"Well there's n way we can convince them that we're not hostile." Mikol paused for a moment in thought. "Computer. Can this shuttle land planetside?"
"Please define land. Would you like the shuttle intact after contact?" Tech started to laugh.
"Is it just me or did our computer just get a sense of humor?"
"Computer. Can this shuttle land planetside with the inhabitants in relative safety?"
"There is a eighty-five percent chance that an attempt to land shuttle on a planet would result in pilot mortality." Chan was getting impatient.
"Look, I don't see that we have any other choice and the odds aren't going to change the outcome. Let's just do this." The other two couldn't argue with that.
"Preparing for planetfall."
"Course plotted."
"Incoming U.E. shuttle, you have been warned. You are now a hostile threat and will be eliminated."
"Mikol. We have a half squad of fighters incoming. The look like M.C.V's."
"In common Chan. I don't speak combat."
"Modified Civilian vehicles. Not quite as good as military fighters."
"Not that it matters. It's still six of them vs. one unarmed shuttle."
"Shut up and fly the ship Tech." Tech mumbled curses under his breath but held his course for the planet.
"Thirty seconds until they are within firing range."
"Tech, how much time until planetfall?"
"About two minutes."
"That's not good enough Tech. See if you can't pump up the engines anymore."
"Computer. How can we increase our sublight speed?"
"The most efficient way to increase sublight speed giving the current situation would be to deploy the emergency thrust system."
"At this point I couldn't care what it involves. Computer. If the emergency thrust system will not mortally wound the passengers engage it now."
"Emergency thrust system engaged." The trio couldn't see it but the ship had slightly changed. The engine pods disconnected from the ship and in their place small wings appeared from inside the hull. As well the aft prolight fuel pods where ejected and from the two newly formed indents in the hull emerged two extremely large sublight drives. The drives unfolded and became three times their normal size. They soon glowed bleu and the ship accelerated.
"We've accelerated to one half the seed of light. New ETA is twenty five seconds."
"Mikol, they're within firing range."
"Put all shields aft."
"Consider it done."
"Incoming torpedoes!"
"Damn, they're not fooling around."
"If we're going to avoid those torpedoes we're going to have to slow down so that we can manoeuver."
"Tech, cut the thrust."
"I've been trying but it won't slow down."
"Computer. Cut power to the engines."
"Unable to comply. Emergency thrust system has been activated."
"Damn it. Tech how can we kill our momentum?"
"I don't know. Wait. Maybe I could bypass the computer lockout manually at both the plasma conduit junctions. . ." He was cut off as the ship lurched under his feet. Chan, who was standing at the weapons consol, almost fell to the ground but her quick reflexes saved her.
"Here's an idea Tech. No fuel, no propulsion."
"By the current. How could I miss that? Ejecting all fuel pods now."
"Wait! Tech, can you eject them with the valves still open?"
"Yes. . .but that would. . ." He smiled. "Ejecting remaining fuel pods." He couldn't resist adding. "Fire in the hole!" The fuel pods where ejected from each side of the ship and left a small trail of fuel behind them. The last few seconds of burn form the engines ignited the fuel and the flame traced the trail back to the pods. The pods where engulfed in flame as they exploded in a massive fireball. The six M.C.V's had no time to react, they all flew strait into the fiery cloud but none emerged from the other side.
"I guess that takes care of them."
"Yah but we still have to land this crate."
"Speaking of landing, where exactly do we want to land?"
"Well, wherever we land they'll be able to track us by satellite. We want somewhere that we can blend in after we ditch the shuttle."
"A city it is then. Why not the capitol? We should be able to find all the information we need in Saduklari."
"Sounds good, I'll take us down just outside of the city limits." Mikol sat back in his chair. He had nothing to do from this point on. There where no hostels on the scanner, no problem to fix, nothing. All he could do was sit back and hope that Tech could keep them alive. His life was out of his hands and he didn't like it one bit.
"Tech, what can I do?" Tech didn't even look back when he answered.
" Could you leave the pilot to the flying.?" His fingers where blurs across the consol and a constant stream of beeps followed his movements. The planet looming in front of him was quickly getting bigger and it soon filled the front viewport. He could recognize most of the islands, and there was a lot of them. The biggest was about the same size as New Zealand back on Earth. Or so he had been told, he had never been there himself. There where about thirty of these decent sized islands and countless smaller ones. One of those bigger ones near the equator held the planetary capital city of Saduklari. Soon Mikol could make out the outlines of the city. Just as he could start to make out some more details Tech leveled off the shuttle.
"I see a small clearing in the woods just east of the city. It'll be a rough landing but it's the best place I can find." "Sounds good Tech. Take us down. Chan, you may want to find somewhere to sit, I don't think we'll be needing the weapons anytime soon."
"Right, I'll go to the passenger section in he aft. Let the current guide you Tech."
"Same to you." He replied rather quickly as he tried to keep the ship steady. Chan walked out of the cockpit and headed down the small corridor. She found a seat near the hatch at the rear. She sat down and strapped herself in rather tightly.
"May the current guide us all." She whispered as the vary tops of the tallest trees started to brush up against the deck plates. If Tech had undershot the target they would crash in the forest and they would all surely die. Much to her relief the sounds of the branches against the hull soon stopped even though she could see through a viewport that they where still descending. They where still going quite fast but at least they would touch down where they wanted to, it was just a matter of wether or not the shuttle would stop once it hit. They weren't quite so lucky. First contact hit them hard. If it wasn't for the restraint belts Mikol and Tech would have gone through the front viewport. The shuttle proceeded to skid across the ground until it came to a vary small hill. The shuttle didn't quite hit it strait on so as one side rode up the hill and became airborne the other side stayed at ground level. This caused the shuttle to roll over on it's port side as it moved toward the edge of the clearing. It cleared a path through the foliage as it moved to the edge of the clearing. It finally stopped, not three meters from a tree, on it's side. Mikol opened his eyes and looked at some trees growing up, towards the deck plates.
"Wait a second, that's not right." It took him a second to realize that he was on his side. "But I'm still in my chair. . .witch means that the shuttle has rolled over." A thought suddenly came to mind. "Tech. . .Tech are you alright?" "I. . .I think so, my arm hurts but it's not broken. How about you?" Mikol realized that he didn't even know himself. He ran his hands over his body and then he looked at them. No blood, that was good. He couldn't feel anything hurting that much either.
"Yah, I've got a headache but other then that I think I'll survive."
"At least it held for the touchdown. But I don't think It'll ever fly again."
"Hey, we should probably get out of hear before the authorities show up.
"Right, let's get Chan and get out of here."I'll get some supplies gathered, you go get Chan."
"Sure." Mikol unbuckled his harness and lowered himself to the floor. Or should he say wall? He walked along the wall until he got to the door leading to the passengers section. He had to reach up and grab the side of the doorframe to pull himself up and over the other side. Once there he stood up and looked around. He couldn't see much, the viewports that weren't buried where small so there wasn't much light. "Chan. Hey Chan, time to wake up. We've go to get out of here before we're discovered." There was no response. "Chan? Don't scare me Chan, answer me." He began to search frantically. He found her still strapped into her chair with her head tilted foreword. He noticed that the view port beside her had shattered. The glass-plastic compound was in shards all over the floor in front of her. "Can you hear me?" He said as he touched her shoulder. She didn't move. He lifted up her head and saw that she had a gaping wound across her forehead. "Tech! I need a medkit down here now."
"What's wrong?" "Chan is unconscious and she's lost a lot of blood."
"Damn it. Incoming medkit. I'll be there soon." He said as he tossed a flat rectangular box through the open doorway. Mikol caught the box and quickly opened it.
"Compress, compress, I need sone kind of compress. Ah, here's one." He removed a strip of sterilized cloth from the kit and wrapped it around Chan's head. Just as he finished Tech came through the door with some containers hanging off his shoulder. Mikol took half of them and grabbed one of Chan's arms and stood her up with her right arm around his neck. Tech took Chan's other arm and did the same. Then he looked over at Mikol.
"Well isn't this just great. We've got three days of rations, no shelter and the police hunting us down everywhere we go."
"Shut up Tech."
"No, I don't think I will. You've been leading this little excursion since we started. Who gave you the right to lead us? What makes you the captain? Why shouldn't I just take a day's worth of rations and go out by myself? I'd have more of a chance alone then with you, the arrogant, I'm-always-right leader and her, the phyco commando, who at the moment can't even carry her own weight.?"
"You ungrateful little. . .. What if it was you lying there? Huh? Do you think that she would leave you behind?"
"She might, I don't know. I haven't known her long enough to say either way."
"Never leave a fallen comrade behind. That's one of the most basic rules of combat. Haven't you thought of that? She would never leave you, or me for that matter, behind."
"Maybe." Tech knew that he had lost that argument. "But what gives you the right to boss us around?"
"You fool. Leadership isn't given to you, you have to take it. And I know that I'm the best person to lead this group. And that doesn't mean that your opinion doesn't count, just that I take everyone's opinions into account and your's may be overruled. Now I'll only say this once. We need you to get through this alive. We need your technological information to help us along. And you need us. You need Chan's strength and strategical knowledge. You need my leadership and common sense. We all need each other. If you leave now you've not only screwed yourself but us as well. So you think long and hard about what you're going to do." Tech was about to reply when there was a banging on the hatch.
"Come in. Me like to come in. No fear, me not harm. Me want to help. Hello? Me want to come in." Despite all their efforts Mikol and Tech could not help but laugh at the odd sounding voice. This could not be any kind of authority that he knew of. "Hey! Why you laugh at Rokna? Rokna want to help you and you laugh. You not nice people."
"Wait. . .um Rokna. Wait we'll let you in." Said Mikol as he walked over to the hatch. He reached out and pressed the button to open it. miraculously it still worked after the crash. The door opened.