SET 017: Rojar VI Moon Charting, "Friend Of The Night"

Posted on 18 May 2013 @ 3:25am by
Edited on on 18 May 2013 @ 11:08am

1,787 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Shuttlecraft Virginia, Rojar VI Space
Timeline: MD9 0833

ON:

A few minutes off schedule, Liyar noted that Maenad was already there as he entered the shuttlebay. "Good morning," he rose the PADD in greeting and gave her a nod before he ducked into the open shuttle, taking the pilot's seat.

"Good morning, Liyar," Maenad said, looking up from her PADD. She was leaning against the side of the shuttle with one of her feet raised flat against the hull behind her.

Liyar knew he wouldn't be much use during the scientific mission. The sum total of his knowledge about interstellar bodies was fairly simple, all things told. Moons were rocks that orbited planets. Thrilling. At least he could still fly. He looked down at their objectives list and began running through preflight checks. His movements were assured, fluidic and confident, far from the early morning that had taken him away from himself. Flying was something he liked to do. It was calming, letting the autonomic part of his brain take over as he placed his own life under his fingertips, control, center, order. He could do that. "Are you prepared to depart?" he asked out of the open side door.

"Sure," she said, still leaning nonchalantly against the hull, watching him mysteriously. She seemed both intent and distant. Maenad pulled her eyes back to her PADD, finished what she was doing and then dropped it against her side. Her eyes found him again, then she used her elbows to push herself away from the shuttle. She moved quickly inside and placed herself in the co-pilot's seat. "It's just us, today," she said to him once he'd sat down at the helm, her tone business like. She might never have spoken to him before in her life. He expression was devoid and disinterested, but she was certainly looking her best. Her face was lightly powdered, rouge on her lips, and blush hidden on her cheekbones. Her hair was sharply cropped over black-lined eyes. "We will be charting the eighteen satellites that make up the moon system of Rojar Six, a class I. It should take approximately eight hours," she explained monotonously. "It should be routine and very straightforward. Most of the work will be automated." She blinked. "Any questions?"

Liyar wasn't oblivious to Maenad's behavior, but neither did he have the patience to comment on it. He knew that if he tried to communicate with her, he would drive her away. It wasn't her, but he'd never claimed to be brilliant at properly channeling his rage. He was losing it. Losing his grip on reality. Neo's words repeated themselves on a loop in his skull, reverberating louder each time. Looking over at Maenad while she was absorbed in something or another, those words were somehow oddly relevant. And incensing, infuriating. He was still riding on the contrails of anger which periodically clipped his mind and charged him with adrenaline. That he felt at all only increased the vicious circle of frustration. Liyar nodded tightly as she spoke. "Negative." The shuttle's doors closed over once she was situated and he directed her attention to the safety strap above her head. "It is unnecessary, but recommended." Preferring to remain unhindered, he chose not to use his own. With the flight checks complete, he powered the Virginia's warp startup sequence and placed the communications headset over his ears, tapping into the shuttlebay control. "This is Virginia. We are prepared for launch."

A familiar, bored drawl filtered through the din as Neo's voice copied. "Acknowledged. You're free to go."

Maenad ignored his request to put on the seatbelt. She put her arms on the arms of the chair, her wrists dangling lazily over the fronts. She crossed her legs and looked forward as Liyar ran the preflight sequences and communicated with the docking master. As he spoke, she glanced over her console from her relaxed position, and observed how chafed the skin around her nails was.

Liyar keyed the shuttle's shield array frequency codes to those used on the Galileo and the Virginia lifted off the deck plating, hovering for an instant in the air of the spacious shuttlebay before rocketing forward through the forcefield that protected those inside from being sucked into space. The shuttlebay doors closed behind them, and then they were off, a tiny pinhead against the vast backdrop of space. He laid in the most direct course for Rojar VI and the shuttle slowed down, suspended in space and time, before disappearing in a flash of light as the warp engines engaged. On the glass terminal in front of him, a small circle with directional buttons was overlaid at his right hand, while a trajectory map sat at his left, and he made small adjustments to the left until he was satisfied that the simplified warp burst would take them to where they were going without further intervention. "We will arrive at Rojar VI in approximately ten seconds."

When Liyar burst the shuttle out of the rear of the ship, Maenad felt herself jolted against the chair. Her head jerked backward into the headrest, but the inertial dampers compensated within seconds, making it impossible to tell they were moving at all. She turned her head and gave him a critical glare, but he didn't seem to notice. She raised a hand to the side of her head and fixed her hair, silently sighing to herself. She replaced her hands on the arms of the chair, like he weren't there at all, and rolled her foot from her ankle until the shuttle came out of warp.

In no time at all the shuttle emerged from subspace just as quickly as they entered. Liyar switched the controlset to manual impulse, charting a simple descent downward. The large purple ice giant took up most of their viewscreen, painted vivid streaks of blue, white and lilac. "Which moon do you wish to survey first?" Liyar asked.

Maenad stared intently at Rojar VI. Her eyes widened, and she uncrossed her legs as she leaned forward to get a better view. "Wow," she whispered. She turned to look at Liyar, who seemed totally nonplussed, but she didn't care. "Take us to the closest moon, Liyar," she told him without looking at him.

Liyar angled the shuttle to take the planet's farside, a longer journey than they could have taken, but it had the benefit of giving them an in-depth, close-up look at the planet's vibrant, incandescent presence. Liyar gave no impression that he noticed this at all. They broke out of visual range some time later and Liyar directed the shuttle forward. Once they approached the moon, Liyar began the aerocapture process. A short while later the shuttle was safely tucked into a high orbit. "Hyperbolic trajectory established," Liyar said calmly.

"Acknowledged," Maenad said, tapping several commands on her console. "Beginning an active scan of the moon's surface, sub-surface, and atmospheric compositions." It would take several minutes to complete. She sat back in her chair again and crossed her legs. She looked sideways without turning her reclined body and studied him for longer than just a glance. She returned her eyes forward and pressed her lips together. Her fingers picked at the arms of the chair for a few seconds longer, then she broke the pounding silence by asking "How's your arm?" without looking at him.

He rose his hand and wiggled his fingers experimentally. "Operational," he answered dryly, turning his head to face her as he spoke. He noticed that she was wearing a disproportionate amount of make-up, he believed it was called. More than their prolonged and isolated mission together warranted, although he wasn't complaining. It had an interesting effect on her features, he thought. It was nice. He blinked, shaking his head, and returned his hand to the console to monitor their flight path.

Maenad caught him shaking his head after she met his eyes when he looked at her. She looked insulted. What was his problem? He rejected her when she tried to help, when she had almost died of worrying, and now he was upset at her for asking how he was doing. "What?" she demanded.

Liyar arched an eyebrow at her. "I am not upset," he said, perplexed by the maelstrom of feelings being flung at him. "Your appearance is different than usual."

She held his eyes for a long moment, trying to comprehend just what he meant by that. He was shaking his head at her appearance? He disapproved of her? What did he care what she looked like, and why was it making her so angry? "And this bothers you?" she continued. She had since turned her chair more in his direction and had sat more upright than before, making herself appear taller than she was.

Liyar's other eyebrow joined the first and his chin pointed downward to the side. "Not remotely. I am simply curious. The only other times I have seen you wear such pigmentation have been at or after typically social occasions. Does it bear any significance?"

Maenad narrowed her eyes at him, tilting her head downward. "Well," she began sharply, "you were shaking your head, and usually that means you disapprove. Maybe you should..." she stopped herself; he knew the last time she'd worn makeup? Her lips met as her face turned into a blinking frown, and she turned her chair to look out the viewscreen. Why did he remember that, she wondered. Once more, she treated him as though she was the only one on board. I have an eidetic memory his words replayed in her mind. That's all it was. She was being delusional, once again. "Maybe, Liyar, you should take a few more lessons on body language with Mister Athlen," she suggested, though considerably less scolding than before. She conveniently avoided the question about the significance of her pigmentation.

"It would be irrational for me to disapprove of your personal habits," he replied in a perfectly logical tone, ignoring the obvious jab. He then turned back to the instruments in front of him. "The initial scans are complete."

"Yes," she agreed. Maenad sat forward and looked over the scans. They showed a very dead and very uninteresting place. It was one giant rock. Geologically inactive, no atmosphere, not even bacterial life. It was frozen solid, too, with a highest equatorial temperature of -75 Celsius. "Take us to the next moon," she said with a sigh.

TO BE CONTINUED...

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer, SSC
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

RSS Feed