Post by Lieutenant Robin Star on Jun 22, 2015 5:00:30 GMT -8
It all started off well enough, the anxiety building into adrenaline as Mandy put them into the starting position who was surely feeling it all a hundred times more. As it should be, as the passenger you got the thrill of the ride but you weren't the one with wings. It felt magical the first time Robin ever flew and he couldn't imagine it being any different to the day he died.
As the countdown flashed across the bay, Robin placed a brief hand onto Mandy's shoulder to let her know that she had this before bracing himself against whatever else he could hold onto. No matter how good a pilot was at the helm, he expected a bumpy ride.
And with that thought the countdown finally reached its final number and Robin lurched slightly from the sudden acceleration as they were carried into the familiar starstream. With a strengthened grip he stabilised himself from butting heads with the interior bulkhead to observe the sight that many pilots from the past had not been able to experience.
The swirls of blue and white that engulfed them like flame and liquid, just the right kind of mixture that nature excelled with when it came to presenting something both beautiful and dangerous. It was awesome, and Robin's face said it all, his grin wide and his eyes shining as he watched Mandy's skills slip them in-between and around the other racers with ease.
And then there he was, Ekko! In a really ugly pod and it surprised Robin to see that he was in fact in the lead, maybe this guy was good but in the moments that followed Robin did his best to track Ekko's movements. They were simple, straight... too straight although one didn't really have to fly fancy when you were in the lead but something seemed off but Robin couldn't say what it was exactly.
Suddenly they were neck and neck with Ekko and like Mandy, he could not resist attempting to look out the glass though it meant craning forward a bit and potentially blocking Mandy's view. He saw the ugly green, the lewd icon and more importantly the face that mocked them and even still, Robin saw Ekko with a smile on his face.
Something was-
The holoscreen was suddenly showing Grace in a very unfavourable and heart stopping position. Immediately, he pressed a hand to his commbadge and muttered something. He heard Ekko's voice over the comms, it all made sense. Whether he had skills to back himself up were irrelevant at this point, he was winning by cheating, and who knew what other means he had at his disposal? Just then Robin saw something break away from a piece of debri they just passed and with a glance at the sensors saw one of their fellow racers disappear.
Explosions... Ekko was the reason for them as well!
Robin gritted his teeth, his eyes desperate as he looked upon Grace and her unfortunate circumstances, one that he could blame himself for. Why did he think it was okay for her to be alone?
"Pull back," Robin said quietly, it was a clear choice. A race was trivial in comparison to someone's life but then Robin saw both the most unexpected and awesome thing, Grace pulling a swing at her captors and... well, he had to remind himself that he had Kinin, there was just something about a woman punching someone.
The feed cut off and Robin had to wonder what that meant for them, was Grace in further trouble? The fact that the feed had stopped meant that Ekko didn't want to see what followed which meant he was out of tricks.
"I'm going to take him,"
Damn right you will, Robin thought, his grip tightening on the handles within the pod. They were going to take him down, and prove his un-honourable antics so that he will go down and never be allowed to race on this course, even here Robin felt that the punishment could stick.
But then just when things were looking good, it all went down-hill again, quite literally as all their power abruptly disappeared and they were sent hurling through the stream like another piece of debri. And the pod itself wasn't the only thing as Robin was smacked into the side of the bulkhead.
Lost power and we still have gravity! That was just a dick move, they might as well be hamsters in a gyro ball. At least Mandy was strapped in!
"What do we do?"
Robin's heart sank at that question but then he noticed Mandy attempting to unbuckle herself, "Wait!" At that moment the pod crashed into a small piece of debri which was enough to send both him and Mandy hard into the walls but Robin had been anticipating it.
"Mandy!" He called out as she dropped like a stone from where her head impacted the bulkhead. Robin placed his feet against the wall and pushed himself away from it to leap to Mandy's side, cradling her in his arms as he inspected her face and checked her pulse. She was bleeding, not much and she was alive!
With the pod spinning further out of control Robin did his best to position Mandy into the chair once more, buckling her up. With that done he reached out with his limbs, hoping to find stability and for a moment, clarity. With a brief struggle he managed to tap his commbadge.
"Star to USS Talon... Talon do you acknowledge?" Robin sighed, so much for that. He had to think, there had to be a way. The fact they had gravity meant they still had some power, he just needed to find it before they got vaporised by a collision that wasn't just a scratch.
Scrambling around, doing his best to not knock his head, Robin began tearing off every panel he could find which most looked as if they were about to fall off so access wasn't an issue. All the panels revealed the same thing, couplings and circuits but all dead, no power until finally he found what he was looking for. Where the hell was Cobus when you needed him, or Liz for that matter?
"Now here's a stupid idea," Robin said to himself but then paused as he swiftly found the EVA suit and slipped on the gloves. With that done, one hand found an empty conduit tube that fed power throughout the pod whilst his other hand gripped the one that had power flowing through it. And then he began tugging at the two tubes as hard as he could and it was only with the help of yet another small collision with debri that the tubes finally came loose with sparks flying out the powered one.
Making sure to keep the sparking tube away from his face he turned the two tubes towards each other and jammed them together and almost immediately, lights and buttons from the various readouts lit up, it was almost like Christmas. Robin looked to one of the sensor readouts, it wasn't able to scan far but that didn't matter, as he looked to the information he saw a particular spike just as they had lost power.
Was that an external device? Robin wondered, it wasn't a clear reading but given what he had seen today already, he suspected that a device had been planted on their pod. Why else hadn't they exploded like some of the other pods? Ekko wanted them alive, or at least long enough to see him win.
Knowing the power redistribution wasn't reliable considering the fact that he jammed two big wires together, Robin would have to move fast. Moving away from the mess of impromptu and bad engineering Robin clambered over Mandy's sit and with the now limited thruster power the pod had, he was able to direct them on course, purposely for another piece of debri.
"Another stupid idea, Star? You're out-doing yourself," Robin muttered to himself but if anyone could get away with stupid, it was him. As the pod was about to reach impact, he flipped a switch and the pod rolled on its side with just the right angle to scrap the hull against the edge of the debri and enough force to forcefully push aside the device attached to the pod.
And like a switch, every other console was shining on again and the sound of the ship rumbling told him that they were back in business. With a rapid flurry of hands across the conn, he stabilised the pod from its most recent bump and modified the power stream so that if his jammed wire got loose, he wouldn't risk an interior explosion.
For just a moment he just stood there, his pose awkward due to hovering just in front of Mandy and trying not to sit on her. Taking a deep breath, he looked to the sensor readout and then out to the big blue sea of energy in front of him. They were back in this race, and the sooner they got out of it, the sooner they got to Grace and medical attention.
It was more than just a race now and that only fuelled him more as Robin controlled the pod like another limb, handling it like any other ship that fell under his touch, with grace and speed, looking for every opportunity that gave him edge of speed, no matter how small it was, matching every ebb and flow of the stream that only someone truly familiar with the streams could succeed in.
With every second they got closer and closer to their goal until finally Robin was once more looking at Ekko's face whose skin looked even more paler than before. Here, there were no more tricks, no false blackmail, only raw talent and with every move made within the final leg of the lap, Robin knew he had the edge and he could have over-taken Ekko but Robin could taste the alien's desperation, he would try one last thing.
And he did, the type of action ruled by anger and not intelligence and Robin saw it a mile away as Ekko attempted to bash his pod into Robin's. Waiting for the last moment, Robin manoeuvred his pod into a spin whilst also moving in such a way to orbit around Ekko's pod vertically, a move that Robin had perfected since his first run-in with the starstreams and what had allowed them to get to Etimon that first time.
And it was by pure luck and not insane calculation on Robin's part that Ekko's attempted bash and subsequent dodge from Robin sent him hurling into a passing block of debri that only served to slow and anger Ekko even more. Robin was pretty sure that somehow in space and within the stream he heard someone shouting with rage.
They approached the finishing line and Robin thought he heard a sound from Mandy, he glanced over his shoulder and thought he saw her eyelids fluttering. Stepping away from the front of the cockpit, he gently took Mandy's hands and placed them over the conn in the right position to allow them to finish and he hoped that she would awaken just in time as they reached the end.
After the race there had been a mix of cheers and boos (the latter probably being from those that betted against he and Mandy), Robin was able to contact Talon and beam Mandy to sickbay whilst he gave evidence to the race manager regarding Ekko's cheats with a recording he had made from his commbadge and a quick inquiry told him that Grace had somehow been arrested and he had promptly headed to the security office to try and help straighten it all out.
End Robin and Mandy (if appropriate)
As the countdown flashed across the bay, Robin placed a brief hand onto Mandy's shoulder to let her know that she had this before bracing himself against whatever else he could hold onto. No matter how good a pilot was at the helm, he expected a bumpy ride.
And with that thought the countdown finally reached its final number and Robin lurched slightly from the sudden acceleration as they were carried into the familiar starstream. With a strengthened grip he stabilised himself from butting heads with the interior bulkhead to observe the sight that many pilots from the past had not been able to experience.
The swirls of blue and white that engulfed them like flame and liquid, just the right kind of mixture that nature excelled with when it came to presenting something both beautiful and dangerous. It was awesome, and Robin's face said it all, his grin wide and his eyes shining as he watched Mandy's skills slip them in-between and around the other racers with ease.
And then there he was, Ekko! In a really ugly pod and it surprised Robin to see that he was in fact in the lead, maybe this guy was good but in the moments that followed Robin did his best to track Ekko's movements. They were simple, straight... too straight although one didn't really have to fly fancy when you were in the lead but something seemed off but Robin couldn't say what it was exactly.
Suddenly they were neck and neck with Ekko and like Mandy, he could not resist attempting to look out the glass though it meant craning forward a bit and potentially blocking Mandy's view. He saw the ugly green, the lewd icon and more importantly the face that mocked them and even still, Robin saw Ekko with a smile on his face.
Something was-
The holoscreen was suddenly showing Grace in a very unfavourable and heart stopping position. Immediately, he pressed a hand to his commbadge and muttered something. He heard Ekko's voice over the comms, it all made sense. Whether he had skills to back himself up were irrelevant at this point, he was winning by cheating, and who knew what other means he had at his disposal? Just then Robin saw something break away from a piece of debri they just passed and with a glance at the sensors saw one of their fellow racers disappear.
Explosions... Ekko was the reason for them as well!
Robin gritted his teeth, his eyes desperate as he looked upon Grace and her unfortunate circumstances, one that he could blame himself for. Why did he think it was okay for her to be alone?
"Pull back," Robin said quietly, it was a clear choice. A race was trivial in comparison to someone's life but then Robin saw both the most unexpected and awesome thing, Grace pulling a swing at her captors and... well, he had to remind himself that he had Kinin, there was just something about a woman punching someone.
The feed cut off and Robin had to wonder what that meant for them, was Grace in further trouble? The fact that the feed had stopped meant that Ekko didn't want to see what followed which meant he was out of tricks.
"I'm going to take him,"
Damn right you will, Robin thought, his grip tightening on the handles within the pod. They were going to take him down, and prove his un-honourable antics so that he will go down and never be allowed to race on this course, even here Robin felt that the punishment could stick.
But then just when things were looking good, it all went down-hill again, quite literally as all their power abruptly disappeared and they were sent hurling through the stream like another piece of debri. And the pod itself wasn't the only thing as Robin was smacked into the side of the bulkhead.
Lost power and we still have gravity! That was just a dick move, they might as well be hamsters in a gyro ball. At least Mandy was strapped in!
"What do we do?"
Robin's heart sank at that question but then he noticed Mandy attempting to unbuckle herself, "Wait!" At that moment the pod crashed into a small piece of debri which was enough to send both him and Mandy hard into the walls but Robin had been anticipating it.
"Mandy!" He called out as she dropped like a stone from where her head impacted the bulkhead. Robin placed his feet against the wall and pushed himself away from it to leap to Mandy's side, cradling her in his arms as he inspected her face and checked her pulse. She was bleeding, not much and she was alive!
With the pod spinning further out of control Robin did his best to position Mandy into the chair once more, buckling her up. With that done he reached out with his limbs, hoping to find stability and for a moment, clarity. With a brief struggle he managed to tap his commbadge.
"Star to USS Talon... Talon do you acknowledge?" Robin sighed, so much for that. He had to think, there had to be a way. The fact they had gravity meant they still had some power, he just needed to find it before they got vaporised by a collision that wasn't just a scratch.
Scrambling around, doing his best to not knock his head, Robin began tearing off every panel he could find which most looked as if they were about to fall off so access wasn't an issue. All the panels revealed the same thing, couplings and circuits but all dead, no power until finally he found what he was looking for. Where the hell was Cobus when you needed him, or Liz for that matter?
"Now here's a stupid idea," Robin said to himself but then paused as he swiftly found the EVA suit and slipped on the gloves. With that done, one hand found an empty conduit tube that fed power throughout the pod whilst his other hand gripped the one that had power flowing through it. And then he began tugging at the two tubes as hard as he could and it was only with the help of yet another small collision with debri that the tubes finally came loose with sparks flying out the powered one.
Making sure to keep the sparking tube away from his face he turned the two tubes towards each other and jammed them together and almost immediately, lights and buttons from the various readouts lit up, it was almost like Christmas. Robin looked to one of the sensor readouts, it wasn't able to scan far but that didn't matter, as he looked to the information he saw a particular spike just as they had lost power.
Was that an external device? Robin wondered, it wasn't a clear reading but given what he had seen today already, he suspected that a device had been planted on their pod. Why else hadn't they exploded like some of the other pods? Ekko wanted them alive, or at least long enough to see him win.
Knowing the power redistribution wasn't reliable considering the fact that he jammed two big wires together, Robin would have to move fast. Moving away from the mess of impromptu and bad engineering Robin clambered over Mandy's sit and with the now limited thruster power the pod had, he was able to direct them on course, purposely for another piece of debri.
"Another stupid idea, Star? You're out-doing yourself," Robin muttered to himself but if anyone could get away with stupid, it was him. As the pod was about to reach impact, he flipped a switch and the pod rolled on its side with just the right angle to scrap the hull against the edge of the debri and enough force to forcefully push aside the device attached to the pod.
And like a switch, every other console was shining on again and the sound of the ship rumbling told him that they were back in business. With a rapid flurry of hands across the conn, he stabilised the pod from its most recent bump and modified the power stream so that if his jammed wire got loose, he wouldn't risk an interior explosion.
For just a moment he just stood there, his pose awkward due to hovering just in front of Mandy and trying not to sit on her. Taking a deep breath, he looked to the sensor readout and then out to the big blue sea of energy in front of him. They were back in this race, and the sooner they got out of it, the sooner they got to Grace and medical attention.
It was more than just a race now and that only fuelled him more as Robin controlled the pod like another limb, handling it like any other ship that fell under his touch, with grace and speed, looking for every opportunity that gave him edge of speed, no matter how small it was, matching every ebb and flow of the stream that only someone truly familiar with the streams could succeed in.
With every second they got closer and closer to their goal until finally Robin was once more looking at Ekko's face whose skin looked even more paler than before. Here, there were no more tricks, no false blackmail, only raw talent and with every move made within the final leg of the lap, Robin knew he had the edge and he could have over-taken Ekko but Robin could taste the alien's desperation, he would try one last thing.
And he did, the type of action ruled by anger and not intelligence and Robin saw it a mile away as Ekko attempted to bash his pod into Robin's. Waiting for the last moment, Robin manoeuvred his pod into a spin whilst also moving in such a way to orbit around Ekko's pod vertically, a move that Robin had perfected since his first run-in with the starstreams and what had allowed them to get to Etimon that first time.
And it was by pure luck and not insane calculation on Robin's part that Ekko's attempted bash and subsequent dodge from Robin sent him hurling into a passing block of debri that only served to slow and anger Ekko even more. Robin was pretty sure that somehow in space and within the stream he heard someone shouting with rage.
They approached the finishing line and Robin thought he heard a sound from Mandy, he glanced over his shoulder and thought he saw her eyelids fluttering. Stepping away from the front of the cockpit, he gently took Mandy's hands and placed them over the conn in the right position to allow them to finish and he hoped that she would awaken just in time as they reached the end.
After the race there had been a mix of cheers and boos (the latter probably being from those that betted against he and Mandy), Robin was able to contact Talon and beam Mandy to sickbay whilst he gave evidence to the race manager regarding Ekko's cheats with a recording he had made from his commbadge and a quick inquiry told him that Grace had somehow been arrested and he had promptly headed to the security office to try and help straighten it all out.
End Robin and Mandy (if appropriate)