Chapter 6

Alex came running onto the bridge.

"What's going on Menon? I thought I just heard that we are going to crash."

"Yes Guest Alex I'm afraid we are. We have lost main power and all we have for propulsion are our docking thrusters and they are just enough to make sure that we don't burn up on reentry."

"Well shit, that fucking sucks"

"Yes I would have to agree with you on that Guest Alex. We must now get into our safety restraints Guest Alex before it is too late."

"What ever you say Menon, where do I go."

"Over there Guest Alex."

Menon pointed to a seat and straps that had just come out of the wall. The rest of the crew was in the process of either strapping into one of the seats much like I was in or seats at their terminals.

"We are entering the atmosphere now captain."

"Thank you Neslan."

"You're welcome Captain."

"Neslan I want you to enter safe mode and shut yourself down so we don't lose you in the crash."

"Yes Captain, entering safe mode. Transferring main duties and command codes to Medical AI Valen, shutting systems down now, good bye Captain."

"Have a good sleep Neslan."

After Neslan's holographic representation disappeared our ride got extremely bumpy.

"Report"

"We are coming in hot sir and from my calculations we are going to hit the land mass in the western hemisphere."

"Any one got any ideas on how to slow us down before we all become a Salma (a food item from Trilanis that closely resembles a pancake) now would be a very good time?"

Menon looked around at the bridge crew, saw them furiously thinking of a way to survive and then he noticed Alex tentatively raise his hand.

"Yes Guest Alex do you have something to say."

"Well, yes I do, but to make this as short as possible can't you direct a gravity beam in front of us to slow us down?"

Menon and the rest of the crew looked at Alex then started furiously calculating as fast as they could to see if it was at all possible to use their gravity beam to do that.

"Well people we are running out of time here, is it possible?"

"Yes captain it is possible. If we set the gravity emitters to max and send out pulses about every micro microt, along with the docking thruster we will have a seventy eight point three percent chance of survival. But we will have to divert as much power as we can to the emitters and we won't be able to initiate the maneuver till we are within a quarter mile of crashing sir."

"Then direct all non essential power to the emitters and pray to the God's that this works."

Menon reaches over an touches a button on the console next to his chair and announces

"All hands brace for impacted."

The next thing he knew Alex woke up groaning and aching all over with Doctor Femna looking at a cut on his head.

"Ahhhh... what the hell hit me."

Alex pushed himself up into a setting position feeling as if he weighed several hundred pounds more, rubbed the back of his head and winced.

Doctor Femna yelled at him, "If you don't touch it, it won't hurt," and batted his hand out of the way.

"What's going on Femna?"

"We have successfully crash landed with minor casualties. However, the ship has sustained severe damage Guest Alex. I am afraid that the ship has been breached in several places and is exposing us to an atmosphere that is toxic to my people. We have placed all of the surviving crew into stasis so we would not lose anyone else."

"Femna if this planet is so hazardous why are you not in stasis with the others?"

"Because we left you here while we were getting everyone else into stasis and I needed to check your wounds and I need to ask of you a favor."

"What is it Femna?"

"Well from my scans you are not affected by the atmosphere as we are, however you are affected by the gravity but that can be fixed."

"Femna what is the favor already. You are not looking good at all. How long have you been breathing in the toxins?"

"It has been four day's since the crash Guest Alex"

"Femna we need to get you into stasis now. You have been breathing in the toxins too long. You can't last much longer"

"I'll be fine Guest Alex but you are right I am pushing it a little and need to get to the point. We need you to repair the ship as much as you can until the ship is repaired enough so we can come back out of stasis and help you with the rest of the repairs."

"I'll do what ever I can to fix the ship but we need to get you to medical and into one of the Stasis pods."

"Yes that would be most wise."

Alex got up off of the floor and tried to help Doctor Femna to her feet but she couldn't stand up any more. Alex picked her up and headed out the door feeling like he weighed twice what he should and was wading through thigh high surf.

Leaving the bridge, Alex walked down the corridor toward the lifts but Femna informed him that they were off line because the power had been diverted to the Stasis pods and that he would have to use a maintenance hatch a little farther down the corridor to get to the levels below.

Alex slowly navigated around the rubble strewn in the corridor eventually arriving where Femna indicated the hatch was located, clearing it of ruble, proceeded to carry her down the three decks to medical.

Entering medical Alex placed Femna in one of the Stasis pods at which time she said, "Femna Lesma Chef Medical Officer to Valen Medical AI, please unlock all pertinent data for Guest Alex to aid in his endeavors toward repairing our ship."

"Command override needed Chef Medical Officer."

"Command override trilana syma omaga."

"Code confirmed."

"Guest Alex?"

"Yes Femna?"

"You need to have Valen run a Muscle Enhancement on you so you are able to function in this high gravity. I have also unlocked all the data we have so you can use the teaching terminal to teach yourself all you need to know to fix the ship and any of the functions you can bring back online."

"Thank you Guest Alex for doing this for us and we are very sorry that we are unable to help you in anyway."

"It's quite alright Femna. If you and everyone else tried to help, they would all die. Its alright I'll manage it some how, now you lay back in this pod now before you get any sicker."

"Thank you again Guest Alex."

The pod closed filling with a mist, Femna closed her eyes and stasis put her fast asleep.

Alex turned back to Valen, slumped to the floor exhausted and said, "Well Valen do you think you can hook me up with a muscle enhancement so I don't feel like I weigh four hundred pounds?"

"Yes Guest Alex I can. If you would get into one of the beds in the next room I will commence with the procedure."

"How long will it take?"

"It will take about one day to complete."

"Well then I guess that I'll see you in a day then."

"Yes indeed you will."

"Valen can you give me a damage report please?"

"Yes Guest Alex I can but with so many of the sensors off line the report will not be thorough.

"That is all right Valen all I need is a basic report any way."

"Very well then, commencing with report now, Main power, life support, and gravity plating are off line. Severe damage detected in forward section of the ship."

Valen's report continued for another ten minutes before I held up my hand to stop her and said, "Valen can you give me a report that details the repairs that I have to make so that the crew can come out of stasis to help with the rest of the repairs and can you see if we have the tools or supplies to make said repairs?"

"Certainly Guest Alex, you have to restore main power and life support but to do that you will need to repair as much of the outer hull as you can then seal the rest of the ship off so you can purge the toxic atmosphere and restore the ships atmosphere to optimal levels."

That doesn't sound too hard. Alex thought to him self. Then Valen continued, "But there is a problem Guest Alex."

"What kind of problem?"

"Without main power and with back up redirected to the Stasis pods, the replicators are offline so we cannot produce the spare parts needed to repair main power or any other internal systems. Also drone bay one has suffered severe damage and is no longer operational. Drone bay two suffered a magnetic lock failure one point nine seconds before impact and disconnected from the main hull."

"What's the probability that drone bay two is operational in any capacity?"

"Probability of drone bay two being operational is sixty two point three percent."

"I'll take those odds, even I know without the replicators operational, no maintenance drones to repair the outer hull and replicate what we need we have no chance of ever repairing this ship. So what are your recommendations Valen?"

"I would advise that you search out drone bay two's condition find as many drone's and repair as many as possible Guest Alex."

"That sounds like a plan to me."

"First Guest Alex I would advise you to undergo a session in the teaching terminal to acquire the needed knowledge to enact said repairs."

"That's fine with me Valen."

It took Valen and me over a month and a half to finish all the training. It would have taken two weeks to finish it initially but after a few days at the teaching terminal, I had an idea.

I had just finished a session on how the teaching terminal actually worked when I had my idea. The basic principals behind the teaching terminal is that it simulates the areas of the brain that handle long term memory and place the knowledge there instead of placing it in your short term memory where, upon your next sleep cycle, you would forget most, if not it all, of the knowledge. The idea came from something that I remembered overhearing one of the crew say one day. He was talking about a new technology that had recently come out on the home world for long space flights. He said it was a program that virtually created any setting that could be thought of and would be fed into a person's neural link. To create a dream like world for the crew of ships on long space flights to escape too.