Shake Rattle and

Posted on Tue Aug 25th, 2020 @ 2:16pm by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

Mission: Welcome Aboard!
Location: Fresno?
Timeline: Before Launch

She stepped beyond the door and looked around the grounds at the various landing pads until her eyes fell upon a shuttle, or at least it resembled what used to be a shuttle, a pre-Kirk era type F shuttle. She stopped in her tracks, dumbfounded. "You came here in that?" Quickly looking at his face beaming with pride she added. "You're braver than I thought."

"Hey, she ain't much to look at but she's got it where it counts." He retorted, slightly deflated. "You need a ride or not?" He moved towards the shuttle as the back hatch opened. Paused as it shuddered just before hitting the ground, then peered in her direction. She was still frozen in place, obviously dumbfounded. "Well, you coming or not?"

Coming quickly to the realization that she had little choice at this juncture she snapped to, took a deep breath, and moved towards the shuttle. He smiled and entered as he started saying something about the ship, but his words fell on deaf ears as she pushed into the doorway. It was the smell which struck her first followed by the state of the interior. Where there would normally be seating for ten plus the pilot and co-pilot, eight of those seats had been removed and in their place a small cooktop bar, a replicator, and what looked like a bed buried under a pile of clothes.

Meanwhile, he carried on, shuffling things here and there to clear a path and talking about something she wasn't fully grasping the meaning of. She was shaking her head in disbelief when he snapped his fingers to get her attention. She blinked. "Didn't expect it to be so wonderful did ya?" He nodded looking around. "Anyway, have a seat wherever but I recommend the front seat as it's the only one with restraints." He then sat down into the pilot's position and began tweaking the buttons.

The hatch hissed, then grunted a metallic noise before lifting slowly onto position. This noise, sealing her in brought her back to reality, a broken frizzle of a reality. She just kept thinking to herself why me? Why was she the one fated for life to draw the short stick, forever locked in eternal luck damnation. As she sat in one of the back seats his voice sounded off again. "You must be feeling pretty lucky right about now." His voice was elevated slightly as Bonnie realized there was a growing hum coming from 150-year-old engines.

Was it supposed to make that noise? Wait! "This is a type F right?" She asked as the whine grew louder still.

"No type D." He rubbed the console like one would stroke a beloved pet. "She's a beaut ain't she?"

Bonnie's eyes grew wide with realization as the shuttle shudder and lifted off the ground, hovered a moment ten feet off then lurched forward. "But they retired that model for defective inertial dampeners didn't they?"

He chuckled, "That's what I was saying before. My paps had them removed when this ole bird was his. I inherited the ole girl." He nodded at a mountain rising in the distance. "Still want to sit in the back?" She nodded. "Suit yourself but you might want to hold onto something she gets shaky at 10 thousand feet or so."

Shaky. Bonnie thought, if she got any more shaky, then what did he think she was doing now? Clutching her bag to her chest Bonnie closed her eyes, took a deep breath and counted backward from 10. The shuttle skimmed the rocky terrain before suddenly rising as if she was using the mountain as a ramping point to launch into the atmosphere. As the scenery disappeared from view and the nose pointed vertical the shuttle jerked and dropped several feet before soaring higher. It was enough of a lurch for Bonnie's bottom to leave the seat causing her to let out a squeal.

He noticed. "If you liked that you'll love the atmospheric transition." He was referring to the transition through the different layers of the atmosphere that most ships and shuttles were well adapted to. She immediately wondered how had this ship survived so long and how much more she could take.

TBC

Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell