A World Apart

As Captain Morgan walked into the meeting room, the first thing he noticed was the two tiered table. The second was the hastily made chairs larger than the older ones in the room. Each step he took made him more nervous. The last thing he wanted was to screw this up. But lately his luck wasn’t what anyone would call good. First the minor scrape in space dock, then the problem with the engines, then the fact that there was life where no one ever recorded it. He now had a whole planet's opinion of the federation riding on his performance here today. If he screwed, his career would be far past over. All he ever wanted to do in life was be a part of Starfleet. Due to several bad decisions and bouts of bad luck he took much longer than most to reach command. So he had to do this right.

“Please have a seat captain.” Rock told him

“Thank you eldest.” the captain replied.

“You may call me Rock, no need for such formality.”

The whole group sat, the Starfleet personnel at the taller section of the table, the ponys at the lower. What followed was several moments of nervous silence.

“I'd like to personally thank you for saving our pilot.” Rock started

“It was no problem. We couldn’t just let her die. It broke one of our biggest rules to do it though. And now we have to deal with the consequences of that. Normally we don’t have contact with races that haven’t reached a certain level of technology so as not to pollute them. But due to the circumstances involved I have had to break that rule. Now what I’m hoping to do is limit the damage we have done. Your people seem so peaceful, and the last thing I want to do is change that. But I must admit that first contact with a new race is very far outside of my experience.” the captain explained.

After a thoughtful silence Rock spoke. “I understand where a society with advanced technology can cause harm to us. And I also see that you and your people are trying to do as little damage as possible. I thank you for your effort in doing something that is so foreign to you. I spent most of my life working in the mines, yet I have had to learn politics. I can appreciate the difficulty your facing. So rest assured that any mistakes you may make will not reflect poorly on you or your people.”

The captain let out a sigh, feeling one of the two large weights on this shoulders lift. Looking into Rocks eyes he could see that he was telling the truth. With that lifted he also felt the second weight lighten. As the discussion continued he became more confidant with each word. After an hour he suggested they retire for a bit to stretch and walk around. Rock agreed and they took a 15 minute recess. As the group walked outside Rock approached him.

“Just to tell you captain, your doing an excellent job, better than I would have in your position.”

“Thank you. Your doing great as well, but that’s to be expected for a person, I mean pony, with your experience.”

“Thank you. Since were talking totally off the record here, may I ask a question?” Rock said.

“Sure, as long as its not about technology.” the captain replied.

“Its not. I don’t suppose your federation as come across another planet with life similar to us?”

“Not that I've ever heard of.”

“Thank you.”

“May I ask you something Rock?”

“Yes you may.”

“My engineer piloted us down here. He's very interested in your aircraft. And he'd like a chance compete with your pilot that escorted us down.”

“What would he fly?”

“The ship we flew down in. in space its much faster than an airplane, but in the atmosphere its limited due to aerodynamic stresses. I figure they would be matched pretty close.”

“I have no problem with it if you don’t.”

“How about when we leave to go back to our ship.”

“I'll send word to Sky Streak to prepare. But wont it be dangerous to do it with passengers?”

“We have other ways to travel than in the craft. We used it mainly to carry the capsule down”

“So it will be your pilot against ours?”

“Yes”

They agreed to the race. And sent word to the pilots so they could prepare. Thew meeting went on for another hour, and both sides agreed to adjourn till the diplomatic ship came to handle the details. As the Starfleet crew walked out to the shuttle, the captain and Rock shook again. Then they walked into the shuttle. The captain called the ship and had everyone but the engineer beamed up. The captain rushed to the bridge and had the viewscreen tuned to the cameras on the shuttle. He wanted to see the race. One of the bridge crew told him they had a feed from the planet of coverage of the race as well. He called for them to be put up split screen.

Maps had been passed out to both pilots. They both confirmed they understood the route and the rules. There were 18 checkpoints marked by a floating beacon. To clear the checkpoints, the pilots had to pass within 100 feet of the beacon. It was a tough course. Both pilots tuned to the race frequency and indicated ready. The countdown commenced. Both pilots started their engines. As the count continued they were sweating slightly. The shuttle had the power advantage but the plane had the aerodynamic advantage. They were balanced. The radio operator finished the countdown. 3, 2, 1. Both craft lurched into motion. Where the shuttle could lift straight up it was slower to accelerate. The plane shot down the runway, leaping into the air. Both built up speed, but the plane took the early lead. At the first checkpoint the plane was almost two minutes ahead. The shuttle pilot pushed his craft till it was groaning from the stresses. The plane slowly lost ground, at the half way point, the shuttle was gaining rapidly. But then the acrobatic portion came up and the shuttle was flirting with its breaking point. But the pilot held back enough to keep from breaking the craft up. The plane gained ground back, and approached the final straight away. A minute and a half later so did the shuttle. The shuttle pilot pushed it to the limit. As he heard groaning and creaking from the structure he saw the plane getting closer and closer. If he held it at this speed he would win. But as his screens told him if he held it too much longer he would break up. He did the math in his head and it would be close. As the miles ticked away he gained on the plane. But a mere quarter mile from the finish line he saw the warnings. He was almost neck in neck with the plane but if he didn’t back off he would break up. With great reluctance he reduced power. The plane took the lead again and passed the last checkpoint. Half a second later so did the shuttle. The engineer was disappointed but he gave it all he had. As he returned to the landing field he landed near the plane he had just been racing. The pony piloting it had just stepped out and was walking toward the shuttle. He was sky blue with a white and red striped mane.

“Woowe, I thought I was toast there.” Sky said

“It was too much for the structure or I'd have kept the speed on.” Brandt replied

“I was pushing all the power I had. I almost burned out my engines.”

“I guess we will have to have a rematch someday. Maybe I can get two shuttles and we can do the next one in space.”

“You're on.”

“You bet”

With that Brandt returned to the shuttle. He knew the captain wanted him back as soon as possible after the race. The tug was just outside of the system waiting for them to tow them to a starbase for repairs. He punched in the takeoff and checked the damage screen. He gasped. Three beams held each nacelle on. The left had half a beam holding it. The right had one whole. He had come so close to losing one that he was amazed. He decided to baby his shuttle back to the ship.

On the ship, everyone on the bridge was glued to the screen. The commentary was almost an after thought. The last bit of the race was shocking. From outside the shuttle they could see the flexing of the nacelles. The captain was sure they were going to come off any second. Just then the shuttle slowed and let the plane have the win. He exhaled for the first time in what felt like years. He would have to talk to Mr Brandt when he got back. Then he saw the meeting between the pilots and saw how sporting they both were. Maybe a light talk with him, the captain thought.

Once the shuttle was secured in the bay. The captain ordered quarter impulse out of orbit. As the course was laid in for the tug, he wrote more in his report on the planet. It took over 3 hours to reach the tug. Once they did the tug captain radioed then to prepare for docking. There was a bump and they were docked. The tug powered its engines and lept into warp. The captain sighed, in 2 weeks he'd see if what he did would pass the scrutiny of his superiors.