It was nearing noon when the ship’s mainframe sent out a loud beep throughout the entire ship to announce that they had finally entered the planet’s orbit at last. Hearing that beep cut through the literally tangible tension of the seemingly endless morning, Kyle sat up in his chair with a deep breath.
“I believe that’s for you,” Serena couldn’t resist commenting from her current place sitting beside him at his station, just waiting for her own moment to come, which it seemed it now had, at last.
Kyle forced himself to his feet with another long breath before responding, “Just don’t take out your hatred for me on her, ok?” he managed.
“Hey, we’re both professionals here, right?” was her only attempt at consolation, while wearing a smug grin as she pulled her chair forward, kicking his out of the way with a bit more deliberateness than was truly necessary.
“Yeah, I sure as hell hope so,” he mumbled more to himself as he forced his feet to carry him from where Serena offered one last little self-satisfied wave at his departure.
Several minutes later, the four strikingly silent team members found themselves slowly sliding into flight suits. They then forced their feet to carry them to the boarding deck that had been practically abandoned for nearly twenty years. The pod itself actually hadn't seen use since the countless trips to load the original passengers onto the E-ship so long ago.
Forcing herself to try and maintain a steely composure long enough to get through this moment, Miranda began speaking to all of them, following a loud a clearing of her throat, “Now, as you know, this pod wasn’t originally meant for this particular use. However, Kyle and the rest of the tech team have spent a great deal of time redesigning it to safely get you all through this,” another pause as she forced herself to hand the conversation over to him, “Kyle, care to explain exactly what you all will be able to expect?”
“Yeah, ok,” he began as he cleared his throat as well, “Flight wise, it was already perfectly capable of making it the distance from the ship to the surface. It just wasn’t originally designed to move from one atmosphere to another, so it had to be tweaked a bit.”
“Tweaked?” Ian had to ask with his own deep breath.
“It just means that the jump from one atmosphere to another had to be compensated for, as it would most likely be, somewhat unpleasant,” Kyle attempted to continue on.
“Unpleasant?” Lili couldn’t help interjecting, attempting to sound much calmer than she truly was.
Kyle sighed at the interruptions, but couldn’t really blame them for their nervousness, considering his own, “What we did was we slowed her down, for a very gradual decline from this atmosphere up here, surrounding the ship, to the one down there, surrounding the planet. And since it will be so gradual, we’re all going to be out for all but the first and last few minutes of the trip.”
“Out?” Ian interjected again.
“Yes, we’ll be put under for the duration of the trip. Kind of like a really long dental appointment,” Kyle attempted to make some kind of comparison.
“How long, exactly?” Jared finally had to add his own worries to the bunch.
“The trip to the surface is going to take approximately twelve hours,” Kyle answered, though quietly.
“Excuse me?” Lili added.
“You won’t even notice it. It’ll be like a really good, long, nap,” Kyle shrugged.
“Um, this may be the dumb question,” Jared swallowed a bit before continuing, “But if we’re all knocked out, who exactly is gonna be steering the pod?” he asked slowly, but his question was easily repeated on the faces of both Ian and Lili upon hearing it, as they all turned back to Kyle for his answer.
Kyle couldn’t help his own little grin, “And you all thought she was ‘just a computer.’”
“The computer’s steering?” Ian repeated in disbelief.
“You should be used to that by now, I mean, who do you think is doing the driving right now? Miranda’s right here,” he reminded as he gestured to where she still stood in the corner, trying very hard to continue to hold herself together through this entire endeavor.
“Yeah, but there’s other people up on the flight deck, right now. Conscious people,” Ian had to add pointedly.
“Please, do you think I would be getting into this pod if I didn’t trust my baby to get us there?” Kyle attempted to offer some assurance.
“Your baby?” Ian repeated cynically, “The one that’s currently in the hands of, what did you call her, a cold bitch?”
Then Serena’s less than amused voice came through the overhead intercom speakers, “You know, I can hear you guys,” she pointed out bluntly.
Kyle glanced away guiltily as Ian then looked quickly up at the speaker’s above them, “Hey he said it. I love you to bits, Serena. Get us there and back safe and I’ll even offer my deflowering services if you want. I know how hard it is for smart chicks to get a date, and all.”
Lili and Jared quickly looked away as Kyle failed at holding back another smirk and Miranda and Charles just shook their heads in disbelief.
“Yeah, sounds real tempting, Ian,” she responded sarcastically. “I think I’d rather take my chances with whatever life forms you find down there.”
“Hey, offer’s still open,” Ian added.
“Moving on?” Miranda interrupted pointedly.
Kyle swallowed again as he tried to regain his composure, “Well, all the supplies and stuff have already been loaded into the pod, so that’s really about it, until we wake up and, well, get out there.”
Almost all of them then let out a nearly consecutive sigh as Kyle and Jared steeled themselves to get into the pod at last. Charles then moved over to place a hand over Ian’s shoulder, “Remember what I told you the other night, ok?” he told Ian quietly, the slightest stammer to his voice as he pulled the younger man in to wrap his arms tightly around him for the briefest moment. Once the embrace ended, Ian just nodded to him and took yet another breath before moving to claim his own seat inside.
Then when Miranda looked up at her daughter again is when the tears started in both their eyes once more, “I love you so much, baby,” Miranda whispered as she pulled Lili tightly against her, where the younger of them allowed herself to literally cling to the older for a seemingly endless moment.
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“You can tell me that again, when I get back, ok?” she forced a smile up at her mother and wiped away her own tears before forcing her legs to carry her into the pod as well.
Charles then took another breath and secured the doors behind the four of them before turning to pull Miranda into yet another embrace of his own as the engines started up to carry their children off into some great unknown, leaving them with only their hopes to get through any of it, somehow.
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As predicted, it did only seem like a fleeting moment passed before the four of them began making their slow, groggy crawl back into awareness. Jared was among the first to manage some comprehension of his surroundings as he slowly opened his eyes to take in his immediate environment. He swallowed a bit as the first thing he noticed was that the pod’s interior lights were now off, as well as all the myriad computer controls and screens in front of them. He took a deep, somewhat pained breath, quickly reminding himself of the theory behind decompression and its effect on the lungs, then moved his eyes first to Lili’s seat, and then the other two, all three of whom were slowly regaining their own bearings.
“Are we done?” Ian managed as he too opened his eyes, looking around the cabin with a bit of confusion, before centering his question on Kyle, who had now also crawled back to at least a somewhat lucid state.
“We don’t seem like we’re moving anymore,” Lili added hoarsely.
“Weren’t we supposed to wake up, before we landed?” Jared finally put the question into words, casting yet another glance at the darkened control console in front of them.
“Well, we seem to be in one piece, so I guess my baby landed us all right, after all,” Kyle attempted to sound confident in his response, though there was confusion in his eyes as they moved over the flight panel as well.
“And then decided to take a nap, herself?” Ian had to ask.
“Well, I didn’t wake up to say good morning to her, you know,” Kyle attempted a light-hearted shrug as he moved forward to inspect the controls.
“Which brings us back to, why didn’t we wake up before we landed?” Jared had to ask.
“Could you take a second to be happy we did wake up? And, as stated, all in one piece,” Kyle complained as he flipped a few switches without receiving any obvious response from them.
“And should we be happy about that, too?” Ian nodded towards the unresponsive controls with a worried raise of the brow.
Kyle just shook his head, “She probably just needed to be rebooted after the flight program ran through, and like I said, I was still napping,” he attempted a theory.
“Probably?” Ian repeated. “Probably?” he added more loudly.
“Could you please stop prodding long enough for me to get to the ‘not probably’ part of the day?” Kyle shook his head again, now reaching for his LU once more to attempt to tend to the problem at hand that way.
They all then attempted to remain quiet for several moments as Kyle continued to do whatever it was he was trying to do through the small link up computer that never left his side. Forcing back the urge to do any more ‘prodding,’ Jared spoke to the other two instead, “Well it is about twelve-thirty, which is the time the gas was supposed to shut off again on its own, right?” he attempted to offer them what assurance he could.
Lili nodded as she glanced down at her own watch as well, only then took a more than ragged breath a moment later.
“What is it?” Jared asked, seeming even more aware of Lili’s body language at that point then even Ian usually was.
Lili took a deep breath as even Kyle glanced up from his computer to hear her response, “Ok, I apologize now, if I’m wrong, but it’s been a really crazy week,” she stammered a bit behind the glass casing at the front of her helmet.
“What?” Ian repeated Jared’s question.
“Ok, um, but didn’t we leave on a Saturday afternoon?” she managed, somehow hoping she was so disoriented that she was wrong.
Already beating her to the end of that sentence, Kyle turned to look down at the gas tanks that were strapped in next to them, only taking a moment to swallow hard.
“What?” Ian repeated, seeming to turn the question to both of them.
“Ok, that’s weird,” Kyle said, though under his breath.
“Weird? No, no weird. I vote vehemently against weird,” Ian returned loudly.
“What’s weird?” Jared forced himself to ask instead, though his voice shook as he did.
‘Um, these tanks, they uh, had seventy-two hours’ worth of gas in them. That’s just the way they’re made,” he swallowed again, still staring down at the gauge.
“Had?” Ian had to ask.
“Yeah, they’re a bit empty now,” Kyle swallowed again.
“They leaked?” Ian asked worriedly as he looked around the cabin, thankful none of them had removed their helmets yet, or lit up a cigarette.
“No, Ian,” Lili answered him softly. “It’s Tuesday afternoon, according to my watch,” she answered with her own voice shaking.
“So, we left three days ago, and have been completely out of contact for that whole time?” Ian restated her admission as he looked back at Kyle, “Get the fucking ship on the line already, would you?”
“Um, yeah, working on it,” Kyle whispered back as he forced his eyes back to the computer he held in slightly shaking hands.
“Working on it?” Ian repeated. “Since when does it take you more than two seconds to send anyone on that ship some annoying order?”
“Yeah, well, not today,” he managed, biting his lip as he refused to look up from where he quickly moved through screen after screen.
“What? It isn’t like letting you send a message, or something?” Jared tried to ask gently, though his own worry made the words sound just a bit rough.
Kyle let out his own ragged, nearly defeated sounding breath, before he finally forced an answer, “It’s trying to keep telling me that… that there’s nothing up there to send a message to.”