His gaze flickered back and forth, taking in every control, and for once he looked on the edge of panic. “She must have drugged them somehow, with some kind of time release so we’d be halfway through the flight before they passed out. She’s probably watching right now to see what we’ll do.”
Everyone in the passenger cabin heard that.
“Stanton wouldn’t let us really get hurt, right?” Elzabeth said. “We all agree on that, right?”
“Random controlled accidents are one thing, but this is crazy,” George added.
Ethan was actually smiling. “Except she knows that Polly knows as much about piloting as you can without actually being a pilot. Right?”
“Can you pilot this, Polly?” Angelyn asked, serious and hopeful.
“I don’t know.” I couldn’t breathe. I closed my eyes and forced my lungs to inhale. Tried to focus. The most complicated thing I’d ever driven were the scooters back home. This was totally different. “The autocontrols will keep us going for a while, but we’re due at Tranquillity soon. How far are we?”
Charles found a screen showing our route and destination. “Hundred and twenty kilometers, looks like.”
“Can you make an emergency landing and let them find us?” Angelyn said.
I shook my head. “No, the surface is too rough, too full of debris and craters. We have to find a flat space or else get all the way to Tranquillity for landing. I don’t know if I can do this…”
Charles found the comm headset and hooked it over his ear. “We’ll find out what traffic control wants us to do. They’ll send a rescue, or they can talk you through it.”
That was a good plan. I let out a shaking breath and felt calmer.
Charles sounded very professional as he found the emergency channel and started talking to someone.
“What’s the problem, shuttle, over?” a scratching female voice said over the speaker. Charles had switched the audio from the headphones.
“We’re a student group on a shuttle from Collins to Tranquillity, and both our pilots passed out. No one here is qualified to pilot, but we have some trainees you might be able to talk through it.”
A rushed conversation followed, the traffic-control official asking a bunch of questions—how many of us were there, how we were doing, the condition of the pilots. Charles said they might have been drugged, which would open up a whole other can of sewage. Worry about that later.
They decided to talk us through landing at Tranquillity. Because if something terrible happened, at least we’d be close to emergency crews and an air lock. My heart was racing.
Charles gave me the headset. “You can do it,” he said softly.
“Who am I talking to?” the woman on the line asked as I fit the headset in place.
“Polly Newton, ma’am. I’m Polly.”
“I’m Ms. Andrews. You’re both from Mars? You have the accent.” She sounded calm. Not worried at all. My heart rate slowed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And you’re the pilot-in-training?”
“Um. Not yet. But soon. I hope.”
“How about starting now, kid?”
I thought I w
as going to throw up. “Yes. Yes, ma’am.”
She explained where the automatic-system controls were and had me confirm that everything was running smoothly. I found the navigation screen and checked—the course to Tranquillity was already plotted and we were still en route. We activated a countdown—how long until we needed to start landing procedures. She had me tell everyone to get in their seats and strap in. We strapped the unconscious pilots into Charles’s and my empty seats.
“Okay, Polly. You don’t have anything to do now, but let me know if something changes. When you get to Tranquillity, I’ll talk you through the landing sequence, you’ll have plenty of help. It’s going to be super easy, okay?” I got the feeling she was talking down to me, but I didn’t even care. “You all right?”
“Yes. Thank you.”