Arrival by Ryk Brown Read Free Book Online

ordered.
    “We can’t just pull up, just like that…”
    “…I know,” Jack replied, cutting her off. “I’ll get you some new numbers as soon as I can, Lynn. In the meantime, just start pulling up, slow and easy.” Jack looked at her. She was scared, and she wasn’t trying to hide it this time. “You can do it, Lynn,” he assured her in his most confident tone. “Just fly the ship.”
    Lynn had never before heard such encouragement from Jack, and was surprised at how comforted it made her feel. She took a deep breath as she deactivated the auto-flight system, letting it out as she flexed the fingers on her right hand and gently gripped the flight control stick. “Pitching up,” she announced with renewed confidence.
    She gently pulled the stick back, releasing it almost as soon as she had touched it. The thrusters fired, but the ship didn’t move. She looked down at the attitude thruster’s status display. Even over the rumbling of the ship, she had heard and felt the thrusters fire. Looking at the display confirmed it. Still, they hadn’t moved. She tried again, this time giving the stick a definite, less subtle tap. Again the thrusters hissed, but still their attitude didn’t change. “It’s not working!” she exclaimed.
    Jack was busy punching in numbers for a new aero-braking trajectory. If he didn’t get the trajectory right, they would either bounce off the atmosphere and go hurtling off into space, or burn up in the steadily thickening atmosphere of the world below. “Pull her up harder, then,” he ordered as he continued to punch the numbers into the nav-com.
    She tried a third time, pulling the stick back and holding it for a second. Then a fourth time, for a full two seconds. Then three seconds, then four. “It’s no use, Jack,” Lynn insisted. “The attitude thrusters just aren’t powerful enough.”
    “Okay, okay,” Jack accepted as he finished entering numbers. He thought for a moment as the nav-com calculated a new trajectory. “Try the OMS pods.”
    “The OMS pods?” she said in disbelief.
    “Yeah, just like we were climbing to a higher orbit,” he explained. “Orbit is a matter of speed, not altitude.”
    “Yes, but we’re not even down to orbital speed yet,” she objected. “We’ll shoot off the other side, even at our current speed.”
    “But if we increase our speed, we’ll climb up into thinner atmosphere and reduce the stress on the ship.”
    “Yeah, and skip off into space!”
    This time, Jack didn’t mind her comments and objections; it helped keep him focused as his mind raced, trying to take everything into consideration.
    “Once we get into thinner atmosphere, the attitude thrusters should become more effective. Maybe then we can shallow out our trajectory and make this approach work.”
    “Maybe?” Lynn objected.
    “Better we skip off into space than burn up down here!”
    Lynn knew he was right. She also knew that debating the issue would only cost them valuable time. This wasn’t like the braking-burn incident. This wasn’t a matter of ending up with just the right amount of fuel. This was a matter of life and death.
    Jack saw the resignation in Lynn’s eyes. “Spin up the OMS pods, Frank!”
    “OMS pods goin’ hot!” Frank answered back as he switched the OMS master arm on and spun up the fuel pumps. “OMS in three……two……one……burn!” The sound of the orbital maneuvering engines rumbled through the ship, as they struggled to accelerate the Icarus against the drag of Tau Ceti Five’s atmosphere against her balloots. “OMS pods are burning!”
    “New trajectory coming up on the nav-com,” Jack announced.
    The new trajectory outlines danced across Lynn’s screen, painting over the old lines. Lynn watched the flight dynamics display as the OMS pods burned, waiting for their speed to increase. “Come on,” she mumbled, “come on.” But the numbers didn’t increase, only decreased slightly as the friction of the balloots