‘Is everyone okay?’ Ed called, his eyes gradually adjusting to the faint red glow of his floating display.
‘Well, we’re still here,’ said Rayl, from somewhere in the gloom. ‘Holomap is rebooting.’
‘That beam overloaded just about every system,’ said Pol. ‘Our shields barely slowed it down.’
‘Do we have any shielding now?’ Phil asked.
‘Is the ship still cloaked?’ asked Ed.
‘Slow down, guys,’ said Rayl, looking up at where the holomap was slowly swirling back into some form of normality. ‘I’m hoping to have some answers when this thing sorts itself out.’
‘Cleo, are you there?’ Ed asked.
No reply came.
They all watched as the display returned but seemed to be missing areas of detail on one side.
‘Why’s it done that?’ Pol asked.
‘The array must have been compromised on that side by the beam,’ said Phil. ‘It’s only showing what’s on our port side.’
‘Shit,’ said Rayl. ‘I’m starting to get hull breach warnings on the starboard side too.’
‘We need to regain control and address the slow spin too,’ said Ed, the worry evident in his face as Paradeisos gradually turned in and out of view. ‘We don’t want to be dropping in there without power.’
‘What’s that?’ Pol exclaimed, pointing at a huge black slab phasing in and out of vision.
‘Wow,’ said Pickyrd. ‘That’s the 28 and it’s damaged too.’
‘It jumped in front of the beam just after us,’ said Phil. ‘Probably saved our arses.’
‘Lucky it didn’t jump onto us,’ said Rayl, rolling her eyes. ‘Is anything coming back to the helm yet, Phil?’
‘I’ve got nothing,’ he said. ‘No Alma drive, no jump drive, one of the port side antigravs is responding though.’
‘Shit, is that it?’ said Ed, looking up at the planet turning through the holomap’s view and visibly getting closer with every rotation. ‘Can you get us down safely on only one?’
Phil shook his head slowly.
‘It’d be a very heavy landing,’ he said, gloomily. ‘Well, when I say landing, perhaps I should have prefixed it with crash. But, it’s not that I’m most concerned about.’
He pointed up at the holomap image, which was slowly rotating – after hitting a lump of space junk, a gradual tumble had developed too.
‘Without the attitude thrusters to position the ship correctly for re-entry, we wouldn’t make it to the surface anyway.’
‘Can’t you use your tractor beam and utilise the inertia of some of that other junk falling near us?’ Groxl asked. ‘That’s what I’d try.’
‘That’s offline too,’ said Rayl.
Rayl suddenly sat up straighter and stared at Phil.
‘Which hangar is the Cartella in?’ she asked.
‘Port, why?’ said Phil.
‘Doesn’t that have a tractor beam?’
‘Shit, yes it does.’
Rayl jumped out of her seat and made for the stairway hatch down to the hangar decks.
‘Hang on,’ said Ed. ‘It should be me who does that.’
‘Let me know when I’ve got you in the right position,’ she said over her shoulder, completely ignoring Ed.
‘Belly first, bow slightly up,’ shouted Phil, as she disappeared through the hatch. ‘And use it to help slow me down too.’
‘How are you going to talk to her if communications are down?’ Pol asked.
‘She’ll figure it out,’ said Phil. ‘She’s a smart girl.’
‘Do we need to strap in or something?’ asked Xutan, searching around his seat and finding nothing resembling a safety harness.
‘No,’ said Ed, firmly. ‘I want you all in the lifeboats and ready to go on my command. If I give it, do not hesitate.’
‘What about you?’ Pol said.
‘The captain stays with the ship and I’ll just get it down as best I can.’
‘You can’t do that, Edward,’ said Pol, tears forming in her eyes.
‘Yes I fucking can,’ he said, forcibly. ‘Now get in the lifeboats.’
Pol sat back in her seat. She’d never heard Ed get angry and certainly hadn’t heard him use that language at her before.
Ed looked up and pointed at the two lifeboat hatches on either side of the bridge. Their entrances had been bathed in green light since he’d activated the weightless handles.
Groxl, Xutan, Phil, Pickyrd and the group of GDA marines split themselves into two equal groups and climbed into the lifeboats. Pol, on the other hand, had stood and loitered next to the nearest lifeboat and helped Xutan, who was last, climb inside. When they were all settled, she looked across at Ed, who was busy at his station. She hit the door close button, ripped off the safety cover and punched the launch toggle.
Ed looked up, puzzled, when he heard the explosive bolts firing and the lifeboat burst its way up the launch tunnel and away from the ship. Pol was already sprinting across to the other one.
‘No, Pol, don’t—’
Before he could get the words out she’d sealed the second lifeboat and launched that one too, then proceeded to stroll back to her seat and glare across at him.
‘I will not allow you to do this alone,’ she said as the ship shuddered under them. ‘You’re family.’
‘There’s two more lifeboats next to the cabins, you know,’ he said.
‘You going to tie me up and carry me there?’ she asked sarcastically, raising her eyebrows.
The ship shook again and they both caught a glimpse of the Cartella on the holomap as the spin and tumble decreased and finally stabilised as the smaller ship’s tractor beam grappled with the bulk of the Gabriel.
‘Well, that seems to be working,’ she said cheerily, giving Ed a smug grin.
‘Wonderful,’ grunted Ed. ‘Now all we’ve got to do is get rid of the Mach 30 we’re currently realising.’
They both heard the single antigrav drive spin up and add its melodic shriek to the creaks and bangs echoing around the damaged ship, as its influence began to bite into the planet’s natural gravity.
They watched Rayl pull around behind and felt the drag as she used the tractor and the Cartella’s own antigravs to aid in scrubbing off the Gabriel’s huge velocity.
‘Where should we aim for?’ asked Pol, showing the planet’s surface in front and below on the holomap.
‘Close to a city,’ said Ed. ‘At least if we survive the landing, we’ll have rescuers nearby.’
It was all ocean below at present, but one of the larger landmasses was east of them.
‘That’s the Canlain Coast over there,’ he said. ‘I remember from last time I was here. There’s a city about a thousand kilometres inland, I’ll aim for that.’
He dropped the struts and opened all of the operational weapons bays as wind brakes to aid in slowing them. He initially worried about damaging them at this speed, but realised that was moot, as they weren’t going to be landing gently on them today. He remembered watching his dad’s videos of Earth shuttle pilots making huge sweeping turns fifty years ago to scrub off speed and thinking how skilful they were to come in from space at seventeen and a half thousand miles per hour and land a thirty-tonne glider.
Without any warning the ship suddenly turned and swept back further so the stern was almost pointing straight down.
‘Shit,’ shouted Ed. ‘I’ve lost contro—’
He opened his eyes to find Cleo standing in the centre of the bridge with her arms straight out from her sides.
‘Lie on the floor with your feet against the front bulkhead,’ she shouted. ‘Quickly.’
Ed and Pol didn’t argue and did as they were told.
‘I’m having to divert power from the artificial gravity to bring in the other port antigrav,’ she said. ‘This might be a bit rough for the two of you.’
‘How did you get back?’ Ed asked.
‘Pickyrd’s ship in the hangar.’
‘But that was in the starboard hangar.’
‘Don’t I know,’ she said. ‘Little bit messy.’
‘And you’re a Cleo missing some files.’
‘Perhaps you’d like to shut up and let Ms Retarded save your fucking life.’