Lawki 5

by orphan_account

Summary:

We only get to see a small snapshot of Lawki 5's story. What happened to their crew when they first returned to near-Earth orbit?

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i wrote this for an english assignment. if it feels rushed, that's because the word limit was 800, and i wrote it all the night before it was due

“I win.” said Zakarriya cheerfully as Lei floated into the control room. “Again.”
“This is unfair.” groaned Lei. “I was way faster this time. Your torpor chamber must’ve woken you before me.”
“The torpor system wakes everyone at the same time. I’m afraid you’re just too slow.” Zakarriya stated simply. He kicked off the hard, metal wall with a loud clang and floated over to Lei.
“Now that you’re here, we should prepare for re-entry. The others won’t be too far behind us.”

They floated over to their usual stations, Zakarriya at the status monitor and Lei at the comms monitor. As Lei waited for the computer system to reboot, he glanced out of the window at the vibrant azure and emerald planet floating in the black void in front of the ship.
Re-entry.
Lei couldn’t help but feel excitement mingled with a slight sense of dread. They were finally returning home after nearly a century. Although their regular news bundles updated them on major world events, they couldn’t convey how everyday life would’ve changed since they’d been gone.

After what seemed like an eternity, the comms system finished rebooting. He immediately checked the downloads folder.
It was empty.
He reloaded it.
Still empty.
He turned towards Zakarriya.
“Is anything wrong with the comms system?” He asked. “We haven’t received anything since Zolmador.”
“No. But there’s something else on here that you’ll want to see.” Replied Zakarriya after a few moments.
Lei floated over to see what his friend was staring at. Instead of the usual array of green lights on the monitor, Lei was met with a splash of yellow amongst the viridian.

Hull integrity – lower left
Hull integrity – lower right
Hull integrity – middle left

A chill of fear ran down Lei’s spine as he considered the implications of the hull damage. Re-entering Earth’s atmosphere with damage to several sections had a variety of possible outcomes. At best, it would be a business as usual. At worst, the ship’s heat shields would fail and they would be incinerated.
“Well, you’re the tech expert,” he said quietly. “What are our options?”
“As you might imagine, they aren’t good.” Zakarriya explained. “Due to the location of the damage, there’s a high likelihood that the airlock exterior is damaged. As a result, we can’t risk going outside to try and do repairs. Our only feasible alternative to attempting earth atmosphere re-entry and hoping for the best is to land on the moon and get to the lunar base. Due to the lack of atmosphere, the hull damage shouldn’t cause problems for a lunar landing.”
Lei considered this for a few moments.
“If it’s the safest option, then we should try. I’ll send a message to the lunar base to request permission to land.” He said, already reaching for the computer keyboard.
It didn’t take long for him to write up a message. All it required was a brief explanation of the situation and a landing request.
Within seconds of hitting send, a small beep indicated that the computer had received a response.
Your message has been received.
“It looks like an automated message,” Zakarriya noted. “However, this means that comms are working on our end. For whatever reason, OCA hasn’t sent us anything.”

There were several possible reasons for a lack of transmissions. Either OCA had decided to stop sending them updates, or they were physically unable to. The OCA that Lei knew wouldn’t suddenly cut communications without warning, so it couldn’t be the first option. The second however, was unsettling. The first communications bundle was scheduled to be sent a month before their arrival, and they were almost perfectly on time. OCA had campuses all over the Earth, as well as several satellites and bases outside of it. Anything capable of preventing it from transmitting messages for a month or more would have significantly impacted the entire Earth. But what could cause such a sudden and widespread disruption?
Then it hit him.
A geomagnetic storm.
It explained everything. An extremely powerful geomagnetic storm would certainly be able to disrupt all electronics on Earth for a prolonged period of time. If it were recent enough, it could even be the cause of the hull damage.
“Zak, what do you think the chances are that there was a geomagnetic storm?” Lei asked slowly.
“Well, that would certainly explain what we’re seeing.” He replied.
Zakarriya’s tone became more serious. “However, if that’s the case, then it’s highly unlikely that there’ll be anyone at the lunar base. We’d have to attempt Earth atmosphere re-entry.”
Re-entry.
Despite seeming exciting and inviting mere minutes ago, the thought of returning home now only evoked fear and dread in Lei. There was nothing more they could do, aside from hoping that the atmospheric winds would be kind to them.