Daughters of Demeter

Unfortunately cuddle time didn't last anywhere near as long as I'd have liked, and all too soon Rebecca Jenny and I were back in the cockpit.

Our captain was in the pilot seat this time, while I took my usual position to her left and Jenny was behind me once again in Sarah's old spot. And considering one of our main engines was offline, all three of us had our safety straps buckled up tight.

We dropped out of jump right on schedule, and the moment we were back in normal space all three of us got to work. Rebecca took manual control of the Demeter, I ran some sensor sweeps to confirm that we were where we thought we were and that there was no immediate danger around. And Jenny did what she could with the damaged engineering console to verify the condition of the ship.

"Sensors are clear," I reported a few moments later.

Rebecca commented, "Good jump Amanda. You got us close enough that we're not wasting time or fuel, without being so close as to set off alarm bells or raise undue attention."

"Speaking of which," she added as she glanced over her shoulder at Jenny, "How's the ship doing?"

The android replied, "As near as I can tell, the Demeter is doing rather well all things considered? We have about sixty-five percent fuel remaining. The starboard engine remains offline, but the port engine appears to be functioning normally."

"Thanks Jenny," the boss responded.

Our temporary engineer smiled, "You're welcome captain. And Amanda I believe congratulations are in order? If I'm not mistaken, that was your first completely solo level-one jump."

That caught me by surprise. I'd already done several level-zero jumps by myself, and I'd lost count of how many times I'd plotted a Jump-1 for Rebecca. Now that Jenny mentioned it though, I was pretty sure the boss had always verified my level-one jump plots before activating the drive.

It seemed the tall redhead was thinking the same thing. After a second or two she raised an eyebrow, "You know I think she might be right? Well done Amanda, you just earned your final certification. You're now a fully rated Astro-Navigator."

"Thanks," I smiled. "Although it probably doesn't matter that much right? Unless it means I get a pay raise or some shiny new insignia pips to pin on my nightshirt."

Rebecca laughed and shook her head, "No extra money, but you're welcome to pin whatever you like on your clothes."

"Tell you what though," she added with a smirk, "I'll help you celebrate later on. In private."

My cheeks coloured slightly as I responded, "Aye-aye, captain."

Our mood became much more serious again a few seconds later as I added, "Traffic in Deveron-8 orbit looks about the same as last time? No activity on the comm, no contact from port authorities. We haven't even been scanned yet, as far as I can see."

"Good," Rebecca responded. "Jenny can you cut artificial gravity for me? And prime the ramp to open in-flight. The main airlock should be sealed and pressurized, but maybe double-check that all the ship's internal doors are sealed up?"

I grimaced, "Time to dump the trash?"

"Yeah," the boss nodded. "The bodies will pick up a little more velocity when the main airlock vents, and on our current vector they'll just burn up as soon as they hit the atmosphere."

The cockpit doors slid shut behind us while she was talking, then Jenny reported "All internal doors are sealed, main airlock confirmed sealed and pressurized. Artificial gravity shutting down now, and the ramp is primed."

The gravity quickly tapered away to nothing, then the android added "Standing by to dispose of the waste."

Rebecca kept us on a steady approach for another ten or fifteen seconds then ordered, "Now please Jenny."

"Ramp open," she replied as the ship shuddered slightly.

There was a chance we might actually see the bodies briefly out the main window, so I made sure to be focused on my sensor readouts instead. And a second or two later Rebecca altered our course, so we weren't following them into the atmosphere.

"Seal the ramp please Jenny," the boss ordered. "Then hold on tight folks, we'll be kissing sky in about a minute."

I frowned, "What sort of landing vector are you taking? Mayor Wheeler's not going to be happy if we lead another group of raiders straight to Ganvis like we did last time."

"Ramp sealed and secured," Jenny reported. "Shall I restore gravity?"

Rebecca shook her head, "No need Jenny, we'll have more than enough gravity to deal with in a moment."

"And I haven't forgotten that Amanda," she added. "I'm bringing us down over the south polar region, which is unpopulated ocean so nobody's going to see our descent. Which means I need my new fully-qualified navigator to plot me a course from the south pole to Ganvis Station, so I know what direction to fly once we're down on the deck."

I grimaced as I reached out to tab through my navigation displays, "You're just telling me this now? And you know the 'astro' part of astro-navigation means stars and space, right? Not flying over and around terrain!"

"Hey if you can't do it then you fly the ship and I'll plot our course," she teased, right about the moment the Demeter first hit the planet's upper atmosphere.

The ship immediately bucked and groaned, reminding me that she was flying on just one engine. I grit my teeth then frowned, "That's why you waited until the last minute, isn't it? So I'd be busy navigating while you're fighting to keep the ship in the air?"

"Yep," she confirmed, but this time there was no amusement in her tone. She was suddenly all business, and that more than anything else left me thinking this wasn't going to be as easy as she led us to believe.

Sure enough the Demeter protested even louder as we got down into thicker air. And I could feel the ship struggling, its one engine was noticeably straining against the planet's gravity. I kept quiet though, and forced myself to focus on the task at hand. I got the correct nav screen on my display, synced with the planet below us so I could see our current position and heading. Then I mapped that against Deveron-8's spin and the location of Ganvis Station, and finally worked out what course to take once we levelled out.

Unfortunately I finished my job early, which meant I was suddenly paying attention to the way the ship was trying to shake herself apart. The groaning noises from beneath the deck were particularly worrying. I looked over at my tall redheaded girlfriend, and when I saw the grim determination in her eyes and the way she was clutching the ship's flight controls that only added to my concern.

I decided I needed another distraction, so I quickly focused my attention on the ship's sensors. And recalling something Tamsin said, I started scanning the south polar region that was rapidly getting bigger outside the windows to see if I could find a terraforming installation.

It took me a couple seconds but sure enough it was there. The sensors picked up a large man-made structure in the ocean almost exactly at the south pole. The sea was surprisingly shallow there, only about fifty meters deep, and the object large enough that part of it was above the waves.

On a whim I had the sensors start recording data, as I focused on that partially-submerged structure. It was roughly octagonal shaped and a couple hundred meters across, but the section above the water was much smaller. There was actually a landing pad down there, easily large enough to fit a craft the size of the Demeter.

One thing that stood out on my sensor sweep was the facility was entirely shut down, there were no power readings at all. No personnel there either. I could only assume it had either broken down, or someone deliberately turned it off.

That was all the time I had for sight-seeing as the ship let out a very long loud groan while Rebecca finally started to level off from our descent. The deck shuddered and I was positive I could hear hull plates rattling as the ship fought to keep us flying while she struggled against gravity and wind.

"I'm ready for that vector now Amanda," Rebecca stated through gritted teeth, and she sounded just as tense as she looked.

I hit some controls on my nav console as I replied, "On your screen."

"It's uh, not a short flight," I added with a grimace.

Our altitude was only about five hundred meters above sea level, and we had nearly half a hemisphere to cover. Flying a quarter of the way around the world on one engine in a ship with the aerodynamic qualities of a brick wasn't going to be fun or easy.

The boss took it in stride though, "Good job. I'm going to need your help on this, co-pilot. I'm flying first, steering second. I need you to monitor our heading and tell me when to make corrections."

"Also keep an eye on the sensors," she added. "If you spot any settlements in our path give me some warning so we can go around them."

"On it," I replied as I adjusted my sensor screen to track for energy readings and human occupation on the ground.

Jenny had been quiet for most of the descent but she chimed in, "We're down to fifty-nine percent fuel, and the port engine is beginning to overheat. I don't believe the Demeter was designed for prolonged atmospheric flight on a single engine."

Rebecca's voice was tense and her words a bit clipped as she replied, "She'll be fine. But uh, keep an eye on that engine please."

The next thirty minutes were some of the most stressful I'd ever experienced. More than once the Demeter suddenly rolled to starboard or pitched forward as if she was just about ready to give up. Rebecca kept us flying though, righting the ship each time she faltered.

Between our low altitude and high speed we were constantly only a second or two away from disaster. The boss's focus never drifted though. Her hands were locked around the controls while her eyes stayed fixed on the horizon, ready to respond to whatever the ship or the weather threw at us.

Ontop of all that we had to make about a dozen course corrections. Some were because of weather blowing us to one side or the other, a couple were because Rebecca was too busy flying to maintain our heading, and a few times we had to divert to bypass some little settlements and farming communities.

Then at long last Ganvis appeared in the distance ahead of us, and the captain started slowing us down as she changed course once more. It took me a moment to realize she was picking an approach that would avoid the settlement, incase the worst should happen.

"Brace yourselves," she warned as she extended the landing gear. "This isn't going to be elegant."

Normal landings involved bringing the ship to a complete stop a small distance above the landing pad. We'd hover while ensuring the ship was correctly lined up, then gently gently reduce altitude until she settled down on her gear.

When Rebecca tried to do that this time the port engine couldn't maintain the hover, and the ship started to roll to starboard as she began to fall. The boss gunned the manoeuvring thrusters to try and keep us level, but there wasn't enough time to right the ship before we hit the ground. There was a hell of a jolt and I was positive I heard and felt things break. At the same time about half of the displays on my console and Rebecca's flickered and went out, while a master alarm started beeping from the engineering console.

"Emergency shut-down," the captain ordered. "Take everything offline but the essentials."

She and I went through an abbreviated landing check-list that brought the engines off-line and sealed the main fuel tanks to prevent any leaks. We were left with a reserve tank and auxiliary power, which would be more than enough for now.

As we finished the check-list she added, "How are we doing? Everyone ok? Jenny can you tell if your other self is ok? I hope to hell none of that affected Cam in the Re/Gen tube."

There was a second or two of silence before the android responded, "My sister is still busy, but her Re/Gen capsule indicates that Cammie's processing is proceeding normally. Four hours and seven minutes remain on the clock."

"As for me," she added, "I am also undamaged. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the Demeter. Before the engineering console went offline I noted that the starboard midship landing gear buckled on impact. The other five survived, and the ship appears secure. I'm sure Sarah will want to give her a thorough inspection later on."

I unbuckled as I reported, "Speaking of Sarah, I'm going to go check on her right now."

"And I'm fine," I added as I headed for the cockpit door.

Rebecca got up to follow me as she said, "Jenny keep an eye on the comm and the sensors for now, let us know if anything comes up. Amanda and I will give the ship a once-over after we've checked on our girlfriend."

In our cabin I found the cute blonde was awake, despite the painkillers I'd given her a couple hours earlier. She didn't seem to be in discomfort, but she wasn't exactly coherent either. Despite all the shaking and the rough landing she was still in bed, and fortunately she managed to escape any additional injury. Rebecca and I took turns giving Sarah some gentle hugs and kisses, and before long our girlfriend slipped back into sleep once again.

Then the two of us quietly exited the cabin, and began a quick tour of the ship. The first thing we found was most of the cabinets and storage compartments in the galley had been knocked open during the landing. A few bottles of booze had shattered when they hit the deck, but apart from that it was mostly just a matter of putting things away again. The chairs around the dining table had been knocked about as well, but nothing was broken there. And back in engineering things seemed mostly ok, although I was sure Sarah and Cam would have their work cut out for them once they were both all patched up.

The boss and I made our way down to the lower deck to continue our tour, and found a few cases and bins were scattered around in both the secondary and main holds. Nothing seemed broken though, and our grav-sled remained safely secured in its berth on the upper starboard shelf.

"The Ganvis Station welcoming committee is approaching the ship," Jenny announced over the intercom while we were still in the hold. "Jace and Mr. Wheeler will be outside the main airlock momentarily."

Rebecca responded, "Thanks Jenny. I'll talk to them, and try to keep it brief."

I stayed by the tall redhead's side as she hit the controls for the ramp and main airlock, then we both watched as the doors slid open and the ramp lowered down. Sure enough Jace and his father were both waiting outside. From what I could see the younger man's leg had healed up fine, he was standing straight and tall. I also noted he had that long handgun of his at his hip.

"Hello Rebecca, Amanda," Jace greeted us. "We certainly weren't expecting to see you folks back here so soon."

His dad added in a gruff tone, "Wasn't expecting to see you girls back here at all. The mayor wants to know what your business is with us, and how long you're staying. Although from what I saw of that landing, I reckon you're not expecting to turn around and leave any time soon."

Rebecca nodded once, "Tell Ella I'm sorry for dropping in unannounced. I don't know how long we're here for, we need to lay low for a while. We didn't come empty-handed though, I brought you all some more supplies. Seed, food, equipment, medicine, that sort of thing."

"I'm sorry I can't offload right away though," she added in an apologetic tone. "Right now I need to tend to our wounded, then our ship's going to need some attention too. Maybe you folks can give us a day here to sort ourselves out? Then I'll have a manifest of what we brought you, we should be ready to offload by then, and I can meet with the mayor and plead our case directly."

Jace and his dad exchanged a glance, then the younger man agreed "That sounds fair enough. We'll let my mom know."

Mr. Wheeler nodded in agreement, then the two of them turned to head back towards the mayor's home. At the same time Rebecca hit the controls to seal up the ship again.

As the ramp raised up the boss looked at me and suggested, "Let's see how much of this mess we can get tidied up in the next four hours. Then I'm sure we'll all want to be there when Cam comes out of the Re/Gen tube."