Free The Battle by Jennifer Torres

Chapter 1
Welcome Home
    A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable.
    After such peaceful, quiet space travel, all of a sudden things had begun to change. The gentle hum of the engines that had lulled Tim to sleep when he first boarded the ship was now becoming a deep and increasing rumble.
    Light from distant stars streaked across the blackness of space outside the small windows of the spacecraft. It was like they were falling into a dark, bottomless pit.
    Tim lifted his head up as everything in the passenger cabin started shaking.
    Uh oh, he thought, as he suddenly felt nauseous and dizzy.
    He looked over at Max, Emily, and Luke. They each had a look of sheer terror on their face.
    â€œUgh, I feel like I might throw up,” Max said. “Does anyone have a pail?”
    Canary ran back to him and handed him a large tube-like thing.
    â€œThrow up in that,” he instructed.
    Max didn’t wait for him to ask twice.
    Not a comforting sight.
    Tim closed his eyes. After everything he and his friends had been through, entering Earth’s atmosphere should be a piece of cake.
    Ugh, cake.
    The mere thought of it at this moment made him want to retch. His stomach was doing somersaults, and his head was spinning.
    Just moments ago, Tim awoke from his well-deserved nap to find Rusty and Canary standing over him. He had slept right through their journey.
    â€œEven though Indus and Earth are far away from each other, the trip itself actually isn’t long at all,” Canary had explained. “If the conditions are right, we can travel very, very fast using the wormholes in space and before you know it—we’re there.”
    â€œWormholes?” Emily asked.
    â€œYes—they are shortcuts in space,” Rusty explained. “Some call them an Einstein–Rosen Bridge.”
    Rusty got up from his chair and took a piece of paper from a notebook. Then he marked two points with a pencil.
    â€œImagine that this is space with Indus at one end and Earth at the other,” he said pointing at two opposite ends of the paper where the points were made. “Now see what happens when I fold this paper in half?”
    â€œThe two points are on top of each other,” said Max.
    â€œExactly,” Rusty said. “The wormhole takes us though like this—like a bridge.”
    â€œYou mean we are actually here—at Earth—already?” Tim had asked in disbelief.
    Canary had laughed out loud.
    â€œYes. Welcome home.”
    But what he hadn’t explained is how bumpy the ride through the atmosphere would be.
    A sudden sharp dip in altitude jolted Tim back into his seat.
    The big comfortable chairs where they sat were equipped with several safety straps for takeoff and landing.
    Canary had instructed them to buckle up just moments before the ship got all herky-jerky.
    An unrestrained bag of trash slid down the aisle between their seats toward the front of the spacecraft, spilling its contents along the way.
    Rusty jumped out of his seat, gathered the garbage in a white bag, and secured it in a cabinet. Then he quickly returned to his seat.
    â€œIt’s going to get pretty bumpy,” Canary called out. “Doing okay back there, Max?”
    â€œUh . . . define okay,” Max called out.
    Throughout the whole trip, Max and Canary had definitely bonded. They joked around a lot together. They seemed almost like old friends. It was nice to see this other side of Canary. He was actually a pretty cool guy. What a surprise that was!
    Tim turned to look out the window and was able to see the earth—there was a large mass of land covering much of the sea. The bright blue water that seemed so abundant from space now appeared like a mere puddle next to all the solid ground he saw below. But more terrifying than that was the orange-red glow he noticed coming from the outside of the craft—were they on fire?
    â€œRusty?” Tim called out. “I think there are flames outside the