Chapter 7

Once the rattling and the extreme noise stopped, and we no longer felt like we had elephants sitting on our laps, I engaged the pin booster. Having confirmed it was still in nominal condition and steering us properly, I released the spent external boosters, allowing them to fall back to earth. Roger had told me that these boosters had steerable parachutes and big inflatable bumpers on them to soften their impact when they fell back to earth. They were to be reconditioned and reused several times.

That’s neither here, nor there, since I knew that the next time I went back to Alpha, it probably wouldn’t be in a craft unable to leave without that damned upward spiral or begging the local inhabitants to borrow a couple of booster rockets. That was a fortunate turn of events. If we had landed in the middle of a family of neanderthals, it would have been ‘the dreaded spiral’ up into the heavens.

I was hoping that my return voyage, if I played my cards right, and my grandfather was still the Supreme Commander of the Planetary Defense Command, that I’d have my own corvette or destroyer and be able to return quite often as an emissary complementing my boyfriend’s work for his people. That was my dream. A little nepotism goes a long way but backing it up with skill and experience goes even further.

The larger ships have shuttles that accomplish the space to atmosphere and atmosphere to space transitions much easier and quicker, without the need for boosters or a spiral. The only problem is you need a ship big enough to carry them, and The Messenger did not qualify for that honor.

Looking over at Charlie and making sure he was as nominal as everything else on The Messenger, I advised him of our next hour or so of activity, and upon getting his approval, began the checklist to enter hyplex transition. The first order of business was to get the AI to move us into line with Omega, and out of Alpha’s Sol One system. It makes for a much nicer trip. Second was to use the latrine, or head, as Charlie called it. Third was to establish and input the vectors and fourth would be to push that one last button that sent us into hyplex transition mode. Then, barring emergency contact warnings, we would arrive home in 24.3 days, Omega time.

We accomplished all noted tasks on the given checklists, then sat in the command chairs and chatted for a few minutes about the long voyage home. When he asked what folks normally did during long space flights, I informed him that on all craft there were chores. This craft normally required three to run it. One must be awake at all times, and with three crew members, two could be awake at all times. That was the minimum intrinsically safe protocol. There would be times on this voyage where that would not be possible, but that was the goal. Eight hour sleeping shifts, then a bit of overlap, then switch. He needed to learn a few important tasks, like the automatic hyplex detransition override, just in case the AI didn’t shut it down after a sensor reading indicating a possible collision. That and how to use the coffee machine were the two most important things.

“I am rubbing off on you, aren’t I?” he asked me, chuckling.

“Charlie, I’ve never been this happy in my life. I have my entire life in front of me, but now I have you beside me, and just a bit in front. That thought makes me happy. You have no idea.”

“Yes, Chalen, I do. I feel the same way.”

“Do you remember, a couple of weeks ago when you mentioned spankings?”

“I do. Bringing that back up is probably not the smartest thing you’ve ever done in your short life.”