Sonichu [Short Story] 'Planet Of The CWCks' -

[LazarusOwenhart]

Following on from a conversation in the Random Thoughts and Questions thread I shat this out in about forty minutes. I'm gonna keep writing and posting it for my own amusement, if you guys like it then that's all the better.

 

[LazarusOwenhart]

Planet Of The CWCKs


Chapter One: Re-entry.​

All he could remember at first was being a kid, laying in fragrant grass and watching the flight of birds wishing he was one of them. Around him, his ship was waking up, as sluggishly as he was. Suspended animation did funny things to the mind, the brain took a few minutes to organise itself and start to think properly. During those few chaotic moments random memories would be accessed and flow through the conscious in a strange hallucination of times past. He remembered his fifth birthday, then he was at university in bed with that pretty redhead. Just as he was enjoying the memory it was replaced by the death of his brother followed in quick succession by the smell of his mother's perfume. Suddenly his mind roared back into life and he oriented himself. His name was Kurt Jackson, captain of the deep space research vessel ‘Callisto’ and he was approaching Earth after ten years in suspended animation along with his crew of three who should be waking up in adjacent cabins. Callisto was a small ship but she at least had some home comforts and whilst he waited for the computer systems to finish powering up he took a shower and shaved. As he left the little communal bathroom his crew greeted him from around the tiny table set in what they affectionately referred to as ‘the breakfast nook’. From left to right, rubbing their eyes and forcing down powdered egg were, Kacey Adams, a strikingly beautiful biologist, Ian Clarke, engineer and co-pilot and Brian Manya’jerk a botanist attached to the mission from the Kenyan Science Ministry.

“We’re on orbit approach, let’s open the shutters and take a look at earth shall we?” Kurt said rhetorically as he walked past them. He pushed a switch on a bulkhead and the protective shutters on the cabin windows began to retract flooding the small space with light.


Earth, there she was. They’d been away thirty years, but only awake for four of them. They knew there’d be changes, new cities, new governments, new conflicts and advances. To the people on the surface the little research ship inserting itself into orbit must look very primitive.

“Any contact from command?” Kacey asked. Kurt sat down in the pilot's chair and looked back at her along the single long cabin that served as cockpit, common room and laboratory.

“No, and it’s odd but…. wait a minute. The ship can’t detect the orbital beacons either!” Kurt exclaimed. Ian, aware of the severity of the statement jumped up and threw himself into the co-pilots seat. Seeing his urgency the other two strapped themselves in.

“They must be there, it’s gotta be our equipment, I’m extending the backup antennae!” Ian said frantically pushing buttons.

“We’re in the gravity well, I need to stabilise our orbit!” Kurt fired back at him switching the ship to manual control. He wrestled with the stick with his left hand and began rapidly entering information into the computer with his right, trying to push the ship into an orbital trajectory.

“It’s no good, if the beacons aren’t there the ship wouldn’t have started it’s re-entry burns, we’re coming in way too fast!” Ian cried, Kurt slammed the throttles forward and slammed his finger onto a switch marked “KIL-MOT” The reverse thrusters fired hard, the RCS thrusters flared and the ship groaned under the g-forces. All four crew were thrown forward in their harnesses, the hastily discarded bowls and cups from breakfast flew to the front of the ship peppering the cockpit with egg.

“It’s no good, I can’t achieve orbit, we’re going to have to ditch, Ian I need some sort of idea of where we’ll land!” Kurt grunted, the g force was so extreme his vision was starting to blur.

“You need to pull up by about four degrees or we’ll get too hot. We won’t make a water landing but if you manage a four degree adjustment we’ll put down in America, eastern seaboard, can’t be more accurate than that.” Ian replied. Kurt hauled on the stick and mercifully the ship responded, they hit the atmosphere and were wreathed in flame. As the ship bucked and weaved alarms sounded in the cockpit, the heat shield was reaching critical temperature.

“Firing drogue!” Ian hissed punching a red exclamation marked button by his chair. From the rear of the ship a metal line extended trailing a silvery cross that snapped taught in the screaming wind of the ships passage. In the cockpit the crew were once again thrown forward as they rapidly decelerated. Kurt burned the thrusters again until they overheated and shut down but by then, mercifully the ship was in a glide over open ocean, land defined the horizon. Ian released the metal dorgue and it fluttered away.

“Good job Kurt,” Kacey panted, she was nearly sobbing.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, I don’t have a runway to put down on.” Kurt said levelly. Land was approaching fast now and soon they were flying over lush forest.

“There isn’t that much forest anywhere in America anymore, where the hell are we?” Asked Brian.

“I know those mountains, this is Virginia, those are the blue ridge mountains.” Ian said, he had spent time in Charlottesville with his relatives as a child.

“No time for debates people, brace yourselves!” Kurt yelled. He fired the chutes and the ship lurched once again. It dropped sickeningly the last hundred feet and belly flopped onto the ground.


Kurt awoke disoriented for the second time in an hour. Around him the cockpit was dead, monitors shattered, windows cracked. The rest of the crew were stirring, all of them were bruised and cut but seemed alright otherwise. He fumbled for his straps and managed to struggle out of the remains of his pilots chair. He became conscious of the sound of rain pattering on the cockpit windows and the drip of water entering the cabin through splits in the hull. He helped the rest of the crew free themselves from their restraints and together they clambered towards the airlock.


With a boom the explosive bolts catapulted the airlocks outer door fifteen feet from the ship where it crashed to the ground and crushed thick vegetation. The crew exited the ship and Ian, last to leave, handed down their emergency backpacks. He passed one of two small LMG’s that were stored aboard the ship to Kurt and kept one for himself.

“This isn’t Virginia, I didn’t see a single city as we came in, no roads, no nothing!” Kacey whispered as the forest closed around them. They had activated the ships emergency beacon before they left and Kurts locator on his waist clicked quietly as the signal reached it. They came to the top of a hill and saw that the thick vegetation thinned at the bottom. They scrambled down the slope and out onto the clear area but before they could take stock of their surroundings Brian tripped over something hidden in the undergrowth. As Kurt helped him up Ian glanced at what he’d tripped over.

“Guys this looks like a piece of highway barrier…” he began but he was interrupted by Kaceys shocked gasp. He looked up and the other two followed his gaze. Kacey was standing in the middle of a wide area with no trees which stretched off into the distance. The ground underfoot was mossy but patches of tarmac showed through and beyond, on a rusted steel sign was a shield, with the number ‘29’ and below, the words “Ruckersville, 10 km”

 

[Orthodox Chrischanity]

Clever. I love it!