Marooned on Giri Minor
You are so preoccupied with the spaceship that you don't hear the footsteps outside the hangar, or see Andrade's shadow as she enters and briefly eclipses the daylight coming through the door. But her unintelligible scream sends a shiver through you, and you turn to see her making one more bloodthirsty thrust toward you in the darkness.
Now you feel you have no choice but to stun her with the plasgun. The beam lights up the hangar in a strobe-like flash, and you hear Andrade slump to the floor. And when the immediate danger has passed, you turn the handlight in her direction.
Yes, the commander has finally been subdued. There is no telling what effect this stun blast might have had on her, so if she has any chance of surviving this day you know you need to get her to help soon.
But now you start to feel like you have options--especially if this ship you've found proves to be spaceworthy. Recognizing you have no time to spare, you pick the commander up despite the painful protests of your cracked rib, climb the steps up inside the ship, and drop her down in the first seat you see. Then you find the control that activates the power. The ship's systems are slow to respond after so many years of inactivity, but when the computer comes online you see that although the power levels are low, the vessel otherwise appears to be functional.
You find the bridge and seat yourself at the pilot's station. What was this ship, and why was it parked way out here so far from the colony? Nothing that you see suggests this was a naval vessel; more likely, this was someone's private transport. The inside was kept spotless.
Not all of the controls come to life, though. The functioning displays inform you that with the limited power, you will probably only get one lift-off.
Your first thought is to get Andrade back to the crash site, and let the other survivors know about the dangers of the beetle-crabs--if they haven't encountered them already. There seems to be a compelling wisdom in returning to the others, and who knows, maybe the engineers can find a way to re-energize this old ship.
Then you check the comm unit. The system is operational, but with the limited power any signal you transmit through hyperspace would be very weak, at best. You might have better luck transmitting from a low orbit, but that would almost certainly be a one-way trip.
While the controls looks more or less familiar, you've never really piloted a ship before--from any century. But you give it your best shot. As you navigate through the spaceflight computer protocols, you come across an autopilot feature. Indicate destination, the artificial voice says.
Now you feel you have no choice but to stun her with the plasgun. The beam lights up the hangar in a strobe-like flash, and you hear Andrade slump to the floor. And when the immediate danger has passed, you turn the handlight in her direction.
Yes, the commander has finally been subdued. There is no telling what effect this stun blast might have had on her, so if she has any chance of surviving this day you know you need to get her to help soon.
But now you start to feel like you have options--especially if this ship you've found proves to be spaceworthy. Recognizing you have no time to spare, you pick the commander up despite the painful protests of your cracked rib, climb the steps up inside the ship, and drop her down in the first seat you see. Then you find the control that activates the power. The ship's systems are slow to respond after so many years of inactivity, but when the computer comes online you see that although the power levels are low, the vessel otherwise appears to be functional.
You find the bridge and seat yourself at the pilot's station. What was this ship, and why was it parked way out here so far from the colony? Nothing that you see suggests this was a naval vessel; more likely, this was someone's private transport. The inside was kept spotless.
Not all of the controls come to life, though. The functioning displays inform you that with the limited power, you will probably only get one lift-off.
Your first thought is to get Andrade back to the crash site, and let the other survivors know about the dangers of the beetle-crabs--if they haven't encountered them already. There seems to be a compelling wisdom in returning to the others, and who knows, maybe the engineers can find a way to re-energize this old ship.
Then you check the comm unit. The system is operational, but with the limited power any signal you transmit through hyperspace would be very weak, at best. You might have better luck transmitting from a low orbit, but that would almost certainly be a one-way trip.
While the controls looks more or less familiar, you've never really piloted a ship before--from any century. But you give it your best shot. As you navigate through the spaceflight computer protocols, you come across an autopilot feature. Indicate destination, the artificial voice says.