HvCFT Gugnir, pt. 1

Phinesse

I made one last tour of the ship - my ship
- moving from compartment to compartment, smelling the smells and
kicking the...well, hovercraft don't really have tires, do they?
I ran my gloved fingers over the faint traces of recent repairs to the
ships hull in the galley. With only a slight crackle, the ships
intercom system sizzled to life.

"Phinn...get on over to storage B - you have got to see this!"

With a sigh, I continued my tour.

We had hauled the HvCFT Gugnir back from the site of Bane's
betrayal of the Zion fleet - Crash and me and some engineers. She
was so beat up then, you wouldn't know she once ruled the air...she was
beaten, broken...half her pads were gone, or so screwed that they might
as well be...and her hull was actually breached in a few spots - great
chunks taken out of her hide. Inside, all the electronics were
completely fried - apparently, she was fully hot and in the air when
Bane triggered the EMP of the ship he was on, and knocked out nearly
our whole fleet.

Stepping over the bulkead seals into storage area B, I saw
Crash squatting in the middle of a rather impressive collection of what
seemed to be random electronic devices and spare parts. His pale
bald head was gleaming in the artificial light, and he wore a decidedly
triumphant grin. "Captain, feast your eyes on...this!"

"Crash, I love ya but I've told you a hundred times...I ain't
her Captain untill this bucket of bolts flies again." I examined
the object that he handed me - it looked like a pair of old wrap-around
sunglasses, only blocked on the outside. A series of fine cables,
maybe 3 meters long, ran from the shades into a series of blocky
electronic modules. "Allright, I'll bite...what is it?"

I swear, his eyes twinkled.
"Capt...er, Boss, this here is a modern, state-of-the-art virtual
reality rig. Patch it into the core, say through the operators
station, and you could run the ships guns from there. In fact,
you could access any of the ships systems from right there - sorta
makes it easier to crew this thing with just the three of us, ya think?"

"Hmm...how much trouble to set it up?"

"For me? Give me three hours." I handed the rig back to him.

"Do it. Keep me posted."

He nodded sharply, and stalked off towards the operators
couch. I swear to God, he was giggling.

*****

It actually took him a little over 5 hours to hook the thing
up, during which I allowed myself to wonder where it came from, and
what it was doing on the Gugnir...and how much to report back to
Commander Locke. It definetely looked to be of human manufacture,
rather than machine...but beyond that, we simply didn't know
much. The old ships logs were destroyed when the Gugnir's
electronics fried, so nothing there. I could head into town and
check through Zions archives...but not without possibly calling
attention to it...and I wasn't sure I wanted them to know about
this. It just seemed too damned useful to turn over to the powers
that be.

Still, I wasn't about to put the thing on myself, until I knew more about what it was and where it came from.

Settling myself into the pilots couch, I started activating the on board systems. "Crash, we ready to do this?"

"Ready as we're gonna be, Capt...er, Boss." I noticed
that the controls on the co-pilots station were running through their
own system checks. He must be using the V-R rig.
Cool. With my heart thumping loud in my chest, I engaged six
pads, and slowly begain running up the power level.

With only the slightest of groans at being coaxed into
movement after her long sleep, the Zion HvCFT Gugnir slowly rose into
the air, and hovered around 3 meters over the moorings of the
drydock. Crash let fly with a rebel yell that I heard without the
ships p.a, even through the sound-proofed bulkeads.

"She's breathin, Boss - she lives!"

"Crash?"

"Yeah, Boss?"

"That's 'Captain'."

I could hear the smile in his voice. "Yes, ma'am...where to?"

"Second star on the right, and straight on 'till morning."

"Captain?"

"Crash, are you telling me you never read Peter Pan?"

"That's what I'm telling you, Phinn - so where to?"

"That way, soldier...that way."

The gugnir slid gently away from the drydock and made her way into the tunnels.

*****

TBC

Message Edited by Phinesse on 08-17-2005 08:54 AM
Message edited by Phinesse on 08/17/2005 05:54:15.