Cousins Among the Stars

68/03:00:00 MET

Six faces watched eagerly through Trail Blazer's cockpit as space warped around the Curiosity I one last time, and each pony present let out a cheer as a large, dark sphere appeared in front of them. Trail Blazer turned to his captain, grinning. "There it is, sir."

Steady Steel stared ahead, a subtle, proud smile on his snout. He offered a reaffirming nod before turning to observe the rest of the team. Everypony was in a different state of excitement, from Dandelion Tuft's hopeful look to Rivet's unabashed whooping and shouting. Steel allowed them their moment of bliss, but soon reclaimed their attention.

"There it is..." he began, echoing his pilot's words from a moment prior. "It's been more'n three months now, and I can't say it's all been easy. But I know, beyond any whisper of a doubt, it was worth it. We'll be making our first pass around Curiosity in a few minutes, and the extreme gravity should slow us into a sub-orbital trajectory. We'll use our traditional fuel reserves to bring the ship into a stable orbit." He paused. "Rivet, I need you back in your cockpit to stray confirming our trajectory with Trail. Spanner, head back to maintenance and make sure everything's set. Scarlet, Dandelion, you two had best buckle in."

Everyone complied, rushing to their various tasks with newfound energy. Steel improved his grip on the railing as he watched Trail Blazer work. He found it fascinating to listen to the chatter between Trail and Rivet as they corroborated their perspectives. "We didn't account for that moon." "Re-calibrate our vector for the jump-displacement." "Check the alignment on our port thruster." It all went beyond his understanding, but it was important as captain to maintain an appearance of comprehension.

As he listened, not so much interested in individual words as he was their inflection, Steel noticed a marked shift in Rivet's tone. While she and Trail Blazer had begun with a light banter, each pony figuratively bouncing off the other as they worked, she had now adopted a nervous undertone in her responses. Looking down, Steady Steel noticed his pilot looking concerned as well. Finally, his suspicions were confirmed when Rivet declared into her radio, "It's not right."

Before Steel could seek clarification, Trail Blazer spoke. "I know. We should be feeling it by now... But the effects are practically negligible."

"It can't be because we're further than we thought -- we checked the distance!"

"Maybe the assumed size was wrong?"

"Nope. They calculated it back home. The margin for error isn't this big."

"Okay!" Steel cut in. "Somepony want to tell me what the hay's going on?"

"The planet isn't pulling us in like it should. We know how much mass this planet needs to have for that star to be orbiting it. The problem is, the planet isn't acting like it actually has that much mass."

With a grimace, the captain asked, "What does that mean for us?"

Rivet answered that time, hollering from the other room. "Means we're gonna sail past it and get pulled into the sun!"

"The FTL drive takes over eight hours to charge, though. We won't have time to make another jump!" Steel against the wall, looking shaken. "Trail, what are our options?"

The pilot was silent for a moment, staring at the dark planet ahead. "We can start our burn early and try to bring ourselves close enough to the surface to slingshot away, in the opposite direction of the star."

"Do that," Steel directed after a moment's consideration.

Rivet spoke over the comms again, her voice shrill and indignant; "Cap', if we do that, we won't be able to orbit! We'll have to scrap the mission!"

"I don't see much choice here," he responded. Trail gave him a grim, affirming nod. "Do it," Steel reiterated.

...

The entire craft rattled as the fuel-burning engines exhausted their supply and cut off suddenly. Steady Steel gave his pilot an expectant look and received only a shrug in response. The ship now moved on a much more direct path towards the planet, and Steel asked Trail Blazer what he expected.

"Well, sir, we're gonna be scraping the ground about eight kilometers. Should be plenty to send us flying in the other direction."

"Good..." he mused, staring at the planet. "No risk of slowing too much?"

"Not at all. We'll still be hurtling away at awful fast speeds. Should get a lovely view of the surface, though. We're passing way closer than ever planned."

Dandelion Tuft chose that moment to drift into the cockpit with Steady Steel and Trail Blazer. "Hey," she murmured. "Everything looking good?"

Both other ponies grimaced, and Steel explained the situation. Dandelion hurried away to retrieve some of her analytical equipment so that their time would not have been wholly wasted, and returned moments later.

"Awww..." she cooed, looking with a soft smile out the window. "Look! You can just see the sun through the atmosphere, coming out of eclipse." The three of them exchanged looks of wonderment at seeing a sunrise on an alien world. Then the three of them realized the same thing.

"Wait, atmosphere?!" "You said we're going as low as six k's!" "We're gonna burn up!"

Trail Blazer began shuffling through his equipment and yelling frantically into the intercom, while Rivet did much the same in the other chamber.  The planet continued to grow as they sped towards it, and soon, quiet wisps of air could be heard outside the craft.

Spanner clambered into the cockpit just then.  "Listen," he started, "I think our hull can withstand the heat if we seal off the back half of the ship and let it take the brunt.  Trail, you need to turn us around."

The pilot stared at his controls, hooves hovering slightly over them.  "The fuel..." he mumbled.  "We burned all the fuel.  I can't..."  He paused.  "Maybe if I blow the vent in the FTL chamber, the airflow will be enough."

"Do it!" Steel commanded.  Trail Blazer twisted several knobs before decisively mashing a neon-red button the size of his hoof.  A faint hiss sounded from the rear of the craft and the Curiosity I began to turn.  Spanner began what would have been a smile when he saw that the ship had managed to face backwards, but quickly shifted to a grimace when it continued to spin.

"The airflow isn't enough to keep us straight!" Rivet yelled through the intercom as the cabin noise picked up.  The force of the spin pressed Steady Steel and Spanner both against the wall.  The voice-receiver smacked against the surface near Steel and he shouted into it, "Everypony, buckle in somewhere!"  The noise was such that he never knew whether somepony heard him.

As the two unsecured ponies in the cockpit made their way towards the secure bunks in the main hallway, Trail Blazer noted that flames now licked across the glass periodically.  A loud screeching sound emanated from the rear of the ship and the bulkhead at the midpoint slammed shut.

After half a minute more of uncontrolled spinning, Rivet unbuckled herself and fought back a wave of nausea, carefully climbing toward the main hallway.  Once she reached its opening, she turned to face the other cockpit and addressed her copilot.  "We haven't much longer before we hit.  Open the chutes and get to your bunk!"

Trail Blazer quickly hit the button designating the escape tower and unbuckled, following Rivet into the main hallway and securing himself in a bunk.  The escape tower had been designed to save the crew in the case of a failure during launch, but they had no alternative but to hope that the thrusters and parachutes mounted at the midpoint of the ship would prove adequate to separate them from the debris and lower them safely to the surface.

Each pony trembled slightly as the ship rumbled around them and jolted forward.  The remains of the ship's aft section fell away, but the crew compartment showed no signs of slowing its decent beyond the effect of the atmosphere itself.  However, the shift in the center of mass did aid the vessel in halting its spin and facing the direction of its travel.

From his position in his bunk, Steady Steel could see the ground below.  Due to the angle of their approach, the ponies spent a long time skipping through the atmosphere, and though they had only leveled out near the end of that span, it afforded Steel a chance to observe the planet in the light for the first time.

He looked down at a vast expanse of desert, pockmarked with sinkholes and crevices.  Several mesas stood nearby, certainly tall but almost indiscernible from his perspective.  Evidently -- obviously, he had to correct himself -- they would find no life here.  He remembered Dandelion Tuft shouting something about "oxygen-nitrogen," though, so he held some hope that the atmosphere would prove habitable enough.  Of course, rations would only last a few months more.

Another rumble shook the vessel as it slowed abruptly.  Steel tried to angle himself to see out the window, the perspective of which had drastically shifted, and saw the cause.  "One of the parachutes deployed!" he hollered to anypony that might hear him.

His cheer fell short when he realized that the ground continued rushing towards them at an alarming rate.