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Posted on Tue Apr 21st, 2020 @ 7:03pm by The Narrator

693 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: S2:1: Good Will Gunboat Tour
Location: Flight Pod, USS Traveller
Timeline: MD1: 1530

The modifications were...extensive.

Most of the dorsal hull plating had been removed, revealing the bare space frame now clad in a lightweight poly-alloy if only to keep some of the internals minimally shielded. Both of the wing pylons were gone, and the nacelles had been carefully removed. Both antimatter fuel pods had been swapped out for a single power cell, which meant everything except a single self-powered phaser canon was offline.

The impulse drive was in place, though given the fuel constraints it was best to think of it as an impulse motor: on/off were the new throttle settings. And it stood on its launch cradle, held up with docking clamps because even the landing gear had been removed.

"That thing only counts as a space ship because of something vaguely more advanced is at the Smithsonian," Keil's second in command said as he walked out with her towards the 'Scarcrow'. "The Ares IV lander was a big hit when I was a kid, riding down with that Serbian mission commander towards Utopia Planitia. Really felt like you're riding in a ration can through 10'000 degree plasma."

"You don't need to upsell it any more," Brynna said with a wry half-smile, although she didn't turn to look at him. Instead, she stood with her arms folded over her chest as she stared down at the thing. "I'm already excited." Never had anything been said more deadpan than that. "Remind me of how long I have till we see if I die ignominiously in this thing."

"Hour or so," he said, taking in a breath of the chilled air. He turned sides ways slightly, to share his commander's confidence. "I'll have the rest of the Squadron on ready status. Anything starts looking funky, we'll have the Manticores' out towing the entire Squadron to you in a minute flat. Those Reka fliers were fast, but they fold up kinda pretty with a phaser bolt."

She nodded, still staring at the ship--if it could still be called that. "They do at that," she agreed. "But you don't come out for me unless the captain gives the word. I'm not going to have any of you nor anyone else on the ship put themselves at risk for me on a lost cause, you copy?" Now her dark eyes slid sidelong to him.

"Five by five," he said with a smile."Though performing a QSD jump into the atmosphere of a gas giant isn't exactly risk-free either. Literature there, it's been done before but still...we miss and jump into the metallic hydrogen core of the gas giant, or we near mss and you wind up a hood ornament a molecule thick."

"Nothing here is without risk," she retorted. "But it's all still a matter of consideration, reasons, and consequences. Better that me alone gets fucked up than a whole group trying in vain to get at me." She was, above all, a pragmatist. And if her survival instinct had been that strong in the first place, she wouldn't have become a fighter pilot.

"Yeah. Won't stop a few of the squadron paying the Chaplin a visit to put in a good word for you," her XO breathed. "Gotta be honest, I've seen risky before but flying in this thing...hell it's mostly an overcomplicated bullet."

There was a ripping sound from the stripped-down34 craft, and one of the engineers working on it began to wind a length of duct tape around a part.

"...oh. Oh yeah, that makes it better," her XO turned her around. "Come on, you can take a moment with the squadron to take a drink before I convince them to come up here and burn that thing down to its last stem bolt as an afront to aeronautics."

Duct tape? Really? Brynna eyed the engineer with a mixture of incredulity and...something, even she didn't know what it was. Finally, she turned to her exec. "Drink, yes. Fire, no." A woman of many words, this one. "I'm going to need a drink before I get in this thing."

"You and me both Commander, you and me both."

 

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