Ensign Josh Herrick — Wild ride, wild parking charges
Mark P
((Shuttle York - Hurtling towards the Esh-o
colony))
Josh’s knuckled were bright white as the shuttle
as he gripped the console in front of him. His eyes had been fixated dead
ahead, watching the show unfold. It had been less than a month since his last stint
in Sickbay; though, he may not need to work about another lengthy stay with how
dire the situation was becoming.
Kel: ::smiling at Herrick:: First shuttle crash ensign? Congratulations, this is a rite of passage for most of us. Hang in there!
The younger engineer’s gaze broke and turned towards the doctor, and then surveyed the rest of the crew. Even as the shuttle was blazing through the atmosphere, the rest of the officers were model Starfleet officers: calm, focused and ready to take on whatever was coming next. He took a deep breath to regain some composure and attempted a joke.
Herrick: (shakily) They should add it to the Bingo, sir.
As the chief sat in one of the jump seats in front of him and buckled in, he realized he hadn’t yet secured himself. Not cruising for a bruising, he put his restraints on and tightened them.
As the shuttle continued to descend, the lights flickered. Checking the panel, he confirmed that the chief had been correct — the fuel line damage had progressed rather quickly, and with the engines being the primary power source they would soon be on emergency backups.
Then, the world seemed to slow. Josh felt himself slide forward, followed by a sharp dig around his shoulder as they did their job — keeping him in place while the shuttle slammed into the landing pad. The cabin filled with the horrific screech of metal scraping against metal as it slid several meters. Then, the world sped back up. Alarms rung in his ears, and small fires had broken out but the shuttle was managing to keep the air relatively breathable.
Anton yelled towards anyone who could respond.
Richards: Is everyone alright?
Corelli: Why are you yelling?
Kel: Mostly Good here, Ensign?
Herrick: Yeah… um, I’m good, sir. Nothing broken at least.
Even though the light had been dim, they had been bright enough to create a reflective shine from the wiped blood smeared across Anton’s forehead. As the doctor moved reflexively to treat the security officer, his restraints held him back.
Kel: ::wincing:: That's gonna leave a mark. Hold still Lt. Richards
Richards: :: wincing:: I’m fine.
Corelli: You're
not fine. I'm an engineer, I know fine. Arm chopped... fine. Transmographied
into a crystal being? Fine. Leaking? Negative. Not Fine. It's in the
specification.
Herrick:
::adding to the peer pressure:: Let’s just make sure it just looks worse than
it is. Better safe than sorry, sir.
Kammus helped the rest of the team members collect themselves, then climbed his way towards one of the storage lockers on the port side. Fighting with the latch, he opened the door, and removed a rather large and bulky case.
Corelli: Here you are, Doctor.
The case must have been damaged in the crash, for at just that moment, half of sickbay spilled onto the floor, and rushed towards Anton's feet. The slight tilt of the shuttle helped move the items down towards the bow.
Kel: Objects seem to have shifted during our flight.
He bent down and scooped up a dermal regenerator and made his way to Richards. He put the regenerator up to the man's forehead.
Kel: ::to Richards:: Kindly hold this here Lieutenant.
Richards: Response
Kammus smiled, took the last sip of his cold coffee, and raised his cup towards Anton.
Corelli: Relax, you'll be –
V'Len searched the floor for his tricorder and, finding it, began to scan Richards. It appeared he had managed to avoid a concussion. He took back the regenerator and continued to wave it across Richard's forehead.
Kel: Give me 2 more minutes Lieutenant. Would you like a hypo for the pain?
Richards / NPCESH-o 1: Response
Corelli: Is the shuttle stable enough to open the hatch?
Josh released his harness, and tried tapping on several nearby panels. They were flickering, but unresponsive. He grabbed his tricorder from his belt and completed some broad scans.
Herrick: It looks
like were not going to fall off a cliff, we seem to have landed in their
arboretum in a relatively fixed position.
Richards / NPCESH-o 1: Response
As the doctor finished off with Richards, Herrick
continued to take readings. He noticed the life forms were making their way
around the shuttle; primarily Esh-o. Their muffled voices were carrying through
the hull into the shuttle.
Herrick: It looks like we’ve attracted some attention from the locals but, ::looking at his tricorder again:: they don’t appear to be armed. We were originally going to deal with the higher ups, but now we’re about to get mixed up with the locals. Is that going to be a problem?
Richards: Response?
Corelli: Didn't they ask for help? They already know we're here, and deal with warp civilizations all the time. Prime Directive is not applicable in this situation, as I understand it. ::Kammus paused for a moment:: Well, open the door? Josh, lets see if we can get some stable power....
Josh and Kammus opened panels on each side of the rear of the shuttle but it was clear restoring main power was going to require more delicate work on the fuel lines. Instead, they worked on getting the emergency release to... release. The mechanisms were hard to pull, a signal that the shuttle was now solely operating on emergency backups. After some hefty tugging, they were finally rewarded with a hiss.
After a few seconds, the pneumatics failed and the door fell swiftly into the landing pad with another shrill metallic crash. It didn’t take an engineer to figure out that the York was going to need quite a bit of love if they were going to get it space worthy again. Looking back up, their gaze was greeted by a number of observers gawking at them.
Kel: ::looking between Corelli and Herrick:: are we going to be able to fix that door?
Herrick: Well, nothing motivates an engineer like a clock… so (unconvincingly) yes?
Richards / NPCESH-o 1 / Any: Response
In the crowd, several people were unceremoniously pushed aside. As the alien got closer, it looked to be a Zet from Ephemeral the working class; the only contrast on his gray skin were 6 pitch-black eyes.
Sechts: ::shouting sourly:: You can't park that here!
Kel: ::looking at Anton:: He's got a generous definition of parking.
Richards / Corelli / NPCESH-o 1 / Any: Response
Having shoved his way through the crowd the Zet shook his fist at them and Richards moved to the front of the group.
Sechts: This pad is administrated by Kareg Vel Grade Seven Associate of Sub-division 71 of the Mining Guild. He ::emphasizing he:: He reports to Pitorian Keg'Lars'Shmi' Krenic.
Josh hadn’t heard of this ‘Krenic’ before but given the way the man was tossing the name around, it seemed to be an intimidation play. He held back, seeing how the senior officers would handle the situation. V’Len and Richards seemed to be observing the situation.
Richards / Corelli / NPCESH-o 1 / Any: Response
Sechts: ::growling:: If you're going to leave this heap here you need to pay. Otherwise it's forfeit to the Mining Guild.
V'Len turned around and regarded the damaged shuttle. Josh suspected he was trying to determine if there was anything salvageable left that the Zet could get their hands on. It wasn’t worth the risk of letting the Zet get any further edge in this community.
Richards / Corelli / NPCESH-o 1 / Any: Response
Sechts: Payment arrangements can be made via your TidBitter™ profile. ::shoving dated PADD toward Richards::
Josh caught a glance of the PADD over Richards shoulder, and his eyes bulged a bit. The list of charges seemed to add up to an exorbitant amount — if he was reading it correctly, they were being charged by the minute at a premium that would make a Ferengi weep with happiness.
Herrick: (quietly) Do you think the head of the colony is in on this?
Kel / Richards / Corelli /
NPCESH-o 1 / Any: Response
Tags/TBC