Launching Off

The Spirit of Amelia blasted out of the hangar tube and out into space with ridiculous velocity. Eva’s face was etched with a wide grin as she felt gravity press her into her seat. The g-forces ebbed when the ship reached terminal velocity, and lifted completely once they left Helios’ vast gravitational pull.

Eva pulled the throttle down to the minimum, idled the thrusters, and set the ship drifting lazily through space.

Then she received a notification in her DI that wiped her smile right off.

“Can you believe they ticketed me for speeding just now?” she said. “They sent it straight to my DI. I even got fined 10k for it - which they automatically took!”

Amal giggled.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been going that fast in the first place,” she replied. “Serves you right for breaking the rules.”

“Pfft. I was just testing how the ship could handle the afterburners.”

“Sure, sure.”

Eva cleared her throat, then turned towards Miko.