Frontieria - Part 2

When Ness and Foxwell arrived in the bridge, the Asteria's pilot was already floating haphazardly just above her seat, her faded cyan-dyed hair drifting randomly in the lack of gravity. "There you are," Wings remarked. "Got the memo from Chuck a few minutes ago. I was half-asleep and still got here ahead of you!"

“As if that’s any feat,” Foxwell mumbled into his auburn beard. "Your quarters are the closest to the bridge."

"We were at mid-deck," Ness explained. "Open comms, Chuck."

“Wilco!” the AI confirmed amicably.

“I understand why Fletcher’s here,” Foxwell mused, “but why would they want to talk to me?”

“My bet’s on a medevac request nearby,” Wings quipped back, jabbing a straw into a self-heated coffee pack and slurping vigorously.

“Live in five, folks!” Chuck announced. “Places!”

Wings scrambled to orient herself in the same direction as the other two as an angular, androgynous human face appeared on the fore viewport. “Hello, UNSS Asteria. Admiral Dolsan here. We’ve just got word of an emergency situation close to your location. A small transport bound for the Erebus system had some kind of malfunction that overloaded their powerplant mid-jump. They dewarped at very high velocity right in the middle of a micrometeorite cloud.”

“Chert voz’mi,” Moreva muttered. “So you’re saying there are civilians stranded in a deep space hailstorm with only auxiliary life support?”

“Thirty of them, yes. Your pilot and AI should have received the trajectory plans-”

“Chuck already notified the engineers to prep the drive for a FTL hard bank,” Wings interrupted. “We’re ready to change course on your mark, Commander.”

“-and your medical officer-”

“Has already gone to ready the facility,” Ness finished, indicating the doctor speeding away back down the corridor. “We run an efficient ship out here, Admiral. We will keep you up to speed with the situation.”

The admiral nodded. “Dolsan out.” The transmission ended.

“Wings,” the Commander said, looking to her pilot. “Get us on the curved path to danger.”

Audra grinned and adjusted a few controls. “Aye aye, sir. A’ight kids, buckle up." Wings smirked as she cracked her knuckles and flipped a few switches. "Chuck, send a memo to everyone working in a lab to strap down their sketchy chemicals. I'm not gonna avoid harmless turbulence just 'cause those guys are little wimps." The ship was steady and handled like a dream, but they would be nearing the micrometeorite cloud soon, and even the most skilled pilots were wary of high velocity particles colliding with their ship. "The Alcubierre bubble should keep the mass at bay until we dewarp, but after that..."

"We’re a shotgun target, yes,” Ness nodded grimly. “With very tiny buckshot." She turned around. "Chuck, turn on the intercom. I’ll make the announcement."

"Sure thing!"

"Commander Moreva to all crew: we are on approach vector to a rescue site and will be experiencing dangerous conditions. Please secure all equipment, cargo, and other effects. Science officers: if you can, assist Dr. Foxwell in preparing the medical facility. Otherwise, suit up and await SAR directions. Surr, you're on call; we may need you for translation." She paused, and sighed. "Castorra, Liu, standby for hull repair. Confirm?"

The intercom hissed. "Confirm," Diego's voice acknowledged. "Are we-"

"Micrometeorites. A lot of them."

"Ay caramba. All right, we'll be ready."

Wings glanced at the readouts hovering nearby. "Oh, what the fuck?" She glanced over at Ness. "Their ship is ancient! I don't know if we're compatible for docking. And I'm not too keen on a spacewalk in these conditions. The safest option for us is to try a tether and let them come to us, but..." She sighed. She knew Ness wouldn't let civilians try and make their way to the Asteria alone.

Ness opened her mouth to speak, but Chuck cut her off. "Fletcher is right, commander. EVA is an absolute no-go in these conditions. Main docking port is about twenty years too old to be compatible."

The commander snorted amusedly. "Are you vacuumheads forgetting the two perfectly functional shuttles we have docked to the mid-deck pylons? We can sweep around the leeward side, match velocity, and ferry them back here in groups. The shuttle ports haven't changed in half a century. And if there's an issue with that, well... we may need to get a soft seal with the cargo bay plasma window."

Wings couldn't help but grin a little. She loved flying anything, but the shuttles were especially fun. And no way was she going to pass up a chance to show off her skills in the inclement space weather. "A'ight. Chuck, you can take autopilot, but if I get back and you've screwed something up, I will kill you," she joked.

"Wouldn't think of it!" the Asteria's digital intelligence replied amicably. "Try not to die!"

"We will do our very best not to," Ness assured, amused. "Moreva to all crew: prepare for search and rescue protocol C-3. Anyone who isn't Castorra or Liu, please meet at the shuttle docks. That does mean you, Surr."

Wings unbuckled herself from seat before heading off towards the shuttle bay. "Wonder how they ended up stuck in this storm in the first place," she mused as she pushed off one of the walls. "Where do we drop 'em off once we get them? Erebus, you think?"

Ness followed close behind her pilot. "Since they were bound for Erebus, I assume that's where we are supposed to take them."

"Mhmm… think we can cram them all into one shuttle, or should someone else pilot the second?" Wings asked as she halted herself in the mid-deck junction and hung from one of the handles attached to the wall.

Ness grabbed a handle on the opposite wall and thought for a long moment. "Each shuttle can carry twenty people if crammed. Ten people comfortably, ten more in the cargo section. They may have some injured as well, and the injured will need space. So we will take both to get everyone back in one trip. I can fly the starboard one, you take port."

"Out of warp and making final approach," Chuck announced. "Things will get bumpy. Officer Surr, are you available to send them a hail or do I have to do everything around here?"

"That’s my cue. See you on the other side, Cap'n," Wings said as she raced off to the port side of the shuttle bay before her superior could protest. The door slid open as she climbed into the portside shuttle, and there was a low whine as the smaller spacecraft undocked from the Asteria and sped off.