Young Writers Society

Once the ship was recharged - that had been what "heat up the ship" meant - they clambered back up the steep wooden steps. Each step took a good bit more effort than on the way down, so they were travelling slowly enough for Janny to realise just how many bumps were jutting out the steps from all angles. Even through his thick workman's boots he could feel them. This was no problem, of course; he briefly reformed his feet whenever they felt pressure and managed to level out the terrain.

As he ascended the small ramp beside the craft, and ducked through the doorway, a little beep sounded. A moment later the craft’s interior dimmed. Ennet, who was leading, continued straight forward into the little empty space behind the chairs. He lengthened his legs and stepped over the chair’s back, then plopped himself down. Janny turned instead to Grescin, who was bringing up the rear.

“Don’t worry,” she said, gesturing forward with her head, “That’s just the craft logging on to the stealth field. Come on, we only have a set amount of time before it runs out.”

Janny nodded and pressed forward, flattening himself against the window opposite the doorway so that Grescin could get past into her chair.

“Get in!” Grescin shouted all of a sudden.

“Do you have to check your bets every time you start up the ship?” Ennet rolled his eyes and tapped his navigation screen with his knuckles. “We have to get going.”

Grescin shook her head. “No, not that. Although… Right, yes, sorry. It’s the autopilot. It’s come on automatically. That should mean…”

Ennet tapped a couple of symbols that Janny couldn’t read from looking over his shoulder.

“Belter!” Ennet agreed.

“What? What is it?” asked Janny. Something was starting to itch at him, but he wasn’t even close to putting his finger on what it was.

Grescin twisted around to face him as Ennet tapped a few more symbols. The back of the chair was actually quite curved, so it wasn’t the easiest motion for her. “The autopilot is only available once you’ve made a journey enough times that it knows what it’s doing. You’ll see why that’s such a big deal once we’re out there.”

“Okay…” Janny said, still not feeling satisfied about whatever was bothering him.

They started to drift forward in the darkness, the lights on the wall having also been turned off by the stealth mode activation. The only light any of them were really seeing by was the red path tracker on Ennet’s screen showing them the route the autopilot was taking.

The wooden shutter over the cave mouth had come down at some point Janny hadn’t noticed. But as it screeched back up behind them he realised he actually had heard it happen, but had been too busy eating to pay the noise much heed. This close it was excruciating. He turned around to watch as it juddered into place, wobbling a little. It was bumpy, like the stairs.

Ennet winced, but was still grinning in the reflection Janny could see in the front window. “Sorry about that, mate. We built that ourselves. Personal craftsmanship isn’t really either of our strong suits. But hey, when you have a limited budget, you throw it all at radar stealth and long range navigation. I’m sure nobody will have actually heard that beyond the three of us.”

“Hence the beans,” Grescin said.

“I liked the beans,” said Janny. But though his tone was slightly defensive and high pitched, he felt some muscle in his body relax now that Ennet had explained that discrepancy in construction quality. By the gods, that had been going to bug him. That explained the itch.

The ship turned sharply at the corner and continued evenly forward, never wobbling up or down. Ennet grinned and leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head.

“Ah.” He sighed. “Paradise.”

He paid a bit more attention, hands hovering over the screen, as they passed through the tunnel opening and into the starry night. Both Scentians stayed incredibly still and silent, but there didn’t seem to be any other ships in sight, or on the radar.

“I’m going to turn off the stealth,” Ennet said as they drifted slowly into the sky.

Grescin looked round at him. “You want to take the cap off the speed?”

“Of course,” Ennet muttered. “Do I have your agreement?”

Grescin waved her hand. “Yes, yes, as long as it won’t bother the autopilot.”

“It’ll be fine,” Ennet said. He tapped the screen, then clutched the arms of his chairs.

A moment later the ship lurched forward and Janny was thrown forward into the back of Grescin’s chair. He absorbed the impact of the headrest in his stomach, but just as he was starting to reform the pressure below his feet squeezed him upwards. He found himself contracting into a little cube shape with legs and a head jutting out of his jumpsuit until his feet gave way and he tumbled backwards, landing against the back window of the ship. His form stretched all over the place as he regained his breath, slumped against the window with his legs splayed out.

“Ow,” he said.

“Oh, sorry, Janny!” Grescin cried, swivelling her head around and up so she could see him over the back of her chair. “This craft really wasn’t built for passengers. The Hub is much higher Y co-ordinate than here.” Grescin turned back to face Ennet. “Molin’s hammer, I forgot how steep that was. I wonder if we’d have even made it up with the stealth speed still operating.”

“I bet the damn TIPO ship doesn’t slow down for stealth mode. They’re all in permanent stealth mode,” Ennet muttered.

Janny looked to his right. The window was a little curved so he could just about see out. Some way off there was a big ball of green light, with forks of yellow streaking off in all directions. The forks flickered on and off, but usually reappeared where they had been seconds ago. Neither Scentian mentioned it, though it would have been hard to ignore even if you were looking straight ahead. But Janny, for some reason, could not look away. He lay with his head swivelled to the right, which is perfectly comfortable for a Daerian, and watched the forks spike outwards.

After about ten minutes or so, Grescin called over, “Hey, Janny! Stick or twist?”

Janny blinked, hardening his eyelids a little to try and tap his facial muscles into wakefulness. He drew himself up slowly, using the soles of his feet to compensate for the upward incline of the floor. As he followed Grescin’s frantic gesturing and stood behind Ennet’s chair, he realised that the navigational screen was no longer showing the autopilot’s route.

“Are you playing Jin Set?” Janny asked.

“We call it twenty-ones, but yes,” Ennet mumbled, frowning at the seven and eight cards in front of him. “Ah, screw it.” He tapped the right hand side of the screen. Another eight card appeared. He hung his head. “Dammit. Alright, Janny, you’re up.”

The screen reset and showed a ten card and a five card. Ennet looked up at Janny. Janny thought for a moment, thinking of the spectacular electrosphere, the tunnel hewn in the side of an asteroid, generally the whole absurd day he was having.

“Oh, I… er… I’ll stick, if you don’t mind.”