"I'd rather you guys keep a balanced view here, that's all." said Keith. "Sure, this is all pretty fantastic. But if you're expecting the Starship Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon to come zipping along, don't hold yer breath."
Suddenly a loud THUNK reverberated through the ship, which seemed to stall and shudder. "Uh, oh…" remarked Jahv worriedly from the cockpit. If he'd heard any of the conversation, he was either too polite or too occupied just now to say so.
"Hey, those are not words you want to hear when you're still a dozen light years from home, okay?" said Keith. Morik deactivated the headband. He didn't know machinery, but he could tell something wasn't right.
"What happened?" asked Niklas, moving up to the cockpit area.
Jahv was frantically checking controls. "I don't know yet! We're losing hyperwarp speed, but I don't know why!"
"What's going to happen?" exclaimed Davy frantically.
There was another loud THUNK which reverberated through the shuttle. The youngsters were all panicked at this point, including Jahv. "What's the matter with this thing?"
"Do something, greenie!" yelled Keith, wishing there was someplace to run but realizing there wasn't.
"I would if I knew what to do!" countered Jahv. "I can't even figure out what's happening! Sensors won't work, we're bouncing all over hyperspace. We could emerge anywhere in the galaxy!"
The shuttle was bucking around severely at this point. Niklas and Keith had been on their feet and got roughly slammed to the floor. They clambered into their chairs and strapped in.
Jahv was trying desperately to stay calm and figure out what was happening. A console on the wall behind him suddenly sparked, but a quick glance told him that it was, of all things, the windshield wipers. Jahv took a couple of deep breaths and called to mind everything his parents had taught him about emergency shuttle procedures. He continued checking the control panels. "Okay. I know what's wrong. Hyperwarp stabilizer malfunction. We're going to have to pull out of this, or we really could get lost halfway across the galaxy. But I've got to find us someplace to — I think you would call it 'pull over' — to effect repairs."
A loud BANG shot through the shuttle. Niklas and Davy both screamed. Morik was just hanging on, eyes wide and petrified. It was entirely possible he was having a nasty flashback to his last shuttle flight, the one which had killed his parents and stranded him on a wild jungle planet. "What the hell was that?!" yelled Keith.
Jahv, fighting panic, shot his hands across the control panels. The readings did not look good. "Stabilizer's shot entirely. We're coming out of hyperwarp. Hang on."
The shuttle vibrated and the metal screamed. The stars flashing past diminished into the normal points of light that they always appeared to be. Finally the ship shuddered a few times and stalled, nearly dead in space.
"What now?" cried Davy.
"Told you this could happen." said Keith, although he was as petrified as the others. He'd trusted Jahv, as well, and hadn't really expected anything this bad to happen.
Jahv continued to keep his own panic in check as best as possible. "Okay, run procedures." he said to himself. "Structural integrity — no, dammit — life support first. Life support fully functional. We won't run out of air. Structural integrity next. We're sound except for a slight breach caused when the stabilizer coil gave out, but that section is isolated to itself and can withstand space. Engine power — we've got sublight engines all the way up to.9995. I can maybe get us close enough to light-speed to shave some time off to a repair facility. Bridge us between normal space and hyperspace. Pray we're close to something useful."
"What the hell are you jabbering about up there!" yelled Keith, who had unstrapped from his chair. "You've just stranded us and you're running a checklist?!"
"Keith, I realize you're scared, and so am I, but panic won't do any good. Please sit down until I can figure out where we are and how badly off this ship is."
"Why, you —!" started Keith, but he was restrained by Davy, who had gotten up, as had Niklas and Morik.
"Keith, chill out. Let's see what's going on." urged Davy.
"Jahv, how bad is it, really?" said Niklas. They were all fighting panic, but Jahv was right. It wouldn't help.
"We've got sensors, and I'm running star charts." said Jahv, almost mechanically.
"Star charts?!" exploded Keith. "What the hell good are —?!"
Jahv shot out of his seat and faced the terrified Keith. "All right, that's enough! You're scared, I'm scared, we're all scared! And maybe I'm a stranger on your planet and don't know my way around even well enough to go to a mall, but out here, this is MY territory and I DO know what I'm doing! There are emergency procedures that are drilled into the head of every single space-faring Botaran from the instant they can understand language! And right now, that's what I'm doing. You want to know what happened? Fine! We blew a stabilizer coil. That means we can't use the hyperwarp engines to travel faster than light. We need a replacement part, which won't really be that hard to find PROVIDED we're close enough to a place where we can get one. When I realized what was happening, I had just enough time to point us more or less in a direction where we should be able to get help. And I'm running star charts right now to find out just where the closest help might be. Okay?!"
Jahv was shaking, partly from anger but mostly from fear. So was Keith. The two faced each other for a long moment. Nobody moved. Finally Keith backed off. "Just get us home. Whatever it takes."
"That, I promise you." said Jahv.
"Are we — lost?" asked Morik. He'd been too scared to even speak until now.
"I hope not." said Jahv. Suddenly the console in the cockpit beeped. Had it found something?
Jahv's fingers flew across the controls, and star maps soared across the screen. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved at the results or not. "Garboris. Not the nicest place in the galaxy, but it'll have to do. I've been there before, with my parents, years ago."
"What's Garboris?" asked Davy. "Some sort of planet?"
Jahv shook his head, replotting the course. "It's a space station. Huge. In what we call open space. It's not aligned with any of the major empires, alliances, or federations. Nicely placed along major trade routes, though. People go there to trade, repair their ships, stuff like that — especially when they want to avoid any official attention."
"Like a shuttle with five kids, no adults, three of which don't even belong this far out in space, and one of which is a runaway from his homeworld?" speculated Niklas.
"Something like that." grinned Jahv.
"What's this space station like?" asked Davy.
Jahv pondered the question, trying to put it in terms his friends would understand. "Think of Deep Space Nine from Star Trek crossed with the Mos Eisley spaceport from Star Wars, but not quite as nice as either one."
"Terrific." said Keith sullenly. "Just when I tell these two to get their minds of off Star Trek and Star Wars, our own resident alien has to go make comparisons."
"The trick now is getting there." said Jahv. "We're honestly lucky to be as close as we are to it. Without hyperwarp, it'll take the better part of an hour. Let's hope we didn't suffer any more damage."
The voyage continued in relative silence. Keith had returned to his seat and brought his legs up and rested his head against his knees. He didn't say anything. Davy and Niklas, seated next to each other, just tried to keep calm and held each other's hands. Morik had strapped himself in and had put the educator headband back on, wondering if there was anything in it about space flight.
Roughly an hour later, during which time everyone calmed down as much as possible — it helped just to realize they were at least moving towards possible help and not just sitting dead in space — the space station called Garboris was on the sensor screen, and finally appeared in the windows. It actually looked vaguely like Deep Space Nine, in that it was circular, with pylons jutting out, and a central section. But it was bulkier in appearance, and the pylons were more numerous and more haphazard. The place also looked ill-kept, with dirt and rust in apparent evidence. Either that, or this place had been cobbled together from materials that had already been rusted or dirty in the first place, or just naturally dingy regardless of their condition.