//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: The First Equestrian Starliner // by computerneek //------------------------------// “So it…  broke…” Twilight mumbles eventually, sitting up in her hospital bed and rubbing her broken horn. Fluttershy makes a very, very small nod, from where she is seated in the middle of the room. “So, let me get this straight,” Rainbow states.  “We broke it. In so doing, we’ve managed to break Twilight’s horn, amputate Applejack’s right foreleg and my right wing, knock Pinkie out, shred Rarity’s side, and poke Luna’s eye out?” Nod. “And absolutely nothing happened to you?” She nods again, shrinking backwards into the space between a couple of beds in the row facing. Finally, Twilight shakes her head, lowering her hoof from the remains of her horn, and takes a deep breath.  “Athena,” she begins sternly. “What did we hit?” “Query not applicable,” it answers.  “No collision was detected.” She levels her eyelids, giving the wall opposite her bed a glare.  “So what happened?” “System Failure Incident Report zero-zero-zero-one. “July Three, zero-four-three-zero and zero-seven-point-four-one-three seconds, Canterlot Universal Time.  Critical fault was detected in Fusion Three-One-Dash-Eight; Emergency Shutdown activation recorded. Result, Failure. “At zero-seven-point-four-seven-one seconds:  Critical fault recurrence in Fusion Three-One-Dash-Eight logged. “At zero-seven-point-four-eight-three seconds:  Communication lost with Fusion Three-One-Dash-Seven.  Switch to secondary control logged; activation of secondary control not logged. “At zero-seven-point-four-eight-seven seconds:  Fusion Bay Three One declared rogue; Ejection activation logged.  Failure Diagnostic initiation logged.” “At zero-seven-point-four-nine-one seconds:  Diagnostic complete: Thermal overload caused by excessive power to Distortion Drive.  Distortion Drive Emergency Shutdown activation recorded. Result Successful. “At zero-seven-point-five-two-three seconds:  Fusion Bay Three One blow panel separation successful.  Ejection of Fusion Bay Three One logged. Fusion Three-One-Dash-Seven Containment Failure recorded; Fusion Bay Three One and surrounding compartments lost.  Zero casualties detected. “At zero-seven-point-five-three-seven seconds:  Critical fault was detected in Fusion Two-Three-Dash-One; Emergency Shutdown activation recorded.  Result Successful. “At zero-seven-point-five-four-six seconds:  Combat Shields activation logged. “At zero-seven-point-five-four-seven seconds:  Warp Field destabilization recorded. Hazardous deceleration detected. “At zero-seven-point-five-four-eight seconds:  Critical fault was detected in Inertial Compensators one-dash-one and three-dash-two.  Generation components lost; equipment disabled. Critical fault was detected in Inertial Compensator one-dash-two.  Control coil lost; Emergency Shutdown activation recorded. Result, Partial Success. Inertial Compensator Field Destabilization recorded.  Inertial Compensator Field Restabilization logged. “At zero-seven-point-five-four-nine seconds:  Critical fault was detected in Inertial Compensator three-dash-one.  Equipment integrity failed; equipment lost. Zero casualties detected. “At zero-seven-point-five-five-zero seconds:  Vessel deceleration to subwarp velocities logged. “At zero-seven-point-five-five-one seconds:  Hazardous deceleration ended. Inertial Compensator two-dash-one and two-dash-two, Maximum Load Wear Inspection activation recorded.  Result, two-dash-one at critical replacement wear; two-dash-two at mandatory replacement wear. “At zero-seven-point-five-five-two seconds:  Deactivation of Inertial Compensator two-dash-one logged.  Critical Fault detected in Fusion Two-Three-Dash-Two; Emergency Shutdown activation recorded.  Result Successful. “At zero-seven-point-five-five-three seconds:  Vessel velocity stabilization logged. General Transition to Emergency Power logged.  Supplemental Auxiliary Power logged. “At zero-seven-point-nine-one-seven seconds:  Hull Breach detected on Observation Deck. Evacuation Order recorded.  Six casualties recorded; Zero fatal.” “System Failure Incident Report zero-zero-zero-one complete.” Nopony moves for a whole minute. Then Rarity turns to look at Twilight, past Applejack.  “What did it just say…?” she asks. Twilight closes her jaw.  “I… I pushed the throttle too far.” “Emergency Autopilot engaged.  Engaging Planetary Orbit.” Rainbow blinks.  “What? We’re still floating over Equestria?” “Negative.” “Then…” Twilight begins.  “We’re floating over a different planet?” “Affirmative.” “Then we can find out what’s controlling the local star,” Twilight states, looking over at her friends.  “To- Aaah!” She hunkers her head down quickly, responding to the spike of pain shooting through her head while sparks of lightning seem to arc off of her horn.  Everypony stares at her for a few seconds, until after she looks back up again. “I… I now know what it feels like to have a broken horn.” Luna shudders, rising to step off her bed- and ending up on the floor in a manner rather unbecoming of a Princess.  “Aaah!” Once on the floor, she rolls herself upright to clamber back to her hooves. “Who dares move the… The edge of the…  Bed.” She scowls at the bed, her stern retort falling off to confusion. “Warning to Princess Luna,” the computer suddenly pitches in.  “Your right eye has been lost in impact. Loss of Depth Perception is expected.” “Depth perception?” Luna asks, blinking at the rest of the room.  “... Huh, you’re right.” Twilight jumps off her bed.  “Loss- Oh no! That shouldn’t be too big of a problem where raising and lowering the Moon is concerned, or when using your magic to operate things or bring them to you, but anything going out…  whether by magic or by hoof…  could end up short of its target, or too far.  Sorry! I’ll… uh, I’ll try to find a spell to fix it.” Luna gives her a level-lidded look.  “Do it soon. I am… not enjoying this.” “Uh…” Rainbow inserts suddenly.  “While you’re at it, could you look into replacing a wing?  I can’t exactly fly with only one.” Twilight cringes away from Rainbow’s look.  “S-sure, I’ll…” “And my leg,” Applejack states, rising to her hooves so her missing foreleg is clearly visible.  “I don’t rightly know what I can do as a three-legged earth pony.” Twilight cringes even further.  “S-Sorry? I’ll… I’ll make the spell if I have to…  but first, we’re going to have to get back to Ponyville.” Rarity climbs slowly to her hooves, making certain not to look at her side- and consoling herself with how the ship suggested that it has something to fix that, just it’s not working right now.  “Don’t worry, Twilight,” she mutters. “I’ll practice my magic to cast them for you.” Twilight shrinks even further, pressing herself against the wall, as one of her forehooves rises to once again explore her broken horn.  “... Right…” Then the room shakes very suddenly, and everypony falls down.  Except Pinkie, who bounces slightly on her bed, and Twilight, who’s already on the floor.  Everypony- save Pinkie, still unconscious- lets out a frightened scream. Then Pinkie wakes up on the second bounce.  “Waaah! What happened?” she yelps, whirling to her hooves.  “Where are we?” She looks frantically around the room. “Hostile weapons fire detected.  Hull breach, Deck C-dash-four-one.  No casualties; no atmosphere lost. Warning:  Separate unknown craft on unauthenticated approach.” Twilight looks up.  “Can… Can we talk to them?” A pause.  “Foreign craft not responding to hails.” “Even with the radio?” “Foreign craft not responding to hails.” “Ugh…  Can we see them?  Where’s that…  floating display thing?” “Error:  Observation Deck off limits due to hull breach.  Recommended destination: Bridge.” “Sure…  Point us there, please.” One minute later, thanks to that cubicle thing again, they’re in the room it called the Bridge- and it’s a little warmer than that medical room.  Applejack, thanks to Pinkie’s able assistance, was able to keep up. This room is very different from the Observation Deck.  All those desks and chairs that had appeared there are already here.  The room is far smaller, with no windows… Save the one covering the wall all the desks are facing, but nopony gets the idea it’s a real window, rather more like that floating display thing, as Twilight had called it.  There’s another such table in the middle of this room, though far smaller, between the front rows of desks…  and it’s not glowing. There’s nothing above it. Rarity draws in an amazed breath.  The room is definitely lacking in decoration- but what it does have is a very, very clear feel.  The passages they took to get here were all lit with harsh, amber lighting; this room’s lighting is slightly different.  She’s not entirely sure what it is, but she knows the lighting is playing into the serious feel of the room. It is clear to everypony that this is the room from which the vessel is normally commanded. The strange window-display up front is showing something…  Twilight quickly understands it to be a view from the outside of the ship.  One corner of the screen shows what looks like a top-down view, showing the same scene. Something is approaching the ship.  Slowly. All seven mares pause in the middle of the room, looking up at it. “...  What is it?” Twilight eventually asks, looking at the object on the screen.  Several minutes have passed; the object approaching their ship has stopped approaching.  Rather, it seems to be moving around it… sideways. “Unidentified craft,” the answer comes back immediately. She scowls.  “Well, what do we know about it?” The answer is fairly short- and pertains mostly to its appearance and behavior. “What can we find out about it?” “Unknown.” “Well, find something!  What can we-!” “Intercepting directional radio transmission from unidentified craft to lunar installation,” it states suddenly- and a few little boxes appear on the screen, showing its progress in analyzing the transmission.  Then… “Transmission interception complete.  Continuing analy- Scramble code verified.  Analy- Transmission decrypted, translated, and transcribed.” More boxes.  Two have strange squiggly lines in them, with vertical bars; the third has readable text in it. Then it starts playing. “Uh, Princess?  It’s definitely not one of theirs.  Unless I’m seeing things, they’ve even shot at it already.” Everypony starts looking at each other.  They could hear the original transmission playing in the background, with the translated version up front, both in the same, male voice. Fluttershy nods.  Thanks to her unique talent, she’d understood both versions perfectly. “What just happened…?” Twilight asks. “Intercepting response.” This one plays live- well, a couple seconds after live.  “It’s not? Shoot… Any indication of whose it is, or how easy a target it is?  Is it still working, even?” Another long pause.  That voice was distinctively female, and nothing like their ship’s. “Are they manually unscrambling or decrypting it…?” Twilight wonders mildly. “Sounds like they’re trying to figure out who we are,” Rainbow states. Luna snorts.  “And talking about how easy we are to shoot,” she states. Pinkie nods.  “But it sounds like somepony else is doing the shooting.” “Intercepting transmission.”  Everypony turns to look at the screen again. “It looks like they actually hit it, and it survived.  Given how big it is, I’d say they’ll probably hit it again.  At least twice. Um… It’s named, but I can’t read the letters…  and it’s definitely still working- it almost boiled the hull off my ship when I passed one of the gigantic radiators.  My ship will probably need servicing whenever I get back- but no need to send someone, the outer jacket is holding pressure and I’m still getting proper response on all controls.  I can try hailing it, if you’d like.” More silence. “Did he say it almost boiled the hull off his ship?” Twilight asks. “Affirmative.” “Why?” “All thermal radiators are currently working at capacity to release accumulated thermal energy.” “Uh…  How long will that take?” “This vessel is expected to complete the return to safe operating temperature in approximately seventeen point three days.” “Um…”  Rainbow inserts.  “What about normal operating temperature?” “Two point four one months.” “Wow.” “Intercepting response.” “What?  It’s that tough?  Wow… and yes, you’ll probably want to avoid those radiators.  That ship you’re flying is shielded- probably only needs a paint job- but too much and you’ll cook yourself alive.  Yes, please give it a hail. If it doesn’t respond, you’re authorized to board it.” More silence. Twilight looks at Luna.  “What’d she just say?” she asks. “Incoming transmission,” the ship specifies quickly. Twilight nods- and it plays.  “Hey, is anyone still alive in there?  Whaddya call your ship?” Silence falls. “Uhh…” Twilight mumbles. “Can you respond to it?” Rainbow asks. “Affirmative.” Twilight nods.  “Do that, then.”  Then she turns to Luna.  “So…” “...call your ship?” He releases the record key.  It’s an unencrypted, unscrambled transmission, so it’s going out in real-time, rather than being recorded for encryption or scrambling.  He leans back in his tiny fighter’s cockpit, punching a button to start a thirty second timer. When it runs out, he’ll send another transmission into the gigantic ship in front of him and restart the timer.  Once it runs out the second time, he’ll pick a spot- somewhere near the back, he doesn’t want to be any closer to the red-hot front than he has to be- to make contact with the hull and start prying open airlock doors. His radio chirps unexpectedly- and, just as unexpectedly, begins playing right away…  indicating an unencrypted, unscrambled transmission. “Unknown vessel, please identify.” He drops his jaw, staring at the radio.  That unfamiliar, female voice had come across clearer than any radio transmission ever could…  Yet it had. And in so doing, that voice had carried a note of unyielding calm he hasn’t heard anywhere- even in person.  Like someone has been practicing their stoic attitude for centuries.  Even though the longest anyone lives is to about ninety; some of the longest-lived of his kind have made it to ninety-five, but never to a hundred. He can only honor the kind of dedication and experience that would allow someone to respond to his rather scathingly-toned message with THAT kind of a tone.  Add in the professional word choice and he almost wants to open himself up to her! He takes a deep breath.  She’s also got an amazing radio, one that eliminates all the static and noise from the microphone. He can’t simply open himself up to her.  But he is allowed to self-identify… perhaps he can use that to try and save face.  He cancels the timer and reaches for the record key once again. “I’m, uh, Noble Sing, flying Her Highness’ Space Fighter number two hundred twelve.  Um, requesting identification in turn?” He releases the key; he’d tried to be as nice as he could in the return transmission. The radio chirps again, less than a second after he released the key.  A moment of static follows, and it falls silent once again. “... identification in turn?” “Transmitting IFF transponder code.” Twilight’s laughter redoubles, though nopony else gets it.  This Noble Sing’s reaction to Athena’s utterly calm request had been audible- and hilarious. He stares at his radio for several seconds.  Static… His computer thinks it’s an encrypted transmission but, without the scramble and encryption codes, it’s indecipherable…  and less than a quarter of a second long. What could possibly have been said? He punches the keys to adjust his transmission director to point back to base, and punches the record key.  “Uh, Princess? I’ve made contact… They’re alive, all right. They’re definitely professionals… I don’t know what to say to them.” He releases the key- and glances up through the windshield just in time to spot a beam of light slam into the side of the ship he’s looking at…  Towards the back. The room shakes slightly. “What was that?” Pinkie asks. “Hostile weapons fire detected.  Attack deflected and absorbed successfully; no damage.” “It’s not from him, is it?” “Negative.” “Oh.” “Tell them to quit it,” Rainbow states. “Transmitting attack warning to hostile vessel.  Warning: Weapons systems offline. Intercepting response.”