Hello there! This is my re-written version of Written Across the Stars, and it is renamed. I feel that this version is much better, and it is much appreciated if you let me know what you think! ~ Maura

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize does not belong to me. :D

Prologue:

The pursuit had taken them out of atmosphere and into open space.

The culprits they were currently tracking were making an attempt to flee of planet, but they were hardly prepared to let them escape that easily. Every once in a while the enemy ship would open fire, and so they were forced to return the favor. Neither side's assaults caused any large amount of damage so they continued on this way for about forty five minutes. Without any warning at all the enemy vessel disappeared, into what appeared to be a gaping black hole. The moment the craft was out of sight Emmara rushed down to the cockpit. She knew Jade, the current pilot, and so she knew that it was very likely she would do something brash without a second thought.

"Jade they seem to have disappeared into that black hole and if we pursue them it could be very dangerous." Emmara informed her when she stepped through the cockpit's threshold. Marcus had taken a seat at the navigation helm and was keeping a close eye on their coordinates.

The ship came to a stand still for a blink of an eye until Jade's brown eyes narrowed in acceptance of the challenge. Her hands clenched onto the controls that much tighter as the ship heaved forward and resumed its charge toward the unknown. Emmara hurried to take the copilot seat and fastened her restraining belt just in case. Jade had a reckless spirit and whenever she was pilot Emmara always found herself in dangerous situations. She was beginning to regret not taking the pilot seat but having instead run to man the gun turrets to try and shoot down the assassin's they were after. Now she found herself strapped into the copilot seat with wide fearful eyes as she looked out of the viewing screen in apprehension.

"Mar, have you no faith in me? Buckling your safety restraints so quickly…" She managed to sound genuinely hurt, but Emmara knew better than to let herself fall victim to her close friends' antics. She was very skilled at playing the guilt card, and she had fallen for it one too many times.

"Jade, focus." She reprimanded. At the moment they were coming up to the black hole and had found that there was an asteroid field blocking their way. Jade dodged the large meteors with ease, a smirk riddling her features. Emmara on the other hand had the sense to cling to her safety restraints. "I would be far more comfortable if you would acknowledge the fact that this is a matter of life and death instead of as a simple simulation."

Jade scoffed.

"Emmara you need to loosen up a bit, trust me I have this under control." She countered before dodging another transport sized asteroid. Emmara rolled her eyes before turning them back to the asteroid field they faced. Before she even had time to reply Jade had made it through the obstacle and proceeded to take them through the black hole. It felt like someone had taken a hold of the skin on her scalp and pulled it back as far as was possible without ripping it from her bones the force of the speed was so strong.

They shot out of the black hole at an alarming speed, but everything around them had turned to complete darkness. All of the controls flickered before fading completely. The emergency lights did not even engage. They were floating through the unknown with no power and they had no idea what had caused the said power failure.

"Everything is down, nothing is working." Jade was not panicking, her voice was relatively calm as she went through all of the procedures she was trained to go through in this situation. She was trying every possible solution to get their power to return. Emmara on the opposite side of the spectrum felt her hands shaking as she clasped them together. She was a trained warrior. She scolded herself. She would be strong facing her death. So with a deep breath she released her fear of flying and tried to concentrate.

"The black hole must have messed with our power grid. I told you it would be dangerous." She tried to keep the scolding tone out of her voice but found it futile.

"Don't lecture me now, Emmara. I need to think." Jade snapped, her brain moving a mile a minute. Emmara looked up out of the viewing window to watch as the side of the ship collided with the assassin's. Metal screamed as it struck metal and everyone was thrown in different directions from the force of the impact. They were all on edge, waiting to see what would happen next. Emmara simply expected them to drift apart, but her hope was in vain. The metal must have melded together somehow and they were stuck free falling through space connected to the other ship.

"At least we know they won't be getting away." Jade joked awkwardly and Emmara rolled her eyes. She always picked the worst times to practice her wit.

Emmara's eyes returned to the viewing glass and froze in her place. There was a planet in their trajectory. How was the black hole so close to a planet? That couldn't be possible! She snapped out of it and poked Jade's shoulder to get her attention. They would all be sucked into the planet's atmosphere if they didn't think of something fast. She poked Jade again.

"WHAT?" She yelled, turning her blazing eyes to look at her friend. Emmara didn't say a word only pointed out of the viewing screen. Jade's eyes followed her finger and grew large, her throat going dry in seconds.

"We need to get power up quickly or we'll be pulled into atmosphere…" Emmara looked to the adjoined ship, "With baggage attached."

"You think that I don't know that! I'm the pilot here." Jade's tone was desperate as she flipped through the controls trying to bring the engines back to life. Emmara began to count the seconds in her head. They were mere moments from being sucked into this unknown planet's atmosphere and nothing Jade was doing seemed to be working. The space craft was still lifeless, and soon it would be a flaming hunk of metal skyrocketing towards the very solid surface.

"Did you try manually sending fuel into the engines and pressing…"

"Emmara I know how to manually start the ship. I've tried that!" Jade snipped, throwing a quick glance to her friend. The ship lurched forward and they felt the pull of the atmosphere begin to bring them in. Emmara was jerked forward hard enough that she smacked her forehead on the controls in front of her. She felt the warmth begin to trickle down the side of her face.

"Prepare for a crash landing." Jade said somberly, her hands leaving the controls to check that her restraints were secure. Over the ship's loud speaker she announced that everyone needed to prepare for a crash landing. Emmara was taking slow steady breaths, trying desperately to calm her nerves. This is why she hated flying.

There was a splittingly loud tearing sound as they two ships fell apart and became unattached as they began to soar towards the ground. The other vessel was still too close for comfort. If they crash landed and either ship crashed into the other, although any crash would be tragic, that would be catastrophic.

Still powerless the ship continued to descend toward the surface. Now they were close enough to see that the surface of the planet was completely composed of tall glinting buildings, there were no open spaces to land. Emmara's already wild heart began to beat that much faster. Where ever they landed they were likely to crash into a building that would probably be full of people, which meant there would be bystander casualties. Emmara groaned.

"Our best hope is one of these landing pads," Jade must have sensed her thoughts and pointed down in the city. "That one there just might be long enough."

"We don't have power how do you expect to control that?" Marcus cried from behind them and Jade rolled her eyes and snapped back.

"No need to commentate, just sit back and shut up."

At about 700 feet before they connected with the city, five to six small ships had surrounded both of the vessels. They could see the people inside of them trying to communicate with them, but the ships power was still out so they had no way of understanding. Only 625 feet left, and out of nowhere they felt a gravitational pull begin to rectify their fall. Jade tried to peer up to spot the ships but they were out of site. They had caught their ship with some sort of force field and were helping avoid a devastating crash landing.

"They are helping, but it still isn't enough to prevent a rough landing." Jade said loudly so everyone could hear. Emmara groaned clutching at her seat until her knuckles turned white.

The door to the cockpit opened and everyone turned to see Captain Nooram run in carrying a young girl. Emmara gasped.

"Halley!" She cried and then hurried to unbuckle her restraint belt. She spared no time rushing over to grab Halley and put her into a seat and lock her into the seat with a restraining belt. She said no words, all of that could be saved for later, for now she needed to make sure that Halley was as safe as possible. Once she was locked in Captain Nooram sat down beside her and did the same. As she was returning to her seat there was sudden turbulence and Emmara fell forward. Her head collided with the edge of the steel co-pilots chair and effectively knocked her unconscious. Halley screamed, and Jade turned to see what had happened. Upon seeing her close friend on the floor she went to unbuckle her seat belt.

"You don't have time, Jade!" Marcus shouted to her, "We are only 200 feet until impact and dropping quickly!" Jade was torn between helping Emmara and staying put as she looked out the viewing window to realize that the ground coming up at them fast, too fast. She bit her lip, and decided to stay put.

Then out of nowhere the power was restored, 100 feet above the surface the control panel lights began to flicker, and out of nowhere power was restored.

"We have power!" Jade hurried to try and gain control of the ship by pulling the controls up as far as they would go. The reverse thrusters are barely helping, Jade thought angrily as she pressed experimentally at a few more buttons. It was now too late to avoid crashing, but Jade worked quickly to make the landing a bit smoother. With the help of the other ships, and the restored power when the ship connected with the concrete landing pad there was a loud *crunch* as the metal met solid ground and it skidded a few feet. Emmara's body was thrown up and crashed into the controls at the co-captains chair. She heard the sound of a bone snapping and Jade cried out as she watched her closest friend being thrown around as if she were a rag doll.

The second the ship had stopped sliding Jade released the controls and jumped out of her seat to rush to Emmara's side. From her first glance Jade knew that her leg was broken due to the jagged bone jutting out of the skin on her calf, and Jade winced as she carefully pulled Emmara down onto the floor of the ship. Emmara's eyes opened suddenly and they were full of tears at the pain. She looked to Jade, a cry on her lips.

Emmara could only scream as she tried to clench the muscles hoping to stave off the pain. It was only sufficient for a few moments and Emmara's eyes close as she fell into unconsciousness once more.

Jade had come out of the crash landing unscathed, but her relief was short lived because moments later the alarms began to wail loudly. The panel indicated that a fire had started in the hull. They needed to evacuate in case the fire spreads to the engine and the ship would be blown to smithereens. Jade looked down to Emmara's unconscious form and she turned her head to get a look at the rest of them. Everyone else was conscious, but looked shaken.

"Is everyone alright?" There was a collective chorus of 'yes' and Jade nodded. "A fire has started in the hull we need to evacuate before it spreads." Jade looked to the captain, "Can you carry Emmara?" He nodded and they all began to undo their seat restraints. "Careful her leg is broken." She warned before he worked his arms under her knees and back before lifting her up.

Halley's eyes were full of tears as she struggled with her belt. Jade went to her and helped her remove the buckle before picking her up and leading the way to the exit. On the way she stopped quickly at the med bay to grab their emergency supplies and weapons bag. She threw the larger black weapons black to Marcus to carry before she picked Halley up once more and successfully got them out of the burning wreckage.

Once they exited the burning ship they all ran to safety. Far from the ship and out of danger they all sunk down to the ground, exhausted. Moments later there was a loud BANG when a small explosion erupted from the ship. They were all knocked off of their feet, and when Briam was sent flying forward Emmara was thrown from his arms and collided roughly with the ground. Briam got to his feet slowly very aware of the world spinning around him as he staggered over to where Emmara had landed. She was lying face down and Halley had found her way to her side and was bent over her unconscious body. When he approached she looked up to Briam with big brown eyes,

"Is she going to be ok?" Briam gave her a weak smile,

"I am sure she is going to be just fine." He reassured her, although anyone else could hear the uncertainty in his voice. Jade had come also to check on Emmara and overheard his words. She looked to her unconscious best friend and bit her lip. She was worried that Emmara would not be fine, and it made her insides twist in guilt. She had made the decision to go through that hole, and she had put everyone in danger. Now Emmara was hurt, very likely it was serious. It made her hands shake with nerves at the thought.

"Her leg needs to be set." Briam said, "I am nowhere near qualified to do that." He said inspecting the injury once more. He was by no means a doctor, but he had seen his fair share of broken bones and to him it looked like she had broken her leg a few inches below the knee. She might have possibly even fractured her knee.

"Maybe they can get her medical attention." Marcus nodded to the three ships above them.

The three ships that had assisted them had begun to douse at the burning wreckage with large jets of water. Sadness swept through Jade as she watched her ship burn. She had, had the ship since she was thirteen and had always strived to take good care of it. Now it was only scrap metal. It would probably be impossible to repair the damage that had been done. On top of that they had no clue where they were. As she peered at all of the tall metal buildings around her she was positive that they were on a foreign planet they could be anywhere for all she knew. Emmara is going to kill me. She thought somberly. If she wakes up. Her eyes filled with tears.

Let me know what you think! :D

Maura