Impulse Burn (Part 2)

Posted on 28 Feb 2014 @ 10:29am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Alfred Rayne & Ensign K'os Beaumont & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Chief Petty Officer Lyras Ueda & Petty Officer 3rd Class David Emerson & Crewman Ash Rowe & Vincent Kramer Ph.D.

2,709 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Sol System - Earth Orbit
Timeline: MD 57 - 1135 hrs

Previously, on Impulse Burn (Part 1)...

K'os grinned, and tapped on one of the shuttles shown on the display and it brought up details and highlights a spectator wouldn't get simply by watching out the window. Velocity, trajectory, and various other readouts of the shuttle's status. He did these for a couple others. With another tap he brought up Padua's exterior cameras to show images as well. "Check out the paint job on the Ostillo!"

Kramer looked closer at the display and saw the unusual markings for that shuttle, "They have totally changed its appearance. Is that allowed?"

"I don't know," K'os said restudying the brilliant choice of colours. "It's beautiful though."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Shuttle Galilei

Hearing the command to form up at the starting line, Lamar looked down at his nav console and quickly set a course to SB-001 where the race would begin. "Alright, looks like we're almost starting. We should be ready to go in just a couple minutes," he informed Cameron, then engaged the ship's impulse engines with a few taps on the controls which sent Galilei on its way from low Earth orbit to a higher orbit next to the massive Stardock Class space station.

After a few short moments, Lamar cut the engines on their craft and lined up as ordered at the starting line, then turned to Cameron. "Want to let the pace shuttle know we're ready and standing by?"

Nodding in agreement Riley leant against the comm with the heel of his hand and opened the comm channel.

=^=Pace shuttle this is the Galilee aka today's winners - we are ready to get underway. =^=

Closing the comm, he looked back to his co-pilot and shrugged before powering up the rest of the ship's systems.

"Doesn't hurt tae be a little certain of our chances eh Mr Darius?"

The support craft pilot chuckled and smirked at the engineer. "Can't say I've met a pilot who wasn't confident. Sort of goes with the territory, you know?" He stretched his arms out in front of him and cracked his knuckles in preparation for hours of tapping on the helm controls. "I think we got this race locked up. Only ship that could catch us is Galileo and she's lounging in drydock."

"Aye and I made sure the Warp core was sleeping like a baby before I left! Let's get this thing going."

Riley stretched his hands out to the control panel and powered up the primary drive systems, backing them up with the secondary systems that were ready to step in a moment's notice for an extra boost of power, and more importantly speed.


Shuttle Livia

Allyndra smiled as she heard Lamar's confident voice.

=^=Livia here, I agree let's fly, but unfortunately we are today's winners.=^= Allyndra called after hearing Lamar

Keval turned to the doctor, "I agree, time to get this show on the road as they say.

Allyndra shut the comm down. She turned to the Keval and said, "The race is not always to the swiftest off the line. We are going to be doing impulse only and a fair stretch for those engines. On my world long distance flying is not to those who try to prove themselves but to those that know how to pace themselves.

Everything looks good, but suggest we keep them at ninety eight percent. That will keep them cool and then once past the asteroid belt we can make a sprint pushing them. Let everyone else burn themselves out early."

"Excellent idea, Doctor. I like the way you think. You know I really want to win this race or at the very least beat beat Ellsworth Hudson."

"Then the Twins be with us." She said and traced a quick motion in the air.

"Amen," Keval replied.


Team: Ostillo

Lt. Rhodes got a confirming nod from his pilot and activated the comm, =^= Shuttle Ostillo and crew are ready. =^=

The shuttle eased up to the standing line in space next to the other shuttles. It really stood out among the rest by the unusual flat black finish with the brightly reflective comet on the side.


Shuttle Virginia

Dea had piloted their shuttle to the start line. "We'll give them a good race. Its all in fun." Listening to the banter she didn't say anything. "I'll need you to help monitor our progress by each checkpoint so we can alter course if needed."

Emerson nodded to Dea. "First leg is pretty straightforward, nothing really between us and Luna. Same with the Run between Luna and Mars. Asteroid belt will be a good place to get some lead as everyone will have to scatter." He grinned. "Once we get close I'll run some scans of the asteroids. We get a couple of real dense ones we can use those to boost our speed. Little geology to the rescue."


USS Padua

=^=Now now, save some of the competition for the actual race.=^= Asahi chuckled, wiggling in his seat. =^=Everyone's ready and set?=^= He didn't wait for a response, powering up the pace shuttle and readying it for a quick get-away. "Doctor, would you like to do the honors and see us off?"

"Off where?" Olsam asked, tilting his head slightly in question. "You mean fly the shuttle? Or tell them they can start? I'm not very good at either one. Is this the thruster control?" He motioned to the panel controlling the phaser array. "Do I just tell them to go? I'd imagine so, let me just..." Hand hovering over the phaser controls, then the life support and finally the comm system, he activated the channel to all shuttles.

=^=Okay, um, you guys can go now,=^= the Bolian said meekly. Seeing none of the shuttles moving, he examined the panel and realized he'd only activated the internal comm system. He quickly corrected his error and then spoke too loudly. =^=SHUTTLES READY... GO!=^=

K'os started clapping applause, but very quickly stopped when he was the only one to do so. Embarrassed, he continued to study the racer's positions.

"That was quite appropriate, I'm not certain as to why you stopped." Nearby, Lyras offered a gentle smile to the young man. "I do believe the race will call for more of it."

K'os looked over at Lyras and blinked as if only seeing him for the first time. As was typical for him in larger gatherings, he tended to filter out his surroundings and focus on the task at hand. In this case, it had meant he completely overlooked another Vulcan-Human hybrid. He smiled warmly at the other man, "That's good, because I don't think I can help doing it again." He laughed and moved closer to everyone else on the shuttle. He was about to say something else when the holo projection showed the shuttles starting the race.

Kramer watched out the viewport of the runabout as the 5 shuttles raced off out of distance. "There they go." He stated the obvious. "How far behind do we intend to remain?"

"Not that far. I'm not a tortoise." Asahi grinned, winking back at the dark-haired doctor. "I just don't want to get in the way of all these egos."

"Woo!" K'os yelled and clapped his hands. "Look at them go!" He tore himself away from the holo projection and glued his face out the viewport next to Kramer. He tore his attention away long enough to shout over to Asahi. "We should follow." He laughed then returned his attention back out the viewport.

It may have slipped the mind of the elder hybrid to even think there were others on the shuttle even remotely like himself. Lyras wasn't the type to mention his blood to anyone anyway; the small amount he had tended to go relatively unnoticed. However, his attention seemed to be on the energetic young man, as if a proud father watching his child.

"Don't you worry about us following." Asahi rubbed his nose, hands on the controls. "They aren't that difficult to keep up with. Buckle up everyone."

There was a seat in the forward area, so Kramer decided to remain where the action was.


Shuttle Galilei

Hearing the Bolian give the go signal through the comm, Lamar wasted no time and quickly tapped the large impulse 'engage' button on his LCARS controls. "Here we go..."

Galilei's impulse engines glowed bright red as its exhaust manifolds opened up all the way, and a rush of vented plasma burst from the rear of the craft as the shuttle shot forward through space at high velocity on it's way to the moon.

Inside the cockpit, Lamar could feel the inertial dampers struggling to keep up with the extra engine power Cameron had diverted, and several Gs worth of thrust pushed them both securely back into their seats. "Oh yeah, that's the shit right there! We're cooking!" Lamar called out to his co-pilot with obvious satisfaction at the burst performance they were getting.

"Impulse manifolds are at maximum output! Boosting to 105% rated maximum and readying the emergency transporters...ya know, just in case we screw this up!"

Cameron shouted back, manipulating the controls in front of him to maximise the deuterium flow into the impulse drive whilst trying to enhance the responsiveness of the helm. If they were going to win, it was going to take some skill.

"Give that a kick Mr Darius! She'll shift now!"


Team: Ostillo

As the two pilots waited intently for the signal to start, Theron brought the impulse engines into a cyclical despoliation sequence, where the engine were feeding off of themselves, yet at the same time recycling the energy. They would be able to launch at a great rate of speed. Inertial dampeners were set to full to compensate for the burst in speed.

Ash looked across to Theron with a grin, the energy shining in her blue eyes as the adrenaline started pumping. Oh, she missed racing. =^= Hold onto your hats, boys! =^= she called to both Theron and across the comm as she slapped the consol into power, letting out a whoop as they pushed into action.

When the signal was given, the engines were engaged. The small black shuttle blasted forward with great speed, leaving a cloud of deuterium in its wake. The Ostillo raced through the emptiness of space above the massive blue and white ball, which fell behind quickly as they headed toward the moon.


Team:: Virginia

At the moment Dea was in a fully competitive mode. Giving everyone a good race and pushing her pilot to improve happened to be her main goal. Despite being the Second Officer and the Chief Flight Control Officer, nothing was being held back today. Dea flew the shuttle with the skill of not only an experienced pilot but someone who'd been a fighter pilot at one point in her career. Easily adapting to higher speeds and using it to her advantage. "On course for first checkpoint," Dea called out.

Emerson glanced over the board at the sensor readouts. The Virginia was not first off the line but she wasn't the last, middle of the pack was a good place to start. "Interesting." he mentioned as he watched the sensor readouts of the other shuttles. "Galillei is burning deuterium like nobody's business. They're going to burn out the manifolds if they run that hot for too long."


Team:: Livia

Several of the other shuttles leapt off the line. The race was on but she had already calculated that the position of the station and if one moved a few degrees to a side there would be a LaGrange point. A small asteroid had been trapped there for a bit and Allyndra had calculated that if one just skimmed by it the even minor gravity would put a little extra boost by slingshot effect without having the engines at absolute full power.

Her hearts beat fast, and she wanted to feel the rush of being in the lead but had to remind herself that this was a long distance race, keep the others near but keep a reserve as well. She feed the information to Keval and then already turned to analyzing the next leg of the race.

"Keval, I have a course laid in for the moon. There is a small asteroid currently trapped in LaGrange point one. It has not been taken out yet by Fleet. We swing in really close we can use the minimal gravity to boost us a little while saving the engines for the final sprint."

"Really?" he asked, his good antennae curling forward slightly. "I looked over that route a dozen times and I didn't notice that. That should give us a nice advantage."

"Yes, asteroid survey picked it up just a couple of days ago, but because it is in a LaGrange point they have not bothered with it yet. You can thank bureaucracy for that little gift."

Allyndra already figured that almost everyone else would use the Earth's moon to sling shot out toward Mars as well, and then use Mars to the Asteroid Belt as well. The Belt would be where a lot of this race was won or lost as the dodging would sort the pilots and navigators skills out.

"Perfect! On course!" She said excitedly to Keval.


Team Pisa

Alfred glanced at Alexion and gave him a nod, "Ready Doctor?" he asked as the race countdown began.

"Nerves touching air," Alexion assured with a smile, looking across to him with an arched eyebrow and confident look.

" Stand ready on the initial boost to the impulse engines, 4 or 5 second after we start will be ideal as the engines should be fully warmed up. "

Alexion gave a sharp nod, following his instructions as he looked ahead and visualised the first few minutes of the action.

As the countdown approached zero Alfred pressed the acceleration button and held it ready to release it and begin the race when the start signal was recieved. He smiled slightly to himself at the non-standard setting he had modified for the shuttles start, it was a throw back to some darker and more dangerous time. It had proven to give a small but valuable advantage to the Akira class ship he had first served on, he didnt know if it would work the same on this shuttle but he hoped so. As the signal chime came through the shuttles internal speakers and he released the acceleration button and the shuttle began to quickly reach full speed with a familiar jolt.

Alexion clicked his tongue, chuckling softly at the unusual start, adjusting with it as he looked to the view screen for a sense of place for a few moments before back to the controls. He missed the more intuitive flight control of his own people. The mild vibration felt both right and comforting as they pushed forward, making it all seem so easy. "Here we go...."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

WO Lamar Darius
Chief Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Saalm]

CPO Keval Grayson
Operations
USS Galileo
{PNPC-Jared}

Lt. Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USSGalileo

Lt. j.g. Min Zhao
Asst Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

LT. Asahi Kita
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO 1rst Lyras Ueda
Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Shi]

CN Ash Rowe
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

WO Alexion Wylde
Doctor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 K'os Beaumont
Matter/Energy Specialist
USS Galileo

WO Riley Cameron
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Holliday]

Vincent Kramer
Science Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Rhodes]

LTJG Olsam Mott
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Theron Rhodes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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