The Return – Part 9

Serenity came out of night into day as it glided over the Indian Ocean on its touchdown trajectory toward Melbourne, Australia. Wash had decided at the last moment to save as much fuel as possible by avoiding a direct landing and opted for a gradual atmo entry and a long glide path much as the first Earth spacecraft did. Once over the city he would turn on the VTOL’s and maneuver the ship around until Mal decided on a suitable landing place. All Wash had for a navigation aid was the maps Gregori Kovalev had uploaded into Serenity, which Wash had on one of his view screens in front of him. There were no nav satellites, no markers or beacons of any kind. Wash was flying blinder than even the first astronauts had. And he was loving every moment of it.

“Having fun?” Mal asked as he glanced over at his grinning pilot.

“Getting to show off how good I am at my job.” Wash replied. “Too bad none of my classmates from flight school are here.”

“Now Wash I’m sure we’ve landed on one or two moons that were equally lacking in nav sats. In fact, I can think of one we just left.”

“Yeah, but they were moons, small things with less atmo and less gravity. This here’s a full sized planet. And it’s Earth at that. When we get home I’ll have bragging rights for years.”

Dr. Fred Walker was listening to their conversation as he kept scanning for signs of life and observing the radiation data from the co-pilot’s sensor boards. “Your quadrant must be very interesting. You talk about space travel as if it is an every day occurrence.”

“For us it is, Doctor. Hell, Fred was it? Simon’s only doctor on Serenity. How many space trips for you, Fred?”

He glanced back at him and Mal could see his nervousness. Beads of sweat lined his forehead and he had a slight high pitch to his voice. “Two. Counting this one. First one was to the moon, three years ago. I went there to observe solar flares and deep space radiation anomalies.”

“Damn,” Wash said. “I can’t even remember how many I’ve made.”

“Me, neith