The answer came back quickly, but garbled. The static was unbelievable. "Barely, I'm not getting any picture."

"I know, this is the best we can do with the magnetic field. Tell me what you've discovered?"

"Nothing much, the magnetic field is playing havoc with our instruments too. I would recommend sending a probe to the planet. We might be able to get more information if we shield it well enough, but there is still the communication problem, that might not be something we can solve on this trip."

"Could we launch a probe then retrieve it from orbit?"

"The gravity is too heavy. I don't think we have a probe strong enough to make the return trip."

Professor Ricter scrunched his face in disappointment. This wasn't a good planet. This was a wasted trip. "Okay Doctor, tell me right here, right now. Do you think this is a good planet?"

There was a long pause from the other end. Professor Ricter knew Fran would not make a judgment or commit to something without thinking it through. Finally, she said, "No, I don't think this is a good planet."

"So, we wasted our time then." As he said this he noticed a strange reading from an instrument. Without saying another word he walked over to the computer and was curious to see a very large spike in the planet's electromagnetic field. "Doctor, do you see. . ."

Before he could finish his sentence every instrument and light in the shuttle blinked out simultaneously.

Captain Cook listened to the conversation between Fran and the Professor. Static from the planet made it difficult to hear. She got the gist of the conversation. The planet wasn't what they were looking for. It was a waste of time and resources. Captain Cook wondered if that would influence the Corps not to send the Arwen the next time. A smaller ship would have been a better use of the Corps resources.

Every light, every instrument, everything that drew power went dark.

Captain Cook could see nothing; it was like someone had placed a black curtain around her. She heard her bridge crew moving around, fabric rubbing against fabric, the crick and squeak of a chair as someone turned. She sat up and heard her own chair creak, the swish her uniform made when she moved and her own beating heart. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure." Commander Pippleton replied. Even his normally calm and level voice had a confused edge to it. "It doesn't seem as if anything is working."

She heard the Commander moving about, running from one station to the other. The Ulliam had slightly larger eyes than a human and it was proven they could see a better in the dark but, with the absence of any light she figured he was as blind as she was. She heard his arm's slap next to his side, a sign of great agitation. "There doesn't seem to be power anywhere."

"Can anyone tell me what happened?"

"Captain," a woman located to her right where the sensor office is normally stationed spoke up. "Before we lost power, I detected a massive surge in the planet's electromagnetic field."

"Could that have done it?"

"Seems the most likely candidate. I've been monitoring the planet's magnetic fields. I was mapping them out since they seemed interesting to me. They're very complex, kind of reminded me of the sun's magnetic field in the way they twisted and overlapped. It's possible two of the fields overlapped and produced a flair."

"Like a solar flare?"

"Not nearly as violent but it could produce an EMC pulse."

"We won't know until we get power?"

"Yes, I only got a quick look at the readings."

"Thank you, Ensign. Commander," She asked looking around the dark to where she thought he was standing. "We need to find out if this is happening all over the ship."

"I believe it is," he replied. "I don't hear anything from the vents which means life support isn't working. I can't see how that could only be shut off to the bridge."

"I agree. You know what else I don't hear? The engines."

"So, the entire ship is without power." Commander Pippleton replied calmly. It seemed his frustration had been pushed aside. "Without power we can't take the elevator. We might have to use the emergency stairs to get to any deck."

"Let's not leave the bridge yet, this is still the command hub for the ship. If we can get power here we can figure out what else to do. Let's just sit tight and think about this for a moment. What are our options? Bridge crew I'm up for any suggestions from anyone, this isn't just a private conversation between me and the Commander."

"We should establish some sort of communication system." Came a female voice, the same one who she was talking to earlier. Captain Cook remembered her name, Juliet Monrow.

"Okay, Ensign Monrow, do you have any ideas how?"

"Word of mouth would be the best way. You tell one person, they tell three people, those three people tell three people and within a few hours the entire ship knows."

"Messages could get miscommunicated," Commander Pippleton said.

"True," Captain Cook replied. "I like it though. If we don't have power in the next few minutes, I want everyone to go out and tell the crew what's happening."

"We can use the service stairs," Commander Pippleton said.

"Never thought we'd use those," Captain Cook said with a chuckle. The stairs were common on most older ships in the fleet. It was rare to lose power in space but fire was always a problem and if the bridge had caught fire, they would need to take the emergency stairs to get out as fast as possible.

The sudden and loud pounding from the elevator door startled Captain Cook. "Who is it?" She asked.

"Chief McFerren," came the reply. "We need to talk ASAP; I can't open this door by myself. I'm going to need some help."

"Commander, can you find the door?" Marjorie saw a black shadow move against a black background. It could easily be an illusion, her mind trying to make sense of the darkness and using the sound of the Commander moving as a clue as to what she should be seeing. The darkness and the quiet of the room threatened to engulf her. Being claustrophobic on a space ship was not something to take lightly.

She heard several grunts as both Commander Pippleton and Chief McFerren struggled to open the door. Several other bridge members ran over to help. A beam of light shined onto the bridge and moved around erratically as the door inched opened. The Chief had a small light strapped to his head.

With a final heave, the door flung open and the chief climbed onto the bridge, his flashlight temporarily blinding anyone who looked at it. Captain Cook squinted and asked: "How did you make it up here?"

"Climbed the service stairs to the elevator shaft then climbed the ladder to the bridge."

Captain Cook felt a sense of relief knowing the Chief had worked his way up here. It gave her hope that his crew could fix the ship quickly. "Can you give me a report?"

"Power is out throughout the ship. I'm lucky I could find a working light. I have my teams running around trying to determine exactly what the damage is but from what I can tell all the wires and boards are fried."

"All of them?" Marjorie asked.

"Far as I can tell." He said placing his hands on his hips. "We have enough spare parts to rewire the entire ship if we need to so don't worry about that. We have other problems to worry about right now."

"Like what?" Captain Cook asked. She didn't like the way he said it and liked it even less when it seemed as if he were slowing his speech down so she could fully understand what he was about to say. She knew he did this when the news was not only bad but was actually the worst news he could give.

"We have no power, no engines, no shields, nothing and it'll take us a few hours to get even the most essential systems working. When we went into orbit I had to make a minor adjustment to the bow force field. It's something I do every time we make low orbit around a planet. I have the field deflect the upper atmosphere to reduce drag, making it easier for the engines to keep the ship in orbit. Right now, we have no force field, no engines, nothing to help reduce the drag."

Realization struck Marjorie like a punch in the gut. "The atmosphere is slowing us down."

"I don't know how long we have before we start falling. We have enough momentum to keep us up maybe thirty minutes, but that's just my best guess."

The bridge crew got very quiet with the news. It wouldn't be long before The Arwen fell from the sky.

Chapter five.

Professor Ricter slammed his fist into the dead computer screen in frustration. He was never one to lose his temper. He would use anger as a tool to get what he wanted, he would use anger to get people to leave him alone, and he would use anger just to see how people would react, but he was rarely as infuriated as he was now.

Nothing worked. The computer, the screens, his radio, life support, nothing.

The only way he could see anything at all was because the sun, which was between him and the planet, was reflecting off the planet's massive ice caps as well as the hundreds of white clouds which floated above. He could see the Arwen clearly enough from his vantage. It looked as if it were in a low orbit, its shadow cast on a passing thunderstorm.

The Arwen had noticeably lost some momentum and was steadily descending. The nose slowly changed colors, going from silver, to yellow, and then to red. It was heating up as it sliced through the thickening atmosphere. The Arwen was aerodynamic thanks to its dart shape, but it wasn't frictionless. If it continued to fall it would gain some speed, that speed would heat it up even more, and if it continued the Arwen would become another shooting star streaking across the sky and that would put the Professor in a very bad situation.

He could deal with the computer malfunction; he could deal with not having any lights and could even deal with the cold. He knew the shuttle enough to trust that eventually all the systems would come back on line. What he couldn't deal with was the feeling of complete helplessness. He wanted to help the Arwen. He wanted to be on the ship trying to get things working. He didn't want to be here, in a dead shuttle, watching the ship he has come to think of a second-home start a spiral of death.

The thirty minutes the Chief guessed was pessimistic. Another, more accurate calculation gave them an hour before the ship fell from the sky.

He was earning his pay and bolstering his reputation by running back and from engineering to the bridge to give the Captain updates and supplying her and her crew with working equipment. Thanks to the Chief everyone on the bridge carried a flashlight.

The bridge was empty except for the Commander and herself. The others had left to give the news of what was happening, and what will happen, to other crew members to pass along. It would take a while before everyone knew about the danger. It was a big ship and there were a lot of people on it.

There was nothing else for her to do but plan for the inevitable. She needed more information about the planet and the only one who might know that was Fran.

Captain Cook walked up to the Commander; his light shined somewhere around her chest area. "Commander, I'm going to see Doctor Lipton to see if she's got any useful information on the planet. Take over the bridge and try to help the Chief anyway you can."

The headlight moved up and down, signifying a nod or maybe a shrug, "Good luck, Captain."

She walked over to the emergency stairs and opened the door. She shined her light into the darkened space and looked up. The bridge was located in the center of the ship, Fran's lab was ten levels above her. The staircase spiraled up and down like a DNA chain. Nature had provided the best way to get a lot of things into a small space, and the ship's designers copied that for the stairs. It was a tiny space, just barely large enough for her to fit.

Her shoulder brushed against the wall as she ran up the stairs. It felt good to get her body moving. The exertion made her heart beat faster and made her think with more clarity. She slipped a few times when she moved her light away from the steps to see what level she was on, but she managed to keep a steady pace to the level she needed.

The door opened easily and as her flashlight passed down the hallways she saw several of her crew sitting on the ground. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, sir!" Came an answer from a female voice. Captain Cook shined her light on the woman. She was young, and wore the uniform of a security guard. "What happened?"

"We lost all power and we're working hard to get it back. How many of you are here?"

"Five. We finished working out and were heading back to our rooms. When the lights went out we got disoriented and didn't know where we were, figured we'd wait until someone found us. We'd like to help anyway we can."

"I want you all the split up. Tell everyone you see we're working on getting the power back and they should stay at their stations until further notice. You'll need to give them some bad news as well. Tell them that the Arwen's orbit is deteriorating and we could crash into the planet. I'm going to do all I can to stop it, but if it happens, I don't want anyone to be surprised."

There was fear in the woman's voice when she replied, "We'll tell them, Captain." Marjorie watched as the five crew members disappeared into the darkness. Their whisperers reflected their anxiety.

Marjorie continued down the hallway toward Fran's office. Occasionally, she met another group of crew and asked them to spread the word about what was happening. Soon the entire ship would know.

The lights flickered on for a second. She stopped in her tracks and waited hoping the Chief fixed everything. After a few seconds, she gave up and continued toward Fran's office.

When the lights blinked out Doctor Fran Lipton was more annoyed than anything else. She had been talking to the Professor, he was in the middle of saying something when things just died. At first, she thought it was the lights but soon realized it was anything electric. It reminded her of an article she had read a few years ago about how solar flares would wreak havoc on the electrical systems of Earth before they figured out how to build the system so it wouldn't be affected.

She couldn't tell how many minutes have passed, in the dark it seemed like hours, but she was sure it couldn't have been more than twenty minutes. So, what could she do but wait? She couldn't leave, wandering around in a darkened hallway seemed counterproductive.

She jumped when she heard the knock from the door. "Fran, are you okay? I need to come in."

It was Captain Cook. She had done her best to avoid talking to the Captain, tried her best not to make eye contact during meetings. Why was the Captain here? Surely, she had more important things to worry about than how she was doing. The thought was nice though, maybe the first step toward rebuilding their friendship. "Come on in."

The door slowly opened and a beam of white light penetrated the dark. It moved around the room until it found Fran. "We're in trouble," Captain Cook said. Fran wasn't able to see the captain's face but she could hear the stress in her voice. "We have no power, no engines, nothing and it looks like we're going to crash into the planet. I need to know all you can tell me about it. Every piece of information will help."

The news hit Fran quickly and she barley wrap her mind around at first. She just looked at the light, concentrating on it. The Captain was hidden behind its glare, waiting for her to say something. The question was vague; what kind of information did the Captain need? She could speculate but right now all she thought about was that light and the person behind it. "Captain, it's hard for me to concentrate with that light in my eyes, can you take it off?"

Marjorie pulled the light off and placed it on a table. The room glowed to where she could see the faint outline of the Captain's face. She was grim, determined. For a moment, Fran understood why Kel followed the order which killed him. It was always hard to ignore Captain Cook when she counted on you to do your duty. Fran felt the need to impress the Captain so she started talking. "The planet is about three times as large as Earth, which means it has about three times the gravity of Earth. The planet is covered entirely with water. The atmosphere is thick and the pressure would crush an unprotected person in seconds. Nevertheless, the most fascinating thing about the planet is its ocean." Fran really wanted to pull up a computer image to demonstrate the point she was about ready to make. "Because of the increased gravity the water pressure is so powerful at the deepest depth it doesn't act like water, it acts more like a solid."

"What would happen if the Arwen were to hit the ocean?"

"Can't be too sure, I can only speculate. The water pressure, even near the surface, is eminence. We're talking thousands of atmospheres of pressure."

"The Arwen can survive that with its shields at full, not sure how much we can survive without our shields. One more thing, before we lost power our sensor officer picked up a massive surge in the magnetic field of the planet, do you think that would have caused us to lose power?"

Like a solar flare, she thought. But could a planet produce something like that? "Are you sure it came from the planet?"

"We can't be totally sure until we look at the records, but she was confident that's where he detected it. Why?"

"I can't see how a planet could produce sufficient power to knock our systems out. Even with the best shielding if we were hit with a powerful enough solar flare it could destroy our system."

"Well, until we get power we can't determine what knocked-out power. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Not until we get power, and I can look at my readings; I'm sorry."

"Thank you, Fran. I have to return to the bridge now."

"Oh, Captain, what about the Professor?"

Captain Cook shook her head, "I don't know. We don't have any communications, so I don't know what happened to him. We can only hope he wasn't affected, and if he was-" She paused, leaving the sentence unfinished.

Fran understood. The Captain had an entire ship to worry about.

As Captain Cook walked back to the bridge, the lights flickered, then went out. In the darkened hallway she couldn't help but notice the faint glow of a green light from the wall. As she approached she saw the light came from one of the ship's communication panels. She pressed the button. "Can anyone hear me?"

Second later she heard an unfamiliar voice. "I can hear you."

"This is Captain Cook, who's this?"