Topic: Shuttle Ride

[Scottish Andy]

In an attempt to enliven this board, here's a little excerpt I wrote over two different lunch times. This is all there is and I cannot remember the original inspiration for the piece -- which was just the first scene in the shuttle -- but I think it was to do with small craft going fast. 

I call these little excerpts "Flashes" as they come to me as a flash of inspiration which may not amount to even a single scene or may last several, plus being completely out of sequence in a story.

Enjoy, and comment. And, as another thought strikes: perhaps someone else could have a bash at continuing it? Post if you want to and decide amongst yourselves.

Shuttle Ride - Flash One

by Scottish Andy

"PULL UP!!!"

"Stop screaming in my ear like a frightened kit!" M'Rrowl snapped irritably as she deftly operated the shuttle's controls to neatly avoid the pinnacle of rock they'd been flying towards. As the Pup banked and weaved and neatly slotted though the annular rock formation fifty degrees port of their previous heading, she offered her nervous passenger a caustic glare. "Do you think I don't know what I'm doing?"

The white-faced Human looked as if he was about to lose his lunch and he clung white-knuckled and wide-eyed to his seat, unable to tear his gaze from the shuttle's clearsteel forward window. "Watch where you're going!" he cried out, twisting away from their impending -- to him -- sudden fiery death against a canyon wall.

"If you do not shut the hell up, I am going to let them hit us!" she snarled back, furious. "This is the only thing keeping us alive, so if you cannot watch, don't bloody watch! Get on the comms array and try to punch through to the ship."

"I can't--" he started, but she cut him off.

"Do something to stop me from throwing you out the side!" she roared. "'Cause if you don't stop your whining, I swear to you I'll stun you! Sir!"

She flung that in to remind the snivelling heap that he was her senior officer and as such should be setting an example or at least swallowing his fear to the point where he wasn't endangering their lives with his totally unhelpful and alarmist exclamations.

It was as if he suddenly remembered this too, because his next words were almost predictable.

"Ensign, I order you to not take such risks with our lives!"

M'Rrowl's ears flicked flat back and her eyes slitted. "Can you fly this shuttle, Lieutenant?"

"I can operate it, get us into orbit, fly us from one point to another--"

"I did not ask if you could 'operate' it. I asked if you can fly. As in Space/Air Combat Manoeuvring?"

He managed a glare at her through his fear. "No, Ensign, I cannot 'fly' this shuttle."

She returned his glare with several centuries' worth of compound interest. "I... can. Sir."

So saying, she yanked the shuttle around again to avoid another series of disruptor blasts that would have downed them had they hit. To do so, she barrelled down a twisting side canyon at Mach 2 after executing a switchback turn to 120 degrees starboard from their previous course.

And she had to endure his terrified, shrill scream from about 0.3 seconds into the turn.

I wish he'd lose his grip and knock himself out on a panel or bulkhead, she snarled inwardly, noting a relatively clear and straight section coming up on the scanner. They'd be there in three seconds. Then I wouldn't have to do this...

Maintaining control with her left hand, she reached to her belt and pulled her Type I phaser off it, checked the power setting, aimed, and fired in one smooth action. The terrified Human slumped nervelessly in his chair.

She hurriedly tapped in a landing command and replaced her phaser on her belt. At the rush, she hauled her now-peaceful superior into the back and secured him in the webbing and returned to the pilot's seat to the blaring of the sensor alarm.

"Incoming!" she muttered to herself, jumping into the pilot seat and gunning the shuttle's anti-grav and impulse engines. The strident alarm of a weapons lock abruptly cut off to be replaced by the sound of explosions behind her as the disruptor salvo from the pursuing Klingons created a large crater in the canyon floor where her little craft had briefly sat mere fractions of a second before.

"Useless Human!" she snarled her frustration to the empty cabin as she manually jinked ther shuttle around a base course mere metres off the ground and from the left-side canyon wall. I needed him to try and contact the ship! I cannot keep flying around in circles until they give up! Why the hell is Starfleet not arming its shuttles as standard procedure, anyway?

Another flurry of emerald pulses flashed past the shuttle to pulverise some rock in front of her.

Okay, I have to do something instead of merely dodging. It's keeping us alive but getting us nowhere. With a half-decent crewmate, she mentally snarled at her forcibly-napping senior officer, I could have had them implement any ideas we came up with, but noooo. I have to get a mewling kit who managed to hide his fear of flying for eight years. She rolled her eyes at this. I mean seriously! Has he never been on a wild shuttle ride in all this time?

Jink-flash-flash-flash-BOOM!

Another salvo dodged, she set her mind back to the problem at hand. They're faster than me and they're armed, but I'm more manoeuvreable and have stronger shields. I need to down at least one of them without damaging myself. How? How do I do this with no weapons and only my piloting skill?

She came up with an answer quickly as a replay of her flying through the annular rock formation from a good few minutes back flashed into her head. That's it! I make them crash.

A predatory grin decorated her face as she reapplied herself to the shuttle controls.

*****

"Any word from the shuttle?" Captain Harrington asked. Again.

"Ma'am, I will inform you instantly if there is," Jiao Shi Qi answered, trying not to sound snappish or exasperated with her C.O. The Chief of Ship Operations quickly elaborated, "The Klingon ship is still blanket jamming our communications and our sensors cannot punch through or compensate for the ionisation of the planet's atmosphere caused by their torpedoes. So far, direct optical scanning has not located the shuttle, but if they are involved in a wide-ranging evasion within the canyons riddling the entire region, we're unlikely to see them. Not that we'll stop looking or trying to clear the interference. Captain."

A brief silence greeted this verbal explosion from their normally quiet Ops Chief.

"Well. That's me told off," Caitlin replied in a mildly sarcastic tone. "Have I really been that annoying, Bonnie?"

"Yes Ma'am, you have," Jiao agreed more affably, her tension relieved by her friend the Captain's playful response.

"Get me the Klingon commander again, please," Kate then instructed Lamar, their Izarian comms officer.

Long moments later he finally stated, "I have him, Ma'am. On screen now."

"What do you want?" her still unnamed opponent greeted her.

"I want you to lift your jamming so I can talk to my survey shuttle and get it back."

"No."

The channel abruptly closed even as Kate's mouth was opening to form new words. Her eyes flashed with a flare of anger before she closed her mouth thoughtfully.

"Mr. Danilov, perhaps I am being paranoid, but does it seem to you that this gentleman of our esteemed galactic neighbours is deliberately having his fun with me?"

The X.O. blinked. "He does like allowing only one question and supplying one-word answers. Maybe this is how he gets his jollies. It's not like we can make an issue of it. His Relentless* outranks our Akula."

"Only in the size of his guns, Stephan," Kate spoke chidingly.

"Well, when we're left to using a laser comm-beam to even talk to him through his jamming, I'd say it's obvious he's not interested in talking to us."

"Yet," Jiao interposed. "Perhaps he's doing something nasty to our shuttle and doesn't want us to see it?"

"Claim jumpers?" Stephan asked disbelievingly.

"It wouldn't be the first time," the slight Chinese answered promptly, though genuine worry started to colour her tone. "Captain, we need to see what's going on down there."

"Agreed," Harrington stated abruptly. "Ki'aron, launch a probe and have it get under the ionised atmosphere, scan the entire region for our shuttle's physical parameters, power signature, crew lifesigns, movement above 15 m/s, and weapons' fire. It has to record and return to the ship."

Science officer Ki'aron Xa-Havereii was already programming his board with the first parameter before his captain had finished speaking.

"Captain, perhaps we should also program the probe for evasive manoeuvres? We don't want it being shot out of the sky before it can return within comm laser range," Tactical Officer Jarinex stated.

"Good point. Ki'aron, include randomly selected evasive patterns and have the probe start them if it is scanned by Klingon sensor systems."

"Captain, that may be a bit much for the probe to handle," Xa-Havereii warned, doing it anyway.

"Understood. Let's hope it doesn't come under fire then. Launch when ready."

"What reaction will we get from the Klingons?" Danilov asked. "They don't want us to see what's going on under the interference and they're not talking."

"We need to be prepared for them firing on the probe," Jarinex stated firmly.

"They may do nothing," Jiao opined. "They may just be here to annoy us but nothing further. Maybe their captain is bored."

"If they destroy our probe, I'm taking the ship into the atmosphere to look ourselves," Harrington stated unequivocally. "Enough of that nonsense."

"Captain, that would put us at a tactical disadvantage if they decide to get rough--" Danilov objected, but Kate overrode him.

"We'll be under their own ionic interference so they would be the ones with the disadvantage. If they want to fight, they come under it too--"

"Where the odds would again be in their favour in a straight out fight of firepower," the X.O. countered, folding his arms across his chest and staring at has captain with narrowed eyes.

"Then we don't go for a straight fight, Stephan," Kate returned evenly. "Never fight on their terms or you're already half-way to losing."

"Probe's ready," Xa-Havereii announced, ignoring the byplay to follow his last orders. "Launching."

"Tactical?"

"No reaction-- wait, they're scanning it. Probe is on evasive." A tense second passed, then, "They're powering up their facing disruptor!"

"Lamar, hail them!"

"They're firing!"

"They're not answering, Captain."

"Miss! The evasive is working!"

"Five seconds until it's through the interference."

"Firing again, miss!"

"Two seconds--"

"Probe destroyed."

"Damn their eyes! Take us in, Mr. Winchester. Z-minus... twenty thousand kilometres and point our nose right at them all the way down."

Sweat suddenly popped out on Wyatt Winchester III's brow as he fought to remember how to program such a fendishly complicated manoeuvre, but the captain obviously wanted to send a message to the Klingon and didn't want to hear from her helmsman that he couldn't do it.

"Makes me glad we didn't launch the Camel after all," Kate stated in a quiet aside to her X.O. "Though destroying a crewed shuttle is quite different from a probe, but for all we know they've already done the same with no witnesses to the Pup."

"Captain, is this really necessary?" Danilov asked pointedly, though only for her ears. "That manoeuvre will put a lot of strain on the ship, require extra power to the SIF to counter it, and we're not even armed yet."

"I'm setting us up to preclude from needing to arm ourselves, X.O.," Harrington shot back a little testily. "If all our main weapons arcs are pointed away from him he may feel emboldened to try something while we'd have to struggle around in complicated intra-atmospheric manoeuvres to return fire."

Danilov looked dubious but let it stand. He could hear that the captain was getting annoyed at being questioned so much. They now had to put away their usual Q&A style of command.

"Descent plotted and laid in, Captain," Wyatt announced.

"Execute."

The U.S.S. Bigglesworth dropped towards the planet.

*****

* Relentless: Klingon Academy designation for the Klingon light/war cruiser design used in KA & SFC in place of the SFB D5 design.

[Captain Sharp]

Like this scene, good sir. Liked the pilot zapping the annoying officer.

Not so sure about the captain's plan to contact the shuttle. Seems like putting your ship into even more of a lurch than just opening fire on a more heavily armed vessel (I'm assuming you use the SFC D-5, not the ENT D-5). I'm sure it'll work out, though. Everything works out, one way or the other.

Keep it coming, sir.

--Guv

[Grim Reaper]

Well you got me curious as well. But I do wonder about the Klingon motivation... So GIMME MORE!

[Commander La'ra]

But I do wonder about the Klingon motivation...

Target practice.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Nice little bit.  You've given me a bit of an idea myself.  I've done blurbs like this before, but they rarely get further than my brain, sometimes they make my lips, but almost never do they make paper, or keyboard.  I am, however, going on a cross country road trip starting tomorrow with nothing more than "Half a Droid" for company.  (it handles IHeartRadio decently when it has good signal but good signal is hard to keep on a roady)  I'll put what goes through my head to keyboard when I get back.

[Scottish Andy]

Thanks for the replies, Gentlemen! They are most appreciated.

Guv, the annoying officer being zapped is definitetly not my usual style of interpersonal or subordinate/superior relations. She'll have to answer for that when -- if -- she gets back to the ship, but what can I say? Maybe you're rubbing off on me.   
And yes, it is an SFC D5. Mind you, since the Klingons are still using K't'ingas and B'rels in DS9 for starbase assault, I think we can safely assume said Klingons go in for SLEPs (Service Life Extension Programs), and in the late 23rd century have perfectly up-to-date D5s from the 22nd century in front line service.
As for dropping the Biggles into the atmosphere, well... the Feds cannot fire first. Neither of them have their weapons armed (and suddenly remembering the Klingon torpedoes ionising the atmosphere...) for anything more than they're needed, and the Klingons have not been seen to fire on Federation personnel, so... Just remember what happens when someone's annoying you but you're the first one to hit out. 

Grim, I'm desperately trying to finish of 'Falklands: Quarantine' but the medical scenes just keep expanding. I don't know when more of this may be coming, which is why I suggested someone else lend a scene. Perhaps one of our esteemed Klingon proponents could write from the Klingon perspective? I've never tried that kind of combined writing style before, but it seems to be a standard of RPG / PBEM games.

Larry, you may very well be right! I have not yet decided on why they are doing this. Any reason put forth by the Biggles' crew could be valid, or it could be something else. Care to weigh in with a scene?

Lt. Q, I'm glad you like it. Looks like you've already posted your own flash of inspiration.

To continue, perhaps I'll think more on it. Maybe a flashback scene where we find out why the Fed ship is there.

[Captain Sharp]

As for dropping the Biggles into the atmosphere, well... the Feds cannot fire first.

... Just remember what happens when someone's annoying you but you're the first one to hit out. 

Can't fire first? Sure they can.

I'm all about hitting people first.

That last sentence puzzled me, but I assume you mean to say (in American, LOL) 'when you hit them first', or something to that effect. Anyway, it reminded me of the only real fight I got into in High School.

He annoyed me. (Today its called Bullying, back then, it was Building Character) He annoyed me for a LONG time. When I'd had enough, I gave him the chance to annoy me one more time. Then I hit him first (actually, dropped kicked him from a height advantage on his bad knee) and...took care of the problem. Fallout: 3 Days suspension from school (YAY! Holiday!), threatened with 3rd Degree Battery (to which the town Sherrif said 'Yeah, right, sounds like the kid deserved it.', which the Principal really did not like), and was taken to celebrate by my parents (with Larry) at my favorite pizza place.

So: Win/Win/Win.

But you are correct in the established fashion that Fed ships do not fire first, save those more interesting skippers you hear about in rare snippets of dialogue (usually after Gene's passing). So I must bow to you in that regard. In this instance, though, still think the CO is putting her ship in too much danger, after the fact that they basically know the Klingons are screwing with their shuttle. But it ain't my story, and you can take it any damn place you wanna!

Oh, and about stunning the officer...that made me laugh SO hard! I had not expected that from you, and where this a tabletop RPG, I'd have given you XP just for coming up with it. Kudos!

Anyway, am looking foward to more on all fronts.

The Guv!

[Scottish Andy]

Win/win/win indeed. A funny story, well told!

I counter it with a hippy peacenick pacifist story. I was writing 'Falklands: Quarantine' in a my new 'regular' coffee house when a pair of Toronto cops walked in. They too are regulars there. I couldn't take my eyes off their guns. Seriously, a couple of people walked into a coffee house with loaded automatics. It just struck me as utterly wrong. My Beloved totally disagrees with me on it, but I'm British. Our street bobbys don't carry firearms. I know I am the only one I talk to about this who thinks in this way. Everyone else thinks I'm crazy thinking this way. I think I'm getting more squeamish than ever the older I get.

I just cannot get over the fact that two loaded weapons were carried into a civilian place. Guns are for the military.

Therefore my Feds will not fire first unless an exchange of fire is inevitable as dictated by conditions.

[Captain Sharp]

I just cannot get over the fact that two loaded weapons were carried into a civilian place. Guns are for the military.

Well...stay away from Mount Ida, then.

And my house for that matter...

...and my truck...guns there too.

If I travel more than 40 miles from home...I have one too.

Guns are a way of life here.

--The Guv

[Commander La'ra]

I once counted up the viable lethal weapons that Rog sleeps within reach of while visiting his house.  If I'd used my fingers as my calculator, it'd have taken more than one hand.  I thought that might be somewhat unusual, until I counted up the number of viable lethal weapons that are within my reach when I'm sleeping and didn't quite reach his total, but was much closer than I thought I would be.

Note 'viable' in this case means 'don't have to be creative to kill someone with it'.  Bizarre ways to end someone with a clothes hanger do not count.

Then there's my Mom, who once asked me if silencers were legally obtainable because while she wanted a gun around in case of an intruder, she hates how much noise they make.

[Scottish Andy]

Well, all y'all down thaar in da Saaaaooouth take yer right to bear arms seriously, if illiterally.   

And just to clarify, you showing me your gun collection at home would be cool, and I'd want to stand in your back yard or firing rage or local wilderness/canyon and blast away. You bringing it to the diner for a brunch would make me uncomfortable.

[Scottish Andy]

Oh, just curious:

Anyone interested in continuing to write this story with me?

[Captain Sharp]

As to the Illiteracy Comment...Gotta let it slide. There's plenty of it around here. Larry unwittingly taught me to read when the Mount Ida School District didn't even realize I didn't know how.

And I would be happy to show you my gun collention, though it did take a hit some time back. Sold two of em for cash when the wife was without a job. In the South...guns are also Equity! Still got my dearest babies, though.

And seeing someone you don't expect carrying in the open, I CAN see how this would leave you feeling uneasy. Here, we expect our po-poes to carry firearms. They'd be usless without em, since most Rednecks can take most Southern cops. And there are usually more Rednecks than cops. And if both were to call in backup...the Redneck's  friends would be there sooner.

 But, say, seeing a random feller come walkin into my grocery store carrying... No, sir. Take it and put it back out in yer rig. (This has happened. Had to run em off.  During huntin' season, I can let it slide when some sportsman forgets and comes walkin in with his backup on his hip. But some times we get some scuzzy lookin folk in that try to carry in plain sight, which IS a viable law, though not taken kindly, even here.) Anyway, I am rambling.

And as to your invitation...

I am tempted by this. Any stipulations on where the story must go? Can we introduce characters or should we write with those presented? I'd like to see a collaborative effort, since my duo-story with Larry has seen no headway in 4 months. *hint, hint*

Think I'd like to help on this one.

--Guv

[Commander La'ra]

Four months...

...knew I was forgetting something...

[Scottish Andy]

And as to your invitation...

I am tempted by this. Any stipulations on where the story must go? Can we introduce characters or should we write with those presented? I'd like to see a collaborative effort...

Nope, the story can go anywhere you like. Everything I have on this story, you see here in this thread. Though, if you remember from waaaay back, Kate Harrington is an admiral in an early photoshop attempt of mine, which is why I placed her as the captain here; a familiar name with no history. Beyond my wish that she -- and Ops Officer Bonnie -- survive, anything is possible here. Go nuts; I am very interested to see where you take it.

[Scottish Andy]

Speaking of D-5s from 'ST:Enterprise', since this is now a canon ship designation and the SFB D-5 is wildly different in design from the SFC Klingon War Crusier, does anyone have a problem using the Klingon Academy designations for the Interplay-design Klingon ships? That game gives a Klingon-language name for each class IIRC as well as either the English translation thereof or the Starfleet reporting name, akin to the NATO reporting names for Soviet military hardware.

If we're unfamiliar with these names I can list them here later on.

[Grim Reaper]

If we're unfamiliar with these names I can list them here later on.

Please do, I only remember the classes I loved (I love to see a redesigned hi-res top nacelle removed Accuser).

[Scottish Andy]

Here they all are at this website: http://www.klingonacademy.com/view.php?pg=ShipInfoKlingon

The individual ships classes are:

qey IS betleH - Sword of Kahless class battleship (SFC B10)
pumwI’ - Accuser class dreadnought (SFC C9)
VoDleh - Emperor class heavy battlecruiser
SuvwI’ Qeh - Warrior’s Anger class command cruiser
q'tI'nga' - Bringer of Destruction class cruiser (SFC D7)
qa'HoS - Relentless class light cruiser (SFC D5)
QuD - Insurrection class destroyer (SFC F5)
Pih - Suspicious class frigate
B'rel - Bird of Prey class escort (SFB E4)

[Scottish Andy]

Anyone want to collaborate with me on this? Anyone and everyone can, and on whatever part of the story they like: set up of the story, writing from the side of the opposing forces, suggestions for what happens next or what happened before to get them here.

[Scottish Andy]

Well, here's another section that kinda came to me over a couple of days. Feel free to add to this! And of course, comment and review.

Shuttle Ride - Flash Two

by Scottish Andy

"Commander! The enemy descends towards the planet's atmosphere!"

Kron could see that both from the visual on the main screen and the tactical repeater screen before his command throne. After a few seconds he also saw that the unwieldy-looking Starfleet ship remained pointed directly at him, keeping its photon tubes unmasked.

Kron smirked. This Harrington is a feisty one! So much the better.

"They're keeping us in the firing arc of their heavy weapons!" Gunner Qo'leth reported reduntantly again.

"Conn! Place us between the Starfleet ship and the planet. Block their descent!" he ordered with a grin in his voice.

"At once!"

The cruiser pointed his head at a spot far below the Fed ship and gunned his engines. Kron grinned wolfishly as the Shredder leapt forward.

*****

M'Rrowl weaved back and forth and up and down across her base course, slowing all the time to draw the two pursuing Klingon shuttles in closer to her.

She checked her Inertial Navigation System, watching the co-ordinates change rapidly.

Nearly there.

Suddenly a series of hammer blows struck the shuttle's roof, their kinetic impact imparting a vicious spin. M'Rrowl couldn't even spare the time to curse; all her attention was required to prevent the shuttle from careening into the canyon wall or floor.

Her fingers flew over thruster, anti-grav, and micro-impulse propulsion controls as she tenaciously wrestled her small craft back under control. Precisely-timed and -directed bursts from the thrusters and anti-gravs eliminated her roll and allowed a steadier application of the latter to boost her altitude and keep her in the air. She was bringing her nose up and concentrating on halting her sideways skid when the upper aft port corner of the shuttle clipped the canyon wall, starting the whole process all over again -- and incidentally saving the lives of both shuttle occupants as the next disruptor barrage sailed through the space she would have been in otherwise.

More heart-stopping seconds of instinctive and frenzied application of superb piloting skills later, an incredibly shaken and frightened M'Rrowl spared a glance at the heavily-dented shuttle roof and snarled, "Okay, that's it! I've had it! You slime-devils are just so much chunky salsa now!"

She gunned her anti-grav to shoot her straight up over the lip of the canyon walls, and punched the impulse throttle to all stop. Her seat belt easily kept her in place, absorbing what motion her inertial dampeners failed to -- which reminded her of the lieutenant in the back and made her heartily glad she'd taken the time to strap the idiot down -- and watched the two clunky, wedge-shaped Klingon shuttles blast past her. They quickly began curving back around to intercept her, but as soon as their noses pointed far enough away from her intended direction of flight, she punched the micro-impulse drive up to full atmospheric speed and shot over the flat surface at 3,000 metres-per-second towards the area where her weapon of choice lurked: the large annular rock formation.

The Klingons, caught out by the expectation of her tearing away in a different direction and reacting instinctively to that end, took long seconds to regroup and resume their tenacious pursuit. Their superior speed -- thanks to their more aerodynamic shape -- soon had them overhauling her and she watched her aft sensors closely, carefully timing her breakaway from her oblique approach to the rock doughnut.

Annnnd... NOW!

M'Rrowl cut the impulse drive, spun right and pitched the shuttle down to align her nose on the canyon leading to their final destination. Retarding the impulse throttle to a less insane 750 metres-per-second -- which was necessary so she didn't slam into a canyon wall at slightly less than nine times the speed of sound on Earth -- she dove down into the canyon. She could not let the Klingons see the rock formation too soon; they had to be concentrating on closing the distance to her and landing another disruptor barrage or two on her stressed and groaning shuttle.

The duranium that the shuttle's hull was made of was an incredibly strong metal alloy with some energy dissapation properties; you could fire a phaser rifle on full at a standard hull plate for half an hour continuously and only just break through; but the weapons mounted on shuttles were an order of magnitude more powerful -- not to mention the weaker structural points such as the engines. Their pylons are what stopped her going faster than 3km/s through the thick air of this planet's lower atmosphere: the air resistance would eventually rip them off, if the buffetting from her minimally-streamlined nacelles din't flip her out of control before that happpened. Her shields were down, completely burned out from the overload of previous strikes. If the Klingons landed another salvo in the same spot, or hit a nacelle or impulse drive...

M'Rrowl shook off the distracting thoughts and reapplied herself to ensuring her own survival. The distance was closing rapidly, and the Klingons were still hot on her tail. She hadn't wanted to shake them this time as it would have made them cautious and start to hang back. She weaved and dodged and jinked and varied her speed enough to stop the Klingons landing their debilitating strike. She hoped she was infuriating them with her evasive manoeuvres as much as they were infuriating her with their relentless and deadly pursuit.

A mad Klingon was an unthinking Klingon.

The kilometeres flashed past, until there it was. It was slightly hidden by the canyon walls and chances were the Klingons didn't even recognise where they were amongst the hundreds of kilometres of intersecting canyons cutting their way through the desert plateaus of this region. M'Rrowl only saw it because she was looking for it and recognised it. It would take a moderate turn to lead her assailants right up to it, hiding most of it until the last milisecond... In between piloting the shuttle and her constant random evasions, she spared a flick of her eyes for the I.N.S. co-ordinate readout and the windscreen, watching the readout flick ever closer to her destinaton...

*****

Grimtak roared in frustrated fury as he again watched his carefully judged and selected predicted aim point being blithely ignored and bypassed by the Fed shuttle -- and thus his latest salvo failed to connect and spent itself on the canyon wall ahead of it.

His pilot did not appreciate his outburst. "If I could spare my hand for but two seconds, I would smash your head in!" Qo'pEch snarled at him as he yanked the shuttle's nose around again to cut a few extra metres off the Fed shuttle's lead on them. "Can you not land a single blow? Your so-called skills -- from our so-called best gunnery specialist! -- have thus far been out-stripped by the smooth-browed whelp on Dag'thar's shuttle! Not only once, but three times!"

Anything Grimtak would have said in reply -- and he had many choice replies -- was overridden by Qo'pEch's triumpant shout. "We have him!" the pilot crowed and altered course to cut across the sweeping curve the enemy shuttle had started. "Shoot!"

It immediately seemed wrong to Grimtak. This Starfleet pilot was exceptionally good and smart. He had to be, to have survived this long against their two shuttles. He looked out of his gunnery scope and loosed off a snap-shot, but it was too hurried and his mind was elsewhere.

"You dolt! Buffoon! Numbskull! When we get back to the ship I will have your ears pinned over the door to my quarters!" Qo'pEch raved.

"He would not make such an elementary mistake after all this time! He's leading us somewhere!

"There's nowhere--"

Then there it was, and it was too late.

*****

Dag'thar looked on in horror as the inpenetrable wall of rock suddenly appeared before them -- and Qo'pEch's shuttle ploughed into it without slowing.

Even as the first shuttle's tough duranium nose hit, Dag'thar immediately punched his impulse drive into full reverse while pulsing his anti-gravs to try and get them away from it. His instinctive response and his position behind Qo'pEch's shuttle were all that saved him and his gunner as their shuttle bounced and scraped off the rock walls all around them before Dag'thar's frantic but purposeful control inputs finally stabilised the gouged and dented shuttle and put it down on the plateau above the canyon they'd been racing through.

A very shaken pair or Klingons exchanged glances before Dag'thar collected enough of his wits to ask, "Sensor readings. Where are the shuttles of Qo'pEch and the Earther?"

Krell poked at his controls, still shaking his head to clear it. "Nothing on the Earther. He must have escaped or gone to ground somewhere to hide," the Fusion sneered. "Qo'pEch... is on the canyon floor. No movement. Two lifesigns, so they survive."

Dag'thar pondered that as Krell continued to poke at his board. The pilot ran his own system checks and was pleased by what he found: no damage that would impare further pursuit. His shuttle was still flight- and space-worthy.

"Khest it!" Krell exclaimed. "Starboard disruptor is offline."

"Replay the video of your gunnery scope. Last five minutes only."

They both watched as the pursuit neared the end, then Qo'pEch's shuttle smashed into and through the rock wall, start a lateral spin into the side of the annular rock, then cartwheel down towards the canyon floor. All that happened in the second and a half before Dag'thar's reactions saved their own lives.

"Treacherous Ha'DI'bagh," Krell growled. "He could not defeat us in battle so he tricked us."

Dag'thar regarded his gunner critically. "And how would an unarmed single shuttle manage to defeat two armed shuttles in a 'battle'?"

Krell kept his mouth shut on that topic and asked instead, "What will we tell the ship?"

Meaning, of course, Commander Kron. Who wasn't known for his leniency towards failure.

Dag'thar powered up the shuttle and took off. "We will rescue Qo'pEch and Grimtar. Monitor the sensors for any signs of the Fed. We'd have seen him if he took off straight for his ship. We didn't, so he's still here."

*****