Lt. JG Natasha Cole - Acheron Air: Turbulence Guaranteed

[Natasha Schell]

(( Cockpit of the USS Acheron - Ebers System, Balancar Sector, Alpha Quadrant ))

 

Storm: =/\= I think our OPS officer is giving you about thirty seconds.=/\=

 

K'Wara: Make that twenty-eight.

 

Storm:  Is there any reason we can’t sit tight for five minutes?

 

Cole: With how quickly the station’s weapons adapted to our tactics, the longer we wait the … more chaotic my flying will have to be.

 

Vailani: I'm less concerned about your piloting skills and more concerned about the rate of the dilation of the rift. Every second that passes we lose an advantage.

 

K’Wara: Lieutenant Vailani’s right. Every second we sit here, the more likely we lose our window to figure out what’s wrong over there..

 

Storm: Fair point.  =/\= You may want to put a rush on that. =/\=  ::to Cole:: You do some more fancy flying, and I’ll buy you a drink when we get back to the Artemis.  I don’t fancy meeting the Great Exchequer today - to borrow a Ferengi term.

 

Cole: Sounds like a deal.

 

Natasha started her preflight startup, even if they had only sat for a few minutes, better error on the side of caution considering the seriousness of the situation.

 

K’Wara: Alex, what’s the situation outside?

 

Storm:  We’ve got incoming debris from the rift.  This might be the time to make a run for it.  

 

Natasha eased the Acheron out of the airlock letting inertia help drift them out past the airlock doors. As the Acheron drifted free of the airlock, Natasha engaged the maneuvering thrusters to ‘spin’ the runabout on its horizontal and vertical axises.

 

Cole: ::smiling to herself:: I might have to play a bit faster and loose with my maneuvers, please hold onto something Lieutenants..

 

K’Wara: Take us out, Natasha..

 

Maneuvering the Acheron along the course plotted by Vailani proved to be quite efficient, even though it felt like trying to thread a needle in a windstorm.

 

Cole: ::jerking the controls causing the shuttle to rotate towards the starboard side:: Sorry about that.

 

K’Wara: Hey, so long as our shields hold, no skin off of my nose.

 

Storm: Response

 

An alarm blared again indicating the station had a clean lock and the rift was emitting a distortion. Natasha barely hesitated and brought their aft up as she ‘dropped’ the shuttle below the rifts distortion. As the shuttle passed through that area something must have clipped the runabout as there was a soft pop followed by the smell of ozone as sparks flew and a small fire broke out.

 

Cole: Almost out of range, we should be close enough to get some better scans of the rift.

 

Vailani: Let's make it quick, I've had about as much as I care to stomach for this trip. 

 

Lieutenant Vailani began to scan the rift. 

 

K’Wara: Natasha, keep an eye on that rift. Until we know more, we should assume anything can pop out of there. ::playful jest:: Let’s just hope it’s friendly.

 

Cole: Will do, let’s hope it’s gentle.

 

Storm: Response

 

Vailani: I'm seeing several surges of -

 

The shuttle seemed to explode in a series of alerts, deafening metal on metal, and screams. Natasha had been slammed forward knocking the air from her lungs and what felt like a cracked rib. 

 

K’Wara: Ugh! ::rubs head:: Report! What did we hit? What’s going on out there?

 

Cole: ::taking a pained breath:: oww, getting the engines back online.

 

Storm: Response

 

Vailani: We're caught in the rift, whatever that was, it came right for us. We're experiencing multiple system failures. Shields at 32% and falling. 

 

K’Wara: Divert power to the engines, Lieutenant. We won’t sustain another impact like that. Natasha, get us loose! Alex, have you got eyes on what impacted us?

 

Cole: Working on it, Sir.

 

Natasha got to work on routing power from the Acheron’s warp drive to it’s engines. She wouldn’t be able to sustain it for very long or risk burning out their only means of escape. She shuddered at the thought of how much PADDwork that would involve.

 

Vailani/Storm: Response

 

K’Wara: Yes and no... I don’t think the Acheron is the defining factor. The rift’s getting more erratic the closer we get... Like... It’s defending itself?

 

K’Wara rushed to the sensors, aiming the sensors directly into the rift.

 

Cole: Sounds like, haste is of the utmost importance then. I am redirecting power from the warp drive to the engines should give us the boost we need, but I’m going to have to do this in bursts, or I risk burning both out.

 

Vailani/Storm: Response

 

K’Wara: It’s not the rift. It’s something on the other side. It’s- Oh, we’ve got incoming!

 

Cole: ::pushing the engines for a quick burst:: oO Come on you stubborn shuttle move! Oo

 

While it felt like they were now sitting still a giant chunk of metallic debris was slung across the Acheron’s viewscreen. Close enough that the impact felt like a nudge rather than a smack.

 

Vailani/Storm/K’Wara: Response

 

Cole: That was a little too close for comfort.

 

Vailani/Storm/K’Wara: Response

 

Cole: I’m going to push the engines a little more this time. I think with the scan’s we found the sweet spot for an escape trajectory.

 

Natasha pushed the engines longer this time, using the scans Lieutenant Vailani was able to gather. The Acheron sounded like it was groaning under the gravitational stresses, when suddenly they found themselves breaking free. Natasha stopped the engines, not wanting to push them any further.

 

Vailani/Storm/K’Wara: Response

 

Tags/TBC

-----
Lt. JG Natasha Cole
Security Officer
USS Artemis-A
Writer ID A240205NC4