“Got it,” Pierdew said. “Course confirmed.”
Davey stared through the forward viewport, watching in horror as the clouds parted to reveal the landscape beneath. A broad range of mountains filled his vision, the brutal bare rock looming rapidly. “We’re not going to make it,” he said. “We’ll never get over it.”
The craft pitched, nose down, Davey’s stomach rising in his chest.
“Trimming rear thrusters,” Pierdew said.
“You can’t do that,” Beech protested. “We’ll hit the ground too soon, too fast.”
“If I don’t fix the pitch we’ll dive to the surface,” Pierdew replied. “We have to land now. We’re going in hard. Alert the passengers.”
“Brace! Brace! Brace!” Beech called out. “Brace for emergency landing.”
Somewhere behind Davey, a recorded message called out its stark warning, and he pictured his wife, Helen, holding onto his son, Calum, and his daughter, Siobhan. I should be with them, he told himself, but he couldn’t move now, couldn’t fight against the forces flinging him against his safety harness.
The ground rushed up to meet them, the wrinkled mountain waiting to snatch them from the air. The lander’s engines roared, the horizon dipping beneath the viewport as the craft leveled off. They were going to make it. They’d glide over the mountain somehow and reach the flat ground beyond.
Time slowed.
And all hell broke loose.
A mighty crash battered Davey’s ears, his head was thrown sideways against the wall, and for an instant, a bright flash blossomed before his eyes, blotting out his world. A barrage of rocks flew up, pelting the walls, cracking against the viewport like some frenzied artillery attack, and the din of distressed metal was everywhere. The viewports were shrouded in clouds of billowing dust, but Davey caught glimpses of rocky outcrops and knew that the lander was plowing across a stony slope, its engines still firing as Pierdew fought with the controls.
Davey’s fingernails dug into his palms, but the pain was dim and remote. Only the crash and roar of the craft’s mad race across the mountainside was real.
And then, with a crackling crunch of splintering stone, the craft ground to a halt.
“Cut all engines,” Pierdew said, his voice hoarse, and a moment later, silence swept across the cabin.
“Are we okay?” Davey asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Yes,” Rhodes replied. “We made it down in one piece. We’re going to be all right.”
“Is it safe to evacuate the craft?” Pierdew asked.
“Environment seems to be within safe parameters,” Rhodes said, “but a full assessment will take some time.”
Pierdew hesitated. “Our systems are stable. Hull integrity is good. Life support is good. I know everyone is crowded in the hold, but we’ll wait until we know what’s out there.”
“Is that wise?” Beech asked. “We must’ve taken some damage. I’d feel happier with everyone off the lander.”
“I’m not sending people outside until we know it’s safe.” Pierdew unfastened his harness and stood, looking around his crew. “You did well. We made it. I’ll address the passengers, and we’ll need to assess any injuries and make sure everyone’s all right. Connor, I could use some help to keep people calm. Are you up for that?”
Davey freed himself from his safety harness. “Sure. Anything you need.”
“Wait!” Naidu put in. “I’m getting a signal from the other lander. They say…”
“What?” Pierdew demanded.
Naidu shook her head. “I lost it. But they’re in trouble. Critical systems failing. It sounds…” She took a breath. “It sounds as if they’ve lost control of the craft.”
For a second, no one spoke, then Pierdew broke the silence: “Try and raise them, Evelyn, and keep monitoring the comms. Make sure you record anything coming in. They might still manage to make an emergency landing, and we’ll need as much information as possible so we can track them down. And I assume you’re sending out our own distress signal.”
“Yes,” Naidu confirmed, “although I’m getting an error from our transmitter. We’re not finding a relay station. I suspect the antenna array was damaged when we landed.”
“Have Mac look at it,” Pierdew said. He rubbed his hands together. “Okay, everybody, let’s get to it. We’ll get help from the GRC as soon as we can. In the meantime, let’s make the best of it. We’re equipped for long-term survival. We have everything we need. So long as we keep everyone together, we can hold out until a ship arrives.”
Davey nodded slowly. “With respect, we’re equipped for a different planet. And our plans for a colony were based on both landers making it to the same location. Without the folks and equipment aboard Lander A, it’s going to be tough to hold out for long.”
“I know,” Pierdew said, “but we’ll have to make it work. We have a lot of people on board and it’s down to us to keep them safe. It might not be what we all expected, but we’ll just have to accept it. For now, at any rate, we are the colony.”
“Colony B,” Evelyn said drily.
Pierdew shot her a disapproving look. “Stay at your post, Evelyn. Do what you can to raise Lander A and get that distress call sent out. Katherine, get to work on environmental assessment—I want a full report. Jordan, you’re in charge until I get back.” He turned his attention back to Davey. “All right, Connor, let’s get people organized. And you’ll want to check on your family.”
“The passengers and crew come first, sir,” Davey said, straightening his spine.
“Very good.” Pierdew opened the cockpit door, stepping out into the corridor without a backward glance.
Connor Davey took one last look through the forward viewport, taking in the bleak slopes outside. A few scrubby looking shrubs grew on the hillside in the distance, and here and there, dark tangles of vegetation formed clumps akin to briar patches. The rest of the landscape was bare rock.
But a patch of color attracted his gaze. Some sort of growth clung to the rocks; perhaps some strange type of moss or lichen. It caught the light, glistening wetly, its surface almost iridescent, and Connor narrowed his eyes, a nameless sense of misgiving tugging at his stomach. Because whatever the growth was, its color was a startling shade of blue-green.
Thank You for reading Skeleton Crew
I hope that you enjoyed it.
Want more like this? Please consider leaving a review.
Reviews are a great way of encouraging authors to write more in a series or a genre, so if you’d like more books like this, your review will support the development of new books. Even a short review will help.
Thank you.
Want to know what happens next? Turn the page.
Liked it? Try this:
Wall - Colony B Book I
The Wall is Safety. The Wall is Survival. But Know This: You Are Not Alone.
Far from Earth and shipwrecked on a desolate alien planet, a band of brave settlers strive to carve out a life for themselves on a range of hills while battling to hold back the carpet of deadly microorganisms that creeps across the lowlands below, devouring all in its path.
Wall on Amazon (US)
Wall on Amazon (UK)
Wall on Amazon (Universal link)
The Awkward Squad - The Home of Picky Readers:
Start Reading
All Members Get a Free Starter Library & Much More
Coming Soon
Rift - Colony B Book 4
Follow the adventure of the settlers and the fleet as they face the hardest challenge yet: can they escape the doomed planet?
Don’t Miss Out
The best way to keep up to date with Michael’s new releases is to sign up for his newsletter at: mikeycampling.com/freebooks
Also by Michael Campling
Click here to find links to all my books
The Downlode Trust Series:
C0NTINUE? - A Downlode Trust Prequel
CHEATC0DE - The Downlode Trust Book
I
The Trust - The Downlode Trust Book II
Colony B Series:
Skeleton Crew - A Colony B Prequel
Wall - Colony B Book I
Trail - Colony B Book II
Control - Colony B Book III
Rift - Colony B Book IV
The Darkeningstone Series:
Breaking Ground - A Darkeningstone Prequel
Trespass: The Darkeningstone Book I
Outcast—The Darkeningstone Book II
Scaderstone Pit—The Darkeningstone Book III
The Short Horror Collection
After Dark - Thoughtful Horror Book I
Once in a Blood Moon - Thoughtful Horror Book II
A Dark Assortment - Thoughtful Horror Book III
Other Fiction
The God Machine
Changes
Destinly’s Hand
The Expanding Universe 3
About the Author
I know it’s traditional to write these things in the third person, but tradition can be a crutch, so here I am, writing to you, making it up as I go along, which is not just my job, but also the way I live my life! I confess, I’ve never been much of a planner, as you’ll see from this potted summary of my chequered career.
I have been a computer programmer, a website builder, a full-time dad, and a primary school teacher, and those last two roles are the ones that fill me with the greatest pride. Bringing up our two children was the most wonderful, fulfilling, challenging, and exhausting thing I’ve ever done. Our son and daughter are both adults now and away at university, but as all parents know, the job never ends (and we wouldn’t have it any other way).
After parenthood, teaching came a close second in the fulfillment stakes. As a lifelong bibliophile, my particular interest was in encouraging children to love books, especially through reading stories aloud. I have no training in drama, but I poured as much emotion into those readings as I could, including funny voices, accents, and even rude noises. The children always seemed to enjoy my readings, and my proudest moment was when the parents of a boy with a learning difficulty told me that their son had finally switched on to stories and was begging for books at home for the first time in his young life.
Today, I write stories with the same kind of commitment that I gave to those youngsters. My books are my babies, and I love them to pieces even when they’re being awkward and refusing to go along with my preconceived ideas. I work hard to build characters that readers can believe in, and to craft plots that people can sink their teeth into. My style is vivid but never flowery; every word has to pack a punch or out it goes. My stories tend to be complex and often contain more than one point of view. I also hope that they are thought-provoking, atmospheric and grounded in real life.
I’ve always read widely, and my work spans many genres, but all my books have one thing in common: respect for the reader. My approach is summed up by the idea that amateurs strive until they get it right; professionals strive until they can’t get it wrong.
I’m known to friends as Mikey, so if you’ve read this far, go ahead and drop the formality. My books are listed on michaelcampling.com, but my blog (and scintillating newsletter) are run from mikeycampling.com where you can sign up for my readers’ group, which is called The Awkward Squad, and I’ll send you free books and stories, plus a newsletter that’s actually worth reading. Here’s the only link you’ll need:
mikeycampling.com/freebooks
Copyright
© 2018 Michael Campling All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the copyright holder, except as permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Skeleton Crew Page 4
