Chapter 2: Jumping Sensations

After he’d finished securing all the doors, he went about the onerous task of securing any loose objects. While the ship had an artificial gravity system, it didn’t mean everything wouldn’t fly around during space travel if it wasn’t secured properly. He was conscientious about keeping everything in his ship safe, but he’d just moved a bunch of items from his cabin into the armory. It took him about thirty minutes to secure and hide some of the more graphic magazines, posters, and find space for his spare clothes.

Grabbing up his helmet from on top of the cot, he strode out of the armory and up to the cockpit. He strapped the helmet to the back of his seat and dropped into the pilot’s chair with a grunt. Tiredly, he preformed the practiced routine starting up the engines. He had a habit while docked or landed to run the ship’s basic needs, such as power and life support, off one of the batteries so he could quickly turn on the engines in an emergency. If the battery ever got low, he’d turn on the engines and let the battery charge back up again. It was one of the little tricks he’d learned from other runners and it had saved his life from more than one station sweep or the occasional angry spouse.

“Dock Control, this is Twisted Bolt requesting departure,” Ethan said into the empty cockpit after keying in the frequency for the station’s control tower. Every station’s net had a quick access list of all their official frequencies by law. Entering and leaving stations fell into two categories, easy or Abyss-near impossible. The easy ones were the stations out in the middle of nowhere, like Demeter Station, and the Abyss-near impossible ones were large and busy stations near heavily populated or traveled worlds.

“We have you locked in, Twisted Bolt. Clearance is approved, scheduled departure in twenty minutes,” a soft feminine voice replied after a moment.

Ethan breathed out and was thankful they didn’t decide to throw another bogus tax on him for leaving or something similar. He already paid the docking fees and was good for another day if he needed it. The time ticked away as he waited in silence. He ran over the flight checklist twice. His father had drilled into him the importance of checklists while flying. The one time he’d decided he was too smart, too good, to do a launch without the checklist, he had to pay to be towed back in after a thruster had given out shortly after departing. His father had been livid and grounded him from flying for a full year. During the time he was grounded, his father made him redo all the tests to get his license again before letting him back into the pilot’s seat.

“Twisted Bolt, this is dock control, you’re cleared for launch. Your marker for departure is designation Theta. Please wait until you have left the marker boundary before engaging your Faster-Than-Light Drives and have a great trip,” the same feminine voice said over the radio.

Ethan gave a standard reply of thanks and switched off the link to the dock control. Flicking a switch on the console he turned on the ship’s speakers. “All passengers prepare for launch.”

Before he could turn off the speakers, his cabin hatch slid open and Viv came tearing down the corridor; her long blonde hair flowing out behind her. She all but took a running jump and landed in the co-pilot’s chair grinning. She bounced in the seat looking around at all the buttons, monitors, and flashing lights like a child. Looking closely at her, he was once again struck by a feeling she was older than she appeared and acted. Breathing out slowly, he shook his head. “Viv, if you’re going to stay up here, please don’t click random buttons and strap in,” he wearily ordered and pointed to the co-pilot’s harness attached to the seat for emphasis.

Viv grumbled but did as he asked. He watched as the harness pulled the off-gray jumpsuit closer to her body and he got an eyeful as the material was pulled tightly over her curves. Breathing out again, he turned his attention back to the monitors in front of him and started the ignition sequence. A rumble started from the back of the ship and a moment later the entire ship started to hum as the engines started up the thrusters. Grinning, he patted the console and whispered “that ‘a girl” before flicking the gravlocks on for the cargo hatches. Pointing to the monitor in front of him, he turned to Viv. “The main screen is what’s ahead of the ship. The two to either side are port and starboard cams affixed to each of the cargo compartments. The bottom screen is what’s behind us as a panorama view. I don’t have 360-degree sight, but it’s as close as I could get. The two small screens on my side over here are what’s above and below us.”

Viv nodded with wide eyes and looked at the monitors, trying to take everything in at once. “How do you keep track of everything as you fly?” she finally asked after frowning for a minute.

He laughed and shook his head. “Simple, I don’t. More accurately, I can’t keep track of everything because of the placement of the cameras. I didn’t have a lot to work with but she’s my baby and she has provided for me so far.”

Viv’s frown deepened. Biting her lip, she looked at him fully, “but where’s your AI? Can’t it handle tracking everything for you?” She looked around the small cockpit as if looking for a box clearly marking where the AI was housed.

He gave a hollow laugh, “sorry to disappoint, but I’m not that rich.” Reaching down, he took the flight stick and pulled back slowly. He felt the ship gently lift off of the hangar deck and pressed the left pedal on the floor with his foot. The ship slowly turned towards the opening hangar door. His eyes were momentarily blinded, even though the visor, as the station lights filtered into the darkened compartment. The illuminated hangar revealed scratch marks and dents all along the inside of the hangar door. “I wonder if they charge you for hitting the hangar door,” he thought savagely and thought he’d found a reason for the poorly placed lights outside the hangar doors.

Pushing the stick forward, he eased out of the hangar and carefully kept an eye on the monitors around him. Most of the bright lights of the station were filtered out by the camera lenses, but the screens still had a whitewashed look to them. He struggled to find the marker he was looking for. Finally spotting the T on the screen, he accelerated slowly on the hand-throttle attached to his seat and angled the stick towards the marker. Reaching over to the console, he flicked on the radar and collision warning system and smiled over at Viv. “First time in the cockpit?” he questioned.

Viv nodded and squinted at the screens before turning to him. “What are you looking for? I can barely see anything with all those lights.”

He laughed and was glad it wasn’t just him having issues. “Each lane into a hangar has a designated marker. Dock Control gave me the Theta designation,” he pointed to a green T in the middle of the main screen. “As the station rotates, the lane you use to fly in may not be the same lane you leave from. Dock Control also helps coordinate with ships to make sure they don’t run into each other. A station this far out will probably have one or two dock controllers. Whereas some of the larger stations may have a hundred or more controllers each with the job of bringing in or escorting out one ship at a time.”

She nodded and looked around again. “So what do we do?”

Smiling, he pointed at the screen in front of her. “That is the navigation control. After we pass the marker boundary, I’ll route us through the trade lanes and towards the sector gate. Basically, we’ll be using the FTL Drive to hop from beacon to beacon along a safe route.” Pausing, he wondered if he should tell her the truth about how “safe” the trade lanes really were and decided against it. “You can completely skip trade lane beacons if you have your own route. A lot of trade companies have their own beacons, but for a simple tramp freighter like me, it’s the trade lanes.”

“But, if two ships end up at the trade beacon at the same time won’t they blow up?” Viv asked scrunching up her face.

“Out in deep space, sure. It could happen if you’re using unguided beacons and no AI. However, in the trade lanes its a lot safer. The beacons are always talking to each other so you know exactly what’s coming in and going before you get there. Every ship is required by law to constantly talk to the beacon when they reach a certain boundary line.” As he talked, he angled the ship to follow the ever-moving marker and throttled up a little more. He reached over and pressed a little red button next to his armrest. Viv saw the action and asked what he’d done.

“Taking a still image of what’s around us, the flight logs on the open net, and our course setting,” he said quietly as he focused on the moving marker. “After I clear the marker I will take another image to see if anyone leaves directly behind us and where their flight plan is going.”

Viv frowned and looked at the monitors for a few seconds. “But why, don’t you know where you’re going?” she asked a little hesitantly.

“I’m a trader, Miss Viv, it pays to be careful. If someone leaves right behind us and is going the same direction, then I might have someone who wants the cargo I’ve got aboard. In a lot of the main trade stations, it happens all the time that there is a ship headed in your direction, but it always pays to be cautious.” He had prevented a lot of potential problems by spotting possible pirates leaving behind him before. It was a trick Allie had taught him years ago.

Half an hour later, he cleared the marker boundary and hit the same button again. Locking the flight stick in place, he reached over and turned Viv’s co-pilot station towards him. “Excuse me,” he said quietly and punched in the first set of jump points towards the sector gate. He plotted the course to the closest gate and prepped the straight-line jumps towards the Arcturus Sector. From there, he would split off in the opposite direction of Nero Prime towards their actual destination of Oanus. After the first points were locked in, about a day’s journey, he swiveled the terminal back and unlocked the flight stick. “Alright, the first jump will take about ten hours and the two after that will be seven each. If you want to rest after this jump you’ll get plenty of sleep.”

Viv nodded and continued to study the screen in front of her. He noticed with some satisfaction, she was careful not to touch anything as she studied the cockpit. He watched her out of the corner of one eye, amused, and gradually pushed the throttle up on the bulkhead next to him. As the throttle went up so did the power generated from the engines into the FTL Drive. The entire ship hummed louder and his seat shook a little. Viv yelped in surprise and then giggled before wiggling her bottom in the seat. “Oh, that feels good,” she said as she relaxed in the seat and grabbed the straps of the harness with both hands.

A small smile creased his face as his body vibrated with the ship. Once the throttle was maxed, he waited for a few seconds and flicked up the glass cover over a big red button. Grinning, he jammed the red button with his thumb and felt a small jerk in the pit of his stomach as the ship catapulted forward and all the screens went black. He closed the glass over and looked at the readings for the FTL Drive before grinning over at his co-pilot. “Having fun?” he questioned with a wide smile.

Viv nodded with wide eyes and giggled loudly. “That. Was. Amazing!” she declared before unbuckling the restraints and running out of the cockpit at full tilt. A familiar faint pungent aroma followed Viv as she ran down the corridor and he had to grin. “Girls and their good vibrations,” he thought, trying not to laugh aloud. Chuckling, he locked the flight stick and watched the FTL Drive’s power levels for a few minutes. He heard giggling from his cabin and swiveled the chair around to look down the corridor. Helen’s head popped out for a second looking up the corridor at him and smiled.

“Why does your ship vibrate so much when the drives are ramped up?” Helen asked as she approached him.

He continued his mantra of “Look at her eyes” in his head as he smiled. “I’m told that I’m an old-fashioned pilot. I like to feel the ship as I fly, but don’t like to get smashed into the bulkhead if I need to make a hard turn. The inertial dampeners are built into the hull and engine so we don’t go splat, but I haven’t allocated as much power into them as you’d find on a cruise liner; where you can’t feel anything if you move the ship. There is an automatic switch built into the dampeners to adjust itself if the force applied inside the hull becomes too great.” He smiled again and cocked his head to the side before carefully asking, “I hope my ship hasn’t left you with a bad experience.”

Helen giggled and cast a glance over her shoulder towards the cabin. “It was an interesting experience, to say the least,” she said with a slightly teasing tone. She turned back to him and smiled wide, “you know you could sell tickets for the FTL jump alone.”

He broke down laughing and had to bite his lip from laughing harder. “It has never crossed my mind, but yeah, I can see where the power rev up might be stimulating,” he replied, trying not to laugh again. His eyes roamed down Helen’s tight jumpsuit and quickly had to refocus, getting his professional face back on. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he pointed down the corridor. “When you get hungry the food replicator has been restocked and cleaned. It won’t taste the best, but it’s got all the nutrients you might need and the synthmeal bars expand in your stomach to keep you full. I forgot to mention this, but please don’t smoke in the ship, it plays hell with the air scrubbers and could potentially start a fire.”

Helen nodded and smiled beautifully. “Neither of us smokes anything, but I must admit, I’m not going to enjoy replicated food.” When he shrugged, she continued on, “I might have some instant meals left if you have the ability to rehydrate them.”

He did have a hydration system for food, but it was currently in pieces in the armory. Scratching his head, he tried to remember what he had taken out of it and if it could be fixed. “I’ll be honest, I never used the thing so I broke it down for parts some time ago. I can give it a once over to see if I can bring it back to life, but I frankly don’t remember what I took it apart for.”

She smiled at him and shook her head. “It would be nice if you get time to look at it. When are we going to arrive at the gate?” she asked politely, looking over his shoulder at the navigation console.

He smiled and began to unstrap his harness. “The first jump is around ten hours with the next two jumps being seven hours each. From there, it’s a gate jump to the next set of trade lanes headed for the Core Planets. If you’d like to get some rest this part of the run will be the best time to do so.”

Helen nodded and squirmed a moment. He waited to see what she had to say and tried not to ogle her body. “Do we really need to keep the jumpsuits on at all times?” she blurted out.

He breathed in for a moment, considering his response. “I’m not going to lie to you. You have about a foot of metal between you and the void in this section of the ship. The cabins and living area have closer to two feet or so of metal and wires. The jumpsuits are there for a reason, but I can understand if you want to get, uh, comfortable. What you do is up to you. I can only recommend you keep the jumpsuits close.”

Helen nodded and glanced around appearing to weigh her options. “What are the chances we’ll run into trouble?”

He countered almost immediately, “what are the chances you’ve got someone on your back trail looking for you two?”

He watched as she stiffened, but smiled. “What do you mean?” she asked innocently but he wasn’t fooled.

“I took you on because I needed the credits. I don’t care who you are, who you’re running from, or anything else as long as you’ve been truthful about the credits for passage.” When Helen nodded slowly, he continued, “what I do need to know is if there is a possible person or persons following you. There is a three-day window for them to hit us before we hit the Arcturus Sector. From there we’re headed towards Oanus rather than Nero Prime. Without telling me what or who, is there a possible problem headed for you two?”

Helen frowned and moved over to the co-pilot’s chair. She sat down carefully and looked at him closely. “You’ve said “you two” twice. You’re not worried about yourself?”

Breathing out, he shook his head and relaxed back into his chair. “I built this baby, ugly as she is, from hull up. I know what she can and can’t do. I’m less worried about what happens if we get attacked out here than I am when I drop you two off. She’s more than she looks. But, as to your question, no, I’m not worried about myself unless you have something like the Alliance after you.”

When Helen winced the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. “Alright, the Alliance may be after you. That could pose a problem, but nothing I can’t deal with,” he replied woodenly. As he looked at his passenger, his stomach dropped slightly. “Maybe I should have taken the Rim run and hoped for the best,” he thought.

“We’re innocent, Ethan. I promise,” Helen said a little lamely. “You probably don’t want to know because if the Alliance does come after us then the less you know the better.”