Lips...still here. Eyes...still here. Still breathing. Emily Faust sat for a moment collecting herself. By some miracle they were still alive. She turned to see where the captain was and found him sitting on the floor nursing what looked like a pretty bad gash on his head.

“Where are we Faust?”

“Sir?” it was as if her language centers hadn’t yet realigned. It took her a moment to realize what he was asking and then she instantly sprang back into her professional persona. “Right. Checking stellar alignments sir.” Outside of the window there were definitely stars and plenty of them so at least it didn’t look like they’d been flung off into the void. Tarsik’s head was pounding and when she finally came back with an answer she sounded distant and somewhat muffled.

“We’re definitely inside of a galaxy sir but I’m not getting a fix on our position. None of the stellar positions match those in the ship’s data-tapes.”

“Well that’s just great...then again I guess it could be worse.”

A frantic beeping from Herschel’s currently unmanned console got Faust to stand up on wobbly legs and walk over to it. She looked at it for a moment trying to make sense of all of the information, “It is worse sir. The fusion core blew itself out and we’re on battery power which for some reason is at only 28% so we can’t restart it. Worst of all it looks like we’re inside a large gravity well and losing altitude fast.”

“What?” Tarsik sat up with a start but it was only a moment before both of them saw exactly what they were falling toward. It loomed incredibly large in the front window, a planet that under other circumstances they would have been delighted to see. Beautiful blues and greens, vast seas and magnificent landmasses covered its surface. Its lovely feathered atmosphere no doubt was filled with breathable air. Snapping back to pure instinct Faust jumped into her pilot’s seat and grabbed the controls.

“With only 28% power this is gonna be really tricky sir.”

“We do tricky all of the time Faust just get us down in one piece and we’ll figure out the rest later.”

“That’s the plan sir.” she declared as she corrected the ship’s entry vector and it took a dip toward the planet. “Our entry speed is all wrong, firing rockets in 3...2...1. Six second burn to correct.”

The captain grabbed the mic and spoke into it, “All hands we’re going in for a rough landing, if it isn’t already understood by this point grab onto something sturdy and clench those buttholes, cloacas or whatever it is you came equipped with. Captain out.”

“Far too much time hanging out with Ansul.” Emily Faust thought to herself. The Martian had the ability to remain comical even in the face of immediate death and it had long since rubbed off on Captain Tarsik. She thought about how close the two of them were, they were best friends, not just shipmates. Then her mind jumped to the horrible realization that all of their friendships might be about to come to an abrupt end. Like the trained professional she was, however, she forced herself back into the moment.

“That’s my girl Emily, good job...good job.” Tarsik tried to reassure her. She gripped the controls so tightly that her arms ached as she performed the delicate entry maneuver. He’d never admit it in front of general company but he was incredibly proud of her, of all of his people. They were his family.

When the shuddering of entry finally ceased of course one’s reaction was to feel relief but both individuals in the cockpit knew that relief was far from the proper emotion for the moment. Atmospheric entry may have been tricky but actually getting the Honshu down in less than a million pieces was going to be the real miracle.

“Flipping her around sir.” the pilot declared so that he would hold onto something. Using maneuvering thrusters she deftly turned the ship about so that the rockets were pointing down toward the ground instead of up into space. “Power level at 26%, going to full burn. This is gonna be close!”

The mighty neutron engines of the R.S. Honshu lit up with everything they had to give. They were still falling at over 30,000 kilometers per hour and the ground was getting close very fast.

“Twenty kilometers to surface, speed at 25,000kph.”

“You can stop calling it out Faust just do it, I trust you.”

Still coming in too fast Emily fired up the maneuvering thrusters and pointed them as far “down” as they would go and began to use them to introduce a little lateral movement into their descent. This added a few more kilometers to their fall but she’d have to have it completely under control before touch-down or the ship would end up on its side. The Honshu trembled under the immense power of her engines pushing against the alien atmosphere. Captain Tarsik watched as the altimeter clicked away....4 kilometers to surface...3...2....

“Emily we’ve got too much lateral!”

She didn’t have time to respond. The ship slammed into the dense forest canopy at nearly two hundred kilometers per hour. A huge cloud of dust rose into the air and the sky filled with bird-like animals suddenly taking wing as they’d been spooked out of their treetop nests.