Star Control Episode 1: The Contract

The Contract

The intercom of bounty vessel Kick the Door crackled to life with the voice of the captain, Chip Bennings

"Three minutes till we drop out of hyperspace at Eridanus IV. If you want the helm, now's your chance, Rox."

Roxanne set her Diag Pad down on her workstation in engineering, removed the elastic band holding her pink and blue hair in a ponytail, and made her way towards the engineering elevator and up towards the ship's flight deck. She had been waiting for this. Not only had it been three months since she was last home, but the crew of the Door was to be meeting up with a client promising a huge bounty contract with multiple targets. The elevator chimed, indicating it had reached the top, and Roxanne stepped out onto the flight deck. She took a moment to breathe in the beauty of hyperspace, a treat granted by the bridge's multiple view ports. The black of space was awash with blue, purple, green, and pink tendrils racing towards the ship, eager to envelop it.

"You rang?" she quipped as she flitted past the captain and nestled into the pilot's seat at the front of the bridge, strapping herself in. She looked over at the copilot's seat, where the ship's usual pilot, Hank sat, puffing lightly on an almost finished cigar. He looked relaxed, as if he thought this would be another routine landing.

"She's all yours" he cooed, flipping the switch to transfer navigation controls back to the pilot's console. Roxanne turned and looked up at Chip, who was strapping himself into the captain's chair. Despite the ship being equipped with artificial gravity generators, it was still wise to strap in when performing an in-atmosphere landing.

"Do your thing." Chip drawled, looking over and verifying their weapons officer, Claire, was also strapped in. Roxanne punched a series of numbers into the overhead console, verifying the ship's destination solution to drop out of hyperdrive.

"Exiting hyperspace in 3... 2... 1." She yanked back the hyperdrive lever that was situated between the pilot and copilot's consoles. The psychedelic lightshow warped and gave way to a beautiful blue planet that swam in an inky black background, dotted with the pinpricks of light created by distant stars. Roxanne let out a small sigh of content. She was home. She quickly grabbed the coms headset and strapped it to her head.

"Eridanus Star Control, this is bounty vessel Kick the Door requesting permission to land at the Port of New Haven."

"Permission granted," the coms crackled to life with a male voice. "Bounty vessel Kick the Door please proceed along heading Echo one-niner on approach to docking point Charlie two. Welcome home. Roxanne, is that you?"

"Awe, you remembered me," Roxanne teased. "How cute."

"Yeah, yeah," the Star Control officer chided. "No stunts this time."

"Clearly, you don't know me," Roxanne responded. Coordinates for the Port of New Haven as well as a route flashed across her screen. She ruffled the back of her hair in a gesture of freedom as she reached up and activated the ship's radio, flipping to her favorite song.

"Oh no," Claire groaned as the hundreds of years old song Won't Get Fooled Again, by The Who began blasting over the ship's intercom system. Roxanne nosed the ship downward after the vessel gently entered the atmosphere of Eridanus IV. It began rapidly picking up speed as the intense nosedive ensued. Waves of heat and fire enveloped the ship's prow, and the forward shields flared as the surface of the planet drew ever nearer. Hank puffed on his cigar, clearly unphased. The engines roared, and the view of New Haven became more and more detailed as the 1,200 foot long, 700,000-ton ship barreled down. A smile slowly made its way to Chip's face and Claire gripped her console tightly, both knowing what would be coming next. Roxanne yanked the throttle lever down and pulled up on the joystick. The ships maneuvering thrusters roared to life, and the massive ship rotated to parallel with the ground. She pushed the joystick and throttle slightly forward, and the ship's superstructure groaned with the change in velocity as the ventral maneuvering thrusters strained to correct the ship's downward momentum. She then pulled another lever above her, and Kick the Door shuddered as her airbrakes deployed, desperately trying to slow the ship. With a confident smirk, she forced the throttle lever forward and could practically hear the ship's powerplant scream in protest as the extreme descent slowed. The ship wafted down the last several hundred feet on a column of fire. Roxanne pressed a button in front of her and the ship set down gently on it's four landing skids, as if the dramatic approach hadn't even happened.