Post by Shadow Phoenix on Feb 23, 2005 22:39:14 GMT -5
Bax drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, just thinking. There wasn't much else he could do at the moment. His royal cruiser sped along through vast amounts of space and Bax's only duty was to wait under the protective watch of his head general and best friend, Hodia, until the time came for Bax to give a special order in case anything should happen. Bax and his cruiser were returning from a diplomacy mission halfway across the galaxy where the Phoeniyans were seeking a certain mineral that had only been located on a particular planet to help power a number of devices that Phoeniyan scientists had developed recently. Unfortunately, the beings that held all of the deposits of this mineral were not willing to simply trade with a race that they had had no former contact with. They were a somewhat violent race, and there had been various other conflicts to make things even more difficult. Luckily, Bax's smooth talking along with the presentation of a number of impressive devices netted the Phoeniyans with a direct trade connection to gain the mineral.
But now Bax was growing exceedingly bored. It was easily a two-month journey from his home planet of Auralis to Kebrosk Filii, and Bax had spent an agonizing month trying to secure the trading alliance with the Kebroskians. They had been back out on the "road" as it were for another a month. That meant that it had been four months since Bax had set foot on Auralisian soil, played with his 8 year-old son, or, more importantly, seen his wife. He missed Galandia more and more each day. Hopefully, young Jax wasn't giving her too hard of a time. He'd have to behave for another month, it would seem.
Bax shifted his eyes left, then right, and then left again. Rolling his eyes and letting out a deep sigh, he called out to the lieutenant currently piloting the ship.
“Lieutenant Yeros: report on our current heading and speed.”
“Of course, Vao Firago. We're currently maintaining a heading of 76.374º NW, rising 18.293º according to the universal compass. Our current speed is Warp 40. We can detect no asteroid fields or other dangers for at least 23 gigaknots, so we should be in the clear for now.”
“Thanks you, lieutenant.”
Bax had grown very accustomed to such spatial travel terms over the couple months. One gigaknot was a one billion nautical miles per hour. Nautical miles were still used for spatial travel. Warp 40 was 40 times the speed of light, or about 23.3 gigaknots (per hour). The universal compass was based on an infinitely expanding sphere with the planet Gilba at its center. Using the planet's own system of north, south, east and west, the universe was divided into eight octants based on a vertical axis of spin and two conceived perpendicular horizontal axes meeting each other and the axis of spin at the dead center of the planet. The entire concept was still a bit beyond Bax's grasp, but he understood the basics enough to know what the bearing meant. They were in the Upper Northwest Octant (U.N.W.O.) traveling fast, but Auralis was a long way yet...
Bax turned to Hodia, “Listen, Hodia, you take control of the bridge. I'm going to my room to see if I can catch some shut eye.”
“Absolutely, sir. Good night.”
Bax stood up and walked to his room, collapsing onto his bed with a frustrated grunt. When was this infernal trip going to be over? Closing his eyes, Bax wished that he could go into hibernation for the next month and that the next thing that he would see would be his wife's beautiful face. At some point during his wishing, the Phoeniyan king drifted off to sleep.
* * *
“ALERT! ALERT! ALL HEAD PERSONNEL REPORT TO BRIDGE! ALL ELSE REPORT TO YOUR QUARTERS AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS!”
Bax was jolted out of his sleep by flashing red lights and a deafening message being blared into his ears. Shaking a little bit, he calmed down enough to understand what the alert was saying. After a moment, he heard the “head personnel” part and quickly dashed out of his room towards the bridge.
Bursting through the door, Bax screamed “Hodia, what the hell is going on?”
Hodia whirled around, her eyes wide. In front of her was the lieutenant pilot, shaking in his boots. Both looked white as ghosts. Bax repeated himself, “What the hell is going on, Hodia?”
“Sir...”
“Out with it, already.”
“Sir, we've sprung a leak in the fuel injectors. The fuel is leaking out of a breach that was ripped through by a small meteor chunk that we couldn't avoid. The hole is only getting larger and more fuel is leaking out.”
Bax's eyes showed his oncoming anxiety, “Can't we just fix it?”
Hodia shook her head, walking towards Bax, “I'm afraid not, sir. It's just not that simple.”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“What else is there, Hodia? Don't leave me in the dark.”
“We're rapidly losing speed...currently decelerating a rate of 5.6 kilo knots per second. The hole is also widening every moment. We're losing more and more fuel. And because of our loss of speed and the growing hole, we're...we're losing structural integrity at a rate of .395% per minute. We're already at 97.483%. What's even worse is that since all of these variables are growing and shrinking exponentially we’ve calculated that we have...very little time left.”
Bax was silent for a moment. He wasn't sure if they would run out of fuel, come to a dead stop, or crumble to pieces first. He couldn't even think of the formulas with which he calculated such things in his private tutoring in mathematics growing up in the palace on Auralis. He tried to clear his mind of all of the numbers so he could properly give orders. Life and death issues were not a responsibility that Bax liked dealing with...
“Is there a planet anywhere close to us that we could reach before coming to a complete stop, far away enough that we would be able to successfully navigate to it without having too many speed problems, and close that we would not burn up on reentry due to our loss of structural integrity?”
Hodia looked at Bax wide-eyed and began barking out orders to everyone in the bridge.
Hodia demanded, “You mean you want us to crash-land on an alien planet?”
Bax nodded and closed his eyes, “That's exactly what I plan to do.”
“Bax, the chances of there being a planet that could even possibly meet those requirements is several billion to one!”
“I guess I'm going to play a gamble today.”
Hodia gritted her teeth and nearly screamed in a mix of frustration, anxiety, and utter fear. “Then there's reentry and all of the variables contained there. Bax, this is insane.”
“Well, from what you told me, it isn't likely that ejecting from the pods would work very well either; am I correct?”
Hodia raised her hands, held them there for a moment, and then collapsed with a sigh.
“You're right. I just hope that there's a planet-”
“General Hodia, we've found it!” called an ensign from the front right corner of the ship.
Hodia and Bax exchanged a glance and both watched as the ensign scrambled out of his seat and ran to greet them with the news.
“It's a planet we know very little about. Our printouts say that it’s called 'Folaris' in our tongue, but 'Earth' in theirs. Its gravity is 7/10 of Auralis's, and its atmosphere's composition is very similar to our own.”
Bax whistled in amazement. The chances of the atmosphere alone being breathable were off the charts. This Earth was a true wonder. He questioned, “And we're fairly certain that we can survive reentry with our current loss of structural integrity?”
“Yes, sir. We'll make it there before we lose all of our fuel and before our hull's shape is such that reentry would destroy is, and our speed will be enough that we can steer our way there without flying past it or destroying it with our velocity.”
Bax almost laughed. He couldn't believe how utterly perfect this was! Raising his voice, he announced, “All hands on deck! I want every man who can help helping some way! Change our bearing to compensate for the location of this planet and prepare the ship and everyone on it for a crash landing!”
The ship launched into action. Bax didn't keep track of the time that they had, but he supervised everything: boosting the morale of the crew, bolting heavy objects down to the floor, and doing so much else. Finally, Hodia ran into him and announced that it was almost time. The cruiser shuddered and creaked as Bax stood in the middle of the bridge, surveying the planet as it became visible on the view screen.
“There she is: Earth. Is everyone ready? Safe and secure in their assigned corridors with the protective vests and helmets on just in case?”
“Aye, your majesty.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Bax stood there for a moment, idly. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. He turned around and raced towards the door.
“Hodia, I'll be right back. I have to grab a few things from my room.”
“No, Bax! Are you mad?! The ship is almost-”
But Bax was gone, not having heard a word of Hodia's pleas. He had no idea of how much time he had. If he was caught in an unguarded corridor of the ship, he would be crushed completely. He blindly ignored everything as he ran to his room.
Upon arriving in his room, Bax scanned it completely. He had come for a number of things. Once on Earth, he would have need for currency, so he grabbed a somewhat large bag of pheloks, Phoeniyan currency. Bax ran to his bed's nightstand and grabbed a framed picture of he and Galandia on their wedding day along with a picture of the both of them with Bax on a vacation: two of his most treasured photographs. Lastly, Bax ran to his closet and grabbed two of his swords: the Diroxauralis (Star Fighter) and the Valermos. He quickly strapped them to his back and started for the door to his room.
Just then, an announcement came over the P.A.:
“ALERT! ALERT! INITIATING LOCKDOWN! PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR PROTECTED CORRIDORS UNTIL WE LAND AND HOLD ONTO SOMETHING! GOOD LUCK! OVER AND OUT.”
Ooc: I have ret-conned a few elements of this post.
But now Bax was growing exceedingly bored. It was easily a two-month journey from his home planet of Auralis to Kebrosk Filii, and Bax had spent an agonizing month trying to secure the trading alliance with the Kebroskians. They had been back out on the "road" as it were for another a month. That meant that it had been four months since Bax had set foot on Auralisian soil, played with his 8 year-old son, or, more importantly, seen his wife. He missed Galandia more and more each day. Hopefully, young Jax wasn't giving her too hard of a time. He'd have to behave for another month, it would seem.
Bax shifted his eyes left, then right, and then left again. Rolling his eyes and letting out a deep sigh, he called out to the lieutenant currently piloting the ship.
“Lieutenant Yeros: report on our current heading and speed.”
“Of course, Vao Firago. We're currently maintaining a heading of 76.374º NW, rising 18.293º according to the universal compass. Our current speed is Warp 40. We can detect no asteroid fields or other dangers for at least 23 gigaknots, so we should be in the clear for now.”
“Thanks you, lieutenant.”
Bax had grown very accustomed to such spatial travel terms over the couple months. One gigaknot was a one billion nautical miles per hour. Nautical miles were still used for spatial travel. Warp 40 was 40 times the speed of light, or about 23.3 gigaknots (per hour). The universal compass was based on an infinitely expanding sphere with the planet Gilba at its center. Using the planet's own system of north, south, east and west, the universe was divided into eight octants based on a vertical axis of spin and two conceived perpendicular horizontal axes meeting each other and the axis of spin at the dead center of the planet. The entire concept was still a bit beyond Bax's grasp, but he understood the basics enough to know what the bearing meant. They were in the Upper Northwest Octant (U.N.W.O.) traveling fast, but Auralis was a long way yet...
Bax turned to Hodia, “Listen, Hodia, you take control of the bridge. I'm going to my room to see if I can catch some shut eye.”
“Absolutely, sir. Good night.”
Bax stood up and walked to his room, collapsing onto his bed with a frustrated grunt. When was this infernal trip going to be over? Closing his eyes, Bax wished that he could go into hibernation for the next month and that the next thing that he would see would be his wife's beautiful face. At some point during his wishing, the Phoeniyan king drifted off to sleep.
* * *
“ALERT! ALERT! ALL HEAD PERSONNEL REPORT TO BRIDGE! ALL ELSE REPORT TO YOUR QUARTERS AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS!”
Bax was jolted out of his sleep by flashing red lights and a deafening message being blared into his ears. Shaking a little bit, he calmed down enough to understand what the alert was saying. After a moment, he heard the “head personnel” part and quickly dashed out of his room towards the bridge.
Bursting through the door, Bax screamed “Hodia, what the hell is going on?”
Hodia whirled around, her eyes wide. In front of her was the lieutenant pilot, shaking in his boots. Both looked white as ghosts. Bax repeated himself, “What the hell is going on, Hodia?”
“Sir...”
“Out with it, already.”
“Sir, we've sprung a leak in the fuel injectors. The fuel is leaking out of a breach that was ripped through by a small meteor chunk that we couldn't avoid. The hole is only getting larger and more fuel is leaking out.”
Bax's eyes showed his oncoming anxiety, “Can't we just fix it?”
Hodia shook her head, walking towards Bax, “I'm afraid not, sir. It's just not that simple.”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“What else is there, Hodia? Don't leave me in the dark.”
“We're rapidly losing speed...currently decelerating a rate of 5.6 kilo knots per second. The hole is also widening every moment. We're losing more and more fuel. And because of our loss of speed and the growing hole, we're...we're losing structural integrity at a rate of .395% per minute. We're already at 97.483%. What's even worse is that since all of these variables are growing and shrinking exponentially we’ve calculated that we have...very little time left.”
Bax was silent for a moment. He wasn't sure if they would run out of fuel, come to a dead stop, or crumble to pieces first. He couldn't even think of the formulas with which he calculated such things in his private tutoring in mathematics growing up in the palace on Auralis. He tried to clear his mind of all of the numbers so he could properly give orders. Life and death issues were not a responsibility that Bax liked dealing with...
“Is there a planet anywhere close to us that we could reach before coming to a complete stop, far away enough that we would be able to successfully navigate to it without having too many speed problems, and close that we would not burn up on reentry due to our loss of structural integrity?”
Hodia looked at Bax wide-eyed and began barking out orders to everyone in the bridge.
Hodia demanded, “You mean you want us to crash-land on an alien planet?”
Bax nodded and closed his eyes, “That's exactly what I plan to do.”
“Bax, the chances of there being a planet that could even possibly meet those requirements is several billion to one!”
“I guess I'm going to play a gamble today.”
Hodia gritted her teeth and nearly screamed in a mix of frustration, anxiety, and utter fear. “Then there's reentry and all of the variables contained there. Bax, this is insane.”
“Well, from what you told me, it isn't likely that ejecting from the pods would work very well either; am I correct?”
Hodia raised her hands, held them there for a moment, and then collapsed with a sigh.
“You're right. I just hope that there's a planet-”
“General Hodia, we've found it!” called an ensign from the front right corner of the ship.
Hodia and Bax exchanged a glance and both watched as the ensign scrambled out of his seat and ran to greet them with the news.
“It's a planet we know very little about. Our printouts say that it’s called 'Folaris' in our tongue, but 'Earth' in theirs. Its gravity is 7/10 of Auralis's, and its atmosphere's composition is very similar to our own.”
Bax whistled in amazement. The chances of the atmosphere alone being breathable were off the charts. This Earth was a true wonder. He questioned, “And we're fairly certain that we can survive reentry with our current loss of structural integrity?”
“Yes, sir. We'll make it there before we lose all of our fuel and before our hull's shape is such that reentry would destroy is, and our speed will be enough that we can steer our way there without flying past it or destroying it with our velocity.”
Bax almost laughed. He couldn't believe how utterly perfect this was! Raising his voice, he announced, “All hands on deck! I want every man who can help helping some way! Change our bearing to compensate for the location of this planet and prepare the ship and everyone on it for a crash landing!”
The ship launched into action. Bax didn't keep track of the time that they had, but he supervised everything: boosting the morale of the crew, bolting heavy objects down to the floor, and doing so much else. Finally, Hodia ran into him and announced that it was almost time. The cruiser shuddered and creaked as Bax stood in the middle of the bridge, surveying the planet as it became visible on the view screen.
“There she is: Earth. Is everyone ready? Safe and secure in their assigned corridors with the protective vests and helmets on just in case?”
“Aye, your majesty.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Bax stood there for a moment, idly. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. He turned around and raced towards the door.
“Hodia, I'll be right back. I have to grab a few things from my room.”
“No, Bax! Are you mad?! The ship is almost-”
But Bax was gone, not having heard a word of Hodia's pleas. He had no idea of how much time he had. If he was caught in an unguarded corridor of the ship, he would be crushed completely. He blindly ignored everything as he ran to his room.
Upon arriving in his room, Bax scanned it completely. He had come for a number of things. Once on Earth, he would have need for currency, so he grabbed a somewhat large bag of pheloks, Phoeniyan currency. Bax ran to his bed's nightstand and grabbed a framed picture of he and Galandia on their wedding day along with a picture of the both of them with Bax on a vacation: two of his most treasured photographs. Lastly, Bax ran to his closet and grabbed two of his swords: the Diroxauralis (Star Fighter) and the Valermos. He quickly strapped them to his back and started for the door to his room.
Just then, an announcement came over the P.A.:
“ALERT! ALERT! INITIATING LOCKDOWN! PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR PROTECTED CORRIDORS UNTIL WE LAND AND HOLD ONTO SOMETHING! GOOD LUCK! OVER AND OUT.”
Ooc: I have ret-conned a few elements of this post.
