Chapter 1
A small shuttle streaked across the face of a planet. Engines roared to life, slowing it down before it hit denser layers of the atmosphere.
“Chu, kill some more speed, its a little rough back here.” Shouted Lian.
“No need to yell sweetheart,” he answered with a grin as he turned his head, “I like it a little rough, don’t you?”
“Just fuck off, do your fn job and land in one piece.” She snapped back.
In the small shuttle he was right about yelling, but Lian, like the other four crew members, couldn’t resist a chance to dig at Chule about his flying. With all his bragging, he deserved it. His stupid comment gave her an excuse to
swear at him, that was a bonus.
“Aw get your mind out of the gutter. I meant it reminds me of when I was a kid at the carnival. Ya know, all the rides.”
Lian opened her mouth to respond, as did the captain Malic, but before either of them had a chance to speak, there was a loud bang, immediately followed by a shower of sparks and the sudden appearance of a large hole in the wall behind the cockpit. Their speed and the denser lower layers of the atmosphere forced air through the hole and with the loud sickening sound of ripping metal the fuselage on the port side of the shuttle peeled away. Taking with it geologist Lian Bao, Captain Malic Asher, and biologist Aaliya Jayan. The roar of wind filled the shuttle and it began to dive and spin out of control.
“CHU!” shouted Avani.
“I’m tryin!I’m tryin! No response from the port flaps, No response from
the engines. I can get us out of this dive but the landing won’t be pretty!”
Chule, struggling with the controls said, “I’m gonna use the maneuvering thrusters to level our flight path, but its gonna get rough so hang on!”
With all the vibration and noise they didn’t hear or feel the thrusters
come to life, but very quickly, with a sudden jolt and to the very loud
complaints of groaning metal, the shuttle was flying almost level again,
and quickly slowing down.
“We’re never going to land in on piece!” shouted Kian Alvild, “Why don’t we just jump?”
“Cause the chutes were in storage above Lian’s head!” Chule screamed back.
The shuttle had lost a lot of altitude in its dive, and was flying low, speed
was less than 200 kph, but with no engines the shuttle was a glider, with a big
hole to create a lot of drag.
“There, by the water!” shouted Avani, sitting beside Chule in the co-pilots
seat she had spotted a landing site, “The sandy beach will be flat enough.”
Chule nodded in agreement, “Yeah but the water will be softer.”
The shuttle shuddered and groaned when Chule banked slightly to
bring them down, skimming the surface of the water, slowing down as much
as possible before hitting the sand and coming to a stop.
All three slouched in their seats, breathing heavily, still trying to believe
they had survived.
“What happened?” asked Avani after a few minutes.
“I don’t know.” Chule answered, as he stirred and unbuckled to get up.
Avani and Kian did the same and they stepped outside to look at the damage.
The fuselage had broken just behind the cockpit on the port side, then, pushed
by the air, a section had peeled back almost all the way to the tail. The four
seats along the side had also been ripped away with a small section of the
flooring. Thick black smoke was pouring from the two engines.
“What’s that?” asked Kian pointing to what looked like a burn mark near the damaged area.
Kian and Chule both got closer for a better look. Rubbing it with his gloved
hand a black substance came off, Chule rubbed it between his fingers.
“Looks like carbon residue.”, he said
“Lightening!” guessed Kian, “We got hit by lightening!”
“NO WAY.” Chule shot back, “There were a few clouds, but no electrical activity.
I wouldn’t fly into a storm.”
“Then what?” asked Kian.
“I don’t know, you’re the fn engineer, you build these fn things, you’re supposed to have the fn answers here!” Chule answered.
“OK, OK. You two screaming at each other is not going to help. Let’s take stock …” Avani started to say, but before she could finish Chule interrupted.
“Well that’s easy, one, two, three. Three survivors, NOTHING ELSE!”
Frustration had found its way into Chule’s feelings, as he realized they were
down on an uninhabitable planet with no way to get back into orbit, and an
unbreathable atmosphere.
“The com-link, contact the ship and get the other shuttle down here.” Kian suggested.
“Every thing’s fried, there’s no response from anything.” answered Chule
“Everything?” Kian asked.
“Yeah, everything. Did ya think i was pulling my arms off with the manual controls
for exercise?”
Chule turned and walked toward the water, picked up a small pebble and threw it as
hard as possible.
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” he continued, “We all came down on the shuttle, there’s
no one to answer our call for help within 30 light years. Wasn’t my idea to come
here with a fn ship that isn’t even
turingrade. And you certainly can’t blame that shit on me.”
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