Rule of Acquisition Number Sixty-Two

Posted on Sat Mar 24th, 2018 @ 9:06am by Lieutenant JG Zork

Mission: Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: Runabout USS Aubagne, in transit to San Francisco
Timeline: 2389

“I’m glad to hear the Academy was everything I remember you saying you’d hoped it would be. You’ve seem to have gotten along well,” Commander Ghein’s low tenor turned from conversational to inviting, “The Aubagne has been making this run for nearly fifteen years. It’s a mainstay.”

Zork adjusted the flight path as to bring them close enough to the moon to view the colonies with the naked eye. It was five minutes out and only lasted about thirty seconds, but it was about as scenic as their short, half-impulse trip would get. “I’ve heard the same from a few other officers. I took Commander Raquel to the shipyards,” Zork said matter of factly as he turned to better speak to his Andorian passenger, “and she told me she piloted this very shuttle ten years ago.”

Ghein narrowed his eyes a bit, a knowing smirk crossing his features, “Commander Raquel is a good friend of mine. That was you who brought her to her very first command?”

Zork couldn’t help but smile as he brought his attention back to the forward viewport. The name of his sponsor - one Lt Commander and Customs Officer now Commander within Starfleet Intelligence Support Activities (and rumored to be on his way to full Captain due to some recent stroke of organizational brilliance) Lapzik Ghein - had been branded into Zork’s mind. Sitting with him now, after hearing his name mentioned by Commander Raquel only a month previous, seemed a good omen, “Aye, sir.”

Ghein sat back in his chair and observed the Ferengi for a moment. Zork watched the Andorian out of the corner of his eye discreetly, though the moon beginning to grow at their fore eventually drew most of his attention. Being the main points of interest, Zork had been conditioned to look over the colonies and bases during each approach. Ghein remained interested in his Ferengi pilot, though his own attention briefly followed Zork’s to the approaching lunar surface. He cleared his throat, “Raquel told me you seemed bored with your duties. I’d have to agree with her - you seem as though you’re elsewhere, Ensign.”

”No, sir. All here,” he chanced a quick glance at the Commander. He raised his brows once in a dry, unspoken affirmation of Lt Commander Raquel’s assessment. This was indeed as boring an assignment as he could have been given. Many of his classmates had already been sent to the Gamma and Beta quadrants on Defiant, Galaxy, even Prometheus-class ships, or posted in deep space at frontier stations. Zork felt left behind, wasted on Sol duty.

Ghein snorted, “This is boring, Ensign, it’s okay to admit that.” He heaved a sigh and crossed his arms, “I can’t abide this waste of time. Make it interesting for me. Carte blanche, as the Terran-French might say.”

Zork’s face contorted in surprise. Make it interesting? To hear such a thing from a Commander was uncommon to say the least, much less for a rookie Ensign, “Sir?”

”Entertain me, Ensign Zork. This half-impulse nonsense is beneath both of us.”

”What?”

”Ensign, I order you to get me to Landing Pad -” Ghein brought up their exact destination with a few quick taps of the navigation readout on his panel, “Alpha-Theta 429er.” The Andorian’s gaze leveled coolly with Zork’s, “As quickly as possible due to the highly time-sensitive nature of my impending duties.” There was a wink. There was a nod.

Zork looked to his conn then back to Ghein. He shrugged and grinned, “As ordered, sir.”

With two key strokes and a flip of his wrist, Zork bypassed the anti-matter governor and dumped 20% more fuel into the drive system than would normally be utilized for acceleration. The runabout jumped to full impulse faster than the inertial dampeners could compensate for, nearly tossing Ghein out of his seat. Zork, however, trimmed their approach vector towards the moon to only a kilometer and a half from the surface, which - when combined with the seventy degree roll to port Zork made simultaneously with their sudden acceleration - kept the Commander pinned in place. Zork adjusted their flight path to have them looping around the equator once, dropping altitude againand rolling back to zero as he did. Once Earth came back into view, Zork cut the impulse engines.

They were gliding. For a moment, there was a silence that would have been serene we’re it not for the fact they were beginning to freefall to the lunar surface. 

“Hang on, Commander.”

The same two key presses were made while the Aubagne was brought into a thirty degree pitch, then the flip of that same wrist. The inertial dampeners started screaming, even as Zork immediately cut the impulse engines again.

“Holy hell, man!” Ghein cried out, white knuckling his seat. He madly shot glances to the readouts and instruments in front of and around him. His jaw was a bit slack by the time he looked back at Zork, “The dampeners are gonna burn out, Ensign!”

Starfleet Flight Control chimed over the comm, priority Alpha, ”Runabout Aubagne, situation report!”

The shockwave from the engines had kicked up a shallow but sizable crater in the lunar dust, and the slingshot effect combined with the impulse-engine’s burst of power had them moving in excess of full-ahead. Zork lost himself in the affair, “Stall them, Commander! I have a finale!” They were entering atmosphere now, and Zork began a slowly accelerating barrel roll.

Ghein’s antennae were straight in the air, and he had the look of a man who didn’t know whether to be terrified with regret at, or a continued instigator for, his current scenario. At this point, however, the Commander decided he was in for the full pound, “This is Commander Ghein aboard Aubagne. Clear pad Alpha-Theta 429er immediatellllLYyyy!”

Zork had deployed the forward ventral emergency air-brakes and once again “banged” the drive-systems. The sudden lift of the nose and kick of the atmospheric engines at 40,000 feet had them back on their original flight plan, though now there were two intercept craft approaching from behind, “Runabout Aubagne, continue towards designated landing zone, cut all power, and await further instruction!”

Zork followed the orders, technically, but he pulled off one arrow loop to get the Aubagne in a pursuit position behind one of the escort fighters immediately before his descent. Their proximity to AT429 made it so that the Aubagne was coming in low and hard before they could be fired upon.

The runabout popped into a controlled hover approximately twenty feet from the landing pad before Zork quickly brought it into a gentle touchdown. HE was ecstatic as he looked at Commander Ghein.

Ghein was pale and aghast.

Zork’s expression fell, “Commander?”

There was an almost imperceptible charge in the air of the runabout that Zork felt on the back of his ears, but just as quickly as he could turn around he had the business end of two phaser rifles in his face, “Get your hands UP!!”