Star Missions - Book One - Part II

Chapter 18 - All Alone

Wing Leader Ray Soliski had never felt so alone. His wing-man was dead. He was twelve and a half light-years away from any other Terran, and there was no way to communicate his situation. As he propelled toward the food planet, he thought of the increasing probabilities that he would never make it back home.

So many things could still go wrong. Ray would have to handle them one at a time. First, he had no idea who the enemy was or why they were so hostile. They also appeared to have technology more advanced than anything Terran. And how much more advanced were they? How quickly would they be able to catch up to him?

Secondly, what about his escape capsule? He knew the shielding and the canopy's tempered glass would protect him from the heat of re-entry. Still, with limited maneuvering capabilities, it would be a rough landing, and the cockpit could break upon impact. What if the attack damaged the breaking thrusters?

Another problem was that even if he survived the re-entry and landing, he had no idea what awaited him on the Food Planet. From what Ka-Rhin said, the Overseers were peaceful and shared their food. But how would they react to a spaceship crash-landing on their planet? What if he crashed into one of their communities?

And what if he was stuck on the quickly approaching world for good?

His pod met with more and more resistance. He cut power to the rockets and angled his craft in such a way that the friction lessened. He felt like his pod was slicing its way through the thick atmosphere. Still, every bolt in the cockpit and every bone in Blue-Ray's body rattled as entered the Food Planet's atmosphere. The heat shielding protected well, but he started wondering if the rattling would somehow break the capsule apart or crack its protective glass.

Ray was relieved a few minutes later, when the friction rattling the cockpit subsided. He was now plummeting through clear blue skies, headed for what looked like an endless expanse of lush green forests. As he approached the surface, he tried to level his craft by pulling up the nose. The vibrations started up again until his projectile was descending in a more horizontal angle. His speed slowed. He used his thrusters to level out. Maybe he could make a relatively clean landing if he found an open field. He saw a clearing ahead as he started down toward the treetops, but he was still going too fast. He would overshoot it. He fired braking thrusters, but they were not as efficient as they would have been in space.

Ray decided that now was as good as any time to try to land, but he resolved to keep a record of his actions, just in case. If he didn't make it, and if Terrans ever did go again to the Precanus system and come across the wreckage, they would find his comm bracelet and understand what had happened to him and Captain Tang.

He voice-activated his comm and spoke, "I'm having a hard time controlling my landing. I'm coming in fast, deploying chutes!"

Just as he began to skim the top of the canopy, he pulled the lever to release his chutes. Three large parachutes opened immediately behind his small projectile. His neck jolted forward at the abrupt change in momentum, and the cockpit ripped into the trees. Ray's world became a tangle of vines, leaves, and snapping branches, all jostling in a mind-numbing whirl. Then a barrage of tree branches loomed in front of him. He shut his eyes against a spray of broken glass. His last thought before he was knocked unconscious was that the crash would kill him.

The next thing Ray was aware of was a sharp pain in his left bicep. He was stationary. Then he heard noises all around him. Noises that one would expect to hear in a jungle on Hydra. An earthy fragrance filled his nostrils. He opened his eyes, but it made no difference—it was still dark. He thought his crash landing had been just moments ago, but he quickly realized that the sun had set and the silver light of an alien moon was shining through the shattered glass of his cockpit. He sat there for a moment and was thankful that he had survived the landing. He then tried to locate the source of the pain in his arm.