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the small wonders of big changes
And this is why you do not fly coach

And this is why you do not fly coach

Waking up with a head ache is not the best side of the bed to rise from. Klaxons blaring in a room big enough for two people does not make it any quieter.

Joanna started awake as Bupsie brushed her mind. Joanna for her part just groaned as she rested her hand on her flight-suit helmet. “Hang on...Bupsie system check?”

The console in front of her came back to life long enough to spark at her. “Crap, Well Bupsie lets see if fire prevention is happening and try a visual inspection of things.” So saying Joe’s helmet came to life with a few read-outs. “Well at least what happened was recorded. Sure the techs will love that. Comms check, anyone out there?”

In response all she received was static. “Queenly this is Bupsie. You with me good looking?” Joanna hastily unhooked from the pilots seat while getting more and more nervous in her haste to get up.

“Bupsie do we even have comms running?” Joanna asked while starting to walk towards the door to the lower decks of her H.A.B.T.R. More system data started to scroll down her suit display. “So mostly intact...that’s good. Are the others attached still?” Proper protocol being if towed and fighting or flying into something you detach and make your way through if possible. “Claire is still... oh fuck.” Joanna hurriedly started down ladders to get to the connection point for Queenly.

“Please be okay Please be okay Please be okay..” Joe kept muttering to herself as she made her way to the port entryway for the still docked Queenly. Reaching it and pounding in the entrance key made the door shudder and one side open slowly. “CLAIRE?” Joanna yelled into the open side. She squeezed herself through the door.

Claire woke up to gentle hands lifting her into an up right position. “Claire...can you hear me?” Her helmet chirped into her ear. “Hmmmm, yes Joe. My leg and back really hurt. Queenly system status?” Claire said when she straightened herself up.

“Claire be careful. Let’s see if anything is broken and try to get you to medical. Okay?” Joanna asked after seeing Claire wince when she straightened.

“Okay Joe.” Claire leaned back against one of the bulkheads. Seeing system data scroll by. “Joe where are we?”

“I think we crash landed on the planet we saw after coming out of FTL. Also looks like Queenly malfunctioned when the FTL drive blew up after it detached. You were supposed to undock with Bupsie and try to get out of the backlash.” Claire nodded when she heard about the malfunctioning dock connection. “Yeah the blast wave caught up to us faster than it should of. Stupid lowest bidders and simple part fusion makes it a little hard for emergency release.”

Joanna nodded in understanding. “Stay still, I’ll get a grav-unit.” Claire shivered a little and nodded back. “Be careful, Queenly took a couple hits from the FLT that was ejected.”

“Okay...just don’t move until I get back.” Joanna said while making her way back to the medical room of Queenly. “Bupsie can you scan the outside for a anything indigenous. Preferably inhabitants from bugs on up. Might as well do the explorer part of the job.”

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An hour of finagling later got Claire and Joanna up into Bupsie’s medical bay. “Okay, one pregnant stealth pilot slightly used. Sprouts are looking healthy. Scanners are saying that my leg is fractured in the femur. My arm is bruised a good bit. Do we have any idea what is outside?” Claire asked after looking up from one of the medical displays.

“Currently looks like we landed in some kind of forest. Scans are also showing good atmospheric conditions with mild weather and temperatures. Flora and fauna appears unknown to any of the sample lists taken from the other planets we have found. Claire we are definitely not in S.P.F. Space anymore.” Joanna said as she rummaged for a leg brace. “Here let’s get this on your leg. No hopping around for you until we find Alexander.”

Claire nodded while lifting her injured leg up enough to get the brace onto herself. “So any guess where the others landed? Queenly showed Alex and Alice going off in the same direction. Alan went south with an unsteady dip to how he was going.” Claire said after getting the brace to size to her leg properly.

Claire tried to sit up more. “ Any of the beacons working?” She asked while a grimace crossed her face. “Not from what Bupsie can detect.” Joanna responded after taping away on one of the display screens.

“May just be we are the first ones to recover from the landing.” Joanna surmised “Bee boop be beee” Tachi piped up from Joanna’s shoulder. “No Tachi, I do not think you exploring the area at the moment will be needed. Scanners are running with enough distance to give us some idea of what’s out here.”

“I’m just hoping everyone is okay. At least alive and in one piece.” Claire said while settling down in the medical bed. “Think we can move to are cabin or do I need more monitoring?”

“By what the med scans say, you are okay to actually be moved but the leg bone needs some more time to heal. I am thinking of you staying put for a couple of hours and we will try moving later.” Joe answered after reading though the scans.

Claire nodded and responded “Bed rest for a few hours and then move to an actual bed. What else can I do to help besides hold the bed down?”

Joe looked up from the portable display screen. “At the moment, we do need to get Queenly and Bupsie working enough to get in the air again. Find the rest of are friends and then get off the planet.”

“Those are general objectives. What can I do, after bed rest for a few hours, to get us going?” Claire asked as she reached for a portable terminal.

Joanna reached over and plucked up the terminal. “Rest first then actual bed. Currently it looks like Queenly will need some work but that can wait by what she is reporting.”

“That’s good, what about Bupsie?” Claire asked while leaning in and snagging back the display. “Oh…Bupsie, may need more work than Queenly. Poor girl, gave us a lot in protecting us.”

Claire nodded at the statement. “Yeah, she is running her self repair systems. But I don’t think we need a ship yard to fix her. Not that we will find one out here.” Showing the couple of images that were caught from the external cameras. “Looks like a proper solar system that we flew into. The planet we landed on looks like it has three moons. The sun appears to be in the right range for normal habitable range. So lucky for us I guess that we landed here.”

“If you call a malfunction and then extreme over reaction of one of the FTL drives lucky. But yeah lucky we did not get caught up in the middle of the explosion.” Claire griped as she sifted her terminal into a more comfortable position.

“True but we are alive so that is a point in the win column. We also have the equipment to fix this. Just not quickly.” Joanna replied nodding.

“I’m worried about the others tho, Alex and Alicia are mostly science buffs. Not that I don’t think either of the two could not handle anything out here…it is just Matt, you and I are supposed to be the tactical group.” Claire lamented.

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