Space Bunnies!

Chapter 21: Spiral

Flight through a storm was not easy to do. He would have to fly by wire, which was not preferable when braving a storm, but the unforgiving turbulence of the storm meant it wasn't safe to stand up and walk about the ship. Kai was a decent pilot, taught by his father. But he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to handle this situation but he had no choice if he wanted to save Bodi, himself, and the ship. It was quite frustrating to know that this was the first thing they encountered just barely entering the space of quadrant four, and by comparison to the other dangers reported in Q4, this one was nothing more than a nail in a tire, of course, the people who claimed that was in much more powerful ships with shielding that could easily handle this threat... but a solar sailor was not. Kai was terrified, and it was rare to see him, as a person whose passion was climbing dangerous heights of mountains for fun. He was somewhat fearless. But if someone stared this spiraling horror directly down into the pitch back center and claimed not to be afraid, they would be a fool.

The first wave of turbulence was sharp and unforgiving, their small vessel shook with warning as they coasted the exterior of the anomaly. The lighting and thunder in space are what seemed to spook Kai and Bodi the most. Suppose the closest thing to this entire scene would be a storm on their home planet, a tropical environment called for tornadoes, monsoons, and other weather events that were just light showers in comparison to this. "Any ideas space explorer?" Kai asked he attempted a weary smile that Bodi could not see, his voice was shakier than the metal on the ship which was already creaking and threatening to fly apart with every pass. Bodi was taken aback because Kai never asked him for advice concerning the flight of the ship. But he was right at this moment, Bodi was the expert on space, alien plants, and alien animals. Kai was good with sailing and terrain. "Well... I hope that we'll stay outside of the eye of the storm, and then use the centrifugal shape of the anomaly, to slingshot out of the accretion disk. Assuming we don't get ripped to shreds by the turbulence."

Kai's face straightened up in an almost cartoonish manner. He was horrified and to be honest, he wasn't sure if they were going to survive... "Well, we can't exactly pull out of this. So we should just wait until we reach the end of our third rotation, and hit the thrusters on full." Bodi continued. "But by the time we reach the end, we'll be sucked in by gravity!" Kai said, his hands were off the controls, he wasn't sure what to do but hesitation would only kill them faster. "The ship can take it. It is a solar sailor!" There was no way they were coming out of this with just sails alone, Kai had since withdrawn the rigging in an attempt to save them from damage, so they were running on their main fuel tanks and reserves alone. "But we can't afford to lose both the primary and reserves! We'd have to burn the engines way past their limit!"

The ship was struck by the most powerful shock yet, a lightning bolt smacked them right on the nose of their craft, which cracked the glass. Good thing they didn't have to breathe oxygen, otherwise they'd have a whole new problem, though the cracking of the glass was enough to convince Kai to proceed with the plan. His hands manipulated the displays and switches on his console, and he awaited the time. Externally, the vessel was on a course similar to a toy in a bathtub, one that was draining and creating a little vortex at the drain hole. All they had to do was avoid getting trapped too far in the gravity and they were fine. Thirty-seven seconds, all it took was thirty-seven seconds. A short burst from the engines would be applied. It took 74 to 'orbit' the anomaly. And halfway there would be the engine burn, as co-pilot Bodi would give the signal. Kai had never been faster in completing his spatial calculations. And added to that, there was a certain level of difficulty in timing the burn just right. Kai rotated the vessel to a 30° pitch a nine o'clock, in preparation for punching out of the ring of the spiral.

"Now!" Bodi shouted suddenly, Kai wasn't even sure if they were halfway through, it wasn't even a second thought, no argument spark, just Kai hitting the booster; one could only hope that he did it in time. The duo were pinned to their seats, as the shock of the engine was rippled throughout their ship. Another jolt and flash of lightning, a deep burst of thunder as they broke orbit, the klaxons blared again. Kai put so much energy into the engines, that they generated a streak of colorful trail that followed the ship until it was out of range of the anomaly. "Yes! We did it!" Bodi shouted from beside Kai, but the intense inertia caused the ship to continue at a rapid pace toward the emptiness of space. "Don't celebrate! The main power is offline so are the backups, because... of course. I'm pretty sure we're out of fuel!" Kai shouted over the turbulence, the klaxons, outside of the main viewport was a moon that looked like it was completely surrounded by ice. Kai knew what he had to do.

"No Kai, no!" Bodi said as he watched Kai unbuckle his restraints and make his way to the center of the ship where the manual steering bar was located. With such heavy pressure on gravity, Kai struggled to move to the center, his form took the consistency of jello as he moved. The ship was more than capable of being controlled manually, provided the pilot had enough strength to steer control surfaces without damaging their own body. Kai had no choice, the ship was crashing, and it was only a matter of how badly they crashed.