Star Surfer approached Earth. A blue and green planet moving smoothly through the orbit. Charwin checked over their notes and the ship’s status again.
Life support: functional. Artificial gravity: functional. Navigation: functional. Scanners: functional. Engines: functional. Warp drive: functional. Offensive laser: functional. Ion shield: Not functional.
With only the ion shield down, landing for their extended observation mission shouldn’t be a problem. Charwin started to program a route to the surface.
Glancing out the window, Charwin got a glimpse of a burst of light coming from the sun. Star Surfer rocked, and for a moment the hum of all the background systems working disappeared. Charwin frantically ran tentacles over the control, finally finishing the sequence to reboot as the artificial gravity started to fade.
“System check!”
Life support: functional. Artificial gravity: functional. Navigation: not functional. Scanners: not functional. Engines: functional. Warp drive: not functional. Offensive laser: not functional. Ion shield: Not functional.
Charwin went to investigate the problems on their ship more closely. Various electronic pieces were burnt out, the warp drive coolant was leaking, but that was an easy fix compared to the plasma core beginning to coagulate.
They’d never get back to Qwortar alive without the warp drive. Their only hope was to land on Earth and hope the intelligent life had the technology to fix it, or come close enough for Charwin to tinker and fix it.
With navigation down, it was going to be a bumpy ride, but Charwin was confident in the rigorous pilot training. With a bit of lucky, they could do their observation, fix the ship, and make it back to Qwortar without any more trouble.
Word count: 273
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