Wednesday Briefs - In Enemy Hands #2

Welcome to the Wednesday Briefs flash group (click to go to the site). The short stories have a maximum of a 1000 word count plus links at the bottom to the other flashers. If interested in joining us, drop me a line and I'll tell you how. :)Prompts for this week:
“We’ve been in this situation before.”

“It’s easy to come back and say…”

“Next question?”

“I didn’t see this one coming.”

“Walk the tightrope.”

“Oh, it gets better…”

“Well, that’s a rough break.”

“I hate the dark!”

“He/She is one of the most giving persons…”

“It’s harder than you believe.”

“I’ve never seen this before.”

or use: floor, paper, hair

or use: wind, football, field

or use: cart, record, shore

or have your character order pizza

or use: hip, black, ball

or have a character catch a fish

or have a character take a shower

or “Catch anything?”or “Put something on, you’ll catch your death of cold”or “Where’s summer when you need it?”or use a cop and a broken radar gun

or use a snake in the grass

 Chapter Two
The tension climbed in the shuttle as they drew closer.
“We will be entering the net in five… four… three… two… one… and it’s a go.” Varo held his breath. So far, so good. Once they passed the net, they could—
A bright, sparking flash jumped from one satellite to another. The energy produced electrified the surrounding air as the SSN reactivated.
“Stars and curses! No, no, no. This can’t be happening. Not now , not yet!” Snarling, Varo slammed his hand on the com. The light leaped from one satellite to another, then hit them with a hard blast of energy that shook the shuttle. Varo was grateful he was strapped into the chair. Alarms sounded through the cabin, along with harsh voices cursing.
“All systems down! I repeat, all systems are down. Helkan’s Satellite Surveillance Network is operational, and the bedamned thing caught us. Stealth mode is offline. We are visible, Captain, and have incoming ships. We’re on an uncontrolled descent toward the planet with no way to use thrusters to reduce reentry heating.”
“Are we going to burn up?” Haus yelled, leaning forward as far as he could to see Sarik.
“I…” Sarik shouted back as he bounced in his seat while fighting to control their descent. “I don’t think so, but it’s going to get very hot in here.”
“Any chance of getting to the destination we programmed in?” Varo hollered, heat already seeping inside the shuttle.
“Negative, Captain. We don’t have the speed to make that now.” Sarik wiped his forehead, then snarled at the Helm that blinked with a multitude of nonworking lights. “As unbelievable as this it, we’re going to crash-land in an area of the planet that isn’t rocky. There’s no mountains with lovely Helkans for us to blow up anywhere around us, unfortunately.”
“Figures,” Varo yelled above the screaming alarms.
Artan huffed, fighting to breathe in the stifling heat. “It’s getting rather warm in here.”
“Master of the understatement, as always.” Haus snorted from his chair.
“Gentlemen, hold onto your asses, we’re going in hot,” Varo roared as the dark clouds gave way to an even darker rolling, rocky landscape.
Between the screaming alarms, he heard voices praying. Varo added his as they barreled down toward the unforgiving ground. “Goddess, please take my men quickly. Don’t let them suffer.”
* * * *
Varo’s eyes snapped open, then he slammed them right back shut. A sharp pain stabbed through his head, and little aches made themselves known everywhere. Bouncing his head off the loading dock on his ship during a game of spaceball hadn’t hurt this bad. A long, tired sigh escaped Varo. Well, one question answered—he was still alive. He leaned back against the headrest, body strumming with anxiety as he took stock of his body.
One galaxy-size headache appeared to be the worse of the damage he’d sustained.
It appeared his goddess wanted him to live, so best to get on with it. On the second go-around, he took his time opening his eyes, not that it made any more of a difference. His head still throbbed like a rotten tooth. Blinking repeatedly, he tried to clear his distorted vision. The objects around him swam, gently rolling up and down on unseen waves.
His stomach didn’t appreciate the sight, and showed its disapproval with a mighty heave. Saliva flooded his mouth, and after a brief, desperate discussion, he talked his stomach back down to where it belonged. That settled, he took note of how sounds were weird, distorted. Distant. Whatever was blaring around him, he wished it would stop.
He stared out of the shuttle’s main window, the vision before him not making much sense. As far as he could see in any direction, a light mist covered the land—land covered in tall trees and vegetation. A multitude of purples greeted him, as did vibrant, almost glowing, shades of blue.
He was unaware the planet could support large, lush jungles. How interesting that scans penetrating the protective cloud showed mountainous ranges, but not the thriving jungle that Helkan…
Helkan.
“Stars!” Reality snapped back, his fascination with the surrounding area gone.
The horrific blaring was the alarms inside the shuttle. How could he forget they’d crash-landed on the planet? Even now their enemy must be tracking them. That got his attention.
He leaned over and shook Artan, shoving Artan’s long, honey blond hair out of the way. “Artan! Answer me. Haus? Sarik?”
Not a word. Frantically, Varo unbuckled the straps that held him secure and lurched from his co-pilot’s seat. Varo checked Artan, then the other two men. All were breathing. Artan groaned, drawing Varo’s attention.
Varo hurried back to the front of the shuttle, toward Artan. “Artan, come on, I need you to wake up.”
“Varo?” Artan opened his eyes. He rubbed at his face, a line of blood winding down from his scalp. “What happened?”
“We crashed. Don’t move around much—”
“I’m bleeding?” Artan held his hand in front of his face, bewildered.
Varo grabbed the bloodstained hand and lowered it to Artan’s lap. “And yes, you’re bleeding from the head, but it doesn’t look bad. I’m going to get the portable mediunit. I’ll clean the blood just as soon I know you’re okay.” Varo stumbled to a cabinet that held medical supplies. The mediunit was a small device that checked the body for injury and reported health stats.
Varo retuned and ran the mediunit above Artan’s body. “No internal bleeding or broken bones. Heart rate elevated…”
“Not surprising since we just crash-landed on enemy soil,” Artan commented.
“I’ll say.” Relief flooded Varo.
Artan sounded more coherent. He finished the scan and applied a thick gel that would act as a bandage to the cut. Then he handed Artan a medically treated wet wipe to mop the blood off his face, staring into Artan’s startling jade green eyes. Eyes that were clear now, no longer shaded with confusion.
“The cut wasn’t bad. The gel will disinfect it and help promote healing. Your scan was fine.”
“Fine,” Artan echoed, rolling his shoulders. “Tell my sore body that.”
“Okay… that.” Varo snorted when Artan chuckled.
“Captain, your sense of humor still sucks dead space.”

“I’m aware.” Varo grinned, but let the moment slip away as he shoved several shattered pieces of equipment aside to get to the rest of his crew. Would this be the last time Artan got to tell him how bad his jokes were? 
TBC
Carol PedrosoMatthias WilliamsonJon KeysAvery DawesRavon SilviusCia NordwellJC WallaceVictoria AdamsElyzabeth VaLeyTali SpencerSarah HayesJohayanJulie Lynn Hayes