“Cadet’s Log – [Supplemental] – Dad… erm… Captain Hunter came to meet cadets Murphy, Tang and I at the Stinsfor Academy, to take us to Starbase Bravo, for the beginning of our third year exams. The four of us are now in the runabout ‘Gurney’ – one of my favourite places as a child, where I would often find myself running off and sneaking into the runabout, where I’d pretend I was a rescue pilot… just like my dad.”

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Cadet Thomas Hunter looks up from his PADD and looks around the runabout interior. His best friend and adopted brother, Victor Murphy is sitting in the chair opposite him, deconstructing a tricorder and tinkering with its mechanical innards. Sally Tang, the last member of the team is quietly sitting next to Victor and following the movements of the runabout, her hands dancing, as she inputs the commands on an imaginary control panel. The Gurney itself is following a predetermined flight path from the flight academy, where the cadets have been living and training for the past ten months, away from the moon of Stinsfor, and into an orbit around the planet of Mellstoxx VI, in order to avoid its complex ring system, before a home straight to  Starbase Bravo, which is in a fixed orbit of Mellstoxx III.

Thomas rises from his chair in the rear of the command pod and sits up front with his father, looking out at the stars, “Thanks for this, Dad. I know you’re busy with the Nightingale though. How’s everything going there?” – “The Blackout hit us hard. Trying to get to as many systems as possible. Trying to help people – get them food, water, medical attention… it was all but impossible.” Captain Hunter looks at the flight path projected on his console screen and a tiny rebellious grin comes to his face, “Wanna take the Gurney for a spin? – Thomas nods, and the same smile appears, “Guys, we’re gonna open her up a little bit and hopefully cut a few minutes off our time… Thomas, if you would please do the honours.”

He takes a deep breath, then cracks his knuckles and begins pressing buttons, as if by pure instinct – “Plotting a path through the asteroid field” – The flight path appears on the main viewer as a tactical display, “Switching to manual control.” – The Captain veers off course, taking the Gurney towards Mellstoxx VI’s asteroid field. “Activating evasive setting ‘Loggins-One’ – increasing power to the navigational deflector and manoeuvring thrusters and buffing the inertial dampeners, just to make sure.” The Gurney approaches the field at full impulse and begins bobbing and weaving and twisting and turning in a poetic spiral dance around the asteroids, getting through the first layer, leading to the much more densely-packed inner-ring of the asteroid field. Thomas scans the area, but can’t find a path to the other side, “Dad, we have a problem, there’s no way through, we’ll have to fly over.” The Captain ignores his son’s warning and continues moving forward.

“Cadet Murphy, I need you on tactical,” – Victor quickly puts his gadgets down and rushes to the tactical station, “I’m in the chair, Captain, what do you need?” – Victor logs into the tactical console, which gives him access to the weapons display. “Bringing the weapons online, charging phasers and photon torpedoes – targeting sensors online and calibrated.” Victor targets a cluster of asteroids and fires the Gurney’s phasers, obliterating them. The Captain circles round, to avoid crashing into the asteroids. “Victor bring those phasers down to ten percent power, they’re only space-rocks, and take the torpedoes offline, we won’t need them.”

Victor reduces the phaser’s strength and fires at another cluster of asteroids, destroying them and allowing the runabout to blast its way through the field, until they finally emerge on the other side, to see the gas giant of Mellstoxx VI. Thomas conducts another sensor sweep, relocating Starbase Bravo, re-establishing a flight path and placing a navigational marker on the main viewer to assist in flying through the gas giant, before redistributing power once again, “Shields and sensors aren’t gonna help in that gas giant, so I’m taking them offline and increasing power to the engines and structural integrity.” Captain Hunter flies the Gurney into the planet’s atmosphere at full impulse, flying past an ore processing station and the cargo ships, aiming for the nav marker, until the runabout passes through the gas giant at such an angle that it misses the asteroid field on the other side of the planet. “Don’t worry, cadets, we won’t be flying through the field again… we’re on the home stretch – Thomas, let the station know, we’re on our way.”

Thomas contacts the station, letting them know of their arrival, “Runabout Gurney, this is Starbase Bravo Operational Communications Center, what’s the purpose of your arrival? The Captain takes over the comms, as the runabout approaches, “OppsComm, this is Captain Nickolas Hunter, I have some third-year cadets taking part in their finals, I also have a meeting with Admiral Belvedere concerning a private matter of galactic importance.” Onboard the station, the communications officer verifies the Gurney’s flight itinerary and checks with the auxiliary craft coordinator for an available landing pad. “Gurney, we are sending you to pad-10 in hangar bay three of sector Golf-One-Cyan – prepare for auto-docking procedure.” The Captain brings the runabout to a halt tells the cadets to grab their gear and prepare for departure

The Gurney’s autopilot engages and it begins to fly towards the station’s upper levels, where it balances out and decreases its speed to using only the manoeuvring thrusters to pass through the forcefield into one of the many hangar bays, and then continues to touch down on landing pad ten. 

“Welcome to Starbase Bravo… ”

To Be Continued… 

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