From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Aug 22 2008 - 01:21:32 PDT
=SPF One-Billion=
(cont'd from "Familiarity")
LOCATION: BAD WOLF
SCENE: Cockpit
STARDATE: [2.8]0822.0119
Raxl took a moment to evaluate the last few days of his life. They hadn't exactly been pleasant- he'd gone from being stiffed on payment for the last contract he'd completed to getting thrown into a detention cell for three days, all because he'd gotten an offer he couldn't refuse. And he'd even managed to turn all that around and pull of a particularly entertaining bit of cleverness, by staging a faux bio-terrorist attack on the very people who'd imprisoned him. He'd even managed to capture his bounty in the end, and finally it looked like things were turning around. Then, as far as Raxl could tell (which, he had to admit, wasn't exactly proof-positive, especially since his current predicament prevented him from investigating it any further), Budo Pumbular had detonated some kind of secret device in the BAD WOLF's engines, sending Raxl and his bounty in an out-of-control spiral towards the heart of a sun. And to top it all off, for some reason, Raxl
suddenly had a craving for a BLT sandwich.
Dying makes you think about strange things.
"What are we going to do?" Anders wailed, on the verge of panic. Raxl gave him an incredulous look.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?!"
"It's *your* ship," Anders said. "You could at least *try* to do something!"
Raxl's mind was racing, trying to come up with options. In truth, he didn't have any... the BAD WOLF was too small to carry an escape pod, and the engines were far too damaged to resist the gravity of a sun. The rest of the ship's systems seemed to be working fine, but shields weren't exactly that useful against millions of degrees of heat...
**Shields...** Raxl thought. An idea began to form in his mind. It was a long shot, of course, but given his luck over the past few days, he'd gotten used to this sort of thing.
He sat down at the controls, restoring as much power to the engines as he could, and did his best to guide their descent towards the sun. He couldn't *stop* the pull, but if he timed it just right, he might be able to control their fall, skirt the outer edge of the sun rather than plummet straight into its core. If he gave the shields enough power, and then got very, *very* lucky, it just might work.
"What are you doing, Dreyton?" Anders complained from his seat.
"To be honest, you'll probably just feel worse if I tell you."
"What do you mean?"
Raxl activated the engines. Their descent into the sun became faster now, and Anders realized it quickly. His eyes widened.
"Are you *insane*?!"
"Maybe I just want to get it over with quickly," Raxl said, managing to sound nonchalant even in the extreme circumstances.
"*You* got me into this, you idiot!" Anders yelled, struggling against his bonds. "You've killed me!"
"Tell you what," Raxl said, glaring at him. "If this doesn't work, then I'll let you go. How's that sound?"
Anders didn't answer. Instead, he clenched his eyes tightly shut and gripped at the edges of armrests. Raxl quickly poured all available power into the shields, then did what Anders was doing... although he made an attempt to look more manly while he was at it.
-----------------------------------------------------------
LOCATION: GATEWAY Station
SCENE: Promenade
"It won't be that bad, Jake," Stephanie Ferrell laughed as the two of them strolled leisurely down the Promenade.
"Are you kidding?" Jacob Crichton asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's my *parents*, Steph. It'll be like I'm being investigated by Starfleet Intelligence 24 hours a day."
"I wasn't aware you had Grand Inquisitors in your family history," Stephanie grinned.
"That's because you've never met my mother," Crichton shook his head. "It's like she has cameras secretly installed all over the quadrant. I can't sneeze without her calling up to say 'god bless you'."
"So you *are* planning to introduce me when they drop by?" Stephanie asked coyly. Crichton coughed nervously.
"I... don't know," he said. "I mean, they won't be here for another few weeks."
"And?"
"Are you... I mean, are we still going to be... whatever it is we are now?"
Stephanie shrugged. "I guess that depends on what we are now."
Crichton sighed. "When we met, the station was obviously under a lot of stress. *We* were under a lot of stress, with the Dominion blockade and everything. And then we went, I don't know... *weeks* without seeing each other. And now, with a war on and those mirror-guys attacking the station and all the craziness..."
"You're wondering if I think what we have... if we have anything... is for real?"
"I guess so," Crichton said.
"The way I see it," Stephanie said, stopping to take him by the hands and look him in the eye. "We'll never know if we don't find out."
Crichton was about to ask "What does *that* mean?", but she leaned in to kiss him. He decided to cooperate, figuring that he'd have plenty of time to ask her later.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LOCATION: BAD WOLF
SCENE: Cockpit
Raxl cracked an eyelid slowly. His face felt sticky, and he realized it was covered in a sheen of sweat. Strangely, his mouth felt extremely dry, and for some reasons, his hands ached. He realized it was because he was still gripping the armrests tightly, and gently loosened his grip and flexed his sore fingers.
He couldn't be sure, but he was fairly convinced he wasn't dead. He opened his eyes fully and looked around, and recognized his surroundings. He glanced over at the other seat, and saw Martin Anders, still trussed up in his chair, apparently unconscious.
Raxl cocked his head to one side, drew in a deep breath through his nose, then decided to risk standing up. His legs were a little wobbly, but overall, he felt good. He leaned over and tapped a few buttons on the BAD WOLF's console. The lights on the console sputtered and blinked a few moments, then died. The strain on the shields must have overloaded the shields, Raxl thought. But that was something he could fix... and it was a *vast* improvement over the last few minutes.
But first things first, Raxl thought. He strode quickly to the wall-mounted replicator, and promptly ordered a tuna-fish sandwich and a tall glass of ice-cold water.
But the replicator only answered him with more sputtering and a high-pitched wail that hurt Raxl's ears. He sighed.
Life really wasn't fair.
===========================================================================
NRPG: More with Crichton and Stephanie. The Raxl Dreyton story's pretty much finished, too, but I'll probably have a little more wrap-up in my next post.
Looking forward to the next mission!
Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jacob Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Nov 19 2008 - 03:10:56 PST