Thorian Hyper Chase

Posted on Sun Oct 25th, 2015 @ 3:12am by Lieutenant JG Ricki St. Louis & 2nd Lieutenant Scooter Porkinsky
Edited on on Sun Oct 25th, 2015 @ 1:35pm

Mission: Blooming Friendships
Location: Archus IV Planetary Zone
Timeline: Normal day shift

[ON]

Having been brought to the Archa solar system boundary by HMS Nightwind, Dr. Ricki St. Louis sped toward the planet Archa IV. From within hyperspace, the engine of her Zig X-1000 space cycle whined as her vehicle tractioned against the boundary of normal space.

Upon closing to three light seconds of the planet, she shifted out of overdrive and dropped into sublight. Now tractioning against the boundary of hyperspace, she switched on her transponder. With her cyber-synapses, she instructed her nav-computer to display harbor traffic lanes.

Rick's entry into starbase would have been strictly routine, perhaps even boring had it not been for one system fighter pilot who decided to play supercop. Newly transferred Lt. Jg. Scooter Porkinsky was flying his first space patrol. His onboard Tac computer flagged a contact which suddenly appeared, and he wanted to investigate. The inbound vehicle's IFF answered correctly, but he wanted a look. In the centuries-old tradition of Earth po-lice officers, he sped in behind the space cycle and followed at a distance of two meters.

Cop or not, Ricki didn't appreciate anyone 'riding her bumper' like that. With a quick jam of the throttle, the little cycle executed a quick juke. Porkinsky's fighter shot past.

Duly embarrassed by a civilian, the fighter pilot jerked hard at the controls into a pursuit. Ricki wasn't transmitting, but she said it anyway, "You're kidding, right?" Happy to teach the bully a lesson, she put her cycle into a hard turn. Traction against the hyperspace boundary gave her vastly superior maneuverability against the fighter's thrusters.

In Marine Fighter control, the sensor operator on duty called, =/Red Six, what are you doing?"\=

With pride mildly stung, Porkinsky replied, "I've got to teach a lesson to a civilian."

The operator closed her eyes and exhaled a laugh. She muted her mic and called to the squadron leader, "Captain Hyden, our new hero is going after a Thorian cycle. You want me to call him off before he embarrasses us?"

The officer leaned over her should to look at the Tac screen, "Let's see what he can do."

Racing away from Archa IV, Ricki again and again juked her pursuer. Inside his cockpit, Porkinsky alternately blasted afterburners and hit thruster brakes. It looked like the cycle was leveling off, so he closed in for the capture. To his surprise, however, it accelerated into hyperspace.

"HAH!" Up to the FTL challenge, he jammed his warp throttle forward. What he failed to appreciate was, the cycle shot into hyperspace like a motorcycle might momentarily jump into the air. It had no traction and wasn't going anywhere.

Ricki's cycle dropped back into normal space just as the starbase fighter's warp envelope formed and shot away at superlight speed. "Mmbyebye."

Porkinsky roared through clenched teeth. He stopped himself from yanking back to sublight. Even if he did that within one second, he'd still be a quarter of a million miles away from Archa IV. "AAAAAH! Okay, NO MORE Mister Nice Guy!" Looping around at warp speed, he headed back toward the blip showing on his Tac screen. "I'll get you!"

Ricki watched the sensor contact race in on her, so she jammed the accelerator toward the planet. She kept her course straight and easy to follow, slicing into the atmosphere. Reentry fire flared before her like a meteor.

Lt. Porkinsky shot in onto her tail. His onboard computer warned, ==DANGER. REENTRY TOO SEVERE. SHIELDS TAKING DAMAGE.== He growled, "My shields are way tougher than yours, little civvy!"

==DANGER, SHIELDS AT 85%... SHIELDS AT 70%...==

The marine flight center made an alarmed call, =/Red Six! What are you doing?\=

Flying his fighter through a stormy reentry, he responded, "My bogey is going to have to break off, and then I'll have him!"

"Lieutenant! The space cycle doesn't use re-entry deflectors!"

"WHAT?"

Ricki revved her engine to near maximum. Driving hard into the hyperspace boundary, a bow wave served to deflect the searing heat.

=/Red Six! That cycle can keep this up until it runs out of fuel!\=

==DAMAGE ALERT!== Porkinsky jerked back hard on the controls, veering off into space. Breathing hard, he focused on stabilizing his power systems. As soon as the alarms settled, he noticed the elusive cycle paralleling two meters off to starboard.

Ricki had closed to see if he was all right. Upon seeing that he was, she slowly wagged her index finger side to side, then arc'd into a hard turn into the opposite vector.

Enraged, Porkinsky vented a long scream.

=/Red Six, you left your mic open.\=

Stung with agonizing embarrassment, the fighter pilot closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He didn't have anything to bonk his forehead against, but he repeatedly bowed like he did.

=/Red Six, do you need backup?\=

Jamming the throttle, he declared, "No! I can handle it!"

In Marine Flight Control, Captain Hyden shook his head with a smile, "Some people are only able to learn the hard way."

The chase hadn't gone unnoticed by ships in the harbor. Klingons in particular picked up quick interest. Sensor operators lost no time in broadcasting the pursuit to screens all over the ship.

Now a man obsessed, Lt. Porkinsky raced back toward the planet at the sensor bogey. It was just sitting there out in space. With a growling laugh, he headed straight for it. "Try to evade me THIS time!"

The Starfleet pilot was actually well trained, although one wouldn't be able to tell it by his current performance. While it was true that no burn-up reentry alarms sounded, he forgot in his anger the most ancient of astronaut fundamentals. Too steep, you burn up. Too shallow... "WHOAH!!!"

Ricki sat watching as the patrol fighter bounced hard off of the atmosphere over her head. "Mm mm MM Mm mm."

The g-forces caused by the hard vector change squashed the pilot. Porkinsky's skin pulled tightly and neck veins bulged as inertial compensators strained against him becoming crushed. Cool, high pressure oxygen blew in his face to keeping him from completely passing out. As soon as he stopped greying-out, he managed to call, "Control, where did my bogey go?"

=/You don't want to know, Red Six.\=

"YES I DO! WHERE IS IT?"

=/Parked right behind you.\=

Startled, he switched to rear view. With no hesitation, he flipped his fighter over to bring guns to bear. At the same time, however, Ricki throttled forward. In the 24th Century equivalent of driving up over the hood of a cop car, her cycle jolted the fighter. In jamming to full throttle, the dimensional traction sparked burn-treadmarks over the back of Porkinsky's Razor. Collision and damage alarms finally settled.

Klingons watching the spectacle pointed to their screens, "WOH HOH HOH HOH!"

With mic muted, Porkinsky roared once again with fury and flipped over. As soon as he had the rapidly accelerating cycle in line of sight, it disappeared. "NOT THIS TIME!" He took a moment to verify that the cycle was actually moving at virtual warp speed before engaging his own warp drive.

Ricki decided that she would cap this lesson by leaving him behind with a maneuver which he couldn't follow. She made a fast FTL loop and then dropped back into normal space, heading straight for the planet. Her pursuer obliged by following.

Porkinsky now understood that he had to stay back, keep the cycle well ahead of him. As the planet loomed larger and larger, he growled with laughter, "I have you now!" Suddenly, the cycle disappeared. "WHAT?" Astonished, he called, "Control! My bogey just committed suicide! It just went to warp into the planet!"

A sullen voice responded, =/No it didn't. Now if you went to warp right now? Yes, that would be suicide. You would impact the planet and be confetti quarks.\=

Decelerating, he shook his head, "Well... where did he go?"

=/Actually, it was a she.\=

He winced as that extra salt rubbed into his ego wound.

The controller explained, =/The cycle jumped into hyperspace. She dropped right back into normal space on the opposite side of the planet and is now cruising to space dock.\=

Now whipped, he whimpered as his fighter's shield generators continued to spark, "That's just sneaky!" He then squinted, "Well, arrest her!"

=/For what? She hasn't violated any harbor protocols. There's no law against embarrassing thrust & warpers.\=

Ricki St. Louis' cycle hummed as it cruised in for a landing. A dock officer stood with hands upon hips, "Doctor St. Louis, I presume?"

She powered off and removed her helmet with a smile, "Reporting for duty!"

"Did we have fun out there?"

"Actually, it was very relaxing." She left her helmet on the cycle and then met eye contact, "I don't like being bullied."

Minutes later, Lt. Porkinsky flew his Razor in for a hard landing in the same space dock. Exhausted and furious, he slid down from his fighter and walked toward the parked cycle with phaser in hand. The driver wasn't in sight, but there was a dock mechanic servicing the vehicle. He ratcheted his weapon setting to maximum, "Get away from that thing. I'm going to blast it into atoms!"

The mechanic took it in stride, "No you're not. If you do, you'll be grounded."

Porkinsky frowned, "Mmh..." Holstering his weapon, he noticed the mechanic filling the fuel tank. "Plasma? You've got to be kidding! Not antimatter driven?"

"Even if you could get an antimatter reactor small enough, you couldn't use it. Containment would fail. Same for point singularity. It has to be plasma."

"Don't Thorians know how to generate a stable warp envelope?"

"You can't use that. A warp envelope would isolate you from getting any traction on the hyperspace boundary."

Porkinsky wrinkled his nose, "Plasma... no range!"

The mechanic shrugged, "It's got enough endurance to wear out a racing driver."

One of the dock chiefs arrived. He surveyed the battered Razor with an alarmed, irked expression. "What... the DAYLIGHTS did you to to my BIRD!"

Porkinsky apologized, "I'm sorry, Sir. Line of duty."

With fierce eyes, the chief handed the pilot a force wrench, "YOU... are going to fix it!"

"ME?"

"Yes, YOU." His tone was hushed and threatening, "You are going to strip the airframe and revitalize its integrity! You are going to replace the shield generators that you overloaded!"

"Me? Alone?"

"I tell you what. I'll help you. I'll watch! This is what we're going to classify as a learning experience! And lest you think you can take your sweet time doing it, keep in mind that if Sojourners show up, this will be the bird that you fly, no matter what condition it's in!"

Lt. Porkinsky shuffled off to begin his recreational weekend of Razor overhaul. "Dumb Thorians..."

[OFF]

---------------------
Dr. Ricki St. Louis [P: Steiner]
Lt. Jg. Scooter Porkinsky [P: Steiner]

Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet