Chapter 1: Emergency
Chapter Text
Lup took a moment to double check that Angus had his safety straps on properly before taking her own seat and strapping in. The emergency klaxons were sounding all around them and her pulse was hammering in her ears. Barry was helping Magnus and Julia Burnsides with their daughter as the emergency craft rocked.
"Mom?"
Lup looked over at Angus where he sat with both hands clutching the straps for dear life.
"We're okay, baby. Promise. It's probably just a drill."
Taako had taken his own seat and was running a check on the small console in front of him. It was mostly just a display but it was enough that he could run systems lookups on it if he wanted to.
"I sure hope so, my dude..."
Taako's voice trailed off and Lup shot him a glare.
"Taako," she hissed.
He flashed her a half-apologetic smile and waved one gloved hand at Angus.
"Yeah, everything's totally copacetic, little dude. No worries. Absolutely chill."
"I don't believe you, Uncle Taako."
Angus squeezed his eyes shut behind his glasses as the klaxon continued to sound and Barry dropped into the seat next to him.
"One of their straps was uh... was jammed. I had to show them the override." He pulled his own safety harness on and reached for the helmet that sat on the table in front of him. "Ango, helmet on, buddy. Okay?"
Angus nodded, eyes still squeezed shut. Then he reached blindly for the helmet and knocked it away. Julia caught it and bounced it back over to Barry.
"Thanks."
He said it quietly, handing the helmet back to Angus.
The little boy jammed his helmet on and looked around the circular table at the other faces there. There were his parents, of course. And Uncle Taako. And the Burnsides family, Mr. Magnus, Mrs. Julia, and June. There was also a quiet young woman named Ms. Lucretia who seemed to be panicking and Mr. Merle Highchurch who was sitting next to her and trying to keep her calm with some story he was laughing at. There was also Mr... No, Captain Davenport. He was their pilot, seated where he could get up and run to the flight console if the autopilot for the ship didn't engage. There was a bang then and airlock opened once more, a harried-looking man stumbling in. He was wearing the same kind of space suit that the other colonists had on and he had his helmet in his hands. The thing that stuck out to Angus first was his name on the front of his suit. Angus knew what his said. He'd spent hours running his fingers along the letters there when he'd first been issued the pressurized suit. A. Bluejeans. This man? J. Hunger. That was an odd surname. Hunger. Angus turned towards his dad then, adjusting the helmet again.
"Dad?"
"Yeah, buddy?"
Angus cleared his throat, fighting past the fear choking him.
"What if it's not just a drill? What happens then?"
His dad reached as far as the straps would let him, putting a hand on Angus’ arm.
“Then the Jupiters do what they’re designed to do and we uh... and we land on a nearby planet. And then the Resolute is going to lock in our radio transmissions and they’ll come pick us up.”
Angus nodded slowly. Everything was going to be okay. They were going to be okay and they would be together. The new man, Mr. Hunger, had taken his seat at the table now and was strapping himself in.
“They told me to join this shuttle. There was some kind of emergency and I couldn’t get to mine quickly.”
Magnus smiled.
“Hey, that’s alright. We had the space. Welcome aboard Jupiter Seven. I’m Magnus.”
The man nodded and pulled his helmet on before looking around the table.
“My name is John.”
Davenport dashed to the helm as the voice of the artificial intelligence unit for the ship began to complain that the autopilot was not engaging.
“I know, Noelle! Dammit, I know! ”
He grabbed the stick and opened the throttle. The nose was too low and it was taking everything he had to pull her right. Couldn’t pull too hard though, go nose up and you were risking gimbal lock. That would put them into a free fall and he wasn’t feeling like restarting engines in mid-flight. Not with children on board, anyway.
“Entry pattern too steep.”
Davenport flipped the toggle for the reverse thrusters and pulled back on the stick.
“You think I don’t know that, Noelle? Give me more juice on the reverse thrusters and then focus your clock cycles on finding me somewhere to land this bird.”
“Entry pattern too steep.”
Merle appeared at Davenport’s side suddenly, one hand on his shoulder.
“Which one’s the reverse thruster?”
Davenport pointed at one of the thruster levers.
“Pull it back towards you, Merle. I’ll tell you when to stop. Everyone else, stay strapped in. I can’t guarantee what kind of landing we’re gonna get.”
The computer had found a landing zone but he wasn’t honestly sure they were going to make it there with how the Jupiter was handling. So much for the superiority of Miller Labs technology. The thrusters suddenly cut out and Davenport pulled up on the stick for all he was worth. Okay, time to three down and lock. He was going to have to deadstick this landing.
“Okay, girl, we can do this.”
He fought the controls the whole way, the Jupiter bouncing once as it slammed into the ground.
“Merle! Gun the reverse! As hard as you possibly can!”
Merle pulled back the lever and Davenport pushed the stick forward. The Jupiter spun for a moment and tipped up on its nose before coming to a stop. Looking out the front window, Davenport and Merle could see the cliff they’d almost careened off of. With a pat of reassurance on Davenport’s shoulder, Merle turned.
“I’m gonna go make sure everyone’s alright.”
Davenport nodded. He didn’t expect anything less. He checked the control panel, taking deep breaths. They were alive and they’d made it. Now he needed to run diagnostics.
Chapter 2: Lost
Chapter Text
“We good, Cap?”
Davenport turned around and saw Magnus already undoing his safety straps. Cargo containers had been tossed around in the landing and one of them was wedged against table. Merle was next to one of the women, talking her through something. Davenport could see from here that there was blood on her leg. She must’ve gotten injured during landing procedures.
“Landing surface is... stable. But I don’t think I want to keep this bird here. Merle?”
Merle didn’t look up.
“Lucy’s gonna be a-okay. I’ll just need someone to go print me up one of the flexcasts.”
Magnus popped his safety straps off and was immediately taking charge of the situation.
“Barry, you know how to run the printer, right?”
Barry got up and reached over to help Angus out of his straps.
“Yeah, I’ve got it. I just uh... I’m gonna need measurements to get the flexcast the right size.”
Angus pulled himself out of the seat and started running towards medbay.
“I can do it, Dad! I know how to pull up the measurements from the files!”
Barry started to follow but Lup grabbed his arm.
“He knows what he’s doing, babe. We need to help the others.”
Davenport was worried. The Jupiter was too close to the cliff. They’d need to lift off again and find someplace else to set her down. There was still enough fuel, but...
“Bluejeans, can you run the ship diagnostics?”
Barry looked up and reached to adjust his glasses, momentarily forgetting about the helmet he was still wearing. Then he nodded.
"Y-yeah, I got it."
He moved towards the control console and sat, pulling his helmet and gloves off. Tapping out a few quick commands, he skimmed the screen. Graphs began to form on the screen and he nodded slowly.
"Fuel's low. Not too bad, but low. We uh... we took a bit of damage to the aft engines. That uh... that's why we fell out of the sky. Should be a pretty easy repair, but it'll take time. Communications array is down too. No uh... no actual status on that besides 'down'. That's not great."
By now, Julia had gotten June out of her restraints and was holding the little girl in her arms.
"Do we know what the status of the Resolute is?"
Barry shook his head but Lup was the one to respond, her voice quiet.
"Not without the comms working."
John stood then, concern on his face.
"Did... did none of you see...? No, of course not, you wouldn't have. There were explosions. Something attacked the Resolute. Something that wasn't from Faerun."
For a long moment, the only sound in the cabin of the Jupiter Seven was the sound of Davenport and Barry at the control consoles. Then Magnus shook his head.
"That's ridiculous, you know that, right? There's no such thing as aliens. No one has found any in all this time and we've been traveling space for like... a hundred years."
John Hunger said nothing. He knew what he had seen.
Angus skidded into the science bay and pulled out a stool, climbing up so he could get to the controls for the 3d printer. Punching in commands, he routed it through the colonist data system. There were Lucretia's files. They would have her measurements as of her physical and hopefully she hadn't grown too much in the time since then. It wasn't like it had been all that long. He could hear the printer whirring to life and went to one of the windows, looking out. He could see a whole world out there, a world with trees and clouds and sky and- holy shit, they were on the edge of a cliff. The printer beeping got Angus' attention and he grabbed the flexcast out of it, running back up to the main cabin.
"Here you go, Sir!"
He held it out to Doctor Highchurch and the man took it with a grin.
"Thanks, kid. Alright, Lucy, just hold still and I'll get this buckled on. You're alright and everything's going to be a-okay."
Angus didn't stick around, instead running to his mother's side. He collided with her, hugging her as she looked over Barry's shoulder.
"Can I take my helmet off, Mom?"
"Not yet, little dude, we need to scan the atmosphere."
Angus glanced at his dad again and sighed, exasperated.
"But Dad already took his helmet off and he's fine."
Lup turned slowly, looking at Barry for a long moment. He looked up at her and adjusted his glasses.
"Did uh... did I do something?"
"I fucking love you, but you are hopeless." She picked up his helmet and shoved it into his hands. "I'm gonna finish running the numbers for the atmosphere, but you might as well go tell everyone its breathable."
Barry looked down at the helmet in his hands and laughed awkwardly.
"Uh... yeah, I'll do that, babe."
Setting the helmet aside, he went to let everyone else know. Magnus grinned and pulled his helmet off before going to help June so Julia could take her own suit off.
"Have we got any idea where we landed, Barold?" Taako asked, casually leaning on Barry's shoulder. "Because cha'boy would like to start setting up a relay or something if the comms are down. We need to get in contact with the Resolute or with Faerun."
Barry exhaled slowly, the sound almost a hiss.
"Not... not a clue. Sorry, Taako. We don't have satnav on this thing. It's not really... It wasn't designed to not be near the Resolute or landing on Alpha Centauri. Those are basically the only things the Jupiters are supposed to do. I mean, that and expand out into a landing vessel. But I think it goes without saying that we don't want to do that just yet. We won't be able to uh... to take off again if we do."
All around the room, people went quiet. They were looking at Barry, each face in the crowd a study in emotions. Finally, Julia opened her mouth to ask the question none of them wanted to ask.
"Are you saying we're... lost?"
LeapinGoldFish on Chapter 1 Mon 16 Jul 2018 02:15PM UTC
Comment Actions
A_Plethora_Of_Peters on Chapter 2 Fri 12 Oct 2018 11:53PM UTC
Comment Actions