'Safe Passage'

Posted on Fri Jul 22nd, 2011 @ 9:42am by Lieutenant JG Martin Cook

Mission: The Fate of the Swiftsure
Location: Deck 1, Bridge
Timeline: MD08 0900 hrs

'Chief Flight Control Officer's log, stardate 65155.21. It's coming up to two whole days since we first entered the 'Safe' passage. I use this word losely as it has been anything but. I've been on a strict shift pattern with Petty Officer Tom Cook, taking it in turns to lead us through the expanse. Though not an officer, Tom has shown improvement during this test of our piloting skills. He's taken to the challenge well.'

'As for myself. It's been no cake-walk. The energy ribbons are in constant flux and you have to stay alert otherwise you'll feel it when you pass through one. It's been good to have a chance to 'show off', so to speak. However I find myself and Tom to be the only audience who can appreciate the skill involved. It has been a lonely affair. However, I'm just about to start alpha shift and should complete the journey. Hopefully it won't be long until I can finally relax.'


Martin tapped twice on the computer panel for good measure, completing his log entry. The last two days had been long twelve hour shifts for him and Petty Officer Tom Cook, but they were, by their own estimates, nearly finished. Martin hadn't seen a familiar face for sometime, as it had been days since he had been able to spend time socialising with the crew. He could thank the 'Safe Passage' for that. Under orders, Martin had to spend time with his staff planning and preparing for this marathon of piloting. It was an interesting place to view. The blue and gold colours, intricately dancing around each other. It was beautiful, but dangerous.

He looked at himself one more time in the mirror, adjusting his commbadge as he did so, before heading out of the sliding doors to his quarters. Martin marched down the corridor, nodding to the odd face he had seen pass him by in the past few days. It was becoming routine. As he reached the turbolift a young woman with a teal collar stepped out and greeted him as she passed him by.

"Morning lieutenant," said the young woman.

Martin could only nod and smile, as he wasn't fully awake yet.

He stepped inside the turbolift. "Deck one, bridge."

'It ends today, it ends today...' he kept telling himself. He did love piloting, but it was becoming a draining experience, staying at full alert for an entire shift. It'll suck the energy clean out of you.

As the turbo lifts doors slid open he widened his sleepy eyes to the bridge, seeing Tom at the helm.

"How was the night shift?" He said as he made his way over to him.

Tom turned his head round to meet his department head. "Not bad sir. A few hard turns but other than that, much easier than the first night."

Martin smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Good job, I'll take over then. Make sure you remember to bring me your full report later."

"Aye sir," the young petty officer remarked before leaving the helm and exiting the bridge.

Martin watched as the other helmsman left the bridge before sitting down, taking control of the Iapetus. 'So.. where were we?..', he said quietly to himself. He moved his hands across the panel display infront of him, bringing up the recent flight log. The flight log display showed all course corrections made in the past few hours, but could also be adjusted to show a longer time period than a few hours.

"Computer show the entire flight path record for the last twelve hours."

With a small beeping sound, the computer complied and displayed the full flight history for the past shift. Martin went through the list of course corrections, to get a better position on where they were. His eyes scanned the information infront of him showing him that they had made significant progress, but possibly had missed out on a window to accelerate the journey. He wasn't surprised Tom hadn't taken it. He was the sort of person who'd rather take the sure route than take the risk for a big gain. Martin however, was the kind of officer who could, and has gone for glory before. He sat back in the chair, feeling like it was a chance lost. He would've been in much higher spirits if the turbolift doors had opened to reveal normal space in the viewscreen, but at least they had made progress.


------------ Five hours later -------------


Martin was by now, for all intents and purposes, bored. So much so he was resting his chin in his palm as he made the odd course correction on the flight controls. For the first two hours, he was wide alert, looking for another possible chance to get out of this 'tunnel' a little quicker. Alas he waited, and waited. Nothing came up. He even started banking the ship left and right for no other reason but to keep him from getting stiff.

It was now his mind was starting to wander to his next day off and what he planned to do. So far? Nothing at all. Except to get a few extra hours in bed. However he was fully aware he had agreed to be shown some dance steps from Elena, but wasn't sure if she'd choose that moment to strike. As he stared at the view screen, he came to see what the description of the tunnel actually meant. The energy pillars did seem to be spiraling pillars of blue and gold energy. As if they were locked in some kind of waltz together. It definately was a pretty sight. At least it was two shifts ago.


------------ Two hours later ------------

A beep from the console caused Martin to break from his bad posture and sit upright in his chair. When he started his shift, he had programmed the flight controls to seek out any 'short cuts' that he could potentially pull off. The computer had found one such short cut.

Martin was now back to a full state of alert. He banked the ship hard right towards the trajectory the computer advised. However, the screen went blank. Back to a state of 'searching' for a new course to take. It didn't take the new helmsman long to realise the gap had closed, and the computer had deemed it 'too risky'. However, Martin was better than the computer at flying the ship, or at least so he thought. So he continued on course, deactivating the 'pilots assistant' in the process. Others would've considered this wreckless but Martin wasn't a rookie pilot. He knew how to pilot a starship.

Between him and the exit waypoint were four pillars. One directly in the path, the other in orbit of the other two, encircling each other like a tornado, back on Earth. He increased the speed of the ship to three quarters impulse. The sudden increase of speed caused a significant increase in the hum from the engines.

The first pillar drew close, causing Martin to adjust the heading to 320 degrees, bringing the ship past the left of the first pillar.

"One down."

The twisting pillars rotated infront of him, luckily the fourth was now on his port side and wouldn't get back around in time to cause him much of a problem. This however was the tricky part. He had to use his instincts to get himself through these two powerful currents of energy. He waited until they were both horizontal to each other before taking the ship between them. Martin immediately cut the power in the engines to one quarter impulse, allowing one of the pillars to pass the ship by before he increased the speed to full impulse, slamming on the throttle, so to speak, bringing the Iapetus clear of the last energy pillar towards the opening to normal space. It was only then did he take into account the expressions on the faces of the staff on the bridge at that time.

He tapped the comm panel infront of him, feeling a rush of pride come over himself.


"Lieutenant Cook to the Captain, we'll be clearing the passage in the next five minutes"


He then brought the ships engines down to cruising speed and plotted a course through the exit.