The Astrid sped towards an unknown star system, Cassia and Nigel at the helm. Warning alarms signalled their ship's low charge and malfunctioning power core. If the battery ran out, they wouldn't have enough power to generate breathable air or land on the alien planet ahead -their last hope in the crippled ship. Every use of the engine had to count.
A series of bleeps alerted them of something entering sensor range. Cassia sat straight up in seat, and her face fell as she monitored the pilotting console. "Nigel -we've got a problem."
"What's up?" Nigel leaned forwards, clicking on his own station. The long range scanner data popped on screen. The display showed the approaching star system -several planets, including their destination, and a single moon in orbit around it. A chaotic mass of blips buzzed around the moon: Mangeroma vessels -too many to count.
"There's so many of them." Nigel blurted out.
"I was worried about this. It's an outpost."
"They're set up on the moon of that planet." Nigel stared wide-eyed at the armada, his heart pounding. "We're headed straight for them!"
"We don't have much of a choice -landing on that planet is our last chance."
"But there's no way we'll get by! They'll blow us away!"
"Not if they don't see us. Listen, as long as we don't use our thrusters their sensors won't pick us up -we can do this."
"I don't know." Nigel dropped his fingers down onto the console, calculating their approach trajectory. "No. Our approach isn't going to work. If we don't decelerate -a lot- we're gonna explode on impact with the atmosphere. But as soon as we slow down it'll give us away -they'll be on us in no time."
"What if we came around from the other side? That'd give us enough time to slow down and stay out of their reach, right?"
Nigel entered a quick calculation. "Yea, if we could swing all the way around. But that doesn't help us -we don't have enough charge left for that."
"You're right." Cassia clutched her forehead. "Well, we've gotta figure something out. We're approaching fast."
"Alright, alright. I think I have an idea. Take a look." He motioned to his console's display, which showed the diverse constellation of planets in the approaching system. "We don't have enough power to turn back and come around. But we can change course a little bit and head this way." Nigel pointed to a massive planet passing close to their line of approach, a gas giant orbitting far outside the approaching star. "We can swing part way around using its gravity."
"Okay. But that doesn't get us anywhere near the target."
"No -we head here next." Nigel pointed to another of the planet.
Cassia scrunched her eyebrows. "We can't swing around from that angle -we'll crash right into it."
"Not with a little shield impulse -we'd bounce right off."
"Hmm." Cassia paused in thought. "So we adjust course, head for the gas giant here, swing around this way. Reposition ourselves to get angle just right-"
"-then we pop the starboard shields when we hit the atmosphere."
"Okay. And bounce off this way. Giving us enough room to decelerate for a safe landing."
"Yea." Nigel nodded. "And we can use the extra space to decelerate outside of their sensor range."
"You think this'll really work?"
"It's just math, right?"
"Well everything is math -I want to know if you can pull it off."
"Yea, I think so."
"Good enough, I guess. It looks like our best shot. Let's do it."
Nigel and Cassia went to work, hands flurrying over their consoles as they input the command sequence and calculated their new, multi-point trajectory.
Nigel's heart was racing. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Alright, setting that gas giant as our zero."
"Sure, got it."
"Bumping four percent." They heard a loud hum as the ship's engine thrusters adjusted their approach, pulling them towards the massive, gaseous planet ahead.
"Our approach is a little off."
"That should've been perfect."
"The damage must've affected the thruster profile. I'll compensate for the discrepancy." Cassia tapped in the commands, adjusting the thruster output patterns. "Okay -let's get us on course."
"Bumping one percent." The ship hummed again, throwing off super charged particles as they veered again.
"Got it! Good job."
A brief smile flashed across Nigel's face. Up ahead, the giant ball of gas rapidly expanded in size as they approached. They were aimed just past the planet -as close as they could get to its center of gravity without crashing into its atmosphere.
"Decelerating," Nigel announced.
"Batteries at two percent."
They rocketed towards the massive planet -a huge ball, striped with beige, brown, and white lines running around its circumference. It grew larger, nearly encompassing their viewscreen, before racing out of view on the left side of the ship. The Astrid veered towards the massive planet as it passed around, pulled in by its gravity. Cassia and Nigel watched on their viewscreens as the Astrid's heading shifted, curving inwards toward the passing planet before leaving it behind.
"Yes!" Nigel shouted, smiling and pumping his fist.
"Good job -almost there."
"Yea." Nigel's smile disappeared and he dropped his hand back to the console. "Setting the next planet as our zero."
"Okay. This is the one I'm worried about."
"It'll work. I think."
"Your confidence is reassuring."
"Bumping three percent." Nigel entered the command with a slow and deliberate finger press.
"Okay. We're pointing into it's atmosphere."
"Decelerating."
"Batteries one-point-five percent."
"Should be enough." Nigel looked over to Cassia, and his eyes widened. He shouted, "are you crazy?"
"What?"
"Put on your harness!"
"Oh, right." Cassia quickly strapped herself into the seat. Ahead of them, the second gas planet came into view -a tiny blue speck, growing rapidly into large dark blue marble with wispy, light blue streaks.
"Starboard shields charging." Cassia announced.
"We just need a microsecond pulse."
"Batteries one-point-two-five percent."
The approaching planet had now transformed the black of their viewscreen into a rich painting of dark blues, teal streaks, and specks of white cloud.
"Entering exosphere... Entering thermosphere." The ship began to rumble and shake as it collided with particles orbitting high above the planet in its thermosphere.
"Pop it?" Cassia asked.
"Not yet. Entering mesosphere now." The shaking and rumbling on the Astrid increased.
Nigel held his finger over the console and counted down -"Three. Two. One." He pressed his finger down. There was a bright flash and an explosion outside the Astrid, rocking them violently in their seats. Their hands clutched their seats to stabilize themselves. Outside the ship was a turbulent blur of blue and black.
"We're spinning!" Nigel shouted.
"The auto-stabilizers aren't working."
"We have to do it manual!"
"Not at this speed. Hold on." Cassia tapped in a few commands.
"I can't land us with this spin."
"I'm working on it -the stabilizers aren't compensating properly. Just a minute. There!" Cassia entered the last in a series of commands. The ship hummed, and the blur of motion outside stopped, leaving the blue marble in the distance behind them.
"Phew." Nigel exhaled.
"Not in the clear yet. Entering the monkeys scanner range now."
"Okay. So no thrusters 'til we absolutely need 'em."
"Do we have enough space?"
Nigel checked their speed towards the planet. "Looks like it."
Cassia could feel her heart racing. Her head was hot with adrenaline. "We're almost there. Okay." She took in a deep breath. "Batteries at point-seven-five." Cassia turned to Nigel. "It's enough?"
He looked over to Cassia. "It's gonna be close."
Cassia's attention returned to her console. "Switching to high res' scanners. Spectral and terrain analysis."
"Eighty seconds 'til we gotta slow down."
"Okay. Good news." Cassia's eyes remained locked on the sensor scan data for the planet. She spoke quickly. "We got breathable air down there. A little high in O2 but it's safe. Tons of plant matter. Lots of water."
"Sixty five seconds. Do you have that terrain scan up? I need to know where to land."
"Still working on it," Cassia answered. "But it looks like might have a problem."
"With the terrain?"
Cassia nodded. "Sending data to you now. Looks like the whole thing is ocean."
Nigel peered down at the terrain map. "We got some mountains above sea level."
"That range is way too steep. We can't land there -especially with no battery."
"Thirty five seconds."
Cassia's eyes were locked on the terrain data. "Okay. We'll have to head for the mountains, I guess. Don't have much of a choice."
"Ten seconds... Five. Four. Three. Two. One." Nigel dropped his hand down to the console. "Thrusters activated. Decelerating." The ship hummed loudly. Their consoles beeped with loud warning alarms.
"They see us." Cassia reported. "They're coming!"
Nigel and Cassia watched their viewscreens helplessly. On the other side of the approaching planet, from the Mangeroma lunar base, dozens of attack ships took off, accelerating as they made their way around the planet. The swarm of red blips looked almost like a liquid, flowing across their viewscreen from the moon and spilling over the planet.
The Astrid sped forwards on a collision course, decelerating on approach. The planet expanded in view -a beautiful marble of green, white, and blue.
"Missiles incoming!" Cassia shouted. "Ten seconds to impact... Seven." The Astrid rumbled as it pierced through the layer of gas surrounding the planet. "Four seconds! Two! One!"
There was an explosion behind them as the approaching missiles collided with the upper atmosphere. Cassia stared at her console in disbelief, then remembered to breathe, exhaling a heavy sigh of relief. "Batteries at point-two-five!"
"We can do it!" Nigel switched to atmospheric piloting controls, taking the Astrid towards the sole mountain range that rose up from the ocean below. "Looks flatter near sea level. I'll take us down near the bottom." The ship curved through the air, cutting through the cloud cover in an arcing path. As they penetrated the clouds, they saw the large mountain range in the distance, and below them, endless fields of green, like dense forest.
"Thought there's supposed to be ocean there?" Nigel looked over to Cassia.
"I don't know. That's what the scanner says."
"Should I land here?"
"I don't know. Better take us to the mountain -just to be safe."
The Astrid continued along its path, slowing down as it approached the mountains. They came to a hovering stop, fifty feet in the air, near where the scanners indicated the mountains were rising above the sea.
"Taking us down." Nigel hit the controls. "Forty feet."
"That's definitely trees," Cassia said.
"Thirty feet."
Loud crashing and snapping noises came from outside the Astrid as they broke through dense branches. The viewscreens showed a flowing sea of green leaves, sliding up around their descending ship.
"Twenty feet."
A loud beep sounded from the consoles -depleted battery. They dropped suddenly as gravity took control of the ship, speeding towards whatever lay below. The Astrid crashed down at an angle with a splash that rose up around the ship. For better or worse, they'd reached the surface of the alien planet.
--------------- end of chapter --------------
Please leave a comment. Let me know what you thought about this chapter.
-------------------------------------------------