The view out the front of the shuttle rapidly alternated between the dull brown of the moon and the darkness of space as the shuttle continued to spin.

“It’s no good,” crackled Will’s excited voice over the spacesuit’s radio as the moon’s surface drew ever closer. He flipped open a large switch under which was a large red button.

“Hold on tight,” he shouted. “I’m going to jettison the fuel and ignite it.”

Debra grabbed hold of the arms of her chair and closed her eyes.

Holding his finger over the button, he watched the moon’s surface and when the shuttle was just about level with it, he pressed the button. The sound of reverberating metal filled the cabin and they were both pushed down into their seats as the pressure wave of the explosion pushed the shuttle upward.

Opening her eyes, Debra was surprised to see the moon’s surface no longer spinning in front of them. “How?” she radioed.

“Pressure pulse damped out the spin,” he answered in a rushed tone as he concentrated on the shuttle’s controls. Although the pressure pulse had slowed their descent velocity, they still had too much forward momentum. Will tried to use what little propellant remained in the control thrusters to counter that. It didn’t help.

They were now within a hundred feet of the moon’s surface and in front of them was the ridge of a crater which rose to just below their altitude. Will began firing the shuttle’s control thrusters to make sure they’d clear it.

The front edge of the shuttle hit the top of the ridge and bounced upward causing the aft end of the shuttle to smash into the ridge. Will and Debra were thrown around in their chairs as the shuttle tumbled into the crater. Pieces of engine and broken glass marked its path through the crater. There were dents and gashes in its skin, but its main structure remained intact. The shuttle finally came to rest on its side leaning against a large boulder near the middle of the crater.

The alarms could no longer be heard as the atmosphere in the shuttle has escaped through the holes suffered in the crash. Debra was still strapped into her chair, lying on her side. Above her was Will, his body hanging from his seat unmoving.

“Will!” radioed Debra, but there was no response.

Pulling the emergency release, her seat straps fell away and she climbed up to Will. She winced as pain shot through her side. “Ribs,” she muttered at the not unfamiliar sensation. The pain only worsened as she reached up to release Will from his seat. Thankful for the low gravity of the moon, she was able to easily lower him to the shuttle wall beneath them.

She immediately began feeling his arms and legs looking for any broken bones. That’s where she saw the tear in the side of his suit. Although she couldn’t hear hissing, she should see the flapping of the material around it. She gave a slight shudder as a long ago image flashed into her mind. “Not this time,” she muttered through gritted teeth pressing a hand hard against the tear while pulling the suit repair kit from her belt with the other.

She pushed down on the top of a kit and four inch square patch popped out. It was designed to chemically bond with the spacesuit when placed against it. Grabbing the patch, she released her hold on the tear and immediately put the patch over the tear, pushing it down hard. Once it was in place she looked over at the oxygen gauge on Will’s suit. It now held steady, but he’d lost a lot of air with only about a ten minute supply remaining. She was tempted to immediately replace his tank, but couldn’t risk being in the shuttle if the space cruiser had followed them to the surface.

Twisting the emergency release on the top hatch, she shoved it outward and it gently fell to the moon’s surface. Moving Will over to the hatch, she climbed out and pulled him through. Although in the shadow of the crater the sun reflecting off the walls provided enough light to see by.

In the low gravity, she had no trouble picking Will up and carrying him. A few hundred feet away from the shuttle she found a large section of stone sticking out of the ground that provided a good place to hide him. Sliding him underneath, she raced back to the shuttle to get what they’d need.

The interior of the shuttle was a mess with many of the lockers open and their contents throw around everywhere. Digging around she was finally able to find two air cylinders which she placed outside the hatch. She soon added two blasters from the weapons locker. The locker containing the emergency jetpacks was intact, but was jammed shut by a piece of the shuttle wall bent over it.

Debra knew that without the jetpack they’d never get back to Will’s ship. However, Will’s air supply would be exhausted in minutes. Climbing out of the shuttle, she picked up the air tanks and one of the blasters and headed back to where she’d left Will. As she went, she checked out the sky above them and was relieved to see no sign of the space cruiser.

Reaching Will, she found him still unconscious, his oxygen supply nearly exhausted. She disengaged his nearly empty tanks and attached the new ones. She smiled as his oxygen gage moved upward until it registered full. History hadn’t repeated itself. However, there was still more work ahead of her.

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Once again she returned to the shuttle. Picking up the blaster she’d left by the hatch, she went inside. Setting it to a fine beam, she began cutting away the section of shuttle blocking the locker door. It was slow going, but she’d cut away enough of it that she could open the locker door. Grabbing the two jet packs it held, she headed back to Will.

She just gotten back to him when she noticed a shadow moving over the crater. Looking up she saw the space cruiser slowly moving a few thousand feet above the surface. She had no way of knowing if their sensors could detect their life signs. Instinctively, she grabbed her blaster.

There was a bright flash of light and the shuttle exploded as it was hit by a plasma blast. Debris rained down around them, but the stone they were under protected them. Through the haze, Debra could see the space cruiser swing around and fire its engines before zooming out of sight.

She pushed away the rubble that had landed around their shelter and pulled Will out. “Will,” she shouted into the radio. “Will, wake up!” The only reply was a slight moan. She knew there was nothing she could do for him until they got back to the ship.

First, she had to find it. Before they’d left the ship Will had activated its homing beacon which emitted a high frequency signal that couldn’t be detected by the types of sensors used on most ships. However, to further minimize the chance of it being detected, it only had a limited range. Debra could only hope they were close enough to detect it.

She took the scanner from her belt and set it to detect the ship’s homing signal. She cursed under her breath as nothing showed up. Although she didn’t like the idea of leaving Will, there was no choice, she’d have to go look for it.

She knew it had to be somewhere along the heading the shuttle was flying along, but had no idea how far away it might be. She cleared away the rocks that were scattered around the stone where Will was lying until there was a smooth surface. She used some of the stones to form an arrow pointing in the direction she was going. Then she formed the letter “D” beside it.

After placing the extra blaster and jetpack by Will, she got up and strapped in the jetpack. Fortunately, Will had shown her how to use it before they set out. Once she had moved far enough away, she activated it and took off into the air. Turning in the direction the shuttle had been flying, she flew out of the crater and was soon out of sight.

Will’s head was pounding, he was dizzy, and his eyes wouldn’t focus. As he tried to sit up, he was surprised when his helmet hit something solid. “Debra,” he radioed, but there was no response.

It took a few minutes before he could see the stone above his head along with the blaster and jetpack. Crawling out, he had to shade his eyes as sunlight now filled the crater. Not far away was a large blast crater surrounded by rock and chunks of metal. “Debra,” he radioed again, his voice more frantic this time. Again there was no response. He checked his chronometer. It’d been over an hour since they’d crashed.

That’s when he noticed the pattern of rocks on the ground. Kneeling down, he saw the arrow and the “D.” She must be looking for the ship, he thought to himself with relief. He brought out his scanner and wasn’t too surprised to not see the ship’s homing signal not showing up. Although he’d been too busy to keep careful track of their trajectory, he knew the ship had to still be several hundred miles away, well beyond the homing signal’s range.

He scanned again, this time for life signs. There appeared to be something at the very edge of the scanner’s range, but the signal was too faint to tell if it was Debra. He strapped on the jetpack and slipped the blaster into his belt. Soon he was in the air hopefully on Debra’s trail.

Debra flew on relying on the scanner to insure she kept going in the same direction. She’d been flying for nearly two hours and there was still no sign of the ship’s homing signal. She considered turning back, but knew the only way to help Will was to get him back to the ship.

Debra’s heart leapt as the scanner beeped indicated it’d picked up a signal. However, it wasn’t the ship’s homing signal it’d detected, but a life sign coming from behind her. Her first thought was that it had to be Will, but what if it wasn’t?

She began searching the ground below for a good location to defend herself if necessary. Seeing a small mountain covered in boulders, she flew to it. Find a good spot, she set down and removed her jetpack. With a blaster in one hand and a scanner in another, she waited as the life sign drew closer. Soon it was only a few miles away.

“D…bra,” came a weak signal over her radio.

“Will?” she radioed back.

For a moment there was only static, but finally a “This is Will,” came through.

She wanted nothing more than to take off and meet him, but knew it could all be a trick to get her in the open. She waited.

At last a figure wearing a spacesuit identical to hers flew into sight and headed towards her. It wasn’t until they landed and she could see that it was indeed Will that she came out into the open and rushed over to him.

“How are you feeling?” she radioed.

“Other than a pounding headache and being a bit dizzy, I’m all right,” he answered. Gesturing at the patch on his space suit, he added, “Thanks to you.”

“Do you think they’re still searching for us?”

Will shook his head. “No, it seems they just don’t want anyone escaping from Celentus.” His voice grew angry as he continued. “Even if that means leaving them stranded here to suffocate once their air runs out.”

Debra could feel her own anger rising at the thought her own people would be cruel enough to just let someone suffer that kind of death. “Let’s get back to the ship.”

The two of them took off and continued flying in what they thought was the direction of the ship. It would be another hour before they finally picked up the ship’s homing signal.

Flying up over the ridge of the valley where the ship was hidden, shouts of joy erupted from both Will and Debra at the sight of. Flying in through the shuttle bay, they quickly shut the bay doors and after removing their spacesuits headed up to the control room.

Will still didn’t like the idea of attacking his own people, but after seeing their cruelty, he wasn’t about to let it continue. “First we’ll take care of that space cruiser and then find out if the Weapon ship has uncovered our sabotage.”

“And if they have?” asked Debra, trepidation in her voice.

Will didn’t answer as he began flipping switches. “Initiating ignition sequence,” he said as he flipped the last one. The engines came to life and they rose from the moon's surface with Will setting course for the space cruiser.