Conflagration

Calling Captain Elof

Galaxy: Darklands (dwarf galaxy)

Cluster: Backwater

Planet: SHP 242 [Unnamed]

It had taken four days of flying to get to the unnamed system in the Backwater cluster, but now they were finally here. The Darklands dwarf galaxy was one of the most remote and sparsely populated galaxies that humans had ever settled. Even at that, the Backwater Cluster was the most remote (and aptly named) of the four clusters in the Darklands. Practically no one lived out here.

"This your first time in Backwater?" Erin asked Lyssa. Both women were back in the cockpit, Lyssa sitting in the right seat where the first officer would sit if this flight had a first officer. Ahead of them, beyond the bubble of their little pocket universe, one star shone much brighter than all the others. It was around this star which the mysterious, unnamed planet SHP 242 orbited. They were still too far out for the planet itself to be visible.

"Yeah. Never even been planetside before." Lyssa answered. There was a note of tension in her voice.

"Don't worry. Deorbiting is perfectly safe."

Lyssa just nodded at first. Then, after a moment, "You've done this before, right?"

"Of course. Bunches of times." Erin gave her passenger a reassuring smile. In truth, she'd only deorbited about a dozen-or-so times, and most of those were training flights with Aviators' Guild instructors sitting in the right seat beside her. This would only be her third or fourth solo deorbit and her first with such a heavily loaded spaceplane. She was perhaps more nervous about it than Lyssa was, but she wasn't going to let her passenger see that.

Outside the cockpit windows, SHP 242's star was growing noticeably brighter. It wouldn't be long now. Erin glanced at the TFG capacitor readout. 84%. The three main engines' energy output was being ducted via magnetic ducting into the capacitor.

"You said you're from Backwater, right? Are we far from your home world?" Lyssa asked.

Erin didn't want to talk about her past or where she was from, especially now when she needed to focus on the job at hand. "Not far."

Lyssa laughed nervously. "Maybe we could stop in and see your ol' homestead?" It wasn't a serious suggestion, of course.

"No." Erin's answer carried a tone of grave finality.

"Just kidding. Besides, could you imagine how the Noémie bean counters would shit asteroids if they found out we wasted fuel for a personal side trip?"

Erin just shot her a warning look and said, "Eighty-five percent." in reference to the readout on the TFG capacitor display.

Lyssa watched the muscles in Erin's forearms tense as she pulled the three throttle levers back to their idle detents. Glancing at the navigation readout on the Primary Flight Display, Lyssa saw that they were within a half minute of arrival at the planet. "How come I don't see no planet out there? Shouldn't we see it by now?"

"We are very close, but only in astronomic terms," Erin said. She was glad for the change of subject. She could talk about flying all day, but she had been really uncomfortable with the talk of her home world. "Most people think planets are big things, but on the scale of the universe, even galaxies are quite small. At the speed we're flying, a planet is only a speck of dust. If we didn't have very precise navigation, we could fly right past it and never even know it. We won't even see it until the last couple seconds before I push the button." She indicated the TFG ACTV. button on the overhead panel.

"I know what you mean. It's easy to forget how big space is when you live in a space station where everybody's so crammed together and tight like."

"Wait 'til you stand beneath an open sky for the first time. You won't believe it."

"Is it like the sky on the Delta Ring?"

"Nothing like that. The fake skies that station-worlds like Gonaways have on their habitation rings are weak imitations of the real thing. You'll see. I can't wait for you to see. You'll be amazed."

At that moment, the ten-second warning chimed on the navigation display. BING! All conversation ceased. Erin made one last, quick check of the TFG display panel and deactivated the safeties protecting the TFG ACTV. button. She held her finger over that button as she watched the countdown. 5...4...3... Erin kept her eyes glued to the countdown. She didn't look up, but she knew the planet must now be in view. It must seem to be approaching at a frightening rate, but Erin's eyes were fixed on the countdown. She heard Lyssa gasp through the intercom. It was likely the first time Lyssa had ever seen a planet up close in her life. 2...1...0. The moment the countdown hit 0, Erin pressed the button. The plane lurched and then rumbled as the transtachyonic field dissipated and they dropped into normal space.

Now, for the first time, Erin looked upon the planet designated SHP 242. She was relieved to see that it looked to be pretty far along in its terraforming process. That was good. It meant they wouldn't be working in some primordial hellscape. She could see that much of it was forested. As she maneuvered the plane into orbit, she ran a planetary scan and saw that it was a mostly terrestrial planet with only one small ocean.

The computer automatically mapped all of the places on the surface where the water was deep enough and far enough from land to allow for a safe landing. They would only be able to land outside of the tenebricite shadow, the electromagnetic field emitted by most Darklands planets which made landing on solid ground unsafe. Within the tenebricite shadow, the effect was similar to an EMP weapon. Technology wouldn't work and airplanes would crash.

Only where the water was deep enough for the ocean floor to be more than a kilometer beneath the surface could a landing be safely attempted. Erin had expected the small ocean to be deemed a safe landing site by the computer, but she was surprised to find that the planet had several inland lakes that were deep enough and large enough to land on.

The computer also scanned for human settlements and only revealed two. One looked like a small, rustic village on the shore of one of those inland lakes. The other settlement was in the middle of the small ocean. This one looked like a terraforming rig. "There," she said, pointing to the terraforming rig on the scanner's display. "That must be a Safe Harbor rig⁠—that's the company that's terraforming this planet. If Captain Elof set his plane down anywhere, that's where I'd wager he is. Leastwise, that's the most likely place to start."

"You're the boss. You find me a manked plane and I'll get 'er flyin' again."

Erin dialed the standard Noémie company frequency into her radio and pressed the XMT button on her control stick. "Four-Nine-Five-November-Charlie, this is company Seven-Eight-Eight-November-Charlie," Erin said, calling out Capt. Elof's tail number and introducing herself. She waited a long moment before repeating the radio call. Then, she waited another long moment before repeating the call a third time. Maybe Capt. Elof had his radio off? She would try a few more times before switching to the Safe Harbor company frequency that flight dispatch had given her back on Gonaways. "This is Noémie Seven-Eight-Eight-November-Charlie calling company aircraft Four-Nine-Five-November-Charlie. Captain Radcliff Elof, how do you read?"