We make it back to the 13 right after Ren, Nyan, and the prisoner. Gear has gotten an inflatable raft out of energetic storage and pulled it in close to the bank of roots. Ren has just finished loading the Shike into the raft and they're halfway to the ship, the Human and alien swimming after them.
Connor and I sit on the bank waiting for the raft to come back for Connor. "How long do we have befor this place becomes hell?" I ask.
"Eighteen hours, thirty-three minutes," he replies.
"After what? Three orbits?"
"Eleven, around two hours apiece."
Connor tries to wrap his good arm around my shoulder, but then twinges in pain. Instead I wrap mine around him and we wait for gear to return in silence. The raft bumps up against the knotted roots and I help Connor get in. After Gear has motored the vehicle a safe distance away I jump in and swim after them.
I reach the ship and clamber up the ladder handing down the wing. Gear bumps against the side of the ship and I help pull Connor up behind me. Gear clambers up after him with the rafts mooring line in hand.
She attaches it to the which that has been mounted to the wing. She hits the run button and the raft flops up onto the deck. She and her brother go about cleaning the wing. He rolls up the ladder and unclamps it from the wing, she removes the engine block from the raft and deflates it into its original small package.
I help carry in one of the chunks of equipments inside, up the ladder, and into the molecular assembly chamber. The Corrins pile in the rest of the stuff after it. The door rushes swishes shut and the items are torn apart and packed more efficiently.
We all make our way to the bridge where Connor has already taken a seat. I wrap my tail around me and sit down. I take a deep breath in, thankful for the regulated humidity, and start barking order. My still soaking pilot begins the pre-flight check.
The thrusters ignite, sending bubbles along the bottom of the ship and causing us to rattle. Lexi cranks the inertia dampeners up to maximum and the shaking stops. Outside the viewport the trees sink as our thrusters fight off gravity and push us free of the water's surface.
When we reach a decent altitude Ren activates our airfoils and our main engines kick in, throwing us forward. She tilts us back and points us spaceward, but still we feel nothing as the artificial gravity compensates for the movement.
The blue fades to black, leaving a few smaller moons visible in the far off distance. The engines slow down and extinguish. We begin to spin, bringing the red gas planet into view. We continue to spin, and as our nose creeps past the planets edge we stop.
The planet and the moon below us twist and distort like an image in a funhouse mirror. The stars and the smaller moons follow suit as our warp drives come to life. I give the order and Mark pushes us to superluminal speeds.
<<>>
We drop from warp a little over a day later, a little under two days for my Corrin crew members, and a bit under a day for my alien guest. We're in the tightly controlled and monitored space above Terra known as the Gateway. It's a narrow corridor above the planet kept free of satellites and orbiting space ships, allowing ships to drop from warp just above the planet's atmosphere. The Gateway is usually reserved for politicians and other rich and winey people with the illusion that their time is more important than other people's time.
The Gateway is monitored and maintained by NASA, and thus, NASA can reroute the Vulcan senator without batting an eye. I'm sure that the senator is currently throwing a fit with ground control, but I'm happy to get this sort of priority landing clearance.
YOU ARE READING
Lucky 13 (NaNoWriMo 2017)
Science FictionHumanity may not be destined for great things, but its children are. Cheep long rang FTL is finally a reality, and onto the Lucky 13, one of the first of these new ships, is thrown a crew new out of the Academy. Captain Daniel May, just as green as...
