A Thousand Light Year Journey

CHAPTER 3: Crashing

After another day travelling in space, they finally got a sight of their destination. CM3.

"Woah! Ciodes is so big!" Azi uttered while looking at the gaseus yellowish titan planet much bigger than Jupiter.

"Yeah.. It surely is." -Glay.

And there goes CM3. A moon five times the size of Orbinovus.

In no time, they touched down to CM3. They felt a crack when their ship landed. They put on their suit with oxygen tanks and helmet, and they went outside. Azi holds the container they'll use to contain the sample.

Azi proceeded to getting a rock sample of CM3 while Glay looked at the crack below their ships.

"This moon is really fragile." says Glay

The two looked at each other when they sensed something approaching. They looked behind Glay and saw meteoroids approaching their way.

"It must be due to the pull of Ciodes. Quick! Get the sample, let's go!" Glay yelled and waved his hand.

Azi rushed to get the sample and covered the container. They both ran to their own ships while few of the meteoroids are already passing through them.

They tried to dodge the meteoroids as much as they can. A few of those hit Glay's in different sides and almost pulled it too close to Ciodes. He then used the boost to pull himself far from the gigantic planet.

Azi drove close to Glay to check on him. His ship was unstable and shaking.

"Glay, are you alright?" Glay could hear Azi's heavy breathing.

"Yeah, I am. I just got hit but my ship seems fine." He tried to hide his worry. But he kept looking around his ship consciously.

"That was close!"

Glay ran a technical check to verify if there's been any damage to the ship.

"Cora, scan the ship for any damages."

Their virtual assistant is named Cora. Just like Google, Siri,  Alexa, etc; you can give them commands. The only difference is that Cora have access worldwide and it's the only system Orbinovus use.

"Spacecraft SV61-A, Rear Reaction Controls Engine is severely damaged. Travel through a wormhole is not advised." Cora reported.

"No.. No, no.. No." Glay suddenly fet
Lt frustrated and scanned the surroundings to look for his Survival Pils.

Azi heard him and got worried about him.

"Hey, what's going on?".

"Nothing.. Nothing, it's fine. The ship is fine."

"Great! I thought we have a problem.."

Glay took off his gear so he won't hear him.

"No.. No, this can't be happening. With this ship damaged, I won't be able to go to Earth."

He commanded the system again and said,

"Cora, I want to know what will happen if I traveled through a wormhole given with this condition."

"Unfortunately, given the condition of your ship, Travelling through a wormhole will be more dangerous and the risk of your ship getting crushed to pieces will increase. However, you still have one last chance to make it. The second one has 89% chance of failure."

"So I can only make it once..."

"Correct."

Glay felt like there was something in him that's forcing him to do it. To visit Earth. He knows that this is his last chance because he will be assigned in another department for his next mission.