The Thallan's Experiment

Chapter 1 Tristan

The turbulence in this junker of a space craft is getting worse. All the monitors still say our hull integrity is good, but I'm getting nervous. This little ship isn't really built for the long travel we're putting it through.

"Tristan, is there anything we can do about the shaking?" asks Alyssa, my assistant in the engine room.

We're already pushing the stabilizers more than we should. "Yeah, we can fucking land," I snap. I shouldn't be so mean to her. It's not her fault.

She looks at me, her big brown eyes looking even bigger from behind her prescription goggles.

I sigh and lean away from the monitors. "Sorry, it's not your fault. I need to talk to the captain." I pull myself out of the engine pit. "See if you can divert more power from the redundant systems into the stabilizers."

"Okay." She takes my place in the engine pit.

I don't want to talk to the captain. He's a complete asshole. But he needs to know we're pushing this junker too hard.

Someone grabs my arm just before I get to the cockpit. It's one of the backup pilots. Her blue eyes sweep over me and she tucks her long blond hair back behind her ear.

"Don't, he's in a mood," she warns.

"Ginger, if this continues, we're going to disintegrate." I shrug off her hand.

"Your funeral." She shakes her head as I turn back towards the cockpit.

"—the fuck are you doing?!" shouts the captain, George Alan, towering over the main pilot. I do not envy that woman. Anna is an incredibly talented and competent pilot, but she puts up with so much bullshit from George.

"Sir, I am navigating this asteroid field while this junker shakes more than you did the first time a woman touched your balls," she retorts, not taking her eyes off the view-screen. She does know how to handle him.

"About that," I interject before the captain's red face actually explodes.

"Tristan? What the Hell are you doing here?" He turns his explosive anger towards me. Well, at least this gives Anna a few minutes break from it.

"This junker needs maintenance that I cannot do while we're flying."

"Make it work!"

"I have been trying. Alyssa and I haven't slept in three days trying to keep this thing running at all. We need to land." I cross my arms, trying not to look terrified. He closes the distance, towering over me. I can clearly see the vein on the side of head bulging ahead of his receding hairline.

"I don't give a shit if you keel over from exhaustion, so long as you do it after the mission."

I give him my best stern face. It's not great. At thirty-two, I still somehow have a baby-face. "Sir, the ship won't last that long no matter what I do. We need—"

"Captain! Tristan!" Alyssa rushes into the cockpit. "The stabilizers are failing!"

My stomach drops. I knew it. I fucking knew it. I should have confronted the captain sooner.

"Then fix it!" he growls at Alyssa.

I shake my head and push past him to get a look at the star map in front of Anna. I point to the nearest planet. "I don't care what this planet is, put us down there, fast, or we're all going to die."

Anna glances at me, her dark eyes showing actual fear for the first time I've ever seen.

"You don't give the orders!" The captain keeps shouting, but I don't have time for him.

"Alyssa, start evacuating non-essential personnel into the escape capsules." There aren't many, but there should be enough for the random passengers and scientists we're transporting. I hope it ends up being unnecessary.

"Okay." She glances at the captain but hurries off as his anger remains focused on me.

"Once you've done that you get in one yourself!"

She pauses at the door. "Tristan."

"Go!"

She nods and leaves.

"Are you listening to me?" George grabs the collar of my shirt, forcing my focus to him. I feel my body go cold.

"Captain, you should get in a capsule too," snaps Anna. "Tristan and I are the only people necessary to try to save this junker."

I clear my throat. "You really should, sir. Odds are we aren't going to be very successful."

"Save this ship," he growls as he lets me go and stomps out of the cockpit.

"The rest of you, get going!" orders Anna to the remaining crew in the cockpit.

"Stay on the comm, I'm going to the engine room and to start diverting everything we have into just the flight system." I head to the engine room.

People are running for the escape capsules. It's a bit chaotic, but they're not aggressively shoving each other at least. No one spares me a second glance despite the fact that I'm clearly going in the wrong direction. Whatever, I've got a job to do if I don't want Anna and I to both die.

"How's it looking?" asks Anna over the comm.

I drop into the engine pit. Everything is overheating. "Cooling system's shot to Hell." I grab the nearby fire extinguisher to cool the worst of it.

"Ugh, can you give me any more power or stability?"

"Yeah, give me a sec." I start re-routing power from all non-essential systems, and shutting down life support in specific, now-empty, areas of the junker.

"Better, but I don't know if it's going to be enough to get to the planet and hit the breaks enough not to disintegrate." I can hear the strain in her voice. We just had to be in the middle of an asteroid field when this happened.

"I'm still working, just keep flying."

"Everyone got out. But…"

"I see it on my monitor." There's no escape capsules left. "Let's make sure we succeed then."

"That ass-hat captain took one capsule all to himself." Her anger can be felt through the comm. I don't know how she put up with him as much as she did.

The turbulence is getting worse. All of the systems are overheating and I'm running out of fire extinguisher. I can barely stand to be in the engine pit anymore. It's going to boil me at this rate.

"We're hitting the atmosphere. Brace."

Grab the rail of the engine pit just in time for a violent jerk. I would have been thrown against the burning machinery if I had been any slower. "Everything's overheating. I can't get near the machinery anymore."

"This is going to be a rough landing. Hold on tight!"

There's a lot of shaking, a loud clanking and the shearing of metal, and then nothing.