Round 7 Praxo, "Aftermath"

[Renos]

((Almost a month back, Talaxian Shuttlecraft, crashed on the sphere)) 

 

::It might sound like one of Praxos usual exaggerations, but he actually had never lost a shuttle or any other craft due to an accident. Sure there were more close calls that one could count, and none of the Talaxian’s craft was decommissioned without dints and scratches, and it preyed on his ego that he not even knew what had happened.::

 

::He reached out with his right hand to open the details on the most concerning alert on the touchscreen, when a horrible sting of burning pain filled his whole arm.::

 

Praxo: Ouch! ::The universal translator wasn’t able to translate the following curse:: I guess my arm is broken. Good thing we have a Doctor on board. ::Opening the message with his other hand:: But we have more pestering problems. The structural integrity field will hold this pile of junk together for another 20 minutes or so. You can never tell with that system. ::Praxo had to sit down as the pain became overwhelming:: Any suggestions?

 

Shayne: I'd suggest getting out of this shuttle.

 

Praxo: oO That sounds like a good idea Oo

 

Manius: I need a doctor and I’m not the only one. Let’s beam out of here, there’s nothing more we can do. The Frenix can recover the shuttle once we’re gone.

Shayne: I second the motion. 

 

:: Looking at his two students, or now ex-students, Praxo realised that he got away with the least serious injuries, notwithstanding the fact that he was not sitting on a chair while the crash had happened.::

 

Praxo: Go ahead, get us out of here. 

Manius: =/\= Lieutenant Manius to the Darwin. Three to beam up. Please advice the Frenix to receive Praxo and then beam him there. Beam myself and Shayne to the Darwin’s sickbay. I have potential back injuries to please ensure I am immobilised. =/\=

Icavoc: =/\= Got that Todd Manius. Please stand by for transport. =/\= 

 

::Praxo prepared himself to be beamed over. He later didn’t remember if he was beamed to the Darwin first and then to the Frenix or if they sent him directly to the Talaxian ship, but he ended up there, receiving the appropriate treatment for a broken arm.::

 

((Present day, Government Office Building, Talax II))

 

::Praxo was searching his way through what seemed like kilometers of corridors full of busy people, or people who pretended to be busy. He was invited for another hearing, presumably the last one, where the results on the investigation of the shuttle accident were supposed to be announced.::

 

::While the incident had summoned a huge interest of the planetary media, as soon as every so called expert was interviewed and every theory was proposed and falsified again, it was obvious that there was nothing to gain from the story anymore. The press moved on to the next shocker and the still ongoing meetings could be hold in much smaller conference rooms.::

 

::Some individuals tried to make this a major issue that would impact the relationship between the Federation and the Talaxians dramatically. But as most diplomats are more reasonable than lurid headlines and even the people themselves showed a surprising sense for the truth, those attempts weren’t particularly successful, and headlines like „Federation officers injured while inspecting Talaxian craft - Diplomatic relations endangered“ were exchanged with „Talaxian technology gets cut from the plans - Do they want us off THEIR outpost?“.::

 

::Praxo was pleased to see that the committee stayed reasonable as well and quickly discovered that there in fact was no evidence for pilot errors, nor instruction failures on his part.::

 

::When he finally entered the room, he found the same friendly atmosphere that prevailed since the cameras and the reporters were gone. It was a working-together, everybody was here to resolve the mystery and to make sure that something like this does not happen again, rather than blaming someone. Clearly, the spirit of the Federation had influenced this council already.::

 

::Normally, Praxo found these meetings quite a nuisance, since nothing new was announced time and time again, but this one, he was looking forward to. It served as the perfect excuse for not attending the opening ceremony on the outpost, where he inevitably would have met Shayne and Manius again. He cared for them, since he felt he was partly responsible, and tried to keep track of their well being as good as possible, but he’d rather not confront himself with them.::

 

Chairwoman: ::Knocking on the table:: Good evening, Ladies and Gentleman. Thank you for attending this hearing, even though some of you might had to decline an invitation to another big event for this.

 

::As this meeting was not at all mandatory to attend, Praxo was quite sure that everybody who wants to go to the ceremony was at the ceremony, except the chairwoman herself, maybe.::

 

Chairwoman: So let us make this quick. I want to catch the speech of Madame Brixon. Mr Rix, head of R&D at TalaxTwo Space Industries for those of you who don’t know him, will present the report of the internal investigation of said incident.

 

Rix: Thank you, Madam.

 

::A quite short man pushed back his seat and walked to the head of the conference table. Then he was setting up some slides on the view screen that should support his findings, but they were really badly made and nobody actually looked on them.::

 

Rix: After a thorough analysis of the data of the flight recorder as well as a examination of the crash site and the wreck, we came to the following conclusion: The shuttle crashed after a failure of four port side thrusters. They were completely destroyed when the shuttle entered the hole, but we believe they were technically functioning correct.

 

Praxo: oO But they weren’t, or else we wouldn’t be here… Oo

 

Rix: They didn’t fire because of a software bug that was introduced in the most recent update that included the CCI, aehm, the Custom Control Interface. It is based on the Federation LCARS and allows the pilot to arrange the controls of the main flight display according to his own preferences. The error occurs only when the exact layout is used, that unfortunately was used during the crush. Control inputs were not routed to the right hardware components, which inevitably led to a loss of control. We of course have already automatically disabled the feature on all craft with the current update and working on a solution for the problem.

 

Chairwoman: Thank you, Mr Rix.

 

::Although no-one was blaming the man for what had happened, he returned to his seat like a beaten dog. Praxo wouldn’t be surprised if he had just presented the finding that would make him loose his job, or at least his position.::

 

Chairwoman: I think we owe TTSI for their honesty in this report. I am asking now our independent review board for their take on these findings.

 

::Another man stood up and took the place from Mr Rix.::

 

Man: Thank you, Madame, Mr Rix. We found no evidence that TalaxTwo Space Industries has tampered with their report. We also agree that the software was not released prematurely, although the release process was clearly expedited to finish it in time for the exact flight that led to disaster. 

 

::A few other people got the chance to speak afterwards, but Praxo didn’t follow them. He was quite angry, since a software bug in a, in his opinion, rather useless system caused the accident that ended his tutoring program, and not only injured himself, but also two Federation officers who had absolutely nothing to do with all that. Not to say that one of them was someone Praxo had high respect for.::

 

::Later, even Praxo himself was asked for some words to wrap everything up, but he for once thankfully declined an offer to speak in front of an eager audience. When everybody was leaving, he approached the chairwoman.::

 

Praxo: Madam, excuse me, Madam! Did you hear anything new about the condition of Mr Manius.

 

Chairwoman: Ah, Mr Praxo. You know as good as I do that the Federation has policies that forbid sharing the status of patients. All I know is that Mr Manius is still in medical care.

 

::It was the same response as always. He went home to his apartment near the main space port of the planet as quickly as possible. His wife wasn’t there, as well as all of the children that were still living at home. So Praxo had time to think about everything that had happened since that faithful day.::

 

::He knew from the first day on that it wasn’t his fault, and he also strongly doubted that it was the one of Mr Shayne who was at the helm at the time. It wasn’t his nature to feel guilty for something he wasn’t responsible for, but he still felt bad about it, mainly because his praises of the technology that later would fail them completely.::

 

::The pilot exchange program was obviously cut and he picked his old work up, being a shuttle pilot for all sorts of delivery, which at this point were mainly building materials for the new outpost. He thought about moving there, but he was told it was not easy to get an apartment during the initial phase of the project. Also, the Numeri threat was still lurking out there, it was probably safer for him and his family to stay were they are.::

 

::He thought it was very concerning that Mr Manius was still not well. Knowing about the medical capabilities of the Federation, he always thought they could fix pretty much everything, what could only mean that the injuries must be very serious. The Talaxian hat thought a lot about the Human, even though they didn’t know each other, practically, at all.::

 

::This evening however, Praxo was not only thinking, he finally gave in to the urge he felt for a very long time now. He started his computer and began typing a message.::

 

::Dear Mr Manius…::

 

((End))

 

 

________________
MSPNPC Praxo

 

as simmed by

 

LtJG Isabel Pond
Medical Officer
USS Darwin-A
D239212IP0