Going Home.

Entering Earth seems to be a lot harder than any other planet. The upper atmosphere must be thicker than most of the other planets.
Rocky tells the pilot to face the bottom of the ship into the flight stream, presumably to slow us down. As we enter, a ball of fire engulfs the ship. Flames lick past the window to my left as the ship starts to buck and teeter left and right.
Through the side window, I can see fingers of flames forming around our wing man's ship as he puts his ship's bottom to the air.
In the distance, I see one ship blow to pieces and begin falling to earth as they burn up.
"We just lost At'pet!", Rocky yells from her post.
"Fuck!", Nex yells from his gunner seat, "He was a good man."

Falling through 58,000ft the ship finally settles down.
"The steering is shot, we have limited control.", the pilot says as the large land mass appears underneath us. The shape of it brings me back to elementary school. Miss. Coverly had a large map on the wall in the back of the classroom. The real life view is the exact copy of that image. An image that few humans will ever see.
At least for the next few decades.

"We're going to have to decide where to land, now", Rocky says, "We won't have time to redirect, later."
I think for a second. After a second, my decision is made. I'm going home. "Head for that body of water to the west of that peninsula.", I point toward west Michigan.

Falling below 28,000ft the radio comes alive. "Chicago Approach to Unidentified object at Flight Level 28, You have entered Class B airspace, Squawk 4157 and state your intentions.", the voice on the other end sounds worried, but perturbed, over our unannounced arrival.
Rocky looks back at me with a confused face, then Nex. "I don't know what he's talking about. What's a squawk?"
I look back at her and shake my head. I've never heard that phrase before, myself.
Lori walks over to Rocky's console and pushes the PTT button. "Alpha-Hotel-Golf-Six-Four-Two-Three-Two, Chicago Approach. Two-Three-Two is unable to squawk due to mechanical failure.", Rocky scoots out of her seat and Lori fills in. "I've come back to Earth several times. I know the procedures here.", she reassures us all.
The radio responds, "Two-Three-Two, State your intentions."
"Chicago Approach, Two-Three-Two. May-day. We've lost our engines, landing gear and steering. We're going to splash down near Holland, Michigan – 8 miles out. 7 souls on-board. Requesting Coast Guard to our location.", Lori said into the radio, like she'd been doing it for years.

The once perturbed voice is now a voice of hustling and short bursts of orders – both to us and other aircraft in the air. "Northwest Airlines-Eight-Five-Two, Chicago. Turn heading Three-Six-Zero...Global Freightway Niner-Two-One, Chicago. Turn heading Two-Seven-Zero. Climb and maintain Flight Level Two-Two.", Straight ahead of us, we can make out two small craft turning to their respective courses as the pilots respond, then Approach came back to us. "Two-Three-Two, you are clear to Lake Michigan, proceed on course. Coast Guard is en route to your destination for assistance. Chicago."
Lori quickly reads back the response and our pilot pulls the controls, heavily, toward the lake.
At this point I just realized that Lori had lied to the Controller. Our steering is shot, but we have full engine power.
I also just realized that we can't land a hovering craft at an International airport on an 'M' Class planet. She's thinking ahead. Smart girl.

We shoot, quickly, to about a foot over the surface. The pilot brings the ship to a hover and slowly lowers it into the water. Our sensors are picking up several water based vessels closing on our location – the Coast Guard. We have to act quickly. Everyone gathers near the exit ramp as the pilot opens the hatch. We all step out onto the top of the ship as steam rolls off the body, still hot from our entry into the atmosphere.
Rocky looks at her wrist communicator, "They are only a half click away. Do it.", she points to the pilot.
With that, the pilot slowly lowers the ship into the water as the hatch closes. Shorty grabs onto me and I hoist her onto my hip. "Don't worry.", I say to her worried face, "Everything will be O.K."
The ship will have no problem surviving the depths of the water. I can feel it fall away from my feet as I'm suddenly buoyant, as is the rest of the crew.
Everyone except Nex; he goes down like an anchor.

"Rock! Nazerene! Get Nex! I think his metal is too heavy to float!", I shout over the waves wisping past us.
Rocky and Nazerene dive straight down just as the first Coast guard ship arrives.

"Ahoy!", comes a voice from the ship, "U.S. Coast Guard. We'll have you out in a minute."

Several flotation devices are thrown into the water, along with several men dressed in diving gear.A diver approaches me first and takes Shorty from me - putting her on a float. "Don't worry, sweat heart, we'll get you aboard, shortly.", he says to her, trying to calm her.
From the safety of her float she looks at him, then at me, then back at him. "My name is Shorty.", her voice is as adamant as it was on Hoth. She isn't afraid, anymore. She is in control of her situation.
Just now, Nazerene, Rocky and Nex come to the surface. Two divers rush to them and help Nex who's definitely having a problem keeping on the surface. The added weight shows on the girl's faces.
One of the divers looks at Nex and pulls back. "What's wrong with his face!", he asks Rocky.
I can sense the Force coming from her as she looks at the diver. "There's nothing wrong with his face.", she says, casually.
"Oh.", the diver says back. Rocky had just, obviously, used the Force to cloud the diver's mind in order to make Nex look normal.

As we're all brought on board the ship the captain comes up to us. "Welcome aboard. We've got a crew ready to recover you plane.", he says, shaking our hands.
We all look quickly at each other. None of us know what to say.

Lori, taking a lead from Rocky's earlier exploit says, "Our plane is fine where it is."
The captain looks at her, still faced. "Your plane is fine where it is.", he copycats.
Hmm, I guess Lori's picking up some traits of the Dark Side. The Jedi are usually against forcing others to do or say anything. They try to 'influence' people to do what they want, not force them. What she just let out was definitely a forced statement.
She has some real potential.
I chuckle under my blanket that the Coast Guards gave us to keep warm, but I guess I don't hide it well enough because Lori punches me in the shoulder to show me she's on to me, then turns her back to me.
The captain calls off the salvage crew as we turn and head for the distant shore.

The ride to shore takes about an hour and the sun is setting, quickly.
This is when we realize that none of us have any earth money or any living supplies. A well prepared bunch, we are.

The boat that's taking us to shore is already clouded in a blanket of dark as to hide the fact that we: Actually landed in a space craft; We want our ship to stay under water; and Nex has an exposed steel plate that constitutes half of his head. A lake full of shit won't mind if you take a piss in it, I figure, so I head to the captains' quarters."We need food and shelter for the night.", I say to the captain as I enter the door.
To my surprise, I don't have to use mind control to get anything from him. He stands from his chair and grabs a pamphlet from a shelf. Handing it to me he says, "Just tell them it's compliments of the Coast Guard."
The pamphlet belongs to the local Holiday Inn.

That night, all seven of us live it up in the fanciest hotel that Holland has to offer; Cable TV. Swimming pool. Room service. Lake side view (as if we wanted to see anymore of that)...and a free shuttle bus to anywhere we want to go.

As my group enjoys the high life I sneak away from the crowd and take a tour, using the force to commender the bus - without a driver - to my old neighborhood.

Back to my old farm.

Or, what's left of it.