The End Of The World

Posted on 24 May 2017 @ 5:44pm by Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 08 Jun 2017 @ 2:46pm

838 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Atlirith - Holodeck
Timeline: MD -29 1600

[ON]

Transferring to the galaxy class Atlirith had been good: There was more space, privacy, and a choice between sonic or water showers. It had also been bad. When the Captain had heard about what had happened on the DuJa'Q and her part in it, he had decided to follow protocol, and put the accused mutineer in the brig. But Allyndra had argued, so there was a compromise, she could leave if she was escorted, and for exercise.

This would be the first trip to the holodeck for exercise. The security officer with her agreed to wait outside, which meant she could do as she pleased, and there was only one thing she wanted to do. Needed to do. Dreaded to do.

"Computer. Run a flight simulator for a Nova Class ship. Galileo- 80010 parameters if you have them."

Around her the deck of a Nova class appeared around her, and she walked to the helmsman's station, slid into the seat. Everything was where it should be. She closed her eyes, let memory guide her. She knew this panel. Impulse drives, engaged, external inertial dampeners off, Proximity sensors on, deflector shield online.

She touched the thrusters, and the ship moved forward. So far, so good. She opened her eyes. The simulation was moving through empty space. The Void counted for almost the entire universe. But it wouldn't test what she needed to test.

Miraj took her hands of the helm, and sat for a moment, contemplating the next step. "Computer?" she asked, a trace of wobble in her young voice. "Please change the simulation. Not free space. Ultra High Density debris field. Asteroids, garbage, whatever you feel like."

A moment later the sensors started pinging again and again as obstacles appeared all around them. It was a garbage field, dead satellites, dumped warp cores, broken space ship parts, all floating around. There wasn't much space. She cut her speed to one eighth impulse and inched forward. The ones dead ahead, the ones she could see, were easy enough to avoid.

The helm began to ping. She looked at the proximity alert. There was a shuttle sized lump of debris floating towards her now, coming up from underneath, where she couldn't see it, she resisted the urge to switch the view screen POV. She didn't always have the luxury, especially when there were multiple obstacles in multiple places. She touched the helm, and altered course before it could get any closer, and moved the ship out of the way.

A new bogey pinged, this time moving fast, coming from her starboard side. There were several other contacts with it and as it moved into the group she lost track. Couldn't tell which one was which, and how close it was. A moment of totally alien indecision froze her, and then she made a decision, changing course at the last moment, hearing a clang as whatever it was clipped the nacelle.

She winced, and her heart began to speed up. That should have been an easy dodge. Miraj had to take a steadying breath and concentrated on the next step. Bits of what looked like an old Ambassador class were zipping across her plotted course in random directions and speed. It should have been a walk in the park.

But her increasingly frantic glances at the proximity scanner made it abundantly clear she was in trouble. It was just blobs. She tried to dodge one, and ended up close to it, not further away. She fired thrusters to slip between two pieces before the collided, but when she checked the view screen, the objects were literally miles apart. It didn’t matter what she did, she ended up too close, or too far, and then a dagger of metal forty meters long, and old sub-space repeater, speared out from behind a severed nacelle. She stared at the screen, made her decision on how best to avoid.

And threw her simulated ship straight onto it.

Hull breach klaxons blared, red alert lights started to flash.

“Computer,” Miraj nearly choked on her own despair trying to say the words and got to her feet. “End simulation."

The simulation dissolved, leaving her alone in the bare black room. She sank down onto her knees, unable to stand any longer. “Computer, this room is sound proof, isn’t it?” She asked, thinking of the security guard outside.

“This holodeck is one hundred percent soundproofed.” The calm matronly voice replied.

“Good.” Miraj sat there for a moment. And then she started to cry. All the pain and fear she’d been holding onto since Allyndra’s diagnosis the week before, when she’d relieved her of duty, came flooding out. Her whole body shook with the force of it and she had to lean on the floor with both hands to hold herself up. She cried until she had no more ears left. More than cry. She sobbed, she howled, she screamed. Her world had come crashing down.

[OFF]

Ensign Miraj Derani

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