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A tale of the unplanned trajectory of one Ijva'Yut Brie towards the planet Blivenn
Also the tale of one Uribb Fliss and their slight incompetence in the face of grave emergency.
____
The planet was made for life to excel in. But these days there was not much there. A million inhabitants distributed and clustered across the three main continents. The lush greens of forests and the dark navy of the vast oceans and the intermittent spirals of white clouds that one would see out of the spacecraft window would remind one of the brochures about zoological preservatories or exotic vacation destinations. It was a beautiful planet that was smaller than most moons, with a naturally enriching atmosphere.
But as a small, one-manned, malfunctioning spacecraft strafed through the void towards the planet, all its pilot could think off was how the planet would tear the spacecraft apart and burn everything inside for even attempting to enter into its atmosphere.
____
Uribb watched from the centre console, straining to take their eyes off of the holofeed soap they were so engrossed in. None of the equipment and monitors were saying much. It was a Tuesday. No ships were scheduled to arrive or depart from this isolated planet. It was meant to be a slow day. Slower than usual, at least.
The equipment they were surrounded by was ancient, humming loudly as they operated on a system older than some civilizations. But away from all of this old junk of outdated tech, on a newly installed terminal on the far side of the room, was a flashing red light and a persistent chirp begging for attention.
Uribb slid their chair towards the terminal, a little worried. They never paid much attention to how this terminal worked, only that their supervisor scoffed at the notion that it would see much use.
And this supervisor had taken the day off, leaving little old Uribb to run the space traffic control tower alone.
Uribb saw the planet on the new terminal, more detailed and with more strange numbers and features than the centre console would show. And above this highly defined planet, entering a pale line demarcated with what was obviously the altitude number, was a spacecraft.
Uribb turned to the old consoles they were more familiar with, but the machines were silent, oblivious. They had not detected any ship. Of course, they had not. The planet was centuries behind on anything the main planetary systems used. And the new terminal was a mandated endeavour by some bureaucratic agency so far removed from the happenings of this planet that did not even register the usual ships that made their landings and take-offs.
Which meant that the ship about to enter the atmosphere was a newly designed ship, possibly not even meant to enter a planet with atmosphere.
Uribb's eyes widened. The red text that flashed on the corner of the screen was a series of numbers alien to them. They touched the text, grimacing, hoping it would reveal what it meant.
And it did.
Touching the text zoomed the simulated feed in to what the emergency was.
The craft was highlighted as moving in at high speed, and it was ever so slowly on free rotation. And based on the rotation, it would enter the planet facing away from it.
That was bad. Uribb wondered where the thermal shielding was on the ship. Possibly on the nose, right? Maybe it was not meant to enter the planet's atmosphere the conventional way. Maybe it was meant to face away, so that it's thrusters would counter it burning up.
But obviously this ship was not meant do that. Uribb wondered if it even had enough rocketpower to counter the speed of which it would descend.
No. Right now Uribb knew nothing about the ship except that it was new, and only interfaced with a terminal they were not too familiar with.
Why had their supervisor taken the day off? Only two souls operated the tower, and now the more experienced one was not here to handle this emergency.
_____
Ijva knew her message had reached the tower in the planet below, but for a solid minute of her craft hurtling closer and closer to the planet, there was no reply.
And then there was a voice on her headset, panicked and frantic.
"Er, this is Drosta Control Tower. You're coming in too fast and your craft's angle is off course. By that I mean you're rotating. Is there a problem? I mean, what's the problem?"
Ijva took a deep breath.
"Drosta Control. I am pilot trainee Ijva'Yut Brie, flying solo as per my final test cruise around this solar system. I am experiencing engine trouble. Ah, full engine failure. Auxiliary power keeps rebooting. Error code five six niner three alpha. I am being pulled into the planet by gravity and nothing else. Requesting tractor team."
There was a pause, but Ijva could hear the breathing.
"There is no tractor team." The reply was almost a whisper.
"Come again, Drosta Control?"
"Is your ship capable of traversing through atmospheres about 90% in the Brilder scale?"
"No. My ship’s rating is 60% atmosphere."
"Fuck."
"Hey, er. Drosta Control. Is there any tractor team dispatch I can link up with?"
"There is no ground nor orbital based tractor system on this planet. Ok. Ok. Umm. The auxiliary power. What did you say about it? It keeps rebooting?"
This time Ijva was the one who paused, and though panic was not something she felt when the engines first gave up on her, it was definitely setting in now that she learned there was not going to be a tractor rescue.
She was going to slowly get pulled into the planet and burn up and crash and there was nothing she could do about it.
_____
Uribb scanned the pages on the manual about the making of the ship that was inside the planet's orbit now. There had to be something. Something that could reveal why the auxiliary system kept rebooting.
They still had time. A few hours, at least, before the ship would irreversibly be in the clutches of the planet, it's fate to crash set in stone.
Uribb found the page on the auxiliary system, but came no close to finding out why it did not kick in without issue. Uribb also tried to calm both themself and the pilot Ijva by constantly updating and talking on the comms, knowing how unprofessional they were being. Professionalism all but flew out the window the first time they used an expletive.
"Are you new?" Ijva asked when there was a lull in the chatter.
"New? No. I mean, kind of. My supervisor isn't here and I'm the only one who is. Here."
"I doubt your supervisor could offer much help, either. I'm not going to lie. Without a tractor hook, I don't think this ship can be saved. I… I should've known. This planet is called Brivenn, right? The planet that used to be like a hotspot a millennia ago but is just another ghost planet now with no current gen apparel? Sorry, that didn't come out right."
"I'm sorry, Ijva. I can't find anything about an auxiliary power being stuck on reboot."
"It's not stuck on reboot, it's rebooting constantly."
"Sorry, that's what I meant."
"What's your name?"
"Ah, Uribb."
"Ok, Uribb. Just calm down. We still have time before, you know. We can figure this out."
Uribb did not understand the gentleness in her voice. Moments ago, she had not taken the news about the nonexistent tractor team well, and now she was back to being calm.
Uribb kept looking at the terminal, pushing buttons, hoping to find an answer to this harrowing problem.
"Are you local?" They could hear Ijva ask.
How did that even matter at a time like this.
"Yes. I was born offworld, but my parents and everyone before them all hailed from here. Are hailing from here, I mean. Ok. There should be a bypass switch below the left throttle arrangement—” Uribb’s hope went up as they realised a new avenue the pilot could explore to take control of her ship again, but the hope was immediately extinguished when Ijva cut them off.
"I tried the bypass switch just now. Nothing happened. I don't think the problem is bad sequencing or the computer. It's something else. So, why'd you become a space traffic controller?"
The nonchalance in her voice as she asked the question was worrying.
"Look. We can figure this out. I know you said we have time. But you're in an emergency situation up there." Uribb tried to change the urgency in their voice to a more stately and controlled tone.
_____
The panic in the controller's voice was gone, replaced with a sort of stoic determination. For the past few minutes Ijva was numb to the urgency and futile efforts to address technical nonissues Uribb kept bringing up hopefully. Hoping they could fix the problem from down there. Or at least help guide Ijva to the solution.
But the truth of the matter was the auxiliary power was not meant to replace the engine power. Which meant even if they got the power back on, the chances of her managing to escape the planet's gravity by solely relying on the weaker backup thrusters were, if she dared to be optimistic, frighteningly low.
She did not have the heart to disclose this to Uribb. Maybe she should.
But the part of her more intent on survival and hope kept the words out of her mouth. If Uribb, in their manic searching, found something she overlooked, well. She might have a chance.
"I became a space traffic controller because it seemed like a high paying side gig." Came a soft reply.
Ijva smiled.
"Side gig?"
"Yeah. My uncle got me this job. Usually, I'm in charge of import and export cargos following a fixed schedule. And sometimes I'll be guiding passenger cruisers. But those ships were all built for planets like this. Planets with atmosphere and stuff. It's a pretty straightforward job, especially in a quiet world like this. So, the situation we're in right now? I am sorry to say this but I am not prepared for this at all. But I am going to find a way to help you. So please just hang in there."
"If this is your side gig, what's your real job?"
There was a pause, and Ijva was left to wonder if it meant Uribb found something else she could try or if her question was more probing than she intended.
"Ok, I lied. When I first took up the job, I thought I was just going to do it temporarily. Get some quick income so I can move on to something else. Find my calling. But the money, it's good. And I got scared. What if there was nothing else out there for me? I was good at doing this space traffic stuff. And it pays well. I should just stick to it, right?"
Ijva sat, staring at her console as her ship ever so slowly rotated freely as it went on its way planet bound.
"What's your calling?" She asked.
_____
The question and all it entailed was not something Uribb wanted to think about at a time like this. But the question and the blunt frankness and innocent curiosity of it still cut through into Uribb.
"Not this. Fuck it. I'm calling my supervisor in. He can get here in an hour. In the meantime, can you try manually controlling your pneumatics? Stop your spin and hell, even slow your speed?" Uribb asked.
It was a dumb instruction. The pressurised air in a ship was to be used sparingly as a means to make minute corrections. To attempt what Uribb suggested was to waste that precious air doing silly manoeuvres. Air that could be used for the corrections on the trip back to wherever Ijva was headed.
But even if she ran out of air before she reached her destination, even if she could no longer perform her little adjustments, it did not matter. The worst outcome would be getting tractor hooked back into course as she reached her planet.
Which would be the best outcome for her now if this planet had any tractor systems.
Uribb was suddenly pissed that there was no tractor system on Blivenn. Even for a planet that was millennia behind on technology, that was an oversight too large and glaring. The mandate could send new terminals to the control tower but not planetary tractor systems?
They shook the thought away as they called their understandably weary supervisor and updated him on what was happening. There was a shocked grunt and a promise to be in the control room within the hour, and the line went dead.
"Hey, er. If you don't mind, I don't think I'll mess with the pneumatics. I don't think it'll do too much good." Ijva stated.
"We still need to find a way to slow you down."
"Yeah, and the only way to do that is with the engines."
"Fuck."
"You're right," Ijva said, and Uribb swear they could hear the smile in her voice, "This isn't your calling."
_____
The light from the sun stopped playing on the inside of her ship as the craft finally pirouetted away from its view. Ijva saw as the solar readout spike in power as the arrays lining the outside got a fresh gleam of starlight.
The planet below came into view again, it's cloud formations so erratic and beautiful.
"What do like to do down there?" She asked.
"What? Like, for fun?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know. It's spring where I am now so we're going to have a festival to mark the passage of winter. It's called Uyuf Ku Jiewei"
"Seasonal festivals, huh?"
"Yeah. This one's the important one. What about you? Where are you from?"
"No planet as pretty as this one."
"I'm guessing one of the city dome planets."
"Yeah. That's why I'm not flying on a hardier ship. My planet has like 26% atmosphere compared to yours."
"What colour is it?"
"My planet?"
"Yeah. I've never actually been to space. But everyone who comes in or goes out, well I speak to them over the chatter. Little conversations. They always describe Blivenn as a small, moldy, trystberry. All green and blue and white. And the city dome planets they visit are all monochrome. Greys or purples or dull oranges. What colour is yours?"
"White. Whiteish blue. It's a frozen over planet."
"That's so cool."
Ijva wanted to point out there was nothing cool about a desolate, barren world where the only signs of life were either on the subterranean underwater city domes or the bacteria and microbes that floated through the deuterium water surrounding the domes.
Because the planet below not only had humanity, it had animals. Fauna, flora, all natural and living together with people. A rarity nowadays where there were new laws about colonising pre-inhabited worlds.
"That's not all. Our city dome is under water."
"I swear, you guys are living in the future."
"We are. But sometimes the progress handicaps us. Makes us rely on new concepts and theories and ideas that we just all unanimously agree on."
"But it's not really unanimous, is it? Unanimous among the first worlds maybe."
"Yeah, exactly. Unless we find a way to actually educate, enforce and implement whatever new shit that we want to normalise in all the worlds, there's no unanimous anything. I mean, your planet doesn't even have tractor teams. That's, like, standard where I am. I wouldn't be in this situation right now."
Ijva wondered if she was being offensive. It was not nice to talk about first worlds or second worlds or third worlds like this. But she was so frustrated. Because of some logistical issue she was going to die.
"Are there seriously not any dense atmosphere planets among the first worlds?"
"Not really. Unless you count those cattleplanets. You know, where the planet's sole purpose is to grow our food. My dad brought me to one once. Just the stench that entered the ship when the ramp lowered was enough for me to swear off meat. But it was a cool experience. To be able to just land our ship and open our ramp to the elements without wearing any spacesuits."
"That's what you can expect when you land here." Uribb said confidently.
And just like that the happy memory of that trip her father brought her on dissipated, the reality of her predicament hit her like plunging into icy water. And suddenly the planet below lost its beauty. It looked very alien and threatening as it pulled her and her ship into it.
"The stench?" She asked jokingly, hoping her voice did not betray the sudden bout of fear in her heart.
There was laughter on the other end, and it put her slightly at ease. Only slightly.
She hesitated, then asked, "Can… Can I send you a message? To pass on to my father?"
_____
"What? No. Listen. My supervisor will be here soon."
"And what can they do?"
"I… I can't. This is too much." Uribb was hyperventilating.
"Look, I'm sorry if me going to burn up in your atmosphere is too much for you to handle, but I need to get my affairs in order." Came a tired, sarcastic voice over the comms.
"Sorry. Of course. Uh, send the message through."
There was a long pause. Minutes maybe. Uribb continued pouring over multiple tablets and the terminal. They knew more about this spacecraft now than anyone else on the planet. But they still did not know what could trigger the auxiliary systems to enter a bootloop.
Meanwhile she was still up there, writing her message to her loved ones as she flew 19.93 meters per second in a catastrophic arc into the planet. A trainee pilot. Uribb wondered what kind of ship she wanted to fly after she got certified. What kind of jobs she wanted to take?
They almost asked the question, as well, but thought against it. What was the point? The woman had accepted her fate. And that fact was scary to Uribb. They had failed this person.
Where was Werfig? Where was their supervisor?
But Ijva's words echoed in their mind. What could their supervisor do? It was an unfair question. Werfig actually attended many courses for space traffic control, unlike Uribb, who learned on the job.
If anyone could offer a different perspective, if anyone could take a step back and look at the problem and decode the root of it it was Werfig.
"I'm sorry. About being curt earlier." Ijva said after a while.
"You have every right to be. I was being tactless and selfish."
"Yeah, but… We're in a shitty situation."
"But the only person in any danger is you."
"That's true. But hey, whatever the outcome of this is it'll stick with you forever. You know that, right? You're not exactly in the safe zone from that."
"God, we need to find a way to rescue you."
"No shit."
There was another pause in conversation as they stared at their screens, trying to find something. Anything.
"Hey, uh. How is it? Flying a spacecraft?" Uribb asked.
"I thought you talk about this stuff all the time with other pilots over the chatter."
"Well, people are different. Their experiences are different. I want to know why you want to take up a pilot license."
"I don't know. I never gave it much thought. I'm from a family of pilots. It's more or less expected of me to at least get a pilot's license even if I don't plan on making a career out of flying. And I don't know how to describe it. When you escape a planet's gravity and are just floating through a vacuum untethered. It's like… Comforting. Freeing. Literally. There are no forces acting on you unless you push that throttle or pull that lever. You're in control of your own trajectory, your own path. It's a euphoric feeling. I don't know. Is that what the other pilots say?"
"Hey, ah. I can see your ship's monitor from my terminal here. And right now, I can see a temperature discrepancy in your systems." Uribb stared wide-eyed at the terminal.
"Switching to thermal view now and… Yeah. It's just in this region. The conduit manifold—"
"That's delivering power to the auxiliary systems. Ok. You got ice in your wirings. That's fine. We can figure something out."
"Holy shit how did I miss that?"
"It's ok. It's ok. Err... Do you have your tool kit?"
"Yeah, way ahead of you. How much pressure should I use to flush the systems?"
"Ok, just to confirm, you're going to use the demineralised gas cylinder to—"
"Pump the ice into the exhaust, yes." Ijva's voice was impatient.
"400 psi should be enough."
"Are you sure?"
"That's what the schematics rate your ship internals' maximum pressure to be."
"Pray for me, Uribb."
There was a static hiss over the comms.
And then Uribb saw the ship's display disappear entirely from the terminal.
_____
Ijva plugged the hose from the cylinder to the opening under her seat and locked the valve into place. She took a deep breath and opened the valve on the cylinder.
The ship shuddered beneath her seat and the screens went dark. The ever-present hum of the air supply disappeared, along with the periodic clicks and ticks of whatever instruments made those sounds.
The ship was fully, completely turned off.
Ijva took a deep breath and turned the power on.
The screen in front of her went through the boot sequence, trying to turn on the main engines but upon failing, opting to cycle power through the auxiliaries.
She held her breath as the screen showed her all the checks being performed on the auxiliary power and… The hum returned, the ticks and clicks resumed, the rest of the screens turned themselves on.
And most importantly, the auxiliary engines rumbled to life.
"Uribb! It worked! I have auxiliary power." She shouted over the comms, her hands shaking.
There was a jovial exclamation from the other end.
"Ok, full speed away from the planet! Go!" She heard Uribb say.
"What?"
"Seriously. Do it now. Before it's too late! Once you're fully out of the gravity well you can conserve your engines and get to a planet you can actually land on."
"You're asking me to make lightspeed hop to a different system on auxiliary power? Out of the question."
"It's not as risky as entering Blivenn's atmosphere. Your thermal shields aren't meant for 90% atmosphere."
"I won't come be coming in headfirst. I'll be facing away, use my thrusters to counter the gravity. Are there any large bodies of water at a high elevation?"
"Ok, you need to listen to me. That is a bad idea."
"Where's your supervisor?"
"I don't know. He'll be here soon. But—"
"I'm sorry, Uribb. I think this is the only way. If you won't help me—"
"I never said that. Ok. Ok. Body of water at high elevation. I'll send you a heading in a moment. But seriously. Even at this high elevation you're aiming for you're still looking at like 80% atmosphere, at least. Are you seriously hoping to crash land on water and take your chances?"
"Yes."
"Why? The chances of safely going to lightspeed on auxiliary power is still higher than this."
She had considered the possibility, but she was afraid something else on her ship would fail her. Continuing the rest of her journey towards safety on a ship running just on backup power did not instil any sort of comfort in her.
No, she needed to land.
"I'm entering the atmosphere now. Those coordinates would be great so I can make my adjustments before it's too late. Body of water. High elevation. Go. Now, please."
There were some deep breaths over the comms.
"I can't believe Werfig isn't here already. He's missing some of the biggest mistakes we're making. There. The coordinates. That's the tallest volcano on the planet. A little bit away from the equator. From where you are."
"Volcano?"
"It's when tectonic plates in a region—"
"I know what a volcano is, smartass. Why are you leading me into one? Is it dormant?"
"I mean, obviously it's dormant. It has a lake up top. The volcano is called Putkinni. A tourist hotspot. You'll love it."
"Ok. Plotting the course there."
"I'll inform the authorities there to pick you up."
"Holy shit. Holy shit I can feel the air already. The ship's beginning to shake."
"It's only going to get more violent for the next few minutes."
"Please. Keep the line open. No matter what."
"I won't close it. Why would you even think I would close it?"
"I don't know. Maybe your nerves will get the better of you and you don't want to hear me scream."
"Ijva. Ijva you're doing something so crazy and brave. I won't even think of cutting off."
"I don't know. Fuck. This was a bad idea. I should have gone to lightspeed like you said. Send out a distress call and shut everything off and waited for a tractor team near the main planetary systems. God why didn’t I think of that?"
"Well, don't think about that."
"If I don't think about that I'll have to think about what I'm doing now. Fuck. I've never felt the ship shake this much. It's not built for this."
"Ok, listen to me. No. Repeat the plan back to me."
"Ok. Steady thrusters for now as the ship makes its angled descent to the volcano. Once we're nearing extreme speeds and the structural integrity of the ship gets very unstable, you'll let me know and I'll max out the thrusters. Hopefully this doesn't just violently tear the ship apart but instead gives me a wider room to really slow down and land safely on the water."
"You sound kind of funny talking like that."
"Like what? Like someone is violently shaking me as I'm trying to speak? I swear I'm going to bite my tongue off if I keep talking. God, I'm really scared."
"Everything is sound. Your ship is fine. And once you land and they rescue you, why don't you come find me. Alright? It's good that you didn't jump to lightspeed. In a few days we can observe Uyuf Ku Jiewei together. See the local tradition."
"What?"
"The festival for the passing of winter?"
"Fuck. Right. Sorry. You mentioned that."
"Can't wonder why that slipped your mind."
"AH! Did you hear that? I felt that! I felt something break off."
"Relax. I can see your ship from my terminal. You're doing great. Your angle is alright. Your heading is good. You'll need to turn up the thrusters in a few, but that's fine. I'll tell you when."
"Fuck. Fuck. Hey. We forgot something really important."
"I really don't want to know."
"I don't think I'll be conscious to turn up the thrusters. You know, because of the g-forces' effect on the human body we forgot to factor in."
______
Uribb's breath caught on their throat.
"You're right. Damnit."
Uribb did some mental math. If she pulled the thrusters now it would mean she would veer off course. And off the cuff course corrections were dangerous, especially if she were to lose consciousness while making them.
And if she passed out before it was time to pull the thrusters as per planned, then she would not survive the crash for sure.
Uribb felt the door to the control room open and the familiar strikingly thin visage of Werfig rushing in. Finally.
"She's coming in hot. But she might not be conscious to pull her thrusters." Uribb said, stumbling over their words.
"Who are you talking to? Is your supervisor there? Ok. Uribb. It's happening. I'm losing colour vision." Ijva said, her voice straining over the comms.
"Is there a way to automate that? The thrusters?" Werfig asked, panting.
"Not in this ship." Uribb said.
"Ok, you'll need to do short bursts of the thruster. Starting with a 3 second prolonged burst. Do it now."
Uribb watched as the ship slowed, causing it to, as expected, go off the plotted course.
Werfig watched the terminal, too, eyes wide.
"By God. You're planning to land there? Have you told anyone? It's a public area." Werfig scrambled to the other consoles.
"Yeah, yeah, I did, Werfig. I did. But using the thrusters like that means she won't be able to land there."
"Pilot, what's your vision like, now? How are you feeling?" Werfig asked.
"I, ah. It's the same. Better. I don't know." Ijva's voice was slow.
"Ok, you have to adjust your seat angle. About 30 degrees upwards should ease the blood flow." Werfig advised.
"Copy that."
"We can't use the thrusters like that. She's already strayed too far off course." Uribb said, looking at the new projected path of the ship.
"Are you an experienced pilot, ah…"
"Ijva. And no. I'm a trainee."
Werfig swore.
"Sorry. Ok. Did the seat angle help?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it did."
"Ok. Pay close attention, Ijva. For the next thruster burst, you're going to angle your ship back into trajectory. I am not going to lie, it'll require a lot of precise control of your pneumatics. Now, those pneumatics aren't meant to be used in an atmosphere, so we'll be have to use most of not all the air in the reserve to do this. But that's fine. Are you ready?" Werfig asked, and Uribb automatically pulled a visual on the angle to thrust from.
"I'm ready. And the funny thing about this is even if I overshoot the angle now, I can readjust the other way when it's time to thrust again, right?" Ijva asked, and Uribb saw on the terminal as her ship began to rotate as the pneumatics nudged it to be thrusted back into course.
"I wouldn't call that funny, but that's exactly right. You'll have about 4 tries to get the angle right."
"Ok. Ok. This can work."
"Don't worry. We'll have someone to come collect you."
"Yeah. Yeah. Do I engage the thrusters?" Ijva asked.
Werfig turned to Uribb as they watched the screen intently.
"Engage now." Uribb instructed, and saw as the ship slowed it's decent again as it went back on course, before dipping out of course again the other way.
That was fine. 3 more tries. And they would only get more accurate from here on out.
_____
The ship jolted again as she pulled the thrusters. She was following the angle corrections the control tower was sending her, hoping her estimation of how much air propulsion she needed to align to the correct angle was close enough.
She kept getting encouraging replies from Uribb and the supervisor.
Another angle correction came in, another burst of pneumatic control to angle her was issued, and there was another shudder as the she pulled the throttle to slow herself down.
She could not see the mountains or the volcano she was to land on. The outside cameras were all but fried. She was flying in relatively blind, unable to see out of the cockpit into where she was supposed to land. All she saw instead was the sky.
It was a frightening not being able to see. Everything about what she was doing was frightening. But at least her display showed the visual topographical readout of the rapidly approaching landing site. She could feel the blood rushing away from her head again, the pressure behind her eyes decreasing.
Another course correction, another burst of thrusters. Her head felt slightly clearer again.
She was close now. She was going to land, and her speed was lower than the calculations, so that was good.
Another course correction, another burst of air propulsion. She saw the flashing light that warned her she was dangerously low on the air reserve for the pneumatic systems. That was fine.
"Any second now." Uribb whispered over the comms, echoing her own thoughts.
Without warning the ship plunged into the lake, and the blue sky she saw was instead replaced by bubbles and foam and clear, darker blue water.
The impact knocked the wind out of her, and she swore she felt her hip crack. She gasped, and the only thought on her mind was that she was alive.
"Landed. I'm ok, I think." She breathed, and she could hear the elated shouts over the comms.
"Ok. I'm guessing you're underwater. Are there any leaks? Is water coming in? Werfig is on call with the rescue team. Their yachts should be pulling you out soon." Uribb said, their voice high as they spoke quickly over their own words.
"No leaks. Dangerously low on air, but that's fine. Holy fuck. We actually did it. Uribb, can you believe this?"
"I'm, ah. I'm having a hard time processing this."
"God. We have to meet. I'll take you up on it. Your offer to see the festival?"
"Yeah, of course. For sure. Ijva, you did it. Holy shit, you did it!"
Ijva had tears in her eyes as she grinned ear to ear.
"Thank you, Uribb. We're both colossal idiots to even attempt this landing, but by God."
Ijva could hear the relieved gushing as Uribb spoke to her, and could hear them crying as well.
She had landed. They were alright.