I assure you, we're paid up
Posted on Wed Jun 25th, 2014 @ 3:05am by Walter Jones & Jan Valentine & Langar Tarn & Charlotte Ashcroft & Bruce Air (PNPC)
1,683 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Session 7: Changes
Location: New Bajor Docking Port
ON:
"Look, check it again, I paid up till the end of tomorrow." Walt rubbed his face as a portly Bajoran man scowled at him.
"My records are never wrong, and you are not paid up Mr. Jones, I'll be sending security down to collect payment for the remaining balance and I"
"I'm good for the money, why would I burn my bridges at the only Federation facility open to the public in this quadrant?" Walt smiled a grin as he started typing into the console the commands to begin retracting the mooring clamps.
"We makin' a run for it? Jan said, sitting down at the engineering station.
"I wouldn't say that we are making a run for it as well..." Walt watched as the computer started trying to process the request and gave a countdown timer of five minutes. "Making an exit, stage left post haste. Nice job on getting everything back up and going, I had done enough on the old girl to get her here. Everyone else settled do you know?"
"Let's hope so. Impulse engines coming online, don't push 'em too hard, had to get creative repairing the plasma manifold. Warp engines standing by. Atmo thrusters...." Jan said, the console flickering out. "Hang on." He gave the console a hard smack, and it flared into life again. "Atmo thrusters ready. Ready as we'll ever be for lift off Walt."
"On your word, Mate," Bruce said trying to get comfortable in the wreck Jones had procured to replace the pilots chair. it may have once been a seat, but Bruce thought is could equally have once been a dentist chair or torture device.
[Outside hull of Cargo Module 19]
Langar was clambering around on the outside of cargo module nineteen. The module's locking clamp failed an electrical test and needed checking. So he had taken a toolkit and couple of replacement solenoids, opened the module's external hatch and climbed out to see if he could repair the unit.
The module was about halfway along the ship, so he was over one hundred meters above the cold and painfully solid looking concrete of the dock. He's found a rather tatty safety harness and was wearing that, but there wasn't anywhere to clip the safety tether to. So he wedged himself into a corner of the module and tinkered with the clamp control box.
It turned out to be just a some corrosion on the circuit contacts and he cleaned them up in a few moments. Shoving the tools back in the bag slung over his shoulder he started back towards the hatchway when there was a rumble from far below and the loud metallic clang of retracting docking clamps. Seconds later the main impulse engine began it's start up sequence.
Shit! Who fired up the drive? he thought to himself and activated the commbadge Jones had given him yesterday
"Langar to bridge! Errrr...are we leaving?"
[Bridge]
Walt pulled up the comm as he saw a couple port authorities walking down the gangplank towards the ship. "Yeah, but we've got a few minutes, there should be an access hatch down the way from you."
The two officials walked towards the ship and then started barking orders at each other.
"Yeah, three minutes I'd reckon. Sorry for the short notice! I'll be back to open that access hatch." Walt looked over at Jan and Bruce.
"Get Lottie up here, as soon as I get him in, punch it out of here, sound good?"
"You got it boss." Jan said.
Bruce grimaced, "See... he says 'Punch it', but when I do they all start complaining."
Walt grabbed the ladder behind the cockpit and slid down it. Making a quick run back towards the nearest hatch and Tam.
Not long after Jones had departed Lottie arrived on the bridge as per Jan's request. "Trouble?" she asked clocking the men on the gangplank.
Bruce looked at the two officials, "Quite possibly. I would lash in, if I were you..."
[Inside hull of Cargo Module 19]
Walt after a few moments had reached the hatch that he had mentioned before and started keying in the safety release. The keypad hissed angrily as it tried to process the request.
"Open damn you!" Walt smacked the panel which begrudgingly allowed the outside doors to open. Walt stuck his head out of the hatch and tried looking for Tarn.
Langar clambered his way down the side of the cargo module, very aware now of the lack of places to clip on a safety tether and relived when he saw the hatchway below him swing open.
Grabbing the frame, he swung his feet in and climbed back inside. 'I thought we were leaving tomorrow?" he asked Jones as the hatchway stayed open behind him. "Change of plans?"
"Yeah, just a bit" Walt pointed down to the small gathering of port officials down at the base of the ship. From this height, they looked like ants and moved like them.
"Walt to bridge, let's get out of here." Walt slammed the hatch shut and looked around the cavernous hold, in two days, it would be filled with Barley.
[Bridge]
Bruce said quietly, "Sure hope the old man got that tractor beam out of commission, or this is gonna be a real short trip."
[Inside hull of Cargo Module 19]
There was a sudden roar from the RCS and the Warden lurched upwards, leaving Walt and Langar's stomachs behind. Then a juddering halt which threw them face first onto the gantry.
Getting to his hands and knees Langar looked over to Jones "You take-off like this every time, or is this specially for my benefit?" He ask wryly
"I figured I'd give you a warm welcome to the team. This isn't the usual, just a special occasion." Walt rubbed his face. "Don't worry, next port already has prepaid clearance, and it is in space so you won't need to worry about falling to your doom.
"Worried? Who's worried?" Langar asked wryly.
[Control Room, docking port]
The dockmaster looked over the readouts and frowned.
"Dockmaster to Warden! What are you doing? You are going to rip the clamps right out of the deck! Power down immediately!"
[Bridge]
Bruce looked aghast at Jan, "I thought the clamps were your job?"
"Thought they were yours. I'm trying to get the impulse engine mix balanced." Jan said.
"Strewth," The pilot swore easing off a little on the lift. "If I set her down the Authorities will be all over us. Lottie, cut the line! Shoot it out."
Swinging in her seat Lottie bought the pathetic excuse for a forward gun online and set the targeting before pulling the trigger. Naturally, like most things on the Jones' pride and joy the automatic targeting system wasn't exactly working. The round peppered the dock and forced the hurrying officials to dive for cover.
With a few stabs of the controls Lottie took aim manually severing the umbilical cord powering the clamps.
Bruce renewed the thrust to the reluctant engines and the Warden rose again.
[Control Room, docking port]
The dockmaster watched as the ship started to rise out of the atmosphere. He sighed, he didn't have jurisdiction to go after the crew, and to get the planetary officials to go after was paperwork that he didn't need it. He opened the file on his machine and made a note about the ship in his logs.
[Bridge]
Walt popped his head up onto the deck and smiled at everyone.
"Good work!"
"Hope there's a reason for all this." Jan said, monitoring the engineering board.
"Bruce, ease up on starboard thrusters, getting an overheat warning. Impulse engine number 2 running hot as well, just ignore that, sensor's probably faulty." Jan said.
Bruce ran one hand over the board in front of him, "RCS Starboard three is pulling more juice than it should. I recon we have some major leaks in that one. It may have caught some stray fire from Lottie. I am shutting her down for now."
Langar followed Jones up to the Bridge, glancing at one of the viewscreens he expected to see them dragging a big chunk of dock behind them as the ship powered through the atmosphere, it was almost a disappointment when there wasn't.
"So, you are probably wondering why we had to make an exit, post haste," Walt watched as the planet started to fall away from the ship. "I had paid up for our time here, however, that slimy dockmaster grease ball was demanding a kickback from me. I wasn't going to pay it, so he was coming after us."
Langar thought that one over, his initial response would have been to pay the corrupt official a visit first, preferably with a length of iron bar...
"Well, good thing I never paid my parking fees." Jan said. "Warp Drive coming online, should be able to pull Warp 7 barring unexpected disasters."
Bruce blinked, "Warp 7? You told me I couldn't take her past Warp five without loosing integrity."
"You pushed the Warden up to Warp 7 the week you came on board." Jan said. "And anyway, I've been working on improving structural stability for when we need to make a quick exit."
"I didn't say I listened to you, when you told me not to," Bruce smiled. "I am just glad we are starting to agree."
"Shame nothing else has been improved in the meanwhile," Lottie rose. "Like our food stuff, I'm staving. Walt, you intend to feed us right?"
"Yeah, I managed to get the pantry stocked before we left, and the Replicator is working pretty well. Tell you what, everyone get settled and on course and let's meet over dinner. Sound good?" The old captain looked at the crew in front of him. "Glad to have all you all back, I'll start dinner." Walt disappeared back down the ladder and into the crew lounge.
Langar Tarn
Cargo Chief
Walt Jones
Captain
Other awesome people.
RSS Feed