Marooned on Giri Minor
Captain Ynthramanni invites you to ride in his shuttle. "It's the most I can do," he says. "Am I correct in understanding that everyone here is calling you 'captain'?"
"It was something that Commander Andrade started," you say. "I am the last surviving member of the transport vessel, so before she left she said I was the captain. I never really expected it to catch on, though. I mean really, I'm just a starman."
The captain regards you for a moment, and then says, "People naturally respond to a leader."
After so much time camping out in the chaotic space of the cargo hold, the clean orderliness of the shuttle interior is a refreshing sight. You step inside, with Yiggy and Easa holding each of your hands. But when the kids see a sack of fresh oranges on one of the shuttle's seats, they let go and run for the fruit.
"Help yourself!" the captain says. "There will be plenty more to eat when we reach the Orion."
The survivors of the EWR210819 are loaded onto the two shuttles, with Lieutenant Oviedo-Nandez, Chief Gunder, and Ensign Arcy taking seats alongside you on the captain's ship. As you settle in, you see that this humble little craft is far more sophisticated than the transport vessel you had served on for so long; rather than a standard helm, this ship is piloted with a holo-virtual control system. A heavily-tattooed pilot stands at the ready.
"I think we're good to go, Hinju," Captain Ynthramanni says, and the pilot engages the controls. With a holo-virtual system, the ship is piloted not by pressing buttons, but by the skilled motions of the pilot's body. It turns out to be quite the expressive performance. With a lifting of his shoulders, Hinju commands the shuttle into the air, and then forward across the landscape by thrusting his arms just so.
The pilot is fascinating to watch, but you can't help but take one last look at the EWR210819. For the first time it truly looks like a disaster to you--a smear on the Girian desert with debris and wreckage strewn everywhere, and not the camp it appeared to be while you were still on the ground, depending on the cargo hold for shelter.
A third shuttle, which you presume carries Commander Andrade and Lieutenant Nimjey, joins your formation, and together you leave the atmosphere and head for the Starship Orion.
The Orion is in a high orbit around Giri Minor--hopefully high enough to avoid the debris. You have seen her moored at Star Base Ishtria on occasion, and she is always a breathtaking sight: the spherical main hull; the eight hyperspace field generators circling the disc-shaped Hoshino Drive near the aft; the long engineering section that connects the drive to the sphere like a giant bundle of conduits; the red-and-white design scheme, common to all naval vessels in the Fifth Fleet; 1200 meters in length with a crew of five hundred.
The shuttles enter a large flight deck near the rear of the ship, and your pilot ends his artistic performance with a graceful landing. A support crew is on hand to assist the survivors. You expect them to focus on Dr. Munro and her collection of wounded personnel, so you are surprised when a medic lays claim to you and whisks you off to the side.
"But I'm fine!" you protest.
"The hell you are," the medic says. "We scanned you and saw your broken rib. But don't worry. I can knit the bone back together in just a matter of moments." And he pulls a small device out of his kit and promptly attends to your wound.
Meanwhile, you see Commander Andrade hurried away from the third shuttle on an anti-grav gurney, attended by a young doctor and a team of orderlies.
"What happened to her?" you ask.
"I'm not sure," the medic says. "From what I understand, she faced quite the ordeal trying to get a hyperspace signal through to us."
Several days pass. No one assigns you any duties, so you assume you are on some kind of leave status as the Orion returns to Star Base Ishtria and most of the survivors are quickly transported off the ship. You hear that the two Belson children, Yigaro and Easa, were reunited with their parents before you even have a chance to say good-bye. With Ander Dyo's leg now mostly healed, he and Dr. Munro are in a rush to reach Folvan--the "Grass Planet" as they call it--so they can begin their study of the indigenous population.
That just leaves you and Lieutenant Commander Andrade as the last two people rescued from Giri Minor still aboard the Orion. Once again, you have the feeling that everyone around you has important things to do and places to go, while your future is a great big unknown.
In the meantime, you are assigned quarters down on J Deck that are about the size of a closet. No one calls you "captain" anymore, and you realize that you must come to grips with the fact that despite everything that has just happened, you are still what you were before: a starman of no particular significance.
"It was something that Commander Andrade started," you say. "I am the last surviving member of the transport vessel, so before she left she said I was the captain. I never really expected it to catch on, though. I mean really, I'm just a starman."
The captain regards you for a moment, and then says, "People naturally respond to a leader."
After so much time camping out in the chaotic space of the cargo hold, the clean orderliness of the shuttle interior is a refreshing sight. You step inside, with Yiggy and Easa holding each of your hands. But when the kids see a sack of fresh oranges on one of the shuttle's seats, they let go and run for the fruit.
"Help yourself!" the captain says. "There will be plenty more to eat when we reach the Orion."
The survivors of the EWR210819 are loaded onto the two shuttles, with Lieutenant Oviedo-Nandez, Chief Gunder, and Ensign Arcy taking seats alongside you on the captain's ship. As you settle in, you see that this humble little craft is far more sophisticated than the transport vessel you had served on for so long; rather than a standard helm, this ship is piloted with a holo-virtual control system. A heavily-tattooed pilot stands at the ready.
"I think we're good to go, Hinju," Captain Ynthramanni says, and the pilot engages the controls. With a holo-virtual system, the ship is piloted not by pressing buttons, but by the skilled motions of the pilot's body. It turns out to be quite the expressive performance. With a lifting of his shoulders, Hinju commands the shuttle into the air, and then forward across the landscape by thrusting his arms just so.
The pilot is fascinating to watch, but you can't help but take one last look at the EWR210819. For the first time it truly looks like a disaster to you--a smear on the Girian desert with debris and wreckage strewn everywhere, and not the camp it appeared to be while you were still on the ground, depending on the cargo hold for shelter.
A third shuttle, which you presume carries Commander Andrade and Lieutenant Nimjey, joins your formation, and together you leave the atmosphere and head for the Starship Orion.
The Orion is in a high orbit around Giri Minor--hopefully high enough to avoid the debris. You have seen her moored at Star Base Ishtria on occasion, and she is always a breathtaking sight: the spherical main hull; the eight hyperspace field generators circling the disc-shaped Hoshino Drive near the aft; the long engineering section that connects the drive to the sphere like a giant bundle of conduits; the red-and-white design scheme, common to all naval vessels in the Fifth Fleet; 1200 meters in length with a crew of five hundred.
The shuttles enter a large flight deck near the rear of the ship, and your pilot ends his artistic performance with a graceful landing. A support crew is on hand to assist the survivors. You expect them to focus on Dr. Munro and her collection of wounded personnel, so you are surprised when a medic lays claim to you and whisks you off to the side.
"But I'm fine!" you protest.
"The hell you are," the medic says. "We scanned you and saw your broken rib. But don't worry. I can knit the bone back together in just a matter of moments." And he pulls a small device out of his kit and promptly attends to your wound.
Meanwhile, you see Commander Andrade hurried away from the third shuttle on an anti-grav gurney, attended by a young doctor and a team of orderlies.
"What happened to her?" you ask.
"I'm not sure," the medic says. "From what I understand, she faced quite the ordeal trying to get a hyperspace signal through to us."
Several days pass. No one assigns you any duties, so you assume you are on some kind of leave status as the Orion returns to Star Base Ishtria and most of the survivors are quickly transported off the ship. You hear that the two Belson children, Yigaro and Easa, were reunited with their parents before you even have a chance to say good-bye. With Ander Dyo's leg now mostly healed, he and Dr. Munro are in a rush to reach Folvan--the "Grass Planet" as they call it--so they can begin their study of the indigenous population.
That just leaves you and Lieutenant Commander Andrade as the last two people rescued from Giri Minor still aboard the Orion. Once again, you have the feeling that everyone around you has important things to do and places to go, while your future is a great big unknown.
In the meantime, you are assigned quarters down on J Deck that are about the size of a closet. No one calls you "captain" anymore, and you realize that you must come to grips with the fact that despite everything that has just happened, you are still what you were before: a starman of no particular significance.