Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2016 20:25:40 -0700
From: Douglas DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Survivors (Revised) Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21
A LONG WAY DOWN

This story contains sex between minor boys and teen-agers.  If such things
offend you, or you are not at least 18 years of age, then please don't read
on.  This story is not true, but who knows, maybe someday it will be.

Welcome back. The boys know they have to land, but they had to wonder if
they were up to the challenge.

Remember to donate to the Nifty Archive to keep the words flowing.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Alex went over the landing checklist with Robert Charles.  He watched the
fuel gauge slowly drop.  Fuel was leaking out into space and they had no
way to stop it. He knew he had only one chance to get the landing right.
Alex went through the list of what they both would have to do, what each
step of the landing would be.  He peered down at the planet.  He had
managed to get the shuttle into an orbit, but he knew it wasn't a good one.
It would deteriorate in a day or so. But, at least they weren't drifting
around or falling toward the planet.  By being in orbit he could pick his
spot to enter the atmosphere.

The desert planet had no water that he could see. Yet, he could see what
looked like ice caps at the poles, just like Mars had.  He could see
various mountain ranges he would have to avoid. Scooter and Brandon were
doing their best to find what looked like a flat area of desert, but he
knew the atmosphere would blur the details of what was on the ground.

He thought over the steps of the landing in his mind. He would pick out his
entry point and his landing place.  When they were ready, the wings that
were tucked under the fuselage would be unfolded so the "Moonduster" could
fly in the atmosphere. They couldn't fly very far, and once they landed
there was no taking off again, even if they had enough fuel. If they hit
the atmosphere at the proper angle they would fly down to the surface. If
the angle was too steep, they would burn up before he could pull them
out. If the angle was too shallow, they would bounce back out, hopefully
not too fast or it would overstress the shuttle's fuselage.

If the entry went right, then they would quickly find their flat landing
place. Alex would lower the landing runners, reverse thrust the rockets,
and lower the "Moonduster" using the landing retrorockets under the hull,
placing the landing runners softly on the ground.

Sounds real simple, Alex thought.  I did it on the simulator; I can do it
here. But he knew from his days learning to fly the jet the band owned that
simulators and reality were not the same.

They started the countdown to the landing.  Alex flicked some
switches. They were thirty seconds from starting the rockets.  Robert
Charles intoned the countdown.  Both boys were sweating and nervous.  The
rest of the boys were strapped into their seats in the cabin. All loose
items had been secured. Every boy was tense and afraid.  They understood
the situation; they knew they had only one chance.

The countdown was down to 15 seconds.  Then 10.  Alex had his hand on the
control panel ready to start the rocket engines.  He pushed a fuel
button. Five seconds.  Alex's finger was over the start button.  Robert
Charles got to zero and braced for the start.  Nothing happened.  Alex's
finger was still poised over the button—it hadn't moved.

Robert Charles glared at him.  "Did you chicken out, Mr. Pilot?  Now we
have to start the sequence all over again.  If you're up to it.  Do you
want me to fly, big boy?"

Alex said nothing as he stared at the instrument panel.

"After all your talk, you're just a wuss, Alex.  I'm taking this over
and...."

"Shut up, RC!  I'm thinking."

"That's something new."

"Damn it, I said shut up!!"

The cockpit was quiet except for the hum of the HVAC and the instruments
with an occasional beep sounding.  Alex pushed the intercom button.
"Jordan, can you come here?"

Jordan left his seat and entered the cockpit.

"Jordan, what do you know about heat shields?" Alex asked.

Jordan stood there thinking.  Oh great, Alex thought.  Now I'm sitting here
needing something from the two guys I hate on this ship.

"What do you need to know?"

"Can we enter the atmosphere with broken heat shields?"

"I don't know.  I heard you could if there were only a few broken tiles on
it, as long as the hull was smooth."

Alex looked at him.  "Explain that please."

"Well, if the hull has a tear in it with no heat shield covering it, then
the hull could overheat and burn up the ship."

"Shit.  We got a meteor hit. We know it had to break something because it
put a hole in a fuel line.  Who knows what else it did?  We can't land this
until we know."

"Look at the fuel," Robert Charles warned.  "It's still leaking.  We have
no choice but to go."

"Punch in fuel leaks into the computer.  Let's see what it says.  We should
have done this before, but we were in too big of a hurry."

Robert Charles typed in "feulleaks."

"Nothing there."

"Oh bullshit.  Let me look."  He looked at Robert Charles's monitor.  "Try
spelling it right.  Fuck, get out of here until I need you.  You're wasting
precious time.  Jordan, type in fuel leaks."

"Everybody fucks up typing," Robert Charles snarled.

"Look, I don't want to argue. Right now Jordan knows more about what to do
than you and me, so I need him in your seat."

Robert Charles got up, glared at Alex, and left the cockpit seat.  Jordan
sat down and typed in fuel leaks, but found nothing. He tried fuel lines
and found a sub-menu. One of the links read "damaged lines."

"I think I found something," he said within seconds. Jordan had a better
idea of what he was looking for than either Alex or Robert Charles; after
all he had grown up on starships. Alex wondered why they hadn't consulted
him before.

Alex looked at what Jordan had discovered; it looked like it might be what
he was looking for.  He switched the readout over to his computer and read
the instructions.

The instructions showed how to cut off the fuel to one part of the fuel
tank.  He started punching buttons.  Rocket fuel started being forced into
the back part of the tank.  He hoped he was moving it into the right place.

 He looked at the fuel gauge.  It was bouncing much too to get a good
reading.  He closed off that part of the tank the fuel had been moved to
and checked the gauge; it was holding steady. The gauge read just under a
half tank of fuel.  He watched it for five minutes and it continued to hold
steady. He breathed a big sigh of relief.  He got lucky—he'd picked an
undamaged section of the tank.  With the fuel situation stabilized they had
time to think things over properly.

Alex thanked Jordon and asked him to leave, then sat there looking out into
space.  Okay, now they had time.  What were they going to do with it?  He
went into the cabin and asked Mike, Douglas, and Robert Charles to join him
in the galley.  The rest of the boys watched them head back and wondered
what was going on.

Alex told the three why he aborted the landing and what he had done with
the fuel.

"That means we can do more than one try," Mike said.

"I figure we have up to three. It takes a lot of fuel to land this thing,
and we better have a reserve in case we don't like the look of the landing
site," Alex said.

"So what are we waiting for?  Let's go."

"Mike, we don't know what the outside of the ship looks like.  If the hull
has a tear from the meteor we could burn up from the extra friction,
especially if the heat shield is damaged.  If the fuel was still leaking
and we had to land right away, I'd say let's risk it.  But now we have time
to at least take a look."

"How?" Robert Charles asked.  Then he paused.  "Fuck no!  I'm not going out
there."

"Nobody asked you to," Alex said.  "I thought good leaders passed out jobs
like this.  Asked for volunteers and shit and then watched them do the
work."

Robert Charles knew Alex was playing with him and he wanted to chew him
out. But that would wait.  Once they landed, Alex's ass was his.

"So who do we send out?"  Mike asked.  "I mean what do we know about
walking in space?  We're just a bunch of kids."

"What do we know about navigating to a planet, Mike?  Nothing.  But here we
are. We have an instruction disk for space walks so we'll learn in a hurry
about what to do."

"I volunteer," Douglas said.

"Oh, the leader who won't lead speaks up," Robert Charles said.  "Or do you
just like playing hero, like during the warp storm?"

"It has nothing to do with being a hero.  Let's figure out what we need."
Douglas looked at everybody.  He half expected Robert Charles to stop him,
but when he didn't Douglas went on.  "We have to inspect the hull for
damage. If there is damage then we have to see if we can fix it.  We need
to take tools and heat tiles out there with us. You guys on the ship will
need to get on the computer and see what we can do to fix it.  We know we
have spare parts down below.  We have four space suits and I think we're
gonna need them.  Travis and I both played sports.  We're pretty
coordinated.  Mike is big and strong and has played sports, too. We'll need
him."

"So who is the fourth one?" Mike asked.  He hadn't flinched when Douglas
mentioned his name to go out.  He would have been at the front of the line
to volunteer.

"Jeremy.  He's coordinated and he knows how to fix things.  So does Travis.
Now all we need to do is see what needs to be fixed."  He looked at Robert
Charles.  "If that is all okay with you?"

"Sure.  You four can go get yourselves killed, then we'll go land.  I
really don't care, because you guys don't know what you're doing, so it's
not going to change anything."

"We're not going to fix anything first time out.  We're just going to look.
Maybe the hole is smooth and the skin is smooth. Or maybe there isn't a
hole at all. I don't know.  Let's just look and be sure," Douglas argued.

The boys sat at the small table in the galley and laid out a plan of
action.  Robert Charles went into the cabin to tell everybody what was
going on. Then Douglas took Travis and Jeremy aside and told them what he
had planned. They didn't need convincing.  They were ready to do what it
took to give them all a safe landing.

The four boys got onto the computer and inserted the space-walk instruction
disk. They went down below and checked for parts. Once again, Jordan was
able to help.  He had watched his father do a space walk on the voyage
before this one.  Jordan would help them into their suits and was going to
be their contact on the shuttle. He would be giving them instructions and
taking care of problems.  Jordan had never felt so important.

The space suits were all the same size on the outside, but the inner
padding could easily be adjusted to make for a snug fit. A small computer
in the suit molded the padding to each boy's body.

 Jordan reviewed the ergonomic controls with the four boys. It was one
thing to study a vid, but actually manipulating the suit was a whole
different matter.

 Mike was assigned to stay right outside the airlock and take care of their
lifeline.  Douglas and Travis were going to tour the entire hull to check
for damage. They changed their plans to try to accomplish everything in one
space-walk. If repairs were needed, Jeremy would bring out whatever parts
or tools they needed, and the three boys would take them to the damaged
area.

Scooter came up to Douglas as he started to don his suit.  He gave him a
big kiss.  "Be careful my love.  I want you back in one piece.  I love
you."

"I love you, Scooter."  Warren and Ryan did the same for Jeremy and
Travis. Alex gave Mike a look that said they both had been through it all,
and this was just one more little adventure. Both boys tried to project an
aura of teen cool.

Mike, Douglas, and Travis entered the airlock.  They closed and locked the
hatch and Mike pressed the start button.  The air was pumped out, and when
the light over the outside hatch went from red to green Mike opened the
outside hatch.  Douglas and Travis were all tied together by a lifeline
which Mike hooked to the side of the ship.  They let go of the handholds
next to the hatch and floated out into space.

Douglas looked down at the brown and red planet under them.  He was free of
gravity and weightless for the first time.  He felt like he was falling
toward the planet.  It was a long way down, he thought.  He wanted to look
at the amazing sight forever, but he took his eyes off of the planet and
focused them on the hull of the shuttle. He and Travis floated towards the
stern of the shuttle. Jordan said that the fuel lines would be there so
that was where the damage likely was.

 It didn't take long until they saw a large jagged hole next to one of the
main rocket engines.  It looked like a dozen or so heat tiles were missing
off the shield. Douglas thought the small meteor must have glanced off the
hull, hitting it enough to damage it but not getting deep enough to breach
the double hull.  If they had tried landing with that many missing heat
tiles, they would have burned up for sure.

Douglas called on his radio, telling Jordan to get Jeremy ready.  He then
reported to Alex and Robert Charles what he saw and thanked Alex for
aborting the landing. That decision had undoubtedly saved their lives. Alex
wanted to give Robert Charles a smirk of satisfaction, but as had been
happening with so much of their dispute, this wasn't the time to argue or
fight.

 Mike took the lifeline and helped pull Douglas back to the airlock.  By
the time he got to the lock, Jeremy was taking tools, tiles, and a piece of
metal out of the airlock.  They were all items found where the spare parts
were stored.  Jeremy had brought out a dozen tiles. They knew there was
another dozen left.  The metal patch was the only one they had. Everything
they needed except for the metal patch was sealed in large metal boxes that
had loops to run a lifeline through. Mike had already started running a
second line through the loops.

Douglas and Jeremy carried everything to the damaged area where Travis was
waiting for them.  The metal piece weighed nothing but was hard to move
because it was big. Even though they were in zero gravity, the laws of
motion were still in effect, and that meant for their movements as well.

Jordan told them they could only spend two hours in space at one time, so
they worked hard to complete as much as they could.  Jeremy and Travis knew
they had to fasten the metal patch over the gash and then glue the heat
tiles over it.  The airlock was close to the stern, so it didn't take long
to get everything to the damaged area, even if it did seem to take forever.

All four boys were awestruck by being in space. They were also properly
frightened. One mistake and somebody could die.  Jeremy hammered on the
bent metal of the outside hull and flattened the bent edges. He then placed
the patch over the hole.  Douglas and Travis held it down while Jeremy
attached it with screws. The repair vid said that the screws were only to
hold a patch in place while it was being welded to the hull.

None of the boys were adept with tools and mechanical things, but they'd
studied the disk on how to repair hull damage and felt they knew enough to
drill holes, fasten screws, and apply glue. What they hadn't counted on was
how much differently everything behaved in zero gravity.

The surface of the hull was smoother now.  Douglas handed Jeremy a space
welder.  Jeremy had never used one, but he figured out what to do pretty
fast.  It put out heat instead of a flame, because a flame could act like a
rocket and send the person welding flying away from the hull.  His big fear
was causing something to explode.  But he soon had the metal sheet
connected to the ship, making it smooth.

"Jordan, how much time do we have?" Douglas asked.

No answer.

"Jordan?"

There was still no answer.  Jordan was sitting on the floor in front of the
airlock staring at the hatch.  His radio was crackling, but he was not
listening. He'd had a ton of responsibility suddenly dropped on him and he
was frightened. I'm only twelve, he thought, and all of a sudden I am
responsible for people's lives. Nobody has ever put me in charge of
people's lives; I'm too young for this shit, he thought. I shouldn't have
this responsibility. I should have saved my bottle of vodka for this.

"Jordan, we need to know how much time we have," Douglas radioed again, but
he got no response.  Shit, Douglas thought.  "Jeremy, how fast can you get
those tiles glued on?"

"I have four glued already," he answered.  Travis shot the glue gun right
on the tile, like he saw on the computer. The first two tiles were awkward,
but Travis and Jeremy quickly adjusted and by the third tile were able to
counter their movements. As soon as Travis shot the glue on the tile,
Jeremy slapped it on the metal patch.

"Mike, you need to find out what happened to Jordan," Douglas radioed.

"I can't leave you guys," Mike said.  "Anything happens I need to be here
to pull on the lifelines."

"Well, we need to know how much time we have left."

"I figure about a half hour."

"Radio Alex to find out what Jordan is doing," Douglas said.  Six more
tiles left.

Mike tried the radio again.  Jordan heard it but said nothing. Sweat was
pouring down his face and body.  Alex was in the cockpit, looking at the
gauges, listening to the radio, and wishing they had a camera attached to
the hull.  He wondered why Jordan wasn't responding.  He finally got up and
went down the ladder to the cargo bay. When he reached the airlock he saw
Jordan just sitting on the floor staring at the small control panel, tears
dripping down his cheek and his hair damp with sweat. Alex grabbed Jordan's
right arm and took the timer out of his hand.  Alex radioed Mike.

"Mike, this is Alex. I think Jordan is sick.  Douglas, you have 22 minutes
left.  Is that enough time?"

"It is, Alex.  Jeremy and Travis only have four more tiles to glue on.  It
should give us a few minutes to spare.  Thanks."

Douglas watched Jeremy and Travis work.  They had been good picks—they
were smart and coordinated. They had developed a routine for using the glue
gun and slapping the tiles on the patch, doing it with minimal extra motion
as they got used to working in zero gravity.  Douglas hoped their work was
good enough so that the patch and the tiles would hold until they
landed. Sure, the repair job looked good, but would it hold?

Jeremy and Travis glued the last tile to the patch and started heading back
to the airlock with Douglas behind them.  "Seven minutes," Alex reported.
They held on to the hand rails, trying to be careful and not get sent
floating out into space. Even though they were held by their lifelines,
missing a hand hold could lead to a lot of wasted time if they started
floating away from the shuttle.

The going was slow, since they each had a box of tools attached to their
belts.  Jeremy wanted to leave them and let them float off, arguing that
once they landed they wouldn't need them, but Douglas was worried something
might break away before they attempted to land and he wanted to have the
tools in reserve.  Who knows what could happen in space and it didn't hurt
to be ready for it.  What if they got hit by another meteor?

Jeremy was the first to the airlock.  "Five minutes," he heard Alex
say. Mike grabbed his hand and pulled him into the airlock.  Travis was
next. He handed Mike his tools, then Mike guided him into the airlock.
Douglas had the welder strapped over his shoulder.  He needed to take it
off to fit into the airlock.  He pulled up on it and it tangled in his
lifeline.

"Four minutes," Alex intoned.  The welder was stuck and he had to let go of
the hand hold for a second to push up on it. Mike reached out to help him.
Since both boys had never been in space, they didn't time their movements
properly, and suddenly both Mike and Douglas floated away. Mike was hooked
to the shuttle by a short line and traveled for just a few yards, but
Douglas went flying straight out into space. His line had a lot of slack in
it. Mike had been coiling the lifeline as he pulled the three boys
in. Travis and Jeremy were already unhooked from the lifeline and all they
could do was stand in the airlock and watch.

Douglas looked down at the planet—it really was a long way down.  He
watched the "Moonduster" float away.  "Three minutes."  Mike looked on
helplessly as he watched Douglas drift off.  Douglas felt like he was
falling and was going to fall forever.  Mike grasped his lifeline and
yanked himself back to the shuttle. He grabbed the hand rail tightly and
took hold of the lifeline.  The line was almost out of control as it
uncoiled. He couldn't grab it tightly enough to stop the process.

Douglas saw that Mike was unable to control the unwinding lifeline.  He
knew the line would catch soon and pull him back.  The problem was whether
their air would hold out until he got back.  Suddenly, Douglas felt a
jerk—the line had caught.  He stopped floating away and started tumbling
back.  Mike was able to grab the line now and started pulling so Douglas
would come in faster.

"Two minutes," Alex said.  Douglas had no idea how long it was going to
take to get back to the "Moonduster".  He had only been floating for only a
couple of minutes, so he hoped that two minutes would be all he needed. His
body was tumbling out of control.

Mike kept pulling on the line.  He watched as Douglas closed the gap
between him and the shuttle. Then he realized that Douglas was going to
miss the shuttle and fly right past it. He tried tugging down on the
lifeline, but it was too late as Douglas floated right over him and out of
sight.

"One minute," Alex said.  Douglas saw a handrail close to him and tried
grabbing it, just missing.  Then he felt a tug.  Mike had finally managed
to get a tight grip on the lifeline.  Now he was pulling back as hard as he
could.  Luckily Douglas didn't weigh anything in space, but he still had
all his inertia, which was working against him.  With no training both boys
had no idea how to stop Douglas from drifting back and forth. "Thirty
seconds."

Mike saw Douglas come back over the top, his boot just within his reach. He
grabbed it.  The momentum almost pulled him away from the shuttle, but he
held on.  He needed all his size and strength now.

"Fifteen seconds." Douglas's drifting and tumbling was now under
control. Mike grabbed Douglas and pulled him towards the shuttle until they
both fell into the airlock, the welder following in behind him.  Mike hit
the close door button and the outer door closed, just as their suits ran
out of air.  The door slammed shut. Mike hit the air button and the airlock
filled up with precious air.  The four boys started grabbing each other's
helmets, opening them, breathing in the air of the shuttle as their helmets
popped off.  Mike hit the button for the inside door as soon as the light
turned green, and all four of them walked in, happy and safe.

Scooter came up to Douglas and kissed him hard on the lips. He had been
able to watch most of the drama from two of the ship's viewports.  "Oh,
Douglas, I was so scared when I saw you float off.  I thought you were gone
forever."

The boys got help getting their suits off.  They put the tools away and
climbed up to the cabin.  Douglas saw Jordan sitting in a seat crying.
Ryan was sitting next to him trying to comfort him.

"What happened to him?" Douglas asked Alex.

"I think the pressure got to him. He feels terrible about what
happened. Ryan is taking good care of him."

"I need to talk to him, tell him everything is okay."

"Save it for later," Alex told him. "Ryan needs to get him calmed down and
back together first."

"When are you going to try landing this barge?"

"I need a rest after all that excitement.  I'm taking a nap."

"I think we all should eat first, too," Douglas said. "Is eight hours
enough time?" he asked Douglas.

"More than enough," Alex answered as he breathed a sigh of relief.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mike and Stevie picked out meals for everybody and got them in the
microwaves. They heated six meals, one for each of the spacewalkers, one
for Alex, and one for Jordan.  Travis, for one, wondered if this might be
their last meal.

Alex napped on his sleeping bag in the cargo bay.  Mike was next to him,
holding his hand. It had been a long, rough day, but the toughest part was
going to be starting in just a few hours.

The boys napped while Stevie organized dinner with the help of Ryan. Stevie
had the microwaves running and sent Ryan to tell everyone it was time to
eat. Nobody but Matthew noticed Robert Charles sneaking Jordan's second
helping away from him.

An hour later Robert Charles had everyone buckled into a seat. He had Alex
tell the boys what to expect during the landing process. Of course, all
that Alex knew about it was what he had experienced doing simulated
landings.

Thirteen boys squirmed in their seats waiting for the adventure ride of a
lifetime. Alex and Robert Charles ran through their checklist. When they
finished, Robert Charles started his countdown.

When the countdown reached zero, Alex didn't hesitate pressing the start
button, trusting that the space walkers had installed the patch and heat
tiles properly.  It was time to land.

The rockets fired, the wings folded out, and Alex aimed for the entry point
he had picked.  He looked at the fuel gauge—it was still sitting at the
one-half mark. The "Moonduster" headed into the atmosphere.  Alex steered
the shuttle, checking out his speed, his angle, and started for the planet,
reaching the edge of the atmosphere.

"Too shallow," Robert Charles called out.  Alex agreed.  He would have to
pull out by bouncing the "Moonduster" off of the atmosphere.  Trying to
steepen the angle of approach would create too much stress.  He pulled up
and back out into space.  He announced he was going to try again.  He
looked at the fuel.  Still enough for at least three more tries, he
estimated. Without Jordan figuring out how to return the fuel to the fuel
tanks, they would have been doomed.

He turned the shuttle in a wide arc and headed for the mystery planet
again, his angle a little steeper. The gauges stayed green, but he got the
nose up too high and the "Moonduster" shook and bounced back into space on
its own.  More precious fuel had been used.  He could see they were back to
where they had been before—all or nothing, only this time he had been
able to fly two practice runs.

Alex had a good idea of how steep he needed his angle of approach to
be. Robert Charles concurred, mostly because he didn't have a clue and
didn't want to look stupid.  Landing for real was very different than the
computer simulator. But he now had had real live practice runs and was very
confident that the third run would be successful.

He circled around, and once again entered the atmosphere, this time a
little steeper. The shuttle shimmied a little as it hit the outer
atmosphere.  The hull started to heat up, but it was still within limits.
The wings turned pink from the heat, but that was something they were
supposed to do.

Alex kept the shuttle steady and on an even course.  He was too committed
now to pull back up.  Now he just had to make sure his angle didn't become
too steep.  The temperature rose, even inside the shuttle as the HVAC
worked harder. Alex kept flying deeper into the atmosphere.  He started
leveling the shuttle, getting ready to fly steadily and slowly to find a
flat landing area. Right now they were flying over mountains.

Outside the shuttle the wind flowing over the fuselage was catching under
the patch Jeremy and Travis attached to the hull and it started flapping.
The boys hadn't had the skills or knowledge to make a perfect repair, but
they had put the patch and tiles on strong enough to get them safely into
the atmosphere. It was the wind blowing under it that started pulling it
loose.  Suddenly the patch blew off and the wind came in through the hole
in the hull and ripped the fuel line loose.  Rocket fuel started spraying
out and the port rocket shut down.

Alarm bells went off and Alex felt the ship lurch to the right. He knew he
had lost a rocket and was trying to get the ship to fly straight again on
just one rocket.  He was not only veering off to the right he was also
losing altitude.

He could see brown rocky mountain peaks coming at him.  He steered the ship
off to one side to avoid a collision.  He was looking for a way to fly out
of the mountains.  The desert had been to his left, so he pulled the
shuttle that way, holding the steering column tightly.  The lone rocket
roared in protest as he kept the shuttle in a tight bank.  Robert Charles
warned him of a mountain peak approaching and he turned it to the right,
then banked to the left again to avoid another one.  He was still losing
altitude and he didn't know how to control the "Moonduster" with just one
functioning rocket.  This kind of landing had not been in his computer
simulations.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the cabin the boys had their heads down on pillows like they had been
instructed. All of the boys were sitting towards the rear of the shuttle,
which they had also been instructed to do because it was supposed to be
safer. Matthew was sitting next to a window and would raise his head to
sneak looks at the ground.  He and Jordan were sitting in the second to
last row of seats. He could see behind the large wing and catch glimpses of
the barren mountains.

All of the boys heard the loud bang of the patch tearing loose, but didn't
know what it was.  Jordan was next to him, white with fear.  The shuttle
banked and turned one way and then another.  On a steep bank to the left
Matthew could look straight down at the ground.  He saw nothing but brown
mountains and hills below him, but as the ship banked steeper he thought he
saw a large patch of green.  He unbuckled his belt, grabbed the arm rest
and tried looking straight down.  He saw light clouds for the first time
and some more patches of green. As the shuttle started to level he caught a
glimpse of an erect rock formation that looked like a horse rearing.

Matthew reached for his belt to rebuckle it when the ship lurched the other
way, sending him across the cabin crashing into the seats on the other side
of the aisle and then the wall.  Mike had been in the seat behind him.  He
reached for a foot and caught hold of Matthew before he could be sent
flying again.  Mike fought the lurching ship and grabbed the boy
tightly. He could see blood flowing from Matthew's head, but there was
nothing he could do about it. It was all he could do to hold on to Matthew.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Alex kept fighting the shuttle, but he felt like he'd gained a modicum of
control. He needed to find a flat area to land.  He dodged another peak,
and then ahead of him he saw flat desert.  He maneuvered the shuttle closer
to the plateau.  He heard another alarm and the fuel gauge flashed
red—he had just minutes of fuel left.  He lowered the landing runners
and hoped he had enough fuel to fire the retrorockets.  He hit the reverse
thrusters, the single operating rocket screamed as the shuttle slowed down,
rocking and twisting.

In the cabin the sudden changes of speed and direction pulled Matthew away
from Mike and he fell into the aisle.  Mike tried to reach him and yelled
at Jeremy in the seat to the front of him on the other side.  Jeremy
reached out and tried to grab him from his seat.

Alex tried starting the retrorockets.  They fired up and slowed the ship's
drop, but it was still moving ahead too fast to land.  He hit the reverse
thrusters again, the ship slowed, dropped, dipped, and then all the rockets
shut off as the fuel ran out.  The "Moonduster's" nose dropped and the left
wing clipped the ground. The dipping nose dug into the sand, and the
shuttle leaned to the right, breaking off the left runner and crashing into
the desert sand with a deafening bang, breaking off the other runner and
the tail section.  A giant cloud of dust rose up around it.  After the
thunderous roar of the crash, the desert turned eerily quiet—the
"Moonduster" had landed.


Next: Chapter 22.  Desert Planet

Constructive comments are welcome.  E-mail me at TheHakaanen@Hotmail.com.
Douglas DD