Read Online Castaway Planet by Eric Flint, Ryk E Spoor - Free Book Online Page A

strain, more buffeting vibration as the rumble from outside rose to a frightening crescendo and the hull sensors showed that LS-5 was careening through the atmosphere like a meteor, blazingly hot, but the vibration was less than she’d expected. Deceleration crushed her down, but she forced her hands to stay rock-steady, even though her heart was racheting itself into ever-faster beats. Yellow along the guide path and she restrained her panic, forced her hand to move the tiniest, most controlled bits. Green again, and they were holding to the original calculated glide pattern as though running down a set of tracks.
    Hitomi gave a series of yelps as the deceleration peaked, forcing them into their harnesses with more than four times their own weight. Whips burbled something in the Bemmie native language and she wanted to reassure him, but she didn’t dare take her eyes from the guide display or hands from the controls.
    At least if it screws up here it’ll be fast . . .
    But now the pressure began to ease, and she felt a smile starting as the temperature sensors showed they were past the peak.
    As the temperature continued to fall, Sakura finally caused the forward shields to be retracted. They were at around Mach 5 and dropping, heading towards their destination. The three points should be coming into view soon.
    As the speed fell to that of normal atmospheric craft, Sakura triggered the mode shift from a reentry configuration (minimal surface area, all-refractory surfaces with ablative covering) to that of a high-speed aircraft, larger wings, multiple control surfaces, more capable and responsive. “Activating atmospheric engines,” she said. Jet intakes opened and Sakura felt the vibrations as the nuclear reactor heated the incoming air and hurled it out the back through jet turbines. Great! All engines were operating just like they were supposed to.
    LS-5 now tore through the sky at Mach speeds, fast but far, far slower than it had been. “Atmospheric reentry complete—guys, we’re a plane now!”
    A rippling, pained sigh from Whips. “Thank the Sky Above. That hurt .”
    She shot a glance at her mother. “Is he—”
    “Just some strains, Sakura. No injuries. Just focus on flying.”
    Below her, green and brown with occasional splotches of brighter color streamed by. “We’re over the target continent. Expect to see our landing site any minute. Transitioning to subsonic flight.”
    The third configuration deployed larger wings, gave her more control. She tested this new setup. It responded just like in the sims. Maybe she could do this after all.
    A bank of clouds was moving in over the target region, but that shouldn’t be a major concern, Sakura thought. She had infrared and radar to penetrate the clouds, and it didn’t look like a big storm. The long-range radar located the tip of the continent, built up an outline picture of a gently sloping section of land coming down from the small mountains she was approaching, a section of land narrowing to a narrow tip with a nearly circular lagoon—like a gigantic arrowhead with a huge hole punched through the tip. Beyond the lagoon was a narrow, triangular section of the continent and then the sea. To either side were two smaller islands.
    Her guide program recognized the three points she’d designated—the triangular tip and the other two islands—but, oddly, showed yellow for the correspondence. Sakura didn’t understand that. She could see clearly it was the same group she’d chosen. She redesignated, the display went back to green, and the guide path solidified.
    There were no flat landing fields here. She’d have to go to VTOL configuration at the end, which made her a little nervous. That was the hardest mode to control and she maybe hadn’t practiced that one as much as she should. Still, she only needed to hold it together for a few seconds, enough to get them down.
    She was grateful—so very grateful—that everyone else was staying calm and