“What are you planning on doing once you get inside this rock?” Marcus asked.
“Once inside and securely docked, we should be able to power down many systems and more easily conduct repairs. While we’re there, we’ll be sending Tug and Jalea to Corinair, along with a load of ore to sell. They should be there for at least a day, during which they will procure more supplies and attempt to make contact with members of the Karuzari that may be hiding on Corinair.” Nathan looked around the room again. “Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Marcus grunted. “How long we gonna hideout here?”
“As long as it takes, but no longer than necessary,” Nathan said, intending to be vague. “We make that determination on a day-by-day basis. All right, we’ve got about thirty minutes until we’re ready to jump. So you might as well get suited up and ready. Good luck.”
Nathan stepped down from the podium and quickly exited the room with Cameron on his heels. “How did I do?”
“Okay,” she answered. “Confident, relaxed. Not bad, considering you got lost on your way to the briefing.”
“Don’t be insubordinate,” he told her with a wry smile.
Nathan stood at the tactical console, reviewing the deep system scan reports that Kaylah had performed over the previous few hours. They had collected more than enough data to confirm the accuracy of the star charts translated from Tug’s fighter, and Abby felt confident that her plot into the system was a safe one.
Deliza again stood by Abby’s side. Since she had begun working with her on using one of the dead shuttle’s computer cores to make jump calculations, the two had become inseparable. Nathan suspected that, whether she was aware of it or not, the physicist had taken on the role of surrogate mother in the wake of the death of Deliza’s real mother.
“Bridge, Nash,” Jessica’s voice came across the comm-set.
“Go ahead,” Nathan said over his comm-set.
“We’re all suited up and ready to go down here.”
“Very well. Have your pilot taxi out onto the flight deck. I want you guys ready to launch the moment we arrive.”
“Copy.”
Nathan looked down at the console, noting that the shuttle was already moving out of the hangar and into the main transfer airlock. Within minutes, it would be positioned outside the ship, sitting on the flight deck exposed to space. They’re going to have quite a show, he thought.
“Helm, put us on an intercept course for the jump in. Match velocity to the orbital velocity of gas-giant.”
“Yes, sir,” Cameron responded. She had been sitting at the helm since they had returned from the pre-jump mission briefing nearly thirty minutes ago. She had received the navigational data from Abby at least ten minutes ago, and she had already verified and entered it into the Aurora’s nav-com long before Nathan gave her the order to do so. But she knew that he was just going through the motions, making sure he didn’t forget anything.
“Attention all hands,” Nathan called throughout the ship. “Stand by for jump in one minute. Repeat, we jump in one minute.”
As the shuttle rolled out of the transfer airlock and onto the open flight deck, Jessica-who was sitting in a jump seat directly behind the flight crew-couldn’t help but notice that neither of the pilots seemed to know exactly where every control was located in their cockpit. “Uh, you guys have flown one of these before, right?”
“Define flown.” Loki asked, a bit of uncharacteristic sarcasm in his voice.
“You know, launch, fly around, and then land again… safely, I might add.”
“No worries, love,” Josh chimed in with his usual arrogance. “They all fly the same way.”
“Yeah, it’s just figuring out where all the little buttons and switches are that’s the tricky part.”
Jessica looked at Loki, then Josh, then back to Loki again. “You guys are messing with me, aren’t you?” She leaned back into her seat, either confident in her revelation or just not wanting to know the truth.
Loki glanced back over his shoulder, “Of course we are,” he assured her. He shot a guilty look over to Josh, who returned the expression in kind. Loki repositioned his helmet mic and contacted the Aurora. “Aurora, this is Shuttle One. We are in position and ready for departure.”
“Copy that, Shuttle One, Stand by. Oh, and guys, don’t forget about the flash,” Nathan reminded them over the comms. “We don’t need two blind pilots.”
“Copy, Aurora,” Loki answered as he dropped his darkened visor from the compartment along the top of his helmet down to cover his eyes.
“What’s with the Shuttle One?” Josh asked as he dropped his own visor into place.
“What was I supposed to call us? Shuttle Two?”
“Well what do we need a number for? We’re the only bleedin’ shuttle around.”
“In case we get another shuttle later, I guess. What do you care?”
“At least you could’ve come up with something cool, like Recon Shuttle or something.”
“Listen, you just fly this thing, let me talk on the radio, okay?” Loki insisted.
“Standby to jump in five,” Abby’s voice counted down over the comm.
“Don’t get all testy,” Josh teased. There was nothing he liked more than pushing Loki’s buttons.
“Four.”
“I’m not getting testy.”
“Three.”
“Yes, you are. Like a little girl you are,” Josh prodded.
“Two.”
“Everyone close your eyes,” Jessica instructed the passengers.
“One.”
“Little girl, am I?” Loki said, beginning to take offense.
“Jump.”
Outside the shuttle, the bluish-white light again shot out from the emitters on the hull, quickly connecting them and covering the ship in a light that almost instantly intensified into a brilliant white. Through their polarized visors, Josh and Loki could see the hull of the Aurora outside, a momentary white halo covering and contouring to her hull lines. When the light subsided, the black star field was instantly replaced by the image of the massive, turquoise gas-giant that filled the sky in front of them, except for the blackness off to their starboard side.
The sudden arrival of the massive gas-giant gave them both a start, causing them to jump slightly in their flight couches.
“Whoa!” Loki screamed.
“Jesus! That’s the coolest thing ever!” Josh exclaimed.
“Cool? I just about pissed myself!” Loki admitted.
“Shuttle One, Aurora. You’re cleared for launch.”
“Copy, Shuttle One, taking off,” Loki replied as he lifted his visor.
Josh immediately fired the thrusters, pushing the ship up and away from the flight deck of the Aurora.
“Visor, dumbass,” Loki said to Josh, who still hadn’t raised his polarized visor.
“What’s that smell?” Josh asked, pretending to sniff the air as he raised his visor.
“I said almost,” Loki defended.
Josh looked at his displays, and then glanced out the windows of the shuttle, checking his position relative to the Aurora. “Hang on!” he called out to his passengers as he fired his thrusters again, slid the shuttle sideways, and then rolled off over the Aurora’s starboard side. He fired his mains at full burn, throwing everyone back into the seats as he drove the shuttle away from the Aurora at a steep angle.
“It’s going to take a lot of velocity to break orbit from that big bitch out there,” Loki warned.
“Stable orbit achieved,” Cameron reported.
“The shuttle’s away,” Nathan reported, after checking his console displays. “Kaylah, any contacts?”
“Negative, sir. The area is clear. But there is a lot of traffic around Corinair, as well as the asteroid belt itself. But it all seems to be avoiding this area.”
“I guess Tug was right,” Nathan said.
“Let’s hope he’s right about the hideout as well,” Cameron added. As much as she disliked the idea of piloting the ship into a giant cave in space, she preferred it to sitting out in the open in a system that was regularly visited by Ta’Akar warships.