Myra watched the small group of people try and figure out the controls. Rogalia spoke excellent Biaz and English, but she was unfamiliar with the techno babble from either language. She was having a terrible time translating some of the words on the view screen for the others. It had become that game where people shout words at each other. Rogalia would say an English word; many seemed random and unconnected with what they were looking at. The others would then try to guess which word she really meant. If their lives didn’t depend on this group of people and their outcome it would have been very entertaining to watch.
Myra’s mother kept looking between them, their prisoner tied up with wire, and Jack and Joe guarding the door. Myra was worried about her. She wasn’t the last couple of days. Even with all of this crazyness, Myra could tell something was wrong, something else that is. She wished she had taken a bottle of her mother’s medicine. Myra might have found a way to convince her to take them, although that was really unlikely. I need to be clear headed, she could hear her mother saying.
Myra stood next to her, and held her arms around her. She wondered if her mother knew she was pretending to be more scared than she was so she would have an excuse to stay close to her, although it was hard to imagine being more scared than she was now. She didn’t know how the others, especially Michael and her mother dealt with it all.
John was yelling at Rogalia for what he considered a bad translation. Myra began to watch their prisoner, the pilot. He could get us home, but he refused of course. Myra began thinking of a way to convince him to cooperate. She thought about telling him that John was going to crash the ship and kill us all, but she knew that wouldn’t help. No Biaz would betray their queen just to save their lives.
Wait, how did she know that? It was really weird. She was sure she understood them, who they are as a people. She pulled her mother closer. It is just my imagination, she thought to herself. Rogalia or Mom must have told me about their queens.
She looked back to see the view screen change. “I think that has got it,” Ken said.
John stared at the view screen. “What is this thing here that keeps changing,” he asked.
Rogalia looked over his shoulder for a second. “Um. It’s a distance of some kind. 500,000 zeet,” she said.
“How long is a zeet?” Charles asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s really long.”
“So 500,000 zeet could be the distance we are from the planet?” John asked.
“Yea. Yes, that would be about correct,” Rogalia answered, and gave him an approving nod.
“So how far are we from Earth then? The number seems to be counting down pretty fast,” Ken said.
“Rogalia, can you tell me how many meters 500,000 zeet are?” John asked, almost off handedly as he stared at the view screen once more.
“No. I don’t know exactly how long a meter is. Besides I’m not that good at math,” she said, this time in a noticeably annoyed tone.
“Well, a meter is about yay long,” John said and spread his hands apart to approximate a meter.
“Oh,” Rogalia said. “Well in the case, I still have no clue. How am I supposed to do that math in my head!”
Myra couldn’t help buy smile. They should really take this show on the road. If we survive that is. Oh god, how are we supposed to survive this? Well there is nothing we can do but wait now, she thought to herself, and leaned her head against her mother.
John and the others continued to poke and prod at the console. The view screen continued to show the earth getting bigger as they descended. The number they were arguing about continued to get smaller as well.
Every minute seemed like hours, until Myra lost all track of time. The only thing going through her mind was what happened when they hit Earth. She didn’t see how they could survive.
Two soldiers rushed through the door. Both Jack and Joe had been distracted by the continuing conversation between John and Rogalia. Thankfully the soldiers were not paying attention to them either. Instead they ran right past them, lifted their rifles, and trained them on the group at the console.
The one in front began to speak, but Joe had recovered from his initial shock and had cut him off with a bullet hole through the chest. Before the other could react, Jack did the same to him.
A third shot rang out. It hit close to Myra and her mother. She thought Joe was shooting at her for a moment, but it wasn’t his gun that fired. She looked at him and saw blood pouring out of his chest. He collapsed on the ground revealing the captain peering around the corner and training his pistol on Jack.
Jack tried to react, but was a fraction of a second too late. He fell to the ground, his rifle landing after him a couple of feet away. He held his side and gasped for air as blood poured out from underneath his hand.
The captain stepped forward keeping his eye on everyone in the room. He said something to the pilot. The pilot responded. Rogalia looked concerned at the conversation. He then turned to her and said something to her. Rogalia hesitated, but the captain insisted by aiming the gun at her head. She moved towards the pilot.
Myra put herself between the captain and Rogalia, or more importantly the gun and Rogalia. “No!” Jennifer said and jumped in front of Myra.
Myra peered around her mother. “I know you can’t understand me, but I’m thinking that doesn’t matter. You’re not going to bring yourself to shoot either of us. You have too much admiration for women, especially strong women.” She sounded confident, but her grip on her mother’s arm betrayed her. “You can’t fight your instincts. You don’t have the practice.”
Jennifer waited for the captain to shoot her. Myra knew he wouldn’t, but still held her breath. The captain considered his situation for a moment. He then stepped forward. Just then a shot rang out, echoing through the room, followed by the rattle of a gun hitting the floor.
Shocked the captain stood perfectly still for several seconds. He then turned around to see Jack standing a few feet behind him gasping for air. Jack’s rifle was at his feet. Blood was still pouring out of his wound. “I can’t believe I missed,” he said and collapsed to the ground and didn’t move.
The captain stared at him in amazement for several seconds. He began to turn around a second too late it seems. Ken had rushed past Myra and Jennifer and jumped on him. Ken was not nearly big enough to bring down a man the size of the captain, but he also wasn’t big enough for the captain to throw him off when he spun back and forth.
Ken held on tight with one arm and held onto the captain’s gun arm with the other. The captain finally got a good hold on him, when Charles jumped on him as well. The captain was able to continue to stand, but had both arms now immobilized by both men. The captain began to thrash back and forth, trying to throw one or both men off himself.
Myra turned around to watch John stare at the fight in fascination. This guy is going to be a lot of work, she thought to herself. “Hey, aren’t you going to help them?” she asked.
John, surprised to hear someone talk over the ruckus they fight was making, took a moment to register her words. “Oh right,” he said. He ran forward yelling a war cry, but stopped a couple of feet away. He considered his next move for a moment. Then just jumped on top of the group.
Three men were too much for the captain it seems. He fell to the floor. Ken managed to get the pistol away from the captain when he hit the floor. It flew a few feet away.
Jennifer looked at Myra, with a mixture of amusement and disappointment on her face. She walked past the group now fighting on the ground. The captain was doing better. Now with both arms free, he was able to use his overwhelming strength to his advantage. He threw Ken several feet away. The other two struggled with keeping the captain’s arms locked down.
Jennifer calmly picked up the rifle near Jack’s body. She turned around, holding the barrel instead of the handle, and waited. A minute later, the captain had managed to get to his knees and throw Charles and Ken away from his body. He then grabbed John by the neck and began to squeeze.
Jennifer calmly lifted her rifle and swung it at the captain, as if it were a softball bat and the captain’s head was the ball. The force of the blow knocked the captain’s head into John’s and they both collapsed onto the ground.
“Owe!” John yelled and looked up at Jennifer with an angry look, as if to say, What the hell did you do that for?
Jennifer looked at him, and simply said. “You guys are idiots.” She closed the door to the bridge, so as not to be disturbed again. She righted the rifle in her hands, but looked very uncomfortable caring it. “How much longer?” she asked.
The group just stared at her. All three were still on the ground. After a moment, John answered, “Not much longer I think. We still have no idea how to land this thing. We at least need to find a way of slowing this thing down more.”
“Then top taking a nap and get back to work,” Myra said, but gave them a smile. The men got up and went back to the console. Myra turned around to watch the men get back to work, wishing she could be more useful. She looked at Rogalia who was staring at Jennifer with a look of horror, as if Jennifer had transformed into a monster.
“Rogalia!” John yelled. She turned to look at him. “I need you to translate this. Is it anything to do with speed or trajectory, or anything else that might help us?” She looked at the console and shook her head. They continued to play with the console.
A few minutes later, Myra heard Rogalia say, “Yes, I think this is it. This word here can be interpreted as thrusters.” There was a few more exchanges between the two about what kind and direction of the thrusters, along with how to turn them on.
John pushed a few more buttons on the console. He then walked up to Jennifer. “I think we found it,” he said. “I put the thrusters on full. It should slow both our decent and our forward momentum. Hopefully we are too late, we are dangerously close to Earth. There is good news though.”
Jennifer stared at him in amazement. Myra also perked her ears up. Good news was hard to come by these days. “It looks like we are going to crash in the great plains somewhere,” he said. “I was afraid we were going to crash in the middle of the ocean or on a mountain range or someplace.”
“Well that is good news,” Jennifer said, but she clearly wasn’t enthusiastic about it. John didn’t notice it though.
“There is nothing to do now but wait. It will only be a few minutes now,” he said. Myra looked at the view screen. He was right. The ground now covered the entire thing. They had to be really close. It looked like they were going to land in a forest. Myra was thankful it wasn’t anywhere populated. The trees were moving really fast across the screen. Myra didn’t see how they could possibly survive a crash going that fast.
Myra and her mother sat down next to the wall with their heads between their legs. Most everyone else did the same. John continued to fiddle with the controls. Myra watched the few screens. The ground looked really close now, but it was going by so fast she couldn’t really tell how close. Every few minutes she would think any second now and brace herself. Then nothing would happen.
When she was just about ready to give up, the ship hit the ground hard. The impact threw her halfway across the room into the side of a chair. She hit her head hard. The ship continued its forward momentum skidding across the ground. It seemed it was going even faster. The ship shook with enough force to rattle Myra’s teeth.
Myra held her hand to her injured head and felt a hot liquid. She brought her hand back to her face to confirm it was indeed blood. The glass behind the view screen broke revealing the open sky beyond it. Light shown throughout the room. It was the first sunlight Myra had seen in days. She thought it looked beautiful.
She looked around for everyone else. Charles was unconscious across the room. He too must have hit his head. There was a small pool of blood near his head. Ken was holding his arm, which had a bone protruding from it, but he was still conscious at least. The falling glass had cut John, but he also seemed conscious and alert.
Myra then found the person she was really looking for. She found her mother just in time to see her attempt to stand and then collapse. Blood was pouring out of her abdomen. It pool just below her body and was oozing across the room.
“Mom!” she yelled, but the roaring from the continuing crash covered her scream up. Myra tried to stand, but between the incredibly violent shaking of the ship and disorientation from her own injury, she immediately fell back down. Instead she decided to crawl.
Half way to her mother, the ship came to a sudden stop and threw Myra a few feet forward. She quickly recovered and rushed to her mother’s side. “Mom! You have to stay with me,” she screamed.
“Myra I love you,” Jennifer said.
“I love you too,” Myra said. She held her mother’s hand. Her tears fell on Jennifer’s chest. “Don’t go. I need you. You have to stay with me.”
“You have to be brave. Don’t worry about me. I’m happy now. I’m free,” Jennifer said and lost consciousness.
“No! Please mom don’t go,” Myra said, and gave her mother a hug.
“My god,” someone said above her. She looked up to find a man in overalls and a plaid shirt looking over the room through the broken window that used to be the view screen. He had a look of utter horror on his face. A boy stood just behind him, looking up at what Myra assumed was his father, waiting for instructions.
“Call an ambulance,” Myra screamed. “My mother’s been hurt.” The man took out his cell phone and began to dial. Myra looked back at her mother. “Hold on mom. It won’t be long now. You’re going to be all right.” She gave her mother another hug, as tears dripped from her cheek to Jennifer’s.
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