It would take a trained eye to have noted that the planet, Alpha Centauri II, was smaller than Earth. Both Dee and Jack had a trained eye and at the moment they did not notice one bit. It gave off an overwhelming sensation of bright blue and was covered with a swirling sea of white clouds. All of the scientific data and curiosity, all of the photo's, did not do it justice in the least.

Until now, what they had been calling Moe, might as well have been one of the actual three stooges for all they knew. After all, they were both nothing more than some image on a computer print out. To actually see it, have it hanging in the darkness right in front of them, made the reality of another world begin to come home. Knowing and believing are two different acts and now they were merging as one.

For Vitosk, somehow, the emotion was not there as it was with everyone else who looked. At least it seemed that way to Jack. The Russian Nobel Prize winner steadied himself behind the Pilot's seat and studied it. He was not holding this new planet in awe as were the others.

He commented, "Two ice caps and both of them probably nothing more than frozen water. I would say the axial tilt is far less than that of Earth. One continent surrounded by seas. I would say that it should moderate temperatures quite a bit from what we are used to. You know, I only saw, in the photographs, one stretch that looked in any way inhospitable. Good thing we do not have to land there now."

Harry Wu was sitting strapped in just behind Vitosk. He had been monitoring his navigation program. "Which area is that Doc?"

"Oh, that desert area. Since taking off will be an impossibility now I suppose we can land someplace besides that stupid desert location that Jack chose."

Ignoring the insult, Jack once again found himself having to agree with Vitosk. A gentle breeze and the shade of a good tree, green grass, and a slow running brook would really be nice after two years in space.

"Where are we landing Harry?"

"Uh..." Harry cleared his throat, "Jack, you didn't say anything about changing the landing sight. I mean it was the only place we seriously looked at and all..."

Vitosk slapped his forehead; "We should have left the navigation to Yakov Shmirnov! We would have come out better."

Jack just took it in stride. They might be in a desert but they would be alive in it. "Come on Yurgani, after what we just finished, it's nothing we can't handle."

Dee was watching the fuel status, her mission clock, and their relative velocity, from the flight engineer station just behind Jack. She watched the clock ticking down, "All right Jack. We need to do a roll and start the first burn in nine minutes."

Jack needed to ask the question. He didn't want to because he was afraid of what the answer might be. "Do we have enough fuel to slow us down and then have some left to maneuver after we've entered the atmosphere?”

There was hesitation, "Jack, we'll be lucky if we don't hit the planet doing Mach twenty or better. That is if we don't burn up before that."

"What do you think Larry would say about his under carriage in those circumstances," asked Jack?

No one answered. They were probably thinking the same thing, “to hell the with the under carriage."

The slow down went well enough. Dee was still not happy with their fuel consumption. When Jack and Pete made the final roll over and put the crafts belly into the atmosphere Jack gave the last rights, "Strap yourselves in. It's going to get rough."

Saiid landed in a cargo net and began buckling himself in. He could already feel the gravity of Moe pulling at him. It was only a slight force but it was definitely there. He looked up at the speaker above his head and then over to Pam. She was already buckled in and mouthing the words to something. Saiid figured she was praying. That left him having to comment on their pilots last words, "that was a very moving benediction."

Gina was sitting next to the computer engineer. She was locked down but unlike everyone else she looked more angry than afraid. She sneered at Saiid and in a matter of fact tone she told him, “Saiid, you are such a dweeb.”

That caused a smile to pop up on his face, “that one was even better than Jack’s.”

Pete held his hand on the ships control stick. Not that he was accomplishing anything useful by this feat. He called out, "We've just completed one orbit around the planet."

Dee scratched her head, "I don't get it? We should have slowed a lot more than this."

Jack looked down at his gauges, "the skin temperature isn't even squat. What's going on here?"

Vitosk was now strapped down in the compartment just to the rear of the flight deck. He was still listening to the crew over the intercom, "I would suppose that maybe the air pressure of this world is far less than our own."

Exchanging glances with Dee, Jack wanted an answer. Dee only shrugged her shoulders. Jack looked back out his windshield. On an approach to Earth he would have long since started seeing a shield of flames. "Pete! Prepare to fire the breaking thrusters. We're going in."

"Jack!" howled Dee, "We'll be going in too fast. You don't know how much damage this crate took when we got hit earlier. It might not take that kind of an impact."

"Fuel and air status say we go now darlin’.” He raised the nose slightly and made sure the auto roll over sequence was up and running. The G's they would be taking during reentry could very well black everyone out as they sped toward the Ear... Moe.

Finally the craft was meeting enough resistance from the air around them to generate an orange fire over the windows. Jack remembered his first reentry. All of the training in the world could not prepare you for what you would go through. Plummeting through the air at supersonic speeds, depending on a computer to get your vehicle turned right side up, was nothing you can experience in a simulator. The one puzzling difference between now and his first time was that Jack could swear that the forces pushing against him at the moment were far less than he remembered. It was not even as bad as his last reentry just before they left home. He was no where near blacking out.

A light began to blink on the instrument panel. Dee yelled out shortly after, "Jack! We're running on fumes!"

Managing to force the words out of his mouth was not quite as hard either. Even with this being the case Jack did not care to see what his face looked like at the moment. He was certain there were enough G forces to push every muscle in his face back into a good imitation of Bozo the Clown.

An indicator warning light blinked and Jack called out, "Roll over! Status?!"

Another light went off. Pete was acting as if he was pushing back against the unseen forces holding him in his chair, "Shit! We're in a flat spin!"

Reaching out Jack grabbed the stick with both hands. He pushed on it with all the strength he could muster. There was just too much air going over the control surfaces to move them.

Their options were narrowing. Jack was considering the unthinkable. He checked with Dee,"How much fuel?"

Dee forced her head over to look at the panel beside her, "fifty pounds and dropping. We got a flame out in two of our engines!"

"Pete! Spend all the rest of our fuel! Blow the breaking thrusters again!"

The implications were obvious. It might give Jack enough of a break in speed to get control of the aircraft but it would also mean that there would be no fuel left for a controlled landing. If they approached a mountain, or field of rocks, or whatever, there would be nothing they could do about it.

It was obvious this was not lost on Pete. He looked at Jack like his commanding officer was insane. Jack had to repeat himself, "Blow 'em Pete!"

The stick began to loosen up. Jack still had to wrestle with it even so. He fought for control with no help from the engines or computers. The lights stopped blinking and Jack wondered if it was because they had achieved level flight or the damn computer just realized that it was a futile effort and fled the craft. The flames slowly faded from the windshield and the chop that was shaking the fillings out of the crews teeth was diminishing.

Jack began to breath again. "Air speed somebody?"

Harry managed to open one of his eyes, "Holy Shit! We're at Mach seven and still on course."

A smile came across Jack's face like a wave. "Whoever said they don't build 'em like they used to can kiss my ass! We build them better! Everybody get ready for a crash landing."

The ground below was begging to give up details. Dee almost forgot to brace herself. She found herself far more taken in by the view than she could have ever imagined possible. When it finally occurred to her that it was coming up way to fast it was almost too late.

"Pete," yelled Jack, "deploy airbrakes and flaps. The flaps might soften the blow a little."

"Jack the air breaks are going to snap off at this speed!"

Like they might actually need them again! Jack did not bother to answer that. He gave his command and that was it. "I’m more worried about the landing gear snapping off. All right we're ready! Brace for impact everybody!"

If the shockwave that hit Hermes had been far more powerful you could have not convinced Jack of this. He was sure they were all dead. He had tried not to look but he spied the air speed indicator just before impact. Did it really say they were still going twice the speed of sound? Jack decided to pretend he had not seen that.

All that came next seemed to last forever. There was rolling, shaking, and a vibration that drowned every other sensation out. Jack was glad he had neglected to eat breakfast. He would have lost it before this was over with.

Suddenly, as quick as it had begun, there was silence. A very weak voice from the navigator’s chair moaned. Harry Wu coughed out, "I know I'm still alive. I got piss all over me."

Jack felt of himself. Every breath hurt and every muscle that was forced to work from involuntary impulses was crying in pain. Jack slowly hit the emergency release to his harness. He fell out of his chair with nothing left to hold him in it. There was something real important he had to do. His mind could not think of it presently. Then, he moaned "Oh yeah, emergency bail out. We might be.... on fire."

Pete moaned as he released his harness. He was sure several ribs were broken. "I think that if we had a fire we probably left it a few miles back with my stomach."

Jack tried to walk but he just fell back down, "can anybody move?"

Dee fell out of her chair and stumbled along. Pain overtook her modesty here. She tore her shirt off and cried out as she touched the gashes along her torso. The seat harness had cut into her and broken skin. "I'm bleeding..."

Vitosk looked in the cabin door. He seemed fairly well off considering. "Is everyone all right up here?"

The sight of Dee in the floor, bleeding profusely, answered the question, "I'll send Pam up. Jack can you walk?"

Jack moaned from the floor, "How the hell can you old man?"

"I told you to exercise more, US Marines, hah!"

McCandles helped Jack out of the aircraft. He sat him down in the shade of the fuselage. Jack put his back up against the aircraft. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a second. He took in what little he could with his senses. There was a hard gritty surface beneath him. It was cracked and dry just like the lakebeds in the California desert. Just like they had thought all along. The one sensation that surprised him was the temperature. It was not as hot as he would have expected. It was actually rather cool.

Pam slammed her fist down. She was wearing herself out. Julia and Saiid grabbed her and pulled her away. Pam was in tears. "Damn you Robert! Live you bastard!"

Saiid bent over his former shipmate and gently closed the former Navy technicians eyes for the last time. "Go in peace my friend."

Gary stopped short of the scene. He looked at the bodies lying in the sand. "How many of us made it?"

Red raised his head. He had been in a moment of silent prayer. Of the critically injured from the shuttle crash, Robert was the one who had the best chance of survival. There were a few that Red had not even found although he was sure they were dead.

The Humvee had busted right out of its straps on impact and took out a section of the bulkhead. Red was not sure but he thought at least five of them had been sitting over there. Right now he could not even think of their names. "I don't know. Us right here I guess. Jack, Pete, and Dee are over by the wreck. The Sergeant Major and Vitosk are with Harry checking out the area. Gina is going over what's left of the cargo bay."

Joey reached out and grabbed his mother. He buried his head in her bosom, "are we going to be Ok?"

"Yes son. We made it. I think."

Gary had finished the count in his head, "Pam, I think you better go see about our busted up command crew. I count thirteen of us if Red's memory is good."

Saiid mumbled, “lucky number.”

Red rubbed at his head, "Jesus Christ Almighty! Thirteen out of forty-eight. You know I went through the war and I don't ever remember feeling like this."

"You're alive Red. Don't loose sight of that fact. We can breath the air, and it's actually not that bad here. So don't give up hope," responded Gary. Out of anyone on the ship he probably knew them all as well as anyone. Since his job was to evaluate the crew it naturally gave him certain insights into knowing what to say.

Red stood up. He had found a Boonies hat in the scattered debris of the cargo bay. He put it back on his head, "Give up hope my ass. We'll get home now. The hard part is over."

"Please, would you stop it Red!" Julia exclaimed with more than a bite in her voice. "Just how do you think we'll ever make it home now? Walk?!"

"He's right," replied Saiid, "they were starting work on another starship even before we left. Somebody will show up sooner or later. Even if it's the Japs."

"I don't won't to even think about that Saiid," responded Red.

Gary stopped them from bickering by pointing to the bodies of their departed comrades, "come on. Let's see if we can find some tools to bury them with. They were our friends after all. I think they deserve that much."

Everyone tramped off back to the wrecked shuttle. Pam just sat there in the sand as they left. She was bent over with her head between her knees and crying. Gary gently kneeled behind her, "come on Pam. You did everything you could for them. All we can do is bury them now. You still have some live patients to worry about."

Between sobs, "I know. I'll be there in a second."