Short Fiction: Age of Warp - J'MU'H'RN (Part 1)

J'MU'H'RN

PART ONE: RISA

The Rockhampton Class Colony ship Las Vegas hit planetary atmosphere. Considering the ship had been three light years from Earth on route to Proxima Centauri, and the Chief Engineer was still explaining to the Captain the nature of the anomaly that had occured with the warp core, a planetary atmosphere was the last thing they were expecting.

The Sonic boom of entering the planetary atmosphere at multiples of the speed of sound shook the hull of the Las Vegas and echoed outward across a world that had not experienced an asteroid or comet in living memory let alone a starship.

"Deploying Beacon-Sat." The atmosphere was thick. The reactor powering the ship warp drive scramed. The RCS manouvering thrusters struggled to flip their orientation to upright. The ship had not been designed to make atmospheric entry upside down.

"Entering..." The First officer was able to at least point the Las Vegas at the centre of the gravity Well before pulling the bow of the ship up. "...Planetary atmosphere."

"Commencing Aerobreaking." Aerobreaking deployed along the primary hull taking the pressure off the Warp nacelles and their pylons. First Officer Claire Franklin waited for the ship to respond. It was obvious they were still going to hit hard. "Oh Shit!"

"All Personnel to crash positions." The bow rose just enough to skip the surface if they had forward thrust. "Sixty seconds to ground."

"Engaging breaking thrusters." The Rockhampton class had not been designed to protect its ops crew from the forces Claire Franklin was now being subjected to. Claire Franklin screamed over the Alarm as her spine sheared at the force of impact.

The Las Vegas remained still for a long time. The superstructure had remained intact except for a crack through which swamp water was pouring into the storeage area adjacent to the Warp core.
"Uh..." Chief Engineer Marlow woke face down in oddly foul water as the agony of something biting down on his thigh drew him back to the waking world. A black leech-like creature the size of a snake was feeding on his shattered leg, from which protruded a bone. There was zero pain. What ever the leech was doing to him included a injecting pain killer so he decided to leave it. As his situational awareness kicked in, he realized that above him, out of reach, the still form of Captain Avery Brookes was impaled through the chest on a coolant pipe. "Shit."

"I hope it was quick." Randal Marlow dragged himself toward a ladder and  using a belt harness to hook to the ladder rungs, began his ascent. "Its the sight of familiar faces..."

...

When he awoke, Captain Avery Brookes found he was speared through the chest by a coolant pipe that held him above the floor of the lowest deck. His boots were still out of reach of the swamp water that had been pouring in from outside for quite some time. A small mercy.

"Chief Marlow?" It was painful to even shout the name of the Chief Engineer. Avery could not see the Chief Engineer though he knew the man had to be somewhere nearby given they were both on the gantry that zig-zagged across the starship main hold at the moment of impact. "Is anyone alive?"

"Randal?" Captain Brookes coughed blood that sprayed across the swamp water below his feet causing a sudden and unexpected thrashing of some feeder excited by the scent of food. "Shit."

...

"Doctor?" Chief Marlow dragged himself into medbay, his pet leech still nullifying the pain of a shattered leg, His inquiry went unanswered but sight of the medical team in the wreckage of medical bay meant they had also perished in the crash. There certainly didnt seem to be any other survivors at this point and he looked at his leech. "Guess we are doing this ourselves."

"Pliars and mesh sleeve." Marlow searched around and found what he was looking for. He then proceeded to push the mesh sleeve over the bone. And then the bone back into the flesh of his leg, and after wiping his fingers on the leech for antiseptic slime, followed into the hole with a finger until he was sure the bones were aligned before moving the mesh over the other end of bone. "And now..."

"...the pliars." Chief Marlow activated the mesh with a motion of the pliars and it constricted down on the bone. A glue bandage. He needed to seal the wound so it would heal. And then he needed to get to the flight deck. Glue filled a wound, and he pushed the flesh together applying the bonding agent, "...in so many worn out places, worn out faces."

...

"Claire?" Chief Marlow dragged himself onto the flight deck of the Las Vegas. There he found the First Officer on the floor. She was dead. It definatly looked like he was alone on an alien world. "Damn it."

"Bright and early for their daily races." Having pulled himself into a position where he could at least get into the chair, Marlow activated controls and somewhere the Warp Nacelles unlocked and moved forward along the hull, and then the RCS thrusters kicked in causing the ship to slowly tilt upward, lifting out of the swamp. An adjustment and the flight deck tilted forward down to match the rise, keeping the flight deck level. The flight deck slowly rose above the tree line of the swamp until the ship was a vertical building. The Nacelles began driving down into the mud and once they were as deep as they would penetrate, the RCS thrusters cut out. "Going nowhere, going nowhere."

"It may just be your natural pain killer..." Chief Randal Marlow stared down at the leech clinging to his leg and up again at the view.  "...but the view is beautiful."