Lost in the Stars

by Stevenspielbergwriter3

When faced with losing their careers, the Chipmunks and Chipettes agree to a wild publicity stunt funded by NASA. But things go horribly wrong as they are stranded in the depths of space with virtually no hope of ever making it back to Earth. In situations like this, they realize you must fight with every breath in your body just to survive.

7. The Red Planet

As usual, you guy were really good with showing the last chapter support. I saw a lot of great and interesting theories and I also got a lot of helpful feedback which I will continue to try to use to improve my writing.

Now obviously, even though all of your suggestions were interesting, I can't use all of them. (Also, for the reader who asked, this is the CGI version of the chipmunks).

Hopefully you guys like this chapter even more than the previous ones.

Chapter 7: The Red Planet

Simon's POV

We all buckled into our assigned seats, as we had trained. I looked and realized we had a good half an hour until we hit the gravitational pull of Mars. I turned around and shot Brittany a threatening glare. She pretended to not see it, keeping her eyes glued to the Motherboard screen.

"Is everyone ready?" I barked. "Sound off!"

"Everything's looking good!" Jeanette piped up.

"Same with me!" Eleanor said.

"And me," Theodore said confidently.

There was a long pause. I turned around in my seat and looked straight at Brittany and Alvin, who were pretending to be pre-occupied. "Sound off!" I repeated impatiently.

Alvin rolled his eyes. "I'm good."

"All systems go," Brittany added unenthusiastically.

"Alright everybody," I tried to sound encouraging. "We all know the drill. Just like in training."

"Everything looks normal," Brittany piped up, still looking down at the ship's instruments.

"Good. Jean, are the thrusters fully functional?"

She shot me a confused look, grinning slightly at my attempts to sound authoritative. "I see no reason why they wouldn't be," she said.

I blushed. "Right, very good. Thank you."

It wasn't long before the gravitational pull of Mars was first felt on the ship.

"Jeanette, kill the acceleration!" I ordered. The engine's humming became very dim, as our momentum combined with gravity was enough to hold us on our course towards the red planet.

We began to pick up speed, slowly at first, but gradually increasing. Without my saying so, everyone double-checked to make sure they were strapped in reliably. We all knew that we were in for a bumpy ride.

The Caesar continued to hurl towards Mars at a dangerously increasing rate. The temperature inside of the cockpit began to get hotter and hotter. The whole ship started to vibrate. I took control and fired the thrusters in the opposite direction, trying to slow us down. It slowed us down a little but didn't seem to have much of an effect. Memories of the final pain tolerance test began to race through my mind, as the cockpit now felt like the inside of a crockpot. Sweat trickled down my face as I increased the power of the thrusters. I knew that all of the others on board were relying on me.

We were now entering Mars' atmosphere, flames beginning to form around the Caesar similar to a comet. The ship was now shaking so hard that it made it hard to see.

"Simon w-we're getting awful-l close!" Brittany shouted at me.

Struggling, I fired the reverse thrusters to full power. All of our heads snapped forward with a jolt as the ship suddenly slowed its descent. The shaking evened out as our entire view in front of us was different hues of red. The feeling that we were free-falling became less prevalent as the thrusters slowed the ship until we were hovering just a mile or so above the surface of Mars.

The terrain looked rocky in most places and very uneven. Radar detected a flatter, sandier area nearby surrounded on three sides by a small, red, rocky mountain. I quickly righted the ship so that we were facing the horizon within the cockpit, and guided us over to the smoother landing spot with brief sporadic bursts of the side thrusters.

Guiding the Caesar was easier said than done with the weather conditions the way they were. It seemed we had arrived in the middle of a windstorm, which had picked up sand and small pieces of debris. The wind itself was blowing at about 50 miles per hour, which combined with the dust made it extremely hard to maneuver the ship.

We finally floated over to the foot of the mountain, which was very smooth and sandy with only a few scattered rocks and boulders. With the press of a button, Jeanette lowered the three landing legs. I began to gently reduce the power of the thrusters, letting Caesar lose altitude slowly.

"Too fast, Simon," Brittany winced.

We were very near the ground now. Using the manual stick, I rotated us until the landing gear was perfectly situated so that all three legs would touch down on sand. Sweat was still gushing from my forehead and sliding into my eyes and down my cheeks as I lowered us inch by inch towards the ground. Everyone held their breaths. We were just a few feet above the surface.

Suddenly the wind picked up in a gust and blew us a couple yards off course, just as the legs were about to land safely. The foot of the back-right leg violently struck a large jagged red rock that was protruding from the sand. The whole ship jolted from the impact with a harsh screeching noise. We all gasped because we knew this was trouble as the other two legs finally touched down in smoother areas.

"Shit!" I cursed as threatening sirens erupted through the whole ship. We all unbuckled as I began barking orders. "Jeanette get down there and check the systems for damage. Alvin get in a suit and check it out from outside."

Alvin and Jeanette stood up and left the cockpit in a hurry as I typed the code 1958 into the Motherboard and shut off the sirens. The ship became quiet again and very still.

"Brittany is there a breach in the hull?" Eleanor said, wrapping her arms tight around Theodore from fear.

Brittany typed into the computer, which prompted a detailed blueprint of the ship to appear on screen. She studied it before saying, "no breach, looks like something got crunched with the landing system though."

I sighed, wiping the sweat off of my brow. "Everyone grab a headset," I muttered.

Theodore, Eleanor, and Brittany all obeyed me. I picked up my own pair, tightened it around my forehead, brought the microphone down to my mouth, and said, "testing. One two, one two. If you can hear me sound off, over."

Brittany said, "I can."

"Mine's working fine," Theodore said, trying to appear confident.

"Same with mine," Ellie whimpered, gulping down her anxiety.

"I read you." That was Jeanette's voice coming through the headset all the way from the engine room.

"Excellent," I breathed nervously. "Alvin, what about you?"

Alvin's POV

I had forgotten how hard it was to get into those suits. And how uncomfortable they were. And as I stood in the middle of the cargo bay, forcing myself into the outer layer, I thought to myself how much I hated the fact that I was the "field officer". Which basically just meant I was there to be the grunt and to do all the dirty work. Because I had no special skills.

You could sense the slight tilt of the ship from the one leg standing on the rock.

I choked as I shoved the rest of myself up neck deep into the rest of the suit. Still in a hurry, I grabbed a round, clear helmet and twisted it onto the neck portion of the suit. I could hear the sucking, whooshing sound of air, making it airtight.

"Alvin?" I cringed as the sound of my brother Simon's voice was not what I wanted to hear at that moment. "I repeat, are you ready to go out, yet?"

"Yes, Simon," I groaned. "I'm good to go. Unlock the hatch."

As I stood over the round hatch in the middle of the cargo bay floor, I couldn't help but let my mind drift to the guns in the cabinet. I heard a faint clicking sound. "Ok it's unlocked. Get your ass out there now."

I hesitated. Maybe I should bring a gun or two along with me before I give him the chance to lock me out? But it was too late to grab the key. So I swallowed my doubts, twisted the wheel to the hatch and pulled it open. I climbed down on the ladder and pulled the hatch shut behind me, making sure to twist it and make it airtight. Then I climbed down further to the hatch below me which led directly outside. I took a deep breath and clutched the wheel in both hands. I gritted my teeth and tried to twist it open but this one was way harder to budge, like a jar of pickles. Finally, it loosened up just a little, prompting what looked like steam to spray out from everywhere as the ladder room depressurized.

It was just a moment before I had gotten the hatch completely open. At that point, I was just a few feet above the surface of the planet Mars. I peered down at its redness, which made me feel queasy. Shutting and tightening the hatch behind me, I followed the rest of the ladder down towards the ground. The dust storm had calmed down a bit but was still blowing, which made it hard to see where the next steps were.

Suddenly, my foot slipped off of the bottom step, sending me falling until I landed flat on my back. The impact of my body to the ground sent a large cloud of dust and sand up, engulfing me before being blown away by the wind. Before I picked myself up I started to laugh uncontrollably at the thought that Earthlings' first steps on Mars in history was a clumsy slip.

"What the hell is so funny, Alvin?" Brittany snapped at me through the speakers in the helmet.

"N-nothing just… fell."

I could sense everyone rolling their eyes from inside the ship. I pushed myself onto my feet and looked around. The bottom of the ship was high enough off the ground so that I could stand underneath it, although I wouldn't dare try that with Simon still at the helm. Just about the only things I could see were the landing legs. I spun around until - bingo - there was the busted leg.

"Simon," Jeanette said, "Something is smoking in the landing gear… I think it's continuously trying to extend itself all the way but it can't. It's putting a lot of stress on-"

"Just shut it down," Simon interrupted.

"Roger that."

By now, I had made my way all the way over to the leg which I was supposed to investigate. The foot was resting in an awkward position and appeared to be literally bent out of shape. Some of the joints that lead up towards the ship weren't all the way extended like they were supposed to be. And I could see a thin trail of smoke coming from the joint that connected the leg to the inside of the ship. "I can see smoke too," I said grimly.

Suddenly, the smoke thinned out and went away.

"Oh wait, it stopped," I said.

"That's good," Jeanette said gleefully, "'Cause that was me."

"What else do you see, Alvin?" Simon pressed.

I looked the whole thing up and down one more time. "It looks stable enough, but it looks like we could be stuck here awhile."

I could hear everyone groan through the headset.

"Very well," Simon said to me, "Return to the Caesar, if you please."

"Nah, I thought I'd stay out here and admire the lovely view," I said sarcastically. To my surprise and frustration, I didn't even get a response.

Brittany's POV

"Brittany, stay here and keep watch." Simon's words still echoed through my ears, even long after he had left me alone here in the cockpit.

Everyone was scrambling around in the wake of the "crash landing". Except for Alvin, he seemed pretty cool. Me, I just decided to sit back and let everything work itself out, as it always had done in the past. It honestly didn't seem like that much of an emergency to me. The landing gear was damaged but it was repairable, and we were planning on staying here for a while, anyway.

I watched over the camera feeds as Jeanette took Simon into the engine room, which was hazy with smoke. Simon coughed and waved his hand around his face like a fan so he could see better. Jeanette pointed to the engine that I assumed powered the landing gear. Simon nodded, shrugged, and briefly spoke. Jeanette hesitated before responding. Simon slapped his forehead and rubbed his temple out of frustration.

Without warning, the cockpit door slid open with a whoosh. I jumped and spun around in my chair, to see Alvin walk in and give me a sly grin. "Hey gorgeous," he said.

"Alvin," I giggled. "Not the time or the place."

He rolled his eyes. "It never will be," he whined, stepping towards me. He put his arms around me, and before I could protest he kissed my cheek. "How have you been holding up?" he whispered, sounding genuinely concerned for me.

"Eh, ya know. Trying to not be too stressed out." I looked into his eyes. "Was it bad?"

"The leg?" he said shrugging. "Not too bad. But we're gonna be here a while."

"I meant the thing with the others," I whispered. "In the sleeping quarters."

"Oh," he chuckled. "To be totally honest with ya, Brit, I had no idea how I was going to get out of there."

"Yeah I could tell," I joked.

"But it doesn't matter now," he continued. "They're busy with other things at the moment."

But that wasn't good enough for me. "So… what happens when Simon brings the attention back to you? And the key and all that?"

He bit his lip, as if thinking about how to properly answer that. "I'll do what I have to do, I guess," he muttered. He must have seen the fear grow in my eyes when he said this, because he almost effortlessly lifted me from my seat and held me romantically as if cradling a baby.

"Wooh!" I gasped, startled at his sudden affection.

"Feels nice to have gravity again, doesn't it?" he whispered into my ear.

I giggled as he walked around and sat down in the chair I had been sitting, placing me lying across his lap. We made long, silent eye contact, just staring into eachothers' eyes for a long moment.

I suddenly had a strange craving for peanut butter. "I'm hungry, are you hungry?" I said in an excited tone.

He scoffed at me. "Hungry? We just landed. Good luck getting Theo to get you a meal this early."

Deciding he was right, I sat up in his lap and leaned my face in towards him. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer until our lips locked. I slid my hand up his torso until it rested on his chest. We made out for a few minutes before I laid my head down on his shoulder and sat there until I fell asleep.

Theodore's POV

"We should never have agreed to this," Ellie muttered, her head down, her arms folded across her chest, and her back turned to me. "I've said it before and I'll say it again."

I put my hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Look, it's been tough. On all of us. And not a lot has gone our way. But try to look on the brighter side, for me?"

She wiped the tears off of her cheeks and turned around to face me. "What brighter side?" she asked me cynically.

I thought about this for a little while, before coming up with, "We're all still alive and unharmed."

"Theo," she whispered, "if that's the bright side, then that just makes me think even more that this mission was a bad choice."

I gritted my teeth because she had a good point. I wasn't that great at this whole comforting thing. I had always been the one who needed comforting throughout my childhood, and it had usually been Dave who was there for me. Even in the past, Ellie and I were usually there for eachother. But in this case, I felt all of the pressure of being there for comfort, and I really just felt like I had fell flat.

"I don't even know why I'm here," Ellie continued, whimpering. "The only reason they even brought me was in case someone got hurt. And God forbid that ever happens."

Brittany's POV

Only half asleep to begin with, I suddenly stirred awake. My cheek was sore from being pressed against Alvin's shoulder for too long, who was also asleep. I looked around to try to spot what had woken me up.

And there were those three distinct "ping" noises again, clearly coming from the Motherboard computer. They were definitely in a pattern too. The computer repeated it: "PING, ping, PING."

I carefully rose up out of Alvin's lap to try to not wake him and stood on the cold metal floor. I hunched over the Motherboard screen, squinting to try to see what it was trying to tell me. The radar took up the whole screen, with the Caesar at the center of its surroundings. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"PING, ping, PING."

I sighed and pressed Ctrl+t, which meant "track". The computer hesitated, before automatically scrolling up a few clicks, and then scrolling right a dozen or so.

"PING, ping, PING."

The screen throbbed with green ripples as the source of the "ping" had been tracked. My eyes widened at the pattern the Motherboard was showing me. "There's no way," I told myself. This was so odd that I made the decision that I almost never made.

"PING, ping, PING."

I reached for the headset, put it around my head, but didn't bother to tighten it and instead just held it up to save time. "Simon, it's Brittany. I need you in the cockpit right now."

"Brittany? What's the emergency?" He sounded almost more annoyed than concerned.

"Just trust me," I muttered, "you need to take a look at this."

"Ok? I guess I'll be right up, then."

"Thank you." I put the headset down, still staring at the radar screen.

"PING, ping, PING."

Jeanette's POV

"Ok, here's what we know," Simon said, calling for the attention from the whole crew, who he had assembled for a meeting in the kitchen around the dining table. "The stress from the impact has snapped a rotor or two in the landing gear engine. Correct?"

Simon looking to me for confirmation threw me off-guard a little bit. "Yeah, that's the bulk of the damage," I responded.

"Shouldn't be too tough of a fix?" he pressed.

"N-no," I said. "But as I already told you, it'll take some time."

"That's no big deal," he said, waving me off. "And Alvin, you said the leg itself didn't look too bad?"

Alvin shrugged, clearly not an expert. "I mean, parts of it looked kind of fucked up. But I didn't see anything that really looked unfixable."

Simon nodded. "All of that is the good news, I'm afraid," he sighed.

We all gave him a confused look.

"Brittany, roll it out," Simon commanded.

Without saying a word, Brittany dragged out a large, thin sheet of paper and laid it on the table for all of us to see. We leaned over and squinted but couldn't figure out what was depicted.

As if on cue, Simon piped up. "This is a radar diagram of an area on Mars just a few dozen miles North-East from here."

"What is all of this?" Theodore asked, pointing to the map. "What are all of these shapes?"

"That's the thing, Theo," Simon said. "We don't know what those are. They're too perfect geometrically for them to be mountains."

"Could they be NASA projects left behind?" I asked.

Simon shook his head. "According to the official records, NASA has never landed or explored within five hundred clicks of where we currently sit."

I looked back down at the radar print-out. There was a large, dark square in the middle, with a smaller and lighter circle, a rectangle, and a couple more scattered shapes connected by long, thin cylinders. And believe me when I say it was just as confusing for us as it is for you.

At the center of the giant square was a small green dot which had ripples spreading out from it like a pebble being thrown into a pond. "What's that?" I asked, pointing to the dot.

"The reason I discovered that image," Brittany responded to me, "was because Motherboard picked up a signal from that exact location."

I raised an eyebrow. "What kind of signal?"

Simon answered before Brittany could even open her mouth. "We're not sure exactly, but… I believe it is some sort of distress signal."

Brittany gulped before pressing play on a recorder.

"PING, ping, PING."

"An SOS?" I gasped.

Simon looked around at all of the eyes that were now concentrated on him. "It's possible, he said."

"Oh, hell no!" Alvin said. "All of this has bad news written all over it! I say we pick up and move to the opposite side of this planet as whatever is making that signal."

"We can't just run away from a call for help," Eleanor insisted.

"Besides," Simon interjected, "we can't move this ship right now anyway. The landing leg is too damaged to use right now."

"So what are we gonna do?" Theodore said.

"None of you are doing anything," Simon insisted, trying to calm us down. "Except for Alvin and I."

"Wait, what?" Alvin exclaimed.

"The two of us will take the rover to see if we can find the source of this signal," Simon continued, ignoring Alvin. "The rest of you will stay here. And wait for us to get back."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Alvin protested. "I don't know what your deal is, Si, but isn't it common sense to run away from trouble."

Simon chuckled. "Since when has that been your first instinct?"

Alvin was about to respond sarcastically but realized Simon had him pegged. He crossed his arms furiously and simply muttered the words, "fine. But let's make it quick."

And that was Chapter 7! As always I really hope you guys enjoyed and I am so sorry this took a while to get to you guys. Hopefully I can drop the next one quicker.

And as always if you like what you read then don't hesitate to smack that Review button and let me know specifically what you liked. (Also, if you haven't already, give the story the fav/follow). But the same goes for any constructive criticism you have as I am ALL EARS for whatever you have to say.

So… yeah. More content coming soon. You guys are awesome :).