4
873 Words
The mission had started like any other the men had been on. Sitting up front, you had Carol, who was the most seasoned of the team, and next to him was Mark, and behind them were Brian and Andy. The men had done their last-minute final checks before confirming everything was a go. And just like that, the countdown began, and then they were shooting for the stars. They made it past Earth's atmosphere easily and out past the moon. Carol and Mark had told the two younger men many times about the days when the farthest they could make it was to Mars, and now one could go anywhere in our Solar system and not even blink an eye. And if they were lucky with this trip, they would be making history. The ships weren't made the same as they used to. They didn't have to use so much fuel to make it up and out. And once they had made it out of the atmosphere, they could pretty much float with a bit of steering here and there to make sure they didn't hit anything.
They kept in constant communication with Earth as they went. They had made it out of the Solar system by the six-month mark and were entering the Alpha Centauri system. Everything seemed to be going smoothly as the guys went about their daily routines when out of no were something hard hit the side of the ship, shoving them off course by how much they weren't sure. The ship spun out past the planet that marked their turn-around point and slammed them into something else, knocking out their controls and communications. They were left drifting out past where they had meant to go. None of the men were hurt, and once they were sure that whatever had knocked them off course was over, Andy and Brian were sent out to fix as much as they could. The two men worked for a few hours as they tried to get some of the controls back up and running so that they could at least attempt at not hitting anything else. Once they had fixed it so they could move a little, they focused on getting communications back so that they could contact Earth in hopes of being able to see how far off course they had gotten.
They had begun to lose hope after about the hundredth attempt of them trying to fix the ship and nothing really working, and after agreeing to try again, Brian and Andy dressed and went out through the airlock to get to work again. As the two men worked, trying everything they knew, they drifted closer to what they could only guess was a moon. Carol and Mark were able to move them around it only to reveal a planet that looked a lot like Earth but was clearly not. The landmass was in the middle and spanned the size of Asia and Europe, and the rest was blue, suggesting it was covered in water. Brian and Andy stopped their work for a moment taking in the sight they were seeing, only to be brought back to reality by Carol's voice coming over their short wave radio device, "You boys are going to want to get back inside now. This planet appears to have gravity and looks like we are going to get pulled in."
Brian and Andy looked at one another, registering the measured panic in Carol's voice, and started to move fast. They moved back around the ship and down the backside to the airlock door. They no more than climbed in, and Carol's voice was heard again, "Buckle in, NOW. We are going down fast."
The two didn't have to be told again. They buckled in right there in the airlock and held on as tight as they could. The ship seemed to of caught on fire as it entered the planet's atmosphere because, from the window in the airlock door, Brian and Andy could see an orange glow. This only seemed to make them fall faster and spin out of control. And then, just like that, everything stopped spinning, and then they hit the ground hard. The ship kept moving even after it hit the ground, not seeming to slow down by much until it hit the forest line. As the ship shoved its way into the trees, a few of the bigger branches of the trees broke off. Flying into the ship, one pierced Carol through the chest as another slammed into Mark's head, twisting his neck around. Before the ship finally came to a stop and settled. Andy's head had slammed against the side of the ship on impact knocking him unconscious. Brian's seat belt had bit into his chest, and as they hit the ground, he felt some of his rips break under the pressure. As the ship moved through the trees, one had pushed its way back through the airlock door colliding with his leg, causing him to lose consciousness from the pain. All that was left that seemed to be alive were the sparks that came from some of the controls as the last bit of energy from the ship exerted itself.
- Writer
