From: Jerome McKee (parakeety_at_hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Apr 27 2007 - 08:35:51 PDT
"THE BITTEREST PILL"
(Continued from "Flying Blind")
---------------------------------------------------
Location: Starfleet Academy
Stardate: [2.7]0427.1630
Scene: Holodeck One - in use
Solomon watched approvingly as Cadet Varn's fingers danced over the LCARs
displays. The young pilot had reacted quickly and efficiently, following
standar procedures and doing the best he could under the circumstances.
Deciding that he'd seen enough, Solomon made a note in his PADD and tipped a
wink at Heath. "Computer - deactivate wormhole and replace with a level two
asteroid field." Instantly, the enormous wormhole winked out, and the main
viewer was full on onrushing giant rocks, all bearing down on the Runabout
like beagles on a fox.
Not batting an eyelid, Thomas inputted a hasty command. Solomon felt his
stomach lurch as the shuttle banked sharply to the right. The cadet's brow
furrowed as he concentrated his attention between the main viewer and the
localised sensor scans. "Activating main shields!" he reported.
"Why?" asked Solomon.
"What?" spluttered the cadet. "In case we get hit, sir!"
Heath was clutching his seat's arm-rest as the shuttle dipped again, this
time to the left. Solomon watched the young pilot intently. "What is the
maximum roll angle of a Danube-class runabout shuttle?"
"Forty degress, sir!" snapped Thomas, eyes flitting like birds between the
main viewer and his screens. A large black asteroid, pitted and pockmarked
with surface impact craters, loomed up out of the space ahead like a
wrecking ball.
Solomon calmly leaned over and deactivated the impulse engine. "Computer -
simulate multiple systems failure. Retain enough power for life support and
thrusters only." He watched Thomas' incredulous reaction. "You'd better
think fast, Cadet."
Heath was grimly watching the sensor readout. "Asteroid is nickel-core, four
kilometres in diameter, displacing half a million metric tonnes. It'll turn
us into paste if we hit it." He smiled dryly.
"What am I supposed to do with only thrusters?" asked Thomas. "I need
impulse power to maneuver!"
"Range is two hundred kilometres and closing," reported Heath.
"Do you?" asked Solomon. "Aboard a starship in at red alert, you will not
have the luxury of predictable operating conditions. Did you know that over
four thousand Starfleet personnel were killed last year in the line of
duty?"
"One hundred and fifty kilometres, Cadet." Heath sitrred the pot.
"Remember, this is only a simulation. Just holler if you want it turned
off." Solomon added the sauce.
Thomas looked out at the giant rock hurtling towards them, tumbling over and
over in its endless Newtonian spiral. He steeled himself. "No, sir."
Thinking quickly, he began inputting commands into the remaining control
console.
Suddenly, the lights went out, and they were plunged into darkness. "What
are you doing?" asked Solomon.
"Diverting life support to the shield generators," said Thomas quickly,
explaining while he worked. "They'll only be active for a few seconds at
best, but if I can use the thrusters to move us at an angle against the
asteroid's magnetic field, we might well bounce off it and clear its path."
"What makes you think it has a magnetic field?" asked Solomon.
"The nickel core," said Thomas simply. "Firing thrusters!"
The shuttle lurched again, upward. The asteroid fell away from the main
viewer as the small craft angled away from its oncoming doom.
"Seventy kilometres and closing fast!" called Heath.
[[Warning. Collision imminent.]] The computer's maddeningly calm tones
seemed to be like a death knell. Sure enough, the asteroid reappeared, much
closer now, reeling them in like a fly on a spider's line.
"Thirty kilometres!" called Heath again. "Whatever you're going to do, do it
quickly!"
"It's not working!" shouted Thomas in frustration. "I just don't have enough
power in the thrusters!"
The asteroid filled up the screen - they were close enough now to see inside
the individual craters. The shuttle began to shudder, caught in the small
but potent magnetic field of the giant rock.
[[Warning,]] intoned the computer. [[Hull temperature exceeding design
limits. Breach imminent.]]
Helpless and hopeless, the three men inside the shuttle watched their
virtual doom rising inexorably to meet them. Suddenly, everything winked out
- the shuttle interior and the starfield in the main viewer dissolved,
melting in a shower of particles, to be replaced by the stark
black-and-yellow holodeck grid matrix.
Solomon tured to the young pilot. "A good effort, Cadet Varn," he said
slowly. "You thought on your feet, and your effort to save our lives was
founded on a good idea. However, the object of the simulation was *not* to
die - I'm sorry, Cadet, you have failed Advanced Command Training."
Thomas was shaking his head. "Not enough power in the thrusters - I could
have sworn..." He looked numbly at his instructors. "It *should* have
worked! If I could just get another chance at it, another attempt, I'm sure
I - "
"There are no second chances at this level, Cadet," said Solomon. "Return to
your dormitory. You'll be given a short period of leave before being
assigned to the fleet as a junior officer." The young man opened his mouth
to protest again, but Solomon cut him off firmly. "That's all, Cadet. You're
dismissed."
Dejected, Thomas Varn turned and stalked away from his instructors, head
down. It was all over.
-------------------------------------------------------------
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NRPG: And we all know why he failed, don't we?
JUSTIN: Your next post (assuming it's accurate enough) will the last of your
training and should also be the longest so far. In it, you should have more
than one scene - you're going to have to have Thomas figure out a way of
finding out what went wrong, how to right it, and how to convince his
instructors. Once that's done, the computer will recalculate his attempted
maneuver and determine that the shuttle would have been saved - thus, Thomas
passes his simulation. Remember what I told you about time indexes and
changing Locations.
There are new punctuation marks in this post - these are not, of course,
correct in general grammar, but we use them in the FRPG to denote certain
states of tone and inflection. Observe:
[[Warning. Collision imminent.]]
"However, the object of the simulation was *not* to
die..."
We use the [[ and ]] parentheses to denote speech that is heard, but the
speaker cannot be seen. Examples are when using communicators and
interacting with the computer. It doesn't apply if two people are in
darkness, though.
We use the {{ and }} parentheses to denote speech that is heard, and the
speaker is seen but not standing in front of you. Examples are when speaking
to someone via a desktop terminal or on a main viewer.
Asterisks * placed at the beginning and end of a word denote emphasis on
that particular word, like italics in normal grammar.
See? Simple.
Try to incorporate one or two of the above examples into your checkout post.
Jerome McKee
the Soul of Captain Michael Turlogh Kane
Commanding Officer
GATEWAY Station
the Soul of Lieutenant Solomon Arn
Senior Instructor
Starfleet Academy
"He speaks an infinite deal of nothing!"
- Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", Act 1, Scene
1.113
"Futile is resistance. Assimmilated you will be."
- Yoda of Borg
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