Dr Elune opened the airlock hatch to the shuttle bay, last bag of spare clothes slung over their back. The pair of Alex units waved from either side of the ramp up into the imposing shuttle, a hulking thing equal to some smaller personal stations... Which is the norm, for any craft expected to make the journey out this far.

"Hello, doctor." The twin AHORs smiled in unison, staring at the doctor as they approached.

"You are only doing that because you know it is creepy as heck." Grinning, the doctor walked on past, the two following close behind, "Everyone on board?"

"Yes, doctor. Well, for our shuttle anyway." One unit stayed by the doctor's side, as the other went off to the bedroom to power down, the little show over. "Ren is still tracking down an, ahem... Inibreated crew member."

"Can't say I blame them... Ren's team knows what they are in for. We have you to manage our drones... They need a large team to staff the shuttle. Not everyone can be as sturdy." Putting thebag down on a passing table, the doctor headed straight for the bridge for the initial takeoff. "How long?"

"Ren should be ready in a few minutes. Then, we transfer to the launch tube... And the airlocks have to seal... So you have, say, ten minutes before anything interesting."

Opening the door to the bridge, the doctor shrugged, "Oh well." Walking past a row of monitoring screens, the doctor waved at the rest of the crew, "Any last regrets?"

Laura shook her head, "Besides not seeing the completion of AHOR's second stage, nope. That is more Judith's field, anyway..." Grinning, she sat down in one of the forward seats, "Also, do we really have to have Alex manually co-pilot?"

Hope nodded, "Darn straight. I may be good enough to fly this on my own, and Alex is ingrained into our ship now... But the practice may just serve us good." Turning her head back, Hope waved, "Just got a message from Ren. His shuttle is loaded, and good to go."

Nodding, Dr Elune buckled up in the middle seat, the seven chairs arranged in a haxagon around the middle seat, "Glad to see our pilots redy to go. Think everyone else will be able to hold the fort while we are gone?"

Alex nodded absently, staring blankly through the window to the station airlocks, "Yeah... Norman will be there, after all. He may not be as... Adventurous as us, but you made him second in command for a reason."

Laura nodded, "Yup. He and Judith couldn't just up and leave the station, not with us gone... And everyone else wasn't cut out for the haven. Especially Akasha... Did you properly say goodbye?"

Dr Elune rolled their eyes as they pointedly ignored Laura's smirk, "Yes, I did. She knows enough on her own, now... Besides, good luck prying her out of the library." Turning to the last filled seat, the doctor grinned, "Speaking of adventerous and not... How you holding up?"

Francis groaned, fidgeting in his seat, "Not looking forward to takeoff... One we are out in space, I'll be fine."

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Dr Elune nodded, "Same here... I just know how to ignore it, until the few seconds of gut-wrenching come around. Wake us up if we pass out, right Hope?"

Hope nodded with a smirk, "Sure thing. Try piloting one of those little mining craft... You wouldn't last a minute. And we really should have just had Francis advise us from afar."

Laura held up a finger, pointing at the blinking warning light, "Wait up, time to move. Launch tube is ready." Flicking on the land-tracks, the shuttle began to ently rumble it's way over to the tube, slotting into the awaiting launch cradle.

"Still... I don't like how we are being shot out of a gigantic space-gun."

"Oh shush, Francis. It's the fastest way to amp up our speed." Dr Elune gripped their chair faintly, "Besides... The ship can take it. Been a while since the station had that much recoil, though."

Alex glanced back as they finished checking the clmaps were secure, "I have scheduled an orbit-realignment program to run after we launch, and Laura's engineering team has the station under close watch. It's fine."

Nodding, Dr Elune sighed as the large metal shutters closed behind them, leaving them in a pitch black tunnel. The intermediate airlock was pressure-tested, making sure the doors wouldn't crumple... And then the air in the metal shaft began to cycle, swapping out the oxygen for used up carbon dioxide.

Hope glanced up, "Anyway, as I was saying... It's a shame we had to drag Francis out. But... I guess it's safer this way. We need his help, and transmissions would be too risky. We can probably arrange some form of smaller shuttle to hop him back over once his part is done, though."

Dr Elune nodded, "Yeah. Besides, who knows what kind of monitoring crew they may shackles us with... We may need the extra rooms." Glancing at the two empty seats, the doctor shugged, "Maybe. Either way.. Clench your butts."

Francis yelped as he paled, Hope grinning as she confirmed the tube as now completely filtered to used air. "Ready? No? Too bad!" And then she slammed her palm down on the acceptance button to the launch order.

And then the door at the other end opened up, as Alex slammed on the thrusters.

Ten seconds later, Francis was passed out in his chair, Dr Elune was groaning from a slight headache, Laura was shaking herself back to reality, and Hope was turning around in her seat, letting Alex take over, "No one died?"

Dr Elune nudged Francis with thier foot, resulting in a feeble grunt. "All good." Glancing out the window, the doctor whistled, "Dang, it's already a speck."

Alex glanced up from the consol, and gasoed quietly. The station could barely be seen, nothing but space dust in sight, and the looming figure of the gas giant beside them.

"... A bit hard to go back now. Time to go to the fourth haven... And leave our little safe places behind."