Solara: My Winged Angel Pt. 02

Solara's Story Note: (All information is translated to English and to Earth standards.)

Chapter 1:

"No, Father, I will not stay here and marry Morni; he is not loved by me and does not love me. He is only after the status of being married to an assembly leader and cares nothing for my wellbeing. I am going on the ship with my brother Torkut and when I return I will find someone to take to husband; someone I love and who loves me and that is my final word on the subject.

And thus began my journey.

I am Solara Lee late of Orlana and formerly Solara: 13th daughter of Torlan; as it would be listed on Earth. This is my story up to the point that I meet and bond with my now husband Jason Lee of the planet Earth.

"Solara, you are my only unmarried daughter and I would see you wed to a decent man. Morni is a decent man and would make a fine husband to you."

"Father, Morni is a doddering old fool that would like nothing more than to have a young bride; especially Torlan's daughter and all that that name would give him in increasing his position in the Government."

"You are right to a certain point but, who else would have you. You are head strong, demanding, opinionated, and I must put this on myself; more than a little spoiled."

"Yes, Father, and I love you too, but I want someone who will love me for ME. So I will go with Torkut and pray I meet 'a decent man' when I return."

As I left my father's house I began to wonder what would become of me. I had always been a bit of a rogue; always too independent for my own good. My mother died giving birth to me in a rare 'single egg' birth. On our world births are always multiples; two or four; and females 10 to 1 over males. So my father was right; I was a bit spoiled and headstrong and opinionated, but I knew that what I wanted was not here and I wanted to try to find it before I settled down to second best. Besides I am only 21 years old and too young to marry Morni who is 107 years old. As I step out the door and glide toward the ground I decide to work off the frustration and anger from the 'talk' with my father. I love my father but sometimes he can be so aggggggggggg... I know he misses my mother and tries to hide from me the pain he feels but he can't protect me forever. I need to be what I was meant to be. So I go soaring and as I feel the wind I my face the tension slowly fades from my body and soon I am one with the air. Soon enough I was feeling good again and headed to the city and my date with a starship.

###

As I neared the base at Nirtone I saw my brother Torkut and approached him to let him know that I had completed my training and would be on this mission with him. Torkut's twin Dorkut was killed in an accident more than 10 years ago; leaving Father with only one son but unable to get him to change his mind about serving on a space cruiser as his right-of-passage to man-hood.

My brother greets me and asks; "How did Father take it?'

"Not well." I reply.

"He will get over it in time."

"I hope he will not be upset for long. After all I am his youngest and do remind him of Mother."

I have taken a position as Assistant Atmospheric Engineer on the 8751 and will be gone almost six years before returning to Orlana.

We get down to the tasks at hand and get the ship ready to depart on schedule in two months.

I spend the next few days familiarizing myself with the ship and its various systems. I get my gear stowed in my locker and meet my superior officer Lt. Tudor and get assigned to the duty roster for watch rotation.

Morni comes to the ship to try and persuade me one last time to stay and marry him. I tell Lt. Tudor what is going on and he and another shipmate run him off telling him not to come back under penalty of pain.

The time flies by and soon it is the day of departure and friends and family of the crew come out to the port to see us off. As I look over the crowd hoping to see Father; I see my brother talking to a young woman and being very friendly about it. Suddenly behind him I see our Father approach and place a hand on his shoulder. As they talk the woman turns slightly and I see that it is indeed Tiqerna a woman he has seen often and will most likely take to wife when we return.

I walk over and speak to Tiqerna and my brother and lastly to Father, "As I said Father; when I return I will find a good man to love and take to husband. Please allow me this time as I feel in my heart that this is very important to my future and I get the strangest feeling to our people as a well."

"I will hold you to your promise upon your return. Have a safe and productive journey, both of you." We say our good-byes and enter the ship. The last I see before the ports close is my father waving as he steps away from the engine blast area.

Chapter 2:

No sleep cells on this part of the trip; we have a 12 week transit to our sister world Arilon almost 2 trillion kilometers away. Although our two stars are not binary our solar systems are considered to be so. They do revolve around a common point in space but have no comingling of astral bodies and even have separate Oort clouds. We are to pick-up a second astro-gator and a planetary specialist that will provide us with the coordinates for a world around a star on the other side of the nebula that blocks our view of the Galaxy anti-spin-ward from us.

We have suspected for hundreds of years that there might be planets around some of the stars we got glimpses of through the nebula; but until now had no evidence of their existence. A few ships have gone in search of routes through the nebula but none have ever returned. A Dr. Torbalt has retrieved data from probes he sent out showing that there are thousands if not millions of stars beyond the nebula; and that many have what appear to be planetary bodies orbiting them. These probes have also mapped a route through the nebula that a ship can use.

When we landed Dr. Torbalt and two of his staff were waiting to board and get underway. But being as it was late in the day Capt. Botor decided that the ground crew would restock the stores and clean the ship prior to departure the next day. Dr. Torbalt agreed and we were entertained by his staff at the central university where the good Dr. headed up the Planetary Sciences Dept.

The next day dawned ominous as it was raining heavily and we had to take a covered ground car to the ship. The Capt. proposed a one day delay but Dr. Torbalt ordered the ascent accusing the Capt. of being overly superstitious. Little did we know the portent of the Capt.'s feeling of dread.

It started almost immediately: as we lifted off one of the landing struts failed to retract, it was traced to an unset switch in the maintenance bay; just as we cleared atmosphere one of the lift engines went run-away and had to be shut-down manually as both the main and back-up controllers failed. As we started the main boost engines and started to get underway the entire forward sensor array went dead; we had to go motion dead as we tried to fix it. It turned out to be a circuit-breaker that broke in its clamp. It showed good but no current flowed through it. It took over 3 hours to find the trouble and replace the breaker.

As we hung in orbit awaiting repair of the sensor array we started getting everyone not needed into their sleep cells. When we started group #6 cells 21-24; the control panel for the group wouldn't even power up. Fortunately all ships carry back-up cells; 1 for each 4 main cells. We finally got everyone in a cell but it took almost 5 hours longer than it should have. Eight hours delay and we have only just now broken orbit.

I find my brother and tell him that I will see him when we arrive as our up-cycles do not co-inside. I then go to my sleep-cell to await my watch rotation and our arrival in just less than 3 years.

###

There was nothing out of the ordinary to report on my first two up-cycles; but about half-way through my third and last I noticed during my rounds that one of the engine monitors was showing a higher than normal temp on the fuel mix. I reported it to the control room and when Lt. Timoor checked it it showed normal on his panel. After convincing him to go to Engineering and check it there he came running back to the control room and set the emergency wake-up for the Capt. and Chief Engineer.

3 hours later when they all came back to the control room they continued to check everything else; that is when they found that we were almost one-half parsec off course. I found out later that the mix compensator for engine #4 had failed; thus the overheat but the control room indicator failed also, thus the incorrect reading. The navigation error was traced to the fact that the switch in auxiliary control that sets the nav-comps to off, over-ride or pole was in over-ride for computer #1 and it had developed an error. When it was turned off and reset then returned to pole mode the ship returned to the correct course. The Capt. placed a note in the ships log that 'because of my attention to detail and astuteness in catching the engine error a major trouble was averted'; I could very well get a promotion when we get return home. I completed my up-cycle and went back to sleep knowing that the next time I awoke we would be nearing our destination.

Chapter 3:

I awoke to the knowledge that we were just entering the planetary system of the star that Dr. Torbalt had discovered. A yellow-orange star with 4 planets and tens of thousands of asteroids. As I ate my meal and caught up on my duty logs I read the entry from the watch following mine and saw where the tech in the cycle before me had been testing the computer systems and had left the pole switch in the wrong position. I also read of his reprimand.

I finished my meal and was headed for control when: AAAAAUUUUGGGAH; AAAAAUUUUGGGAH; alarms were going off everywhere. I tucked in and ran to control and just as I got there CRAAAAASSSHHH!!!!! We hit something and I was thrown off my feet.

When I came to I was on the deck and could tell we were in real trouble. There were alarms and warning lights on every console in the control room. My superior Lt. Tudor ordered me to auxiliary control and to start closing safety hatches and bulkheads everywhere. When I got to Aux-Con it was in chaos but I managed to get to my station and started closing atmosphere seals on all decks and in all compartments. As we fought for control I could see on the view screen that we had hit another ship and that it was falling out of orbit as we watched. I watched as the other ship though bent, twisted and broken nearly in-half gained some control and rather than burn up on re-entry actually attempt a controlled atmospheric re-entry. I took time to admire the skill of the pilot as he fought to maneuver his ship to a soft landing. Then we were out of viewer range and had our own hands full. In less than 5 minutes he had gone from being happy to arrive to scared to death we would all die.

Over the next four days we did everything we could think of to try and salvage our ship but to no avail. About mid of the fourth day the Capt. spoke on the intercom and explained the situation: "Crew of the 8751 this is the Capt. Botor. We are not going to be able to save the ship. The controls for the space engines are destroyed; completely burned out; the atmosphere engines are gone, destroyed in the impact. We are leaking atmosphere to space and can no longer maintain orbit on thrusters. Within the next hour we will begin to feel the effects of atmosphere on the ship and approx. two hours after that we will impact the planet. Much of the hull plating will burn away on re-entry and some parts of the ship may survive to impact but we cannot be certain. It has been a privilege to serve as your Capt. and I bid you all farewell. May you make your peace with the Creator in the time we have left. Thank you and good-bye."

I sought out my brother and we sat in silence as the sounds around us rose to a shriek as the ship slowly at first and then faster and faster sank into the atmosphere that would surely destroy us all. Suddenly I saw a glint in my brother's eye; he pulled me to my feet and he said, "Come with me. By all that I hold dear you must survive." We went toward Aux-Con and noticed as we passed others were holding each other or sitting in silent repose.

When we got to Aux-Con he pulled a pulse weapon from his tunic and at gun point ordered me into the supply closet just out-side Aux-Con. "Why, brother?"

"Because this is the most likely part to survive and it will give you the best chance."

"What about you?"

"Not enough room. I love you, and when you see Father again tell him I did my best. Tell Tiqerna I'm sorry." With that he slammed the door shut and I heard the discharge as he shot-out the controls and sealed me in. for the next hour or so I could hear the screams of the ship coming apart; feel all the shaking and tumbling. Then I hit my head on the bulkhead and slipped into blessed silence.

###

I awoke in excruciating pain all down my left side and as I opened my eyes looked at the UGLIST thing I had ever seen in my life. I jumped; startled by my vision and almost passed out from the pain. It stepped away from me and through the haze of pain I saw I'm not sure what: it had fur on its head (?), eyes to close together, some kind of protrusion from its face (?), some kind of flaps on the sides of its head (?), and it was covered in, other than parts of some kind of uniform, some pink-brown gelatin looking substance that appeared to serve as skin (?).

It held forth a container of what appeared to be water, I could smell it; it was. But when I tried to reach for it my left side would not move and I found I was bound around my body and left leg. As I felt of myself using my right hand I found that I had some broken bones, very carefully set, and many bruises cuts and a very large knot on the side of my head. It helped me drink then I slept.

When I awoke again I looked around and saw that 'fur head' had been busy. There were things of all sorts from my ship piled in a reasonable order: food here, medical there, electronics gear over there and that's when I saw them. Mounds of dirt; I prayed as I counted 1,2,3,... 10,11,12,... 29,30,31.They are all gone and I am alone here with this??? on a world that no one on my home planet knows about. I cannot cry as I don't have tear ducts but the lictating membrane (second eyelid) blinks my eyes several times as the sadness of the loss of my brother, friends and shipmates over-whelms me.

Over the next 3 months, as I healed, and with the aid of a video encyclopedia from his (I assumed it was male) ship, my vocabulary grew as did his as he tried to mimic my sing-song language. I could now walk around but not as yet fly and together we stripped my ship for everything that could be of use to us. We managed to understand enough of each other's language and I finally told him that indeed I was a SHE and my name was Solara.

As the area where my ship was, he informed me, better stocked with available food and water he made the 10 day round trip to his ship 4 more times to strip it of everything usable. As we settled in to a routine of trying to learn each other's language and working at trying to assure our survival I noticed that we were spending a lot of time in close proximity. I also noticed that I was having thoughts about what kind of a future we might have as we were so different.

I have learned much in the year I have been here. My companion is the Commander of the other ship and the one who tried to pilot it to a landing. He is alone as well as all his shipmates also perished in the crash. His name is 'Jason Lee' and I am learning his language as it is impossible for him to even annunciate the simplest phrase in mine; he's not built for it.