Space Bandits 5: Escape from the Giant
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The gas giant was fewer than 10 kilometers away. The first effects of the incoming planet was the magnetic field. It engulfed the ship. Each of us could feel an increasing charge in our bodies. It was like static electricity in every inch of our being. Next was the crushing gravity. We were already pushed into our seats from the freighter’s powerful engines. Now we had the force of a billion billion tiny particles pulling on us. Everything felt heavy. Flipping switches became a difficult task. Steering became impossible.
“My chest is caving in, I can’t breathe!” Jude cried.
“We need to lose some weight,” I said between strained breaths,”and more power to engines.”
“Got it Cap,” said Guile. He was well built. The best prepared to make the journey to steerage. He undid his harness and rolled out of his chair. He slid down the floor and fell onto the wall. The artificial gravity that normally kept us walking on the floor could not compete with an entire planet. He opened the door out to the hall. It slammed open. He fell through the opening and landed on the adjacent wall. He took many heavy steps to the end, where steerage was. The gravity was now incredibly intense. Jude was passed out. I could barely grip the steering wheel. Rudy breathed hard, but was still with me.
Guile twisted the knob to the door, but it’s design had it swing away from the gravity. It felt to Guile like 300 pounds. He put his heavy boots against it, grabbed the handle and pushed hard. It creaked open. He slid the tip of his boot in the opening and pushed again. This time it opened enough for him to get a good handhold. He pushed once more and it flew open. He slipped inside, the metal door slammed shut behind him. BANG! ANG-Ang-ang. It reverberated in his ears and made them ring. His thighs burned and his joints ached. He had to make it to the emergency booster switch. It was a simple terminal near the reactor cores, about 15 feet away from the door. During normal operation this is a thought-less activity. Now, it is a daunting feat of strength and grit. Guile scrunched his face and lifted that first boot. It hit the metal hull of the ship and made a dull thud. His clothes weighed heavy. He quickly pulled on his laces and the knot came undone. He stepped again and the boot slipped off. Any weight was multiplied in this environment. He pulled the other boot’s laces, this foot’s sock came with the boot. He was lighter, but still only half way there. He took another step. His hair was heavy. He stepped again. His radio ripped through his pants and fell to the floor. One last step. He fell to his hands and knees and crawled to the terminal. He found the strength to activate emergency thrusters. The ship sped away from the planet. The gravity weakened.
They were safe for a few minutes. Jude came back around. She sucked in huge gulps of air. Rudy and I watched the distance to the planet. He quickly tried to calculate the amount of H2O we could hold on to and still escape. He had always been good with numbers. Rudy was a thin man with one eye missing. In it’s place was an implant that let him see infrared, ultraviolet, and zoom. I had always said that I would get one if I lost an eye.
“Sir, based on these readings, we can ditch half of the payload and still escape.”
“Hear that Guile?” I said over the ship’s loudspeaker.
“Loud and clear,” he replied into the steerage terminal.
“Make it so,” I said.
The emergency boosters had spent their entire hold. They work by storing a by-product of the fusion reaction, H-He. A normally impossible molecule, made possible by the incredible pressures and temperatures in the reactor core. When shot directly into the engine they cause an after-burn effect that propels the ship faster.
Guile worked to release the cargo. The planet neared again. It was relentless. Guile climbed out of steerage and walked down a side-hall to the cargo hold. 9.5 teraliters of H2O was enough for all of them to live out their days in comfort and luxury. It was painful to let it go, but being crushed to death under thousands of pounds of noxious gas was slightly less so. He accessed the terminal that opened the cargo bay doors. On this ship, they had been modified to allow liquid in the cargo hold. The doors opened and water poured from the tail end of the ship. It swirled behind them and spiraled into the gas giant.
“Alright, Guile. That’s enough we’re out of the gravity well,” I said over the radio. Guile’s radio was in steerage. He didn’t get the message. We were losing decaliters by the second. Gold was pouring out our ass.
“Guile! Close the damn doors!” I repeated on radio. No response.
“Guile! Close’em! NOW!” I shouted into the loudspeaker.
“Read you, Cap,” He replied into the terminal.
By now we had only 1 teraliter left. Enough to support a small space station, but far from the 9.5 we started with. Guile came back into the bridge after we had safely gotten away from the planet’s gravity and electromagnetic influence. It no longer knew where we were, or rather, it wasn’t chasing us. I had no clue if it knew anything. I guess I didn’t know much then, because we still had no idea where in the universe we were.
