Print

 Tsorach was awakened by alarms sounding in his hibernation pod, and fear caused him to leap into action. He struggled against the restraints, trying to get free. The iris to his pod hissed open, and he stumbled out into the massive hallway. Something was wrong with Nekhual, and he had to set things right.

<<Status?>> he arced to the nearest computer terminal. He grabbed his tool belt from the storage locker in the bottom of the hibernation pod and fastened it about his waist.

<<Nekhual has entered the atmosphere of a class three planet. The outside hull is burning and engines are not responsive.>>

Not good. The starship had never been designed to enter atmosphere on only the computer's cognizance. The command crew were supposed to be in complete control. Tsorach was not sure why this was, but that was what he had been instructed. Something must have knocked Nekhual off of course. He would worry about what caused the accident later. Right now, he had to get the ship back on course.

Tsorach began running toward the engine room. There must be something he could do to get the engines working. The computer was able to take commands anywhere throughout the ship. If he could get the engines back online, he could order the computer to get them out of the planet's atmosphere from engineering. He pounded through the corridors of the ship as fast as he could, running past innumerable cohorts of hibernation pods.

Nekhual was not an ordinary ship. It was not built for transporting cargo through the known galaxy. It was no pleasure liner, where socialites could frolic and play. It was an ark, the last hope of a beleaguered people. It had just one mission--survival. And Tsorach was the emergency engineer. He was to wake if just such a situation occurred. His people counted on him.

Just before the main engineering, Tsorach pulled up. The emergency airlock had been closed and pressurized. He pressed his face up to the window and looked back at the trail of flame and debris Nekhual was shedding. A sinking realization caused his stomach to clench.

<<Computer,>> he arced, <<tell me if all of the levels are sealed off at the equivalent point as my location.

The ship's computer took a second to respond as it checked data, and then replied. <<Yes, sir. All decks of Nekhual are sealed of at your point.>>

Tsorach doubled over and placed his back against the hallway's wall. He slowly sank down to sit on the deck. The reason the engines would not respond was simple. They were not attached to the ship any more. With one problem solved, he turned to the next obvious issue at hand. The Nekhual still had thrusters all over the part of the ship that still remained. Maybe he could use those to get Nekhual back into space. If the ship could return to the void, it just might be able to put out an emergency beacon.

<<Computer, can we pull out of the trajectory using our remaining thrusters?>>

<<Negative. Nekhual has travelled past the point where the trajectory could be rectified.>>

The fate of Nekhual was assured. It would never leave the gravity well of this planet. But for everyone to survive, Tsorach would have to get Nekhual land in a relatively soft area. He began running toward the bridge. As he was going, he reached out a head tentacle and discharged a beam of electricity into the sensor band that ran above his head.

<<Describe the planet's terrain.>> He had to know what they were moving over.

<<Currently, we are moving over one of the eight large land masses. If the proper adjustments are made, we will be over oceanic water in approximately forty-eight minutes.>>

That was good news. With some tweaking, A crash into water was a much less devastating option than smashing into land.

<<Do we have time to wake the captain so he can make the decision?>>

<<Negative. I must receive authorization in five-point-eight-seconds.>>

No time to dally, then. <<Make it happen,>> he arced, and then projected his authorization code in quick blast of data.

The computer switched from verbal mode to image mode. A model of the complete Nekhual appeared in his mind. He augmented the image to fit the damage he saw. At