As the shuttle rolled out of the transfer airlock and onto the open flight deck, Jessica-who was sitting in a jump seat directly behind the flight crew-couldn’t help but notice that neither of the pilots seemed to know exactly where every control was located in their cockpit. “Uh, you guys have flown one of these before, right?”
“Define flown.” Loki asked, a bit of uncharacteristic sarcasm in his voice.
“You know, launch, fly around, and then land again… safely, I might add.”
“No worries, love,” Josh chimed in with his usual arrogance. “They all fly the same way.”
“Yeah, it’s just figuring out where all the little buttons and switches are that’s the tricky part.”
Jessica looked at Loki, then Josh, then back to Loki again. “You guys are messing with me, aren’t you?” She leaned back into her seat, either confident in her revelation or just not wanting to know the truth.
Loki glanced back over his shoulder, “Of course we are,” he assured her. He shot a guilty look over to Josh, who returned the expression in kind. Loki repositioned his helmet mic and contacted the Aurora. “Aurora, this is Shuttle One. We are in position and ready for departure.”
“Copy that, Shuttle One, Stand by. Oh, and guys, don’t forget about the flash,” Nathan reminded them over the comms. “We don’t need two blind pilots.”
“Copy, Aurora,” Loki answered as he dropped his darkened visor from the compartment along the top of his helmet down to cover his eyes.
“What’s with the Shuttle One?” Josh asked as he dropped his own visor into place.
“What was I supposed to call us? Shuttle Two?”
“Well what do we need a number for? We’re the only bleedin’ shuttle around.”
“In case we get another shuttle later, I guess. What do you care?”
“At least you could’ve come up with something cool, like Recon Shuttle or something.”
“Listen, you just fly this thing, let me talk on the radio, okay?” Loki insisted.
“Standby to jump in five,” Abby’s voice counted down over the comm.
“Don’t get all testy,” Josh teased. There was nothing he liked more than pushing Loki’s buttons.
“Four.”
“I’m not getting testy.”
“Three.”
“Yes, you are. Like a little girl you are,” Josh prodded.
“Two.”
“Everyone close your eyes,” Jessica instructed the passengers.
“One.”
“Little girl, am I?” Loki said, beginning to take offense.
“Jump.”
Outside the shuttle, the bluish-white light again shot out from the emitters on the hull, quickly connecting them and covering the ship in a light that almost instantly intensified into a brilliant white. Through their polarized visors, Josh and Loki could see the hull of the Aurora outside, a momentary white halo covering and contouring to her hull lines. When the light subsided, the black star field was instantly replaced by the image of the massive, turquoise gas-giant that filled the sky in front of them, except for the blackness off to their starboard side.
The sudden arrival of the massive gas-giant gave them both a start, causing them to jump slightly in their flight couches.
“Whoa!” Loki screamed.
“Jesus! That’s the coolest thing ever!” Josh exclaimed.
“Cool? I just about pissed myself!” Loki admitted.
“Shuttle One, Aurora. You’re cleared for launch.”
“Copy, Shuttle One, taking off,” Loki replied as he lifted his visor.
Josh immediately fired the thrusters, pushing the ship up and away from the flight deck of the Aurora.
“Visor, dumbass,” Loki said to Josh, who still hadn’t raised his polarized visor.
“What’s that smell?” Josh asked, pretending to sniff the air as he raised his visor.
“I said almost,” Loki defended.
Josh looked at his displays, and then glanced out the windows of the shuttle, checking his position relative to the Aurora. “Hang on!” he called out to his passengers as he fired his thrusters again, slid the shuttle sideways, and then rolled off over the Aurora’s starboard side. He fired his mains at full burn, throwing everyone back into the seats as he drove the shuttle away from the Aurora at a steep angle.
“It’s going to take a lot of velocity to break orbit from that big bitch out there,” Loki warned.
“Stable orbit achieved,” Cameron reported.
“The shuttle’s away,” Nathan reported, after checking his console displays. “Kaylah, any contacts?”
“Negative, sir. The area is clear. But there is a lot of traffic around Corinair, as well as the asteroid belt itself. But it all seems to be avoiding this area.”
“I guess Tug was right,” Nathan said.
“Let’s hope he’s right about the hideout as well,” Cameron added. As much as she disliked the idea of piloting the ship into a giant cave in space, she preferred it to sitting out in the open in a system that was regularly visited by Ta’Akar warships.
“Abby, are you plotting an escape jump?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, sir. But we’ll have to get some distance from this planet before we can safely jump. Its gravity well is enormous.”
“Cam, plot an intercept course to meet with the shuttle halfway, in case we all have to clear out in a hurry. Abby, you can plot your escape jump from anywhere along her intercept course.”
“Yes, sir,” Abby answered.
“It looks like it will take them at least a couple of hours to get there,” Cameron informed him, “even at a full burn.”
“I guess all we can do is wait.”
The climb out of the gas-giant’s gravity well had been long and difficult. The noise of the shuttle’s main engines fighting to break free of the planet’s hold on them had been deafening. Even closing and sealing their helmets had done little to reduce the ear-splitting whine.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the shuttle finally broke free of the planet’s gravity and reached its cruising speed. The whine of the engines suddenly ceased as Josh ended the long, torturous burn. But instead of a much welcomed silence, there was the steady, grating sound of Marcus, the former harvesting crew foreman now turned shuttle crew chief, snoring away.
“For all that’s holy,” Josh chuckled. “The man is like a plasma drill,” he declared as he climbed out of his seat and moved back into the main compartment. When he reached Marcus, he carefully plugged in the life support umbilical from the ship to his suit, and gently closed and sealed his helmet. Finally, the snoring was reduced to a tolerable level.
“That’s better,” Josh decided, taking a seat next to Marcus and across the compartment from Jessica. “The man can sleep through just about anything,” he joked.
“You’ve known him for a while?” Jessica asked. Part of her was curious, and part of her was just making small talk.
“Since I was little. My mom was a worker on his team. She died. Marcus took me in, took care of me as best he could. He’s been sort of like a father to me.” Josh looked at Marcus as he continued to snore away. “A loud, obnoxious, drunken, bastard of a father,” he laughed. “Took good care of me though.”
“How did you end up flying?”
“Used to steal his credits when he wasn’t looking. Spent them down at the VR game arcades. Nothing but flight games. Didn’t care much for the other ones. Got damn good at them too. Finally, Marcus here decided it was cheaper to pay for flight school than to keep losing his money to my thieving hands. Been flying ever since.”
“But you’re only what, sixteen?”
Josh appeared shocked. “I’ll be twenty next month, I will.”
“How old were you when you went to flight school?”
“Graduated right after me sixteenth, I did.”
“Four years? That’s it? Hell, it takes us that long just to get through the Fleet Academy back on Earth.”
