Dark Horse, part I
Posted on Sat Jan 27th, 2024 @ 7:32pm by Lieutenant Naota & Chief Petty Officer Jericho East
Edited on on Sat Jan 27th, 2024 @ 9:48pm
929 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
What Lies Ahead, Between, and Behind
Tags: naota
Breathe in...
[ "Jem’Hadar fighters coming in. Two-one-three mark eight." ]
Sparks were flying across his field of vision. He was trying to pull out of a dive at the same time he was using one hand to re-route power in an effort at keeping the impulse engines online.
[ "Saber Nine, can you see Saber Five?" ]
Breathe out...
The child turned his head. Beyond the transpariteel canopy, he saw a Miranda-class starship exploding in a fireball as two Cardassian ships maneuvered in an attack formation over and underneath it.
He turned his head the other way, just in time to see a piece of a Starfleet starfighter narrowly miss his own.
The acrid smell of smoke was starting to creep through the filters on his helmet. Wrestling to get his own craft under control, the boy could barely hear his own voice over the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears.
"Saber Five is down. I repeat, Saber Five is down."
Breathe in...
“Hey.”
It was hard to describe a feeling in which one found themselves reliving the past, unaware of when or where they were.
Naota blinked, the ravages of the Dominion War had vanished. He was enclosed in a cockpit, but not that of a Starfleet starfighter.
This was a racing pod.
As if sensing the conflict in the boy, Jericho rested a hand on his shoulder as the man leaned over the cockpit. “You don’t have to do this.”
He wasn’t just referring to the race.
The boy drew in another deep breath, closing his eyes a moment as he exhaled. Then, he turned his head up to Jericho with the signature smile that the man had come to associate with the boy.
“I guess I haven’t been in a cockpit like this in awhile,” Naota remarked off-handedly.
The man’s shoulders slumped slightly, but he tried to put forth the best smile of his own. Reaching into the cockpit, the man checked the security of the boy’s restraints and helmet. “You’ve got this,” he offered.
“I do got this,” Naota stated, giving the man a nod as Jericho closed the cockpit in.
His hands took hold of the controls without even a thought.
He’d been racing sublight pods since before Jericho’s father had been born. It was like slipping on a familiar pair of slippers.
The sport hadn’t changed. But Starfleet had changed him.
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SOL SYSTEM
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"Welcome back, ladies, gentlemen, and transgender species. We are now ten minutes from the next set of qualifying rounds for the McKinley Trans-Stellar Rally here in the Sol System. I'm Gorus Tibaneli of Alpha Centauri and with me is former N.A.S.P.O.D. champion and three time victor at the Antarian Intersellar Speedway, Kylar Prix. Good to have you with us."
"A pleasure, Gorus."
"And joining us as well is former N.A.S.P.O.D. commentator Quan Johnson, who retired here to Earth. It's a beautiful day for a race here in Sol. That must have gotten you away from the beach in Florida."
"Indeed it did, Gorus, and thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to seeing the race."
"Right, so earlier I was going over number 36, Team Garibaldi from Tellar Prime, so let's talk now about number 37. Quan, you have some expertise here, maybe you'd like to..?"
"So, Gorus, my last broadcast was ten years ago. The Mars attack had ground the circuit to a halt and most of our best pilots were recruited into Starfleet. What's amazing about today for me is we're seeing the return of someone who was a legend even in my time. Number 37, piloted by Naota of Miri’s Planet, sponsored and crewed by Starfleet, which reminds you to boldly go."
"With respect, Mister Johnson, Team Starfleet is a joke at best and an insult to those fellow pilots. The configuration of that sublight pod is a novel design - I heard some some Starfleet transporter tech came up with it, of all things- and the pilot hasn't put his [bleep] on the starting point in more than ten years."
"That's not jealousy we hear, is it Kylar? For those who aren't aware of the history, in his original N.A.S.P.O.D. debut at the '54 Antarian Rally, Naota was the first to break Kylar's three-time victory streak."
"Gorus, I'm not here to re-hash history or debate how the judge's ignored what, I believe, was a gross violation of the rules. But let's be frank about this. He's been doing what for the last decade? Piloting starships? What, operating a shuttlecraft? We’re talking fully automated cockpits, with multiple fail-safes and computer-guided astrogation to eliminate pilot error. It's a bumper car compared to these pods. I think the kid's in for a rude awakening."
"Now, Gorus, Kylar, I'm sorry but I've got to disagree with that."
"We've had a string of failed comebacks in the last couple of years. Shrek of Andoria, T'Pen of Vulcan... you think this is another pilot trying to relive the glory days?"
"I think he's unprepared. Completely. Utterly unprepared for these pilots today."
"Quan Johnson, final word."
"I think our audience out there today is about to be amazed."
"There you have it folks. Dark horse or disaster, which will Team Starfleet be? And moving on to number 38..."
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