Delta Outpost

Chapter 2

 "Shuttle departing. Please clear the dock."

The same voice from the automated systems in our rooms sounds the warning that we're about to take off. Off to my right, a pair of gleaming metal doors slowly close towards each other. There's a loud hissing sound before they finally slam together. I can't see the locking mechanisms twisting into position to seal us from the vacuum of space, but I can certainly hear them. Once the door is shut, the cabin pressurizes, causing my ears to pop. Like everyone else in the cramped, slender ship, I'm sitting in a chair against the wall. Large, black straps hold me snuggly in place, though I can tell this is going to get uncomfortable once we start moving. These little shuttles don't produce any gravity, and I'm not looking forward to rattling around in this harness until we hit atmo.

"Aren't you excited?!" Danny asks from beside me. The seat he's in was never designed for children, so extra straps were added to ensure he doesn't float away once we embark. His little hands tug enthusiastically at the restraints. He's not trying to get out; he's just so excited that he has to fidget with something. I thought he was eager to go before, but now that he and I have seen the planet from the ship, he can barely contain himself.

Danny and I didn't get as long as I'd hoped. As we stood at the wall-sized window the full view of the planet beneath us left us both in awe. I was expecting it from him. He's still young and thinks space travel is really cool. I've gotten pretty used to it by this point. But looking out over the lush, green landscape poking out from beneath an ocean of dark, swirling clouds left me a bit more taken aback than I anticipated. It's just so rare to see an uninhabited planet look so... alive!

I'm not sure how long we stood there staring down at the planet's surface before the boarding call for my shuttle sounded. I thought we would have talked more, pointed stuff out, and discussed what we thought different areas would look like up close. Instead, we just stood there in silence. I don't know if Danny felt as nervous as I did, we never talked about it. I'd had a little knot in my stomach ever since we started our orbit, but seeing it for myself intensified it. It almost made me forget that Danny would be going down there with me. When that thought caught up to me, I almost threw up.

The shuttle lifts off from the docking bay floor, causing my head to feel woozy for a moment. There are no windows except for in the cockpit, which I can just barely see off to my left from my seat. The walls of the bay rotate across the windshield until the empty blackness of space finally comes into view.

"Here we go!" Danny cries out.

"UHI1 this is Falcon 2 requesting permission to take off," our pilot says.

"Falcon 2 this is UHI1 Command," comes the response over the speakers. "You are clear. Safe travels."

The large seats in the cockpit make our pilot and co-pilot nearly impossible to see. Still, I hear the flipping of switches before the shuttle lurches forward. Once we're clear of the bay, the lack of gravity becomes overwhelmingly apparent. My ass lifts away from the seat and I feel my hair dance around my head like I'm underwater. The sudden weightlessness makes my insides feel like they're dancing around each other. It's a feeling I was anticipating though, so I made sure not to eat anything before now.

A lurching sound to my left grabs my attention. Maggie is strapped in right next to me. Her right hand is on her chin and her face looks sickly pale. It's a look that foretells the unfortunate future of our journey. "Oh no," I say. "You're not gonna..."

Before I can finish, Maggie's head lunges forward and her mouth opens wide. As gross as puking is normally, it's on a whole other level in zero gravity. The chunky blob of orange and brown slowly forms into a wiggling ball that hovers in front of her face. Just the sight of it makes me want to throw up, too.