This is the same story as the previous two but this time, the entire story takes place in 1 minute. (This was hard!) Oh and if anyone has a name of for this storyline, I'm totally open. Maybe someday I'll develop all these into something bigger!
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The clock glowed 10:24 a.m, though out here, you wouldn't know it, as dark as it was. Captain Thomas Gladion gripped the thrusters in his white knuckled hand, trying to keep the starship low and quiet. His eyes twitched from staring so long at the angry orange numbers of the console. Their pilot had been critically injured in an altercation with the locals not an hour before, so it was Thom's job to get his crew home safely.
“There's no way we're gonna get out of here without being spotted,” said his co-pilot, Lieutenant Zachary Ty, as the ship slid through the grizzled ether.
A dull thud sounded in Thom's brain as the ship made a sickening lurch sideways. He could feel them angle downward as a result of the impact, an orange glow billowing from one of the engines. The sound was accompanied by the smell of smoke that drifted through the cabin like a living thing, crawling through the crevices to the passenger deck. Thom's eyes stung as the bitter essence clawed its way up his nasal passages. Sparks erupting from the console snapped him back to reality as he noticed Zach fumbling for the extinguisher.
The crew behind them shouted, cursed and coughed as they clamored to their seats. All of them fought like stampeding cattle against each other, fear, and the ships own lurching. He heard a female - which was probably Anya, the ship's medic – shout that the smoke could be from burning chemicals leaking from the engine and it was highly toxic. The captain started to cover his nose with a bandanna, but soon realized that there were more important things he should be doing with his hands. Toxic smoke was the least of his concerns in a ship that was making a beeline straight to the waiting ground below.
The light flickered once as the console threw more sparks, then died all together. The ship was plunged into darkness equal to that of the outside world. Thom groped for the emergency power button as the ship pitched steeply and began to roll. The power came back on dimly and the captain was wrestling with the stabilizers under an eerie blue glow. A low hum vibrated through the bones – his and the ships – and slowly the power dimmed until it was nothing but black once again.
The engine must really be failing, he thought, as he leaned all his weight on the stabilizer rod. The ship ceased its haphazard rolling and began to steady and slow but unfortunately, they were still falling too fast. Lt. Ty had managed to open the air vents and now the smoke was creeping out of the ship as if seeking bigger adventures in the big black. The whistling sound from the vents buzzed in Thom's ears as he unceremoniously smashed at buttons attempting to pull the ship's parachute. It was released with a great yank that plastered everyone to their seats, just a moment before the ship made landfall by crunching violently into the ground.
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