12
Lily, Titan Bellator, Launch Shuttle, Deep Space
“Call me Tor,Starfighter. I am honored to serve with you.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say. I’d used the Titan’s full name, Bellator, and been gently corrected. “You can call me Lily.”
“Very well.” The Titan’s deep, masculine voice sounded older than the profile I’d chosen for Athena. Almost like a wise, caring father who had raised ten children and seen everything. Tor’s voice was soothing. Calm. Like having my own, personal, Captain Jean-Luc Picard on board.
As Tor was the only company I was going to have for the next few hours, I was happy to discover he didn’t sound like a mechanical hag or petulant teen. Some of the voice options when building a Titan were, in my opinion, highly questionable.
“Starfighter, loading has commenced.”
“Copy that.” I didn’t really feel the Titan being loaded onto the launch rail system, not like I had on the planet Xenon. But then, we were in the middle of nowhere, in outer space, with no gravity, no light. Nothing. A few stars were twinkling here and there. I knew once I launched I’d be able to see the planets Velerion, Xenon and Xandrax off in the distance. But they weren’t going to be large. More like spotting a spoon across the room from ten meters.
Dea and I were going to be alone out here.
The thought made me wish Darius was here. I shoved that aside and watched the countdown on the display screen in the corner of my helmet.
“Launch sequence has commenced.”
“Ready for launch.”
The shuttle crew had been efficient and experienced. I was launching first. Dea, who I had not seen since the ordinance meeting back on the battleship, would be launched about half an hour behind me but arrive at nearly the exact same time. We were being hurtled through space onto opposite sides of the Dark Fleet Cruiser. Which meant the shuttle had to travel a fair distance to achieve the appropriate angle of attack for her because we were so very far away.
Dea had stayed in her bunk, which was fine with me. I wasn’t in the mood for talking to anyone. I just wanted to do my job and go home to sulk, eat ice cream and curse men in general, but one man in particular.
“Launch in ten…”
I waited.
“Five, four, three, two, one, launch.”
There was little difference in the feeling of weightlessness between the shuttle launch bay and hurtling through space at hundreds of kilometers an hour. Perhaps thousands. I wasn’t sure about the conversion rates. But it was fast. And as soon as I confirmed my trajectory and activated my boosters, I’d be what I could only call asteroid speed.
Too fast. One speck of space dust could throw a spanner in the works. Blow me to pieces.
“Quit your whining.” I was speaking to myself, but Tor appeared to be confused.
“I am unfamiliar with the term.”
“I was talking to myself.”
“Of course.”
“Have you confirmed our current trajectory? Are we on target to attach to the Cruiser?”
“Of course.”
“Brilliant. Have you sent the calculations to the shuttle?”
“Of course.”
What the everloving hell? “Stop saying of course.”
Tor did not speak to me, rather a stream of letters appeared on my helmet’s display. Two words.
‘Of course.’