[ TT ] Your ship 's dead in space , nothing working but life support . You 've still got momentum from when the engines worked , and with no way to `` steer '' , you 're months away from crashing into the very planet you were supposed to colonize . No one can reach you in time to help . How do you tell your crew ?

`` Yeoman, let me see it again.'' 
 
 Commander Whites holo deck whirred to life as the crewman forwarded the data files to him. In half a second data streams began to pan across his holo, paired with visual imagery of their trajectory, planetary system information, their current velocity, and various other important numbers and figures. The Commander scowled at the data as it bathed his face in an artificial blue light. His worst fear had been realized. 
 
 Just two hours prior the ICV Mercury had reported a total loss of engine power. Further examination of the malfunction revealed that during the Faster-Than-Light transit the ship had passed incredibly close to a S-type red giant. Solar radiation had overcome the artificial magnetic field of the Mercury and fried all electronics. This would have killed the crew; however, the ICV Mercury's engines were to the aft of the shuttle and as such protected by a secondary shield. The primary shielding, charged with protecting life support, crew quarters, and command, had held off the radiation. 
 
 At the time of the incident the engines were occupied by a skeleton crew, enough to maintain the massive propulsion systems. Radiation alarms had gone off, but the incident happened so quick no one back there had time to react. At least their deaths were painless, the Commander mused darkly. He'd never lost a man before, but now? Now he was at risk of losing the entire ship. Currently the engine rooms were flooded with a deadly amount of radiation. Until that was flushed and scrubbed no one could get in and preform a diagnostic on the engine. They were in every sense of the phrase, dead in the water. 
 
 White studied over the data on his holo. Meanwhile all around him crew members buzzed through command & amp; control. All with their own job to do, none bothered the Captain. Several of Whites top crewman sat in waiting at their positions. Yeoman Pulaski, a dour blonde woman, charged with clerical duties aboard the Mercury ( essentially a secretary, but with navel training and a PhD in physics ). There was Lieutenant Park, a hulk of a man who doubled as both Captain of the Guard and Whites' philosophical sparring partner. Finally their was Chief Engineer Henry Lafayette, who was... Well the chief engineer. Behind his corneas, White could barely make out a flicker of orange, which came from his cybernetic implant. The engineer was reviewing data while he waited. 
 
 Normally Commander White would have his second in command Cui Zhang at his side, but the young woman had been tasked with seeing to the the duties of the crew. White glanced up from his holo and caught sight of the compact woman as she strode confidently from station to station issuing commands at his behest. She worked well under pressure it's why she was his second, commander material through and through, but she was still half a decade off from getting her own ship. 
 
 Too bad she'll never get the chance. 
 
 `` Captain?'' The Chief Engineer said, rousting White from his internal deliberations. The orange flicker had vanished from his eye. 
 
 `` Yes, Lafayette.'' White acknowledged. 
 
 `` I've been reviewing the data and I do n't think it's too late to salvage our mission.'' White gestured for Lafayette to continue. Taking the hint the engineer continued, `` So currently our trajectory had us on a crash course with Hawking-3. That's unavoidable, but the Mercury comes with lifeboats. I say we pile the crew into the planetary landers and abandon ship.'' 
 
 White shouted down at a crewman, `` Sullivan! What's the status of the landers.'' The crewman jerked up from his station as if shocked. 
 
 `` No damage recorded on the logs, Sir.'' 
 
 `` Makes sense,'' White scratched his chin, `` Primary shield also covers the landers too.'' However like a finger to a body the landers were the most distal part of the ship, White needed to make sure they did n't get burned by the radiation. `` Continue with your thought, Chief.'' 
 
 Lafayette spoke, `` So we abandon ship with the landers and use their working engines to safety get the crew planetside on H-3.'' 
 
 Hawking-3 was the name of their final destination. A super Earth, smack dap in the green zone of the star Hawking. Much like Earth it was the third planet from the star ( thus the `` 3'' ), but much unlike Earth H-3 was a part of a massive planetary system. 15 celestial bodies orbited Hawking, which in comparison to Sol was twice the mass. Ten of those bodies were gas giants that inhabited the outer regions of the system, the other five were terrestrial world's. Only H-3 sat within the green zone. 
 
 Pulaski jumped in, `` The shuttles do not have enough delta-V to slow us down though. If my models are correct, and they almost always are, we could n't even shed half our velocity. We'd end up crashing maybe 100,000 kilometers away from the Mercury, but we'd crash all the same.'' 
 
 `` What about our RCS tanks?'' Lafayette parried. 
 
 `` The Mercury's reaction control systems would not provide any meaningful difference.'' Pulaski shot back. Lafayette's face turned a shade a pink and he looked to press his argument, but White cut him off. 
 
 White: `` Pulaski, I'm looking at planetary data here. What can you tell me about gravitational adjustments?'' 
 
 The Yeoman ran a hand through her short blonde hair. `` I see what you're getting at Commander, but unfortunately we entered the system at a fairly unpopulated angle. Not only that, but the planets we are relatively close to are actually what's causing our trajectory to collide with H-3. Here and here, these two Jovian bodies are actually dragging us behind them. Their pull is putting our course directly onto H-3.'' 
 
 White scratched at his chin. So it's the n-body problem. In a perfect universe there would be no collisions. Newton's laws of Motion and universal gravitation would prevent it. Given two orbiting bodies, and the near-frictionless nature of space, neither body would collide with the other. They'd dance eternal in a cosmic black. But space is n't as simple as that, not by a long shot. There are trillions of stars and even more planets. All of them pulling at each other like angry siblings fighting over a toy. Thanks to that universal tug-of-war objects such as meteors and dwarf planets, and sometimes spaceships get hurtled directly into other planets. It is an eternal cosmic dance where the dancers are constantly punching each other in the face and stepping on one another's toes. 
 

