“But the front Ski is covered with tiles, Tommy,” Alex pointed out.
“Yes, but you know the Ski is dual purpose, Alex. It’s a heat shield and an airlock protector,” he added, then looked at Henry, nodding for him to continue.
“Yes, Captain. We ran several scenarios to ensure we should be able to land relatively safely,” he started to say when Peter interrupted.
“I don’t like the word, relatively.”
“No one does,” Tommy replied.
“But, I’m afraid that’s how it is…. If we are able to use the rocket to help slow us down, then all well and good… But if not, well…” he said. Leaving the question hanging in the air,
“However, we still feel that we can use the rear manoeuvring jets. By having them running flat out to act as a brake, along with the drag we’ll get from the pusher plate when we enter the atmosphere,” Alex added.
“And,” Tommy said as he gave in and joined the debate. “If we set the two front stabiliser wings, to an angle of five degrees back, they should stay with us.”
Traven, startled at this revelation, suddenly pictured the stabilisers ‘wings’ being ripped off. Then said.
“So, either way, we’ll land. Albeit safely or entirely wrecked.”
“Yes. But, hopefully, alive and…,” Henry started to say, then suddenly stopped, and appeared to be listening to something.
“Captain. It’s back! Listen…, all of you.”
It was true. Every fifteen seconds, they could hear the same sort of swishing as before over the sound system’s speakers.
“It’s the same interference we heard earlier,” Tommy agreed.
“Are you relating it to that blue object you told us about?” Peter asked.
“We think it has to be. But, we’re not a hundred percent sure,” Captain Traven confirmed.
“Then, is it following us?”
“Probably,” Traven replied while wondering if the globe was actually looking out for them instead.
“No, that’s a preposterous idea,” he said aloud. On hearing this, everyone looked at him strangely.
“Just after we slowed down and flipped the ship, Peter. We heard the same swishing sound. Then a large blue globe drifted across our tracking scope’s view,” he explained.
“We tried to follow it using the scope, but, it went out of the scope’s movement angle too quickly,” Traven added.
At this, Alex looked perturbed.
“Then, we’re not alone…,” he suggested.
“Are they friendly? Or, are we someone’s food supply?” He asked.
“Don’t talk like that, Alex,” Jeff snapped, feeling uncomfortable.
Just then, the swishing sound ceased.
“Okay… That’s a hint if ever I heard one,” Tommy exclaimed.
“You’re right Tommy. OK. Let’s concentrate on getting down in one piece.
Everyone carry out your final checks, now. Especially the cargo bay equipment,” Traven ordered.
“When we start on our glide-path, there’ll be no time to sort any of those problems until we’re down. Then each of you can complete your own Pre-entry and Landing checks. Once you’re done make sure you all get some food and rest,” Traven finished.
Everyone nodded agreement, then went off to their various departments, chatting excitedly as they went.
“What about me John,” Peter asked. “Surely you had a reason for bringing me out of stasis.”
“For the moment, just keep an eye on how we’re going, Peter. You might see something we may have missed, and can warn us. And, don’t forget, you’ve had similar training so you’ll be invaluable to me, especially when we’re landing.”
“That won’t be hard to do, we have an excellent crew.”
“That goes without saying. But once on the planet, we’ll both be split between the ship and the underground build.”
“True, Captain,” Peter agreed.
“Peter. You don’t need to call me captain.”
“Respect, John,” Peter replied, in a solemn voice. “You’ve got it absolutely right so far. So, for me, it’s Captain.”
“I’ve just been lucky.”
“No. You took the risks. So, it’s Captain, at least, when we’re with any of our crew members.”
“As you wish.”
“I’ll bet none of us would have trusted this Micky’s word, but, you did. Your instinct was dead right, and I think if we hadn’t done as you wanted, we’d all be dead by now,” Peter added.
“There aren’t any planets around Procyon, are there?” he then asked.
“Paul, say’s no.”
“Thought so. Makes you wonder who decided to send us to Procyon in the first place?”
“That bothers me as well,” Traven replied. Then pondered this for a moment.
“While we’re on the subject, Peter. Something else bothers me.
Henry and I have seen references in Captain Jack Appleton’s log, about experimental brain transceiver implants being surgically implanted in some of his crew.”
“I heard something about it but didn’t take it seriously.”
“If you get time, Peter, perhaps you could check with Henry. He found the record showing who had them fitted,”
“H’m. Yes, I think I’d better.”
The fourth planet was now sliding into view at an increasing rate, and Traven was concerned.
He didn’t have the luxury of sending the Acarea into orbit around the planet, then of being able to choose when to start her entry.
This was their one and only shot at the intercept point. Missing that entry point meant certain death. As, the Acarea, without enough time to replenish the biofuel for the manoeuvring Jets, would just drift on and on in Space. With the crew slowly starving to death, or dying of old age.
Alternatively, would they instead, be pulled into the gravity field of the Pavonis star, and fiery death for all of them, he wondered.
Tommy had set the landing configuration.
Now, the manoeuvring jets and forward wing-direction control joysticks rose up from the console, in front of him.
He was facing forward now, and staring at the three large monitor screens displaying the front view.
It was almost as if he was sat in the cockpit of an airliner coming into land, he thought to himself.
When the Acarea passed through the Mesosphere, he knew he would be completely blind. As the forward facing, cameras would have retracted behind their own individual heat shields.
Once they were through the Mesosphere, and the plasma build-up had dispersed. The instruments and cameras would slowly come back online. Then, he and Henry would have to fly the ship on their own.
“Five hundred kilometres,” Tommy yelled as the Acarea’s forward sensors picked up fringe molecules of that planet's atmosphere.
“We’ve entered the Thermosphere,” he jubilantly stated.
No one spoke.
“One minute to the Mesosphere,” Tommy continued. “Hope you’re ready with those rockets, Henry?”
“Manual only, Tommy. I’ll initiate the burn at seventy kilometres,” Henry confirmed.
Planet 4 had a lower atmospheric pressure than Earth, so its Mesosphere started at a height of seventy kilometres from the surface.
This would be the most dangerous Layer of the descent. If the Acarea couldn’t slow down enough, the ship would hit the beginning of the atmosphere with zero drag and travelling far too fast to survive.
Therefore, this was the point at which they managed to either slow down or burn up.
The Acarea suddenly shuddered as the two externally located rockets ignited. Just seventy Kilometres from the planet’s surface.
“Running,” Henry yelled out, without realising that, it was evident to everyone.
“Come on, babe,” Tommy said trying to encourage the rockets to keep running as long as possible. Of course, Tommy knew that the rockets would burn off as Acarea passed through the Stratosphere, anyway. However, if
the ship reached the Stratosphere and it was still travelling too fast, then survival would be unlikely.
“Ski heat shield temperature rising,” Henry called out.
“Is the Ski locked, Henry?” Traven asked.
“Yes, up and locked, Captain. Ceramic air brakes now fully extended… Uh, oh, cameras are going offline.”
“Tommy?”
“Slowing, Captain. I’m going to fire up the manoeuvring jets to help slow us more, but the front ones won’t last long before they’re burnt off.”
“Yeah, Tommy. However, the way that the plasma vortex is building up around the heat shield. I reckon that the rear jet ring will probably survive,” Nick suggested.
“Pusher plate’s starting to create drag,” Henry chipped in.
“Mesosphere in ten seconds, and maximum dynamic pressure in twenty-seven seconds,” Tommy read out, then, “Damn, there go our external sensors.”
No one spoke again.
Everything was now in Tommy and Henry’s hands. The rest of the crew could only watch their screens and pray.
Acarea plunged on down through the Mesosphere with its heat shield tiles glowing white-hot.
Plasma streamed past the body of the ship, then, directed by the extended ceramic air brakes, streamed up, and over the pusher plate.
Everyone inside the ship heard the scream from the turbulence outside. It sounded like a thousand people screaming continuously.
Tommy watched his count-down reading, then. “We’re in the Stratosphere,” he shouted.
The screaming sound rose in intensity slightly, and the Acarea’s interior temperature increased to forty-two degrees Celsius.
Twenty-three seconds later, they heard a booming sound, as something hit the side of the ship.
“I think the external rockets have left us,” Henry said. “It looks like they were exhausted, anyway.”
“No matter,” Tommy shouted above the racket. “The atmosphere’s working for us.”
“The cabin temperatures dropping,” Steven yelled out.
“He’s right, Tommy,” Traven agreed.
Traven still felt confident that Micky must have come from the future, and as they had followed his wishes, they would survive the landing.
Nevertheless, I could be wrong, he thought to himself.
The scream from the turbulence outside had reduced in intensity now, and the cameras and external sensors started operating again.
“I’ve got Vision back… Wow,” Tommy gasped.
“Henry, where are we?”
“I show us entering the Troposphere. Fourteen kilometres up, but three point two kilometres off-course. And, our heat shield is still red hot.”
“Can we get back on-course, Tommy?” Captain Traven asked.
“One moment Captain,” Tommy said as he checked the continuously updating sensor data showing his console.
“Uh. Yes,” he muttered. Then continued talking the situation through, almost to himself.
“Well, we’ve lost the forward manoeuvring jet ring. The Pusher-plate is giving about eighty-five percent drag.
As for the air brakes… H’m, some are damaged, but still helping to reduce our speed.”
“Tommy. That’s good. But. Can we correct our course?”
“Hurry up Tommy, we’re down to just twelve kilometres off the surface,” Henry called out, sounding exasperated.
“Just a minute…Ah, there you go. We are down to five hundred and fifty kilometres an hour. Too fast to land, but I have managed to lower one of the air brakes a fraction. Hopefully, we’ll drift to the right.”
“Tommy, we have no option other than landing, damn it,” Traven snapped.
“I know Captain… I can land this thing at two hundred, or below. But, not at a speed of, two hundred and eighty kilometres.”
“So, what are you going to do, Tommy?”
“Simple. We open the front airlock.”
“Are you mad?” Peter exclaimed.
“No, Tommy’s right. Opening that massive airlock will do the trick, and the pusher plate’s drag will keep us straight,” Captain Traven agreed.
“Do it, Nick. Do it now.”
“I...,”
“Do it now, damn it?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Then Nick and Steven simultaneously pressed their ‘Open Airlock’ buttons, and the Acarea shuddered as the lock opened, and the atmosphere flooded into the cargo bay.
“Close it damn quick, when I tell you, Nick,” Tommy said as he secured the two front stabiliser wings in the fully extended position.
“Four kilometres, Tommy. I can see the landing area coming up fast.”
“OK, Henry… I’ve got her. Keep reading out our speed.”
“Three hundred and twelve.”
By now, the Acarea was dropping rapidly, and bellowing black acrid smoke behind her as the secondary shock absorbers slowly burnt away.
Captain Traven watched the rear camera’s view of the burning shock absorbers. He knew that it didn’t matter if the absorbers were burnt to a crisp. A linkage system held the habitation and primary shock absorber plate together.
However, he knew that there was a possibility that the pusher plate might not release when Tommy tried to jettison it.
“Speed, Two sixty. Two point five kilometres to go,” Henry called out.
The Acarea was slowing down, but not fast, enough to meet Tommy’s speed requirements.
“Two forty now. One point three kilometres.”
Tommy held the front stabiliser wing controls firmly in one hand, and the surviving manoeuvring jet controller in the other, as he eased the un-gamely ship down towards their pre-determined landing strip.
The front stabiliser wings had a small, hinged flap, or Aileron, on each side for vertical control. While a pivoting blade, or Rudder, at the end of each wing tip, provided some lateral control.
These gave the pilot more control of his forward direction and height. While the Acarea’s underbelly was flattened slightly to provide some lift in the atmosphere. However, at speeds below one hundred and eighty kilometres per hour. The Acarea would stall, and drop like a brick.
“We’re kicking up dust, Tommy,” Traven shouted as Acarea closed in on the ground.
“Speed, two-twenty. Height is two-seventy. But still three hundred and fifty metres from where we should be,” Henry called out.
“Brace yourselves,” Tommy yelled as he struggled to hold the Acarea level.
“Too fast,” Henry growled.
“I’ll manage it,” Tommy assured them.
The ground was a blur as the Acarea flashed over it.
“Close Airlock Door. Now!” Tommy yelled as Nick and Steven hit the ‘Close Door’ buttons together.
Tommy felt vulnerable, it was almost as if he was sitting right under the very nose of the ship and was going to be the first to hit the ground.
However, it was simply his three screens that gave him that cockpit sensation.
“Door closed,” Henry, confirmed, relief sounding in his voice.
“Fifty-four metres. … Ouch! Bloody hell!” Henry shouted, as he and the rest of the crew were flung forward, painfully, against their restraining straps as Acarea’s pusher plate dug in.
Something at the back of the ship snapped, sounding like a clap of thunder.
Then Acarea’s nose slammed hard down on the ground.
“Pusher plate’s dug in,” Tommy confirmed as the ship and everyone in it vibrated and jolted as small rocks, in her path, hit the front of the Acarea.
Acarea travelled on, with the pusher plate digging a furrow behind them, but in the process, slowing the ship down rapidly.
“Stand by to release the pusher plate, Henry,” Tommy yelled above the noise penetrating the skin of the Acarea.
“The big rock formation’s ahead, Tommy,” Traven cautioned.
“I see it, Captain. But it’s out of my hands now.”
Then Captain Traven suddenly noticed that the floor
was difficult to focus on, as the rough ground rattled the bottom of the ship. He could see small ripples in the metal. We’re starting to buckle, he thought.
“Release the pusher plate, Henry,” he ordered.
“Captain?” Henry asked, not realising at first, why Traven had given him the order.
“Henry! Ready… Go,” he urged, as both pressed their own Disengage buttons together.
“Damn!” Both of them shouted.
“Only two anchor points released. The pusher plate is still with us,” Traven confirmed. Despair sounding in his voice.
They knew that the plate was highly Radioactive, having experienced the effects of a hundred and sixty nuclear detonations.
Worst of all. With it still attached to the Acarea, it would now be a threat to them all.
Chapter 30
Dilemma
Captain Traven grabbed hold of his screen as the ship’s vibrations snapped one of its mounting brackets.
The whole ship vibrated and continued to shake violently as it ploughed on along the planet’s surface, but its speed was reducing with every passing second.
Tommy watched his screens carefully; as they rapidly approached, what he could now see was the massive rock formation.
Most people could see what was showing on Tommy’s screens, and didn’t like what they saw.
“Stop, damn it. Stop!” he kept saying aloud.
Then he, instinctively, put his hands up. As if to protect his face as the ship finally hit the formation.
With the ship’s forward momentum trying to force it through the V-shaped gap in the middle of the rock.
They heard a terrible crushing and shuddering sound as the Acarea scraped along, finally coming to a halt as the rear section lodged itself between the two rocks.
Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster? (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 5): A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy) Page 22