My Idea Box

ORIGINAL IDEA: Lost and Crashing

"-rning! Warning! Decelerating from lightspeed!"

The announcement came as a surprise to me. Had the trip already ended? We were supposed to have been in lightspeed for three minutes. It had only been, what? Twenty? Thirty seconds?

"... approaching planet. ETA to entry entry: two minutes."

What? The guys had already found another planet? Just how far away from Earth were we? We weren't supposed to have gone farther than halfway to Alpha Centauri-

Suddenly, I felt it. The pull of gravity. The constant rattle of the ship's very being. God, it was like being inside of a rattle! I couldn't count off the periodic table or up to the fortieth digit of pi!

I wasn't the only one. A body went thump by me. "Oof!" she screamed.

Lying on the floor, I glanced at the woman beside me. A face few years older than me, and with pretty dimpled cheeks, stared back. Framed between dark bangs, the eyes of the good old medic were wide and wondering the same thing I had been. "What's going on?!" she shouted over the noise.

I had a guess, but the computer had beaten me to it: "Entering planet atmosphere!"

"Well, there's your answer!" I told her, trying to get up on my arms.

"Wait!" I heard-

After a more violent shake, I fell back, my chin hitting the metal floor. "Gah!" I hissed from the pain.

After it subsided, I stared at my fellow partner lying beside me. In any other situation, I'd tease her with "I've always dreamed of this," earning a nice slap on my head for it. Now, the medic rose slowly and steadily on the nearby wall. "Here," she said, her hand held out to me.

I took it without question. I still crouched, and my feet stumbled over the constant shaking. The pull of an alien planet would do that. It did to us both, grabbing at our blue and white uniforms. It didn't stop me from reaching (and struggling to, mind you) for the comm on the wall. "Hrgh, c-captain!" I called.

"... an, that you?!" answered the gruff voice on the other end.

"And meddy!" I shouted back, using my pet name for the medic. "What's going on?!"

If there was an answer, I didn't hear fully hear it. Another violent jerk took me and the medic off our feet. "Wah!" we screamed, wobbling until our bodies struck and slid down the wall.

That was when the rest came. "-get to the main engine-bzzzzzzt-pilot the-bzzt-to safety! Permis-bzzzt-Iron Mas-bzzzzzt-"

Old cap's words were a garbled mess, but I got it. "Well, you heard him," I groaned and grabbed the railing beside me.

I didn't bother with walking. I flipped up a handle and pressed the trigger on it, ignoring the medic's "Wait a second!" The built-in wire pulled me from the tiny corridor's padded walls to the door on the far end. Flying straight ahead, my shoulder bumped into the window next to it. I ignored the gigantic engine behind the glass and reached for the door panel...

A third shake tilted everything to the other side. The minute I opened the door, the medic had joined me. Or rather fell on me.

"Woah!" She screamed on her way down, her back hitting on my side.

With her considerable weight pinning me to the wall (or the floor now), I wheezed. "Hrgh, get off!" I shouted, pushing her to the side.

Her glare was still on me. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I could ask you that!" I retorted as I grabbed onto the door. "Captain gave an order. I'm following it!"

"But the program is-?"

"Don't have much a choice, do we?!" I argued back.

"Automatic controls, disabled! Manual piloting, required!"

"See! Even the ship agrees with me-!"

The ship, turning again, didn't give me a victory. Since I hung by the door frame, I was left dangling while my fellow colleague fell to the left. A short drop, but one that left her just as disoriented.

For me, there was no time left to argue. I scurried my legs up with my body and pulled myself into the engine room. The door closed behind me, cutting out a cry to my ears. I couldn't see a thing... well except for the gigantic tank in front, glowing from the several burning circuits.

My feet went across the slanted, quaking floor for the seat by the engine. It was a short walk that dragged out, and I (surprisingly) made it without getting burned or falling. Only my butt fell back on the seat. "Okay, you can do this... You can do this..." I told myself over my pounding heart, hands pulling the monitor screen from the side and in front.

Again everything slanted, this time forward. "Oh s-!" I cried, face hitting the screen. Ironically, that had been my salvation for not falling out of my seat. "... Ow... maybe not yet."

I shifted my groaning butt back into place. Planting my feet firmly down, my hands reached for the long neural wires. I had barely stuck the left wire to my temple when a tap, tap, tap reached me ear.

It was the medic. She was by the window, shouting at the top of her lungs. Her sentences were muffled by the glass (no doubt, the usual "get out of there!" cliche), but the last word sounded familiar. I grinned after I realized what. "You know," I shouted back, plugging the other wire to my head, "I think that's the first time you said my name!"

Looking away, I kept that expression of slight annoyance and major concern in my mind. I'd need that while I brought the screen to life and saw the words puked out in green: "Iron Mask program on standby. Chances of successful transfer: sixty-two percent. Would you like to connect?"

My right hand said "Yes!", slamming on the screen-

"Biometric, accepted... Connecting..."

-and the words vanished with everything else. With nothing else, I focused.

"... Connecting..." the computer droned through the nothing.

I had no mouth, but I could speak. I needed the process to speed up. I was almost there...

"Process complete."

Immediately, numbers popped; ones, twos, fives, etc. Numbers turned into equations. Equations turned into algorithms. Algorithms became shapes. Shapes turned into form. Form became parts. Parts became a ship, seconds away from crashing.

Wait, what-

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AN:

-W.S.