Val was having serious misgivings about returning to Persephone.
It had been long enough that there shouldn't be anyone looking for her anymore. And the life of an honest trader also shouldn't interact with anyone from her prior life.
Shouldn't.
Her main concern, of course, was Sam. She didn't think she could find the will to go on if anything were ever to happen to the muscular blonde mechanic. It sounded overly dramatic even in her own mind, but this wonderful woman who she'd somehow stumbled across became exactly what she'd needed. A reason to live, not just go through life, which was all she had been doing up to that point. Now that she'd had a taste of what such a life could entail, what was life worth living without it?
The petite brunette shook her head irritably. Giving thought to such maudlin ideas did nothing productive. All it did was send her mind off to places she'd rather not dwell in anymore.
Still, they were due to land at Eavesdown Docks within the next hour or so. And the misgivings simply would not go away.
She sat on the bridge, watching the planet grow ever larger in her viewport, and a small part of her wished for something, anything, to intervene.
Val hadn't even completed her errant thought before the bridge lights stuttered and red lights started to flash on her console. "Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng (frog-humping son of a bitch)!" she exclaimed. "I didn't mean it! I swear to Buddha, I didn't mean it!"
Her hands quickly flew across the board, accessing the damage control displays and diagnostics. What she saw made her eyes grow wide.
She grabbed the handset to the left of her and clicked the button for the intercom. "Sam, why are Willow's thrusters not working?"
It took a second for the response to come back to her. "Workin' on it, babe!" Her girlfriend sounded out of breath, and perhaps a little bit panicked.
Val rapidly started to slap at buttons to silence the alarms that had begun to wail. The bridge lights were still flickering intermittently, but once the alarms were off she could hear from behind her the sounds of more alarms coming from the engine room, and below it a constant stream of Mandarin cursing.
Realizing there was little she could do from here, Val vaulted from her seat and dashed towards the rear of the ship. I was a relatively short trip, passing by their bunk hatch, the stairwell entrance, and then the tiny galley area before she was standing at the entryway to the engine room. She stopped there, mouth agape.
The normally neat and tidy engine room was a mass of chaos. Wires were strewn everywhere, and there was wisps of smoke curling up towards the ceiling ventilators. Bright alarm warnings were flashing on the wall panels and she could see her lover's legs poking out from under the accelerator core.
"Sam!" she screamed. "What can I do to help!"
There was a bright spark that made the mechanic jump. "Ta ma de diyu (fucking hell)!" she bellowed angrily. "Babe, ain't nothing ta help with right now, 'ceptin' mebbe some prayers might not be amiss!"
Val's stomach dropped right onto the deck. If her girlfriend was asking for prayers, they were surely humped. "What happened?" she yelled, panic starting to bubble up to replace her digestive processes.
"Main coiler assembly failed! Ain't somethin' we carry a backup fer 'cause it's so gorram expensive!" She yelped again as another spark flashed. "Gorramit! Yeah, started out with th' outboard capacitor, had a short, an' then just escalated from there!"
"Sam, wo de ai, I can't maneuver without thrusters! We're pointed right at Persephone!"
"I know, babe! I know!"
Val had never felt so helpless in all her life. Even when trapped in her former life, she always had an escape plan, one which she eventually enabled. But right now, they were stuck on a ship hurtling towards a fiery end, with no shuttle...
"Sam!" she yelled. "We have escape pods!"
She heard more indeterminable Mandarin before her girlfriend spoke up again. "Just sit tight, I gots this lian ren!" she finally hollered.
There were a few more sparks, a few more flashes of light, and plenty of tendrils of smoke that were beginning to make Val's eyes tear up, but there was no way in diyu she was about to leave her lover's side. Finally, the alarms seemed to recede, one at a time that went from angry red to a more sullen amber. A few even had the temerity to switch over to green.
"Okay!" Sam yelled, jumping up and startling the diminutive pilot. The blonde rushed over to the panel and started to toggle switches until more of them started to show green. "Right, babe get us down fast as you c'n, dong ma (understand)? We ain't gonna have what we gots fer much longer!"
"I'm on it!" Val barked back, and spun around to sprint back to her chair. By this point the planet was looming large in the viewscreen and lights were flashing urgently concerning their approach, some of which indicated that a very irate and concerned traffic controller wanted to reach her immediately. She jumped into her seat, strapped in and grabbed the handset again, this time dialing up the Eavesdown Docks Control Tower.
"Eavesdown Docks, this is Sandfly transport Willow, on emergency approach," she quickly recited, overriding any of the controllers queries. "We've had thruster loss, but we've got a temporary patch in place. We need to set down, now, give me a beacon please!"
"Roger that Sandfly transport, follow beacon Alpha Nine Eight down. We'll have emergency crews standing by."
"Thank you!" she cheered before tossing the handheld back into the holder. Alright Valerie, you can do this, this is what you trained for... A small part of her worried that she might not be up to this really, or that her failure would kill not only her but her lover. The rest of her squashed that voice and pushed it aside, having quickly determined there was no time for doubts right now.
Val took hold of the controls with her right hand to steady the ship as they were about to enter atmo. The left she kept poised on the main thruster controls, waiting for the last possible minute to rotate and engage them. If Sam was right, she wouldn't have them for very long after they fired.
With an audible boom and a shudder felt throughout the ship, the Willow broke through into the atmo of Persephone. She watched the altimeter as it flew by, grimly counting down until she didn't think there was any more of a safety margin left. Then she slammed down the rotator lever, aiming the main thrusters forward, and pushed the thruster controls all the way forward. Both hands were needed now to keep the ship steady, and she could feel the sweat dripping down her face from the tension.
The altimeter continued to spin downward, slowing just a little bit before she could feel the pressure against her harness. She spun the thrusters again to point down, firing the maneuvering thrusters to point the nose back up. Almost there, almost there, come on my sweet girl we're almost there...
Five meters from the ground, Sam's patch job finally gave out.
The thruster lights went out, the control stick went slack in her hands, and alarms began to blare again. With a thunderous force that rattled Val's teeth, the Willow finished her landing, unpowered. Fortunately the landing gear absorbed most of the impact, but she could hear the crashing noises throughout the ship behind her.
She frantically fumbled with the harness to release her, and then jumped out of her seat to go check on Sam.
Only to slam into her as she was sprinting towards the bridge.
They ended up on the floor of the bridge, Val on the bottom. "Are you... are you alright?" she managed to squeak out.
"I'm... gao yang jong duh goo yang (motherless goats of all motherless goats). Yeah, I'm good." Sam leaned up off of her, her face hovering just above her own. "You?"
Val leaned her head up and brushed her lips against Sam's. "Just fine, now."
"Wo kao (holy shit), babe, that was..." Sam trailed off, shaking her head.
"Huaidan (badass)?" the petite brunette smirked.
The blonde mechanic barked out a laugh. "Yeah. Huaidan." She sighed and rested her forehead against Val's. "We're alive."
"That we are, wo de ai. That we are." And on a very broken ship, Val thought morosely.
But they were alive.