Reika cursed and hooked her foot around the pilot's chair to anchor herself. She pulled back on a lever to kill all the lateral thrust she could, then hit the button that reversed her thrust, trying to stop the spin she was in. One of her four thrusters wasn't responding, and the other three were sluggish. The stars were gradually slowing their dizzying spin, so Reika dropped the Fatamorgana's roll in to low on her priority list.
Ignoring the flashing diagnostics screen, Reika scanned the swirling stars. She was searching for any sign of the Yuzzhan Vong, be it a mine or a coralskipper. The way the lights had flickered made her suspect that it was a problem with the Fatamorgana, but Reika was eerily reminded of being hauled out of hyperspace by the Vong, and that wasn't an experience she wanted to repeat. There was no sign of any other craft, Vong or not, and Chandrila was visible, though it was a lot farther away than Reika would have liked.
The diagnostics screen was still flashing red, indicating that all but the vital systems had shut off. Reika tried to hit the screen to indicate that she knew unnecessary systems were down and to bring up a list of actual damage. She accidentally unhooked her foot and nearly lost her purchase.
After a couple of attempts, Reika managed to get herself back into the pilot's chair and closed the crash webbing around her. The crash webbing cut the distance she could move in half, but she wouldn't waste any more time floating around, either. The hydrospanner, which was floating near her left shoulder, helped her reach the diagnostics screen. She shut everything down but life support, and then restarted everything cold. The engines came online without a fuss, as did three of her thrusters. Everything else came in fits and starts. Reika felt her braid slowly fall down her back as the grav-generators began to kick in. Lights flickered on in her cockpit, though some didn't last for long.
As Reika undid the crash webbing, she glimpsed movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw Kamen standing in the doorway, looking surlier than ever. Before he could ask, she cut him off. "I don't know. Power surge most likely."
Kamen merely glared. "Can you still land it?"
Reika stood up and walked over to the copilot's side to get at the diagnostics display easier. "The engines look ok. We've lost a thruster, but I can work around that…oh. Sithspit"
"What?" Kamen crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.
"No repulsorlifts," said Reika, with a sinking feeling in her stomach. No repulsorlifts meant that it was going to be near impossible for her to land the Fatamorgana, especially by herself. She sighed heavily and kicked in the working thrusters, shunting power from some to others to keep the Fatamorgana going in a straight line.
Reika kept one hand on the controls and used the other to rub her hazel eyes. She briefly considered telling port control what had happened, but discarded that as foolish. Port control wouldn't let the Fatamorgana land, not until they made sure that her ship wouldn't damage the landing pad. That upped the chances that port control would realize that the Fatamorgana was running under a fake name, which in turn would make them look at Reika's fake name. Reika's false ID was anything but airtight, and going to jail was not worth saving her ship and the landing pad some wear and tear.
But she couldn't land the ship alone. If all she had to concentrate on was flying, she could do it. However, there were simply too many things to divide her attention. Reika heaved a sigh and stared out at Chandila, which now took up a quarter of her veiwport.
Static crackled over her comm. system, then turned into a distorted voice. "Welcome to Chandrila. Please state the names of all crew, your cargo manifest, and your business here."
Please believe me. Please. please. "This is Branka Ignac, pilot of the Chipper Sun. I carry only one crew member, Donat Kormac, my – my copilot," Reika took a deep breath. Just saying that she had a copilot made her twitchy.
"Chipper Sun, state your business and cargo," came the voice from the comm.
She feigned irritation to help her ignore the knot forming in her stomach. This wasn't the first time Reika had flown as Branka Ignac, but she still wasn't used to it. Part of her hoped she never would be. "I was getting there. All I'm carrying is some portable housing for some of the refugees from the invasion corridor. I'm setting down here for a two or three days for repairs, then heading back out." Reika slumped. At least one part of my story isn't a lie.
There was a nerve-wrenching moment of silence before then the comm came alive with coordinates for a descent course and a landing pad. Reika played around with the thrusters until they were moving the Fatamorgana in a relatively straight course, trying to put off what she was going to have to do.
"I'll just go strap myself in," said Kamen.
Reika turned and saw him start walking away from the cockpit. The knot in her stomach got tighter and she shut her eyes tightly. "Kamen, wait."
She heard Kamen turn around. "Yes, girlie?"
Her eyes snapped open. That was malicious, and they both knew it. For the first time Reika met his gaze and held it. "That's Captain to you. And get in here."
Kamen cocked an eyebrow. "Yes ma'am," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Can't land your precious ship by yourself?"
Reika thought about telling him to go to hell, but that wouldn't land them in one piece. So Reika just bit down on her desire for payback and instead said, "Just get in the damn chair. I fly, you do everything else."
"What am I, your astromech?"
She scowled at Kamen. She had an astromech once, when she was in Starfighter Command. Toad was her nickname for her R5 unit, and he was yet another friend that she had to leave behind. Her time in the military had been hard, but they were some of the happiest memories she had. This is no time to mourn your short military career. "Shut up and do your job."
Kamen glared at her once more before lighting up his controls. "Yes ma'am."
Reika poked her head around the side of her boarding ramp, looking for port officials. Seeing none, she turned her attention to the damage that her rough landing had caused. There was a scratch and a few dents on the landing pad, and some of the plating had come off the Fatamorgana. The cosmetic damage was lighter than she had expected, and wouldn't have accounted for the banging and crackling Reika heard right after her landing. The noise had been loud enough that Reika thought it could be heard all the way to Coruscant, and she was positive that some slimy port official would hear it and would fine her for damage.
Relieved that there would be no fines – not yet, anyway – Reika began picking up the pieces of her ship. She heard rather than saw Kamen exit the Fatamorgana, and looked up in time to see him leave the landing pad, heading towards the city. She didn't know where he was going, and she really didn't care. He'd done his job well, and with a minimum amount of glaring at her, and that was all that really mattered. He'd even managed to coax some power out of a broken thruster and kill some of the pitching that the Fatamorgana was doing. She paused, thinking. His only problem was that he doesn't instinctively know where the Fatamorgana's controls are placed, and he doesn't have a feel for the ship. Not yet, anyway, but it'll come in time.
Reika batted away the thought that Kamen was going to stick around, and put the plating right inside the boarding ramp. She wasn't due to meet Greenie's representative for two days, which would give her a good start on repairs. Of course, Reika had no idea where to start repairs, or even where to start looking for damage. Once she found the problem, she wasn't sure that she could find repair parts or even fix it. Reika would be the first to admit that she wasn't a mechanical genius, and the only formal training she'd ever had was on X-wings anyway. She'd managed to fix a few small problems on the Fatamorgana, but none had been this crucial. Maybe Kamen is a better mechanic than I am. Reika didn't like the thought of Kamen helping with repairs, but she didn't like the thought of being completely buried in parts she didn't know how to fix, either.
Hopelessness started to creep up on Reika, so she walked towards the cockpit. She noticed with dismay that all the lights on the right side of the hallway were out. Once she was at the cockpit, she plopped down hard in the pilot's chair and just sat there, staring at nothing, allowing her sense of foreboding to run wild. The scenarios that were running through her head went from bad to worse, and the memories of her ex-copilot were intruding far too readily.
She shook herself out of her trance, and then started up a test program on the diagnostics screen. The program would tell her exactly what wasn't working where, and occasionally it might tell her why too. In the meanwhile, she decided to go walk around the port. Get some fresh air, dispel any cabin fever, and figure out what to do next.