't interrupt the cat-bot's response. Long as the damn thing stayed out there, all was good.

"We look forward to seeing those improvement metrics increase in the coming days, no matter the hardships of character that might appear. Alas, this training session must be cut short, as department-level briefings have been scheduled for Flight Operations and the Science Team," Morpheus intoned gravely.

Fox looked from one Lieutenant Commander to the other and back again to land with MacArthur and raise an eyebrow. "Look forward to the feedback, boss," he said, keen to have something to work with and improve on. "We meeting here, or we headed out?" He asked, hoping they had another chance to run the mission before too long.

"My ass is hitting the shower," Suda announced. "Anyone has anything to add, put it in my inbox."

Distinctive snickering echoed through another FELINE at his feet.

"Shut the fuck up, Finch!" the Andorian snorted as he gave the cat-bot a swift kick.

"Were it so easy," Morpheus said dryly, before wandering away with the feline disregard for social norms.

"Who the fuck is Finch?" asked Fox, as he backed away from the cat-bot and let Suda take the lead in leaving the holodeck.

"I think we have a ways to go with that group..." Mara commented dryly under her breath as she and Javi wandered off in the opposite direction from which the team had gone.

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