Prologue: Hard Landings
Passenger carriers. For all the advancements humanity has made, comfortable and efficient passenger travel for the masses seemed to constantly elude it. With the onset of interstellar travel, the problem only got worse. The jump drives were large and expensive - too much so to be mounted on large numbers of craft. The space bus had to make do with something else. And so, the passenger carriers were made - massive haulers with barely a skeleton crew, carrying orbital shuttles between planets of destination. For lack of supplies, passengers were put in cold sleep for the duration of the trips, and only woken up when their respective shuttle was landing at its destination. It was neither fast, nor comfortable... but it was cheap, and for most it was the only option available.
So it was that you had booked passage on board Carrier Line 42 to the same destination. Work reassignment, contract hunting or simply going to check up on the refurbishment of your ship, there was little reason to share your reasons with your shuttle-mates. You'd be in cold sleep for the trip, which doesn't lend itself to conversation. You dressed down for the procedure, stowed your luggage into the overhead compartments, climbed into the sleeping pod, and let darkness take you.
Time passed...
Waking up from cold sleep is rarely a pleasant experience, but nothing like this. A constant rumbling, travelling through the structure of the shuttle and the sleeping pods would have jarred you awake, had the automated systems not done it themselves. And that feeling in your gut that tells you you're going much faster than you should be, and in the wrong direction. The shuttle is tumbling - whatever you're near has a gravity pull strong enough to overrride that of the shuttle, and you feel every twist and turn it makes. A few times you can feel a shockwave striking the hull and adding even more vibration to the whole structure. There's no sound, save the constant rumbling and the desperate whine of the engines. Then, for a moment, everything goes silent... thankfully the moment is too short for the realisation to sink in that there's no more sound from the engines.
The shuttle hits something - the rumbling and vibration ends, with a resounding crash and a powerful impact, felt even in the relative safety of the sleeping pods. For a moment there's the screech of metal grinding against something, and another crash, fading to silence.
The sleeping pods open with a soft hiss. You climb out, unsteady and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. The interior of the shuttle was bathed in a red light from the emergency power. Structurally, the shuttle seems sound - none of the sleeping pods have been damaged, though a quick glance would show that aside from your four, the others are empty. The only noticeable damage is the wall separating the pilot's compartment from the passengers' compartment bending rather ominously inwards, as if it had suffered some massive impact.
The drowsiness brought on by cold sleep has passed from your mind, and you can think clearly again...
Author
Topic: MRS Morey - PBF (Read 118381 times)