Rura Penthe #50"
By: Ensign Letan, Engineer, [NPC]
Craig Witmore, Engineer, [RNPC]

Stardate: 58204.28 1100

Location: Messhall

Craig ate his usual morning meal slowly today. All the main repairs were done and Craig felt it was time to relax. His idea of relaxation was to time how fast he could dismantle a warpcore. As this was of course not allowed he had to settle for the holodeck.

A few days ago browsing through the ships database he found a repair competition. The rules were simple

1) Get your ship off the ground as quickly as possible. 2) Don't let the raiders overwhelm you. 3) 2 people per team.

He would have preferred to have more information about the competition (what kind of ship would he have? how many raiders would be attacking, and how often? did he choose the right person to join him for the game?). Too many question, too few answers.

'Oh well,' Craig thought, 'I shall know in good time.'

He got up to go to the holodeck.

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Holodeck 1

As Craig approached the holodeck doors he heard a voice behind him.

“Hey Whitdog, where you going?”

Craig turned to see Ensign Letan walk towards him.

“Well I have some holodeck time left and I wanted to get my hands on this engineering competition. Care to join me?”

Craig had checked the rules of this game and it was allowed to bring a 2nd player. He hoped that he was right to bring a second engineer. Of course they would be faster, but would they be beaten by the raiders first?

Still, Craig was pleased to see Ensign Letan, for in the few interactions they had had, Craig had developed a deep respect for the young bolian male.

“A competition, now that sounds interesting, Letan answered. “Don’t mind if I do”.

Craig clapped Letan on the back, saying, "Well, do not tell anyone...but that makes two of us." Without waiting for a response, Craig entered the holo-suite, after having activated the program, leaving an bewildered Ensign Letan to follow.

Waiting for them was a tech. He was a native of Kyzar, although he was of a slightly smaller build than the average of his peoples. He had an air of intelligence about him, though, which seemed to make up for his small stature. He smiled at them as they entered, and, rubbing his hands together, said, "Ah trying out the competition, excellent, alright, I'm ready when you are."

Craig glanced at Ensign Letan, who looked resolute, and smiled inwardly. 'Win or lose,' Craig thought, 'I brought the right partner.'

Craig nodded to the tech, and everything disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by a beautiful meadow. The scene was so nice, Craig almost forgot why he was there in the first place. Almost, but not quite. Turning around, Craig saw the ship he was to repair.

He would have been seized by laughter, were it not for his self-control. What he now faced was not a bohemoth of a foreign vessel, but a standard Starfleet shuttlecraft...at least, sort of. The shuttle was scarred by disruptor fire, probably from a battle. It also sported a .3 meter-diameter hole in it's port hull, and a certain nonsymmetrical quality to it, due to a missing nacelle.

'At least I will have no problem understanding it's controls or operations,' Craig thought.

Together the two entered the shuttle and began to check it over. The shuttle would never see space travel until she'd had her hull patched, and she wouldn't go as fast as she had until she received a new nacelle, but she would fly again. The ensigns would make sure of that.

“Letan,” Craig said. “See if you can power up the shuttle.” Letan nodded and slided in the pilot chair when all over sudden a shocking explosion rocked the shuttle.

Peeking out through the "window", Craig saw four Raiders running across the meadow, now about 400 yards off. He glanced at Ensign Letan, "Keep working. If we can get her going, the raiders will not make a difference."

Craig moved to the back of the shuttle and opened the weapons locker hoping for some firepower. He was both relieved and disappointed to find two Maqui Type II Phasers waiting for him. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'they will have to do.' He grabbed one and headed back to the open shuttle door.

The Raiders were now 200 yards off. Craig's poor aim made firing pointless, so he waited.

The shuttle shook from another disruptor blast, as the raiders continued to advance, not afraid to make their presence known. "Ensign Letan," stated Craig, "now would be an excellent time to get this ship off the ground."

As the Raiders hit the 100-yard mark, Ensign Letan exclaimed,

“Alright, we have power now.!!! Letans’ fingers ran over the console, bypassing circuits, getting power from non essential systems.

The ship began to power up. The sound of a freshly started shuttlecraft was music to Craig's ears. And then, it stopped, leaving two confused ensigns on a shuttle with no power.

However, neither of the ensigns wasted words on the situation. Ensign Letan went back to working on the shuttle, while Craig went to try fighting off the Raiders.

The Raiders had crossed the 50-meter mark, so that Craig felt comfortable shooting at them. However, he missed three times before stunning one of them . He mentally cursed his inaccuracy and vowed to spend the rest of the day practicing in the holodeck on the Zion

“Craig, Letan called. “I can’t get the power online. We need an energy boost from somewhere.”

Craig gulped, "No problem, Ensign. Grab the other phaser from the weapons locker, then get back here and cover me."

Ensign Letan wasted no time and as soon as he returned, Craig sprinted out of the shuttle, firing at the Raiders as he ran. Ensign Letan began firing from the door opening, stunning the second of the Raiders.

Frustrated with his poor aim, Craig threw down his phaser, and charged straight towards the third Romulan. His sudden change in tactics momentarily surprised one of the Raiders, allowing Craig to tackle him and knock him down.

The sounds of phaser fire and a body dropping told Craig that Ensign Letan had taken down the fourth Raider. Craig was not done with #3, though. He punched him in the face repeatedly, until the raiders nose was bleeding profusely, and Craig's hand was aching. Then he gathered up his phaser and the four disruptor rifles, and returned to the shuttle.

“Where are the weapons for Craig, Letan asked has he moved back in the shuttle. We need power and not extra weapons.”

“Don’t you see it Letan,” Craig said eagerly trying to catch his breath. “We can use the powerpacks from the rifles to give us that bit of extra power we need to get off the ground.”

“Shit your right, I hadn’t thought of that,” Letain said a bit sheepishly. Craig chuckled. “There is no harm done, lets get to work.”

Two and a half minutes later, they had the weapons connected and attached to the shuttle power conduits. Craig hoped they hadn't used up too much of the energy from them, however he knew the rifles held a lot of power, so he didn't think it would matter.

The shuttle shook from another disruptor blast coming from another raiding party, but this time Craig paid it no mind. Instead, he said, "Ensign Letan, you may restore power to the shuttlecraft and get us out of here."

Ensign Letan did not need to be told twice. He powered up the shuttle and, slowly, the shuttle began to ascend.

Still, it was fast enough to escape the raiders, and they hobbled their lopsided shuttle away from the Raiding party…...when suddenly the program was ended, changing back to its familiar black and yellow grid again..

Both Craig and Letan found themselves back in the holo-suite with the tech.

"Well," said the tech, "you wasted more time in the beginning than you should have, but you're definitely advancing to the next round, no doubt about that."

“Great,” Letan said looking towards Craig. “What you say shall we give round 2 a try?”

Craig laughed. “Your on, Letan. Computer initiate round 2.”