Gordon Malloy looked over at Bortus, the Mochlen 2nd in command from the Orville. They were in a fairly lengthy shuttle ride to check out some anomalous readings from a star in the area. The system was, to the best of their knowledge, uninhabited but Captain Mercer wanted to flex his exploration muscles a bit. The Orville itself was on patrol investigating potential Kaylen activity so he could not send the whole ship along. Instead, he sent Lieutenant Malloy and Lieutenant Commander Bortus out to get some readings. He also thought it might do the two of them good to spend some time together. They actually had a affeable relationship but the cultural differences sometime led to Bortus taking Gordon to seriously or our of context.
"See Bortus, it's all about the breath. When you sing it has to come from the diaphragm. That is how we project and create a good sound. Think of blowing out a candle slowly as you sing those notes." Gordon has been, hope against hope, trying to teach Bortus to sing. It was a bit of a losing cause.
"Why would I blow out a candle slowly? It should be extinguished immediately to prevent danger of fire. Also much of my diaphragm is taken up with my reproductive system for our eggs." Bortus was very literal. It was hard for humans to understand their mating practices. Same sex relations have existed on Earth as far back as written history but humans still ultimately reproduced through some form of mammalian birth. Gordon could not help but think about the duck-billed platypus when considering a humanoid species actually laying eggs.
"Okay that might make it tricky. The other part is you have to listen, even if you just have a piano accompanist. There is always some give and take." For all of Gordon's faults, he was actually very talented in music, possibly second only to his ability to pilot a starship.
"But if I am the soloist, they will listen to me!" Exclaimed the Mochlen. Dominance was a key consideration for any interaction.
"A piano player, our you kidding me? Those are some of the worst prima donnas out there. Hey we're getting close to that stellar system."
The shuttlecraft moved closer.
"What do you see Bortus?" asked Gordon. He could be very cavalier but did want to do a good job.
"Standard Yellow star, two planets. The first is a gas giant. The second is approximately the size of earth but with a toxic atmosphere. Both planets would actually be good candidates for mining operations," answered the commander.
"Okay, let's get a little closer," said the pilot. "Do you want to sing a round while we do that to get you in the swing?"
"No," was the curt answer.
"That's strange the gravity of the star seems to increasing. I am going to back us out a bit to make sure it's nothing to worry about." Gordon was not one to panic but his sense of survival was strong.
Suddenly the shuttle shook violently. "Gravity just shot off the charts. I am going to Quantum to get out of here!" He exclaimed. "Bortus, divert power from shields and weapons." Bortus sent him a very dirty look. "If we can't pull away, those weapons aren't going to do us a lot of good!" Bortus. With great reluctance, Bortus went to the rear panel and made the adjustments.
"Crap, that isn't enough. I am going to set a tangential course and see if I can sling shot out of this. Buckle in, this will be rough."
Gordon did not have enough time to do a true calculation so eyeballed it as best he could. He set a course towards the star that should be able to accelerate him but then throw him into an elliptical orbit that would break them free when he engaged his engines. As he went into the dive, he felt good about it. His instincts as a pilot were kicking in and the "feel" of the shuttle was right. He even felt like he was compensating for the mysteriously increasing gravitational pull of the star. The temperature of the shuttle was rising and he started to feel hot, whether that was actual or imaginary it was hard to tell. He hit what he felt was the nadir of the arc and feel the shuttle begin the pull away from the sun in an elliptical path. He immediately fired the sublight engines to full and he and Bortus felt the G forces despite the inertial dampeners. With glee, he realized that the course he improvised was going to work. The shuttle was starting to cool and the gravity forces were subsiding. Just as he was breathing a sigh of relief, the collision alarm systems went off. Right in front of him was a large vessel the type of which he had never seen before. Instinctively he veered off but the shuttle was already under sever strain from the escape maneuver underway. Structural integrity alarms went off and Gordon and Bortus could hear oxygen seals pop.
"Emergency oxygen!" yelled Bortus who grabbed for masks under the seats. He quickly put one on Gordon and then himself. He knew that it was only stop gap if they hull truly failed. Unfortunately, with the sudden change in course, gravity forces quickly increased causing pressure on Bortus and Gordon. Bortus actually felt a rib crack and he began to feel light headed. He looked over and the human navigator had already passed out. He tried to take over control but between oxygen deprivation and the increased gravity, he was not able to concentrate on the control panel. He did get a quick glance at the alien vessel. It was large, probably as big as a Union heavy cruiser. It had a large oval shaped section up top and an under section that had two nacelles attached. It lacked the typical trio of quantum rings. He was glad to see that they were going to miss the large vessel although they were getting close enough to see some details. As he himself began to lose consciousness, he thought he was hallucinating as he thought to see the English words, "USS Enterprise".