The Sky is Falling

Posted on 23 Feb 2016 @ 12:40pm by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Duval

1,746 words; about a 9 minute read

Music Soundtrack: Halo Reach - Long Night of Solace

Chief Petty Officer Anthony Duval blinked his eyes as she regarded the Betaziod woman before him. "So... Gwen, I think this idea is just a little out there.... Orbital Skydiving... what if the chute doesn't open?" before he glanced at the date on his wristwatch which he had replicated for this occasion, it read Stardate: Six oh three nine oh point Nine seven and below that was 05/23/84.

"You worry too much Anthony." she pronounced the name as 'An'tow'nee' as she dragged out the last syllable of the human males name. "Sometimes I love that about you but other times.... you worry way too much."

"I worry a lot because you don't seem to worry at all."

"Anthony, look orbital skydiving is quite safe really." the smaller then average Betazoid woman explained. Gwen Pharris stood in at only 5'2 in height, a far cry from his six foot and change. "really." Gwen added with a smile. "The ship will have us on a constant transporter lock and with all the other ships around. Its not like we're going to be running into battle any time soon."

"Mmmm... I still think its dangerous."

"Oh it is... Well let me put it this way... if one thing goes wrong for any reason, one dies." Gwen was at times extremely brutal in her opinions and thoughts, her need to quench her energy through sports was at times almost endless.

Anthony Duval was far more subtle in his leisure pursuits and he preferred to watch half the time rather then participate unless it was aquatic sports in which case he was the first to quite literally dive in head first. "Why don't you try joining me in the pool for some water sports.."

"I tried surfing... it was a disaster.." Gwen responded.

"You never gave it a chance." the Human male smiled. "Parasailing....?"

"I never liked heights.."

"That's bullshit woman.." Anthony laughed at the smaller woman. "You're the one who wants to orbital skydive from orbit.."

"I tell you what... " Gwen Pharris regarded the taller male before her. "You come orbital skydiving with me... and I'll dive into the pool with you."

Anthony smiled but then she paused. "Wait... that's too easy."

"Yep... but seriously... you'll be fine. The guys who look after our gear make sure that we will have no mishaps..." Gwen explained. "Its safe these days?"

"Safer then surfing.... Or water polo... At least I can keep my feet on the deck." Duval paused. "Besides... with Aquatics, I don't have to go far. Besides... Poeple like staring at me."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "You seem to enjoy being on display. Something I should know?"

"Prehaps." Duval responded with a smile. "I will have to... tell you later."

Gwen sighed. "Oh alright.." she sighed softly. "So... skydiving then?"

"Yes." Duval responded. "Lets go before I change my mind on the subject.."

Twenty minutes or so later the two were being checked out in their equipment as they were fully geared out before they boarded the shuttle they would borrow for this spacejump.

Chief Petty Officer M'aotoke T'gar who was the conn officer was also doing double duty as the pilot for this hop. "So... you folks ready for this?" the Caitian inquired.

"Oh you betcha" Gwen Pharris responded as Anthony Duval simply gave a heads up.

M'aotoke smiled as she stepped onto the shuttle as she tapped the display before her. "'T'gar to Flight Ops." she commented. "This is M'aotoke." she pronounced her name as 'Mao'Toke'. "on shuttle eleven,. requesting permission to launch."

"Shuttle Eleven, this is control... precision granted." came the response as she turned her head. "We're ready to go folks..." the Caitian addressed the two armor clad people behind her in the back area of the shuttle.

Gwen Pharris smiled under her armor. "Lock and Load..."

Anthony Duval added. "Jacked up and good to go."

M'aotoke T'gar sealed up the shuttle as she got the shuttle underway as the shuttle exited the hanger as the view of the planet came into view as the hanger quickly vanished before she sealed the cockpit section from the back section. "Guys. I am venting the atmosphere from back there..." the Caitian explained as she mentally counted to thirty before she proceeded to do exactly that.

"Approaching launch site." the Caitian female smiled before she brought the shuttle to a stop in low Algol II orbit. Gwen reached over as she tapped the 'open' button with her gauntleted fist, the hatch opened in silence as the light went from red to green.

Duval sighed softly as he turned and walked out of the shuttle, he felt a nausea-inducing wave of acceleration then what came was a disorienting sensation of weightlessness as the planet slowly rotated over his head as he looked down, all was silent as she spotted Gwen moving above her relatively speaking.

"Tau Two to Tau One." came Gwen's voice. "How are ya doing?" she inquired.

Duval raised an eyebrow. "More or less.... this is a hell of a view." as the majestic curve of Algol II blueish green northern hemisphere spread out beneath him, its albedo so intense that the Human male had to squint to prevent himself from being dazzled by the brightness before his suits systems adapted to it. There was still nothing but silence before he watched the contrails begin to steam from his armor plating as he looked over the statistics of her armor, her life support and everything else. "Looks good here.." Duval said quietly.

"You okay?" came the request from Gwen, his friend and flight mate for this hop.

"Yeah... all my statistics are in excellent shape."

"Nice... we're entering the mesosphere.... you'll start to feel like a comet in a moment." Gwen added a moment later.

"Lovely." Duval responded softly. "Incoming.." he added before he looked down at his systems. "Looking for a good landing site... selecting... and selected, routing data to you now." the larger Human fed the data to the smaller Betazoid women.

"Looks good." came the response.

Duval watched the atmosphere thicken as his contrails extended as he watched uneasily. "I should be in the lower atmosphere momentarily." before the Human glanced at the altimeter which displayed his height from the ground, it was dropping like a rock from ninety thousand feet as he looked back up but he couldn't see far as he knew that her companion was nearby but Gwen was above him and higher up from the ground. "Don't pull your chute yet.... wait a little longer."

"When?" Duval responded.

"When your in the lower atmosphere.... whats the weather like at our landing site?"

"Clear and cool." Duval responded. "temperature of about fourteen degrees Celsius and its early evening there." the larger human explained. "I didn't bring foot as we're not staying long." he added.

"You killjoy." came the expected response.

"Yep." Duval paused. "Why do you need to have sex with me on every single planet we visit?" as Duval smiled as he gently powered up her chute. "Approaching forty thousand feet." he added. "I'm going to pop my chute at about twenty."

"Because I like the ambiance of each planet. Its something new. " Gwen's response came back to the larger Human male "Confirmed on your last." came the second response. "Whats your armor integrity?

"Eighty Three percent."

"Not bad... usually it gets into the low seventies or the high sixties.." Gwen's response was troubling. "Can one... burn up, doing this?"

"Anthony... this is a frighteningly dangerous sport... its also good for special forces to go a quiet insertion onto a planet to conduct a mission. " came the unexpected response.

"Lovely... So I'm risking my ass for a thrill" Duval sighed softly.

"More or less.... yes." Gwen responded. "But... you do have such a nice ass.."

Duval sighed softly. "Passing twenty." and with that, he yanked on the ripcord, the chute deployed as he expected it to before he felt her speed cut itself by three quarters, he groaned as he felt the stress ripple through his armor plating before he watched Gwen Pharris shoot past him.

"Pull your chute." Duval commented quietly. As if pointing out the obvious.

"Nah... I'm gonna wait until I'm a thousand feet."

"I can always abort the hop." Duval responded. "Don't be stupid about this..." clearly the Human male was not to be trifled with, he was known for not taking risks with his own safety, let alone that of others.

"Oh alright.. I'm at fifteen anyway... pulling my chute.." a sigh came from the Betazoid woman. "You're serious about aborting?"

"I'm considering it..." Duval responded. "Don't toy with me Gwen, you know better then that..." the larger human growled. "Those who toy with me, do so at their peril.."

"Yeah.... I'm Sorry."

"At least you pulled your chute.." Duval watched as the clouds passed from below him to above him as he approached his final landing site when Gwen's voice came over the com system. "I landed... good location.." came the explanation.

Duval smiled as he braced for his landing and moments later, he landed on the ground as the suits computer began to retract his suits chute back into his armor. Duval ended up on his face being dragged along the ground, he then sank both her hands into the ground in an effort to stop himself from sliding too far, moments later he skidded to a stop before falling flat on his face. Duval groaned softly as he picked himself up before Gwen appeared to help him up. "Easy, you had a rough landing.." as the taller human groaned. "That was.... a heck of a landing.." Gwen sounded impressed. "You had fun... admit it.."

"Somewhat... flying is easy.... landing is hard." Duval responded as he turned to regard the smaller woman who was three quarters of a foot shorter then he himself was.

"But you made it down to the deck.. which is what you wanted." Gwen explained as she tapped her combadge. "Pharris to Clydesdale, we're down on the deck... two to beam up."

"Stand by for transport." and with that, the two starfleet personnel were beamed away, the only records that the two were ever there was the rough landings on the ground itself and those would be gone in days to weeks, in the end there would be no trace, none whatsoever.

[OFF]
Warrant Officer 2nd Class Anthony Duval
Engineer
USS Galileo

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