She was going to have to watch her supplies.
With some taps and waves at the consoles, she got the runabout’s sensors examining the building. She was even able to zoom in on it, getting a larger view. Rough and grainy, but still better.
The building did have faces like a crystalline growth. It had a faint green sheen. Some of the faces were duller than others, and there were whitish lines along the joins between. Was that structural?
Blue Defender recorded it all. An alien structure. It had to be associated with the dragon, didn’t it? Was the dragon some kind of defense system?
Were there more? Or other systems to defend the planet? Or maybe just this building?
Matti-Jay was going to pass to the south of the building, by about thirty kilometers. And high up too.
Still, that dragon had raced a thousand kilometers to attack the Donner.
There was a lot more to this place than anyone had expected. One thing to discover a world with a human-compatible atmosphere and biosphere. A whole other thing to find that there were aliens.
Matti-Jay frowned, considering. At least there had been aliens. Maybe they were long gone. Maybe the dragon was the last active remnant of a dead civilization.
There had always been talk like that. Billions of stars in the galaxy. There had to be some planets with biospheres. And some of those had to have sentient beings.
Just that would those beings be around now? The galaxy was billions of years old. Humans had been around for a couple of million. And out in space for a few hundred.
Who knew how long humanity would last? Another million. Another thousand?
What were the chances of two civilizations existing at the same time?
Pretty good, apparently. Given the level of activity and building out here. The first planet humans had visited. Maybe intelligent species existed everywhere.
If nothing else, Matti-Jay needed to transmit this data back to Earth. Fifty plus years until a signal would get there. And it would have to be some signal. Powerful enough to cut through all the background noise.
Fat chance.
The best way was to send a buoy. It could fly through the jump and be back in six weeks. Also, with the benefit of sounding the alarm about the wreck. Win-win.
Matti-Jay shook her head. Sometimes her sense of humor could be morbid. What better day for that?
The Blue Defender’s flight continued. It left the building behind. Data stored up in the vessel’s computers, ready for some scientist to examine and figure out something about the culture that had left it behind.
As she glided on, Matti-Jay spotted more artifacts.
Another wide series of circles cut into the marshlands. Canals and islands. Irregular in places. The landscape was slowly reclaiming the construction. There were breaks in some of the islands where water flowed through, and parts where the canals had silted up, leaving beaches. Matti-Jay zoomed in and caught images of blueberry-colored wading birds stalking along the shallows.
Far beyond the marshes, over and area of rolling hills, there stood a series of white triangles. Tall uprights, spread out forming three-faced pyramids, with a third triangle on the ground. The upright faces were open, with forest growing in the middle. They reminded Matti-Jay of the spaghetti tetrahedron’s she’d built on one of the ridiculous ‘team-building’ days she’d attended in the lead-up to the mission. She’d been on a team with Nicole and Charlie.
It was hard thinking of them. Nicole definitely gone, Charlie... well, who knew?
Matti-Jay had to figure out a way to get around the planet. Close to where they’d all come down. The survivors were counting on her.
And there had to be survivors. Just had to be.
She saw another tall blade of a building. Smaller than the first. But there were three of them, actually, arrayed in an equilateral triangle. Were triangles a thing for these aliens? Well, and circles?
Was she getting a cosmic geometry lesson?
Matti-Jay kept the runabout’s sensors scanning for other vessels. If the dragon was going to come after her, she needed to know. Or anything else from the surface.
Nothing showed.
A kind of city came up, at the edge of dry, low prairie lands. Blocky buildings, arrayed in a grid, but with circles overlaid. Wide boulevards. Feeders, they would call them back home, and ring-roads. Had these aliens used cars and buses like Earth cities?
The Blue Defender’s glide path took it out above the arm of one of the oceans. Over a thousand kilometers across. Narrow, really, but Matti-Jay rechecked the path. It came back good. She could glide the whole way.
The engines did have enough fuel for some flight, so even if there were problems, she could correct and fly on.
More forest. Dunes at the ocean’s edge. White breakers crashing onto a narrow beach. Rocky headlands, and some small islands. The ocean grew darker as Matti-Jay sped away from land.
Sea birds circled, white wings spread. Below them, the waters churned. Maybe a school of fish. The birds darted down, diving for an easy meal.
Then something leapt from the surface, spraying water, catching birds and fish alike. Some kind of whale, or shark? It had twin fins on its back, side by side.
The Blue Defender showed some surprisingly good imagery.
Matti-Jay’s altitude continued to drop. Down under eight thousand meters. To the south, where the ocean’s arm widened, there were squalls. Dark gray clouds, with hazy black rain beneath. Lightning strikes flickered through the tall clouds.
Tall storms there. Higher than anything she was used to. Big and strong and looming.
The Blue Defender began fighting headwinds. Still able to stay aloft, easily, but her airspeed slowed. Matti-Jay replotted the course, aiming for the nearest spur of land on the other side of the arm.
Matti-Jay couldn’t see land yet. The headland was over the horizon. Well, the Blue Defender could float, couldn’t she?
Matti-Jay shuddered. Not a pleasant thought.
The glide path was dropping. The headwind slowing her down. The path still took her well out over land, according to the maps and the plotting.
Still, she waved into the controls and brought up the air-breathing engines.
Lightning flashed. Closer. Matti-Jay peered out. The storms were definitely thickening and drawing closer.
The runabout was just as at home in air as she was in space. With the air-breathing jets she could stay aloft as long as the fuel lasted. Her range was close to a thousand kilometers. More if Matti-Jay landed and let the fuel converters fill the expanding tanks.
The air-breathing jets helped to get the Blue Defender back into space too. The vessel would fly like any aircraft, high into the stratosphere. Once there, the atmosphere was too thin to support wings in flight. The air-breathing engines would shut down, and the ultramagnetics would take over, blasting the runabout high and out of the atmosphere.
A deep, distant rumble made the little vessel shudder. Matti-Jay swallowed. These storms would overtake her. And she was low enough now that the weather would affect her flight. These were big, high storm cells.
As Matti-Jay brought up the system menus, her heart fell.
One of the air-breathing engines was off-line. Port side. Damaged. Had to have happened when the dragon had attacked.
Another flash of lightning blasted her eyes. The shudder of thunder came almost immediately.
Matti-Jay stared at the displays.
One engine on its own was useless. They were balanced. One on each side. Firing one up would just throw Blue Defender into a spin. She would go into the ocean in a death spiral.
Another blast of lightning. Right there. The bolt right ahead. Shot from the clouds straight into the water. The whole ocean seemed black now.
The slap of thunder. The air itself seemed to be tearing apart. Blue Defender tipped. The left wing dipping toward the black water.
Chapter Eighteen
Alarms began sounding from the Blue Defender’s conso
les. The glide path had interrupted. The turbulent air tossed the little craft around.
Matti-Jay’s seat harness grabbed her. Yanked her back into the seat cushion. Held her firmly.
The sky grew darker. Black clouds blotted out the sun. Flashes of lightning punctuated the darkness.
Port engine broken. Port was left, starboard was right. Good thing to remember.
The console displays showed the runabout’s altitude dropping. Rapidly. And angling to the left.
Matti-Jay clutched at the armrests. Still almost five hundred kilometers to the coast. The storm wouldn’t be that big–would it? Hundreds of kilometers across. Couldn’t be.
If she could glide around it, maybe she could get close enough to make it the rest of the way.
Another lightning blast. The bolt practically tore through the hull. Simultaneous thunder. Like an explosion.
The Blue Defender dropped again. Matti-Jay just about lost the contents of her breakfast. Should never have drunk that soda. Bubbles in her gut. A vile tasting burp burst from her throat.
“Give me the controls,” she said. With some quick taps and waves at the console she brought up the manual yoke. It was a hangover from the old days. When people liked to fly. Liked to feel like they were in control.
Those first astronauts had flown by the seat of their pants. Holding the control yoke. Feeling the vessel through the stick. Not using the computer models. Just flying by instinct.
Matti-Jay licked her lips. Dry.
She switched on the air-breathing engine controls.
Warning! the console flashed at her in red. Damage!
Matti-Jay tapped in some overrides. She wasn’t going to try to fly hard out. She just wanted some thrust from that one engine on the starboard side. Just to move ahead. Speed up the glide.
At her feet were two pedals. Left and right. The control for the tail’s vertical stabilizer.
She would keep the wing and tail control surfaces hard over so she didn’t spin out. Hopefully.
Warning! Damage!
Matti-Jay tapped in some more overrides. Lucky that the system allowed for human control.
Are you sure? the display read. Outside flight parameters.
Matti-Jay waved in for ‘yes’.
Control overrides accepted the display showed.
Matti-Jay shut off the fuel supply to the busted port engine. She edged the throttles forward. Easing the starboard engine up to flight speed.
Something banged.
The vessel jerked. Shuddered.
Matti-Jay kept her hand on the yoke. With gentle pressure on the pedals, she eased the stabilizer over. Just a bit to starboard. Forcing the air.
She pushed the yoke to the left. The ailerons on the stubby wings would work in concert with the airflow across the runabout. The port ailerons would tip up, those on the starboard would point down. Just to keep the craft from nosing over to the right–starboard.
All just to counter the uneven thrust. Although she was keeping the engine just above idle, the thrust would push her to port. All those angled control surfaces should keep her on the straight and narrow.
Well, straighter, at least.
Hopefully.
Driving rain splattered against the cockpit’s window. The rivulets of water whipped away in the blast of her airspeed.
The Blue Defender shuddered again. The readings showed the altitude dropping. Fast.
The storm’s low pressure throwing her down. That’s what you got for having a heavier than air vessel.
But she wasn’t dropping as fast as before. Running the engine was working. For now.
The display started bringing up warnings. Stressed airframe. Fuel flow anomalies. Damaged hull not happy at all.
But already the distance was down to four hundred and fifty kilometers. Altitude seventy five hundred meters.
All she had to do was keep that above zero. And cover the ground.
Just keep from crashing into the ocean.
Matti-Jay eased the throttle up another fraction. The poor little engine whined.
A long way to go. An awful long way.
Chapter Nineteen
The storm raged around the Blue Defender. Despite the warnings appearing on the displays–the runabout was only just holding together–the system still brought up the beverage and snack menu. Timing. It needed for the pilot to stay nourished and hydrated.
They might be about to smack into the water’s surface at a thousand kilometers an hour, but better get those carbs and vitamins. Priorities. The computer just had no idea.
The distance clicked down. Matti-Jay let the storm blow her ahead. It pushed her north. It took her away from the headland, but it was better than fighting the wind. Maybe the storm’s force would carry her even farther.
Would the storm die out over land? Would it even last long enough to make it to land? Who knew how storms operated out here at Ludelle? Meteorologists still got baffled by some of the things storms on Earth did.
And this one was huge. Perhaps it would continue for days or weeks.
Matti-Jay kept working the throttle, the yoke and the pedals. The storm buffeted her back and forth. Up and down.
She waved aside the food menu, but accepted the water. A moment later a bottle wound from the seat’s armrest. At least something on the runabout was still working.
Under four hundred kilometers to go to land. The rain continued. It turned to hail. The little ice pellets shattered against Blue Defender’s cockpit window and set up a terrible snare drum beating on the hull. As if the they were slapping the runabout to death.
Three hundred and fifty kilometers. The wind swirled her around. Brought her back in line with her target. The headland.
The engine whined. The stabilizer shuddered. Matti-Jay could feel it through her leg, the vibrations. She held the pedal steady.
She sipped from the water. It was good and refreshing.
The kilometers slipped slowly away. Three hundred. Two hundred and seventy. Two hundred and fifty.
Her height kept diminishing. Five thousand meters.
Five kilometers above the ocean’s surface. Maybe she should say ‘raging surface’. She couldn’t see it through the endless cloud cover, but the water had to be churning down there. Waves the size of small hills. Even if Blue Defender was still watertight and able to float, those massive walls of water would quickly swamp her.
It didn’t bear thinking about.
Two hundred and fifty kilometers to descend five kilometers. What was that as a gradient? Two percent? That would be just fine for a vehicle driving down from the mountains. A whole different story for a glider wanting to stay aloft.
The Blue Defender was at best a compromised glider. Not like those long-winged, thin fuselaged pleasure aircraft people flew back on Earth for sport. Those could stay aloft for hours, even days, with barely any effort. So light and efficient they could swing into a thermal and rise hundreds of meters in moments.
Blue Defender was a compromise at best. Part spacecraft, part powered aircraft, part glider. Best at being a spacecraft and okay at being a glider. Really the glide profile was designed to slip from orbit down to a pre-determined landing spot. The engines were designed to lift her back part of the way to orbit.
None of that was really designed for carrying her across an ocean. Nor through a storm.
Matti-Jay patted the armrest. “You’re doing great,” she told the vessel. “Just hold on a while longer.”
She sipped from the water. The storm eased. Some of the warning lights flicked from red to green. The microbots were still hard at work keeping the vessel going.
Two hundred kilometers. Forty five hundred meters. That was pretty good.
The rain continued to pelt in. At least the hail had stopped. And it had been many minutes since she’d suffered through one of those lightning blasts.
One hundred and eighty kilometers and thirty eight hundred meters. That wasn’t so good. In just a few minutes she’d lost a
lmost a sixth of her height.
Matti-Jay pushed the throttles up another fraction. The engine whined. The runabout’s chassis gave a quiet groan. Some of the orange indicators switched back to red.
One hundred and seventy kilometers.
The storm had shifted. Carrying her south now. Bringing her back toward the line with that headland. That had to be a good thing.
Of course the storm had shifted her. Many of the storms she’d seen from orbit were swirling whirlpools. Huge gyres that swept across the oceans.
She was caught in that swirl.
One fifty kilometers. A direct line now toward the headland.
One fifty wasn’t so far. Not really. And her height was still a shade over three thousand meters.
She could make this.
Matti-Jay took another few sips from the water. It was surprising how quickly her mouth grew dry.
Of course the storm continued to carry her south. The line moved away from the headland. Her trajectory swung across the long bay south of the headland.
She’d known, of course. Just hadn’t wanted to think about it. Hadn’t wanted to think about much.
Like how the storm might tear her little runabout apart.
Or just kill the glide. If she’d really thought about it–if she’d checked the weather–she could have set down much sooner. While she’d still been over land. She could have run the vessel through that series of S curves to lose velocity and altitude. Surely there would have been places to land down there.
But in truth, she felt just far too far away from the others. That was her focus now. Reach them. Do what she could to help.
At the very worst, at least she could find them. Even if they’d all perished–Matti-Jay choked at the thought–even then, at least she would be with them. Survive, somehow, until rescue came.
The Blue Defender shook as another heavy gust tossed her around. Matti-Jay clutched at the armrests.
Blue Defender Page 7