Spacewalk, Cakewalk?

DS19 Station Log
Commodore RoBobby McMillan reporting

Whoever said that members of the admiralty didn’t have to do dirty work, was lying. I received a report that one of the communication antennae of Deep Space 19, Prospero Station was damaged. We could still communicate with Starfleet, however our signal wasn’t as strong as it could be. Station regulations require that everyone perform the minimum zero-g training, and as I was behind in my training,  I was selected to repair it. Figures!

So, this should be a cakewalk, as it was just a repair like thousands of others. I could do this in my sleep. However, overconfidence can get you killed in space, so I decided to do the sensible thing: take my time and do a check of the easy to access systems panel outside the station. It might take me a while, but at least it would save me from doing another trip.

Repairing the communications antenna didn’t actually take very long. It was just a matter of realigning it manually, and making sure that next time it could be done automatically. Checking the other systems though… now that took more of an effort. I had to maneuver down to the bottom of the structure to check the station’s core eject mechanism, and then I had to go all the way to one of the lower pylons to make sure the sensor arrays were properly calibrated.

I'm the small dot down there!

Wouldn’t you know it, just when you think things are going well, you get surprised. Something had trouble written all over it. I must have accidentally triggered a sensor, when all of a sudden, next to me, a container materialised. I instantly recognized it as one of the containers the Academy Air Corps use to ferry from here to the USS Tom Paris. This one was a bit different though. It displayed a message that I only had 10 minutes to bring it to the Paris, or it would. . . explode!

I contacted OPS, but there was no response. The crate had some explosives in it that apparently interfered with the comm-signal. Either that, or I hadn’t repaired the communications antenna as well as I thought. That didn’t matter now though: in less than 10 minutes, this entire lower pylon would be destroyed by the explosion!

I had to act quickly. I tried to push the container off, but it seemed as if magnetically attached to the hull. I wasted a total of three minutes on this, so I only had 7 minutes remaining. There was still no response from OPS, nor from the AAC… so I decided to take matters into my own hands. One way or another, this container would have to go.

I found my way back to one of the docking rings as fast as I could. I entered and took the turbolift to the promenade. There were some strange looks directed at me as I ran by Quark’s in a full spacesuit, but that couldn’t be helped. I managed to contact OPS as I made my way to the second turbolift, telling them to beam the container away. Apparently whatever interfered with communications also interfered with the transporters… so that was out of the question.

As I made my way down to the AAC’s shuttlebay here in DS19, I found myself wondering how much time I had wasted getting here. I took the first shuttle I could find that was large enough to house the container, and I flew outside. When I reached the lower pylon with this container on it, I saw I was almost out of time: I had 3 minutes remaining!

Oh, this wasn’t going to be fun, as I must confess, I’m no good at flying. Never was. Even in training, I got shot down all the time. There was one thing I did excel in though: stacking containers. But that was with a specialised shuttlecraft. And on the ground. Now I was in space with a shuttlecraft I wasn’t familiar with, trying to scoop up an explosive container.

As I opened the rear hatch, I was glad I still had my spacesuit on as the atmosphere escaped from the shuttle. I maneuvered the ship closer to the container. Two minutes remaining… I tapped the controls to gently fly the shuttle backwards to scoop up the container, but instead  collided with it. It could have been the lack of training, or the thick space suit gloves… I don’t know. I do know I was awfully lucky the container hadn’t exploded from the impact. Good thing though, the collision had caused the magnetic locks to be broken. It was now floating away… slowly.


One minute remaining. I flew towards the container again, once again trying to scoop it up… but again I failed, only pushing the container further away. I watched in horror as the container was grabbed by the planet’s gravity. With less than a minute to go, the explosive container plummeted down into the Sovereign area of Galaxy Fleet Command. I quickly pursued as fast as I could.

However, I was too late. The container exploded right in front of me, followed by a shockwave. I managed to bring the shuttle under control, and landed it on the beach in Sovereign. Pieces of debris had to have fallen down here somewhere. I decided that since I had a spacesuit on anyway, I had better take a look under water…

Thankfully, I couldn’t find any debris. It turns out GFC and DS19 had escaped a major catastrophe. I’d like to think I helped prevent a disaster, but then again, I might have accidentally caused this to happen. Well, we’ll let JAG be the judge of that. Right now, I’m just glad that it’s over.

Note to self: take some more piloting lessons.

Commodore RoBobby McMillan, signing off.