So'koth Qultuq - Past History - White Sands Testing Facility

[thevidiot]

STAR TREK: Dark Angel

The So'koth Chronicles

"Winds of Change" 

A short story by Daniel Ratterree


This is a series of short stories involving Primary Character I played for a long time, this is part of that character's history which was never actually role played or written about that I thought would be a fun telling of something from his Past. 

Sokoth was Stationed at the White Sands Testing Facility after a 4 month term with Starfleet Intelligence as an Analyst. He was discharged from the service for striking a superior officer. 

The character would eventually become Captain So'koth Qul'tuq of the USS Dark Angel NCC-53286

[thevidiot]

Location: Earth, North America, Nevada, Groom Lake, Starfleet White Sands Testing Facility.

Part 1 - "Testing Tempers"


    The sun was just glinting over the distant hills casting long shadows across Groom Lake and the White Sands proving grounds. This place had been here for a long time, seen many missions flown by great pilots, dare devils and heroes. So’koth’s exhale produced a cloud of vapor, the temperature this morning was a brisk thirty four degrees. Just like the desert to be repressively hot in the daytime and unbearably frigid in the evenings.

    Not too far away a large set of doors began to grind open, they were old but functional, kept in operation as a homage to the past this place held. He could hear the trill of the elevator as it made its way up from underground grinding along on its long ride up from the depths of the testing facilities great hangers down below, the true place where all the magic happened.

    Moving slowly and somewhat stiffly across the tarmac toward the great doors which were just rumbling to a halt, the platform containing his new toy came into view, the small vessel was crawling with engineers and scientist. “This is not a good sign” he muttered to himself as he shifted his helmet from hip to hip.

    “Good Morning Lieutenant!” one of the engineers said as he approached holding a PADD out in front of him. The young man nearly tripped over the edge of the elevator as he approached. “Uh,” he straightened his jumpsuit and himself before presenting the item to him.

So’koth glanced over the PADD reading quickly through the specifications and changes recently made to the craft, his eyes catching the two most important blank spaces on the manifest. He slowly looked up, his eyes meeting the engineer. “Lieutenant Commander Doroske, there are no specifications for the engines on this PADD, again.” He frowned eyeing the man.

    The engineer quickly snagged the PADD back from him shutting it off, “Another need to know project Lieutenant.” He shrugged and turned back to the craft as the clattering of some spanner drew attention. “And it appears you don’t need to know.” He muttered under his breath before turning back, “It should be just a few minutes now and you’ll be ready to go.” He started walking off towards the gaggle of engineers and scientist.

    “You guys are trying to kill me right?” he said somewhat loudly. “Again?” The man turned as if he was to say something, but thinking better of it he continued on his path back towards the craft.

    “Great!” shaking his head, he slowly pulled on his helmet allowing it to seat and seal with a bit of a hiss. “Just great,” he activated the suits various systems. It was something special they had created much like the pilots of old this suit was supposed to help with the significant forces that the pilots endured while testing these vehicles and thus far had helped them survive many ill attempts. “The last time they had tested this same design the damn engine’s exploded on the tarmac, I had a freaking head ache for a week!” he stammer out loudly.

    “So’koth you knew this sort of thing was common when you agreed to this position here!” a familiar woman’s voice came over his helmets speakers.

    “Damn it!” he hit the button on his wrist to deactivate the open Comm channel that was built into the suit.

    “Good Comm check though So’koth, perhaps you’d like to share more of your opinions with the rest of the base staff whom are here to view this test run!” the somewhat gravelly voice of the base commander came through the speakers causing him to visibly cringe.

    “Sorry Admiral Dwain, I didn’t realize the Comm channel was open!” There was a prolonged silence while he went through his suits diagnostic ensuring that everything including the emergency beam out beacon was active and ready to go just in case things did not go so well.

    The Comm line came active and the sound of the Admiral’s voice could be heard as he was giving some sort of speech, “Yeah, he’s not happy!” his flight operator’s voice came over the Comm again. “You might want to consider not living through this one!” she said jovially. “Besides don’t you have some bet with one of the base security guys about how long this one will stay up?”

    “Yup! I gave it twenty minutes of flight time before disaster strikes.” He grinned as he turned and started walking out onto the elevator toward the craft prompting the engineers and scientist to clear the way to the hatch. He climbed up onto the fuselage and dropped rather heavy into the acceleration couch and began belting himself in. Despite all of the safety features built into the craft electronically there was still a traditional bale out system installed on the craft. He was thankful for this as the way some of these test flights had gone, he came very close to using it several times.

    “Lieutenant Qul’tuq,” the Admiral’s voice came over the speakers in his helmet. “We’ve got several individuals here today who have a large investment in this project of sorts. Let’s try to put our best foot forward today.”

So’koth sat back glancing across the tarmac at a lone building nestled between two hangers in the distance, a scowl on his face. “Is this an open channel?” he asked somewhat abruptly.

    “No!”

    “Good!” he began going through the startup and diagnostic sequence. “You and I both know that this craft is nowhere near ready for these trials, the last one nearly exploded on the tarmac and almost killed me, and you’re going to tell me to put our best foot forward.” He scoffed stopping to watch a display. “With all due respect, this should not even be happening!”

    “Anything else Lieutenant?”

    “Only that my objection to this test is going on record!”

There was what sounded like a half snort over the speakers, followed by laughter which caused the speakers to squelch in his ears. “Noted.” He could hear the clatter of the headset which he could only assume was tossed onto the control console back in their mission control room. He could hear the Admiral still laughing as he walked away from the microphone.

    “That went well,” his female companion’s voice came over the channel. “You must have said something good, because that was one heck of a laugh.”

    Part of So’koth wanted to lift off the craft and fly it head long into the room in the distance which held the mission control station and observation platform but he knew he would only hurt people he actually did care about. Closing his eyes and clenching his fists and a deep breath he slowly reached out and started the crafts engines.

    “You good to go So’koth?” Her voice came over the channel, this time with a bit of concern.

    He nodded, knowing full well she could see him through the onboard cameras. “Yeah,” his eyes finding the engine display watching them fluctuate wildly as the engines came alive. “I’ll be fine.” He nodded to himself knowing full well that this was not going to go well at all. “All engines appear to be online, energy levels are fluctuating all over the place, but I’m still showing a green board. Is this supposed to be normal?”

    “Yes,” the crew chief’s voice filtered in over the speakers. “We are monitoring from here, everything is good.” He said with an air of confidence that Andrew had heard more than once before.

    “I’ll take your word for it Dorske.”

    “All traffic in the area appears clear Andrew, your clear for flight operations!”

    “What you’re not going to run out here and give me a kiss for good luck?” he chuckled trying to dispel some of his own bad mood.

    “Not on your life flyboy, get that bucket in the air time’s a wasting!” he didn’t need to see her to know she was shaking her head, just as she had done all the other times they had done this, it was getting to be a traditional thing.

Gripping the throttle, he activated the ships ventral thrusters and the craft shuddered as it slowly rose off the elevator. The craft was entirely unstable causing him to grab for the stick to control the craft as it immediately started to slide to its left very quickly and suddenly. “Woah!”

    “Working on it!” Dorske’s voice came over the Comm channel hurriedly.

    “So’koth!” her voice came through crystal clear over all the other chatter on the open Comm from the engineering team. “Pull up! Thrust now!”

    He did not even think, he just did it pulling hard back on the flight stick and slamming the throttle forward the ship lurched forward pressing him back into the acceleration couch. He could see out of the corner of his eye on one of the rear facing monitors that he had in just a matter of moments nearly slammed sideways into one of the old hangers. He slowly let up on the throttle and leveled the craft off.     “Thanks Jennifer!”

    “Got it!” one of the engineers voice proclaimed. “You should be good now Andrew, just a bad computer input.”

    “Indeed!” he said watching the clouds stream past him as the craft seemed to be in stable flight. “Pretty smooth at the moment, there isn’t any buffeting like the last few times we got this bucket of bolts in the air for high speed flight.” He glanced over at a structural integrity display which was showing some minor stress in a few areas but was still green. “Looking good!”

    “Well then, shall we get to putting it through the paces then?” Jennifer's voice came over the Comm channel.

So’koth reached forward and pulled up the crafts artificial gravity and inertial damper controls and dialed back both of them to ninety-five percent. “That’s much better!” he muttered. Slowly he began to move the flight stick to his left and the craft began a slow roll, which increased the further he moved the stick. “Left Roll looks good!” he then started moving it to the right causing the same effect. “Right is good!”

    The craft suddenly bucked and an alarm sounded bringing up a red blinking light on several of the cockpit displays. “Warning, turbulence! Warning, Turbulence!” it squawked at him.

    “You don’t say!” he said reaching up and flipping off the alarm. “Guess we check turning now then!” he pressed down on the left rudder and the nose of the craft slowly began to turn to the left gently, he brought the craft entirely around heading back toward the old airfield, he then applied the right rudder and after just a few moments he straightened the craft. “Flight controls appear responsive, though I think rudder turning should be faster.”

    Dorske’s voice came alive on the intercom. “It translates better in a vacuum.”

    “I have no doubt, but you need decent maneuvering in atmosphere too Dorske, flight and fight does not always happen in space with craft like this. That is the intended use is a multi-purpose fighter craft isn’t it?” he glanced over at one of the cameras with a raised eyebrow.

    There was another shudder from the craft as So’koth was about to say something else, his eyes scanned the crafts instrument panels. “Just got a bit of a bump, and no indicator.”

    “I saw it!” Jennifer said taking over the airwaves. “It looked like you had a momentary burst of speed, but that was all.

    So’koths eyes found the vessels speed controls and the subsequent chart display above showing a very small hiccup. “Yeah I see it on the monitor, any idea what caused it?”

    “No,” there was a burst of status on the channel suddenly cutting off something from her.

    “Jennifer?” So’koth called as the static subsided. “Jennifer are you still there?” he asked again. The craft suddenly lurches forward, the engines roaring loudly enough for him to hear them through both the vessels hull and his suit. “Ut, oh!” his grip on the flight stick was like steel he could feel it pulling different directions suddenly as the engines and thrusters on the craft started to go haywire.

    The displays all around him started giving off warning indicators, the list was growing rapidly. The majority of them seemed to be coming from the engines and avionics. “I’m losing it!” he shouted but he knew no one could hear, the communications antenna was damaged. The hull began to creak and moan as the engines pressed the ship faster and faster.

    Using the rudder he began turning the vessel as he were getting further and further from the base, he dared not try and turn the ship any other way. The structural integrity screen as lighting up all over the place, especially where the engines and flight control surfaces were concerned.

    Smoke began to fill the cockpit quickly, displays began to flicker and die. He pulled back on the engine throttle controls but that did not seem to be working, nothing was really working it seemed. The craft suddenly jerked hard to starboard and an explosions ripped through one of the engine housings.

    “Hu’tegh!” the craft lurched again as the other engine exploded, this time a shower of sparks shot across the cockpit and the smoke grew darker, but at least all he could feel was forward moment now instead of the spinning sensation he had prior. It took him a moment for his gloved hand to find the recessed hole under the control console that held a small release which his finger looped into. Pulling hard on the ring inside he could feel it give and suddenly the cockpit was free of smoke. The device was designed for situations just like this, the cockpit was no longer sealed but at least it was venting so he could see.

    What he could see was not promising, mountains. Lots of them were in his path! He had no idea where he was, this did not look familiar at all. Clearly at the speed he was traveling he could be anywhere on the planet. The craft was shaking and shuddering as he tried to control it, there was no power, no engines. No nothing. The flight controls fly by wire system was by some form of luck functional, but only so. So’koth knew one thing, he was losing altitude quickly, and it was only a matter of time.

    Pressing a button on his suit he waited for the subtle trill of a transporter beam to whisk him away from this crafts plummet, but clearly that was not going to happen today. He pressed it again, and again. Nothing happened. Glancing out ahead of the craft he could see the approaching peak, there was no avoiding this one. “This is going to suck!”

    Reaching down between his legs gripping the handled mechanism to the manual ejection system he pulled hard, it took but seconds and the cockpit blew free of the craft. He braced himself sitting back in the chair hard just as the booster below his seat propelled him from the stricken craft. The g-force was just that much more punishment on his body at these speeds. He saw in an instant the craft impact the side of the mountain and it seemed like minutes passed as the explosion ripped apart the side of that mountain and expanded outward, it was like a giant maw of fire coming for him.

    He could feel the heat through his suit as it and the concussion blast met him sending him and his acceleration couch flying through the air. And then the vale of darkness took him, there was no fighting it this time. Its allure was too intense, all he could do was give in and hope.

[Doctor Mitzy]

Recovery

    Sokoth jerked awake abruptly, a shooting pain running through his body from the reaction. Sunlight was filtering through the trees above casting odd shadows across the trees around him. He could see his chute still caught in the trees above him torn to shreds the remaining cords still attached to his flight suit. Slowly he pulled his arm from beneath him, it hurt terribly but it was still functional his eyes blurred as he moved. It took a moment for him to realize how lucky he was to be alive.

    Reaching up to his chest he found the release for the chute pulling on it causing a wave of nausea to roll over him, his muscles and tendons in his arms screaming at him. Next was the helmet, his hand found purchase on the release causing the helmet to roll back off his head, he didn’t realize that his head was elevated. The sudden increase in light caused a sharp pain to roll through his head, his eyes squinted trying to adjust to the light.

    Slowly he reached to his left pulling his other arm painfully over, it was not working, and he was starting to realize he couldn’t feel it, it was useless. Lifeless. Pulling himself upright further he could see his surroundings better and it helped with the light. He tapped the blank display on his left wrist causing it to come alive, he activated the suits built in medical diagnostic equipment, and was greeted by the soft hiss and pressure of an automated hypospray release. He felt its effects almost immediately, the pain began to dull and his senses started to come back.

    He sat there for a long moment letting the medication work its way through his system, closing his eyes for what seemed like a long minute. Something in the distance caught his attention causing him to become very aware. It was a familiar sound, something he had heard before more than once during his time with the test facility. It was a rescue craft!

    He felt his body slowly dematerialize and materialize for what seemed like an eternity, he recognized the ceiling of a medical shuttle, and for a brief moment the familiar face of Jennifer.

    “You’re going to be alright!” he heard the voice echo in his head as he succumbed to the darkness again.

[thevidiot]

About a week later…



    “So you lost control of the vehicle?”

    So’koth shifted in his chair in front of the review board, his uniform felt unusually tight. “No!”

    “If you did not lose control of the vehicle then how did it crash?” one of the presiding board members leaned forward across the long table with interest.

    He took a long moment to consider his words tactfully, “Aerodynamic failure.” He stated letting that sink in for a long moment. “When the crafts thrusters exploded due to an as of yet undefined overload the Aerodynamic surfaces were compromised rendering the flight controls useless, the vessel started a terminal arc toward a mountain side.” He paused for a moment again. “I did not lose control, there was no control remaining.”

    “So you lost control of the craft.” One of the reviewing officers stated flatly again.

    “No!” he repeated.

    “What happened after the explosion of the propulsion systems?”

    “I tested all my controls manually and when the computer controlled diagnostics indicated it was a lost cause I just happened to notice the mountain looming very large in my cockpit window. I tried to active the emergency beam out and it failed.”

    “It failed?”

    “Yes!”

    “The flight recorder shows that it was never deployed.”

    So’koth eyed the woman sitting at the end of the table. “I activated the system and nothing happened!”

    “Not according to the flight data recorder you didn’t!”

    “The log is incorrect!” he stated flatly. “When that did not work I pulled the manual ejection system and    ditched!”

    “Was there any chance at recovery of the craft?” Admiral Dwain asked.

    “No, sir!”

    “No?” the Admiral asked as he eyed the PADD in front of him.

    “No, sir!”

    “Very well, we will take a one hour recess to deliberate.” The admiral said as he stood. “Dismissed!”

    Sokoth stood and waited till the panel departed the room then filed out with the rest of the remaining officers. He turned heading out into the large open hanger area which housed all the recovered parts of the craft that had nearly killed him. Several technicians were milling about running scans of various. They were not allowed to touch it of course due to the investigation but that didn’t prevent any of them from running passive scans from the distance. He moved beyond the wreckage and into the control center, it was all but empty accept for one familiar friendly face.

    “How’s it going flyboy?” Jessica asked noting his presence.

    “Crash and burn!” he muttered.

    She shifted away from the displays in front of her. “At least you’re alive!”

    “I may be but they seem to be very intent on pinning this on me as my mistake!” he said sitting down hard in the chair.

    She frowned; “You know that isn’t the truth!” she started shutting off the monitors. “Let’s go get a bite shall we!”

    He nodded slowly standing up while tugging his uniform down in place. “Sure, that sounds good!” he said realizing he had not eaten yet today and it was already pushing thirteen hundred hours.

    “Forgot to eat again didn’t you!” she stated flatly.

    “Yup! You’re starting to get to know me very well!”

    “I may not fly with you but I am your wing woman,” she said with a grin. “You’d long since crashed and burned without me as your backup!” she said elbowing him in the side drawing a smile from him.

    “This is true!” he said as they walked out across the hanger toward the open doors. “You’ve pulled me out a few times when I was certain I didn’t need to be and for that I am grateful!”

    “What I still don’t get is why that auto transport didn’t work!” she frowned “It’s like someone shut it off      She glanced back at the wreckage across the hanger. “I cannot wait to get at that hunk of junk!”

    “I think they did!” there was no hesitation in his voice.

    She stopped just as they exited the hanger, staring at him. He stopped a moment later and pointed at one of the vehicles sitting there. “Shall we?”

    She stepped past him and dropped into the driver’s seat, “You get to fly, I get to drive!” she said sternly gesturing to the passenger seat of the open cab vehicle. Besides you’ve still not technically been released by medical!”

    He shook his head and circled the vehicle dropping into the passenger seat, and she waited just that long before punching the gas sending them off across the base towards the chow hall. It didn’t take long for them to cross the base in the vehicle; they made the trek in silence though the wind would have curtailed anything that had to be said during the trip. Not to mention the fly over of Peregrine Class vessels doing aerodynamic testing. It gave him a few moments to reflect on what had happened in the long drawn out review board, they were going over every detail from start to finish and somehow a few things were missing from the logs. Not to mention the power spikes in engine power at start-up, lift off, and just before they ripped themselves apart sending him nearly to his death. It struck him as very odd that the flight data recorder never recorded these events, and that most of the voice transcript was corrupted so there was no proof other than his word.

[thevidiot]

    The ride back to the hanger was quick, he actually enjoyed himself for the short time he and Jessica had to eat. They shared a few laughs but that was behind them and something far more serious was ahead of him.

    “Well look at the bright side flyboy, this is the end of this and it’s on to the next big thing right!” she said slapping him on the shouldn't   “Just don’t lose your cool alright.” She said as the two of them approached the door to the proceedings room.

    “I cannot promise anything!” he muttered as he pulled the door open.

    She grinned as she passed him by, the room was quiet and everyone including the panel was already present. He stopped as did she surveying the room, it appeared that they had already begun again. Sokoth stood there trying to hold down his temper which flared slightly.     By his count they still had at least five more minutes to return from the break.

    “Nice of you to join us Lieutenant.” Admiral Dwain called in a flat and unimpressed voice. He simply nodded and started for his chair which was in the center of the room. “Don’t bother sitting.” He said as he glanced down the table. He stopped next to his chair and came to stand at attention.

    Vice Admiral Gwen took a deep breath as she too stood, he knew she was the official Judge Advocate General’s office representative at the proceedings. She was fairly new to her position and she was of course making waves. Sokoth could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing up. Something did not seem right about this.

    “Lieutenant So’koth Qul’tuq, it is the judgement of this board that you were negligent in your duties for not reporting through proper channels a potential and detrimental flaw in the craft design of test subject NX-67510. You have shown a continued record of risk taken in which your commanding officer has cited you for on more than once occasion and it is because of your risk taking that this incident has occurred. Had these anomalies been reported your flight crew chief would not have allowed this flight and the loss of the craft and nearly your own could have been avoided. It is the judgment of this panel that you are to be removed from active testing rotation immediately, confined to your living quarters and brought up for review at a court martial for negligence and dereliction of duty.”

    “Do you have anything you would like to add Lieutenant?” the presiding Captain who was the Base Chief of Security asked.

    “Yes,” he said flatly, restraining the anger in his voice. He pulled open the Velcro cover on one of his pockets and pulled from it a Padd.     “May I approach the panel?” He asked. Even for his darker than normal skin one could tell he was angry, his cheeks had changed and depended in color.

    Vice Admiral Gwen had settled back into her chair, a look of amusement was on her face. “Why, what do you have their Lieutenant?” she asked she watched him pull a Padd from his pocket.

    He slowly started toward the Panel hesitating for a moment. “Insurance,” he took several more steps closer to the panel. “You see this is not the first time this has happened, and I’m almost certain it won’t be the last. Now I don’t have who I would have liked on here but this certainly will help my case I do believe.” He arrived at the panel, his gaze starting on the Captain and going down the line to stop at Admiral Dwain whom he offered a brief smile to.

    “What is that?” Admiral Dwain asked as he reached for the padd.

    “A recording of my conversation with the crew chief in which he insists when I asked why no information on the vessels propulsion systems was present in my briefing and was blown off. Not to mention when I asked why there was an odd spike in power it was ignored.”     He slowly started backing away from the table. “I have copies.”

    The Vice Admiral glanced at the Padd then to Dwain and back at him her face going through a gambit of emotions for just a brief moment.     “Why would you hold this…”

    He didn’t give her a chance to finish. “To make a point!”

    “To make a point?” this time the Captain spoke up.

    Sokoth arrived back at his chair and he settled back down on it and folded his hands in his lap. “To make a point.” He nodded. “I’m not just a dumb test pilot who you can throw into anything time and time again and not expect me to just take that answer over and over again.” He shifted in the chair. “Remember the atmospheric test of the Saber Class that we went through?” He looked straight at Admiral Dwain. “I nearly died in that one too, and when I asked questions I was told the same thing. You don’t need to know. Just fly the thing.” He nodded with an approving look on his face. “So I did, and almost died.”

    “Isn’t that part of the risk of your job?” Dwain asked flatly.

    “Yes, and no.” Sokoth nodded. “It is a risk yes, but if it’s something pertaining to the functionality of my job I should know. I have a security clearance and a pretty high one at that. There is no plausible reason to shut me out of something I should know when it comes to the engines unless you’re trying to hide something. Or you’re trying to intentionally kill me.” He stood back up very abruptly. “I did my damn job and I will not be hung out to dry because the project failed and you cannot find a reason to blame something other than a faulty design because you want to appease your admiralty for results or to keep an engineer happy! I will not!” his voice was much louder and forceful than even he wanted. “I will do my job, and will do it to the best of my ability as I have demonstrated time and time again as ordered, but don’t think for one moment I will not cover my ass!”

    “That’s enough, you’ve made your point Lieutenant.” The Captain stated abruptly.

    “No! No, I am not finished.” He took several strides this time directly toward the admiral bringing the whole panel to their feet. “I told you!” he stopped realizing he was being a bit more aggressive than necessary. “I told you that craft was not ready and there was a problem and you insisted. It may not be on that tape or any other for some mysterious reason but I tried to tell you it was not ready!”

    “That’s enough Sokoth!” the Captain was coming into his view between him and the admiral.

    Sokoth’s eyes bounced between the Captains and the Admirals who he could tell was very amused by his outburst. He nodded silently and moved back to his chair.

    “Lieutenant, you may be right or at least think you are and you may have pulled yourself out of a much more serious disciplinary action but that does not excuse your behavior here and now. You are to be confined to your living quarters until further notice and are still off the flight rotation until we have completed additional analysis of this.” She gestures to the Padd he delivered to her. “Security, escort him out!” she said a bit harshly.

    Sokoth took a deep breath, he did not have any love for this woman from the beginning and now he was less enthralled. He did not hesitate as he departed rather quickly with two of the base security personnel on his tail. He got into their vehicle without being asked. He had been in this seat once or twice before because of the “Jello” incident.

    The two security guards looked at each other as they exited the building expecting him to have run off but found him waiting in their vehicle. They shared a brief moment of relief and a laugh and jumped into the vehicle, it was a quiet ride to his home. As he walked inside shedding his flight suit he couldn’t help but wonder how long this would last.

[thevidiot]

Part II – Final Flight
- This takes place perhaps a few months after the last incident. 

    “Last flight Sokoth and it’s on to the next big thing right?” Jessica’s voice came through his helmet with a bit of crackle. “Don’t wreck this one ok!”

    “But where is the fun in that?” he said as he stepped through the open airlock in the side of the craft. “This thing has done surprisingly well.”

    “And you had your doubts.” She said over the open channel.

    He nodded to one of the flight engineers as they departed the craft as he went in toward the cockpit. He settled into the seat and belted himself in, he began running through the diagnostics for pre-flight humming a soft tune to himself. “Any idea what is next?” he asked as he continued to work.

    “Um, I do believe it’s called an escort class right now. No official designation.” She said calmly.

    He stopped a moment. “I thought they already started that.” He started back into his process.

    “Yeah,” the comm channel flared with static suddenly causing him to whence. “Let’s not talk about that right now!” she said her voice changing tones.

    “Lieutenant Qul’tuq!” an all too familiar voice suddenly came over the intercom.

    “Yes Admiral?”

    “Stress test today. I want you to run it for fourteen hours.” His voice was flat as it usually was.

    “Understood.”

    The comm channel flared again with static and it sounded as if he could hear down a very hollow narrow corridor. “I want you to run Gambit on him.” He could hear the admiral’s voice it was faint and somewhat hard to hear over the static but he clearly heard that much.     What came next was discernable but he was certain it was a protest from Jessica.

    Everything went back to normal and Jessica’s voice came back on over the open Comm channel. “Tarmac is clear for taxi and take off So’koth, clear to sky when you’re ready.” Her voice was off, he knew she was not happy.

    “Understood, on the move now.” He said as he activated the vessels thrusters and started to glide the craft out of the hanger. He could see the Admiral standing outside the control center by his vehicle watching him. The man was grinning at him as he passed.

    So’koth did not like this, it was peculiar. He knew the Admiral was going to celebrate the success of this newly completed craft, it was going to be a big help for planetary defense forces and small interplanetary patrols. He pulled back on the stick and the craft’s nose responded coming up. He pushed the throttle forward and the craft responded leaping toward the sky.

    “Clear to twenty thousand.” Jessica’s voice came over the intercom. “Let’s spend about an hour bouncing around between there and about forty thousand, then do some orbital maneuvers ok.”

    “Sounds good!” he shifted in the chair watching the altitude tick off as he climbed, then suddenly felt lightweight, which followed by an alarm. “Ut oh…” he said feeling his stomach tumble.

    “You just lost thrusters and impulse power!” her voice called in a panic.

    “Stand… by!” he said feeling the g-forces suddenly. His hands few across the control panel and he felt the sudden surge of the engines and the craft was climbing again just as quickly as they had cut out.

    “What the hell was that!” she said.

    Sokoth took a moment to compose himself. “Standby!” he pulled up a diagnostic report. It showed a spike in computer activity then an abrupt shutdown in all active programs including the one for the engine management system which had caused them to literally stop not knowing what they should be doing. “Uh, looks like a hiccup with the computer.”

    “Yeah, I see it too.” She said.

    “Let’s hope that does not happen again, why don’t you log that specifically and send it to the engineers. I’m sure someone’s watching but just in case let’s go by the book.”

    “Already done,” she sounded distracted for a moment.



About four hours later…



    “It’s a bit cold up here!” he said watching his breath create a cloud of vapor across the cabin. “I cannot believe this is happening on the last day of testing.” He glanced into the panel looking for an ODN line he was trying to locate. He found it after a few moments and grabbed another and used a joining tool to bring them together. He watched as lights came alive on one of the consoles. “Flight Control this is Red Stone One can you hear me?” he waited a long moment.

    “Sokoth!” Jessica’s voice came over his suits speakers.

    “Yup!”

    “What happened?” she asked her voice was hurried.

    He glanced out the forward viewport at Earth’s South Pole. “The computer shut down and everything followed. I’m still working on getting it back up and running. I got basic life support online but just barely and maneuvering thrusters just enough to maintain my position in orbit.”

    “Good, can you give us your location.” Her voice seemed to distort toward the end of her comment.

    “Nope, navigational sensors are down, but I’m over the South Pole I can tell you that!” He slowly got down and climbed in through an access panel. “I’m trying to get the computer to come back up so I may lose you here in a second. I wanted to make sure you knew roughly where I was just in case.”

    “In case of wha…” her voice trailed off into some obscure sound as the channel distorted again.

    “Well based on tricorder scans I took I don’t have long before the antimatter pods breach from power failure of the magnetic containment field’s they were not meant to be off main power for this long apparently.” He shifted and plugged in another bypass. “So if you don’t hear from me in about fifteen minutes I’m probably floating around up here waiting to freeze to death or get picked up.”

    There was a long pause and no response. He shrugged and plugged in the last connection and waited as everything went dark once again.     The lights began to flicker to life and the vessel came with it. “Sokoth!” the hurried voice of his friend came through the speakers.

    “Yeah, I’m here.” He said as he pulled himself back out of the crawl space and back to the seat. He watched as diagnostics ran across his screen showing that everything was as it should be aside from the new routing he had done to bypass things to get the ship back online.

    There was a flare of static over the Comm chancel again. “Ok, get out of their so we can do away with the interference.” She said with a bit of relief.

    He nodded and smiled. “Yes Captain!” he said ribbing her a bit, he brought the ships engines online and started flying back toward a standard orbit. As he did he could see the connection for the data link come back online. “There, now you can see me!’

    “Good!” she said. “Everything looks fine from here.” The surprise in her voice was very noticeable.

    “I know, it doesn’t make sense.” He said as he started to descend toward the atmosphere for reentry. “I’m coming down!”

    “No you’re not!” Admiral Dwain’s voice came over the Comm System. “You may return to the atmosphere but you will complete your stress test. Is that clear?”

    “Admiral the craft is having problems, we should bring it down and run some tests to ensure everything is as it should be. We need to bring it in to make sure it’s not systemic. If this is a sign of something that is worse than it should be then we need to get it to the engineers now.”

    “It’s part of the Test Sokoth. Just keep running it as ordered.” There was a pause. “You passed the tests, now you just have to finish. If you have any further issues then you have permission to bring the craft down. Lieutenant Hannigan your duties are completed, report to your department head immediately.

    “But sir the test isn’t..” her voice came over the comm channel in protest.

    “Now Lieutenant, Mr. Qul’tuq can handle circling the field for a few hours on his own I believe.” The Comm channel beeped as it closed stemming off any further argument.

    “Sokoth?” her voice came over the channel, the concern was very apparent.

He shook his head holding back his temper. “Don’t worry about me, he’s right I will be fine.”

    “Are you certain, I’ll stay if you want me to?”

    “No. It’s fine. You should do what he says.” There was a long pause. “Jessica, I’m the one with the marks on the record. Don’t put one in yours for me please. I’ll be fine, go.” He reached over and his finger hovered over the telemetry uplink.

    “Ok, but you owe me!” she said abruptly.

    He laughed. “I promise I’ll make it up to you, whatever you want!”

    Her voice came back over the channel with something he had not heard from her before. “Be careful what you promise flyboy that might be more than you want. Be safe, fly straight!” she said coyly and the channel closed.

    He grinned to himself and was lost in his own thought but only for a moment. He came back to reality as the vessel bucked from reentry. He noted his angle of decent and adjusted it slightly. He could see the Eastern Seaboard approaching on the horizon it was actually quite beautiful as night was still creeping in. It was like he was racing the darkness across the US.

    A command prompt suddenly appeared on the main screen blinking at him. A very large block of code played quickly past and then came back to telemetry but the intercom came alive. “It’s a shame really.”

    Sokoth’s eyebrow rose with curiosity hearing the voice distorted and electronic. “Who is this!” he asked.

    “Oh, we’ve met before and we will see each other plenty in the future. You’ve been a thorn in my side enough. Consider this incentive to make a decision to take a different path in your life. Whatever your choice just know that pain and suffering await you if you stay in the fleet. A happier life if you leave now. You could make a life with Jessica. Have kids, be happy.” The craft bucked around him and power began to fade from the primary engines.

    “Dwain, this won’t work! You cannot scare me!”

    “If you survive, remember you choices. Know I will let you live, and take everything from you, give it back and take it again. But know that you’ll never beat me, it’s impossible. After all you’re only mortal!”

    Nearly all the power began to fail, his earlier rerouting save him though, he was able to maintain the flight controls for the craft. He could see that his speed as still too much to put the craft down so he did something he never thought he would have to do. He banked the craft hard to starboard. Several hundred years prior other space men had done this to try and put their flying bricks down in the early days of earth space travel. He banked the craft hard the other way.

    He could feel the crafts speed spilling off faster and faster. “Come on!” he could see familiar land down below he grunted as he turned the craft the other direction once again but this time maintained it. The g-forces were pushing him back into the chair. He could see the airbase go past the window, and then again shortly after. He leveled out the craft as the base came into view and he pulled back hard on the stick sending the craft into the sky. He could feel it starting to slow and for a brief moment he was weightless again causing his stomach to turn.     He pulled back on the stick and let the craft start to fall, he could see it in the distance. The lake that only one house stood on. After all the lake would be the best place to set it down and it was on the way. He angled the craft pulling the nose up to cause more drag.

The house grew larger and larger in the window.



Admiral Marcus Dwain’s Estate



    A loud boom echoed off the hills around the estate catching several of the Admiral’s guests off guard, several of them jumped including the Admiral’s wife. He reached over to help steady the woman. “You alright dear?”

She looked around for a moment. “Yes, I believe so. I thought you suspended flight operations tonight?” she shook her head. “We have guests!”

    He nodded. “We had one last flight up in the air but it shouldn’t be anywhere near here he frowned. I will take care of it.” He started back toward the house and stopped. Something caught his attention. It was a craft and it was descending rapidly in the distance as if in freefall.     “What the hell!” he said stopping and watching.

    His comment drew others attention, including Jessica Hannigan. The craft seemed to come out of its dive and was heading their direction.

    “No!” The admiral yelled as he watched the craft’s nose dip and it became clear that it was going to hit his home. “No!” his voice was even louder as the craft passed through his home as if it was a hot knife through butter. Debris went flying all over the place and a gout of dirt followed as the craft skipped off his lawn and then hit the lake skipping like a stone only to come to a rest on the other side of the lake a smoking ball of debris itself.

    No one moved, they all stood in horror. Some looking at the home and some staring at the craft. It took only a moment before everyone looked to the house as it collapsed in on itself.

    As the shock of the incident began to wear off people began to run for the remains of the craft and some for the home knowing there might have been people inside.



Aboard the test vehicle….



    Sokoth grinned as he saw the house looming closer and closer. But it was very suddenly whisked away as he felt the impact. The craft went through the house quickly. He was actually surprised. He just barely missed a 2 x 4 passing through the view screen flying past his head. He felt the impact with the dirt and the craft hit the water the first time, as the craft started to come back down he could feel it coming apart, he reached down and pulled hard on the ejection handle at the base of his seat, he could feel the chair blow through the hole in the top of the cockpit and the world spun.

    He felt the sudden yank of the parachute attached to it and then the sudden impact with the water himself. He couldn’t move, he knew he was hurt but he didn’t care. A few moments later he began to see water bubbling up through his collar divider, his suit had been compromised.

    There was a sudden tug and he hit the bottom of the lake, his vision began to grow darker and darker until he gave into the darkness.

[thevidiot]

Last days in the sand…



    Sokoths Lungs screamed as he spat water, his body heaved several great times. His whole body hurt and ached it was almost like he was just hit by a shuttlecraft. He wasn’t far from it. The burning hulk was only about a hundred or so feet away. The worble of emergency craft could be heard, the sound of a voice screaming obscenities at him drew his attention and focus.

    “You son of a bitch!” the Admiral’s face was one of sheer anger and loathing. He spat curse after curse in an unintelligible rant as a few of the bystanders held him back. “I will end you!” the Admiral continued his rant as Sokoths senses came back to him.

    “Sokoth, what the hell were you thinking!” Jessica’s voice pulled his attention. He shifted his view to her, he said nothing. She was wet and sandy, looked like an angel against the stars and the moon.

    He grunted as he slowly started to sit up. He knew he had broken some things and that he had injuries but he had one last thing to do. Jessica reached for him to try and stop him but he pushed through her slowly coming to his feet. He took a hard breath his chest tensed as pain coursed through him. He knew he wouldn’t be upright for long but he only needed to complete one last mission. Sokoth turned and started walking toward the Admiral, this drew the attention of several others who started toward him to stop him from getting within the Admiral’s reach.

    The admiral himself was at a pause as the bloodied half Klingon man who by all rights should not be walking approached him. The crowd grew quiet. “Admiral!” he said in a shaky tone.

    “What?” the Admiral replied back gruffly.

    The Admiral was on the ground bleeding from his lips and nose before he could even blink, Sokoth struck him so quickly and unexpectedly for someone in his condition that it caught everyone off guard. Admiral Dwain was not moving after his head lolled to one side briefly. He had knocked him clean out in two blows.

    His body shook and he came to his knees spitting up blood as he fell to the ground. It was worth it even if it was the end of his career. It was so worth it after putting up with this man for the last two years he had finally snapped.



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    After spending some time at a Starfleet Medical Facility to recover and being brought up on charges to have them dismissed in favor of some marks on Sokoth’s record he was reassigned to the USS Lexicon NCC-61653.

    Sokoth did not see Jessica again after their time together working as a team after the incident with the Admiral.

    Admiral Marcus Dwain and So'koth were not friends going forward..


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