Lieutenant jg TK Cabrillo - Race trickery
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((Gamma Glider, Starting Line, Denali Invitational))
TK grinned and leaned his head back again to reduce the throbbing. He quite strangely found himself rather enjoying this little expedition but wasn’t sure if showing this side of himself was very smart or if he simply just did not care anymore. Too bad Nijal was not here to enjoy in the fun, she surely would have kept TK in line or maybe she would have been pouring the drinks herself.
Promontory: Alright, alright. Look sharp. ::pointing to an indicator light beyond the dash viewscreen:: They’re about to give us the go-head. We don’t want to be last off the line.
Cabrillo: ::chuckling:: Last off the line isn’t possible. Not with the babies we put in the Glider.
Hartmann: I guarantee we won’t be last.
Promontory: Last checks, the signal’s counting down!
TK checked the impulse manifolds and the intercoolers. Everything was showing green and ready for a hard push. The race would start in moments and then the real work was going to take place.
Cabrillo: Everything is green across the board. Hartmann, lets show these armatures what a real racer is.
And just like that, they were off. The ship initially exceeded the capacity of the inertial dampers off the line and the small crew were pressed into their seats. They were anything but the last off the line and, in fact, for the first few moments, they were in the lead.
A gaggle of ships quickly caught up, but only a few of them clustered by the Gamma Glider near the front of the pack. In fact, only the Caitian vessel and the—wait, was that a Type 6 shuttle?!—were ahead of them. The Foxy Lady had caught up to them and it appeared that Avander’s old roommate was waving at him through the windowpane.
Avander shook his head and focused on his own vessel's ops. Things were looking smooth. But, wait, the sensors were registering something. A build-up of energy from the Vela and now something else as well.
Hartmann: What the hell!?
Promontory: It’s the Caitians—their ship has ejected something.
Cabrillo: Hartmann, get us in front of the Foxy Lady, I can then dump the secondary injectors and give you a 15% boost for 30 seconds. ::looking over his should to the flight team:: Kind of like an adrenaline kick.
Promontory: No, belay that! This stuff will destabilize our engines, we can’t risk opening the throttle here or we’ll never be able to purge it out.
Hartmann: What is that shit?
Promontory: ::reading:: Kryptilithium. (beat) That stuff will mess you up.
It looked like the other ships were being similarly affected.
Vomek: =/\= Foxy Lady to Gamma Glider. How you doing Uncle Roger? You ok. Over there? =/\=
Hartmann: =/\= Doing better than you are! =/\=
Vomek: =/\= I just wanted to make sure you were ok. You're driving pretty fast for an old guy. =/\=
Hartmann: =/\=Why don't you turn that autopilot off so we can see how bad you are?=/\=
Cabrillo: ::grinning at Hartmann’s comment while focusing on his controls and trying to purge the debris from the intake manifolds::
Vomek: =/\= No, we're fine over here. How are you guys? Fun time right? =/\=
Hartmann: =/\=It’s going to be even more fun for us when we win. See ya.=/\=
Hartmann muted the channel and pivoted to the others in the cabin.
Hartmann: The first leg is easy, just flying by the city. Should be a pretty view.
Hartmann: =/\=Hey, where are you going? Quitting already?=/\=
TK looked over to see the Foxy Lady taking a upward climb. Whatever their strategy was it might payoff getting out of this tight nit pack of racers.
Vomek: =/\=Response=/\=
Cabrillo: Maybe they are looking for some breathing room?
Promontory: It is a pretty crowded field.
Cabrillo: Almost finished flushing the engines but that crap is hard to get out.
Hartmann: Response
Promontory: Just keep ahead of the pack, we can’t afford to get anything else in our engines at this rate.
TK pushed his sunglasses up over his nose with his index finger and paused as the engine readouts still showed some fluctuations that he could not account for. That debris must have caused more irritation to the engines than he knew.
Cabrillo: That hairball the Caitian’s threw at us are still causing issues. Can you compensate for the power fluctuations up there while I work on this debris issue?
Hartmann: Response
Promontory: Compensating for the power fluctuations. (beat) How’s that?
The power started to level off but it was not were they wanted it. TK was a bit frustrated at this point and his pounding head was not making the situation any better.
Cabrillo: Not enough, I have a 2% fall off still registering in the port engine. ::beat:: I have half a mind to wing walk out there and phaser that crap out.
Hartmann/Promontory: Response
TK looked back over his shoulder to the front and his grin disappeared.
Cabrillo: Don’t tempt me bright boy.
Hartmann/Promontory: Response
TK’s fingers dance across his console as the other two team members handled their respective tasks. The Caitian hairball had been some nice little race trickery but TK had some influence over the engines after all and smiled as he managed to clear the last of the debris from the intakes.
Cabrillo: There, that should be all the debris. How’s it looking up there?
Hartmann/Promontory: Response
Tags/TBC
Lieutenant jg TK Cabrillo
Engineering Officer
USS Oumuamua
T239901JK1