Lt. Commander V'Nille - Skipping Ships
Renée Chalfant
(( Bridge, Derelict Vulcan Ship, Plummeting Towards the Surface ))
V’Nille hummed and considered what she was being told while looking at the console that was still taunting her with this ship’s imminent demise. Minimal, if that, power for a few thrusters on a well-aged generation ship that was, at best, partially intact with the almost convincing facsimile of function.
V’Nille: Go for it. Worst case scenario, we need this ship to avoid any population centers because I have the feeling our host wasn’t gracious enough to include that possibility in its calculations.
Grallator: Understood, Commander. I’ll attempt a manual EPS shunt to the RCS thrusters. If the relays hold, we can nudge the ship’s vector away from anything resembling a population center. If they don’t hold, well… we’ll be providing the planet with a very large, very ancient lawn ornament.
Xiron: I am reading power to the thrusters. They are not in standby condition; inertial dampeners are online but badly out of calibration. This will be a rough ride, Commander.
V’Nille watched the two engineers attempt their workarounds. She took a deep breath at Xiron’s comment.
Ada: At least this ship is old enough to have seatbelts. Looks like we'll need them.
V’Nille: Ah, seatbelts. Always worth having when you’re doing an uncontrolled landing, I suppose. So, Lieutenant, what you’re saying we have half a chance of it working?
Grallator: Commander, I am reasonably—well, let’s say optimistically—certain we can nudge ourselves… I mean, the ship… back into a stable orbit. ::he squinted at the console, which immediately began blinking at him in a tone he did not appreciate; one firm smack and it thought better of it:: There. Controls are responding again. We’ve got just enough fuel reserves to make the burn, but it’s a one‑shot deal. If it works, we’re heroes. If it doesn’t, we’ll be atmospheric confetti. No pressure.
Xiron: Once we do the burn we will have no control over where the ship impacts on the surface. We could do a shorter burn and impact in their
The Caitian glanced at Ada. She was being unusually quiet, considering the moment.
V’Nille: Let’s make it happen. Try to get us out of the atmosphere, at least.
Grallator: Well, the console isn’t working. In fact, it’s doing the opposite of working, which is plotting. And I don’t like the way it’s blinking at me.
Xiron: Mine too, Commander. We lost it. We lost everything.
Ada: What? No, no no! We can't--we have to fix this. I... What if we get back to main engineering and try to fire the thrusters from there. Or we could vent drive plasma to make a crude jet. Or...
V’Nille: There’s no time to run the distance to engineering and, honestly, I suspect that thing took part of engineering with it.
The silence and inaction were almost farcical to the frenetic pace she had been working at. Though her hands were still she was working through the problem in her head. Their options were getting more limited by the second.
Xiron: It has to be an interface issue. It was working. Grallator, check your PADD what was the last scan of the console? Maybe we can use your PADD as a replacement for the controls. Bypass the controls systems like earlier except now we are plugging the PADD in.
Grallator: Response
V’Nille: Keep trying. Cannabilize any equipment you need except your suits.
V’Nille watched the view turn increasingly charred and orange as the ship started hitting more than the fringes of the planet’s atmosphere. She felt helpless, almost, and she hated it. There was nothing here that she could do with her hands outside of whatever the minds more suited to this task could ask of her. There was nothing to shoot, nowhere to run, and nobody to hunt.
Grallator/Xiron: Response
Ada: Lieutenant, have you ever skipped stones across a pond?
V’Nille blinked slowly at Ada. Stones? What about stones made them skippable?
Grallator/Xiron: Response
Ada: Stones! Throwing a rock into a pond makes a splash, but if you get the angle just right, you can skip it across the surface of the water. We can skip across the surface of the atmosphere, just like old Earth ships did! It could buy us an orbit or two around the planet, and more importantly, time.
V’Nille: Oh! That’s what you humans call it. We’re a bit past the surface of the atmosphere, but I’m game to try anything at this point. Lieutenant Xiron, is it doable?
Grallator/Xiron: Response
Ada: We need to get our nose up, and the ship parallel to the direction of the orbit. Can we do that?
Grallator/Xiron: Response
She nodded decisively at the other two’s answers.
V’Nille: Make it happen. It’ll buy us time, at least.
oO It might also lead to this ship disintegrating with us on it, but we’re focusing on the positives here today. Oo
Ada: Each orbit is about 90 minutes. That's a lot more time than ::she turned to look at the worsening visage of the viewscreen:: breaking up in the atmosphere.
V’Nille: Which is likely either way. Grallator, Xiron, get those thrusters burning. Ada, run the numbers and let them know what interval we need to set the burns to achieve this … stone skipping effect. I’ll see if I can get the helm controls on my PADD at least, the way you got engineering on yours.
Grallator/Xiron/Ada: Response
V’Nille didn’t wait long before she knelt down below the helm console and started looking for things to rip out and force a splice. Every Starfleet cadet took basic engineering and operations classes that would hopefully get them through a pinch like this. It wasn’t going to be graceful or kind to the machinery but by claw or by fang, she was going to get this thing to fly, damnit, even if it was more like a broken brick than a ship at the moment.
First, the wires directly to the console were ripped out, stripped, then fashioned into a crude plug that better resembled what was compatible with a 24th century PADD. Then she removed a part of the PADD to give it direct access, replicating the screen that was formerly on the console. Confronted with the device’s computing power, whatever was left of the ship’s computer had no choice but to give in.
She had access to the controls now. All that was left was to plot in the course. A shockwave rumbled its way through the hull, reminding the Caitian that time was limited.
V’Nille: Got controls! Pointing the ship up. If this ship has anything resembling a structural integrity field, boost it to max power along with the thrusters. Redirect all power to just those systems. What’s hull integrity at? And how far up am I pointing this thing?
Grallator/Xiron/Ada: Response
V’Nille growled out a short curse in Caitian, the hissing serving as punctuation as she put in the commands. For a scant few moments, she held her breath as she felt the telltale vibrations of the ship trying to play an ode to its long held purpose of travel among the stars. Its last breath was all too brief in her mind, but she could tell it tried valiantly. A scant minute or so of weightlessness later, the ship shook again. The Caitian grunted at the impact, then again when a long groan from the ship suggested something broke.
V’Nille: That was skip number one. How are we looking?
Grallator/Xiron/Ada: Response
V’Nille: I’m trying to plot something resembling a course here, but your guess is as good as mine about what happens next. We’ve bought ourselves a bit more time. Let’s start looking for any other solutions we have. If it’s falling apart like this already, I don’t think it’d do well with the Chin’toka’s tractor beam but that is on the table, now that I think about it. Destroying it will just scatter debris over a wider area, but also an option as long as we get off first.
With the two most destructive options on the table, V’Nille hoped the other three had better ideas. The safest outcome, in her mind, was either stable orbit or getting the ship to the ground in a way that minimized damage to either the planet’s environment or its people.
Grallator/Xiron/Ada: Response.