Captain Burnsworth: Quirathean Fields

Here we go on the next installment of this little story. For some reason I feel like I should clarify what is going on here; I don't know. I'm not bothering to plan too far into the future with this story. The purpose is to get into the habit of writing close to everyday, even if it is just a little bit. So, I apologize if anyone starts to read this story and then gets disappointed by its "little snippet" format, or that it isn't more cohesive, but cohesiveness isn't the point. My guess is that we'll have a little bit of the Water World effect, where the story starts without an ending and that ending has the potential of being a little disappointing. Oh well. :)

Also, formatting is a problem here on Blogger. It auto corrects "errors" (which are actually what I like to call "indentations") so the dialogue won't necessarily be the standard format you encounter in books. I'm sure you'll get it though.


“What am I looking at here, Harmes?” Captain Burnsworth's eyes never shifted to his navigator as he asked this question. Everyone on board Burnsworth’s ship, the Lucidia, was staring forward at the planet Quirath: their destination.
“To be honest sir, I’m not sure,” Harmes slowly replied. “The planet seems to be encased in some sort of energy field. I’ve never seen anything like this before, Captain. The sensors are going off the charts.”
The Captain leaned forward in his chair slightly and studied the faint blue hue surrounding Quirath. The comparatively small planet was completely surrounded by this field of energy. He was familiar with energy shields; all ships used them for deep space travel. But this field was large enough to engulf a planet. How could this even be possible? What could possibly be powerful enough to produce that large of a field? More importantly, would it even be safe to attempt to pass through it? Was it radioactive? He began to wonder whether or not their trip would be cut short.
“Get me connected to the Quirathean port authority, and let’s get some answers.” Vindler, the communications expert on board the Lucidia, busied himself with his equipment, but it soon became apparent that there would be no communicating with the planet.
“Sir,” Vindler responded, “I can’t get through. We’re getting some massive interference with the signal, almost total communication breakdown.”
The Captain sat silently, thinking of how imperative it was that they get onto that planet to sell those crystals. He had accrued massive gambling debts recently and was running out of time to pay it back, and if Morgan “Titus” Andronicus, could be counted on for anything, it was his punctuality in recovering debts. As strong and fast a ship as the Lucidia was, there was nowhere that it could hide from Titus. He needed to get down to that planet, but would it be worth risking death in the process?
“Thorpe,” Captain Burnsworth yelled, deciding that as risky as passing through that energy field would be, death was certain if he didn't get Titus that money.
“Yes, sir!”
“Prepare one of the recon droids for deployment. We need to get an idea of how safely we can pass through that field. Vindler,”
“Yes sir.”
“You’re my eyes and ears. Bring that droid up on screen one. We’ve got a few minutes to learn as much as we can about that field before we attempt a pass of our own.”