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august-writing · 1 year

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Crash course intro - draft

Kinda just imagining a fun scenario to put Edmund and Rhyin through together

Rhyin glanced around at the space craft's arched walls with glowing panels flashing red. A low wail rattled through the floor. The window blurred against the rushing air as a sound like thunder beat against them from all sides. The floor vibrated up into his bones, jarring him like a pebble in an earthquake.

"We're gonna crash." Rhyin braced himself against the railing.

"Ah," Edmund said, "first time?"

"Can you reverse it?"

"If you're cool enough. Like me." A series of sharp clicks followed the wave of his hand as he neatly flipped a row of switches. "Lucky for you you're with me." Lacing his hands together behind his head he swiveled the chair around to face Rhyin, an eyebrow cocked in triumph.

The craft halted in the air and sent Rhyin forward into the railing. It shuddered a moment, a buzz surging through the panels, and fell back into its flight to the ground. A cheery error message hummed.

"How was that supposed to help?"

Edmund sighed and turned back to the switch board, squinting at the display screen. "I knew I was cheated."

"Do you know how to work this?"

"How else could I get us this high in the air."

"If we can't fix this we are going to slam into the earth and the weight of this metal box with crush to death." Rhyin's grip tightened as he leaned forward to emphasize his point.

Edmund raised his eyebrows, gaze still fixed in his task. "Take a seat there and pull that break stick down." He gestured to beside him. "Hold it as far down, focus on it."

"You broke that. Remember?"

"Ah, you're more observant than I thought."

"You're trying to keep me distracted."

"It would be easier for me to focus—" He pronounced the words in time with his deliberate typing. "—if I didn't have your critique to ignore."

The error message hummed once more

Rhyin frowned and took a seat. "But what are you doing?"

"Supposedly there's an extra set of wings. They should act as a buffer enough to get control." Edmund's tone was nonchalant as he frowned at the screen. "The problem is, the man I bought this from has included a password. Rather creative but a little overkill."

"Why would he do that?"

"Well I'm not the most popular guy apparently."

Rhyin snorted.

"I know, hard to believe. It took a few years for me to accept it."

"So this is it then. If you can't give the password we're dead."

Edmund hummed absently. "There are options. Press that green one right there, yeah the biggie."

Rhyin obliged him, an eyebrow lifted in quiet question. The lighted panels flashed blue in a wave sweeping from each side of the craft, spreading through the backlight of the control boards and meeting at Edmund's display screen. The computer hummed as its face lit up.

"What's that."

"The whole thing is riddled with bugs. And I'm kind of bored with dismantling all the ridiculous stuff he "updated it" with. I'm going to start it over. Let's try the old turn it off and on trick." He gave him a quick grin as he punched something into the keyboard above his head.

"Wait, is that a good idea? Won't that kill us faster?" Visions of the ship crashing into itself, exploring in the air, burning through the clouds, hitting cities and bringing death in its path filled his sight. It would not be a pretty end.

"Oh we won't suffocate instantly. Especially if we put these oxygen masks on." Edmund's free hand searched blindly by the side of his chair. "Eh, they're somewhere around. You'll have to find them."

Rhyin slipped out of his seat and onto the floor just under the control panels. Compartments lined the lower wall, their doors flesh with each other. He banged his fist against the corner.

"Don't break anything important looking. I'm thinking about selling this off."

An extra thud popped the door open enough to let his fingers get a hold and pry the rest of it. Three packets hung in a row along the top above a case with a red cross symbol. Rhyin grabbed it all and crawled out and back into the chair. Edmund spared him a glance and a nod.

"What do I do with these?"

"Open them. Just tear the packaging, I bet it's a disposable type." He gave a snort. "He's so cheap."

Rhyin ripped the plastic outside and the contents dropped into his lap revealing cartoon instructions and a mesh cloth face mask. He gave the package a shake and a chipdrive freed itself from the corner.

"So the good news is that we're coming up to the outpost satellite station on our right." Edmund reached over and picked up the mask. With one hand he slid the chipdrive into the pocket along the side. "Put that on and hand me the other one."

"And we can land in there?" Rhyin handed the package over while hooking the loops over his ears and pulling it up over his nose. He turned to check on Edmund and found him already masked with one arm draped over the back of the chair.

"No, but we can ride their gravity field around and use up our speed."

The craft jerked to the right, pulling forward to the outpost and sending Rhyin sideways out his chair.

"Ready steady here we go. Now it's shutting off."

The computer chirped an obnoxious high note and the lights went to a low orange for a moment before plunging them into dark. The background buzz and rattle cut quiet leaving only the roaring wind outside. An eternity of tension stuck in the empty black.

Edmund drummed his fingers on the edge of the control panel, a nervous ticking in the space dropped between death and fire. Blood soaking ashes.

A harsh hum caught like fire in the engine and shook up the floor. Blue lights swept through the system, like a sunrise bringing hope. Lines chased each other across the panels of the wall like arrows pointing to Edmund's display screen. The same obnoxious chirp sounding as the screen lit a blinding white against the dark craft.

"Please connect to the web to continue your setup," an inhuman voice stuttered.

"Oh come on, seriously." Edmund threw his hands into the air. "Why is this still a feature?"

"Um. What is a web." Rhyin gripped the side of his seat.

Edmund hunched over the screen, brow furrowed as he typed. "Nah it's fine I'll just break into the wifi."

"Hello, I'm starbeetle075," the voice continued. "The United Galaxy welcomes you on the first steps of your exciting adventure."

"Is it giving us a speech?"

"Would you like to begin your tour of the new craft?"

"No, no, tell it to stop." Anxiety bled into the rise of Rhyin's tone.

"Ehh, tell me later." The rhythm of Edmund's drumming picked up speed and detail.

"Okay then." The voice glitched into that of a cheery woman's. "First we'll run through a safety check."

"No. What? That's not what 'later' means." Edmund leaned forward, teeth gritted as if he was wrangling a wild beast.

A chart flipped on to the display, outlining glowing boxes. "Life support; working. Self gravity; working. Engine one; working. Engine two; working."

The craft launched forward with renewed speed, sending Rhyin's head slamming into the back of his chair. Edmund jerked backwards. He rode the momentum, rolling under the control board.

"I hate this thing." He hit his fist against the upper panel, popping it open and spilling colored cords out into his waiting hands.

"Engine three; working." The craft barreled forward without heed to either passenger.

Rhyin wanted to scream.

"How do we stop it?"

A tsking came from Edmund's general area. "I can't get into it during this protocol."

"Stabilization; working." The most horrid noise Rhyin heard blared from the inhuman voice. "Breaks; nonfunctional." A red box flashed in the display, blinking for help.

"Edmund? Edmund?!"

"This craft is not fit for flight. Disengage and depart." The screen blinked dark before glitching into a warped red and blue. Flashing in and out.

Edmund jumped up to his feet, hitting his head on the control board's edge on the way up.

"Well now that that's over maybe it'll help." He hit the side of the display screen, scattering the glitches like leaves across water, and went to work on the buttons.

"Secondary flight running. Wind buffet opening."

The craft lurched, as if yanked and flung to the side. A groan eased against the roaring tempest pressing on the walls.

"You ready to crash?" Edmund leaned back against his chair, smirking casually at Rhyin.

"Wait what? I thought you were stopping us from crashing!" Rhyin sat taught and braced in his chair. As if every nerve was strung tight and cooled into iron.

"Oh, no. There's no way to avoid it but maybe we won't die in the process."

Rhyin bit down on his lip and locked his eyes forward. "What is your plan?"

"Well we're being pulled on by the outpost's gravity field—which we're getting out of range of, mind you—and if I cut the engines…"

The roaring bit off, spitting a hiss.

"Why did you not turn them off earlier." Rhyin felt static rage buzz across his blood, racing across his taught nerves.

Edmund shrugged. "I was turning on a different setting."

Rhyin redirected his sight to his comrade, piercing at Edmund's wandering gaze.

"But now we're sitting between the grip of two gravities, which will tear us apart. But luckily we're dropping out of the outpost. They're wifi was too slow, I'm not a fan."

"So now we just fall and hope to not die."

"Hm, yeah. It'll be fun, don't worry. We just jump before it explodes."

"Explodes."

"It'll be fun."

A shrieking gripped itself to the side of their craft, jostling it in its path. Cloud smoking passed in seconds as the planet surface came into view. And grew in detail by the second, revealing their destination to be a wasteland of sand and dust. As good as any for a graveyard. The sound reached through and sunk into Rhyin's ears, hollowing the world of sound and washing a quiet into its place.

Rhyin sucked his breath in. Holding out his heartbeat, slowing the pounding rhythm out to a calm. A gentle pulse.

The craft made contact with the ground with a nudge. Lapsing back as if caught in a haze before settling into the sand. White noise slowly claimed the eerie quiet as it sifted into reality. Rhyin let out his breath. He glanced at Edmund who sat stunned.

The front of the craft just beyond the glass exploded into smoke.

"Oh I guess we didn't avoid the explosion." Rhyin eased off his grip on his chair.

"We didn't crash."

"What?" He glanced toward Edmund.

"I—" Edmund blinked as if he just woke up. "I don't know what just happened, but we didn't crash. We slowed down."

Smoke curled against the glass and faded out and above in the air.

"Maybe all those stories about someone looking out for people are true. I think we got handed a freak miracle."

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