OtherWorldly

1. Crash Landing

SciFiDown 6.0 Round 3: Classics VS Trashics II (Angels and Demons + The Swiss Family Robinson + First Contact)

Otherworldly

1. Crash Landing

"Daddy I'm scared. I don't want to die."

Robert Langdon forced on a plastic smile, glanced at his daughter sitting in the cockpit beside him and briefly tousled her hair, using his free hand to wipe away the beads of sweat that had collected on his brow.

"Its okay baby girl, I'm scared too, but we're gonna be alright," he said, putting his hand back on the steering column, fighting to regain control of the Galaxy Transporter as it spiraled sporadically through the asteroid belt.

"Promise Daddy?"

"Yes baby girl, I promise, everything's going to be alright," he insisted, speaking to himself as much as he was speaking to his daughter.

"Robert, we're losing compression on the rear deck!" shouted Jeantelle, his wife.

"Keep on the motors, top speed! Alex, how are we looking?"

"We're not looking good," said his fourteen-year-old son, shouting down from the Crow's Nest. "We're surrounded on all sides!"

"Yeah, no kidding."

Langdon stared out the windshield and felt his heart fill with dread. 'Surrounded on all sides' was an understatement. They were flying through an asteroid belt at thousands of miles per hour and gigantic, house-sized rocks shot past them, eager to rip their already damaged spaceship to shreds. They were in in bad shape; only two of their engines were currently functional and the deck had been penetrated. Oxygen was leaking out of the hull at an uncontrollable rate, the artificial intelligence program was unresponsive, and the ship refused to obey Langston's prompts with the steering column.

Things were not looking good.

"Any more of those missiles left?" Langston asked.

Suddenly there was a bright explosion just beyond the front tip of the spaceship as a missile crashed into an asteroid and ripped the rock to pieces. The command deck lit up with the bright orange flames and the shock wave shook the ship to its core.

"Not anymore," Johnny replied.

Langdon swore.

"That's a bad word, Daddy!" Crystal said, sticking her tiny index fingers in her ears.

Langdon winked at her, rolled his neck and smiled to himself. Nothing was ever easy was it? No, he wasn't lucky enough for things to go simply, to go according to plan. But of course, things didn't always have to be simple. It was more fun this way.

"Jeanny, how many miles are we from the nearest celestial body?"

"There's a planet nearby!" She shouted. "Ninety-two miles and closing! Gravity has started to take hold of us!"

"Any idea whether or not its inhabited?"

"Have you looked out the window? Do you really think it matters?"

Langston didn't hesitate. He knew what he had to do. He had gotten them into this mess, and he was going to get them out. His family had to survive - that was all that really mattered to him.

"Okay guys, get ready!" Langston shouted into the intercom. "We're going to be making a crash landing on that planet, so I need everyone to listen closely. Johnny, I need you to clear a path for us as best you can. Use the Phase Beams on the starboard deck! You got me?"

"Got it, dad!"

"Jeantelle, bring us up to maximum speed. I want engines 7, 5, and 3 burning at full capacity!"

"On it!"

"And Crystal?"

"Yes daddy?" She replied, fighting back tears.

"You just...just keep being adorable."

"Okay!"

"Alright guys, hold on!"

Langdon guided the ship past another gigantic asteroid and at last a bright red planet came up to view, filling their telescreens with its gigantic, shining extravagance.

Langdon grabbed onto the steering column and squeezed it with all his strength, fighting against the pull of gravity. He had to keep the nose of the ship from dipping while simultaneously dodging past the gigantic boulders hovering mere feet from their vehicle. He deftly navigated through the maze of debris and finally they pierced the planet's atmosphere, under the full influence of gravity.

He yanked back on the control pad as hard as he could, fighting to level the ship and avoid a headfirst collision with the ground. But gaining any sort of control of the useless piece of steel was next to impossible.

"Helmets on guys this is gonna be rough!"

Glimpses of far-off mountains and canyons flashed past his eyes as the ship spun wildly through the air. Langdon scanned the surface, looking for any sort of patch of trees or vegetation that might be suitable to land in, but there was nothing more than hard stones and salted over lakes. But they didn't have time to be picky. He aimed the nose of the ship at one of the dried out lakes, pulled back on the steering column as hard as he could, and shut his eyes.

And then came the impact, and the world went dark.