Flight Of The Phoenix [Part 4]
Posted on Fri Nov 10th, 2023 @ 5:21am by Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Ensign Hanna-Justina Marseille 'Desert Eagle' & Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Lieutenant JG Masamune Busujima 'Lost Boy' & Ensign Saeko Busujima 'Crazy Horse' & Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2'
Edited on on Mon Nov 13th, 2023 @ 12:18am
1,505 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission: Starship Graveyard
Previously on Star Trek: Tokyo...
Fubuki had been watching from up on one of the dunes overlooking the crash site. She had sat Rin down and both were sat together. She thought it best to stay with the young pilot as she still seemed kind of dazed.
"How you feeling Rin?" Fubuki asked.
"I'm getting there..." Rin said as she held her head and swayed a little. "Its a bit hot on this planet.."
"Well yeah, it is a dese..." There was a sudden boom as one of the starfighters suddenly exploded in a ball of flames and smoke.
"Valkyrie go boom..." Rins aid lazily.
Fubuki shot to her feet. "Nozomi! Hanna!" She shouted almost instantly. "Oh god I hope they got out of there..." she began to worry. "Please... Have got out of there!"
And now... The continuation!
After a few tense moments, Fubuki could just barely make out something moving in the distance. It was moving towards them, though it looked as if it were struggling.
"Rin, stay here!" Fubuki said as she sets off at a run towards the moving figures. It looked like at least someone made it away from the Starfighter before it blew up. "Hey!" she shouted as loud as she could.
"A little help over here!" she could hear Nozomi calling out.
Fubuki rushed over. After a few moments of sprinting, she arrived at them. "Are you guys ok?" she asked as she approached.
"Ah, Jesus Christ, my back..." Nozomi groaned as she set the pilot down. "I think you're going to have to take it from here, I think I pulled something..."
"You're getting old Ensign," Fubuki smirked as she took the weight off Nozomi. "Lets get you all back to Rin. Then we can make our way to that old ship." she suggested.
Nozomi chuckled. "I'm 36, thank-you-very-much; I think I've still got a ways to go before I'm eligible for senior benefits..."
A few hours later, the group of downed Starfighters helped each other over a large sand dune. All of them lined up to look down on the 'valley' below. There nestled amongst the sand, was an old Starfleet Starship.
The distinct rounded shape of the ship stood out. Unusually it was remarkably intact, however no lights shone from its rounded windows. Two nacelles on sturdy swept back struts stuck out from its rear. It looked dormentm silent and alone, long forgotton amongst the sands of this barren world. Unlike most starships from the Federation, this ship did not have the USS Prefix, instead one word was painted on the forward hull, just visible, bleached from the constant sun; 'Endeavour' with the simple registry, NX-05.
Fubuki stared at the craft. "Well, I don't know about you. But if I remember my Early Starfleet History correctly... Isn't that an old NX Class Starship?" she asked.
"My thoughts exactly," Masamune remarked. "But what's an entire NX-Class doing all the way out here?"
"Not just any NX-Class," Nozomi pointed out, gesticulating excitedly towards the faded hull markings. "Guys... do you realize what this means?!"
The other five pilots stared at her blankly.
"Oh, come on, guys!" Nozomi sighed. "Anyone here heard of the Endeavour? NX-05? One of the single-greatest unsolved mysteries of the 22nd century? Hasn't anyone here ever picked up a copy of "Starfleet Ghost Stories"?!"
The five of them shook their heads.
Nozomi realized this discussion was completely lost on them and shook her head. "You know what? Never mind."
"How about we find an access hatch..." Fubuki said. "You never know, that old ship might still have some secrets inside we could use." She suggested.
Nozomi's face lit up at that. "Right, access hatch," she replied, the gears in her brain visibly turning as she carefully formulated a plan to try and gain entry. "Right, so what if we try to gain access to Deck E through the Starboard airlock..."
Hanna glanced over at Masamune and shook her head. "You'd think she was Jacques Cousteau attempting a Penetration Dive!"
"It's probably just her way," Masamune shrugged.
Fubuki and Rin both smiled as the group started making their way down the dune towards the old starship. It slowly grew larger as they approached. "Well, at least someone is having fun..." Fubuki muttered to Rin. Rin simply smiled as they walked towards the old starship.
The group soon reached an old access hatch. It seemed sealed shut with old fashioned push buttons on the outside. "Lets see..." Fubuki said as she tried pressing some of the buttons. They just clicked as she pushed them with no signs of life. "Well, thats to be expected..." she sighed. "No power... Can anyone find a manual release?"
Hanna propped Masamune up against the hull and started to feel her way around, searching for some sort of lever or hatch mechanism. The other pilots saw fit to follow her example and quickly joined her in the search.
"I found something!" Saeko called out as her fingers glanced over the tell-tale ridges of an access panel.
The other stumbled over to her location, and as Saeko pulled the rusty door aside, the four of them were greeted with cobwebs, the smell of must, and a large red lever with the words "MANUAL DROP BAY RELEASE- EMERGENCY USE ONLY!" denoting its function painted on the back wall of the compartment.
"Right, then," Saeko began, brushing aside some of the cobwebs and wrapping her hands around the lever. "Let's see if we can-!"
She gave it a tug.
And then another.
And another, just for good measure.
She shook her head. "It's jammed, but not rusted shut; if I had just a little more leverage..."
Rin and Fubuki both grabbed the handle and helped Saeko pull on it. It took quite a bit of strength, but eventually the handle gave way. There was a loud 'clunking' sound and the door opened slightly.
"Looks like that did it," Fubuki said. She and Rin forced the doors open. Ahead of them was an old airlock, the air inside smelt stale and old. Obviously the ship had been sat empty with no visitors or even raiders for many years. "Looks like no one had been in here since she crashed..."
"Imagine," Nozomi lamented as she climbed inside. "Being stranded here all alone, with no chance of being rescued, and not a soul out here to keep you company... what an awful way to go."
"I'd rather not," Hanna remarked as she hoisted Masamune up into the bay. "I'd rather find a way off of this hellhole."
"Lets hope," Fubuki said. Luckily the interior airlock door opened pretty easily. Ahead of them was a long corridor with its circular bulkheads, leading into the darkness. There was no bodies, no dust and no sign of anything but just bulkheads and wall panels.
"I think our best shot is to find the Engineering Room. Maybe this old ship still has some power cells intact?" Fubuki suggested.
"Engineering... that's going to be on Deck D, right?" Masamune pointed out. "But if this is supposed to be Deck E... how exactly are we supposed to get up there without the turbolifts?"
"Precisely the reaction I would've expected from a man of your obvious limitations," Hanna dismissed. "If you'd known anything about the layout of an NX-Class, you'd realize that attempting to access Engineering would be a wasteful endeavor when this deck already has access to the Main Battery array. Quite simply, we would take a right at that fork up there, then a left, which would then lead us to a T junction where we'd take a left; we follow that to the end of the hall, swing a right, and the Main Battery Array will be the fourth door on the right."
"Limitations?" Masamune huffed. "I'll have you know that I outrank you, sugartits!"
Fubuki and Rin blinked a few times. "How do you know so much about the NX Class Hanna?" Fubuki asked curiously.
"Yeah, like have you been on one of these before?" Rin asked immediately after. "There's on in the fleet museum is there not?"
"Never visited it," Fubuki smiled. "Old ships were never my thing. I prefer fast ships, like Starfighters"
"You could say that I'm a bit of a... perfectionist when it comes to subjects that I'm passionate about," Hanna explained with a dismissive wave of the hand. "It's hardly a rocket science; I simply strive for attention to detail."
"What a crock of shit..." Saeko grumbled as the six of them started making their way towards the Main Battery Array.
To Be Continued...
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