Mitchell's Revenge
The Guardian Angel

Bolter was preparing to exit FTLflight. He, Rufus and Flex were the only crew on the bridge. The rest of thecrew were scattered about the ship completing various tasks. The journey so farwas uneventful, and everything was operating smoothly. Bolter began the countdown over the coms unit.

“Exiting FTL flight in five, four,three, two, one.” The ship shuddered. Flex lost his footing and fell to hisknees. He scrambled upright.

The lights on the nav board pulsedurgently at Rufus.

“Oh crap! We’re in trouble!” he yelled. “Reversethrusters now! Full power.”

Bolter’s hands flew across hiscontrol board and the ship groaned as it began to reverse. The Guardian Angel had exited FTL flight onthe edge of the circumstellar disc surrounding a protostar. The gravitationalpull was incredible. The ship was in danger of being dragged into the centre ofthe disc where the star was forming.

“Quick,” yelled Flex, above thenoise. “Spool up the FTL again and jump.”

“Where?” asked Bolter. He wassweating and his hands began to shake.

“I don’t care,” yelled Flex. “Aslong as it’s not here. Just jump.”

Rufus fought to turn the ship onits axis as Bolter got to work. They needed to be heading away from thegravitational pull, not towards it, or they would all be dead in a few more seconds.

“We haven’t got long,” groanedRufus as he struggled with the ship’s direction. Bolter hit the FTL sequence. TheGuardian Angel lurched once and everything went quiet. Flex counted to ten.

“Now exit,” he said quietly. “Let’ssee where we are.” He gripped the edge of his control board so hard that hishands were white.

Bolter reversed the sequence. They slowedsafely some distance away from the protostar. The Angel shuddered violently. Bolterlooked back to his control board which was now lit up like a Christmas tree. They’dbeen seconds away from being torn apart. Flex realised he’d been holding hisbreath. He breathed again.

“We’ve got damage down here!” cameFlick’s voice over the coms unit.

“And we’ve got debris outside,”replied Rufus. “I’ll have to keep usmoving or we’ll get hit by something.”

“How bad is it Flick?” asked Flex.

“Nothing we can’t fix,” repliedFlick, “But Natasha’s locked in her cabin, and Snatch has a nasty gash on hishead. He’s heading to the med bay now. Thank goodness we re-stocked everythingon Topernicus. What the hell was that anyway?”

“Our FTL drive test,” replied Flexwryly. “I think we know what happened to Ripley’s Revenge. But we need to replaceout why. Or our FTL drive is useless.”

Bolter looked up from his controlboard.

“I hate to interrupt you goodfolks,” he said, “But we’ve got some external damage. Somebody’s going to haveto go EVA to fix it. One of the nav antennae has come loose and if we try anysort of speed we’re going to make things worse.”

“It’s too dangerous,” said Rufus. “There’san awful lot of rubbish out there.”

“So, replace us an asteroid close bythat’s large enough to land on,” suggested Flex. “You’ve done it before. Youcan do it again. We’ll have to make repairs before we can logically do anythingelse.”

“Anyone there?” came Natasha’s’voice over the coms unit. “I’m stuck in my cabin. Can someone come and get meout? Now?”

“Only if you’ll go EVA for us!”replied Flex. Bolter rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” replied Natashaimpatiently, “Just get me out!”

“Bolter’s on his way,” advised Flex.“Just sit tight.”

“I can’t do anything else! Can I?” replied Natasha sarcastically. Boltergathered up his mobile repair kit and headed through the connecting door to therest of the ship.

“Just the time to have to be a locksmith,”he muttered as he made his way towards Natasha’s cabin.

Meanwhile Rufus was scanning thesurrounding area trying to replace a suitable asteroid. As soon as he found one bigenough he began to manoeuvre the Angel towards it. The loose antenna flappedagainst the hull as they moved, jabbing at the surface Bolter had repaired atTopernicus.

“Easy,” murmured Flex. “We don’twant a hole in the hull.”

“I know that!” snapped Rufus. “Letme concentrate will you.”

Flex bit his tongue. Ever so gentlyRufus settled the Angel onto the asteroid. It rotated slowly amongst shards ofice and smaller debris, but looked safe enough to harbour them for a shorttime.

Bolter returned to the bridge withNatasha trailing behind him. She was angry.

“What the hell was that?” shedemanded of Flex as she arrived on the bridge. “And where the hell are we?”

Flex studied her. He decided thatshe would be the one to go EVA right here, right now. Rufus interrupted histrain of thought.

“I estimate we’re at least fivelight years away from our original projections at Topernicus. Somethinghappened right at FTL exit that jumped us here. We’re lucky to be alive. And wedo appear to be lost,” he said.

“Just what I’ve always wanted tobe,” said Natasha nastily, “Lost in space!”

“Stop it, both of you,” commandedFlex. “Our immediate problem is the repair outside. I’m assuming you have EVAexperience Natasha. Am I correct?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” she replied,glaring at Flex. “Not my favourite occupation, but I suppose beggars can’t bechoosers. Can they?”

“Alright, that’s enough whining fornow. The EVA repair is your job Natasha,” said Flex. “Grabb will help you suitup and liaise with you from inside. Then we have to figure out what happened tothe FTL drive before we can do anything else. Now get moving!”

Natasha glared at Flex and left thebridge. Flick’s voice came over the coms unit.

“We’re secure down here now Flex. Snatchis a bit of a mess though. His head’s going to take time to heal. He can’t goEVA.”

Flex explained that Natasha wasgoing to effect the EVA repair and that Grabb was to assist her. He instructedFlick to come to the bridge. He looked at Rufus and Bolter.

“We’ve got some forensic work todo,” he said. They began to run diagnostics on their control boards.