Canyon Rim
This wide rocky shelf overlooks a magnificent vista -- a canyon many hundreds of feet deep, and so wide that the other side is hazy and indistinct. A wide river cuts the bottom of the canyon in two, supplying life to the thick forest below.
Wind and rain have eroded the edge of this canyon to a wide rock shelf where nothing grows. Some distance from the edge a thick treeline musters, holding back the encroaching rock.
A gleaming silver shape has settled onto the rocky shelf, its skin burned and blackened in numerous places.
Arielle reclines back at the Sciences station on the bridge, one of the few things that still works 100%, crosses his arms behind his head. "This world might as well be dead."
Thorian looks up from where he is fiddling with some torn apart console.."Why do you say that?"
Arielle gestures toward the console. "Look at this. There's no comm traffic, practically no EM readings, and precious little in the way of developed land in scanning radius."
Thorian twiddles some delicate wires.."Some would call that a paradise."
Arielle shakes his head, "Paradise? I doubt it! Have you seen the life readings out there? There's so much indigenous life that the scanners can't resolve it to individuals."
Arielle swivels his chair around and hits a few buttons, "Not that the scanners are working worth a damn right now anyway."
Thorian grins wryly.."Exactly my point, my friend." A few more twiddles and the console suddenly hums to life.
Arielle looks over his shoulder, "Thanks, Cap'n...but I like a little quieter night life than I'm likely to get here. Someplace calm and understandable...like a casino, maybe."
Thorian winks, looking over at Arielle. "I can imagine just the little dive you'd like, too."
Arielle grins, "Hey..hey. Sadee runs a very clean house. The dealers don't cheat too much and the drinks aren't watered."
Thorian ahs softly, closing off the console.."Good old Sadee. I think she's been around longer than dirt sometimes."
Arielle chuckles and turns back to the station, resetting the scanners to search for signs of ships. "You know...this has got to be pointless. We're so far out of the trade routes that no one is ever going to hear the beacon."
Thorian rubs his ear thoughtfully. "Perhaps. But we have to try anyway. At least we won't starve while we wait."
Arielle nods, "This is true. Damage isn't so bad we can't get off the ground, either. It'll just take a while...which gives us time to hunt for the others."
Thorian nods grimly. "We can't forget why we are here."
Arielle looks around the bridge, "Not likely, Cap'n. Not likely."
Down on the surface, a small group of intrepid explorers pick their way through a brush forest on their way to a cliff a couple of miles distant.
Thorian says, "Any luck with the science station?"
Arielle nods and grins, "Oh yeah...I had it workin' 'bout 20 minutes ago. That's why I'm taking a break."
The leader of the explorers, a young rabbit, urges the rest of the group along, tracing along a set of 'paths' that barely really exist except as less dense foliage.
Thorian lobs a small metal spanner at Arielle.."Think yer smart, do ya? Well git off yer tail and do some scans of the surrounding area."
Arielle catches the spanner and chuckles. "Sure thing." He turns back to the station and starts to program some of the secondary scanners.
A young chipmunk male, dressed in robes and looking at the forest around him follows behind the rabbit. A stuffy looking older deer and a flier of some sort are behind them.
Thorian lifts off another console cover and begins to reconnect a few loose wires.
The rabbit hacks away at one of the bushes with a machete, then whews and puts it away. She turns to wait as the rest catch up to her.
Arielle finishes his program and gets up, grabbing a tool kit. "While I'm outside, I'm going to see if there's anything that can be done for the scanners. Maybe work on getting the resolution back up to normal."
The deer, Gerald Flattail, one of the minor members of the Haven council snorts as he catches up and glares at the chipmunk and says in an annoyed tone, "Are the scholar mages SURE this is necessary? Why, after a millennia, would our mysterious forebears, the "Spacers" come back now? And why land all the way out here?"
Thorian nods. "Gotcha."
Thorian says, "Take a weapon, Arielle."
The rabbit grins, and bounces a few paces back towards theme. "Aww, where's your sense of adventure?"
Arielle nods and stops off at the weapons locker. "You think I wouldn't?" He waves on the way outside.
Timothy Zabender, the young chipmunk scholar mage nods to the Rabbit, "Yes of course. And the wisdom of the spacers would benefit us greatly."
Arielle takes a deep breath as he steps out, shielding his eyes from the sudden glare. "Eeesh..gimme shipboard lighting any day."
Thorian chuckles softly at his first mate and returns to work on the console, whistling a off-key tune through his teeth.
The deer just snorts again, "I guess the possibility of trade, however remote, requires that this "fallen star" be checked out. But why did the council pick me to go along?"
Arielle shakes his head and ducks under the bow, counting panels. "4...5...That's it. Lesse what's wrong with you today, Baby."
The rabbit, Sylvia, quips "Because of your charming personality?"
Timothy tries not to giggle and interrupts as he ahems, "Well, the sooner we get their, the sooner we can check things out and go home Council Elder. Shall we?"
Arielle tosses his toolkit to the ground and starts unsealing the protective plating. While his fingers work at the familiar task, he scans the rest of the plating in sight, mentally marking off the other places he'll need to check for shock damage.
Gerald Flattail hmmfs, "You just don't know good breeding when you see it."
Sylvia attempts to look innocent, and fails utterly. She spins around fast enough that the sheathed machete shifts outward, then treks down along the path through the less dense brush.
Timothy nods and looks at the last member of the group and says, "Tobias? I hope the walking isn't bothering you too much?"
Arielle opens up the panel and tsks through his teeth. "Damn. No wonder the thing won't work right." He hangs his toolkit from a hook that was obviously designed for just that purpose and reaches into the innards of the ship. With one hand he nudges his commlink, "Hey, Cap'n....We aren't going to be breaking any speed records on the way home...leastwize...not if we want to GET home."
Tobias clacks his beak together before whistling.."No..I'm fine, thank you." He awkwardly strolls over the landscape, clearly ill at ease in his gait.
Sylvia trots along, using her nice big feet and the even bigger boots to make sure the path is good and follow able by those less used to dealing with the wilderness.
Thorian's voice replies over the comm.."This surprises you, Ari? She never was a particularly speedy ship..now less so than ever. "
The motley group continue to make their way towards the cliff, Gerald griping now and then, and being upset that he's being ignored.
Arielle grunts, "Not really..Some of the scanner elements are cracked. We don't have enough replacements for the whole set, either. Looks like we're gonna have to live with the bad resolution.
It's been a rough time for the Chirr'T'Thar. A race built on trade now in a new galaxy with no trading partners. Hundreds of scoutships have been going out to neighboring solar systems, and a few trading arrangements have popped up. One ship is rushing to get a shipment delivered early to make a good impression. A buzzer meows on the bridge.
Thorian's voice chuckles softly over the comm.."That's life. Doubt we'll need fine resolution anyway, there's so much life here it wouldn't do too much anyway."
Arielle reaches up and plucks out a ruined scanner crystal, turning it over in his hand. "This is true, but low res doesn't help us navigate, either."
A tabby felitaur mel folds his wings and pads to the console, "A distress beacon coming from a remote planet? Wonderful, we're not supposed to ignore those, but we have to be on time with this shipment."
The mel thinks a moment and points to a crew member, "You have the bridge. Tell the captain that I'm taking a small scout shuttle to check out a distress beacon. I'll ask Leda to pilot."
Thorian's voice fades in and out as he moves around the bridge.."Briat can fly completely blind, he's done it before. Low res should be easy enough."
The crew member nods, "Sounds best. Take care of yourself Sirius."
A female steps out, in snow-white fur with a few odd black tips along her wings. "Somebody mention my name?"
Sirius nods and grins, "Indeed I did. Want to take a two taur scout ship to check out a distress beacon?"
Arielle shudders, "Cap'n...PLEASE don't remind me about that trip. I still get nightmares."
Sirius pads up to Leda and headrubs, "I need a good pilot who won't mind being away from the main ship for a while."
Leda's face brightens. "Anything to get off this boat! I have never been _SO_ bored in my life."
Thorian laughs softly.."Sorry, Arielle."
Arielle closes up the panel. "I'm coming back in to get the spares."
Sirius scritches behind Leda's ears and purrs, "Well then, make sure the ship is fully fueled and stocked, and I'll get some emergency supplies, assuming it's really a ship in distress we should be prepared."
Leda grins, nods, and runs off at probably about R3, R1 being a 'reasonable' speed, towards the hangar.
Arielle heads inside the ship and starts tearing through the cargo manifest. "Spares...spares..spares...here we are."
Thorian says, "Arielle, what ARE you doing? You sound like a herd of glotmouths."
Arielle tosses the manifest on top of a crate and starts digging.
Sirius chucklepurrs and heads to the engineering storeroom as he watches Leda from behind as she runs off.
Arielle pauses, "Looking for the spare parts for the scanner."
Leda, over enthusiasm aside, is extremely competent and meticulous when it comes to making sure the shuttle is ready. If anything, it's running a couple of percent over nominal once she's ready.
Thorian ahs.."Last crate on the bottom row."
Arielle stops and looks over his shoulder at Thorian, "Only you would remember that."
Sirius pads into the shuttle bay as Leda finishes and chuckles, "Sorry I took so long. Course, knowing you, you took the extra time to polish the thruster exhaust port manifolds. If I'm going to go to a remote planet in a little scout ship, I like having one of our best pilots driving. Ready to shove off Leda?"
Arielle digs out the indicated crate and pries it open. "Well..I can get 'em working to about 30% nominal with these."
Leda nods. "All ready. And just in time, we want to leave in exactly six and a half minutes for the minimal insertion orbit."
Thorian groans.."Can't you squeeze just a little more out of it?"
Arielle looks up. "Yeah. Maybe. Didn't think you cared for the thought of Briat driving blind any more than I did."
Sirius flicks an ear at Leda as he stows the emergency parts supplies securely and then takes his place on the co-pilots couch, letting Leda lead him through the pre flight check.
Thorian growls. "Not likely."
Arielle closes up the crate and stands up. "Well. Lemme go see what I can do with this."
Arielle grins at Thorian. "Don't worry Cap'n. I won't let him kill us."
Leda settles onto the pilot's couch. "All right, pre-flight check sequence... fuel, check; engines running at 101% nominal; ready for drop in ninety seconds."
Sirius nods and grins, noting once again how much Leda likes to fly in space.
Thorian growls again.."Yeah, that's what you said just before he tried to avoid that meteor...and failed."
Arielle shrugs, "I didn't tell him to get drunk like that..." He grins and goes back outside and grumbles while his eyes readjust to the light. A minute later he's buried in the scanner again, carefully replacing and calibrating one crystal at a time.
Leda starts another plot run as she waits for the drop, trying to squeeze another couple of grams out of the fuel usage.
Thorian grumbles to himself for a while and slowly winds down as he finishes the console he's working on.
Sirius chuckles at Leda as his tail tip curls around her thrashing one, appreciating how efficient she is...in everything she does.
Leda gets her attention back just in time for the shuttle to take off... she counts down, and hits the engines with exactly the right thrust at a precise second.
Arielle pauses to run a calibration check on the scanners. While he waits, he scans the tree-line. "I don't think I've ever seen so thick a forest. This place is unreal."
Thorian's voice echoes in the ship..."What was that, Ari?"
Sirius folds his wings tightly and turns his torso around to adjust the tracking scanners, focusing on the distress beacon and purrs, "We'll be in scanning range of the planet in about 20 minutes Leda. Beacon is still loud and clear. Not getting any other type of signal from the planet though. No electromagnetic, gravitic or tachyon emissions other than normal background."
Arielle calls out, "Huh? Oh...nothing. Just complaining about all the trees."
Leda nods. "Odd, that. We getting any signs of life at all?"
Sirius shrugs, "At this distance scanners can't be sure, but the atmosphere and other conditions are just fine, so they should be able to live, assuming there are survivors. I'll get a clear sensor scan in another 10 minutes."
Thorian replies.."All right. Just checking."
Leda nods. "All right. Got a close trace on the beacon now, better triangulation on the surface. Making a course correction in five, four, three, two, one." The shuttle bounces slightly as there's a light touch that increases the angle of attack. "We should be fine until we hit the atmosphere."
Arielle leans back into the scanner and adjusts another of the components.
Sirius nods and blinks, "Wow. Scanner report is in Leda. Plenty of life. No sign of civilization at all though. No EM fields, heck, not even any pollution from a primitive culture."
Leda leans over to look at the display, ignoring that she could probably bring it up on her screen. "Not bad. Could live for years in a place like that if worst came to worst."
Thorian appears at the hatch, a small package in hand.."Ari, want some grub? Catch!"
Arielle catches the package, "Thanks Cap...always thinking about your friends, huh?"
Sirius wiggles his whiskers for a moment and then purrs, "Maybe we can snag some local game before we leave. Give the crew something to look forward to, as the Qataki don't allow us to hunt on their planet."
Leda nods. "Fresh meat. Some of the guys would be willing to take on half the ship for that."
Thorian grins. "Yeah, that's it. Always thinking of my friends."
Sirius purrchuckles, "And most of the "gals" too Leda."
Leda chuckles, and nods.
Arielle tears open the food and takes a bite, setting the package off to the side. "'ppreciate it, Cap'n."
A light breeze blows by on the cliff, carrying the scent of the food downwind.
Sirius grins and then dead pans, "Course, as we're outnumbered, the females would just take it all."
Thorian says, "Anytime, Arielle."
Leda says, equally dead pan, "And do you have a problem with that?"
Sirius smirks, "Why no. Females are much calmer and almost safe to approach when they are well fed."
Arielle smiles and pokes his head and arms back into the ship.
Thorian returns back inside the ship.^
Meanwhile, back on the ground, Sylvia is still acting as a cheering section as well as a trailblazer. "Come on, guys, I'm doing the hard part here. See, barely half a mile to go now."
Leda smiles back to Sirius, and nods happily as shs turns back to her console. "Should be hitting the outer atmosphere soon."
Timothy grins at Sylvia and just sighs at the dour deer walking behind, he gives Tobias another look, but the avian seems to be doing ok.
Sirius purrrowwls and nods, then purrs, "In about 2 minutes 'captain'."
Tobias stumbles a bit as he is distracted by a small flying creature, but rights himself quickly.
Leda grins. "And don't you forget it."
Arielle finishes with the last of the spares and heads back inside the ship, leaving his toolkit (and dinner) outside. "Hey, Cap'n. Did that clear things up any?
Sirius's whiskers twitch, "I won't. But stop telling the rest of the crew that the ships engineer "serves under you". It's confusing the ensigns to no end. ;)"
Thorian growls softly from his position at one of the main consoles.."Marginally. Hrm. It'll have to be enough."
Arielle moves over to the science station and grimaces. "I think I can get a little better out of it. Take a lot longer though."
Leda grins, then grabs onto the controls as the ship jerks back from its first serious impact with the atmosphere. "Good... near-optimal angle. No bounce."
Arielle furrows his brow and touches some buttons on the scanners, "Hey...Cap. You know how I said that nobody was gonna hear the beacon?"
Thorian says, "Yeah?"
Sirius swivels his torso back around to his station and purrs, "Hull temperature rising within normal ranges. Ah, someone near the beacon just scanned us, so unless it's automated we should have someone alive there."
Arielle shakes his head, "I was wrong. Got an unidentified ship slipping into upper atmosphere."
Leda nods. "Great. I hope they appreciate us going off schedule for them."
Thorian erks and comes over to look over Arielle's shoulder.."Well I'll be..who would've thought? Are they heading for us?"
Sirius nods, "The cargo will get there on time, we'll just have to play catch up with the main ship, or wait till they head back. I have the ship, it's not severely damaged. It's near a cliff face. We should be able to land on the side of the ship away from the forest there."
Arielle runs a plot. "Looks like it. Plus or minus a few miles. Scanners can't be more sure than that, but there's nothing else around but us."
Leda nods. "Gotcha. You got good site co-ordinates?"
Sirius purrs, "In a moment."
Sirius finishes and then sends the coordinates to Leda's console.
Thorian nods.."Well, let's get prepared. Lock down the systems and let's give them a welcome. No shooting but on my orders, you hear?"
Leda starts up a couple of simulation runs, then just gets back to holding the ship as stable as possible through the upper atmosphere winds.
Arielle looks innocent. "Shooting? Who said anything about shooting?"
Thorian lightly baps Arielle's ear. "NO shooting! Listen this time."
Arielle starts to lock down the system, turning the beacon down to a much quieter positional indicator. "All right! All right! I won't shoot at anything!"
Sirius continues to check the landing site with sensors and hmms, "Well, they've toned down the beacon, and they should be able to see our con-trail by now."
Thorian growllaughs.."I hope not. We don't want trouble to interfere with why we are here."
Arielle looks at the sciences station, "Touchdown in just a few minutes. Want me to run a scan on 'em?"
Leda nods. "Not as if we're easy to miss with the heat and ion trail we're leaving behind us."
Sirius's tail is twitching as he sends updated landing coordinates to Leda, knowing she likes the BEST possible site.
Thorian shakes her head.."No, hold off. It might be taken as hostile."
Arielle nods and tries to get what passive info he can from the damages scanners. "I got a long range visual...And I've never seen it before."
Leda makes light adjustments while in the upper atmosphere... at this speed, the barest touch on the control surfaces can shift you for miles on the ground. She finally lets out a breath and relaxes as they push through... "Velocity low enough for the air brakes, hang on to your seat."
Sirius purrhumms softly, "No problem. You know I like a rough ride now and then. ;) I wonder what they are like? In some ways, being in a new galaxy IS an adventure."
Thorian leans over and peers at the screen.."Me neither. Interesting."
Arielle taps the screen. "Well, we'll just have to wait and see who's on board."
The ship is sleek in an almost sensual way, though parts of it seem to be over built. It's about 25 feet long and 15 feet wide and about 10 deep.
Leda nods, and hits reverse thrusters briefly, bringing out the control surfaces... the shuttle brakes down to a planetary cruising speed quite quickly.
Arielle nods. "Looks like a good approach. Whoever is flying that thing may be as good as Briat."
Thorian hrms and nods.."That's some good flying."
Down wind, on the other side of the forest away from the explorers, the smell of the food pack reaches some bulbous oval noses. As their stomachs start to growl, the pack leader licks his 7 inch fangs and barks some commands, getting the pack moving.
Leda tips the shuttle to one side, braking off the last of the velocity and turning the shuttle around into the clearing with almost no fuel usage, just coasting around into place.
Arielle nods again. "MmmHmm." He looks up, "You gonna get yourself a gun, Cap'n? Or are you gonna let me play at Honor Guard."
Thorian says, "You can be honor guard. Just don't shoot anyone. "
Arielle wrinkles his nose, "Hey...I promised, didn't I?
Sirius watches Leda's landing on the scanners and teases, "Show off. ;)"
Thorian growllaughs.."Yeah, you did."
Arielle gestures toward the hatch, "Shall we?
Timothy calls to Sylvia, "Do you hear something?"
Leda grins, and gives a last, very short retro-burst of the engines right over the designated landing spot, bringing the shuttle briefly to a complete halt about ten feet over the clearing. She hits another button and the landing gear fully folds out as she taps lightly on the thrusters again to keep it from falling _too_ quickly.
Sylvia nods. "Very definitely. And it's coming from above us..."
Thorian nods, straightening his rumpled clothing. "Yes."
Arielle brushes off some dirt and follows Thorian to the hatch.
Sirius breaks out laughing at Leda's seriousness at showing off.
Thorian emerges from the hatch, blinking a bit in the bright light.
Leda looks overly proud of herself. "There. Two point three five gallons under the standard fuel approach."
Tobias blinks up and around at the sound, trying to find the source.
Gerald pulls some more broken branches from his rack and snorts, "What nonsense is this now?"
Sylvia says, "Ummm... guys?" She points upward past the edge of the woods, into the clearing where the new ship is settling in. "I think we have company."
(to be continued... ;)