[Deck 10 - Shuttlebay]
Jiseth's gloved hands gripped the steering wheel of the Theseus' buggy firmly. Since someone from Ops on the bridge had been looking out for her and given a fair number of personnel to assist her in preparing the shuttle, there was quite a lot of time on her hands. They had the shuttle fueled and were inspecting the buggy when she mentioned she had never driven one before. With that in mind and to kill two birds with one stone, as well as time while they waited for the passengers, they put together a track for her to drive around using cargo containers with diode torches to mark the boundaries.
It was a fine example of mucking about for professionals.
The buggy lowered slightly as she firmed up the suspension using the center console. It even had a hard surface mode for the traction control, best when on pavement, which she made sure to have on. The more she looked over the vehicle features, the more she wanted one for herself. The motor could kick out the equivalent to 794 horsepower which in her math said 800, something that was adequate to her tastes since she normally snubbed her nose at anything less than two-thirds of that. It had 4-wheel drive, 4-wheel steering, and a plasma cannon for... preventing the local constabulary from pulling her over with a speeding citation perhaps.
With her helmet securely on and its visor polarized her face was completely obscured. Just as well for plausible deniability purposes. One of the amber shirts walked near the starting line where the buggy was parked, holding a Starfleet flag. A small crowd of onlookers watched from the walls of the shuttle bay, mostly ambers with some crimson mixed in. There were whispers of about the new flight officer though the only thing that could be seen to identify her on the grey flight suit was a rank insignia and her call sign. Some say she's wanted by Starfleet Intelligence and that she uses her prosthetic legs to sleep upside down like a bat... All they knew for sure is, she's called Oddball. Then the flag was raised and a hush fell over the entire facility. A clock timer near the observation deck went to zero.
"Three... Two... One... GO!"
With the flag swung down, Jiseth jammed her foot into the accelerator and was surprised at how quick it bolted away. The engine went from a low hum to a wail as the world around her began to blur and she was pushed back into her seat. A long screech from the tires herald her arrival at the first corner as she pulled in hard for the left hand turn. Her aim was just a touch off and missed the apex by about a foot. She was going far too fast, however, to take too much time to chastise herself over it.
Swiftly thereafter came Tokaido, an even sharper turn to the right. This time she managed to keep the buggy in tight as she became little more comfortable using the brakes though anything more than a tap would jolt her forward in the seat. Powering out to the third part was a 90-degree left followed by a 90-degree right before two consecutive and wider right turns, the aptly named Bonnethead. In her mind this challenge would prove her skill was superior to the wit of the dainty, curly-haired fanny bandit Van Gelder. The buggy's front lurched downward as she hit the brakes hard, coming around the first turn and her hands pulled quickly at the wheel to make it around the second without sliding out of the track boundary. The last two rights seemed almost peaceful by comparison.
Next came a long, sweeping right, which was actually more terrifying than the previous turn because she had been instructed not to take her foot off the accelerator during it. With tiny inputs back and forth on the wheel, she kept the vehicle from letting centripetal force flip it on its side. Next came a long left where again she maintained a hold of both the petal and the wheel, forcing her titanium cage with wheels to submit to her command even tough she could tell it was not happy going this fast. It was becoming less of an all-terrain buggy and more of a machine that wanted nothing more than to kill her. This she found... fun.
Though the second to last corner was not quite as sharp as those found in Bonnethead, she was coming in twice as fast. The brakes began to howl as they heated from the friction. The tail end of the buggy slid out as it went around in unusual situation where she found herself turning right to go left. Relieved to be passed it, she put a little to much speed into the last corner, Raynor, and went around it with the left two wheels off the deck. They came back down and bounced a bit as she passed the flag waver who had taken the liberty of finding a safe distance from the track.
Gently this time, she touched the brakes and turned around towards where she started before coming to a stop just short of the loading ramp of the Theseus. Climbing out of the vehicle, her arms were shaking and she had to grip the frame of it to keep balance as her heart had apparently decided to set off its ejection seat and went ricocheting around her chest cavity. With short, quick breaths her shoulders rose and lowered as she looked up to the clock. The time to beat, set by a demonstration lap prior to hers, was 1 minute 45.7 seconds. With a PADD in hand, an Ops crewman approached her.
"You did it in 1... 40... 4.9! Well done, Lieutenant."
Jiseth gave a thumbs up before hopping back into the buggy and driving it onto its Argo-class mothership. The rest of the deck teams made haste to gather up the cargo containers and ready for the impending launch. After the secured in place, the fully suited Romulan stood outside the shuttle with her arms crossed, looking towards shuttlebay entrance through her darkened visor. Waiting was indeed boring, but right now she was more than happy to acknowledge that today would be a good day.
