The Long Walk Home

Posted on Mon Sep 25th, 2023 @ 10:48pm by Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake'
Edited on on Fri Oct 6th, 2023 @ 2:05am

1,305 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Starship Graveyard
Location: Planet Surface

Fubuki's starfighter smouldered as it laid upside down in the soft golden sand. Smoke floated lazily high into the crystal blue sky above and small parts of the Starfighter had caught fire. Fubuki finally stirred from being knocked unconcious from the impact.

"Ouch..." she exclaimed as she felt blood running down her head. The console infront of her was flickering and still sparking. She reached to undo the straps and instantly fell onto the smooth glass surface of the cockpit. She righted herself in the small space and managed to force the emergency locker open. Inside was a type two phaser, tricorder, a survival pack and a medical kit.

Unzipping the medical kit she wrapped a bandage around her head wound. Luckily her starfighter had landed upside down, but had rolled slightly so that the cockpit was exposed on the right hand side. She took the phaser and aimed it at the glass, on maximum setting she blew a sizeable hole that she could crawl out of.

Once out in the open the first thing that hit her was the intense heat. The survival pack did have a canteen of water, but it wouldn't last long if she had a long distance to travel. "Lets see whats out here..." she said to herself as she flicked open the tricorder. It showed immediately that it was losing power and at an alarming rate.

"I should use this sparingly," she said. It was her only navigation tool and would be essential for her survival. She quickly put on the survival pack fastening the straps over her shoulders. The tricorder showed that the Tokyo had also gone down, but it was far away towards the east. Miles upon miles of desert seperated this downed pilot and her mother ship.

She couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her other pilots as she began to examine the wreckage of her starfighter. She hoped there would be some useful componants she could use. However the communications array had been destroyed, and the engines were on the verge of overloading. She knew better than to be anywhere near the craft when they did overload.

She scowled as her tricorder also detected other ships and what looked like lifesigns on the surface. However the readings were very limited and she couldn't see more than a few basic readings. "This planet must have some sort of nautral dampener for power sources." She muttered to herself as she began the long walk home. She only hoped she would bump into someone friendly on the way. The chance that other pilots were also pulled down with her was high in her opinion. There was no way she was the only one that crashed, plus it would ruin her reputation if she was the only one who did.

"Tokyo is roughly three hundred and sixty kilometers to the east," she sighed. That was a long way to walk. As a Starfighter pilot that was nothing in the depths of space, but on a planet that was made up of harsh desert it was a treacherous and dangerous walk. "Not exactly a walk in the park..." she said as she flicked the tricorder closed. She began her long walk home, hoping to cover as much as possible before she needed to rest.

The sand was soft and sometimes hard to walk on. Her boots kept sinking down as she walked, it was like a very fluffy beach one would find on a tropical island back on Earth. This made it hard for the young fighter pilot to walk and trek her way over the dunes. She had managed to get a good few hundred meters from the crashed starfighter when she heard a high pitched whining noise coming from behind her.

"Oh crap!" she exclaimed as she dived down onto the dunes. The engines on her starfighter had finally reached critical level and were starting to overload. She shielded her head and ears as she faced downwards into the sand. A booming explosion echoed over her, the shockwave hitting her and stirring up the sand around her. After a few minutes she spat out the sand that had made it into her mouth and sat up. Turning she looked back, the starfighter was nothing now but a smouldering mess. Debris had been blasted around the area and the sand around it was scorched and glowed red. The plasma in the engines had ignited and bright green flames had engulfed the entire craft.

Rising to her feet she stood for a few seconds and watched her fighter burn, grateful she hadn't been inside or near it when it had exploded. She turned away and began to walk again, plasms fires gave out toxic radiation and fumes and it could be carried on a light breeze. It was about time she got the hell out of there and attempt to get back to the Tokyo.

[One hour later]

Fubuki's legs felt like lead, her head pounded from the overbearing heat and she was breathing heavily as she walked. She had ripped the bottom of her flight uniform off exposing her stomach and navel. She had used the ripped fabric to create a hood, a somewhat attempt to stop herself from catching sunstroke. The last thing she needed was to be suffering from dehydration when she had such a long way to go. In only one hour she had only covered three kilometers, the smoke from her starfighter could still be seen behind her rising high into the sky.

'Come on Fubuki, you can do this. Remember your survival training. If you can make it back then the medical staff can help you' she told herself in her head as she forced herself to carry on. Her thoughts of inspiration were interrupted by her stomach growling. She placed a hand on her exposed belly and sighed. "I forgot I skipped breakfast this morning... I wish I hadn't now."

She pulled her survival pack off her back and placed it on the ground. Unzipping it she reached inside and found some of the Starfleet Emergency Rations. They were nothing special. They resembled something like a candy bar, expect they were packed full of vitamins, fats, carbohydrates and sugars that most humanoids needed to survive; at least until rescue arrived. Not wanting to waste any time or daylight, Fubuki ate one as she walked. She could feel her energy starting to come back, but in this environment it would be short lived. She took a sip of the precious water that was in her canteen as she walked, keeping it dangling by her side on a shoulder strap. Keeping herself alive would be hard, especially with limited water and rations.

"I need to limit the amount I eat and drink..." she reminded herself verbally as she continued onwards. She looked up at the sky, most desert planets had a day and night cycle, even rogue planets. She only hoped that she had plenty of daylight remaining before the night came. This was a new world to her, if she remembered rightly a desert planet could become more dangerous at night as temperatures can plummet below freezing. She needed to find shelter and quickly, a source of water or food was also something she could find but she had doubts that there was such a thing on this bleak inhospitable planet.

Shaking off her doubts she kept on walking, it was a long way back to where the Tokyo had crashed. She hoped that at least some of the crew had survived and was hoping that even if they hadn't she could use the Tokyo itself to send a distress call. Right now, she had a mission, the long walk home.

Posting by

Lieutenant JG Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake'
Fighter Pilot

RSS Feed