– Hey, Jum, – Dak whispered, poking Jum in the side, – did you hear that? Did you hear what Holdum called the officer?
– What?
– Mdjey! Doesn’t that remind you of anything?
– Should it?
– That’s the name of the officer who killed our captain.
– That’s right. Do they know what we know? Or don’t they?
– It may be a coincidence, but we have to be on our guard. Did you see where he was tinkering? You know, what kind of equipment? And another question: Do you know how to control the boat during landing?
– I knows.
– Then be ready.
– I will.
– What are you boys whispering about? – Tana looked at them suspiciously. – Is something wrong?
– Nothing definite yet. We’re thinking about how we can manually land the ship, – Jum said, choosing his words carefully.
– Do you understand the design of this type of landing craft? – Holdum, who had begun to doze off, woke up.
– We are considering a purely hypothetical case, when it may be necessary to manually land the boat on the surface of the planet. – Dak replied.
– Well, it’s simple, – Holdum shrugged his shoulders, making himself comfortable in the overload chair. – You see that bright yellow lever on the left side of the console, the size of a finger? It’s set to “Auto Landing” now. You just move it to the top position and that’s it! You can steer with your hands as much as you want.
– Thank you, Endeju! – Jum nodded, making a surprised face while trying to portray the sincere gratitude of a student who had learned very important information.
– What? What lever? – Abis came out of his thoughts.
– Never mind! – Dak waved his hand. – Thinking how to operate this thing. – He shook his head.
– Could there be a need?
– And Zwigg knows him!
– My dear Uabju, please do not use that name in such a derogatory manner! – Holdum said sternly.
– Sorry, Endeju, it’s nervous! – Duck said, hiding a smile.
At that moment, interrupting their conversation, the engines of the transporter, on which the boat was mounted, began to roar, and it started its rapid horizontal movement to the open landing gates. In just a few seconds, the transporter’s grips clanked open and the runabout began to fall. The engines had been disabled for the time being. They should start only at the last stage of landing. Now the short wings were to open. Thanks to them, the boat, moving almost into horizontal flight, had to head to the landing area embedded in its memory.
The freefall continued.
– Dear Holdum, is our landing going well? – Jum said, trying to sound calm.
– No, my Uabju! We were supposed to go into planning flight almost immediately. But apparently the wings didn’t come out of the hull.
Hearing this, the rest of the crew looked at each other. Tana her eyes glazed with horror, stared at the windshield, which was covered with red and yellow flashes. The cabin was getting hotter and hotter.
– Jum, come on! – shouted Dak.
Jum, overcoming the increasing overload, unhooked the straps holding him in his chair and in two steps reached the boat’s control stand. His rescue plan had matured. Now he would disengage the “auto-landing” and use the brake engines to reduce the speed of the fall. Jum knew that the runabout’s emergency rescue system had an ejectable soft dome for braking near the surface of planets with dense atmospheres.
– So, this planet has a dense atmosphere?
– Yes, it does! – Holdum answered instead of Dak, realizing Jum’s intention, -My boy, you are good! This is a real chance. Now…
He tried to unbuckle his belt, but it wouldn’t budge. It was even tighter.
– Well! – Holdum said irritably. – What’s the matter with the lock? A few more moves and it will strangle me! And it can’t be cut! My dear Uabju, we have a big problem! I won’t be able to operate the boat.
– If I may, Endeju, I’ll try! – said Jum with apparent calmness in his voice.
– Well, go ahead. We have no other choice.
Jum grabbed the lever with his fingers and tried to pull it toward him. The lever would not budge. Jum, already realizing the horror of the situation they were in, mechanically kept pulling the switch. It did not move. Holdum, who was watching carefully what Jum was doing, seemed to realize what was the matter.
– Come on, Abis, Dak! There’s a hatch in the far corner! See the handle? We’ve got to open it!
Dak and Abis unbuckled their harnesses and rushed to the hatch. Jum from the control panel and Tana from her chair watched them in bewilderment.
They tried to lift the floor hatch cover, struggling with the overload. At last, they succeeded.
– Is it open? There should be a universal screwdriver on top. Did you find it?
– Yes, Endeju!
We have to take the cover off the remote control! – he shouted. – And release the auto-landing lever.
Dak rushed over to Jum.
He began unscrewing the fasteners, and Jum, unhooking the shroud. After a few seconds, they were able to remove it. They saw the intricacy of wires and microcircuits. Ignoring all this, Jum rushed to the part of the console where the bright yellow lever was now free of the protection. Something glistened between the lever itself and the slot in which it was to move.
It was a metal star from an officer’s shoulder epaulet.
Dak instantly picked it up with his fingers and pulled it out of the slot. Jum immediately slid the freed toggle switch to the upper position. It moved quite freely. The buzzing of the autopilot disappeared. Jum began to press the buttons he knew and enter commands. Just a moment later the brake engines came on. When the brakes came on at full power, it was as if a giant hammer had struck the boat from below. Everyone collapsed to the floor. The overload became unbearable. Tana and Holdum passed out in their chairs. Abis lay motionless on the cabin floor. Dak, grabbing the handle of his chair, tried to pull himself up and stand. But he lacked strength.
Jum, with a jolt, hit the ceiling and was thrown right to the right edge of the console. If there hadn’t been a removed cover leaning against the console on that side, it was likely that Jum would have broken the console as he fell, and the boat would have become completely unmanageable. As it was… The consciousness he had lost when he hit the ceiling came back with a terrible pain: he had obviously broken his arm. Nevertheless, Jum, using his healthy left hand, managed to stabilize the boat in the air. Half lying on the bundles of wires, already falling into the darkness of unconsciousness, he reached the button responsible for ejecting the dome and slammed his palm on it.
On the planet
Tana awoke to a palpable silence. In the darkness, in the far corner of the cabin, the wires that had been severed in the crash were sparking. There was a disgusting smell of burning. The girl’s chair was lying on its side for some reason, making the seat belts press painfully into her shoulders. She