Castaway Planet by Eric Flint, Ryk E Spoor Read Free Book Online

able to accommodate a Bemmie, as they made all the shuttles from the same design, so why don’t you take a turn if you need it, Whips?”
    He had been feeling that need, so he flickered gratitude at the black-haired Akira Kimei. “I will, thank you!”
    The others took their turns once he came out, and in the meantime he took a long drink of water and added some salts. He didn’t say anything, but he caught Mr. Kimei looking at him with grave concern. Since Laura had the girls helping her to put a dinner together, he drifted over to Akira. “Don’t worry, sir.”
    “It’s not terribly dry in here, is it?”
    “Not too bad, Mr. Kimei.”
    Akira Kimei shook his head. “Laura is working out a treatment.”
    Whips had no doubt that Laura Kimei was trying—and probably would succeed. But . . . “Sir . . . Mr. Kimei . . . if we’re out here very long, we’re probably not going to live anyway. The fact that I’m drying out . . . well, I’ll stop needing rations—”
    “Stop that right now, Harratrer!” The use of his real name made him stiffen, just as he might if his mother were there. “We are all getting out of this, or none of us.”
    “Sometimes one must leave the Pod for it to survive,” he said, quoting one of the oldest rules.
    “In this case, if we can’t find a world to live on, none of us will. So don’t worry about it.”
    He had to admit that Mr. Kimei had a good point, so he rippled his arms in a “you win” gesture, and went over to see about dinner. He might as well stay as well as he could until they knew if there was hope . . . or none.

Chapter 6
    Akira’s arms hugged Laura tightly for a moment. “Are you all right?”
    “I think so,” she answered on the same channel. One good thing about having private comm channels was that you couldhave a private conversation even in the middle of a not-too-large cabin. “But my God, Akira.” Even after four days it was still hard to grasp what had happened, and only now that they had successfully reached that target solar system had she started to allow herself to think beyond the question of whether something would happen to the little shuttle’s Trapdoor Drive.
    “I know. We weren’t prepared for this.”
    She rotated around to face him and then retightened her sleeping tether. “No one even knew this could happen . I wonder if this is the first time, or whether it’s happened to other ships, too.”
    He shrugged. “No way to know, Laura. And doesn’t matter now.”
    “Now that we’ve found a good star . . . what are our odds?”
    She felt him draw a deep breath. “One in twenty that there’s a planet we can live on—in theory. If Sakura can land us.”
    That was one of the things that worried—no, to be honest, terrified her. She didn’t doubt Sakura normally, but without the AI running, everything would depend on one fourteen-year-old girl piloting a ship from orbit to landing.
    “Stop worrying about that,” Akira said firmly. “First, it’s useless; we can’t change what we have to work with. Second, the main automatics may be gone, but there are still some basic stabilizers and other safety devices to help her. Third, she’s been studying and doing calculations with Caroline every spare moment. Caroline, Whips, and Melody have been working on display apps for Sakura’s omni to help guide her down. Sakura will do fine.”
    “You’re sure?”
    He kissed her quickly. “ Sure? Nothing about this is sure, Laura. But what I am sure of is that Sakura will do her best, and that’s all we can ask her to do. If we die trying, well, we’ll die anyway if we don’t.”
    She smiled and nodded. “I suppose you’re right. It’s not like we have much choice.”
    “No. Sakura’s the only one of us with any idea how to operate this ship. And so far she’s doing just fine. I can tell how proud you are of her, too.”
    “I’m proud of all of them. No panic, yet. All listening, all pulling together. I’m most worried about