Arrival by Ryk Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

, Jack thought. “That’s it, baby. Come on.”
    There was a terrible shudder, followed by what felt like something being torn away from the ship. Frank looked over at the balloot display. The port balloot had shifted nearly twenty-five degrees. “Jack! The upper port-side balloot!”
    The entire flight deck lit up as the upper port balloot began to tear away from its mooring points, allowing red-hot plasma to spill out over the Icarus and under the nose of the LRV. The plasma splashed across either side of the Icarus’s upper hull plates, instantly burning away any unprotected protuberances on her surface.
    “The harness must be giving way!” Frank hypothesized.
    “Condition red!” Jack ordered without hesitation. “Back off on the throttles, Lynn! Keep her at just enough to hold our speed so we don’t sink any deeper!”
                    
    “ Condition red! Condition red! ” Frank’s voice sent shivers down their spines. “ Set ship’s condition red! Visors down! Life-supports to internal! Hold on, people! ”
    Back in the passenger bay, each of them switched on their internal life-support systems. They were now sealed in their own private worlds, the sound of their own breathing interrupted by the occasional comment made over the secondary comm-channel. They exchanged looks of fear and concern. Their looks all conveyed the same thing.
                    
    Alarms began sounding all over the flight deck as numerous control and data feeds between the LRV and the Icarus began failing due to the tremendous heat of the plasma that was now spilling across the side of the Icarus.
    “I’m losing Icarus feeds right and left!” Frank declared. “Plasma must be seeping in between the LRV and the Icarus! Hull temp on her topside is rising fast!”
    Jack punched a few buttons on the navigation display, calling up the orbital position display. He commanded the nav-com to overlay the landing site locations on the display. The primary site was already behind them. No good. They would need almost an entire lap around the planet to make that one, and at their current speed, they would definitely shoot off the other side of the planet and out into space long before coming back around. Laps were not an option.
    The secondary landing site was coming up too fast, and Jack wouldn’t have enough time to put his plan into action. The tertiary landing site was just about to break the horizon. He queried the computer to display their ETA to the entry window for the tertiary landing site. The nav-com flashed a warning message at him in bold, red letters. ‘Entry approach profile not recommended. Unsafe.’
    No kidding , Jack thought. “Just give me the damned ETA!” The navigation computer granted his request a moment later.
    Confident that he had a plan of action, Jack straightened up in his seat and took a breath. “Frank, do we still have control of the cargo pod deployment systems?”
    “What?” Frank asked as his eyes darted back and forth across his displays, trying to keep track of what was happening to both the Icarus and the LRV.
    “The drop pods, Frank! Do we still have control of the drop sequencer?”
    “Doubtful,” Frank responded as he double-checked his displays. “I’ve got data feeds but no controls!”
    “Lynn,” Jack said as he began to unbuckle his harness. “Try to hold her steady for eight minutes, then separate and make for the tertiary landing site whether I’m here or not.”
    “What?” Lynn asked, completely confused.
    “Here,” Jack said, pointing to the entry point on the nav-com display situated on the center console between them. “Follow this entry profile, and try to make it to that landing site,” he explained as he clumsily made his way up and out of his chair amidst the turmoil. “Understood?” He didn’t wait for an answer, turning to head aft.
    “Where are you going?” Frank asked, surprised to see Jack out of his seat and moving toward