It's Lonely Out Here in Space

Posted on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 @ 6:09am by Jan Valentine
Edited on on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 @ 6:10am

611 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Session 6: Take 5
Location: Floating out in space

A beaten to hell runabout was drifting near one of the many deep space com buoys near the edge of federation space.

Jan hadn't eaten in days, the replicators weren't functioning emergency power any more, and the dilithium crystals were nearly gone anyway.

"Computer, why aren't the navigation sensors operating?" Jan said.

"The EPS relays have been damaged." The computer said.

"I repaired that 3 hours ago!" Jan shouted.

He ripped off a nearby panel, revealing an EPS relay held together with whatever refuse he could find in the cabin, one of the connections had fused.

Repairing the damaged link, the navigation sensors came back online, then immediately blared an alarm.

"Crap. Computer, full reverse!" Jan shouted at the computer, running to take the helm.

"Engines non-functional, engaging thrusters." The computer said.

*That's not gonna be enough to stop us.* Jan thought.

"Hard to Starboard!" Jan shouted.

The runabout creaked and moaned as it changed course abruptly, coming within a meter of the buoy.

"That was close." Jan said.

"Please restate question." The computer said, uselessly.

"Oh shut up." Jan said, annoyed.

*Hmm, wonder what's powering that buoy...*Jan thought.

Jan looked out of one of the side view ports, and scanned the buoy with his optical implant.

*Hmm, a dilithium crystal and a solar array for back up power. Don't think the federation is gonna notice if someone borrows this crystal.*

"Computer, establish a datalink with the com-buoy." Jan said, sliding over to the ops console, which was covered in debris and dirt.

"Right, let's see if the firewalls can handle this." Jan said, brushing off the console with a sleeve.

Jan typed quickly on the console, cracking security codes and rewriting protocols. After a few minutes, the console chimed, signalling he had successfully cracked the firewall surrounding the buoy's security mechanisms.

"Computer, establish a lock on the dilithium crystal in the buoy and prepare to energize." Jan said.

"Targeting. Locked, standing by." The computer said.

"Ener--" Jan started to say.

"Incoming encoded subspace message, secure channel." The computer said.

"Patch it through." Jan said.

The comm station flared into life, static flashing on the screen for a few seconds before a familiar face appeared. Though the image was a bit distorted and degraded from transmitting time, the audio came in reasonably well. The message was pre-recorded, and obviously edited for each member of the crew.

"Jan, I've decided that the bounty hunters have officially given up the hunt, the bounty has expired, and no one who was on the asteroid made it off alive, including us." Walter said, with a smile at the end.

"We're putting the band back together, rendezvous co-ordinates are at the end of the message. I look forward to seeing you and the rest of the crew soon." Walter said.

The image of Walter was replaced with a series of coordinates and a star system chart.

"End of Message." the computer said.

"Alright, I was wondering when we'd be getting back to work." Jan said himself.

He walked back over to ops, and transported the crystal directly into the runabout's crystal chamber.

A few moments later, the primary systems automatically came back online.

"Finally!" Jan said.

"Computer, activate the replicator and make me bowl of Borsch and a shot of vodka." Jan said.

"Acknowledged." The computer said.

A few seconds later, the replicator fulfilled the order.

Taking a drink from the glass, Jan punched up a song on the computer and set the coordinates into the nav console.

"It's lonely out in space, On such a timeless flight." Jan started to sing along with the song he chose, stretching back on the worn out command chair.

 

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