Marooned on Giri Minor
"All right," you say, and reluctantly you step down from the copilot's station.
Just before you step through the hatch leading into the passenger cabin, Siggo says, "Thanks for everything you did, kid. I'll see you down on the surface." Then he closes the door, sealing it shut from his control board before you can change your mind.
Something tells you that that will be the last time you ever see the captain, but then you correct yourself: Siggo will get you down safely, and the crisis will end soon. You will all look back on this day someday and remember how even though you had a scary few minutes, it all worked out in the end. Siggo will get the thrusters online at the last minute, you will scoop up Hatuso and Indrian floating through space, and the ship will speed out of orbit to a safer place where you can finish the repairs. This is the only outcome you want to envision.
But before you reach the passengers, this ship rocks violently as it enters Giri Minor's upper atmosphere. The erratic motion throws you against a bulkhead, knocking you unconscious. You slump to the floor, well out of reach of any of the passengers strapped into their emergency seating.
What follows seems like a prolonged nightmare from which you can't awake, like you are falling through space toward a rocky plain, but you never hit the ground, you just fall over and over again for days and days. You have no control, nor contact with anything solid. The best you can do is flail helplessly in the void. Only vaguely are you aware of the people tending over you, but you have no idea who they are.
Just before you step through the hatch leading into the passenger cabin, Siggo says, "Thanks for everything you did, kid. I'll see you down on the surface." Then he closes the door, sealing it shut from his control board before you can change your mind.
Something tells you that that will be the last time you ever see the captain, but then you correct yourself: Siggo will get you down safely, and the crisis will end soon. You will all look back on this day someday and remember how even though you had a scary few minutes, it all worked out in the end. Siggo will get the thrusters online at the last minute, you will scoop up Hatuso and Indrian floating through space, and the ship will speed out of orbit to a safer place where you can finish the repairs. This is the only outcome you want to envision.
But before you reach the passengers, this ship rocks violently as it enters Giri Minor's upper atmosphere. The erratic motion throws you against a bulkhead, knocking you unconscious. You slump to the floor, well out of reach of any of the passengers strapped into their emergency seating.
What follows seems like a prolonged nightmare from which you can't awake, like you are falling through space toward a rocky plain, but you never hit the ground, you just fall over and over again for days and days. You have no control, nor contact with anything solid. The best you can do is flail helplessly in the void. Only vaguely are you aware of the people tending over you, but you have no idea who they are.