Theywalked over, Adelina nervouslytaking her daughter’s handas they approached the large hangar-style doors. Foronce, Gabriella didn’t pull her hand free. Theirguards jogged ahead and pulled the doorsopen.
“What the hell isthat?” Adelina’s grip on her daughter’s hand got a littletighter. Her skin crawled with supernatural dread.
Inside was a… hole inspace. She couldn’t think of a better description for it. It was alarge, slightly irregular black spot that you could have driven a vanthrough. There was no glint of reflection from its flat surface, nospecular collection of light versus dark.
Just flatnothing.
“We said you neededto see what we’re talking about,” Luna told her. “We have totake you there first. This is how we travel.”
“Is it a portal?”Gabriella whispered.
“Come look fromhere,” Luna urged.
They startedtoward her and Adelina gasped as the object seemed to be gettinglonger. “What is thisthing?”
Luna held up whatlooked like a key-fob. “It’s our ride.” She pressed a buttonand the blob emitted a double chirp, just like deactivating a caralarm.
“I can’t help it,”Luna chuckled. “I just love that sound coming from a machine likethis.”
“A machine…”Adelina heard a whisperingsound. She turned back to theblob to find that itnow had a little pocket of real space in it.
And a boarding ramp?
The others walked upthe ramp. Luna stood at its foot. “C’mon, guys. It’s safer thanthe ride out here, not to mention ground transport.”
“How do you knowthat?” Adelina demanded, her engineer’s mind spinning. “Do youeven have sufficient accident data on this thing if it’s new tech?”
“It’s not new,”Luna said. “This particular tech has been in use for more thanseventy thousand years. They’ve got more than enough data on it bynow.”
“Seventy…”Adelina couldn’t even continue. There was just no way. “Cute. Mycar is actually a bit older than that.” I thought she was goingto be straight with us!
But Luna wasn’tlaughing.
She lurched forward,Gabriella literally dragging her toward the vehicle.
“C’mon,” herdaughter urged. “We can let our minds catch up while we travel. I’mnot missing out on this.”
They walked upthe ramp and, though Adelina was still struggling with the way hermorning was going, she was noticing the details. The hull had clearlybeen given some treatment that would prevent reflection. It wasperfectly visible from the inside and it appearedto be seamless.
The supportingframework looked more organic than industrial. Stanchions wererounded in cross section and they were connected to each other bybranches that seemed random but the same pattern repeated everywhereshe looked.
Luna gavethem each a small hexagonalobject. They looked like theywere made of metal but didn’t wick away the heat in her fingerslike most metals would.
“This is aprotective suit,” Luna explained. “You put it on your chest likethis.” She placed anotherone over herbreastbone and pressed down on it with her fingertips.
Adelina jumped back asa flow of black hissing froth descended from the ceiling and begandevouring her sister. It started coalescing into hard plates,radiating out from her chest until her body was almost entirelyencased in interlocking facets of armor.
“Freaky, huh?” Lunasaid. She flexed her arms and legs. “Mine was already calibrated tomy body but, after all that food last night, it can do with a littlestretching.”
Adelina looked down atthe object in her hand. “Um…”
“Ahh!” Gabriellaexclaimed. “That tickles!”
Adelina watched in nearhorror as the cloud of material enveloped her child.
“Try to stand still,”Luna advised. “Hold your breath if you can.” Gabriella was fullyencased before Luna had even finished talking.
Well, no sense in dragging this out,Adelina thought. She pressedthe object to her chest. She could feel that it wasn’t falling andso she let go.
“Arms out to theside,” Gabriella prompted.
She complied, snorting.“Listen to this one. Already she’s an expert?”
“If you’retalking,” Gabriella lectured, “you’re not holding your breath,now, are you?”
“Ai!” she hissed asthe flowing cloud tickled her moving belly. She stood stock-still,staring ahead.
“It’s done,” Lunatold her. “Move your body a bit, let them sort out the fine detailsof the fit.”
She whistled as Adelinastarted flexing. “Yeah, girl! Shake what our mamma gave you!”
“You’re such afreak!” Adelina said, looking down. “But this does feelflattering.” She met her sister’s gaze. “Why do we need to wearthese?”
“Like I saidearlier…” Luna headed for the front of the craft. “You gottasee it to believe it.”
The sooner we stop having to hear that,Adelina thought as she followed, the better.
Gleb was sittingin the right-hand seat and Luna dropped into the one on the left. Shestarted moving her hands and the rear of the craft flowedshut.
It didn’t swing shutor slide shut. The ramp dissolved and re-formed as a part of thehull, complete with organic-looking stanchions. I suppose I wasn’tfar off, thinking they looked like they were grown instead ofmanufactured. They must have perfected some kind of nanitetech.
She reached out to graba stanchion as Luna lifted them off the ground and started moving thevehicle out of the shelter. Did we just grow wheels?
She frowned leaningforward unexpectedly. Seeing evidence of forward motion, her reflexeshad kicked in, making her try to compensate for the inertia.
But there was noinertia.
“Why is there noinertia?” she asked.
“This shuttle couldhave us on the moon in less than an hour,” Luna said. “But youcan’t accelerate that quickly unless you nullify the effects insidethe hull.”
“Shuttle?”sheasked flatly.
“The moon?”Gabriella asked excitedly.
“We’re just goingto orbit right now,” Luna said, sparing a moment to glance back atthem. “So don’t get too excited.”
Adelina opened hermouth with what she expected to be a suitably sarcastic comment butthat was the moment Luna slipped her hands into adjustable harnessesand pushed forward.
The ground outsideturned into a blur and began to fall away. The Pacific coastlineslipped beneath them and the ocean disappeared beneath the clouds.
Adelina’s cleverrejoinder had morphed into a valiant attempt to refrain fromscreaming. She was relatively pleased with the results, consideringher current state of shock.
“Awesome,” herdaughter said, remorselessly highlighting the difference in theirperspectives. “We’re already in space!”
Luna pointed to a bitof dirt on the view-screen. “That’s where we’re headed. She’scalled the Mouse in English.”
Adelina blinked insurprise. I thought this was just going to be a really impressivejoy-ride. There’s a whole ship to go with this thing we’re ridingin? Having blinked, she noticed that the ship was now looking alot less like a smudge of dirt.
“Looks big!”I suppose it would need room to land a
