Katlyn had been the first back up the ladder to the upper deck, stopping to offer her hand to Noreel as he ascended behind her. “So, good news, bad news,” she said, offering the same hand to Parze as she followed. “We found Noreel and we didn’t find any serious sign of injury for,” she tapered off, looking for Noreel for the name of their companion, which still hadn’t been offered.

Noreel blinked back at Katlyn as he moved away from the hatch.  “You may call him, ‘representative’,” Noreel said swiftly.  His gaze shifted to look anywhere but the cadets, plainly studying the state of the ship as his eyes searched for something.

“The bad news is we’re not fixing Fantail and flying out of here,” Katlyn continued. “The entire aft section’s been sheared right off. Probably about five to ten kilometers behind us somewhere. Which is annoying because isn’t that where the emergency transmitter was stored?”

As Parze finished the climb and planted her boots on the deck, she nodded at Katlyn.  “Yes, you’re right,” Parze said, sounding awfully defeatist.  She began to follow Noreel down the tilted corridor, never letting him get too far ahead of her.

“We did leave a pretty good gouge in the land where we crashed through the forest, so walking back along it to find the aft compartment shouldn’t be to arduous. I’m willing to go,” Katlyn continued. “Since I was after all at the controls.” That suddenly hit home and she just kinda froze up for a moment, before pushing it aside to process and deal with later.

Parze shook her head at that last comment.  “Such as they were,” she said in an actually tone of voice. Parze widened her eyes at Katlyn softly.  “The controls were barely controlling anything by then.  I’ll go with.”

Noreel added, “I will remain here.  To guard the shuttle.”

Katlyn shrugged at Parze, and mouthed ‘thanks’ to her. It was true, Fantail had really just been a fancy brick towards the end, but she had been trying to fly it at least. Had to count for something, right?” “Hey, you want to guard a wreck, go right ahead. Course, does mean you’re responsible for the injured,” Katlyn stated to Noreel. “And anything happens to them, it’s on you”

Without looking back at Katlyn, Noreel simply remarked, “So you say.”

Parze had crouched low on the angled deck to tug at the manual release tab for an access panel.  When a simple press proved inconsequential, Parze struck it again with the heel of her palm to open the panel, revealing the emergency kits within.  Retrieving the case, she opened it up to find more torches, tricorders, combadges and phasers.  Proffering the kit to Katlyn, Parze said, “I suppose we know the atmosphere isn’t too harmful, but we don’t know what else we’ll find out there…”

“Still, jackets downstairs,” Katlyn said, clipping the phaser and tricorder to her belt. “Be right back.” She practically launched herself down the stairs, a faint crashing sound heard with the mandatory ‘I’m okay!’ right after. Only a couple of minutes later and she re-emerged with two field jackets and a bright pink bow and quiver. “We were going to do survival training, I brought it along in case they’d let me take it,” she said in defence of the bow. “Right, find the emergency transmitter, get it started, see if we can’t find the others as well, bring back dinner. Anything I’m missing?” she asked Parze.

“Nothing.  That’ll be our essentials sorted,” Parze said as she shrugged her way into a field jacket and securing it closed.  “Are you…” Parze started to say with a bemused smile, nodding at the bow.  “Have you caught dinner with that before?”

“Couple of times,” she said with a slight shrug. “Pops made sure I knew how to use it and I competed for a bit in high school.” It wasn’t the booming confidence of someone boasting achievements, but comfortable enough in their skills. “Right, shall we go rescue the others?”

Flipping open her tricorder, Parze nodded in agreement and she said, “We better get an A+ for surviving all of this.”