My Friend is an Alien - Edlund Niklas - Страница 28

Finally the other two boys noticed their friend's disposition. "You okay, Keith?" asked Niklas.

Keith grumbled. "Ask me that when we get back to Earth."

"Y'know, you've been acting a bit nasty since this whole trip started." commented Davy. "If you didn't want to come along, why did you?"

Keith glared. "Because while you two put your heads in the clouds, or the stars, or whatever, somebody had to come along to keep your feet on the ground!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Niklas.

"You've been watching too many episodes of Star Trek or whatever, that's what I mean." said Keith. "In all of your watching space movies and stuff, did you miss 'Apollo 13? And that's the one that really happened!"

"Are you saying…" began Davy.

"I'm saying," interrupted Keith, "that we're shooting through space, faster-than-light, further out than anybody from our planet has ever been, on board a ship built by two kids who aren't that different from us, and all you two can do is gape out the windows. If anything happened to Jahv, do you think any of us would ever see home again?"

"And you'd rather sit there, sulk, and dwell on that than enjoy this opportunity to see the universe from a perspective that no one ever has before?" exclaimed Niklas. "I think this is all magnificent! I can see why astronauts and cosmonauts have always found traveling in space to be such an incredible experience. And we've gone a lot further than they ever have."

"I'd rather you guys keep a balanced view here, that's all." said Keith. "Sure, this is all pretty fantastic. But if you're expecting the Starship Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon to come zipping along, don't hold yer breath."

Suddenly a loud THUNK reverberated through the ship, which seemed to stall and shudder. "Uh, oh…" remarked Jahv worriedly from the cockpit. If he'd heard any of the conversation, he was either too polite or too occupied just now to say so.

"Hey, those are not words you want to hear when you're still a dozen light years from home, okay?" said Keith. Morik deactivated the headband. He didn't know machinery, but he could tell something wasn't right.

"What happened?" asked Niklas, moving up to the cockpit area.

Jahv was frantically checking controls. "I don't know yet! We're losing hyperwarp speed, but I don't know why!"

"What's going to happen?" exclaimed Davy frantically.

There was another loud THUNK which reverberated through the shuttle. The youngsters were all panicked at this point, including Jahv. "What's the matter with this thing?"

"Do something, greenie!" yelled Keith, wishing there was someplace to run but realizing there wasn't.

"I would if I knew what to do!" countered Jahv. "I can't even figure out what's happening! Sensors won't work, we're bouncing all over hyperspace. We could emerge anywhere in the galaxy!"

The shuttle was bucking around severely at this point. Niklas and Keith had been on their feet and got roughly slammed to the floor. They clambered into their chairs and strapped in.

Jahv was trying desperately to stay calm and figure out what was happening. A console on the wall behind him suddenly sparked, but a quick glance told him that it was, of all things, the windshield wipers. Jahv took a couple of deep breaths and called to mind everything his parents had taught him about emergency shuttle procedures. He continued checking the control panels. "Okay. I know what's wrong. Hyperwarp stabilizer malfunction. We're going to have to pull out of this, or we really could get lost halfway across the galaxy. But I've got to find us someplace to — I think you would call it 'pull over' — to effect repairs."

A loud BANG shot through the shuttle. Niklas and Davy both screamed. Morik was just hanging on, eyes wide and petrified. It was entirely possible he was having a nasty flashback to his last shuttle flight, the one which had killed his parents and stranded him on a wild jungle planet. "What the hell was that?!" yelled Keith.

Jahv, fighting panic, shot his hands across the control panels. The readings did not look good. "Stabilizer's shot entirely. We're coming out of hyperwarp. Hang on."

The shuttle vibrated and the metal screamed. The stars flashing past diminished into the normal points of light that they always appeared to be. Finally the ship shuddered a few times and stalled, nearly dead in space.

"What now?" cried Davy.

"Told you this could happen." said Keith, although he was as petrified as the others. He'd trusted Jahv, as well, and hadn't really expected anything this bad to happen.

Jahv continued to keep his own panic in check as best as possible. "Okay, run procedures." he said to himself. "Structural integrity — no, dammit — life support first. Life support fully functional. We won't run out of air. Structural integrity next. We're sound except for a slight breach caused when the stabilizer coil gave out, but that section is isolated to itself and can withstand space. Engine power — we've got sublight engines all the way up to.9995. I can maybe get us close enough to light-speed to shave some time off to a repair facility. Bridge us between normal space and hyperspace. Pray we're close to something useful."

"What the hell are you jabbering about up there!" yelled Keith, who had unstrapped from his chair. "You've just stranded us and you're running a checklist?!"

"Keith, I realize you're scared, and so am I, but panic won't do any good. Please sit down until I can figure out where we are and how badly off this ship is."

"Why, you —!" started Keith, but he was restrained by Davy, who had gotten up, as had Niklas and Morik.

"Keith, chill out. Let's see what's going on." urged Davy.

"Jahv, how bad is it, really?" said Niklas. They were all fighting panic, but Jahv was right. It wouldn't help.

"We've got sensors, and I'm running star charts." said Jahv, almost mechanically.

"Star charts?!" exploded Keith. "What the hell good are —?!"

Jahv shot out of his seat and faced the terrified Keith. "All right, that's enough! You're scared, I'm scared, we're all scared! And maybe I'm a stranger on your planet and don't know my way around even well enough to go to a mall, but out here, this is MY territory and I DO know what I'm doing! There are emergency procedures that are drilled into the head of every single space-faring Botaran from the instant they can understand language! And right now, that's what I'm doing. You want to know what happened? Fine! We blew a stabilizer coil. That means we can't use the hyperwarp engines to travel faster than light. We need a replacement part, which won't really be that hard to find PROVIDED we're close enough to a place where we can get one. When I realized what was happening, I had just enough time to point us more or less in a direction where we should be able to get help. And I'm running star charts right now to find out just where the closest help might be. Okay?!"

Jahv was shaking, partly from anger but mostly from fear. So was Keith. The two faced each other for a long moment. Nobody moved. Finally Keith backed off. "Just get us home. Whatever it takes."

"That, I promise you." said Jahv.

"Are we — lost?" asked Morik. He'd been too scared to even speak until now.

"I hope not." said Jahv. Suddenly the console in the cockpit beeped. Had it found something?

Jahv's fingers flew across the controls, and star maps soared across the screen. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved at the results or not. "Garboris. Not the nicest place in the galaxy, but it'll have to do. I've been there before, with my parents, years ago."

"What's Garboris?" asked Davy. "Some sort of planet?"

Jahv shook his head, replotting the course. "It's a space station. Huge. In what we call open space. It's not aligned with any of the major empires, alliances, or federations. Nicely placed along major trade routes, though. People go there to trade, repair their ships, stuff like that — especially when they want to avoid any official attention."