SIM:Ensign Danielle Vistain: Cradle

Authors' Note: The sim below was originally posted in two parts as the sims "Not Alone" and "Sudden Departure". This sim is the first mention of Danielle's estranged relationship with her brother Robert, but we won't learn more details about that until four years later when Robert finds himself in trouble. The events in this SIM occurred on stardates 238712.21-30. Danielle Vistain Not Alone ((Flight deck, USS Independence-A)) ::Ensign Danielle Vistain was working alone in the hanger bay. She was looking forward to the end of her shift in a few hours. It was Tuesday, which meant she and her friend Durrell Taylor were going to have Thai for dinner. As Danielle lay on the ground underneath a shuttle, checking its driver coil assembly, she wondered if Taylor was having an equally boring day in engineering. She didn't have much time to wonder as just then the lights went out and the ship suddenly rocked violently. On instinct, she crawled out and sat up trying to see what happened, but everything was black. Perhaps it wasn't so unfortunate that the lights had gone out, for it prevented Danielle from seeing that one of the other shuttles had been knocked loose from its hanger pad and was now hurtling towards her.:: ((later)) ::Pad thai. Lad nar. Danielle had been dreaming of various culinary delights, so when she woke up to taste blood in her mouth, she was momentarily confused. In the background, she could hear someone calling, but the message wasn't clear.:: Kobylarz: =/= Flight deck... ::static:: ...anything out there... ::static:: ...read, Flight deck...=/= ::It was still dark in the hanger bay, and Danielle turned towards the voice. She tried to get up, but then she realized she was pinned against the shuttle she had been inspecting by yet another shuttle. The voice called out again:: Kobylarz: =/= ...sensor craft out... ::static:: ...damn life boat... =/= ::Danielle screamed out in frustration. And then something unexpected happened, as if any of this was expected. Someone--or something--screamed back.:: Sudden Departure ((Flight Deck, USS Independence-A)) The past few moments for Ensign Danielle Vistain had seemed like bursts of sensations. Although it was dark, her vision sometimes completely whited out before she could tell she was in the shuttlebay alone again. Or at least she thought she was alone before. Something had started screeching intermittanly. She wasn't sure if it was form the comline or something inside the shuttlebay. Besides the flashes of whiteness overtaking her vision, immense pain ran through her body in pulses as the heavy weight of shuttlecraft number 3, Kitty Hawk, pressed into her abdomen. The screeching returned again. What was that? Danielle screamed again in frustration and pain fruitlessly. Again, the white burst of light overtook her. Suddenly, the internal pressurization alarms were sounding, and through all the commotion, Danielle was able to finally realize what was going on. The white burst of light wasn't just from her injuries. Something was emerging from nowhere at the end of the shuttlebay, and it was cutting through the shuttlebay doors. Where was it coming from? She squinted to see, but she couldn't see anything besides the far wall of the shuttlebay. A cloaked ship? Whatever it was, the alarms were getting louder and more urgent. The computer should have activated the emergency forcefields by now, but it didn't. Apparently it wasn't just the lights that were out. Danielle knew she didn't have much time to get out of the shuttlebay or else she would soon be thrown into space with whatever else wasn't secured to the shuttlebay. Even if shuttlecraft Kitty Hawk managed to keep her stuck in the shuttlebay, the artificial atmosphere, not to mention the air in her lungs, would be sucked out into the vacuum of space. A flash of white again. A burst of pain. The image of her friend Durrell Taylor. Of shy Tyler Morris in happier times. So this was it. The end of her voyage to see the stars. Here lies Danielle Vistain. Farewell, Durrell. Don't think you're off the hook for what happened on Jupiter Station. Tell my brother Robert that I forgive- NO! This is not how it's going to end! Danielle Vistain screamed now in anger. Rage. Furor. She wasn't sure how, but somehow she had managed to get herself free of shuttlecraft Kitty Hawk's grip. The alarms signaling the loss of pressurization in the hanger bay began blaring now. Danielle limped to the shuttlebay exit to get to the corridor. The door was sealed shut, and it refused to listen to Danielle's pleas. Here lies Danielle Vistain. It was a noble effort, but this is how it ends. As if to punctuate the finality of her situation, the sound of escaping air could be hurt as the white beam of light broke through the shuttlebay doors. NO! Danielle looked desparately around the shuttlebay. Left to the other door, sealed shut as well. Right to the control station, doors stuck ajar. Left. Right. Shuttles lay all around in between. Of course! She dragged herself to the nearest one, her old nemesis shuttlecraft Kitty Hawk. As the air became thinner, she grabbed onto the hatch to the shuttlecraft. As tears rolled down her cheeks, she strained to pull the hatch open. It groaned a bit before it finally gave in. Quickly, Danielle rolled in and pulled with all energy to close the hatch. As the door slammed shut securely, the sound of the alarms and noise in the shuttlebay became muted into the backround. Danielle crawled over to the cockpit and threw herself into the pilots chair. She looked out of the viewports to see the scene she had left behind. The white light finally burst through the shuttlebay doors, causing it and a few loose cargo containers to be thrown out into space. Soon, the hull breach took the rest of the atmosphere with it, and the alarms were silenced thanks to the vacuum of space. The origin of the white light moved out of the shuttlebay, causing a brief ripple of light to appear as it continued away from the ship to destinations unknown. Whoever was with Danielle had decided to leave. Thank goodness, too, because the poor ensign was fast asleep in the cradle of shuttlecraft Kitty Hawk. ----- Ensign Danielle Vistain Shuttlebay Ops Engineer USS Tiger-A