by Jude Watson
“Sorry, Master Stuart. Am I dented?” Threepio fretted.
“Ha! Another illustration of theory,” Forbee-X announced. “Stuart, you went toward the controls with a certain force. Threepio met you with an equal amount of force. Now both of your bodies are at rest!”
Artoo beeped insistently.
“Yes, Artoo, the asteroid field,” Threepio said hurriedly as he reached for the controls. “Just let me —”
But he didn’t get a chance to finish. Stuart reached for the thruster control at the same time, and they collided again. This time, Threepio accidentally pushed a lever forward with his elbow.
“Oh, no, that’s another set of rotational thrus —” Stuart started, but he didn’t get a chance to finish. With a lurch, the pod suddenly began to careen wildly. This time, the tumbling was even worse. The pod tossed and turned as if it were a small rock being shaken by a ferocious rancor.
As Threepio tumbled, Stuart got tangled in his legs. The two of them fell backward, then slammed against the ceiling of the pod. Artoo bounced from one wall to another. Forbee-X curled her long fingers and toes around safety handles. One of the storage compartments opened, and medpacks and glow rods suddenly flew through the cabin. One of the rods hit Threepio in the head.
“Hold on!” Forbee-X cried.
“To what?” Threepio yelled as he slammed against the floor again. He grabbed a corner of the gee-couch. Stuart grabbed another corner just as a second compartment sprang open. Survival food packets and gear rained down on their heads.
But Threepio hardly noticed. He watched in horror as Artoo bounced from the ceiling to the floor and back again. Without long arms and legs, Artoo could not grab onto any handles or furniture. As he tumbled end over end, Artoo slammed against the walls, floor, and ceiling. His warning lights flickered.
“Artoo!” Threepio cried.
Artoo gave a faint beep. Then he slammed against the wall again. The door to an emergency storage unit sprang open and crashed on top of his dome-shaped head. His lights flickered, then went out.
“Artoo!” Threepio cried. “Artoo!”
“We’ve got to stabilize this ship,” Forbee-X urged.
“No kidding,” Stuart grunted as a particularly hard jolt sent his head crashing against a chair. “This is one wild ride!”
“Threepio fired a new combination of rotational thrusters,” Forbee-X told them. Her screen flashed.
“That is why the ride is so bumpy,” Forbee explained.
Threepio crawled toward Artoo. He joggled the smaller droid’s emergency switch. “Artoo, you mustn’t leave me now!” he cried. “Wake up!”
But all of Artoo’s sensors had shut down. The last blow had been too much for him.
Stuart wedged himself against the controls by tying his belt around the pilot’s seat. “Okay, Forbee,” he called, “I’m here. Give me a crash course in space piloting.”
“Oh, dear,” Threepio moaned. “Did you have to say crash?”
“I’m not coded for pilot lessons,” Forbee-X answered. “Is the R2 unit operational? We need his skills to navigate and plot a course.”
“I can’t revive him, I’m afraid,” Threepio said. “He’s shut down. Oh, Artoo!”
“Threepio, you’ve got to fix him,” Forbee-X said worriedly. “I have scientific principles for flight encoded in my data bank, but no practical knowledge.” “And we’re still out of control!” Stuart pointed out as the pod bumped and zigzagged. Threepio was slammed against the side of the pod again.
“Just tell him the principles, and we’ll figure out the application,” Threepio suggested.
“It’s worth a try,” Forbee-X agreed. Her screen brightened into a determined blue. “I will report what’s stored in my data banks. First I have to calculate the precise amount of force needed and the direction in which to apply it.” Forbee-X’s viewscreen suddenly filled with more numbers and symbols. “This is my favorite part,” she told them as her screen glowed.
“Do hurry!” Threepio called as he bent over Artoo again. “I can’t do anything if the ship keeps turning like this!”
“First, we must straighten out our flight path,” Forbee-X said. “Otherwise, Stuart won’t be able to steer through the asteroid field. Can you find the opposite rotational thrusters, Stuart?”
“Got them,” Stuart answered. “But which ones should I push?”
“I don’t know,” Forbee-X said worriedly. “I don’t know which ones were pushed in the first place.”
“Oh dear,” Threepio moaned.
“Wait!” Stuart called. “Here’s a lever for an emergency stabilizer. Should I try it?”
“What do we have to lose?” Threepio asked.
“Okay, everyone. Hang on!” Stuart drew back the lever. A burst of speed sent them one way, then the other. Then, in a series of tiny movements, the pod shuddered and corrected itself. They were flying straight again!
“Whew, that was close,” Stuart said. “What now?”
“The first principle of space flight is that thrusters are used to apply force in an opposite direction,” Forbee-X instructed.
Stuart nodded. “I get it. So if I fire the left thruster, we’ll go right.”
“Right,” Forbee agreed.
“No, I said left,” Stuart said.
“Right,” Forbee answered.
“Oh, heavens! Say ‘affirmative,’ Forbee, you’re confusing Master Stuart!” Threepio cried. “Not to mention me.”
“Oh, sorry!” Forbee said cheerfully. “Affirmative, Stuart. Left thruster, go right.”
“Okay, everyone — brace yourselves!” Stuart called.
He pushed at the left thruster lever. The pod swayed a hair to the right.
“Excellent!” Threepio announced dryly. “Now we’ll probably hit the first asteroid just a little to the right, instead of dead-on.”
Stuart made a face at Threepio. “What happened?” he asked Forbee-X. “I thought that the left thruster would push us to the right.”
“We are moving to the right,” Forbee-X explained. “But we’re also moving forward.”
Stuart frowned. “Does that mean I have to push against the push? If I fire the forward thruster, the backward force will slow us down. Especially if I add plenty of power.”
“Actually —” Forbee-X began to say. At that moment, Stuart fired the thruster. The droids pitched forward violently, and Stuart hit his head on the console.
“Master Stuart? We seem to be going backward,” Threepio said. “Maybe you should do the opposite of what you just did.”
“You just applied a bit too much thrust, that’s all,” Forbee-X said encouragingly. “Try again.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Stuart said, rubbing his head. “Okay. I’ll fire the rear thruster with an equal amount of force. That will get us back to our original direction and speed.”
Stuart fired the rear thruster. This time, everyone was pitched backward. Threepio hit his head on the side of the pod again. “Now I am dented!” he wailed.
“Sorry about that,” Stuart said cheerfully. “But at least we’re heading in the right direction. Now I just need a small backward push to slow us down. Add some thrust to the right. Good — now we’re making a nice, wide turn. We should miss the asteroid field by a few kilometers. But I guess we should recalculate our course.”
“But that’s Artoo’s job,” Threepio said. “And how do you know we’ve missed the field? We don’t know how large it is. But if you can keep the pod steady like this, I might be able to fix Artoo.”
“Excellent idea, Threepio,” Forbee approved. “But I don’t think we have time. We have to navigate.”
“But we have to navigate somewhere!” Threepio pointed out, still bent over Artoo. “We need to plot a course.”
“No, we don’t,” Forbee replied, her screen glowing crimson.
“Why not?” Threepio turned around, exasperated. At that moment, a huge asteroid loomed in the viewport, heading straight toward them. Th
reepio could almost count the molecules of its surface.
“Because we are about to be space dust,” Forbee-X pointed out.
For a moment, Stuart and Threepio stood frozen. The gray haze ahead of them was actually a field full of careening asteroids.
“Master Stuart, may I suggest you make a hard left?” Threepio said, his eyes on the asteroid.
“No problem. I’ve got this baby down,” Stuart said confidently. He jerked the thruster control, and the pod lurched to the side. They were about to lose control again!
“Not that hard!” Threepio screamed.
Stuart corrected the maneuver. They came within a bantha whisker of the asteroid.
“Weeeee-hah!” Stuart yodeled. “Did you see that? Hypergalactic!”
“Yes, I did,” Threepio said. “Now, would you mind doing it one more time? Immediately?”
NOTE: Pages 45 & 46 are missing from the original and pages 55 & 56 were printed in their place. Therefore a small section of the story is missing at this point. Will we ever know what Stuart is grinning at?
Stuart grinned. “A kid has got to have fun, Threepio. Even trapped in an escape pod with a bunch of droids.”
“Fun? You were lucky you didn’t get us all killed,” Threepio scolded.
“Excuse me for interrupting,” Forbee-X said. “But may I point out that we have more important things to do than quarrel? Look ahead.”
“Not another asteroid field, I hope,” Threepio said, swiveling to peer out the viewport.
A planet rose in the distance. Clouds covered its surface, and Threepio could count three suns in his visual field.
“I wonder what planet it is,” Threepio said. “With three suns, it can’t be Romm. We’re terribly lost. We might even be out of the Delantine system completely.”
“It could be an Imperial planet,” Stuart said with a shiver. Suddenly, the blood-red clouds looked menacing.
“The cloud cover is extensive,” Forbee-X observed. “And something about the orbit of the planet is odd. I haven’t seen such a planet in my travels. I need time to compute.”
“I suggest we avoid it,” Threepio said, still staring at the deep red clouds. “There’s no telling what we’d find. If we keep going, we’re bound to find a planet we recognize. Now that Stuart knows how to fly, we should have no problem.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Forbee-X warned.
“Forbee, do you have to be so negative?” Threepio complained. He was hardly ever snappish. After all, he was programmed for politeness. But he didn’t like the look of the forbidding, cloudy planet. Being frightened often made him cross.
“I cannot turn a negative into a positive, just because you want me to,” Forbee-X said huffily. “It wouldn’t be logical.”
Oh dear, now I’ve hurt her feelings, Threepio thought. Without Artoo, I get myself into all kinds of trouble.
Stuart spoke up before Threepio could apologize. “What do you mean, Forbee?” he asked.
“We are beginning to feel the planet’s gravitational pull,” Forbee-X said as numbers and formulas flickered across her viewscreen.
“So?” Stuart asked. “I can just pilot around it.”
Forbee-X’s screen blinked. “At the risk of sounding negative, I must disagree,” she said with a glance at Threepio.
Forbee-X’s long metal-scaled finger pointed to the console. Threepio followed the direction and saw a flashing red light.
“We can’t pilot around the planet. We are about to run out of fuel,” Forbee-X announced.
“What next!” Threepio cried. “Artoo, this is all your fault.” Looking over at the astromech droid, Threepio remembered that Artoo couldn’t hear him, and he felt worse than ever.
“Low fuel?” Stuart asked in disbelief. “But we only went through that tiny asteroid field. How could that be?”
“Let me check the data,” Forbee said. Her screen filled with more numbers. She whirred and clicked the way she did when she was truly concentrating. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Threepio prompted uneasily.
“Well,” Forbee started. She sounded uncomfortable. “Perhaps I should have mentioned that every time Stuart fired the thrusters, it burned extra fuel. The bigger the thrust, the more fuel was burned. A straighter path would have given us a smoother ride, of course. And it would have saved fuel. Our path was more like this.”
Threepio waved his arms. “If you’ll recall, I did ask you to use less thrust, Master Stuart! Now look what a mess we’re in!”
“We can’t waste time arguing about it now,” Stuart said. “Why don’t we just go into orbit around the planet? The inhabitants will probably send a ship up to investigate, and we’d be rescued.”
“What if the planet is uninhabited?” Threepio asked. “Or full of Imperials? We could be arrested!”
“Do you have another suggestion?” Stuart asked impatiently. “Because if we run out of fuel, you can imagine what will happen.”
“Actually, I can’t,” Threepio admitted. “What would happen?” He turned to Forbee-X.
“If we run out of fuel in space, we will keep traveling in a straight line — potentially for millions of years,” Forbee-X explained. “We will run out of food for Stuart, of course. And we droids would have no maintenance checks and will eventually have to shut down. Plus, there is the danger of running into an asteroid or planet, since we would have no thruster power to maneuver —”
“Stop, stop!” Threepio cried. He gazed out the viewport at the planet. “Perhaps you’re right, Master Stuart. Orbiting would mean going around and around the planet — not hurtling off in a straight line to heaven knows where. That sounds like just the thing.”
“Would we have enough fuel to stay in orbit, Forbee?” Stuart asked.
“We wouldn’t need fuel to stay in orbit,” Forbee-X responded. “Just like we don’t need fuel to keep traveling now, only to fire thrusters to change speed and direction. Don’t forget the First Law of Motion. A body in motion stays in the same motion until a force acts on it. But we would need fuel to maneuver ourselves into orbit.”
“There!” Threepio approved. “So we’re agreed. We’ll pull up next to the planet and slip into orbit. Simple. Lesson one for a starfighter, I believe.”
“Actually,” Forbee-X said, “an orbit is a very delicate balance between a planet’s gravity and a spacecraft’s speed.” Forbee-X’s screen cleared.
“That looks like a cinch,” Stuart said confidently.
“When the balance of forces is right, you can do it easily,” Forbee-X agreed. “But if the balance is off — even just a little — we will not make it into orbit. It’s much more likely that we will miss the planet entirely, as you can see.” Her screen flashed.
“Or we could be pulled by the gravity, but then escape it and get thrown off on another path.”
“Or we might even skip off the planet’s atmosphere like a stone skipping over water.”
“Or —”
“All this doom and gloom!” Threepio sighed. “Why isn’t there a simple solution?”
“Or there is the most likely event in this case,” Forbee-X continued.
“We’re saved?” Threepio asked hopefully.
“No, we don’t have to worry about getting into orbit at all,” Forbee-X said.
“Oh, hooray! We are saved!” Threepio cried. “Artoo, did you hear that? We’re saved!”
“Not quite,” Forbee-X said. “In fact, we are being drawn downward — toward the planet.”
“What?” Stuart exclaimed. “Do you mean we’re going to crash? You’d better explain, Forbee-X.”
“And quickly, please,” Threepio added, looking nervously out at the planet. It loomed awfully close.
“How about another diagram?” Forbee-X asked brightly. “I think it’s called for.”
“So how can we fight the force of gravity?” Stuart asked. “Wait — I know! I can apply equal force in the opposite direction. A backward thrust!”
Stuart fired the thr
uster. The pod shuddered as it slowed. They seemed to hang in midair for a moment. “Oh, dear,” Threepio whispered.
Then the pod began to fall again.
“Oh, dear!” Threepio wailed.
“What’s happening?” Stuart asked desperately. “One moment,” Forbee-X said crisply. Numbers streamed across her blue screen. “I’m afraid you have burned up the rest of our fuel, Stuart.”
Stuart looked pale. “I did?”
“Don’t worry — we do have emergency fuel,” Forbee-X reassured them. “It’s just not available yet. It’s loading now. We’ll need it to pilot the pod if we reach inner atmosphere.”
“Then I wish it would hurry,” Threepio said. “We’re dropping awfully fast.”
“But why didn’t the thrust stop us?” Stuart asked.
“It did,” Forbee-X answered. “We were stopped for as long as you kept thrusting against the gravity. When the fuel ran out, we lost our upward force.”
“And gravity’s downward force continued,” Stuart finished. “So we’re going down.”
“Not to add another complication,” Threepio put in politely. He was trying to hold onto his manners in the face of disaster. “But it’s getting rather hot in here. I hope Artoo doesn’t overheat. His circuits have had enough of a bashing for one day.”
Stuart wiped at the sweat on his forehead. “It is hot. What’s going on, Forbee?”
“Let me check some data,” Forbee-X said, her circuits clicking. “We are not moving through empty space anymore. We’re falling through air. The air is whizzing past us — rubbing the side of the pod as it goes. That rubbing causes friction. Friction creates heat.” Forbee-X clicked and whirred. “For example, don’t humans rub their hands together to warm them, Stuart?”
“Sure. But doesn’t friction slow you down?” Stuart asked. “When I ride my skatecoaster, I brake by rubbing my shoe against the ground.”
“Good deduction, Stuart,” Forbee-X answered. “And true. Friction with the air is also called drag. It’s slowing us down right now.”