Flight Of The Phoenix [Part 9]
Posted on Tue Apr 23rd, 2024 @ 2:39am by Ensign Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Ensign Hanna-Justina Marseille 'Desert Eagle' & Lieutenant JG Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Lieutenant JG Masamune Busujima 'Lost Boy' & Ensign Saeko Busujima 'Crazy Horse' & Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2'
Edited on on Tue Apr 23rd, 2024 @ 5:22am
1,837 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Starship Graveyard
Location: Endeavour (NX-05)
Timeline: Approximately 1 month after Part 8
Previously, on Star Trek: Tokyo:
All of them lowered their heads for a moment. Fubuki finally looked up. "We'll just have to try. And I'm sure she's fine. She has the same training as us." she told them all. "How long until the engines are ready?" she asked quickly changing the subject.
"At this rate, it could be a week, maybe even two. I don't know the full extent of the damage and I'm unfamiliar with these systems." Masamune replied.
"Well then," Fubuki said as she turned to the others. "We have lots to do if we're ever going to get home."
"For the short term, I think we should probably make our way down to the galley and assess the state of that food synthesizer," Nozomi stated. "Any parts that need to be replaced, we can always source from the other two. Doesn't need to be a perfect setup, we just need it to furnish us with a basic nutritional supplement that we can use to get us by."
"Good idea," Fubuki said. She looked at Rin. "We can do that if you two want to stay here," she suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Nozomi nodded, before shifting her attention over to Masamune. "You wouldn't happen to know if there's some spare toolkits lying around that these two could possibly use?"
"Probably in the storage lockers," Masamune replied.
Meanwhile Fubuki and Rin hastily left Engineering heading up to the old mess hall and galley.
And now... the continuation!
The days soon dragged into weeks, and the six of them began to settle into a routine. Power conservation was paramount, but Nozomi had developed something of a system where they would only allocate power to the systems that they absolutely needed, when they needed them. It was no doubt a tedious process, what with their having to power down several systems and then power them back up again, but by the first week it had become something of a second nature to them.
By the second week, Masamune's ankle had healed enough to a point where he could now move about freely, albeit with a slight limp. Though Nozomi still prohibited him from lifting objects in excess of 50 pounds, for Masamune, it was infinitely more preferable than having to sit around like a bunch of dead weight, and he wasted no time in making himself useful.
In spite of their earlier misgivings, Masamune and Saeko had managed to strike up quite the rapport in the growing amount of time the two of them spent together. Initially bonding over their shared love of Country & Western (Saeko had overheard Masamune whistling an old Jimmy Tokita song while working in the Jefferies Tubes), they gradually branched out into other topics, ranging from Starfighters to manga, and whatever else was on their mind at any given time. Talking, if anything, was a welcome distraction from the day-to-day monotony of their current situation. They even divulged some of their personal regrets, what with Masamune feeling he was a failure for abandoning his sister to join Starfleet, and Saeko lamenting on how her violent temper had all but derailed her aspirations as a science officer, and now she found herself walking a very different life path. Their bond was not what you would consider "romantic" (far from it- Masamune had his type, and Saeko unfortunately didn't fall in that category), but it was certainly more than friends- "familial" was perhaps the best terminology with which to describe their dynamic.
On the other hand, while Masamune was finally getting along with Saeko, the same could not be said of his relations with Hanna- if anything, their bickering had gotten substantially worse in that time, what with the German oh-so-confidently asserting her "superior" technical knowledge (which she was all to keen to rub in Masamune's face, much to the latter's chagrin). Sufficed to say, Masamune didn't take one too kindly to this shitty little know-it-all and her frequent challenges to his authority, and the two of them would often spend up to an hour squabbling over the slightest detail- to the point where Nozomi to had to have them working opposite shifts in order for them to get some work done. The window in which they had to get back to the Tokyo was finite; they couldn't afford to be wasting time bickering amongst themselves.
Fubuki and Rin had grown closer in the last few weeks. They had become quite friendly with each other and had been working closely together. Rin had expressed concern over her brother Len and his survival. Fubuki knew that she must be going through a hard time, so they have eventually become good friends over the time.
Nozomi, for her part, had been taking surprisingly well to her newfound role as the group's leader. It was no small task getting a 230-year-old Statship that had spent most of its life rotting away in a desert back to flight-worthy condition- especially when they had a very finite power supply- but Nozomi had since risen to the occasion and then some, poring over every last bit of technical data that they could recover from the ship's computer banks, and subsequently using that information to determine what facilities and systems they would need to reroute power to in order to meet their day-to-day needs. On top of that, she had also been reading up on the flight manuals and drilling her group on what exactly they would need to when it finally came time to fly this bird back to the Tokyo; they only had one shot to make this work, so any slip-ups or shoddy workmanship could make the difference between life and death.
The day began like any other, with the six of them waking from yet another restless night (trying to sleep on a 230-year-old bed was no cakewalk, who'da thunk it?) and filing into the mess hall on Deck E, where Nozomi and Fubuki would hand out everyone's duty assignments for the day before turning them loose.
"I have some news," Fubuki began. "I've been going over our power reserves and the current status of our engines." She said. It almost soudned like Fubuki was now one of the crew of the Endeavour. She slid an old style PADD into the center of the table they were all sitting at. "I believe we are ready to fly. The power reserves won't last much longer. I did some calculations. I believe we can keep us about three to four meters off the ground. That should be enough to get us back to the Tokyo."
"I'm sure by now you're already familiarized with your roles," Nozomi added. "We've spent the past few weeks training for this moment, so this should come as a second nature to everyone. Just remember, we've only got one shot to get back to the Tokyo, so I'm counting on everyone to do their part."
"Well, we might as well give it a shot today." Fubuki said simply.
"Masamune, you'll be down in Engineering," Nozomi continued. "The rest of you will all be manning your assigned bridge stations, like we rehearsed; everyone clear on the game plan?"
The assemblage nodded in unanimous approval.
"Well, then, if there's no further objections," Nozomi began. "I'd say we'd best get to work; I'm looking to have this turkey up and in the air in T-minus 30 minutes. So let's to it, people!"
[A few Moments later]
Fubuki took her assigned seat, the Endeavour's helm station. Over the last few weeks she had taught herself every control and how to fly the old starship. She ran her hands over the console as she readied to fire up the thrusters. "Helm ready."
Rin meanwhile took the position at the ships Engineering console. She had chosen this station so she could regulate the power from the ships warp core and the help Fubuki with directing the ship.
Just off to Fubuki's right, Hanna took her seat at the ship's tactical console, her fingers dancing expertly off the analog interface as she brought up the hull polarization settings.
"Polarizing hull plating," she reported. "SIF set to maximum."
A small chime could be heard, alerting her that hull polarization and Structural Integrity fields were up to full power.
She looked up and nodded. "Tactical ready."
Opposite Hanna, Saeko took her seat at the ship's Science Console. it felt like a lifetime since she had last dabbled in her original field of choice, but for the time and effort that her younger self had poured into the position, she still held a fair degree of scientific knowledge with which to be operating the console effectively.
"Sciences ready," she reported.
Nozomi tapped her combadge. =A=How are we looking down in Engineering, Masamune?=A=
=A=All major systems are coming back green,=A= Masamune radioed back. =A=We are clear for launch.=A=
"Welp, it's the moment of truth," Nozomi sighed, crossing her fingers. "Fire her up, Lieutenant; easy on the throttle, like we rehearsed."
A nervous smile stretched across Fubuki's face as she took hold of the old controls at the helm. Slowly she began to power up the ventral thrusters. The whole ship began to shake and shudder as the thrusters blasted out under the ship.
The entire exterior of the ship seemed to disappear as the ventral thrusters blasted away causing what looked like a sandstorm around the ship. Sand and dust was thrown up into the air and after a few seconds the NX Class Endeavour began to emerge from the cloud, hovering a few meters above the dunes.
"We're..." Fubuki began. "We're actually airborne!"
A collective cheer went up amongst the six pilots as nearly four weeks of hard work was finally paying off.
"Thrusters are holding," Rin reported from the engineering station. She had been watching their power levels since Fubuki had taken the controls.
"Can we get any more lift?" Nozomi asked, turning her attention to Fubuki.
Fubuki shook her head. "Not unless we want to burn the thrusters out. I'm already pushing them." She looked back over her shoulder. "Remember she's old..."
"Right," Nozomi nodded. "Well, seeing as this is the best we're going to get, prepare to lay in a course for the Tokyo; we're going home."
Fubuki was already ahead of Nozomi. "Here we go!" Fubuki said as she began to use the manual control sticks to guide the Endeavour towards their destination.
The aft impulse engines on the Endeavour fired up, as the NX Class Starship began to move for the first time in over two hundred years. Slowly the ship turned and then it then started to move off, kicking up sand and dust behind it as it started to leave its crash site.
To be continued...
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