Naked Planet Ch. 01

"Leave him, it's too late!" shouted Wade in her ear over the alarm. "The fire suppression system's gone!"

"What the hell happened?!" Gwen demanded.

"I don't know! Maybe we hit something... an asteroid, or an ion storm!"

"It doesn't make any sense..."

"Whatever it was," said Wade, "it ignited half our oxygen tanks... and now the main reactor's gone into meltdown! The ship's coming apart—we gotta get off now!"

Whatever mixed feelings Gwen had about Ellison and what happened between them, he was still her commander, and her every urge told her to try to rescue him, no matter how slim the odds that he was still alive. But Wade was right; the Tempest was gone, and if they didn't hurry, they would be too. She dropped the extinguisher.

"What about Alpha Team?" she asked. "They're on—"

Wade shook his head violently. "Forget it! They're on the starboard side of the ship—it's too far! We have to get to the other shuttle! This way!"

He took her hand and they fled. Gwen pulled away as she quickly outpaced Wade, shrieking and dodging as secondary blasts hurled shrapnel in an apparent bid to thwart their escape. They sprinted within seconds to the port airlock connected to Shuttle One. She saw no one along their way; she hoped the others had found a way to escape.

The two practically crashed into their seats, frantically flipping switches and mashing buttons as they scrambled to undock the shuttle and start its engines. The cabin was cramped, designed to carry up to six but not wasting any space for comfort. The computer beeped various warnings at them, insisting that the launch checklist procedures were not complete. Wade impatiently pulled the overhead emergency override, and the reactor rumbled to life. The floor panels quaked ominously as the explosions outside neared.

"I'm plotting the autopilot landing coordinates for Prosperity!" she announced.

"Later, Gwen!" screamed Wade. "Just put some distance between us and the ship!"

The shuttle lurched as it decoupled from the Tempest. The chaos outside the hatch went silent. She belatedly buckled herself into her seat as they thrusted away, the grainy image in the center console display zooming out to reveal their dying ship. Charred black fissures were all that remained of the main engines. Debris flaked away from the hull as little explosions rippled along her side. Then, a blinding burst of light split a lengthwise seam in the ship. A moment later, the entire vessel disintegrated.

They stared in awe at the spectacle, wondering what could have caused such destruction. Their amazement, however, was cut short by the massive shockwave buffeting their shuttle. Gwen screamed as they went into a violent spin along their reentry trajectory. Panicked alarms went off inside the cabin, and she looked over, straining against her harness and dizziness growing, to glimpse Wade tapping vainly at the controls.

The g-force was becoming unbearable now. The windshield framed Inanna, a blue-green sphere resembling an Earth with scrambled continents, spiraling wildly as it gradually filled her view. As Gwen began to black out, a final thought entered her mind:

This was not at all how she imagined her first day out of hibernation.

TO BE CONTINUED

Thank you for reading this story; I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments!