Tisis

Planetfall

The Asmodea stares at the strange whirl with her eyes wide open, which seems to pull us and everything around it in somehow.

I shake her at her shoulder, breaking her out of her state of shock and ask her straight to her face, "Hey, woman, what is that?!"
She finally blinks and looks at me, though I'm not entirely sure if she looks at me or straight through me.

But still, she manages to answer, "...a black hole...usually get born by collapsing stars, consuming everything that enters them."
"That...is bad, right?"
"Yup."
"How bad?"
"...if we're lucky, one of these asteroids ends us before we get there."

I lean back and look over to the still exploding ship which gets ripped apart piece by piece.
Explosions flare out but quickly die again.
It is a bizarre sight.

"Hey...why can't we hear anything? I mean...on the ship everything was so loud, but in here..."
The Asmodea gives me a wry smile, but is apparently thankful that I'm trying to change the topic to something a little less fatal.

"Sound essentially is the vibration of a given medium, for example air or water. In space, this 'medium' does not exist, so the vibration simply cannot travel here, which is why you don't hear anything. Any other questions before we die?"

"...yeah, can we do anything to...you know, not die?"
"...no. Our controls are completely wrecked thanks to someone deciding to fight in here!"
"Well, it's not our fault that you guys flew the ship into this deathtrap!"
"Yeah well, the black hole wasn't here when we decided the course okay?! We never would..."

Suddenly, the Asmodea falls silent, apparently thinking hard about something and eventually asks, "Say, do you have any favors to cash in with your God?"
"Not...that I'd know of? Never been much of a believer."
"A shame, cause we're could do with some serious divine intervention right now..."
"What...are you thinking?"
"A black hole doesn't just 'appear', it gets born! And if we're lucky enough, this stupid thing has just been born very recently and the Nova is actually still expanding."
"The...what now?"

My question gets answered as a huge and brilliant light suddenly appears on the horizon, heading towards us at an alarming pace.
The Asmodea says, "I suggest you hold on to something. And pray."

I grab the seat the Asmodea sits in and brace for impact, closing my eyes.

A feeling of intense heat and nausea almost overwhelms me as the light engulfs us and hurls us around like one of the potato tubers I used to play with in the garden as a kid.

I don't know how much time passes, but when the brightness surrounding us finally fades and I dare to open my eyes again, everything else is gone.
The rocks, the ship, the whirl, everything.

However now something else has appeared in the distance.
It is a huge ball, colored in green and blue, quickly approaching.
In the far distance behind it, I see a bright, but tiny ball of fire.
I shake the Asmodea at her shoulder and ask, "Erm...sorry for asking so many stupid questions, but...what might that be?"

The Asmodea, who had curled herself together in her seat, apparently awaiting the end herself carefully looks up at the huge ball and her eyes grow wide.
"A...a planet. But...but we weren't even close to any...how far did the Nova carry us?"
"Erm...I have no idea what you're talking about, but...is that good...or bad?"
The Asmodea looks at me and replies, "That depends...just a moment please...may Garkla protect us just a little longer..."

The Asmodea tries to operate the cracked controls, the small device on the side of her head flashing hectically, but eventually she shouts, "Oh, work already, damn it!"

I motion her to lean back a little, which she reluctantly does and I take a powerful swing with both hands at the console.

"Are you out of your...!" the woman starts, but then falls silent.
"What...how did you..."
"Just because I'm not as smart as you are doesn't mean, I don't know how to handle machines refusing to work. We've been fixing the garden machines like that for generations."
"...that would explain, why the equipment kept breaking..."
"Oh no, we only hit the things when they were already broken, not before. They were just crappy pieces of junk to begin with. So...now what?"

"...go back to praying. The diagnostics tell me that the Nova has fried most of our subsystems, but if we're very lucky, we can still make the landing."

I sigh and go back to my position of holding on to the chair, while the Asmodea navigates through fuzzy light screens, which keep flickering and giving out, but coming back after repeated kicks to the machinery.

She sure learns quickly, that's for sure.

Suddenly, the interior of the small capsule grows hot again, as the ball is now spanning the entire view. And whatever the green stuff below is, it seems to be coming closer a lot faster now.

I close my eyes again and brace for yet another impact.

This time however, I am not disappointed.
A powerful jolt yanks me out of my kneeling position and throws me against the ceiling and the world around me grows dark.