Chapter 7: Crash Landing -or- Power Supply

"Blast off!" Lani yelled to Jumba.

The red ship pushed off the ground, leaving Earth behind as it slowly assended. In the zero Gs of space, everything in Jumba's lab had to be held down. Everyone was safely secure as the artificial gravity set in, the ship was still moving at a fast rate as it settled into the new pattern of flight. Everyone settled in their seat, -rather- almost everyone. As for the seat that was Lilo's, it was empty. It took a bit of thinking and a lot of convincing, though the choice that the seven year old Hawaiian girl made was a definate one.

Lilo was going with them.

Lilo had never seen Earth from space before, so when the gravity was turned back on she raced for the nearest window. She placed her hand against the cold glass and looked out to the large marble, specifically in the direction of Hawaii.

"I'll be home soon, Nani," Lilo's thoughts went out to her sister. "Aloha."

"Yuuga accata?" Angel asked her best friend.

Lilo smiled and nodded, stepping away from the window to walk around the ship. Nani had to stay in Kauai, she did have a job to do and a house to manage. So Angel was acting as Lilo's personal authority figure for the trip, since she was the only one Nani knew Lilo would listen to. For now, Lilo was fine just staying in the ship until they went home. It wasn't like there was nothing to do, just nothing safe to take attention away from the boredom. The ones behind the trip were all too busy to bother.

Pleakley was acting as the navigator, saying how he's never gotten lost before going to Earth. Jumba had to steer the ship, mostly because he didn't trust Pleakley or Lani not to crash it and make dents. Lani was still working with Alpha, trying her hardest to figure out some sort of power for the silent fox. That left things in a very boring spot for Angel and Lilo, who -in Jumba's opinion- were just there as bait for 626. He and Pleakley had been fired as soon as the robots attacked a year ago, this being his one chance to attempt to get at least some freedom.

Yes, it was shaping out to be a very univentful journey. There was just one thing to cause a bit of excitement, Jumba forgot to power the ship. It wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't used hyperdrive, then he would have had enough power to get them at least halfway. The engine started to rattle and knock, the speed of the hyperdrive tunnel faultering as the jets failed. All power shut off completely, throwing them around space wildly. An asteroid approached, or they approached the asteroid depending on ones view of things.

"We're gonna crash!" Pleakley earned a frantic nod from everyone but Jumba.

"Not so quickly, asteroid looks big enough to land," Jumba shushed the screams. "If I can just be correcting ship!"

Jumba pulled at the wheel, fighting with the newer gravity of the planet. He managed to get under some sort of control, with smaller asteroids colliding with the metal. The landing wasn't so smooth either, with no power the ship was unable to deploy the landing gear. So by the time the ship landed on the asteroid, there was very little hope of fixing all the damage. The wing was bent, the jets were about to fall off, the glass was the only thing to make it out perfectly fine. Even the travelers were finding it hard not to loose their lunch, the certainly didn't want to do that again.

It had only been less than an hour, already their journey was more than they bargained for. Though now it seemed like they weren't going to get to finish their quest, there didn't seem to be a way to get to 626's "new planet".

"Pleakley, I thought I told you to be powering the ship," Jumba glared at the one eyed alien.

"I did, -well- thought I did," Pleakley thought back. "Ha, its kind of a funny thing. There was no way to actually power the ship."

"Yes there was, Pleakley," Lani told him slowly. "It was the generator that was attatched to the SBS 4500."

"Oh," Pleakley gulped as he went to his seat.

"No problem, we'll just have to power the ship back up," Lani turned her attention to the other girls on the voyage. "Lilo, Angel. Can you two go down to the SBS 4500 and turn on the generator, please?"

"Ih," Angel agreed to go.

"But what will you do while we're down there?" Lilo had to ask.

"I'll go check out the damage to the ship," Lani offered the role. "Jumba, you can tell me if I can fix anything. And Pleakley, you watch Alpha and don't touch anything."

"Fine," Pleakley smiled at his part. "This little monsters not such a little monster. Maybe because he can't talk back, or do anything to hurt me."

With the tasks assigned, the group split up. Lilo and Angel found the generator in the cargo area of the ship, Angel and her night vision guiding them to the SBS 4500. Pulling the switch, nothing happened until Lilo gave it a good kick. The generator hummed and buzzed, showing dim flashes of red light as power was slowly returning to the ship. Power wasn't all the ship was low of, it needed fuel -another thing Pleakley forgot to do, though that time there was really no way to accomplish the task.

"Why is that Jumba?" Lani asked through her helmet's communicator.

"Earth fuel is much different from fuel in space, is much weaker and is used as cough medicine," Jumba explained from the ship. "There is being only one way to fuel up ship enough for big capture in short amount of time, a Bonjo Bean."

"Bonjo Bean?" Lani became interested in what he said.

"Yes, Bonjo Bean is being very powerful fuel source and more," Jumba told her. "One is able to break gas meter on Earth rocket."

"So if we can get one, we'll be able to either power the ship or blow it to bits," Lani guessed where he was going.

"Feh, ship can handle Bonjo Bean power," Jumba brushed off her comment. "Big problem is being that Bonjo Beans are extremely rare. Finding one is like finding hay in needle stack, and equally as painful."

"Yikes," Lani's eyes widened at the comment. "Then I guess I'll just go look for another source of fuel here. I'm sure I can find something. If not I'll just come back and use the SBS 4500 to drill into the asteroid and find something."

With that, Lani walked away from the ship's wreckage. She glanced back only once, vaguley catching sight of a claw mark on the front. The gravity was lighter than on Earth, though it was nothing Lani hadn't handled before. She still had yet to show anyone in this time her true powers, or even giving her true motives for that matter. Hopefully there would be time for that later, if the ship didn't get out of here than that time would be nearer than she'd expected. Maybe not, as there was a neon purple sign reading "Grease's Pub" vsitting right on the edge of the asteroid's horizon.

It was a bar in the middle of nowhere.

A/N: And this is where the fun begins, the bar is where I'll introduce a few new characters into the mix. None of them are really the friendliest, so you can guess where this is going.

Next Time: With the mission delayed in space, something very eery makes its own trip to Earth.