Chapter 1 - Cress
"Okay, Kai's turn! Truth or dare?" Iko asked.
Kai and Cinder had announced their engagement a few weeks before and were reuniting with Iko, Scarlet, Wolf, Winter, Jacin, Thorne, and I on the Rampion for a much-needed break from the publicity,
Kai groaned. "Seriously, guys? You can't think of anything better to play?"
"You're the only one who hasn't gone yet, Your Majesticness." Thorne grinned. "If we had played poker like I wanted…" Scarlet cut him off with a glare. "But that doesn't matter," Thorne continued sheepishly. "Now, truth or –"
Suddenly, the Rampion jerked violently. "What the stars was that?" Thorne yelped. "Hopefully nothing, but I'll go check it out." Cinder stood and headed to the engine room.
"Well, Your Majesty? Truth or dare?" Jacin asked.
"Shouldn't we wait for Cinder?" Kai replied.
"Stop stalling! As much as I hate to agree with Thorne, we have all gone. Winter, Cress, and Iko made me dance to that ridiculous second-era children's song about the chicken and the duck! It would not be fair for you to get out of it!" the guard protested.
I grinned to myself. I hadn't been able to think of many good dares, but Winter and Iko had loved my idea of making Jacin do the Chicken Dance!
Just then, Cinder returned. "It's weird. I can't find anything out of the ordinary, so maybe it was just a minor glitch that won't happen again, but I should be able to find somethi—" She was interrupted by another sudden lurch. "Cress, Iko, would you come look with me? Maybe we can figure it out toge-" -another jolt – "ther."
We followed Cinder, clutching the walls to keep our balance in the now-continuously-shuddering spaceship. When we got to the engine room, Cinder and Iko started double-checking all the equipment and mechanical parts. I wiped my sweaty palms on my skirt and took a deep breath before sitting down and plugging in my port screen. The Rampion's shaking and jerking reminded me of falling to Earth in my satellite. Thorne and I had survived that crash, but Thorne had been blinded and we had wandered the Sahara Desert for days before finding help. I did not want to repeat the experience. Calm down, I told myself. Breathe. I am…I am…a second-era computer programmer, working for the military. I can stay calm in any situation, solve any problem with my trusty programming skills. I smiled as I started reviewing the Rampion's program. No spaceship glitch stands a chance against me! But as I looked through the lines of code, I realized there was nothing wrong. According to the program, the ship should be flying perfectly. So if it wasn't a mechanical problem, and it wasn't a coding problem…What was going on?
I turned to Cinder and Iko. "I can't find the problem. Maybe we should just land and figure it out when we're not flying?"
The lights flickered.
Cinder sighed. "Fantastic, now we're having problems with the lights, too. I'll go tell Scarlet and Jacin to land. Iko, would you mind plugging in and running some diagnostics? I know you probably won't find anything more, but just in case?"
Iko pouted. "I hate plugging in! But you're right. Better safe than sorry." She grabbed a cord and plugged herself into the ship. "Hmmm, that's strange. According to the Rampion computer, the engines and lights and everything are working normally, even though they're obviously not – Gah!"
The ship jerked again, harder than before. I lurched across the room and banged my head on the wall.
"Ow! Scarlet!" I yelled. "Any luck landing this thing?"
"We're trying, but the controls aren't working!"
By now, in addition to shuddering constantly, the Rampion was also lurching every few seconds. I swallowed hard. I was getting motion sick.
"Did you try – oof!- turning them off and then back on?" Thorne joked.
"Not. Helping!" Scarlet shot back.
"Seriously, though, it works for – ow!—for computers! Why shouldn't it-"
"Thorne – merde!- SHUT UP!"
These controls are – oof!—useless," Jacin said. "We can't land. We should all tie –gah!—ourselves down and hope for the – mph!—for the best."
I weighed my options. Should I stay put in the cramped engine or try to go back to the others in the main room? There was nothing in the engine room I could use to tie myself down, but our bunks were in the main room. Maybe we could use the blankets as ropes? "Iko, let's go, we can't tie ourselves down in here."
"Just a minute, I think I'm on to something! A few more diagnostics…" I nodded and steadied myself on a nearby pipe. Waiting a little longer wouldn't hurt.
Then the lights went out, and we were falling.