Star Trek Outwardly Mobile

Episode 54c The Flight of Keelas
by
Jay P Hailey

The Holodeck game was called The Flight of Keelas, and sure enough we were fleeing.

My breathing was labored, my heart pounded in my chest, and every muscle I had ached.

And yes, in a certain way it was fun.

Crouching behind a short concrete wall I tried to control my breathing. I looked at Rogan. His eyes were wide and his sweat ran freely. He grinned at me. “Not as bad as Fort Apache.”

“Shh!” Kamaline hissed.

I flopped on my back and looked around us. The ruins of the ancient Vicharrian city spoke of a crowded, technological place. Tall Art-Deco buildings stood dark. Their broken windows made them look gap toothed.

The shredded remains of neon and chrome signs in Vicharrian and the occasional abandoned car or truck made the scene very spooky.

Up in one of the buildings, I saw a misshapen face. “Damn.” I hissed. “Mutant, 7 o'clock, about the 5th floor.”

Apparently the war viruses didn't just kill Vicharrians. They were mutated. Where in a western game, desperados and roving savage bands were the main enemy, in this Vicharrian game, mutated Vicharrians were the things to avoid.

Rogan aimed his long rifle at the window and took a shot. The bullet missed the mutant by inches. The mutated Vicharrian ducked and howled a strangled, agonized howl that carried.

“This way.” Kamaline said. She was up and running to the south.

Entire Vicharrian regions were devastated by war plagues and then abandoned.

As Vicharrian civilization reasserted itself, scouts ventured into ruined areas to try to learn their fate, recover pre-plague treasures, and maybe make contact with survivors.

As it turned out, very often the mutated descendants of those survivors blamed non-mutated Vicharrians for the plague and abandonment.

So the Vicharrian scouts had a very exciting and often short lived job.

I hauled myself off the ground and pelted after Kamaline. “I can handle this.” I said to myself. “I can do this.”

Rogan paced me. I pushed harder.

We rounded a corner and came face to face with a mutant patrol. We skidded to a stop and threw rounds at them to cover our hasty retreat.

Kamaline led the way into the lobby of a very tall building and we bounced up several flights of stairs in the dark. The emergency lights and elevators were long, long gone.

“I don't want to get trapped in a building.” I hissed at Kamaline. “They'll be able to cut off our escape.”

She whispered back. “They already have. They have the area surrounded. Maybe we can hide in here and avoid them until they get tired.”

Rogan asked “Do I want to know what that smell is?”

“Lets climb. A few more floors and we can risk a glow stick.” Kamaline's foot steps continued up the stairs.

“I sure don't.” I answered Rogan and started climbing after Kamaline.

-*-

“Oh, god.” I said.

We were looking out into empty air. Something took a huge bite out of the building. I could see the ground 50 stories below. I could see the damaged and ruined decks. I could see where the building's internal structure withstood the damage, which is why it was still present as a building and not a mountain of rubble.

I could see the stair way continuing, two and a half decks above us.

And I could see fires. Camp fires. The Mutants were spread out all around the base of the building.

I could see the artistic flare at the bottom of the building were the outer curtain wall swooped out to meld with the ground.

Was that the ruin of some flying machine below? From that altitude I couldn't be sure.

“What a view.” Kamaline said.

There was a howl from behind us.

“We must continue.” Rogan said. “They're behind us and closing.”

I looked at Kamaline. “Oh. Wheee.”

Grinning, she shrugged off her pack and dug out a sticky line. The end was was equipped with weights and magnatomic adhesion pads.

With a twirl and flip, she got the rope up into the stair well above us, where it slapped the floor and stuck fast.

“Climbing gloves.” Kamaline said. “In you pack.' She dug out her own pair. Thin gloves with their own magnatomic adhesion pads.

I breathed out. Even with the leverage of the gloves, could I do that?

You'd be surprised what you can do when very realistic mutants appear howling for your blood.

-*-

The 70th story of the building.

I was too tired to continue. I was surprised I'd made it that far.

We rested on the floor of some ancient office. The paper was degraded to pulp, but there were plenty of corporate logos and doo dads every where.

“Looks like Earth in the twenty first century.” I said.

“Really?” Kamaline asked.

“A little.” I gasped.

“I wonder if all planets have this sort of period in their history?” Kamaline speculated.

“Many do, but not all.” Rogan said. “My own world also had it's crowded, anarchic, technological age.”

“We call it cyberpunk.” I said.

“What is the origin of this word?”

“A philosopher coined it, speculating in the 20th century.” I said.

“Perhaps we should investigate role playing in your world's cyberpunk era?” Rogan asked.

I looked at him for a while. “Maybe later.”

We ate some freeze dried rations and drank some carefully hoarded water.

After a while I could breathe. The breeze in the shattered windows was refreshing.

I was faintly bothered by the anachronistic costumes. Rogan and I turned out for a Gunsmoke game, with long coats, weird trousers, leather belts and six guns.

Kamaline handed us expedition packs and Vicharrian weapons and otherwise let it go.

I looked at my boots. They were well broken in and a damned good thing. With less well fitting and worn boots I'd have crippled myself half an hour into the game.

We heard a crash. It didn't sound any further than two decks below.

Kamaline was on her feet quickly. She looked out the window carefully.

We heard a voice above. “Not here! Check below.”

I checked the load of my weapon. The Vicharrian hand gun had 25 rounds left. That was my last clip.

I looked at Kamaline grimly. “Mate in 5.”

She grinned widely. “So let's change the game.”

Rogan and I exchanged looks. What did she have in mind?

Without waiting for us, kamaline said “Computer, there are three new hover boards in this room, fit to each of us.”

With a beep, the computer added the hover boards to the simulation

They were just over three feet long, and about a foot wide. They had rounded ends that curved up, and straps, obviously to hold feet.

“Now just a minute!” I yelled.

Kamaline gabbed hers and rolled onto her back. She slipped the hover board on in a practiced motion an kipped to her feet.

As she came upright the board bobbed to the ground and then lifted slightly.

Kamaline stood in front of us, actively balancing on a column of repulsor thrust. “We can do this. The sweep at the bottom of the building is shallow enough so that we can make the turn. There's a boulevard straight out ahead. Kick up at the bottom for altitude and you should go flying right over their heads and away.”

“I've never used one of these things before in my life!” I protested.

“Either way, the scenario is lost.” Kamaline said. “What have you got to loose?”

With that she kicked down. This made a springy leap up, which Kamaline leaned into and converted into momentum, out the window. She disappeared with a banshee yell down the side of the building.

Rogan and I stared after her, stunned.

“Can you believe that?” I distinctly heard a mutant say.

I flung myself onto my back and strapped the board to myself as I'd seen Kamaline do. To get up I rolled over and climbed to my feet in a very undignified position.

As I got vertical, the hoverboard gained altitude and my feet slipped out from under me like I was on ice.

I flopped onto my back, cracking my head painfully. I yelled.

Rogan had one foot in a strap and was hopping in a circle trying to get his balance over his board, which kept edging away from him.

We heard the pounding of foot steps in the hallway outside out office.

“Damnit.” I cursed. My feet had no purchase. I grabbed my weapon.

The door flung open and I shot the mutant on the other side. He went down in a bloody howl.

Rogan turned one more circle and then hopped to the window. “I can get it on in flight. See you at the bottom.”

He tumbled out of the window.

Firing through the door way I scooted back on one elbow until I could use the wall to lever myself up I was leaning back through the window balanced at about my butt. My weapon ran out of ammunition. I threw it into the corridor and shouted “Grenade!”

Then I sat on the windowsill and rotated my feet out of the building.

Facing a 70 story drop I almost had a heart attack. Solid, primal fear gripped every organ I had and squeezed. I gasped and choked. My fingers clenched the window sill.

I felt a rough hand grab me from behind.

I shoved off, wetting myself as I fell.

Fortunately, the rest of the Simulation went by quickly.

I could never orient myself to the side of the building. I just tumbled through the air. I never saw Kamaline or Rogan on the way down.

Struggling to bring my board into alignment so I had some hope of making the turn at the bottom, I grunted “shit, shit SHIT!” As the bottom of the building came up and struck me with a very solid thumping noise.

Everything went black.

I was gently rotated back into a standing position

“You have died.” The holodeck computer informed me. “You have lost the scenario with a score of 58,193 points.”

The lights came up slowly. Kamaline and Rogan were standing there. The hoverboards and the simulated equipment were gone. Only our replicated costumes and equipment remained.

I shook my head. “Did either of you make it?”

Rogan shook his head. “No. I struck the bottom fatally.”

We looked at Kamaline.

“I made the turn at the bottom, but I hit a truck in the road about a half mile down.” She shrugged. “I'm out of practice.”

I turned away to hide my damp pants. “Computer, there's a dressing room along the starboard wall with my duty uniform and a shower.”

The computer beeped and the dressing room appeared.

As I walked into it Rogan was right beside me. He whispered “I think I wet myself as well. The impression of height was very strong indeed.”

Kamaline was walking into the dressing room and showers with us. “I'm not sure if I did. I was too busy having fun.”

I blinked, and then kept stepping straight into the showers. It was all I could do.

-*-

“Next week then?” Kamaline asked.

I opened my mouth to protest.

Rogan said “I would be honored.”

I shut my mouth.

Why not?

-*-

I opened up Vicharrian history. As it happened the Royal Scout Keelas had her hoverboard with her and escaped a similar situation in just that way, but she made the turn at the bottom and coasted for three miles without hitting a truck.

She was awarded a royal medal for the act, and never competed in hoverboard competition again.