Take a Little Trip With Me...

Posted on Thu Aug 9th, 2012 @ 7:47pm by Ignatius Reilly & Admiral Ricky Wegener

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant

Rick had grown a bit restless in the past weeks. Sure, 900 was the epitome of 'immense', but there was still something to be said about putting your feet down on solid ground. And it just so happened that 900 was orbiting a nice, big planet full of solid ground, so he decided on the spur of the moment to take a little trip. It was, after all, his right as CO of the base to come and go as he pleased. Sure, when he told Li she almost demanded that he take a security entourage with him, which he quickly waved off.

"I'm just going down to visit the troops on Archadia," he'd said. "They've been down there a while and I thought they would benefit with a little recognition in their efforts." He smiled, then added, "Oh, and I'm taking a shuttle down. Thought I might ask Oz if Iggy wouldn't mind a little wandering about."

Li glared at him, more surprised than anything. Possibly that he wanted to take a shuttle, instead of just beaming down, but probably more to the fact that he wanted to take the station's resident behemoth of a spider down with him. Then there was the recent bomb, and the kidnapping of Jackson and Cassidy.

"What?" he shrugged. "Can't I indulge my own interests once in a while?" he said as he walked out of her office.

He could hear her groan as he doors slid closed.


* * * Deck 116, Flight Deck * * *

Rick had walked onto the flight deck with Iggy on his back. Several crewmembers had literally dropped their tools or walked into shuttles, tripping themselves, at the sight of the large arachnid. The Vice Admiral paid them no mind as he was busy chatting it up with Iggy.

"And this is the flight deck," he said. "Since humanoids cannot survive in space without oxygen, we require ships to help get us from one place to another still alive."

Before she could answer, he waved the deck lieutenant over. "Lieutenant Bales," he said. "I require a shuttlecraft. My friend and I will be going to the planet."

Bales just stood there, his mouth agape. Rick snapped his fingers a few times in front of his face. "Lieutenant? Are you well?"

"Are you well, Admiral?" the stunned lieutenant asked.

"I sent a message to all hands just two weeks ago about my friend here," Rick said, his patience wearing thin. "If you haven't had the time to read the administrative messages from your Commanding Officer I suspect I can find someone to replace you so that you may do so." He liked to be cordial with all of his crew, but it was getting tiresome having to remind them about Iggy.

The man snapped to. "Uh, no, sir! I do seem to recall that message, sir. But, a shuttle..." he said turning around. "Wilking is just clearing one up now, ready for service, and I can have it ready to go in mere moments, if you'll not mind waiting a bit?"

"Not at all, Lieutenant," Rick said, noticing Iggy turning every-which-way on his back, probably taking in everything she could.

Using sticky silk from the ends of her tarsi, Iggy was hanging onto the Admiral in various positions. At the moment, as he spoke with the Bales, she crawled halfway onto his head, clinging to his hair, so that she could get a higher perspective on the flight deck. It is all so large!, she enthused, awed. She couldn’t really see everything - her vision was really good for only about twenty feet in any given direction; but, like many myopics, she could tell that the blurry blobs of grey metal out there were much, much larger than her terrarium in Oz’s quarters. Tasting the air, the large arachnid shuddered and added, Very mechanical here. You bi-peds built all of these? By yourselves?

“Yes, essentially,” Rick replied. “We actually built machines that can create almost anything for us. Those machines make the parts we need for these shuttles and we put them together.”

Bales hurried away from Ricky and what he considered the eight-legged nightmare, vanishing on the far side of a shuttle. He tapped the side and spoke quickly to a crewman there. “Wilking, the Admiral is taking this one out. Did you make the adjustments as I gave them to you?”

Wilking withdrew his head from within the open panel and nodded. “Yes sir, everything’s just as ordered.” He closed the panel and proceeded to seal it up.

“Very good. I know I told you we were keeping this one off rotation for a little while, but as the admiral is ready to go, let him have it.”

Wilking nodded and began to pack away his tools, then entered to get the shuttle started up.

“It’s all ready Admiral Wegener, right this way.” Bales shot another wary glance at Iggy, then turned and led the way to the shuttle.

Will we go faster than light, Admiral?, Iggy, still clinging to the Admiral’s shoulder with half her body and the hair on the left side of his head with the other half of her legs, asked.

“Hmmmm,” he said aloud. “I had only planned on going down to the planet below us, which wouldn’t require it.” He found that he had to explain most things in his answers for Iggy to keep her from having to ask follow-up questions. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. “But, since you seem so interested in it, maybe a little trip around the block wouldn’t hurt.”

What block? We will take a little trip and see... what? Somehow, she’d managed to turn and twist in such a manner that her pedipalps and fangs - those inch-long, very pointy fangs of hers - were a quarter inch away from the Admiral’s cheek. This put her primary-eyes-to-eye with him.

He often forgot that Iggy wasn't used to colloquialisms, slang--other than cursing, or euphemisms and the like. "Sorry, Iggy. That refers to a city block which was, or is, an area in a city where houses and businesses were clustered. It was like a square and people would walk or take a vehicle 'around the block'." He smirked. "I know, it doesn't really mean anything now, especially out here. It's just a saying that we sometimes use."

He walked toward the shuttlecraft. "But to answer your other question, we would see some stars and, eventually, we'll land on the planet. I wasn't sure if you'd ever actually been on a planet before, so I thought you might want to come along."

A planet! Iggy’s excitement spilled over. Were she a dog, she’d be dashing in circles, eager to get on the shuttle and get going. As a spider, though, she simply shuddered. I do not know if I have been on a planet before. Oralia told me I was given to her by a Ferengi, but she didn’t mention where.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy it," he said. "I know how much you enjoy experiencing new things. Archadia has all sorts of different smells and places for you to check out, BUT--" he said, "Oz has made me swear upon my position as an Admiral, and on my honor, that I will not allow you to leave my sight." He turned to look at her on his shoulder. "Will you follow those rules?"

Iggy was silent for a long moment, long enough that the Admiral reached the shuttle. She is rather bossy, ordering the Big Kahuna around. When Rick stopped before getting on the shuttle, though, she acquiesced, Fine, I will stay within your sight, Admiral. Promise.

It was a smallish shuttle, not exactly runabout size but it was roomy. Rick had carried a sizeable containment box, the only other requirement that Oz had for him in traveling with Iggy. He called over one of the deck hands and handed it to him. It was, essentially, a travel box for her should the shuttle encounter any major turbulence or in the event of an accident. Otherwise, with her outer body being fairly thin, she could be crushed easily. The hand secured the box just behind the pilot and co-pilot seat.

"Okay, we're ready to go," he said. "For now you will be fine sitting there." He pointed to the co-pilot seat. "You remember what Oz said about your box, so you know when to get into there."

Yes. I recall what happened the last time Oralia had me on a shuttle. I was smaller then but I lost two legs, she commented as she settled into the co-pilot’s seat. The box was close enough to her that she could slide into it easily, should the need arise.

Rick began his pre-flight check, which only took a few moments, and soon the door was closed and the shuttle was sealed to the outside. "Here we go," he said as the shuttle lifted off the deck and headed towards the force field that kept the inside in and the outside out.

And just like that, they were floating along in space, propelled by the sub-light engines of the shuttlecraft. "What do you say about that?" Rick said, an enormous grin spread across his face. "This is one of the best feelings. Getting to fly your own ship around in space, going wherever you want to go..." His voice trailed off as he enjoyed himself at the controls.

Iggy didn’t think it polite, so she kept to herself the thought that it didn’t feel any different, to her, than being on the Station. The vibration of the shuttle was stronger, sharper, than the Station, but she knew the bi-peds rarely felt those anyway. As the Admiral turned the little shuttle, the mammoth structure of the Station eclipsed all else from the viewscreen. Iggy stared at it. That? That is where we live? I am incredibly small, am I not?

"My dear Iggy, we all are."

They whipped around the station several times, giving her a better view of just exactly where it was that they resided, then he steered toward the wormhole for a good view of it. After almost an hour, he finally said, "Okay, I think it's time we got to the planet."

The planet! Is it as big as the Station?

"Tell me what you think," he said as the shuttle turned to show Archadia, backlit from one of the suns, and Starbase 900 in front of it. "The station is enormous, but most planets put even our station to shame in terms of size."

The view was incredible and Iggy was utterly awestruck. It took her several minutes to finally take it all in and move on to another question. Next stop: we land? And then we can go for a walk?

"Absolutely," he said. "I have to visit some of my people on the planet, see how they're doing, inquire if they need anything, but other than that I thought that we might be able to just wander around and see what we could find."

This is so excellent! Big Kahuna, you rock! Iggy did a small bounce up and down in her seat.

As Ricky turned the shuttle and prepared to enter Archadia’s atmosphere, the shuttle gave a slight lurch, just as Iggy began to bounce. The instruments all read normal, however.

Did I do that? Iggy stopped bouncing and held very still. She could feel a difference in the shuttle’s vibrations but had no clue what the change meant.

"Um, no," he said, now a bit distracted with the way the shuttle was starting to dance around, despite the fact that the instruments all read normal. "That was not you, Iggy. Something's wrong with the shuttle."

It then began bucking wildly, almost throwing Rick out of his seat. "The box, Iggy! Get in the box!" he demanded as he opened a frequency to 900. "Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is shuttle Slovenia declaring an emergency." He didn’t have to tell Iggy twice - she was in the box and bracing herself before he finished saying ‘box’ a second time.

"Shuttle Slovenia, this is flight ops. Our telemetry shows your board as all green. Can you advise?"

"Damn the telemetry!" he said as he looked back to see if Iggy was in her box. "Use your sensors. She's bucking all over the place. My panel reads normal as well, but we're being tossed like--"

A massive surge tossed the shuttle ass-over-teakettle as the inertial dampeners began to fail and now, finally, warnings sounded. "Shiiiiit!" he said.

Oh hell no! Iggy chimed in with the Admiral’s cursing.

Rick grunted as he strained to keep ahold of the panel to try and bring some semblance of order to the shuttle's flight path. But as of now, they were dropping like a stone towards Archadia.

"900, I've lost all control. Inertial dampeners are at twenty percent, shields are failing--may not have enough to make it through the atmosphere."

As he finished, another large surge ran through the ship, this time pushing her nose up and allowing him to keep it there. The dampeners increased to fifty-two percent, enough for him to spring back upright in the chair and give the little ship orders to try and level out. If they lost their shields altogether, they would burn up on entry into the atmosphere. But if he could keep the nose up, he could possibly save the ship, along with himself and Iggy, by entering the atmosphere like the old space shuttles on Earth used to do. "Nose up," he remembered, letting the bottom of the shuttlecraft take the brunt of the heat.

My nose? I do not have a nose!, came a response from the spider in the box. The changes in vibrations and directions was a bit much for Iggy. She couldn’t tell up from down or left from right any more. Quickly, she madly went to work, hoping what she was doing wouldn’t be necessary.

"Shuttle Slovenia, you are out of range of the tractor beam. We are dispatching fighters to your location to try and help your descent."

"Make it damn fast, flight!" he yelled into the comm.

Despite Iggy's comments being sent directly to Rick's mind, he barely registered what she'd been saying. "Just...just stay in the damn box, Iggy!" He tapped furiously at the controls. "Stay in the box!"

Iggy was silently working, distracting herself from the confusing signals coming from her environment.

The shuttle's engine silently sputtered out. They dropped like a stone. "God...dammit!" Rick yelled. "Flight, no propulsion! Where are those fighters?"

A new voice broke in. "Tank-niner-two to Shuttle Slovenia. Just off your starboard. Austin-three-seven is on your port side. We'll try to bring you into our warp bubble and arrest your descent to the planet's surface. Stand by."

"Thank christ," Rick said. "Iggy, it's gonna' get a little bumpy. Sorry your first ride sucked so bad."

Yes. It was scary.

They both felt a sudden surge of forward motion as the fighters managed to get 'grab' the shuttle and slowly take her down toward the surface of Archadia. Both had extended their warp bubbles and shields to allow for this, but the interior suddenly went black. All power was now gone from the shuttle. That meant that the inertial dampeners were also off line.

"Fuck..." Rick said as he held on tight, feeling his stomach do flip-flops as he rose four inches out of the chair.

He tapped his comm-badge. "All power gone from the shuttle! Ease up on the descent or I'll lose my lunch--" he glanced back at Iggy's box, "and possibly my passenger!"

He had remembered what Oz had said about Iggy's outer shell and how fragile it was. If they zipped on down to the planet at normal speed she would be flattened against the top of her box.

"Slow, dammit! Snail's pace or we'll lose her!"

I feel floaty! And you have not given me any beer! Admiral! Iggy sounded a touch panicked, which she was. But she was in her special place and the cessation of mechanical vibrations from the shuttle was a relief, even if there were still bumps and jolts from the fighters’ attempts to slow them down.

"We're working on it, sir." the lead fighter's pilot said over the comm. Fighters aren't meant for snail's pace. Sorry, sir."

"Fuck this," Rick said. "900, lock on to my signal, and that of the box just behind the co-pilot's seat, with the life form inside, and beam us out. Tank-niner-two, when we're out, make sure the shuttle is over an unpopulated area and drop it. We'll fish it out later."

"900 flight copies, sir. One moment."

Inside her box, Iggy screamed as the transporter took hold of her and whisked her, and the Admiral, off the failing shuttle. She kept screaming, even after the transporter had released them on SB900.

When they reappeared, they were on deck 5, Command and Control. "Iggy!" Rick snapped. "We're safe. Knock it off." He leveled a gaze at the security staff. "Notify Oz that Iggy is here and to retrieve her. You two," he pointed, "come with me."

He marched out of the room to the lift and snapped, "Flight deck!"

Iggy went quiet immediately. Admiral?

“No, Ignatius, you’re safe. I’m Ganesh,” a face peered into Iggy’s box and crumpled in confusion. “What the hell...?”

___________________________
Ignatius J. Reilly
Not Going Faster Than Light

V.Admiral Ricky Wegener
Not Pleased About That Trip