Marooned on Giri Minor
"I'm seeing this through," you say.
"Very well," Siggo says. "An extra set of hands on the controls may make all the difference. Once the ship enters the atmosphere we may have some aerodynamic control, so we'll have to do everything we can to keep the nose up. It won't do anybody any good to plow straight into the ground."
"Got it," you say. "I'll do everything I can to help."
Then there is a long silence, and when Siggo doesn't fill it with song the situation feels twice as tense. The ship starts to vibrate as it penetrates Giri Minor's upper atmosphere--gently at first, but within moments it feels as though the ship might shake itself to pieces.
Your instrument panel shows the temperature of the hull rising at an alarming rate. It's night on this side of the planet. You know the place is uninhabited, but if anyone were on the ground they'd be getting one heck of a meteor show tonight--not only all of the space rocks burning up in the upper atmosphere, but one big streak as transport vessel EWR210819 falls to its doom.
The controls seem worthless as you speed through the atmosphere, and eventually you concede there is not much more you can do.
Long minutes pass as you descend through the atmosphere, with the ship rocking roughly in the crosswinds. Siggo maintains his focus, though, and you decide you can no longer bear his silence.
"Certainly you must have a song for a situation like this," you say.
He looks wryly at you, and suddenly some of his tension melts away. "Probably," he says. "Let's see. Even someone as young as you must know this one." He relaxes just a tiny bit in his seat, then begins to croon the opening verse of "The Lonely Spaceman of Altair."
This has never been your favorite song--not even close--but you know the best thing to do is to join in the spirit of the moment. When he gets to the chorus you join in:
There are indeed survivors that night of the crash of transport vessell EWR210819, and some of them even find the lost colony and get a hyperspace signal out to Star Base Ishtria. Years later, some of those survivors return to the crash site on Giri Minor. They erect a monument to the brave bridge crew who gave their lives that fateful night.
"Very well," Siggo says. "An extra set of hands on the controls may make all the difference. Once the ship enters the atmosphere we may have some aerodynamic control, so we'll have to do everything we can to keep the nose up. It won't do anybody any good to plow straight into the ground."
"Got it," you say. "I'll do everything I can to help."
Then there is a long silence, and when Siggo doesn't fill it with song the situation feels twice as tense. The ship starts to vibrate as it penetrates Giri Minor's upper atmosphere--gently at first, but within moments it feels as though the ship might shake itself to pieces.
Your instrument panel shows the temperature of the hull rising at an alarming rate. It's night on this side of the planet. You know the place is uninhabited, but if anyone were on the ground they'd be getting one heck of a meteor show tonight--not only all of the space rocks burning up in the upper atmosphere, but one big streak as transport vessel EWR210819 falls to its doom.
The controls seem worthless as you speed through the atmosphere, and eventually you concede there is not much more you can do.
Long minutes pass as you descend through the atmosphere, with the ship rocking roughly in the crosswinds. Siggo maintains his focus, though, and you decide you can no longer bear his silence.
"Certainly you must have a song for a situation like this," you say.
He looks wryly at you, and suddenly some of his tension melts away. "Probably," he says. "Let's see. Even someone as young as you must know this one." He relaxes just a tiny bit in his seat, then begins to croon the opening verse of "The Lonely Spaceman of Altair."
When I was a young boy my mother said to me
Someday you'll grow up son, a man you will be
Blasting off to a life on some far-flung colony
And when you get there will you still think of me?
To find love must you go all the way to green Altair III?
Someday you'll grow up son, a man you will be
Blasting off to a life on some far-flung colony
And when you get there will you still think of me?
To find love must you go all the way to green Altair III?
This has never been your favorite song--not even close--but you know the best thing to do is to join in the spirit of the moment. When he gets to the chorus you join in:
I am, I am the lonely spaceman, the lonely spaceman of green Altair III!
There are indeed survivors that night of the crash of transport vessell EWR210819, and some of them even find the lost colony and get a hyperspace signal out to Star Base Ishtria. Years later, some of those survivors return to the crash site on Giri Minor. They erect a monument to the brave bridge crew who gave their lives that fateful night.
THE END
