Spouting the Star Fish

Posted on Sat Mar 7th, 2015 @ 4:55am by Lieutenant Carl Baumann

Mission: Bloodpath
Location: 4587 Feet below surface

ON

The cockpit of the Star Fish; the Hunley Class aquatic Shuttle was nestled in her Hanagar bay in the belly of the nose in the Beagle, Baumann climbed down the ladder to the Central section of the shuttle. Moving to the left front seat he sat and brought the four prong belt together. Activating the chair mounted control sticks on the arm rests before the overhead sequence to start the drives he sealed the hatch on the dorsal that he had used to enter and flipped a switch to flood the bay then open the bay doors recessing the accordion style plates.

=^= Star Fish to Beagle, release clamps and umbilical. =^= Baumann had the HUD display in front of him projected on the clear armor. =^= Star Fish ready for launch. =^=

The docking clamps released the Star Fish; Baumann lowered the Star Fish out of the Belly into the ocean, the maiden voyage on this planet. The rush as he dropped from the moving DSV Beagle. The Tractor Beams easing it into the water. Once clearing the submersible the Caterpillar Drives of the Star Fish made a sweeping dive towards the contour of the sea floor leading to the deep canyon from which the ‘Ping’ had originated. Speeding ahead the Star Fish angled down, the spot lights illuminated the water ahead, the fluorescent materials in the water catching the light as though moving though a multi colored light snow flurry. The sediment and such kicking up as the Star Fish swam to the edge of the canyon.

[Observation Deck]

The Executive Officer moved to the front and opened the Covers; setting the portals to project the magnification to watch the Star Fish decent. The Beagle was in the shadows and could just under this telescopic view watch the yellow Manta Yay shaped Shuttle moving deftly along the contouring sea bed.

The Yellow alert had the systems on alert but the weapons systems had not yet been activated, it could be a simple thing, the smaller profile of the Star Fish might not catch the attention like the full sized Beagle.

“Stand by if something goes wrong, Trator Beams at the ready.” The Executive Officer prepared the ship.

Four thousand feet meant NO divers would be going out if something happened and the Star Fish were caught or wedged into place. The Skipper was well trained in the Star Fish and it is a good guess that he will not get into that predicament. Leigh Crane worked with Baumann long enough to trust his judgments... to an extent. The fact he took the Star Fish into an area with a large Biological might be questionable at best. Yet this mission is to explore and the ‘Ping’ could be any of a thousand things.

She was worried about the Skipper; not because she wished to avoid being promoted but he was very good at what he did and she liked the way things are. The sensory Feed did not show any of the Biological Pings striking the Star Fish. Baumann eased it along to the base of the range, he took a sharper dive angle to ‘hug’ the countor of the ridge downward.

“PING…” Simms announced.

Leigh glanced to the opening, the Star Fish had barely even started the dive when Simms sang out.

“Prepare to retrieve the…” Leigh began when Simms continued.

Water disturbance in the same area as the Skipper!” Simms yelled. “String current changes…. A circular motion gaining in strength.”

Leigh could only look upon the tactical over lay as the swirling water began gain in the speed of the swirling motions, it was rapidly gaining the force of the water spout forming under the waves from the bottom of the canyon upward. Her eyes widened as she noticed a yellow object in the edge of the spout being drawn into the center.

Inside the graphic over lay there were a static style signal interrupting the images. Leigh glanced over her shoulder to yell into the control room section. “What the hell is happening to the image, why am I getting static?”

“That is not static, there are other objects in the spout.” Simms explained.

[Star Fish]

Baumann kept a tight hand on the controls as the system fought him, the artificial Horizon twisted and twirled as the Star Fish seemed to fight him after the ping struck with a sound that seemed to rattle his teeth with the intensity. The next thing he knew a rush of water engulfed the Star Fish, he took a tight hold upon the control surfaces. The Star Fish began to lose her angle of decent, moving laterally on the edge of the forming water spout it was like being in a slide, using the thumbs he tried to get the thrust ratio up while countering the new angle of the current with little success. As he fought for control in the first seconds he felt the first impacts on the outer hull, rapidly pelting the armored shell. The stream of object had to be stirred from deeper at the bottom of the spout. HE heard the bombardment increasing as he felt the inertia dmpeners begin to strain as the rapidly growing problem was forcing him laterally and pushing him away from the decent he had attempted.

“Shields!” He called out to the computer as he dare not let go of the twin control sticks that play an arm-wrestling match with him on both hands. “Polarized shielding deeply!” He tried to get the system to obey as the impacts upon the clear scree showed small divots in the armored clear aluminum.

The alarms sounded in the canopy.

HE had to release the left hand as the outer skin was making high pitched sounds he did not like; the Star Fish bucked like a horse with only one rein, his hand reached and took hold of the loose control stick in just seconds after letting go. The Star Fish drifted with the currents and began to flat spin while being drawn closer to the epicenter of the turbulent currents.

TBC

Lt. Carl Baumann
Assistant Science Chief