2nd Year Cadet Brannigan pulled hard on the controls, sending his small training craft diving away from the attack drone. It flew in behind his craft, forcing Brannigan to duck and weave to prevent it getting a simulated weapons lock. The Asteroid field was coming up fast, it would provide both cover and obstacles.
Pushing his tiny craft’s thrust to the maximum he dashed away from the drone, heading into the field. Swerving port and starboard, he cut an erratic path through the field. The drone however, kept up. Brannigan took the risks even higher, almost scraping the surface of some of the asteroid, their minimal gravitational fields tugging at his craft as he neared, but his velocity kept him going. The drone had been following Brannigan’s flight almost exactly, but it’s AI decided to take a wider berth around the asteroids than Brannigan was taking.
Having spotted this Brannigan wondered why, it had entered the asteroid field and followed Brannigan’s erratic path almost perfectly up until that point. An idea suddenly came to him, he quickly surveyed his scanner, spotting his target, he set course and ramped up the speed, heading to one of the larger bodies, the dwarf planet of Ceres. The planetoid’s small gravity well would be enough for Brannigan’s plan. But he had to bring the drone in a bit closer, so he pulled back on the thrust just slightly, giving the drone a bit of time to catch up, but still maintain a high rate of speed. C’mon he thought to himself, the drone needed to be real close…
Though his little craft was moving very erratically, the planetoid of Ceres barely looked like it was moving in his view port. He was really close now. He could feel Ceres’ meagre gravity tugging at his craft, clutching at it, trying to pull it down. He fought with the controls to keep the craft low, but not too low. The Drone was flying further out, it’s AI programmed to avoid the gravity well, trying to hit Brannigan’s craft with it’s war games beams. But with Brannigan’s erratic manuevers, the distance, and the gravity every shot went wide. The AI was beginning to learn, that to hit Brannigan’s nimble craft, it would have to fly deeper into the gravity well…
“It would seem he is indeed an exceptional pilot,” the Fleet Academy Commandant commented to the director of Academy’s Flight School. “You do realise that the curriculum starts in 2 months, right?”
The director was intently watching the small craft on both the viewscreens and through the view ports and replied “That’s why I asked you watch this demonstration, I can’t wait on Mr Brannigan to make up his mind. I want you to force the issue.”
All cadets go through basic flight training with the small training craft, but the flight director saw more potential in Cadet William Brannigan than any other cadet. The Director had tried to convince Brannigan to switch career paths but the boy had his heart set on Starship design and construction, an are in which he apparently showed little promise. He was truly a born pilot. So the Director set up this test of his abilities and invited the Academy Commandant to observe in the hopes of getting the Commandant to convince, or coerce, Brannigan into changing his mind.
Brannigan continued to orbit Ceres with rapid velocity, the Drone still hovering further out. Brannigan watched with a sense of victory as the Drone began to slowly circle inward, it’s weaker thrusters straining to maintain a steady altitude. It was almost too perfect, Brannigan pulled back on the throttle, his tiny craft seeming to zip past, under the Drone. The Drone tried to stop and turn, but it needed the speed to maintain it’s altitude. Slowing down only allowed the gravity to drag it further and further into the gravity well. Brannigan was intent on the Drone, not noticing his own slow descent until it was too late. His craft sounded a proximity warning, one of Ceres’ sharp crags, from Asteroidal impacts, was fast approaching, ignoring the fate of the Drone, Brannigan pulled hard on the yoke in a vain attempt to pull his craft out of the gravity well in time…
=/\= Observation Post – Moments Before =/\=
“That’s risky…” The director said, edging closer to the screens to get a closer look, “If he doesn’t pull out in time it could end in disaster.”
“Don’t worry, we have a transporter lock on him at all times, we can beam him out in a second.
Both the Commandant and the director watched in horror as Brannigan’s craft ploughed into one of the crags of Ceres burst into bright but short lived flames.
“oh god” uttered the director.
The Commandant turned to the Observation Post crew, “Did you get him?”
One of the crew looked in horror, “Sir the transporter went down 40 seconds ago!”
“WHAT!? Scan for life signs, get a shuttle out there now! NOW!”
The director shook his head sadly, “There’s no way anyone could survive that.”
“Sir! We have a lifesign, it’s very faint..”
“Impossible…” the director exclaimed.
“Hu- Oh never mind..for a second there I could’ve sworn there was two.” The crew officer muttered to himself
=/\= Brannigan’s Craft =/\=
A breathing mask was on his face, he was wrapped in the thermal blankets that were behind his cockpit, which, mind you, was a complete mess, breached open to the airlessness of space, heat escaping rapidly. Brannigan raised his eyes drunkenly toward the cat, it winked at him. He smiled.
“It’ll be ok William. I’m sorry to do this to you…And I’m sorry you won’t remember any of this.” With that the cat wavered and disappeared.
=/\= 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days later =/\=
“I see you’re finally up and about.” The head nurse smiled at him.
Brannigan nodded. He couldn’t remember much of the crash, and thanks to medical technology his body bore no marks to atest to it. He still ached though, but he was finally able to get out of bed without assistance. The doctors had to basically rebuild his shattered legs which in itself took little time, it was the healing that took several months, and even now he still needed assisted braces (the kind that Elaysian’s tend to use in ‘normal’ gravity environments) on his legs to help his mobility.
He smiled at the quirk of fate that left him unable to attend most of his Academy classes…Not that he didn’t want to attend his classes, but it he gave him a perfect ‘excuse’ to again turn down the Commandant’s offer to have his career track changed to the Flight School. He’d rather design space craft. Sure piloting was thrilling, but it was easy, design was a challenge.