By Lt. February Grace
80512.00
During and After Stra-p In. . .and Impressions
-=Aboard the Polaris=-
80512.00
During and After Stra-p In. . .and Impressions
-=Aboard the Polaris=-
"Pre-flight checks complete," February announced. Settling in at the helm of the Captain's Yacht, the Stella Polaris was a new and unaccustomed sensation, but one that she was thoroughly going to enjoy. Her passengers, however, may not enjoy it as much.
"Did you all avail yourself of the hypos that Dr. Breaux graciously provided? With the unpredictable weather down there may be some turbulence." She adjusted the controls to bring the engines on line, then glanced across the cabin and sighed.
"Reece, you look a bit pale. Are you all right?" She thought the question before she spoke it to the man she was married to, but again, in keeping with their determination not to rely on their telepathic link in front of their crew mates, she spoke the question aloud as well.
"Why couldn't we just take a shuttle like everybody else?" Reece lamented, as he took the hypo from Rada and applied it to his own neck.
"All the other shuttles were checked out already, Dabin. No choice." Lair Kellyn took the hypo next, and then offered it to Grace, who waved her off.
"Thanks, already had mine." February announced. "I don't see why you'd rather take a shuttle. We'll have a much smoother flight in the Polaris here than we would have in one of those boxy things."
"Yeah, but those boxy things aren't Liisy's Polaris."
*Is this about what happened to the last Stella Polaris?* Bru thought to Dabin.
*I told you, I don't want to talk about that.* Reece retreated mentally, and Bru blew a puff of air from between her lips, upward to remove a few stray strands of hair from her line of vision.
"Don't worry, Dabin. We'll get it back to her without a scratch. All right, we have received clearance to depart, everyone ready? Use the restraints, please." Grace cautioned one last time before the ship broke free of its moorings and began the descent toward the Tri City Tower area of Stra II.
The flight was uneventful, if a little bumpy just as Bru had warned.
"We're being hailed by the Serendipity," Kellyn announced from her seat in the co-pilots chair. She waited a moment to see if either Reece or Dengar would give the order to put the call through, but as they were both preoccupied with planning their actions once they reached the surface, she got tired of waiting and just put it through herself.
"This is the Polaris. Go ahead, Serendipity."
[Captain. . .surface. Potential. . .tunnels. Warning. . .caution.]
Bru and Kellyn frowned at each other. "Well that wasn't very helpful," the Trill remarked.
"Trying to clean up the signal," Kellyn began to fine tune the bandwidth. When she could not seem to clear up the transmission, Rada stepped up behind her.
"May I, Commander Lair?"
"Only if you stop calling me Commander Lair." Kellyn said softly, glancing at Rada sideways. He smiled a little, thinking back to the day that they'd met, when she insisted off the bat that he call her Kellyn.
It seemed that as much as everything else around them had changed since that day, at least one thing had not.
He reached over her shoulder to the controls, giving her a little nod of acknowledgement. Then he focused on his task, and a moment later asked the Serendipity to repeat the message.
[Captain Zanh wishes to warn all Away Teams about potential dangers on the surface. Use extreme caution if you enter the tunnels. Serendipity out.]
"Wow. Could that have been any less specific?" Dabin complained with an eye roll as he folded his arms over his chest.
"Well, we know two things we didn't know before at least," Kellyn replied. "One, that the Strasa do have more going on in those tunnels beneath the city than they want to admit, and two, that while they may be partners of the Federation in business affairs. . ." her voice trailed off.
". . .we had better not trust them." Rada concluded. All exchanged glances, as the shuttle began its final approach toward their designated landing coordinates.
As soon as the Polaris set down, February unstrapped from her seat and stood. "Well, that wasn't such a bad ride after a-."
Just as the words left her lips, she was jolted violently. The ground beneath the very ship seemed to be collapsing, and they were moving downward.
*Wait,* she thought. *Not collapsing. . .they had us land on a hidden platform. . .*
She skidded across the cockpit and plopped down into Dabin's lap.
"Hiya, Toots!" Dabin wiggled his eyebrows, and February blushed, hurrying to try to get up.
*Behave,* She thought, internally giggling though she was trying not to let it show.
*I always behave.*
Soon, the ship once again came to a stop. All heard the sound of metallic clangs and whirrs as the platform came to a rest, and finally, they heard a voice speak over the comm.
"Um, hello. Anyone there?"
February stepped back to the controls and replied. "Yes. This is Lt. February Grace, piloting the Stella Polaris. I've brought the Starfleet engineering command team to assist you."
[Please, open the hatch, it is safe to disembark now. Please. . . wait for a party to meet you before moving beyond the platform.]
"He sounded a bit nervous for my liking," Kellyn commented, as she began strapping on her tool belt and hoisted a small portable energy generator from the deck. Reece insisted on taking it from her, as Rada hefted two more units himself, one in each hand.
"I wonder what's really going on around here," February felt a chill go through her. Something she couldn't explain, it was almost as though Grace was telling her to be on her guard, something here was just. . . off.
"We'll find out soon enough." Dabin sighed, gathering up as many supplies as he could carry and leading the way toward the hatch, and whatever lay beyond it.
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Lt. February Grace
Senior Flight Controller
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. February Grace
Senior Flight Controller
USS Serendipity NCC-2012