Ilika and Kibi were up early. Kibi, still in command, studied the planetary chart while Ilika scraped together all the grains he could find and made a thin mush. Alas, no sweetener or fruit was to be found in the nearly-bare cupboards of the little ship.
After getting a warm breakfast into their bellies, Boro and Rini easily found rocks from the comet. They brought back a fist-size lump for Kibi’s display, and smaller ones for each crew member.
After souvenirs were stowed, Sata instinctively sat down at the navigator’s station.
“Sorry, Sata,” Kibi corrected. “I’m still in command, and you’re still the pilot.”
The innkeeper’s daughter frowned. “But I stink at it!”
Kibi smiled. “Exactly.”
Sata sighed and moved over. Mati, waiting nearby with her crutch, didn’t say a word.
While everyone did their pre-flight checks, Kibi spoke. “Ilika promises me this will be easier than getting away from Sonmatia Seven.”
The acting steward nodded. “And Boro’s going to run that old thruster fuel through a couple of filters to clean it up.”
“I am? Oh, yeah, I am.” The engineer began working at his control board.
“It’s easier, he tells me,” Kibi went on, “because the gravity’s a lot less, and we can use high levels of ion drive as soon as we’re off the ground. We’re
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going to look like . . .” She switched to her native language for a moment. “. . .
like a bat out of the Underworld.”
Everyone chuckled as they completed their preparations for flight.
“Straps, and inertia canceling,” Kibi said, getting serious. “Flight recorder, universe transponder.”
Mati had to get instructions from the real navigator.
“Equatorial and polar charts, real-time topographics,” Kibi continued.
Mati and Rini provided the data while Sata arranged her display.
“Space thrusters, ready at full power. Ion drive, prepare for level five, ready for levels six and seven.”
Boro touched several symbols, then smiled.
The commander of the Manessa Kwi, an ex-slave who used to have lice in her hair, listened as each of her crew members gave status reports.
“Have I forgotten anything, Ilika?” Kibi finally asked.
“Yeah. Preview the flight path with the pilot so she can begin to visualize it.”
Kibi described what they were about to do, prompting Sata to add another graph to her display.
Finally Kibi took a deep breath. “I’ve got knots in my stomach.”
“Welcome to the Transport Service,” Ilika said from behind her.
She flashed him a grin that expressed several emotions, some professional and some personal, then turned back to the pilot. “You have flight command, Sata. Destination, deep space.”
Sata breathed while looking over everything on her console and display.
Finally, she couldn’t think of anything else to do but activate the thrusters.
She thought of Boro, at the next station over, and touched the symbol.
Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the icy plains of the twelfth planet moved lower in their visual displays.
“One hundred meters,” Mati called.
“Come to a sixty degree pitch,” Kibi ordered.
Sata moved her flight control and watched her vertical cross-section chart.
“Two hundred meters.”
“Forty
degrees.”
NEBADOR Book Five: Back to the Stars 219
Sata
confirmed.
“Three hundred meters.”
“Twenty degrees and ion five.”
Sata made the course change and touched the ion drive symbol.
“Aha!” Rini exclaimed.
“What?” Kibi demanded.
“I found out why Melorania changed our course.”
“Passing the south pole,” Mati announced.
“Ion six,” Kibi ordered.
“Escape velocity,” Mati said.
“Ion
seven.”
“Nothing but deep space ahead.”
Ilika took back command, and everyone gathered around the watch station.
“Manessa couldn’t see it during landing because we were at a shallow angle, then rolling along the ground. But look what she spotted on take-off!”
The topographic on Rini’s display showed the entire level plain where they had landed. About forty kilometers from the last range of jagged mountains, and right along the path they would have taken but for Kibi’s course change, a deep meteor crater interrupted the smooth surface.
“It’s not on the chart!” Sata declared with a tinge of guilt.
“Must be too recent,” Ilika explained. “But now that Manessa’s seen it, it’s on the chart.”
Sata, out of curiosity, stepped to her station and selected the equatorial chart. “Wow. It is. But how do we tell other ships?”
“Manessa already has. She’s in contact with Nebador whenever we’re in space.”
“Will Melorania always watch our backs like that?” Kibi asked.
“No, very rarely,” Ilika replied firmly. “I think she felt a little responsible for us this time because she’s the reason we’re flying without anti-mass.”
“That’s fair,” Boro said, nodding.
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Deep Learning Notes
Pre-visualizing the flight is even more important for a beginning pilot than an experienced one. Take-offs and landings are always “high workload” times for any pilot. This take-off, with one of their engines still not being used, was especially complicated.
What mistake did Rini make during take-off? (No one said anything about it in the story.)
What effect would it have on the crew if they thought Melorania was
“watching their backs” all the time?