Chapter 6

A weight fell upon his ears and a bright point of light made its way through the front glass of the ship. As it caught Phil across the eyes, it caused a stinging pain in the deep, empty darkness. A bubble of pressure filled his ears with increasing weight and slowly transitioned into a burning high-pitched buzz.

“Hmm hu hum hamhmm” a muffled tone with subtle depth came through as the ear pressure began to ease. “What!? Is someone else there? Did we make it? I can’t hear!?” Phil squinted around and tried to rub his eyes, dazed and somewhat frantic at his sense’s impairment. “Wha duh fuh Hammond?” he heard, muffled again, but less muddy.

“What? Who is that?” Phil felt like he was yelling as he squinted more and strained to clear his vision.

“I SAID, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?” He heard Darek’s voice clearly now after a sudden snap and release of pressure left his ears very sensitive. “Darek? I can’t hear right. Something happened to my ears…. we didn’t die, right?”

A pop of heat and tingle filled his chest when Adrienne’s voice responded. “We’re alive for now. We made it through. I guess this is one of those examples of vivo vs vitro… That sucked. A computer just can’t tell you what your senses are going to do. Anyone else lose hearing and vision?”

Lunara called from behind Phil. “Yeah, me too, and I felt like I was empty, but full at the same time, I can’t tell if it hurt or not. I feel almost fine now, but I lost everything for I don’t even know how long. Could’ve been a minute, or an hour.”

“Wait, who’s here?” Phil interrupted. The seats of the ship restrained them firmly, preventing them from seeing anything but what was in front of them – when it wasn’t pitch black. Since systems were down, and no one could see, they decided to call role.

“Well, obviously I’m here…” Darek said “… and we have Adrienne, Lunara, and Phil.”

“Allen.” Adrienne sighed out loud as her brother spoke his name.

“Juliet.”

“Lori.” No one else called out. Lori spoke again, “I’m definitely still feeling shock. Where are we?”

Adrienne sat in front of the gauges. She responded flatly. “I have no idea. The system is just starting to boot again or I’d have released the straps on your seats already. Just give it a minute.”

Silence passed slowly, each crew member absorbing their situation and wondering what exactly happened to them. At this point, their survival was a second for second surprise. The systems clicked on and dim emergency cabin lighting began to glow from behind some of the wall panels.

“How bad?” Allen asked.

“I don’t know yet - we did get to a planet, it’s bigger than Earth I think, it’s definitely spinning faster. There’s a star nearby making that light that we keep seeing. The maps still need time to calibrate.”

“Adrienne?” Darek asked.

“Hm?”

“Did I hear you say ‘we’re almost out of maneuvering fuel?’ ”

“Yes, Darek.”

“But these are built to take a hard landing, right?

“I hope so.”

A quiet clinking sound released the pressure from the seat straps and the crew slid them free. Thick silence was met with only the occasional sound of a scratch or movement within a seat as everyone waited for more information.

“So, we drift forever?” Juliet questioned after a while. “No, we’re caught in the planet’s gravity well, we’re going to land, but we’re still far away. We have some time from the looks of it.”

“Well, what do we do now? Thumb wrestle the rest of our time away?” Allen said.

They began to talk amongst themselves and Phil turned his head toward Darek “Man, I wish I had Kyber right now. We should’ve grabbed the case. That would’ve been the way to go.”

“Too bad we didn’t plan for an alien invasion. What the hell even happened anyway?” Darek responded.

“I wish I knew. This whole thing has me messed me up,” Phil said.

“Phil,” Darek whispered now, “Speaking of messed up, are we good with the nanos? Are we about to get really messed up?”

Phil’s eyebrows shot up immediately, though no other part of his face moved.The mechanisms of his brain fired rapidly as he ran through memories and tested his ideas against them in those brief seconds. “I already forgot about that. It would be cool if we did…but I don’t think it worked in the first place, right? I never felt anything, did you?”

“No, nothing.”

“Yeah, as much as I hate to say this out loud - I’m pretty sure we have to call it a failed test.” Phil glanced out the front window and glazed into a deep thought. “Though, I guess that doesn’t matter much now does it.”

***

“Darek” Phil said minutes later.

“Yeah, Phil?” Darek’s tone was still a little repressed by the gravity of the situation.

“Since it looks like we’re going out with a bang, I have to admit something to you.” He looked straight ahead, still slightly glazed, but spoke softly so Darek could hear.

“Really? What could you possibly have to admit to me? We’ve been best friends for the past year, and trapped on a moon base together for it, and we both already know everything that happened between us at academy.”

Phil looked to Darek, pinched his lips together as he pulled a deep breath through his nose, and sighed out with a grumble before beginning to speak. “Well, the other morning… maybe 2-3 weeks ago… I went in for our shift and I was waiting for you to come by…when you had to go conference with Mariner… it was a perfect morning for me, actually. I decided to talk to Kyber early since it should’ve been a cake day just making program adjustments while the simulations ran, I like to enjoy myself from time to time, ya know. Anyway, I went to the café on my way and Juliet had made donuts. Like real, delicious, fresh baked with sugar in them donuts. I don’t know how she got sugar, but when I got there, she only had one left and it was my favorite kind. You know those one’s that are made of the chocolate cake but have the clear icing glaze? Of course, I grabbed it, I couldn’t go on with myself if I didn’t.”

“Dude! She made real donuts?? Juliet, you made donuts and didn’t tell me!?” Darek sounded a bit annoyed at the fact and groaned longingly.

Neither of them could see that Juliet smirked slightly as she had been watching from the row of seats behind, absorbing their whole exchange.

“Darek, I was totally going to share it with you. I grabbed the donut with my coffee instead of the usual veggie wrap. Live a little, right? So, I brought it with me to the Nano lab, but I had a conversation with Adrienne on the way and got totally side-tracked thinking about whatever it was, I don’t remember. I was five minutes late then and I expected you to be waiting there with your sarcastic ball-busting ready about how you had to spend ‘two whole minutes of your time’ and ‘push ten buttons all by yourself’ because I wasn’t there - like you always do – but when I got in nothing was set up yet. I settled in and got everything ready, so I could bust your balls for once.”

“Phil, I know we have nothing better to do and all, but I’m not sure I’m seeing your point.”

Phil continued, “I ate the donut, man. I totally forgot you had that conference, and I totally forgot I had the donut. I was distracted when I got in so, like, halfway through my coffee, it hit me that I didn’t eat yet, and I remembered the donut. I was going to save you half. It was so good. But I already talked to Kyber and, Darek, I enjoyed that donut so much. It was the best donut ever, first real one I’ve had. I just ate the whole thing right through, guilt free, no worries in the world, I totally forgot anything existed except me and that donut. It was so good. A minute after I washed the last bite down with the rest of my coffee, you came walking right in all excited about what Mariner said. He liked our landing sequence program and wanted to use it. I couldn’t take that away; I couldn’t bring myself to tell you I ate the whole damn last donut. I’m sorry, man, I’m really sorry.”

Darek stared at Phil blankly with his mouth hanging slightly open. The corners of his eyebrows were raised and pulled out like he had no idea what he was looking at. The subtle wrinkles in his forehead waved in and out, his bullshit detector was having a hard time figuring this one out.

“Phil. Is that really the kind of thing that weighs on your mind? Crap, man, that’s crazy. I mean I’m a little pissed I didn’t get any of probably the only chance I’ll have in my life to eat a real donut, but dude, it’s a damn donut… besides you know my favorite is a nice crueler cream ring.” His blank expression turned into an amused one and he shook his head, chuckling. “You’re a good guy, Phil.. A dick.” He inflected his voice to drive his point “.. But a good guy.”

“Are we doing that?” Juliet was giggling and watching their conversation still, now hanging on to the pilots’ seat and floating with Adrienne. She was the first to get up and move around, hoping to grab a good view of Phil and Darek’s emotional reckoning when she heard her name mentioned.

Phil and Darek looked quickly up at her, just realizing again that they were in a vessel with five other people.

“What?” Phil asked with confusion, snapping back to his surroundings.

“Sounds like you guys are airing out your dirty laundry before we crash and burn a million light years from home.” She paused for a giggle and shook her head, smiling. “Dirty donut laundry. You’re too cute, really. And I’m glad you enjoyed my donut so much, Phil. Who’s Kyber?”

It was then that Phil and Darek realized everyone was listening to their entire exchange. Both of them looked around and were met with smirks and head shakes. “Yeah, who’s Kyber, Phil?” Darek playfully asked.

“Ah shit, I guess it doesn’t matter now. Kyber is my vaporizer handle. I built her with my nanobots years ago, one of my few prized possessions. Since the nano’s built her, I just had them deconstruct her into a block of material so I could sneak her wherever I’m going. It totally worked! I modeled her to look like a lightsaber and I love her. I know we’re not supposed to have any substances on the base unless we’re approved for leave, but I kinda like to take a little leave every day, and I don’t like when people tell me I can’t do what I want to do if I’m not bothering anyone.”

“Phil, are you telling me you’ve had oils up here all this time and you’ve never once shared?” Allen almost sounded offended as he said it.

“Allen, of anyone, you should’ve known. I thought you test our pee every week.”

Everyone looked happily confused. Some giggled, glancing to Allen who was straining to hold something back. Allen didn’t say anything, he couldn’t for risk of bursting. Phil couldn’t see his clenched face from his seat.

Phil looked around when he didn’t get a response. “What? Do I have something on me?? Why did you all laugh? What’s happening??” The last question was all Allen could bare, and with a face growing redder and redder, his scream of a laugh exploded from behind the fist he was using to keep his mouth shut.

Phil floated up out of his seat and turned to grill Allen. “I NEVER ACTUALLY TESTED IT!!” he roared in a high-pitched voice of hysteria “I MADE YOU PISS IN THE CUP!!….” He took a huge gasp to finish his sentence “… AND I JUST THREW IT OUT WHEN YOU LEFT!!” and cackled harder than Phil had ever seen him laugh.

“It made you so uncomfortable every time!” Allen was almost fully transitioned into a hyena now. “You were so awkward when I joked the first time that I went with it…and gave you a sample cup…you actually did it! … I decided to say ‘see you in a week’ at the end just to mess with you… it was so hysterical..you..you..you just kept coming back!! I wanted to see how long..how long I could..” Allen looked like someone just ripped his intestines through his belly button while he kicked, laughing himself silent.

“Phil!” Lori called through her own laughter, hysterical at how hysterical Allen had become, “I’ve never once peed in a cup for this gig!” Their laughter grew, mixing in shouts of “me neither!” “never” “that’s not even a thing!”

“You’ve been taking my piss… every week…. for the past year…. as a joke?!” Phil said.

“Oh, my gosh...” Phil looked around at everyone else’s hysterical faces, and the laughter finally infected him as well. A small chuckle at the hilarity of the joke turned into full laughter at how hard the others laughed. Juliet wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and flicked them off her finger, sending them drifting through the air of the cabin in wobbly spheres.

“Allen, you’re an asshole.” Phil snuck out between laughing breaths. This was too much for Lori, who already held her gut with one arm. She slapped Lunara’s leg with her free arm and the force sent her spinning. The whole crew lost themselves to the moment.

After a few more minutes of clowning, the ruckus subsided and eventually even Allen started breathing normally again. He still had a beet color to him and was curled over his sore stomach, but was no longer convulsing at the payoff of his yearlong prank.

Gradually, silence rested over them again with an occasional new snicker sprouting here and there. The mood became more relaxed. “I’m just so glad that happened before I died. That would’ve been such a waste.” Allen said, the last thing to make a sound for a while.

They all floated around now, breathing a bit easier after such a hearty fit of laughter. They took turns in three’s looking out the front window at the blue star that would roll past in rhythm with the ship’s rotation. It wasn’t so bright now that they had adjusted. The planet was nothing more than a large patch empty of stars in the distance. The sun was positioned on the far side of the planet from their location, so all they could see was the black of night. It had gotten significantly larger since their arrival, which meant they had gotten much closer, and their time remaining was that much shorter.

No one monitored the time, but they had been completely consumed by the shadow of the planet when suddenly, a loud ‘CLANK’ rang the side of the ship and lurched everyone into the side wall. Shock and panic flew from the crew, but they quickly gathered themselves as the incident was brief and unrepeated. Their discussion and instrument readings made it clear that they hit something, or something hit them. The problem was that no one could figure out what. It was too dark now in the planet's shadow as they approached, and the ship had no external lights. They were effortlessly careening to their physical end’s through an abyss of darkness, no longer getting even the starlight. The only universe they could perceive was there inside the ship's cabin.

They started to nervously talk again but were interrupted by another “CLANKKK!” This time louder and longer, but it didn’t throw them as much. They grazed something big, probably the worst thing they could’ve experienced at that point. Something large in their path could mean a painful series of collisions being their existence until what would become a very roughed up ship tore apart and vaporized in the atmosphere – if the hull didn’t breach and decompress before then. A sickening thought for some, crippling for others, but altogether, bad. Adrienne timidly checked the sensor readouts. Their pressure and power were stable for now. They would live on.

Chapter 5

Chapter 7

Order

The contents of this work, including, but not limited to, the accuracy of events, people, and places depicted; opinions expressed; permission to use previously published materials included; and any advice given or actions advocated are solely the responsibility of the author, who assumes all liability for said work and indemnifies the publisher against any claims stemming from publication of the work.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

Dorrance Publishing Co

585 Alpha Drive

Pittsburgh, PA 15238

Visit our website at www. dorrancebookstore. com

ISBN: 978-1-6393-7021-4

ESIBN: 978-1-6393-7810-4