15-March-2173 (10:42:13)
In dock at Nusku Spaceport. Captain Brierfield has assigned me and Mr. Matthews to a mission. We have orders to board a Florin class shuttle and make a cargo pickup from Ceti-V. It’s a mining rock, about 70 hours from Nusku. I’ve been there before with MacKenzie back in the day (his family is from there). I don’t expect this trip to be nearly as fun (or exciting), but it might be nice if I get a chance to drop in on his folks and some of the gang from the old days.
Duty Report: Loaded and logged the last supply load assigned to me. Security gear stowed and stashed on board the Monarch. Comm, comps and spacer gear packed for mission.
(11:51:17)
Supplemental: Mr. Matthews has asked me to pilot the shuttle! I get to FLY again!
Duty report: Flight plan calculated, plotted and filed. Pre-flight check completed. Liftoff set for 15-March-2173 (12:02:00)
. . . end log
16-March-2173 (16:21:33)
About 28 hours into the trip. And I’m getting to FLY! God, I’ve missed this.
The Florin is a nice little shuttle. Got some speed to her, and even packs a tiny punch. Been getting to know Mr. Matthews a bit. He’s one hell of a navigator. He shaved hours of what I thought was a damn good plot. Seems like an okay guy, too. He’s not military, though. I wonder how he’ll react if things go south?
Duty report: Flight proceeding uneventful and according to plot. Running fire control simulations to familiarize myself with the systems.
. . . end log
17-March-2173 (18:11:21)
Well, the “uneventful” part is over. We landed at Ceti-V, but were slotted for just a quick grab & go. Mr. Matthews helped with the loading equipment and showed me how it worked a bit (Mac would have laughed his ass off at me trying to drive that loader). While we were loading, though, a screamer came in way off approach. I don’t know what got into this guy but he was nuts. At first I thought he’d just lost control, but when Mr. Matthews had me hop in the shuttle and track it, I plotted his approach and saw the he trying a crazy-fast atmospheric braking orbit. After a few circles he hit the surface. Mr. Matthews had me relay all my telemetry to Ceti Control and offer our assistance. We finished our load (to clear the dock; it’s a one-pad port there) and set out with a few volunteers from the dock to attempt a recon/rescue/recover. When we got there, the crash had left a gouge about 3 km long and skipped back off the surface. We tracked the “landing” path and found the craft settled about 10 km farther down. There was no sign of survivors among the debris, and the ship was pretty banged up. But the contragrav was clearly still operational because the ship was floating about 15 meters off the ground. We approached as closely as possible but encountered some serious interference with our gravity thrusters (turned out they had externalized their artificial gravity field to cushion the crash; pretty quick thinking for a nutcase). We examined for a bit, and then Mr. Matthews had the idea to take out their power supply to disable the gravity and let it crash so we could get on board. He pulled up a schematic for me to pinpoint their power plant, and I popped it with one shot from the little laser the shuttle had. Worked like a charm. The ship dropped like a rock and we set down next to it. We went aboard and found the five crew unconscious but alive. We kept them that way while relaying condition reports to the base physician who was en route on the air raft. He got there and did some real patching up, then requested we use our shuttle to medivac everyone back to the port. We did that no problem, and they took them all to sick bay for treatment. We couldn’t wait around for an update, so once everyone said a quick thank you, we lifted off and headed back to Nusku.
It wasn’t the craziest trip I’ve had to Ceti-V, but it was pretty close. And I don’t have to wonder how Mr. Matthews responds under pressure, at least.
And, of course, I’m getting to FLY!
Duty report: Cargo pick up completed. Observed unidentified inbound to Ceti-V badly off-approach and in communications blackout. Tracked and plotted. Mr. Matthews offered to assist Control in recon/rescue/recovery operation. Found vessel badly damaged (possibly Pickett class). Disabled power plant to shut down inverted artificial gravity field to facilitate boarding. Made rescue of five (5) crew. Medivac’d under supervision of Ceti-V station physician. Offloaded at port and launched for return to Nusku.
. . . end log
20-March-2173 (12:06:21)
Made it back to Nusku and the Emerald Monarch today. Got a nice congratulations from the Captain. Mr. Matthews recco’d me, so that’s a nice start with a new ship. I think I’m gonna like him. Also found out that we have a Gunnery Officer on board now, so I made my report to him. Seemed competent and professional, but kind of flat. Doesn’t seem to have a lot of life to him, but he’s my superior officer and I have to report to him (and probably even more so, once we get some weapons). Still haven’t met the Chief of Security.
Man, it was great to be flying again!
Duty report: Florin shuttle returned, cargo offloaded. Reported to the Captain and resumed shipboard duties. Made report to Chief Gunnery Officer. Routine maintenance and diagnostics completed.
. . . end log
