Sci-Fi Flash Collection - 3. Chapter 3 Raincheck

Steve was startled out of the cuddling and light foreplay with his boyfriend by the ear-piercing squeal of the klaxon alarm. He bounced upright and out of bed before his brain caught up to his body’s response.

“God damnit! We’ll have to continue this later.”

“Promise?”

“Hell yes!”

“General Quarters! All hands to actions stations! General Quarters! All hands to action stations!”

His boyfriend joined him out of bed and they both donned their uniforms.

“If that stupid AI is doing another drill, I’m going to jettison his core.”

“I don’t think he’s that crazy.”

Grabbing his sidearm and stepping into his combat boots, Steven only grunted in reply.

“Stay safe! I need to get to engineering.”

“You too, babe.”

Steve jogged one way down the hall while his boyfriend jogged the other.

He reached the command module, saw he was the last to arrive, and sealed the door behind him.

“Status?” he asked.

“Cataclysmic seismic event occurred two thousand three hundred miles away and we have an incoming tsunami. Estimate impact in four minutes, forty-five seconds. I have already initiated emergency lift-off protocols.”

Steve went straight to the pilot seat. “Engine status?”

“Four minutes, thirty seconds. Reactors are all in full emergency start.”

“Release all moorings. Bring anti-gravity field up to maximum.”

“Four Minutes until impact. Antigravity field will not be available for 3 minutes.”

“How long until we can use lift-off thrusters?”

“Three minutes to lift-off. Three minutes 30 seconds to impact.”

“Shipwide!”

“You’re on.”

“All hands, brace for emergency liftoff. We have an incoming tsunami. Strap yourselves in and this is going to be rough.”

He made a slash motion and the A.I. replied with “Shipwide is off”

“Crew status?” Steve asked.

“All crew is now on board and accounted for. Colony equipment is in locked down status, though, it is not secured enough to withstand impact.”

“Was this fault line not detected by the Explorer Corp?”

“The fault was detected but was not deemed active. I have uploaded our data to the Terran Confederation Orbital Communication Relay. Two minutes to engine start.”

“ALERT!”

The ship shook as the ground rocked violently. Sparks flew and the lights flickered rapidly before snapping out. A few moments later red light bathed the bridge as the emergency lights kicked on. The shaking stopped after thirty-three seconds.

“Status!”

“Hull breach, cargo bays two, three, and five. Jump drive is out of alignment. Damage on anterior thrusters. They are reading at thirty percent capacity. Engine start delay of twenty-two seconds.”

“That’s cutting it damn close. Antigravity status?”

“Compromised due to engine misalignment.”

“Clear all personnel from breached areas of the ship and close the emergency doors.”

Steve watched his panel as the power levels approached high enough level to fire lift-off thrusters. With thrusters damaged and antigravity compromised, lifting off quickly wasn’t going to be possible.

“Sound collision!”

The klaxon horns blared again as the screen showed a one-hundred-foot wall of water approaching quickly. Steve time his control input to jam full throttle as soon as the power levels reached minimum launch levels. The ship barely cleared the ground when the water hit.

Spaceships were designed to withstand the harshness of space. They were not designed to withstand the issues of dealing with the ocean. Though, what makes a ship spaceworthy and seaworthy were the same. Keep the air in and everything else out.

It took an agonizing twenty seconds before the ship bobbed up to the surface, carried along by the wall of water. Unfortunately, they were heading towards some hard mountain cliffs that would not do the hull any good were they to smash into them.

Slowly the antigravity lightened the ship enough to make it pop out of the water, with the thrusters do the rest to get them into the air. Applying the forward thrusters, Steve moved the ship backwards and up away from the cliff face just as the water smashed into, sending a giant spray of water up over the ship again. A moment later the ship cleared the reach of the water and was holding position above the now flooded coastline.

“Ship is listing fifteen degrees to starboard and we have water draining out of the hull breach in cargo bay five. Compensating. Stand by.”

It took nearly a minute before the ship was flying level.