Chapter 4
The Journey Begins
It
occurred to me that since the ship was Alderaanian, that Kimm might be as well.
You never know what planet a human
might be from. They all look alike.
I
should have sought out repairs for the Knight Errant, but Gareb’s
funeral had meant more to me than fixing a ship. He deserved that much.
I
took off in the damaged Knight Errant, and set course for Alderaan.
Certainly,
I had been a fool for not repairing the ship. The two-week trip was filled with constant alertness to the
engines and the hull. I used everything
available to keep the ship together.
Finally,
I made it to Alderaan. The planet was
beautiful from space. I had heard about
their peaceful ways, and admired them.
A
red light flashed on the dash of the Knight Errant. I had a coolant leak. The temperature of the main propulsion drive
was escalating.
Pretty
soon, a shower of sparks erupted from the engine room. I was never given the chance to see if I
could make repairs, since I had to pilot the ship as well.
The
ship rocked and shuddered, and I knew that I was going down.
I
was losing directional control fast. I
had only a short time to set my course and find someplace to land, preferably
someplace soft.
I
came into the atmosphere of the planet with lightning speed. The atmosphere burned against the hull, which
was not at a proper angle to land.
A
voice came over the comm unit.
“Alderaanian
Control to unidentified ship. We see
that you are in danger and a rescue team is on the way. Please respond.”
“Graowrrorhraaan!”
“What
the!? A wookiee? Great. Okay fella, listen up. We’ve
got airspeeders en route to try to ease your descent. In the meantime, can you get your nose up?”
I
barked out a negative, and fought against the ship as she plummeted to the
planet. I was going to die, along with
the ship and Master Kimm’s journal.
“I
want you to try something to slow your descent until the airspeeders arrive. Turn on your lower thrusters, just like you
were going to land.”
I
knew that the maneuver he proposed would likely tear the ship apart, but it was
better than being dead.
I
kicked the thrusters on, and I could feel the vibrations throughout the ship. I bumped my head on the ceiling of the
cockpit and blood trickled into my eyes.
“Unidentified
ship, ETA on airspeeders is one minute. Repeat, ETA on airspeeders is one minute.”
I
would be dead in a minute. Desperately,
I tried to steady the ship. Looking out
the window and checking my sensors, I noticed a large lake.
Going
on a hunch, I turned the thrusters off, and killed my engines. I was going to glide the ship down. I used the thrusters sparingly to steady the
ship. Winds buffeted all around, and it
was nearly impossible to keep the ship steady, let alone try to land her. The lake sat in a mountain valley. The area was sparsely populated, for which I
was grateful.
As
I came crashing down, I ignited my forward lower thrusters and pulled up on the
controls. I followed that by kicking in
the sub-light engines.
The
effect was all that I desired, as the nose of the ship came up and the engines
pushed me forward to a water landing.
An explosion erupted from behind me throwing me forward into the plexiglas of the cockpit. The plexiglass exploded all around, and I could feel blood and water washing all over me. I felt lightheaded, as everything went to black.