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followed by a loud screech. The crew flew forward into the restraints, then were slammed back into the seats. The ship had hit the ground and slid. The thrusters continued to burn. Roberts struggled out of his seat and fell more than walked to the wheel. The console vibrated madly. It was difficult to focus on it. He hit it where he thought the thruster control should be. Fortunately, the thrusters stopped. Forward momentum carried the ship some distance. Finally, it slowed and stopped. Roberts slumped to the floor panting, holding the pillar for support. He felt like he was falling and attributed it to the rough ride.
Firebrandt's ears rang. He heard his heart beat inside his head. He released the seat restraint and struggled to his feet. As he stood, he slipped down the deck grating. He scrambled to regain control of his own feet as he discovered the floor was tilted nearly forty-five degrees with respect to the planet's surface. The captain caught Suki's seat as he slid by. He helped her undo her restraint and controlled her slide to the juncture of wall and floor. "I feel fat," she said numbly, balanced on the corner.
Roberts let go of the center column and slid to the junction. The captain helped him to his feet. "It's the higher gravity," Firebrandt explained. "Not enough different to harm us, but enough to feel."
They walked down through the ship. It had been hulled amidships due to the sliding. They stepped through the hull onto a grassy meadow. In front of them was a river, wider than the Mississippi of Earth. The sun was high in a slightly greenish sky. Some animal chirped.
Suki wrinkled her nose. "It doesn't smell right," she said.
"Different organics than we're used to." Roberts sniffed the air. "Alien pollens and a slightly different atmospheric content from Earth." He nodded satisfactorily. "But it doesn't smell bad. Some of this stuff may be edible after all. It's certainly not like the stench we smelled after stepping into the heavy air of the Rd'dyggian dome on Titan, eh?"
Firebrandt nodded. "Thick wet air that's about twenty degrees colder than pleasant." The captain stretched in the sunlight. "This is delightful. No wonder the Rd'dyggians turned this over to general colonization."
Roberts looked back at the gaping hole in the ship. He saw that the empty launch bay was ripped open. He looked beyond the ship. Wreckage was scattered as far as the eye could see. "General colonization or no, we're shipwrecked. Marooned until we die or someone rescues us."
Suki and Firebrandt sat down on the grass and looked at the river. They didn't even think about being marooned. They were happy to be alive, ready to face the future together. HOMESTEAD
Firebrandt, Roberts and Suki scoured the ship for supplies they would need. Firebrandt removed the emergency cooking gear from the mess. Roberts checked the kitchen and found that most of the provisions had, in fact, survived. Suki went to the hold. Many things had been damaged in the descent. After rummaging around, she found the poison detection kit along with an item she never thought they would need. Firebrandt had raided a science vessel almost a year before. Among the items he appropriated was a geologist's field tester/computer.
The captain carefully lowered himself into the unopened launch bay. The sleek, red launch vessel had broken free of its magnetic grips and rested against the bay doors, dented and scratched. He opened the craft's door manually and stepped gingerly inside. He was delighted, if astonished, when he hit the power switch and the control panel came to life. At least the batteries were intact. Unfortunately, as he feared, there was no fuel for the reactor. The captain powered down the launch and stepped out.
Firebrandt removed Legacy's graviton generator, a few of the deck amplifiers and tools. Roberts built a makeshift shelter out of old gray canvas and metal piping. They set up their bedrolls. Using the emergency cooking gear, they made a dinner of