Page 23 of Full Speed to a Crash Landing

There’s just a flicker, the barest shuttering of her emotions, and then she grins too. “No, that’s okay. Magnusson?”

Magnusson checks her suit, then she checks his. They’re both still wearing blasters.

I try not to let that bother me.

I don’t offer to check Rian’s suit. Magnusson does it. And when I stomp up the ramp into the shuttle and Saraswati shoots me a concerned look, I don’t try to mask what I’m actually thinking.

I’m not being fair. And I know it.

But still.

Stings a little.

Magnusson takes the pilot position; Saraswati sits as copilot. Rian and I strap in behind them on jump seats, little pulldown metal chairs that seem to have been added as an afterthought. We face each other, our knees bumping together. The captain sees us off, then seals the shuttle bay. It takes time to decompress the bay, and the exterior hatch won’t open until that’s done.

Not unless someone pushes the big red emergency button.

Thatwould pop off the bay door and suck us out into space in a wild burst of explosive decompression.

Not that I would do that.

Would be kind of neat to see it happen, though.

But I wouldn’t. Really. Even I’m not so reckless to toss a whole ship out into space without proper decompression. I’m just a curious sort, that’s all.

No one talks once the shuttle is out in the black. Magnusson and Saraswati are focused on maneuvering the shuttle down to the planet, and Rian’s not looking at me. I try to catch his attention, but he’s got his eyes shut. I can just barely hear his breathing over the comm channel we’re all sharing in our helmets.

He looks a little sick. Which is kind of hilarious, considering. Never thought he’d be the nervous flyer of the group.

Magnusson is a good pilot. There’s not much atmosphere on this protoplanet—certainly not enough for humans to dare take off their helmets—but there’s some nitrogen and methane at least, enough for the shuttle to adjust slightly when we hit it. I was right. Give it an eon or so, and this may be a whole new world, with breathable air, oceans, floraand fauna. Maybe even people, the curious sort. Like me.

Not now, though.

Now, it’s just a barely crusted-over lava field waiting to kill us all.

Saraswati points out a landing spot about a klick away from the crash site, clear and flat. It’s made of cooled lava, and while this area is absolutely volatile, it’s not a bad place to park, all things considered.

Before we reach it, we fly over the wreckage. From up high, the lava river shines vividly, bright red with flecks of orange cutting through the burnt-black rock. I can see the long line of debris and scorch marks that lead to the crash, but my eyes are drawn to brighter colors under the cracked, black earth, a stark contrast. People think of living worlds as blue and green, cloudy atmospheres over water and plants. But there’s life here, too, or the potential for it, at least. That molten rock may as well be placenta.

Once we’re landed, Rian tosses off his harness and stands. “I’ll stay with the ship,” he says so quickly that at first I wonder if maybe he’s afraid of the planet, not flight. But the others seem to take this in stride. They must have discussed everything before. Without me.

Saraswati motions for me to follow her and Magnusson. “We’ll get visuals first,” she says. “You were already on the crash site. Did you go to the bridge?”

I shake my head, but the helmets don’t exactly convey emotion. “No,” I say over the comm sys.

“This way.” Magnusson takes the lead.

Despite being a baby planet with little atmosphere, thisworld does at least have gravity, which slows us down considerably. I notice stakes imbedded in the ground along our route, and Saraswati has a seismic reader in her hand. They were busy yesterday.

“Level two coming in,” Saraswati says, and a moment later, the earth trembles. I’ve never seen anything like it. Back home, on Earth, there’s water—a whole ocean—surrounding my island nation. Sometimes, I’ll watch the waves crest and fall. But I never thought I’d seeearthdo the same, a solid mass that is supposed to be flat and stay flat rippling up and shuddering like liquid.

Magnusson curses. He’s quite good at it. I learn a few new words.

He’s not upset at the earthquake; all things considered, it was a mild one, if freaky. In front of us, though, we see the nose of the crashed ship dip a little, sliding farther down intothe crevice of cracked rock. I don’t think any of them care about the ship, but if the box they want is inside the rift, then the ship crashing down into it will knock it well out of reach.

I add that to my list of things that could go wrong and kill me:

1.The radiant heat of the lava river at the bottom of the ridge could knock out my sensors and make me crash into it, burning me alive. It’s unlikely but possible.

---