Ensign Paarus Zalbac - An object in motion, stays in motion.
Lucas Peterson
((Racepath, Amity Protosystem))
After the pause was lifted, Ceciri immediately punched back into the race. At the end of the course were several alternating switchbacks of varying lengths. The idea behind this feature of the course was to provide pilots who had better skills the opportunity to gain a more favorable position. Speed was not the only way to win this race.
Ariadust: Keep an eye on that eddy forming.
Paarus: I see it. ::tapping some controls the console:: The eddy has a counterclockwise rotation but the rotation is fairly slow at 42 RPMs.
In racing theory, you had a few simple but difficult rules.
Attack the inside (the shortest path) dead on.
Choose the simplest line.
Never lose more speed than you have to cornering
In space, this became more challenging. The line was often a plane, with how you exited the corner vitally important, especially in a technical course where you could "drift" by manipulating the Impulse field and using the thrusters.
.oO I hope she knows eddies have a tendency to wobble Oo. Eddies, like other space phenomena, weren't always fixed in space. Sometimes they changed their position, or wobble, a few meters in any direction based on the forces at work. On his many trips between Earth and Bajor, Zal had got to know the various eddies to avoid. Usually, staying well clear of them was no problem. Here on the race course, they would be closer than Zal felt comfortable. Looking down at the console, he calculated that their current speed and trajectory should be enough to get them by the eddy easily.
Ceciri had narrowed the lead to be near Kato and Wylam fighting for the lead when they entered the final four turns, close hairpins due to the persistent and strong turbulent eddies by the interplay of the sun and a forming large gas giant relatively close by. The thing was, this is where the relative weakness of her drive system failed to be a weakness.
oO Ceciri really is a skilled pilot. Oo Zal couldn't help but be proud of his friend. It was a thrill to see her work and do what seemed to come naturally to her.
Ariadust: I see the line! Hold us steady and prepare to load shift to full aft imbalance!
Paarus: On it! ::tapping more controls:: Giving you extra power in... 3... 2... 1... NOW!
Zal felt pushed back in his seat, a strange sensation when inertial dampeners should be swallowing most of the G-Forces. It was a sign of just how powerful the drive was and the Ensign made a quick mental note to recalibrate them once they got back to Amity. In a few seconds, they had gone from a distant third to a very close second. Zal grinned as they closed in on Kato's ship, forgetting all about his bet with Kansatsu Sha.
Paarus: We're going to make it! I think I can give you a couple more gigaquads of power... ::making a single tap on his console:: PUNCH IT!
Almost immediately klaxons blared warning of an imminent collision. The computer alerted Ariadust and Paarus that inertial dampeners were offline and they felt it. The runabout was careening off course as they quickly lost their original trajectory. Ceciri worked frantically to try to correct their pitch but the runabout was already starting to roll.
In the commotion Zal had slapped his head against the console and was bleeding and slightly confused as to what was happening. He had meant to dump the kinetic energy from the last turn into the engines and boost their speed around the last turn. Looking down at his console, it appeared as if he had instead opened the EPS manifold without properly calibrating for the flood of ions. The EPS conduits were fused and flush with plasma. The port nacelle was hot and the starboard nacelle appeared to be burned out. oO Oh Sh*t! Oo. They were in trouble and venting plasma.
Ceciri's piloting of the strained runabout was now sending them into a wilder and wilder roll, with only one nacelle properly working.
Ariadust: Set RCS to Max Auto! Emergency shutdown all drives! We're still on an impact vector for Amity at this rate, assuming we don't overshoot into deep space.
Paarus: ::frantically punching controls on his console:: I can't. The computer is not responding.. attempting to manually activate it now.
Max Auto RCS, otherwise known as "Let the computer save us", was a setting designed to stabilize rapidly spinning shuttlecraft. And unlike the previous, it allowed very high g forces even after the inertial dampened. High enough to inflict serious casualties. It also was a tacit admission you needed that reaction time. It was never something you wanted to hear.
Ariadust: Brace for impact! I'm engaging the tractor beam.
Paarus: Manual override has failed. ::he stated in almost too calm of a voice:: Impact in 10 seconds.
The g-forces were causing Zal's head to pound. It made it hard to concentrate on the task immediately at hand. The Bajoran was in way over his head and had no idea what was next on the list to remedy the situation. He was close to passing out but trying as best he could to maintain his focus and listen for instructions in the chaos of the cabin.
Ceciri activated the tractor beam just as they passed the station which immediately stopped their spin and forwards motion. However, due to Newton's first law of motion, both Ceciri and Zal kept their inertia and both slammed into the consoles. Zal heard a sickening crack from the direction of Ceciri. He had braced himself against his own console and was thrown over it as the runabout came to a stop and lost consciousness.
It took less than another second for the routine to detect neither was conscious and one was critically injured and sent out the automated distress signal.
End Scene
