Star Trot

Chapter 2 - Encounter at Derppoint

Deck 1, Bridge, PSS Equestallation,

0,2 Light years from Wheat Space Nine,

Stardate 64428, 1700 Hours, Shipboard Time.

The Equestallation was nearing Wheat Space Ten rapidly. Even though the station was quite a long distance away from Equestria, a stable wormhole had been found that allowed for rapid transit between the two locations. The station was 400 light years away, a distance that would usually take  twenty-four hours on the Equestallation’s top speed, but the wormhole cut it down to a five hour trip.

As they were beginning to get closer and closer to the station, Twilight commanded Spike “Cadet, drop us out of jump space.”.

“Yes captain, dropping out.” Spike replied as he was preparing the ship to slow down. “FTL speed cut, and we’re back to normal space.” He then said while there was a decrease in noise from the engines.

“Well done.” Twilight complimented, still impressed by the young dragon’s flight experience. ‘How can such a small creature control such a large ship?’ She thought. For a moment she considered asking that to Rainbow who was sitting next to her, but before she could do that Spike spoke again.

“We are approaching Wheat Space Ten, Captain.” He said, and indeed, the space station was slowly coming up on the Bridge’s main viewscreen.

It was a very large station, around 25 Kilometres in diameter, yet it was also very streamlined. Multiple docking ports and other modules stuck out of the large main body, yet it didn’t look like a mess.

“Ensign Rarity, hail the station.” Twilight said in the direction of Rarity.

The white unicorn replied “Most certainly, Captain.”, and she pressed multiple buttons at her terminal. Soon after, the face of a dark blue earth pony in a red-edged uniform appeared on the main screen.

“I am Commander Frisko of Wheat Space Ten.” The blue pony said as an introduction with a seemingly bored look, and before Twilight could reply, he asked “Can I be of assistance?”

Twilight answered “I am Captain Twilight Sparkle, commanding officer of the Equestallation. I was supposed to get my new assignment here?”

Commander Frisko immediately brightened up, happy with some news. “So, the Equestallation was launched? It’s an honour to see her in action.” He said, and continued “Yes, we have orders for you, captain. I’ll have the complete file sent over to you immediately, but I’ll give you a short summary. Long range sensors at the Derppoint Colony have detected an unidentified vessel headed towards them. We don’t know its origin or its intentions, so we are sending you to investigate the situation, and hopefully make first contact with the species piloting the ship.”

Twilight took a moment to process all the information. First contact with a new species? On their first assignment? “Understood. Is there anything else known about the ship other than it’s headed for the colony?” She then replied.

“Not much, but the sensor logs will be in the file, it’s being sent to you now.” Frisko said.

Rarity confirmed “We are indeed receiving the file, captain.”.

“We haven’t been able to get the exact location of the ship as we didn’t have enough time to properly analyse the data, but I trust you will be able to do just that. Now I should get back to my normal duties. Good luck, captain.” Frisko stated with a sigh, and he ended the transmission.

Twilight, who had nodded when Frisko had wished them luck, went over the situation for a moment. They were being sent to intercept a new alien race, which was exciting, but it was unclear if the aliens mean harm or not. Finally, after thinking a moment, she started giving commands.

“Cadet Spike, set a course for Derppoint Colony at FTL speeds. Engineering, prepare the engine for FTL drive.”

“Okay Captain, setting course.” Spike confirmed, and there was a similar confirmation coming from Engineering over the comm system.

After Applejack and Spike had confirmed their orders, Twilight turned towards Rarity. "Ensign, I would like you to look over the sensor logs for any insight on the aliens’ current position. Have me notified if you find anything, and make sure that our course is corrected immediately.”

“Oh, right away, Madam.” Rarity replied with a small nod, and she left the bridge for her office down at the Ops control centre.

“I’ll be in my office. You have the bridge, commander.” Twilight lastly said half to herself and half to Rainbow Dash, while getting up and trotting towards her office’s doors.

Deck 15, Ops Control Room, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, approx. 19 light years from Derppoint Colony,

Stardate 64429, 2354 Hour, Shipboard Time.

Once she was commanded to do so, Ensign Rarity had immediately begun studying the sensor logs they received from Wheat Space Ten. The logs were a complete mess: Between the actually useful information there were lunabytes worth of data that were nothing more than the temperature of stars and the amount of space dust per cubic metre. Therefore it had taken quite some time to actually FIND any useful information, but she had finally found the data she needed.

She had found the exact location and heading of the alien ship when the last scans were taken; about nine hours ago. Just when she was about to call her findings in, the doors of Ops Control opened, and Rainbow Dash entered.

“Ensign, did you find anything yet?” Rainbow asked eagerly as she entered the room. She hadn’t been in here yet. It was mostly a room filled with computers and monitoring equipment. She saw a door at the back of room that she thought to be connected to the hall where the main computer core should be. Before she could draw any more conclusions, Rarity interrupted her.

"Ah, perfect timing, Commander! I was just about to contact you, you see. Yes, I have found the alien ship's exact location.", Rarity answered with a content smile. "Come here for a moment and I will show you." She then said, gesturing towards the station she was working at.

Rainbow slowly trotted over. Sure, she knew a thing or two about computers, but she hoped Rarity would keep the science-stuff to a minimum. She was a commander, not a rocket scientist. “Alright, what have you got?”

“Right here we have the ship’s current location, and here it’s heading.” Rarity explained whilst pointing a hoof first at the coordinates, and then the heading. "I'd say if we alter our course now, we should be there in, oh, around an hour."

“Awesome!” Rainbow replied cheerfully, and added “I’ll tell cadet Spike immediately. See ya later, Ensign!”

“Very well. Goodbye, Commander!” Rarity replied as Rainbow turned and left ops.

Deck 1, Captain’s Office, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, approx. 16 light years from Derppoint Colony,

Stardate 64429, 0023 Hours, Shipboard Time.

Captain Sparkle shot up from her desk due to a sudden noise. She had fallen asleep on it whilst studying the sensor logs sent to the ship. It wasn’t that the logs weren’t interesting, it was just that it had been a long day with the launch of the ship and immediate deployment on a mission.

The sudden noise turned out to be the doors of her office opening, and as she looked she saw that a cyan Pegasus had walked in(who she recognised as Rainbow Dash). Just when she wanted to say something, Twilight was interrupted by a sudden burst of laughter.

“Bwahaha!” Rainbow laughed, pointing at Twilight. “You… you fell asleep at your desk… at your first day of work?! You’re an awesome role model, captain!”

Twilight gave the rainbow-maned pegasus an annoyed look, and she remarked “Yes, but you might be living up to me a bit too much. I heard you napped on top of an engine core once and would have gotten radiation poisoning if the chief engineer hadn’t woken you up.”

Rainbow suddenly stopped laughing, put off by her captain’s knowledge of that little 'incident'. “Ahem, Ensign Rarity has notified me that she researched all the sensor logs and given a new course to Cadet Spike.”

Pleased with the result of her little comment on Dash’s own habits, Twilight smiled and answered “Good. Where are we headed now, then?”

“Well, not really to a system. The alien ship is about two light years away from Raxacoricoponypatorius’s current location., and it’s still headed towards Derppoint Colony. We are on an intercept course, and should meet it within an hour.” Rainbow replied, saying Raxacoricoponypatorius without a hitch. At first she would always laugh at the rogue planet’s strange name, but she had gotten used to it.

“Alright, I’ll probably be on the bridge in half an hour. You’re dismissed.” Twilight said, ending the conversation.

Rainbow stood for a moment, until she realised that with dismissed Twilight meant ‘Get outta my office.’. After that realisation, she saluted, and left the office.

Deck 4, Mess Hall, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, approx. 17 light years from Derppoint Colony,

Stardate 64429, 0045 Hours, Shipboard Time.

Lieutenant Applejack entered the Mess Hall for a snack in the middle of the night. Even though the ship used shifts, and there were always other ponies awake, the mess was usually empty at night. The lights were even dimmed. “Night is somethin’ that‘ll never change, I s’pose” She thought to herself.

Thinking she was alone, she trotted over to the food dispensers which were part of the right wall to get a drink. She was about to order something when she noticed a black figure sitting in a corner of the room. The figure had wings, and was staring into the void of space through one of the many windows in the room, but AJ couldn’t see who it was due to the darkness in the room.

“’ello?” Applejack said cautiously, not sure if the figure wanted to be disturbed or not.

Upon the sound, the figure shrunk and made a startled squeaking noise, as it directed its view towards Applejack. Even in the dark, it was clear that it had had light blue eyes, and judging by the figure’s light build, AJ could assume that it was a pegasus mare. Yet something seemed off – the wings, folded to the mare’s side were strangely pointy, not normal for Pegasi.

Curiosity finally got the better of Applejack, and she said “Computer, lights”.

As the lights changed from their dimmed state to full-on bright, a dark-blue chiropteran with a black mane with a  bit of purple in it was revealed. She was wearing a uniform with a yellow edge, indicating that she worked in the security department. AJ recognised her as Darkii Wings, the only chiropteran that worked on the ship.

When the lights were completely turned on, Darkii shot under her table, scared by the sudden light.

.Applejack immediately apologised upon seeing the Chiropteran’s scared reaction to herself and the light. “Oh, I’m mighty sorry to have startled ya. I just wanted to see who you were. I’m not used to people bein’ in the mess at this time, ya see.”

Darkii slowly crawled from under her table, back into the light. “Oh, no, it’s not a problem. I just uh, react sensitively to sudden light, you see.” She said, nervously scratching the floor with one of her hooves. She obviously didn’t like the current situation: She wasn’t exactly comfortable with her natural Chiropteran instincts while there were Equestrian ponies around.

“Alright then, shouldn’t have turned on the lights anyway. But why were you squeakin’ and not replyin’ when I greeted you, then?” Applejack inquired, not really thinking about the fact that what she just asked was a bit rude.

“I’m also… not… really used to ponies talking to… me…” Darkii shyly replied, still scratching the floor with her hooves. She resisted the urge to just run away and escape this situation, but gladly, that wasn’t necessary as Applejack responded in an understanding manner.

“Oh, well I can understand that. You Chiropterans don’t know us pony folk for very long yet, I s’pose, and I’d be wary too if I were standin’ in your hooves.” The orange earth pony answered kindly, smiling at the bat-like security officer. “If ya ever need help or anythin’, just say so. But now I should really get a drink and go to my quarters, I’d like to get some sleep before we intercept the alien shi-“

They were rudely interrupted by the voice of Rainbow Dash over the intercom. “All senior staff, report to your stations and open a communications link with the bridge if you’re not already there. All junior staff, be on alert.”

“Well, I suppose I won’t be gettin’ any sleep…” Applejack said, annoyed by the sudden interruption. “I’ll see you later.”

Darkii Wings just nodded as the earth pony left, and she commanded “Computer, dim lights.”, glad that ponies, or at least this one, accepted her as an equal.

Deck 1, Bridge, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, nearing the unidentified alien ship,

Stardate 64429, 0104 Hours, Shipboard Time.

Twilight had returned to the bridge just after Rainbow Dash had announced that all senior staff should report at their stations. As she entered, she said “I take it we are nearing the alien ship?”

“Yes ma’am.” came as a reply from Spike up at navigation. “We are nearing the ship and have dropped out of FTL speed.”

“Very well. Do we have a visual?” Twilight asked Rarity.

“Why indeed we have, Captain. Putting it on the main screen.” Rarity replied, clearly a bit worn down after going through all the sensor logs to find the location of the ship. She pressed a few buttons, after which the alien ship appeared on the main screen.

It was massive. Even the Equestallation didn’t measure up to the size of  the ship in front of them. It was at least 10000 metres long, 4000 wide and 4000 high. It was generally shaped as a cylinder, but had a lot of bits sticking out of it, as if they were tacked on later. Multiple what could only be presumed as cargo bay or hangar doors could be seen all over the ship, as well as what were clearly cannons of sorts.

Twilight her mouth fell open, flabbergasted by the size of the dreadnaught that was flying in front of them. She asked “What is its current heading?”

“It is still going straight for Derppoint Colony, madam. For some reason at sub-FTL speed.” Rarity answered, her mouth wide open, also amazed by the size of the vessel.

“Well then, open communication frequencies, hail them.” Twilight commanded, beginning to doubt the aliens intentions. Judging by the vessel’s cannons, it would seem that the aliens on the ship didn’t have good intentions.

“Hailing frequencies opened.” Rarity said after the pressing of yet another couple of buttons. Ten seconds passed, and she added “No response.”

“Hail them again.” Twilight answered. She got the same reply from Rarity as before.

Twilight sighed, and said “Keep hailing them, maybe they will respond.”

Rarity agreed, and shortly after, Rainbow Dash spoke.

“Captain, maybe we should move ourselves between the ship and Derppoint, in case they don’t even know we are here.” She suggested. As first officer it was her duty to give strategies and ideas, no matter how stupid the ideas might be. This one especially was a bit irrational, but it could indeed get the attention of the ship in front of them.

“That might actually be a good idea…” Twilight answered, quickly thinking over the strategy. After a moment, she decided: “Cadet Spike, bring us in front of the alien ship.  Lieutenant Rarity, make sure that the ship remains in the centre of the view screen.”

She got a “Yes madam” and “Aye captain.” from Rarity and Spike respectively, as they began carrying out their orders.

As Spike slowly brought the Equestallation in front of the alien ship, the view on the main screen shifted as the aforementioned alien ship remained in the centre. When they were in position, they could see the ship’s front clearly. It was quite an intimidating sight: There was a large amount of cannons, and they could see what was supposedly a command centre near the middle of the cone that was the front of the ship.

Before anyone could say anything, Rarity got an alarm on one her consoles. “Ah, smashing. I believe that got their attention, madam. I am detecting an energy surge in the vessel, presumably a communication device powering up.”

There was a flash on the upper right corner of the viewscreen. Once the flash subdued, there was a little ball of light, becoming larger and larger as it quickly neared the Equestallation. It was clear this ball had originated from one of the cannons on the alien ship, but no-one had time to say anything, or hardly to process all the information.

A second passed, and the ball passed the aft camera on the right side. There was a loud bang, and the entire ship shook.