We could hear a big racket outside, the helicopter hovering close, and somebody speaking though a bullhorn. Travis tuned the Coast Guard frequency.
“-are ordered to cut your engines and prepare to be boarded. I repeat, tugboat and barge, you are ordered to-” Travis’s voice cut her off.
“Coast Guard helicopter, this is private spaceship Red Thunder, aboard the barge. My countdown clock is running, and it is T minus one minute thirty seconds and counting. We have broken no laws, but you are welcome to board the tug or the barge after we lift off. Until then, I advise a distance of one mile, as the exhaust produced by this ship will be very large, and could endanger you. Over.”
[300] There was a long, long silence.
“Private spacecraft Red Thunder, this is Captain Katherine O’Malley, United States Coast Guard. I think we’ll take our chances with your… your exhaust. Prepare your ship for boarding. Over.”
“Crew,” Travis said, “there are two Coast Guard cutters headed our way. Captain Menendez should be severing the lines in…” There was a slight lurch as the lines fell away from the barge and we were quickly dead in the water.
“Captain Broussard, this is Captain Menendez. What’s going on? You told me this wasn’t illegal.”
“It’s not, Captain. I’d advise you to let yourself be boarded, as you’ve done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. Hasta la vista.”
“Hasta la vista to you, too. And good luck… wherever you’re going.”
“Will do.” There was a click as Travis switched channels. “Well, boys and girls, looks like it’s put up or shut up time. Are you ready?”
“Go for it, Captain,” I said, happy to hear no quaver in my voice.
“Let’s go,” Alicia said, and looked over and grinned at me. She reached over and took Dak’s hand. Dak smiled.
“Banzai!” Dak shouted.
“Up, up and away…” Travis muttered.
For the first few seconds nothing much happened. I kept my eye on the three strain gauges, registering the weight of Red Thunder on each of her three legs. The numbers began to go down. And a loud roar was building outside.
“Look at that helicopter skedaddle!” Travis shouted. He turned one of our cameras on it. Sure enough, it had turned and fled as if we were a bomb… no point in thinking about that.
The roar built. The strain gauge numbers fled quickly across my screen.
“Almost there…,” Travis crooned. I tapped a key and watched Travis sitting there surrounded by his controls and instruments. He had on an expression almost painful to watch, made of equal parts worry and euphoria at finally going back into space.
[301] There was a lurch, and the ship seemed to lean a bit before Travis corrected. The roar now was a living beast, a truly amazing noise.
“Crew, Red Thunder has left the planet,” Travis said, and the three of us cheered. One second later the ship lurched hard to the left, and Travis said something you don’t ever want to hear a pilot say: “Oops!”
“What is-” That was Alicia, gripping the arms of her chair. But the ship righted itself. I switched to an external camera, looking down from the top of the ship. The superheated steam obscured most everything… but I could see some of the water surface, being dashed to oblivion by the power of our drive.
“Where’s the barge?” I asked. Travis laughed.
“That baby crinkled up like a potato chip and went straight to the bottom.”
Damn. We didn’t own that barge, we leased it. Oh, well.
“Hang on to your hats, friends. I’m outta here.”
I quickly realized the noise I’d heard before was like a kitten purring. When Travis opened the throttles for a full two gees the sound became unimaginable. I think it might have deafened me if I hadn’t been wearing headphones.
On the screen I saw the water dwindle away. Two Coast Guard cutters came into view, then the borders of Strickland Bay, then the freeway bridges. The bridges were bumper to bumper with stopped cars. I could see people standing on the roadway.
Two gees is not bad. Imagine someone your exact size and weight lying on top of you. Not pleasant, but not really painful, either.
On a VStar flight acceleration built up gradually as fuel was burned while thrust remained more or less constant. Near engine shutdown, VStar passengers experience up to five gees. Our two gees would be constant, falling off only as we left the pull of Earth’s gravity behind. Here at the launch, one gee was from gravity, and one gee from our acceleration.
In moments I could see the whole city of Daytona on my screen. Then the whole county, then the whole state of Florida. Another camera showed the sky turning a darker and darker blue, then black. The [302] roaring of the engine faded to a grumble as the air thinned into nothingness.
My God, I was in space.
IT DIDN’T TAKE long before the gee forces fell to one and a quarter.
“Okay, y’all,” Travis said. “I want an inspection, top to bottom, see if everything survived the strain. Get it done quick, and you can come up to the bridge. And move carefully! We’ll be heavy for a while yet.”
One point two five gees was sort of like carrying a big backpack, it would have been easy to hurt myself if I got frisky. Before I opened the tank six interior air lock I checked the two pressure gauges, one for the interior of the small internal lock, one for the air-lock/space-suit module. Both gauges read a perfect 15 psi. I opened the hatches and swung out onto the ladder and down to the suit deck.
I immediately saw that one of the suits had fallen from its rack. It was lying there, facedown. I wasn’t too worried. The helmet material was the stuff they use in “bulletproof” windows, and was guaranteed to withstand a.45-caliber slug.
I was about to bend down and pick it up, when the suit moved.
I jumped a mile, even in the high gravity.
“Oh my god. Kelly?”
She rolled over and sat up. I could hear her saying something, and helped her work the fittings of the helmet. I didn’t know whether to be happy or horrified. But pretty soon happy won me over. I had even started to laugh as I pulled the helmet off.
“I can’t believe you-Jesus! What-” There was blood running from her eyebrow and down the left side of her face, into her mouth, over her chin.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she said. “Hurry, help me get out of this thing!”
“But…”
“Hurry!” I asked no more questions, and in a minute I had it off her. She wore jeans and a T-shirt, just like I did. She scrambled for the ladder and started up. There wasn’t much I could do but follow.
When she reached the crossroads deck she headed down, past [303] Travis’s quarters and the room that would have been Jubal’s if he had come, then down again… and into the head. She slammed the door, and I could hear her laughing in relief.
“I’ve been in that thing all night,” she said.
I heard someone coming down the ladder. It was Alicia, looking confused.
“Kelly,” I said, and grinned at her. Her face lit up.
“Oh, boy. Travis is going to be so pissed…”
BUT HE WASN’T, not nearly as much as we had feared.
When she followed me up the ladder onto the bridge he did a double-take worthy of Laurel and Hardy, then buried his face in his hands. When he looked up he had a small smile on his face.
“I should have known,” he said. “I should have checked.”
“Listen, Travis, you’re off the hook with my father. I mean, he’s going to hit the roof, sure, but he was going to do that anyway when he finds out how much of my trust fund I’ve spent. I’ll take full responsibility. You didn’t-”
“If I had a brig, I would throw you in it.”
“Aw, c’mon, Travis,” Dak said. “She outwitted you, fair and square.”
Captain or no captain, Travis knew he was outvoted on this one. It wasn’t until later I wondered… was it a total surprise to him? He didn’t search the ship before launch, and anyone who knew Kelly might have been suspicious at how little fuss she had given him about being left behind. Had he been giving her the opportunity to take matters into her own hands, so he could wash his hands of responsibility for her?