Chapter 1

Samantha was deep in sleep, having a very nice dream, when she was awakened with a bang, and flung out of her small bed, as the ship lurched and rolled underneath her. With a groan, she rolled over and opened her eyes, just in time to scream and roll again as a box full of books fell from the upper bunk to crash where her head had just been.

Scared, she managed to dress and went looking for someone to ask what was going on. As she made her way down the corridor, she was bounced off the walls and flung to the floor several times as other, more experienced, crew members rushed about purposefully, trying to deal with the crisis. All were too busy to answer her questions.

She finally managed to find the Cargo Master working with an engineer trying to fix a ruptured pipe.

"Sir, what's going on?"

"Lass, what are ye doin' 'ere? We're in a magnetic storm, and a pretty bad one at that. Thee captin's ordered all non-essential personnel to man their life-pods. That means you, lass."

Samantha looked at him in horror. "We have to abandon ship?"

"Nay, is jus' a precaution, 'es 'opin to ride it oot, but ifin we afe to ee doon't want ne-one left behind."

Samantha looked slightly relieved at that, and then screamed as the ship lurched and she was flung into the air. She screamed again as she hit the floor and slid painfully into an open hatchway.

"Lass, are ye hurt?" The Cargo Master asked as he helped her up.

She gritted her teeth with pain and cradled her injured left arm against her body.

"Come on, lass, no time to treat it now," He said, putting one large arm around her and guiding her towards the hull. His large bulk and experienced footing made the trip semi-stable. He stopped at an escape pod, opened the hatch, and tossed her in, saying, "In ye go, lass. Now remember, if we have to abandon ship, the captin wants us to stick together, so do not launch until ye get the signal, understand?"

Samantha nodded her head and hissed, "Yes, sir," as she was bounced around painfully. The signal was pretty easy to understand. It was currently flashing amber for caution. If it turned green it was safe to come out. If it turned red it meant to abandon ship.

"Good girl," The burly man said, strapping her in. "Wait here and I'll come for ye, and remember, only launch if ye get the signal." With that, he pulled his frame out of the pod and shut the hatch. Turning quickly, he made his way back to help finish the repairs.

Several minutes later, another crewman ran through the corridor on his way to pass a message to the engineer. And as the ship lurched, he put an arm out to steady himself, and kept running as the ship lurched in the other direction. In his haste, he failed to realize that his hand had punched through the protective shield over the emergency launch button, pressing the button and launching the pod.

Samantha screamed as the sudden g-forces flung her up against the straps as the pod rocketed away from the ship. Just as the pod cleared the hull, the ship rolled down on it; there was a bang, and the little pod spun crazily from its mother vessel. Samantha, still screaming, hit her head against the side of the headrest hard enough that she was knocked unconscious, despite its protective padding.

On the bridge, the launch of Samantha's escape pod went unnoticed. A short had burned out the system that would have informed the bridge of the launch, and all other sensors were blinded by the storm. Even so, they would have been made aware of it, by the sounding of the pod's emergency locator beacon, had it not been damaged during the launch. The pod had secondary systems, but Samantha was not awake to activate them.

Both vessels, mother ship and escape pod, continued to travel away from each other, neither of the occupants noticing the terrible mistake. It would only be hours later that Samantha's accidental launch would be discovered. By then, it would be too late — she was lost. Without a recording of when she was launched, or on what heading, they had little chance of finding her.