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Chapter 2
"Hey, that was close!" Kelli Failtie exclaimed as the skimmer skated around the edge of a giant bluestone butte and dropped down towards the plain below.
"You stick to your 'scope and let me worry about missing the mountains," grinned her companion. "I slid us in past that freighter easy enough, didn't I?" Shana Wilson was an expert skimmer pilot but sometimes Kelli felt she pushed her luck -their luck – just a bit too far for comfort. It was bad enough that they were definitely off limits here – the planet was supposed to be a conservation area – they didn't need to pick up a dent in the skimmer as well. "Any sign of it?"
Shana eased the skimmer back onto a flat trajectory. The head-up display gave her a readout of speed, altitude, g-force and fuel remaining. All looked good. Kelli's job was to watch for the targets. She picked up an echo on her scope and called the range. "It's back on the board," she said, "about 5 clicks at ten o'clock. Below us and moving up."
The blip on Kelli's scope was a farang – one of the last of the giant flying lizard creatures in this part of the galaxy. It was a protected species, of course. You couldn't kill one but that didn't stop folk stalking them for the sport of a high speed chase. Pursuing a farang in full flight could be guaranteed to give you the ride of your life around the peaks and valleys of this barren planet. Some of the space agencies were getting hacked off with the problems that folk could get into on these deep space safaris but that didn't stop them – for thrill seekers like Kelli and Shana a farang chase presented the ultimate challenge to pilot and navigator alike.
"Four clicks, eleven o'clock, moving right. You should have it visual, now," Kelli called.
"No – no - no," Shana answered, "Ah, got it! Whee!" The skimmer pulled around as the farang darted right. Kelli kelt the blood drain to her feet as the G kicked in followed by the kick in the back from the boosters as Shana engaged more power to follow the farang down into the canyon ahead. "One point four clicks, one point two, one, point eight." Shana called the range from the HUD as they closed on the farang.
"Camera gun running," confirmed Kelli, "this'll be one for the album."
"Point four, point three, point – SHIT!"
"What the?" Kelli looked up from her scope to see a cliff wall skimming close by the cockpit canopy as Shana pulled the craft hard up and over to the left. They cleared the wall of the canyon as the farang drove off to the right.
"Its OK," called Shana, "the stupid beast ducked on the fly-by, must have been scared by skimmers before. I missed it though and .." – BANG – "Oh, no!"
"Loosing power on all units," called Kelli, "I thought you said you missed it! Altitude's unwinding and so is the speed, but I guess you've spotted that."
"Sure I missed it. It's just that it didn't miss me. The tail clipped us as we pulled up. I can keep the skimmer flat but the ground looks pretty lumpy." She paused. "Oh, double shit!!"
There was another thunderous bang as the skimmer clipped the ground, the left stabilizer dug in and span them around, burning off what remaining forward momentum they had. With a juddering and a hissing whine from the skimmer's dieing engine, the craft slid to a halt.
"Are you OK?"
"Ugh. I think so. All the bits that should move seem to."
"Come on then Kelli, suit up and let's get out!" urged Shana. Kelli needed no second telling, she was already into to her evac suit and cranking on her helmet, tucking her long auburn hair into it. Once Shana pulled her own suit and helmet on, Kelli pulled the jettison lever on the cockpit wall and the canopy cracked open and slid back. The two girls managed to get clear of the wreck as the skimmer's hull cracked in half as the left hand engine pod slid down the slope to explode at the foot of another bluestone butte.
The two girls looked back at what was left of their skimmer. "I guess we had better hope that there is someone awake on that freighter after all," said Kelli dragging a survival pack from the wreckage. "Let's start up the mayday beacon and hope they hear it."
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