Into The Stars (tentative)
an excerpt

"Alright, three feet per second, we're approaching the dry line. Making contact with atmosphere in three... two... one... contact made, opening pressure valves." With a steady hand, Mark Kurschwitz flipped the switch that would actuate the valves on the hoses leading away from the ship, getting ready to suck in teh precious gas from Jupiter's atmosphere. It was something that was neccesary for their ship, and without it they wouldn't have enough fuel to get to the Orion System. Assuming, of course, that getting to the system was going to happen without colliding with a zillion other things along the way. It was amazing just how much could wind up hurtling at them before they got to the sparse parts of space, and even then, just how much little bits of matter "nothing" was made of.

"Valves are looking good, open reservoir tanks and prepare for slow compression," came a voice over Mark's headset. That was good, it meant that they would be able to pick up the fuel after all. No kinks in the hoses, no real problems yet to speak of. Things were doing very well.

Beside Mark, another voice spoke up confidently. "This is the Regalus, holding steady above the planet surface at six hundred miles. Not encountering any sever turbulence. Radar?" That voice belonged to the pilot of the massive vessel, and ultimately the one to whom they all depended to get to their destination safely, PILOT NAME AND LAST NAME. it had worked his way up quickly, and after launching enough successful shuttle missions (including that one near-disastrous crash landing into los angeles), he was supremely qualified, and Mark felt no problems with giving up command to him on this rather important mission. It was, after all, the continuation of the human race. If they were gonna make this work, they were gonna have to have no disputes about who could do what job better.

"Radar looks clear, nearest orbital objects and showing clear trajectories, nothing coming withing 25 kilometers. Wind speed on the surface looking stable, and we're a good ten thousand miles from the eye. All conditions look go for tank fill." Another voice, and another important part of the team. Janice Richards, the radar specialist, among other things. She was an expert with their experimental radar system that the scientists had developed, and was being specially trained to use it.

Mark nodded to PILOT NAME, and then flipped a final switch to start the compressors.

The entire cockpit rocked with what felt like a massive explosion. Flashing lights lit up the cockpit and the HUD in an eerie facade of Christmastime, red and yellow and green lights flashing one after the other. Mark shouted instantly into the mic he wore, but even before his first word had left his lips they were hearing the problem.

"This is Engineering and Fuel, we've had an explosion in the aft Fuel sump! The fire is contained, but it's still moving along the fuel lines!" The voice sounded almost calm, while still conveying the supreme urgency of the message. That was James Gaffigan. He did his job, and he did it well, making sure that it got done without undue fuss. As most of them did. Still, the edges of his voice carried an understandable panic. he was stationed right beside the fuel cells, and if something was going to give, it was going to be his area.

"Take care of it! we're cutting power to the compressors, and shutting atmospheric valves!" Mark cried out, throwing the switches to do just that as he was speaking. PILOT craned his head in the seat behind him, just in time to get a bright flash of light to his face, and turn away blinking. Seconds later, the cockpit was rocked once more, as what appeared to be a ball of fire grew from behind the ship. Even with the massive size of the ship, the fireball made a substantial bulge in it's shape, lighting up the whole gray and white side with nothing but an orange white light.

"Fires moving closer, it's approaching the fuel-" The engineers words were cut off in a crackle of static, the entire ship rocking again and harder than before Mark and PILOT looked at each other, and then back to Janice, before all of them started talking at once, flicking switches and pressing buttons and trying to organize and contain things from their cockpit before things got really bad.

"Get the civilians up and out of there-"

"Everyone get them out! The fires still moving, activate the suppression systems-"

"orbit decaying, the fire and propellant is sending us down! I'm trying to counteract-:"

"You heard me, get them moving! Send them outside if we have to, but we cant let the blaze hit the main!"

The last one came from Mark, and it wasn't a suggestion that he wanted to have to make. but if it came between two or three lives and the whole entire ship, he was going to pick the former. The crew all knew what they were getting into when they signed up for this. Even the children knew that things were going to be expected of them.

The screen shifted, and their view of Jupiter started to skew as the propellants started to cause the ship to fall into a spiral, giving in to the inexorable pull of gravity. They could already see the debris starting to fall around them, and they were not pleased with their choices at the moment. It was either let the entire ship fall back into the gravity of Jupiter and kill them all, or try and jettison who they could and get back to earth. In a trip that would take years with teh pull of their lifeboats and waiting for someone to come pick them up befor e they hit something floating around, or crash landed on a planet that they weren't headed for.

"The pulls getting stronger, I have no lateral movement in the thrusters!"

"PILOT, can you save it? Any chance?"

There was a terse silence, and the crewmembers all looked at each other. The pilot took a few breaths, fighting with the controls without looking up, then shook his head ever so slightly. "No, punch them out. This bitch is going down." He sounded disgusted, and almost heartbroken. Mark nodded, and punched the button to send all of the passengers out into the void in their pods.