On the Rocks

by Peter Rhodan

  After cycling through the lock and making sure he was properly tethered, it did not take him long to reach the rear of the shuttle where he discovered the damage appeared much more extensive than the computer status report indicated. With some difficulty he pried the access hatch open allowing him to look into the bay where the warp engine resided. Getting into position that avoided sharp edges from the damage he peered into the somewhat distorted framing around the section where the warp jump engine was housed and decided there did not seem to be anything seriously wrong. As he had hoped from the damage report the damage to the warp jump engine appeared to be minor and more to do with it being jarred by the impact of the enemy fire so they should be able to repair it themselves as long as the unit itself was intact. A new warp core on the other hand was something that would take a proper shipyard to replace, even for a shuttle and as there were no electromagnetic transmissions in the system if the warp engine Was beyond repair they would be marooned here permanently.

  While he studied the area he realised that one of the support struts was bent and partially melted which meant that without leverage they would not be able to get the warp engine up out of the cradle where they would be able work on it. The most severe damage appeared to be confined simply to a power feed that had been shorn off somehow when the plasma bolt hit and they should have no difficulty in splicing it back on to the housing once they had the engine up out of the hull. All right, he thought to himself, it could have been worse and on that note he made his way back inside the cabin.

  As he returned to his command couch Aldershot looked at him expectantly. “Some jarring and the main power cable was sheared off which we should be able to fix but the framework is buckled so we’ll have to land somewhere to do the actual work. We wouldn’t be able to get enough leverage out here in space without a winch. It’s all pretty beat up back there but there appears nothing else obviously wrong although the damage looks a good deal worse than the instruments are telling us.” He pulled up the ongoing scan of the system they were in. “Still no communications traffic?”

  “No sir. I’m not getting any readings of energy sources either although at this range from the nearest planets that’s not surprising. This is only a shuttle after all.”

  “Okay. I’m going to put in a course for that third planet which looks pretty earth-like. Hopefully there will be someone there we can get a hand from given it’s clearly a terrestrial type. Stay on your toes just in case there are people in stealth or hiding behind that big arse moon.”

  “Roger that sir.”

  “And see if you can work where we are. We’re obviously not in IS 437 with the rest of the crew.”

  “Yes sir. I’ll see what I can work out although this thing has pretty limited stellar maps.”

  Arturo nodded, waved a hand casually to indicate he acknowledged the point and started dealing with more immediate navigation issues. A short while late, with his Lieutenant fiddling with the sensors, he fired up the thrusters and the ship began moving on the course he had come up with to finish in a high orbit around the third planet. At least the engines appeared to be working although the thrust numbers looked a little off. Maybe they were simply in need of overhaul which would explain why the surviving Marines had chosen the other Assault Shuttle. He had selected a shallow approach which was slower but gave them a better chance of escaping if there was something inimical waiting in orbit or hiding behind that massive moon. Terrestrial planets with large moons were rare although mankind’s birthplace Earth famously had one. If Aldershot noticed his cautious approach she made no comment.

  The closer they got, the more attractive the place looked. Aldershot’s scanner readings indicated that it was almost human perfect, something that was rare in the galaxy. Not that there weren’t plenty of Earth like planets floating around but the operative phrase was ‘Earth like’. His home world had taken three centuries to terraform to Earth standard according to the records and it had been one of the most “Earth like” planets in their sector having a gravity only slightly higher than Earth's and a similar rotation period of twenty seven hours.

  “Still nothing?” He asked as the shuttle slowly moved towards the intriguing third planet which was now showing the typical blue colour of an Earth-like world with an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere in the optical scanners.

  “No Sir, on either front. These Marine Assault Shuttles are not really set up for planetary surveys sir, but I see no energy transmissions or anything else artificial. It almost looks like there is no one there. We will need to be a lot closer to see anything with the optics. And wherever we are is beyond the onboard system map on this shuttle. What readings I have been able to make using well known major land marks like Sirius don’t make any sense.”

  “I see. That sounds odd. Well I’ll have a look at the problem myself once I get a chance. We’re not going anywhere till we fix the War Drive so there is no rush and if we don’t pick up anything during our approach I’ll put as in high orbit around the planet. You should be able to see something from there even with these optics. That’s if there’s anything to see of course.” Aldershot glanced at him with raised eyebrows but returned to her panel after a second without making any comment. Arturo adjusted their course slightly before continuing. “In some ways it would be better if the place was uninhabited, given that there are no electromagnetic transmissions, primitives from a colony fallen back to a pre-industrial level are more likely to be a hindrance rather than a help.”

  Before the Lieutenant had a chance to comment a groan could be heard coming from the back of the compartment. Aldershot got up and went to check on the injured crewman. He had appeared to have no obvious injuries so was no doubt suffering a concussion from the knock on the head he had taken. Arturo hoped there was not internal head damage as fixing something like that would beyond the med-tech computer in the simple sick bay the shuttle was equipped with. The man tried to get up but found this too difficult, complaining of shooting pains and dizziness which Arturo decided confirmed the concussion diagnosis. Aldershot must have agreed because she went to the rear of the shuttle where the sick bay was and returned with some pain killer tablets from the medical chest.

  While she gave the tablets to the injured crewman she explained their situation and by the time she had finished Arturo had brought the shuttle into a high altitude orbit around the third planet. Having completed what little she could do for the injured crewman Aldershot returned to her chair and resumed scanning the surface both electronically and now with the optical systems. After about forty minutes she called up the results of the display screen at the front of the cockpit.

  “All right sir, this is what we appear to have.” A schematic of the planet appeared on the screen. “There are five major landmasses with islands. No energy signatures whatsoever however thermal imaging brings up these splotch areas which can’t all be large areas of natural springs or such or else there would have to be far more volcanos with that much thermal stuff going on.” She paused while the image enlarged. “See this area here for instance. There are several intense spots which the software labels as volcanic but there are also these large area splotches, especially here and here.” The image was of an elongated peninsula with bright red dots in several places at the upper end of the land and even a couple in the sea. Moving down the peninsula there were several splotches, the one about half way down covering quite an area and there were a couple of other splotches further down before there was a large hemispherical blank area which looked like a mountain range to Arturo.

  The view changed to an aerial photo of what could probably be man-made habitations given there appeared to be several straight lines and rectangular shapes although the resolution was too low to get a clear idea of what they consisted of. “Given the lack of energy sources my guess is this represents a lost colony that has reverted to a preindustrial format.” Aldershot finished the presentation.

  “Right. I think the best thing is for us to pick an isolated sp
ot to land in so as not to disturb the locals. We should be able to do our repairs and get back into space before anyone is the wiser.” Arturo paused for a second looking at the photo again. “We obviously have to get down to a lower orbit to obtain a better idea of where there is a good spot to land.”

  Aldershot nodded and turned back to her panel while Arturo instructed the navigation computer to bring their orbit down much lower. They’d risk observation at night but if the locals had lost their technology they would probably think the shuttle was a shooting star or a chariot of the gods! Arturo smiled at this thought, the great god Arturo descending from the heavens to smite the wicked. Ha!

  As their shuttle descended into the lower orbit even the poor optics on the assault shuttle were able to reveal that much of the planet was under cultivation, albeit the cultivation was very patchy. Geographically there were large grass plains on the two main continents in what they had arbitrarily determined was the southern hemisphere. Much of the northern hemisphere land areas appeared to be jungle apart from one huge desert at the bottom of one of the two main continents and there was one large island although that also was largely desert.

  It was summer or late spring in the southern hemisphere and after some discussion with Aldershot, Arturo elected to land somewhere in that hemisphere. Aldershot studied several spots and settled on an area that did hold some people, in case they needed more muscle power than three of them could provide to get the jump engine out of its bay, but at the same time it was an area without some of the more ‘civilised’ looking towns and cities so the numbers of locals in the immediate vicinity should not be too great nor pose to much of a threat. Indeed the continent selected seemed to house little in the way artificial construction north of the tropics where there were some signs of buildings.

  “Just enough people around to be useful but not enough to be a threat given our weaponry.” He commented when she showed him her choice. There was enough timber for construction of an A-frame for lifting the jump engine out the bay, plenty of open grassland to land in and only a few people who appeared to live in small tent like structures which were no doubt mobile and could be taken with them once they had exhausted the resources of the local area. Just to be sure they made several orbits checking the area looking for any surprises but eventually Arturo made the decision to land.

  He eased the shuttle down into the atmosphere, using the manoeuvring jets to reduce their speed gradually. As they got lower the ship heated up from the friction, but the antigrav field meant their thrusters could keep their descent slow and easy. Their speed was down to just under ten thousand kilometres an hour when the problems began.

  “Sir, the antigrav is failing!” Aldershot announced, the concern palpable in her voice.

  What next! Arturo groaned to himself. The voice of his old football coach came back to him, "If it ain’t your day, it ain’t your day." Which was all well and good to help a football team recover from a bad match but it was not much use now! All right. Do I try to get back into orbit or fly her down anyway, he thought to himself. Grrrr. Think quick Arty! Got to land to fix the warp engine so that settles that, he decided quickly. “Buckle up, I’m taking her in.” He told his crew and prepared to land the shuttle the old fashioned way without anti-grav. Fortunately they were in one of the Marine Assault Shuttles which were designed for rapid atmospheric deployment with a cargo of fully kitted out Marines and at least had some atmospheric capability whereas one of the normal shuttles would have simply dropped like a brick, burning up in the process.

  As it was, they were coming in way too fast and well short of their original target area, as in a whole ocean short! To make matters worse, his frequent attempts to slow their descent by pulling back on the stick and using the air to brake wasn’t really helping as much as he had hoped it would and the outside temperature was getting dangerously high. Oh, of course, just to add insult to injury, the whole area he was now being forced to land in was completely overcast! "What have I done to warrant this much bad luck?" He complained silently to himself while struggling with the controls of the shuttle which was now bucking in response to the rapid descent through the atmosphere.

  The reaction motors were really not designed stop the ship descending like this without anti-grav and his speed was still enormous when they entered the cloud cover. His proximity radar appeared to be working and they flew over a range of mountains and eased down into flatter land, only to be confronted by more mountains that rose suddenly in front of the ship with little warning. Their speed was still too high to land or turn sharply left or right so he had little choice but to attempt to fly through the rugged terrain looming ahead.

  He dodged between rocky peaks, first hard left, then hard right, then left, then “Shit!” And the shuttle clipped the side of mountain which had been masked on the radar by a closer peak until the very last second. They were thrown all over the place by the collision and the shuttle then developed all the aerodynamic qualities of a brick and despite his best efforts the damn thing nosedived into the ground before skipping once, twice then splashing into water at the edge of a lake that suddenly appeared in front of them. The dark glistening water was thrown up like a wall as they impacted and then everything went black.

  Chapter 3

  Salvage operations

  Arturo regained consciousness sitting in his command chair. His head felt like he had been wacked in the back of it by a lump of wood and he felt seriously nauseous as he sat there for some time just trying to get himself together. The thumping in his slowly subsided and his guts settled after a few minutes and he opened his eyes and looked around. The cabin was on emergency lighting and he could see flashing and flickering reflections all around the flight deck. He turned his head to look at Aldershot and nearly gagged as he discovered her head had been squashed against the bulkhead behind her by a large chunk of metal that had somehow been dislodged from the forward cabin wall. Through the hole thus created he could see water beginning to flow into the ship.

  "Cranson, you OK?" He yelled as he rapidly undid the restraining straps holding him into the flight couch. Silence greeted his query and once he had freed himself and swung around so he could look into the rear section of the cabin where the orderly had been strapped in, hopefully. What he found was that the whole right side of the shuttle had been smashed in, presumably when he had hit the side of the damn mountain that had loomed up so suddenly. There was a gash high up open to the sky where the wall armour had been scrapped off the framing which was in turn severely buckled. Cranson was almost certainly dead as he could see parts of his mangled body in the twisted metal. That whole side of the shuttle was crushed and mangled and the hand he could see was not moving. The arms locker was on that side of the shuttle of course and he tried to find a way through the wreckage but it was impossible to manage on his own.

  The sensation of water sloshing around his feet drew his attention away from struggling with the wreckage and to thoughts of getting out. There was no telling how deep the lake was nd the water was freezing so he made his way towards the right rear annex where the galley was on the undamaged side of the ship and with this side of the ship being relatively intact he reached the entry door without any trouble.

  Not really expecting a response he pressed the door release panel and surprisingly the door opened immediately presumably using the emergency power the ship was still maintaining somehow. Inside he found a mess. His original impression that this side of the ship was intact wasn’t entirely correct as the whole area appeared to have been twisted and bent in the crash. Water sloshed into the room from the open door reminding Arturo he had little time to waste. Most of the ration storage area seemed intact but unfortunately the doors wouldn’t open as apparently the power which still ran to the annex door didn’t extend to the cupboards. After some heaving and pulling he managed to open one door using brute force allowing him access to the goodies within.

  He fumbled around grabbing emergency ration packs, a coupl
e of first aid kits and a water purifier. Struggling through the deepening water he reached one of the crew access doors which he hoped was still above the water level. Despite being loaded up with all his supplies, he managed to hit the open button with his elbow on the first try. As with the other door this one still had power, which was just as well, he thought to himself and the hatch swished open revealing a grey, darkening sky and the dark metallic looking lake the shuttle had slammed into.

  The air was breathable and very fresh, as was the temperature which had to be barely above freezing. The fresh cold air entering his throat with every breath was clear of the odours of an industrial world but it quickly chilled him internally, helping the cold water sloshing around his feet. The ship appeared to be stuck on the edge of what was hopefully a shallow lake bed and the shore was just near the hatch. Putting down his goodies he took off his boots and eased himself into the water next to the hatch, holding on tightly just in case it was deeper than it looked. The actual lake water was bitingly cold, much chillier than the water seeping into the cabin and the sudden shock of it caused him start shivering almost immediately. The bottom of the lake proved to have a soft, muddy feeling and his feet had barely reached the solid ground underlying the mud when the ship shuddered and groaned, tilting up even more despite the fact that the water where he stood only came halfway up his calves,.

  "Shit" he muttered, startled by the sudden movement and he grabbed his supplies as quickly as he could in case the shuttle was about to sink complete but fortunately the vessel stopped moving almost immediately and had hopefully settled permanently now. Even so he did not relax till he had his supplies in his arms and laden with his salvage it was not till he had waded to shore that he looked around at his new home.