Not With A Whimper_Survivors by D. A. Boulter

Author:D. A. Boulter [Boulter, D. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-24T07:00:00+00:00

* * *

Thursday 12 August

Angela had never enjoyed herself more. She had spent almost twelve hours piloting Venture’s Scout-1. Well, to call it piloting might be a slight exaggeration. But she had played with the attitudinal thrusters to the point where she could easily correct the course. She had done simulations, had even cut the gravity at the suggestion of Pilot Ken Ritter so that she could get the feel of piloting in zero-g.

Ritter had just given up the pilot’s seat to Rolf Yrden when he made that suggestion. It took until Rolf started laughing after the door closed behind Ritter’s floating body that she made the connection, and began laughing, herself.

“Everyone coming up from Earth wants to try it in zero-g,” he said after their laughter had died down. Then he disappointed her. “I think we’d better just leave the ship on course – don’t want them bumping into walls, ceilings or floors,” he said.

She reluctantly agreed. The disappointment faded as he asked her about her time on Amalgamated 684, which started a conversation.

When next she looked at the chrono, she realized that over two hours had gone by, and she practically knew his life story, his desires, his fears. And he knew hers, as well. She had never before found someone so easy to talk to.

When the door opened, and Ritter and Carol floated into the room, she felt a loss. Ritter helped Carol strap in, then floated to his place.

“Ready for jump?” he asked as he slipped into his restraints.

“I hear it can make you sick,” Carol said.

“A slight, passing feeling of nausea,” Angela answered her. “You can have a space-sick bag ready, if you want, but it’s rare that anyone ever vomits.”

She didn’t look very reassured, so Angela dug one out and passed it to her. Better safe than sorry – especially in zero-g. Carol accepted it gratefully, and prepared it for use.

“Taking us in, Angela?” Ritter asked.

“Rolf says I can,” she replied.

“Then let’s do it.”

Rolf called up the equation, and gave her the course. She needed to adjust the ship’s attitude only slightly, and then she hit the thrusters to get them on the correct vector.

“We’re at twenty percent of maximum recommended insertion velocity for this distance from Earth. I think that’s good enough,” Rolf said. “Shields down.”

She cut the power to the shields, feeling a slight jump in her stomach. The time between the dropping of shields and the actual jump held the most danger.

“Jump.”

She activated the jump sequence, felt the slight nausea as they entered hyperspace with only a very mild shudder.

“Aw,” Carol said as the starfield disappeared, to be replaced by the swirling greys of hyperspace.

“Not much to see in hyperspace,” Rolf affirmed. “That’s the view for the next day. How do you feel?”

“Not bad,” she said, sounding surprised. “Just as Angela said: a passing nauseous feeling. I’m fine now.”

“Wait until drop,” Ritter said, his voice a bit of a leer. “The feeling of drop more than makes up for jump.”

She grinned at him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.