The Lost Planet

Shaking

Turns out replacing a plasma converter isn't too hard, just takes two people.

"All right so when I covert the power to the second mogul, take out the old converter and place in the new one. Just make sure to place the converter in the right way." Fa said with his hand on a large yellow lever.

"What happens if it's the wrong way?" I asked, crouching down next to a large barrel like machine, with a duller version of the plasma converter, placed in the middle of the barrel.

"Then we have about twenty seconds before the ships gravity well overheats and we all start floating around." Fa said matter-of-factly. Leha must have seen my expression, and grabbed me on the shoulder. That sent a jolt through me.

"It will be fine, it's easy." She nodded to Fa who pulled the lever down and the barrel in front of me stopped glowing. I reached forward and grabbed to old plasma converter. I twisted it to the left and pulled it out, then placed the new one in making sure it was facing the right way. I twisted it in place, and nodded to Fa. He pulled the lever down and the barrel started glowing again. I sighed in relief.

"Good job." Fa said to me patting me on the shoulder. I looked over at Leha who shrugged.

"So now do you have to connect the conductor barrel to the rest of the system?" I asked Fa. He smiled.

"Leha this ones' bright, you've got to keep him." I glanced Leha and saw her cheeks flash red.

"He's not by boyfriend!" She yelled. Fa held up his hands in defeat.

"So you just decided some random guy should come with you to meet me?"

"Yes. Yes I did." Leha sniffed.

"Girls." Fa said shaking his head.

"Leha look up the maximum internal core temperature of a model 08 plasma torch." I cocked an eye brow.

"Why can't you just do it yourself?" I asked Fa, as Leha's eyes glazed over, while she accessed the Thinker.

"I don't have a Thinker." Fa said.

"What? You're in charge of the ship's gravity systems and you don't have a Thinker? How do you do all the math?" I asked, the job of creating artificial gravity was extremely hard, and required lots and lots of math.

"In my head, I'm kind of smart."

Leha scoffed "That's an understatement, he graduated Lenard, with a degree in complex mathematic theory and about every single engineering class you could think of, without getting much less than a 98 percent." I raised my eyebrows. Lenard was one of the best schools you could get, and one of the hardest.

"That's pretty impressive Fa." I said to him. He shrugged.

"3,600 degrees Fahrenheit." Leha answered Fa's earlier inquiry. Fa shook his head.

"Celsius,"

Leha upend her mouth to speak but Fa cut her off.

"So that's about 1982.2222 Celsius." My eyebrows raised and Leha gave me a shrug. Fa continued to tinker with the plasma torch till it started humming and as he twisted the side of the torch a thin blue line appeared at the top and a jet of plasma spun out in a purple glow. He bent down and placed the jet of plasma on a small port on one of the barrels. The metal cut cleanly as Fa dragged the plasma cutter down the barrel.

I watched him do his job flawlessly, and as he cut out a perfect rectangle, and took out the plate. He set the metal slice on the ground next to him, switched off the torch and began tinkering with the inside of the barrel.

He was pulling out an old plasma generator, when the ship shook. Items fell off of nearby selves, and I was nearly thrown to my knees.

"Was that you?" I asked Fa as the initial jolt subsided.

"No, well...um I hope not." Fa replied as he checked the barrel, with caution.

I was launched forward as the craft shook again. I crashed into a barrel, lights flashing. I felt pain flair into my body. My shoulder hurt. I barley registered the sirens going off and someone screaming. Erey thing seemed distant slow; the ship shook slowly like a cheap amusement park ride. Everything seemed distant slow; the ship shook slowly like a cheap amusement park ride. Everything was cloudy and fuzzy.

I felt a sharp pain in my hand, and snapped into awareness. I awoke to find sirens blaring and the ship jolting us back and forth. Leha lay in a pile of metal next to me and Fa was crumpled by a barrel, blood seeping out of a cut on his head. I looked down at my hand which was feeling some pain. I saw a long rod of black metal jutting out of my hand. I started, not feeling much pain, watching the blood slide down the spike, my hand on the bed of the ship. I tried to move, and felt a huge jolt of pain shoot up my arm. I yelled out in pain. The ship was slammed to the side, sending us flying across the room. My hand, still impaled by the spike, was ripped open as my body flipped across the room. I screamed as the flesh, ligaments, and bone ripped, leaving a huge opening below by pinky that dragged across to the middle of my hand. I hit the far wall heavily. I dropped to the ground. Something exploded in the chamber, sending me flying back toward the entrance. Flames licked the walls in the back of the room; with enough heat for me too feel, several yards away.

The sliding door to the chamber was opening and closing madly, the ship continued the shake. I tried to move from my sprawled position on the floor, but I just felt pain. I tried to yell, but my chest screamed out in agony. I lied on the cold metal floor, hearing alarms blaring, and felt the constant shaking. There was a second explosion and I felt my body start to rise. The gravity well had been destroyed.