The Arwen: Dawnstar - Chapter 1

A/N: So. This is a new/old thing. Originally, it was barely pushing 800 words. I've bumped it up to 1.3k, but I feel it's missing something. Suggestions for improvement are welcome, as are critiques and comments! Enjoy! This is Scarli's Sci-Fi stuff. <3

(P.S. If there's anything you don't understand, you're very welcome to ask questions! I'll try to answer them, if I can. <3)

Chapter 1: Crashlanding.

The Arwen was going down. That was all Erjon could think of. And it was all that damn Delfanian’s fault! He’d forced Erjon to flee, straight into the asteroid field. The bastard had been chasing them across half the galaxy and he’d finally caught up. Erjon swore he had rotten luck. He should have known that damn Delfanian wouldn’t give up, but no, he had to let his crew convince him to take on another job. He should have known it was a trap. That bastard.

Warnings had started going off left, right and centre within minutes of them entering the field. Erjon glared at the computer panel in front of him. Saeros, his Navigator, was frowning at his controls. “Saeros!” Erjon yelled, gripping the control panel in front of him to stay upright as the ship was jolted to one side. He glanced towards his navigator. “Give me an update!”

The tall, pale-skinned, black haired Lanarian looked up and then nodded, pressing something on the screen which went blank a second later. He swore, thumping a fist down on the console in frustration. “We’ve lost all navigation controls, Captain,” Saeros said and cursed loudly in Lanarian. “The nav-computer is down!”

“Damnit,” Erjon hissed and looked away from the Navigator’s black eyes. Erjon reached up and pushed his blond hair away from face, scowling as his looked around. The weapons were down. The navigation computer was down, the hydrocarbon suspended animation system was down and there were fires in the cargo hold and the engine bay. He hoped Riron had put out the one in the engine area, but he wasn’t pinning all his hopes on it. Not yet, that is. Erjon leaned forward, pressed a button labelled ‘engine bay’ and stared at the screen. A girl a few years younger than him appeared on the screen. She was a brunette and had bright green eyes. She was also covered in grime and trying to put out a fire in the engine. “Riron, what’s situation down there?” Erjon asked and the girl jerked around in surprise. Behind her the fire jumped up another three feet.

“Oh,” she said and abandoned putting out the fire to approach the screen, “It’s bad, Captain. The engine is on fire, as you can see and I doubt I’ll fix it any time soon.” She glanced back over her shoulder for a second and then returned to staring at the screen. She looked really worried now. “I’m afraid we’re in for a crash landing, sir. And it’s not going to be pretty.”

Erjon hung his head for a moment and the girl turned back to watch the fire, raising the device meant for extinguishing fires. “Will it hold a little longer?” Erjon asked, raising his head, his brown eyes focused on Riron’s figure. Riron spun back and considered him for a moment.

“Thirty minutes, maybe?” she said hesitantly and frowned. “Give or take a few minutes. It should be long enough to get us out of the asteroid field.”

Erjon just sighed and shook his head. And where would they go then? They’d be stranded if there wasn’t a planet to land on. “Where’s Tynar?” he asked and Riron suddenly look guilty.

“Um...”

“Riron!” Erjon shouted, making the girl on the other end of the video link jump. “Where is Tynar?”

“She’s...Well, she’s in the Infirmary,” Riron said, typing something into the control system. She turned away again for a minute, trying to put out the fire behind her, calling over her shoulder; “What’s going on in the Bridge?”

“We’re not under attack anymore but we’re getting hit every second by asteroids,” he told her. “We need to get out of these damn asteroids before we sustain any more damage. Get up here, Riron,” he added, “And find Tynar if you can! I’m going to call the Infirmary.”

Riron nodded, said, “Yessir!” and fled the engine room.

The screen went black. Erjon pressed another button, this one labelled ‘infirmary’ and waited restlessly. “Tynar!” he shouted when the inside of the infirmary appeared on screen. The white sterile room was empty. That wasn’t good; it shouldn’t have been empty! Where was his doctor? “Tynar?”

A few seconds later, a younger girl appeared; a girl with black hair and dark brown eyes. She went straight over to the intercom screen. “Captain,” she asked, seemingly unaffected by what was happening to the ship. “What’s the situation?”

“Get up here now and I’ll update you,” Erjon snapped and a second later the communication cut out. He cursed, loudly, and slammed a fist down on the console. “Damn! Saeros, we just lost communications.”

“We’re losing the controls, too, Captain. All the controls,” Saeros said, his hands speeding over the keyboard. The big, pale alien was frowning. “I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

Erjon hung his head. They were going to die then. The bridge was silent for several minutes, at least until the elevator whooshed open and Riron walked out, scowling and still covered in grime. She took a seat to the Erjon’s left at the HSA system and the weapons controls. Then she looked to the captain after checking on the controls, which obviously didn’t work.

“What’s the matter, Erjon?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Erjon just stared at her. “Were you not listening, Riron?” he asked scowling. “What’s not the matter? We’re stuck on a ship where all the controls are down and we’re stuck in the middle of an asteroid field! We’re screwed!”

Riron paled and turned to look out the main window of the bridge. All that was out there were millions of stars, hundreds, maybe thousands, of asteroids and blackness; deep space, where anything could happen. Erjon knew she’d realised he was right. They truly were screwed.

“Where is Tynar?” Erjon asked just as the elevator doors whooshed open and the brown-eyed girl walked in, trailed by a young boy with blue eyes and dirty blond hair. Erjon surged to his feet, pointing at the boy. “Who the hell is that?” Before she could answer, the main control screen started flashing a message; ‘System Error. Please Re-boot’. Erjon swore and sat down, strapping himself in. “Take a seat and strap in!” he called, “We’re going down!”

Tynar sat on Erjon’s right at the communication controls and sat the boy down next to her, strapping both of them in. She nodded to the captain and held onto the arms of her chair. The boy beside her just looked frightened. “Looks like you’ll need me soon,” she said nodding to the scene before them.

A very large asteroid was headed straight for them and the Arwen was drifting downwards, towards a small, most likely uninhabited planet the size of a small moon. “Yeah,” Riron gasped, digging her fingers into the arms of her chair. She looked panicky. “We’re definitely going down!”

“Ten minutes to impact,” Saeros called, spinning around to look at them. “Well, Captain. I hope you know what you’re doing this time.” The alien smiled slightly. “Last time you landed us in a swamp. It better be dry land this time.”

Erjon shot the Lanarian a glare and took hold of the controls, despite the fact that they weren’t working. “I hope so, too, my friend,” he said quietly. He turned his gaze back to the window before them. The ship cleared the asteroid field, the space rocks thinning out as they got closer to the small, sand-coloured planet. Luckily, the large asteroid just missed them by millimetres.

“Five minutes,” Saeros added quietly. A few minutes later they hit the planet’s atmosphere and flames encased the Arwen as she sped towards the ground faster. “Two,” the Lanarian said and snapped his eyes shut. The ground rushed up to meet them even faster. Erjon swore and the girls screamed. The boy just sat there, silent. It was like he was in shock. “Five, four, three,” Saeros muttered, counting down the seconds out loud, “two....” There was a huge crack as something broke off and Erjon glanced towards it before returning his attention to their landing. “One,” Saeros said and the ship groaned and rattled and something else broke off with a huge crash.

“Oh, hell no!” the boy shouted and then they hit the ground, hard.