Throttle Twenty-Four

The Slow and Steady moved just the way its name said it would: ponderously and with great care.

Diana was practically bouncing in her seat as Ahvie slowed down well below the suggested speed limit and manoeuvred into her place in the line of ships forming up to access the jump ring.

The jump ring they were using was a huge circular construct with an entire station built around it. The station itself actually looked rather small, just a few docking areas and living quarters dominated by the gate it existed to serve.

They filed into place behind a tubular grey ship, and soon a small crew of tug ships zipped over to the Slow and Steady and gripped onto the ship via some deployable clamps tucked away on the ship’s hull.

The tugs were unmanned ships, more engine than anything else. They came from a larger ship that hovered nearby, its entire belly a large bay where tugs were slipping in and out as ships reached the station and the jump ring.

It all seemed rather complicated, but also terribly routine. Jumping like this had been turned into a science a long time ago, and now it was just business as usual. When she asked about the tugs, Ahvie told her that they were just there to ensure that no ship entered the gate at the wrong angle, or hit the edges, or even cut in line.

It was more of a bureaucratic move than one meant to keep people safe. At least, that’s what Diana assumed when she saw the bill come in. Ahvie paid it off without comment.

It took nearly an hour for their turn at the gate to arrive. There were dozens of packets traded between Ahvie and the station as they approached. Flight angles, what to do on arrival, entering speed, and verifications of digital cargo manifests.

It was all so mundane. Diana felt like they were trying to rob the magic away from the moment.

But then they arrived at the gate itself, and Ahvie shifted in her seat. “Get ready,” she said. Her first words directed to Diana in well over an hour.

Diana settled in as best she could and watched as the jump ring approached on the screens before her.

The tugs unclamped themselves one by one and drifted up and away, freeing the Slow and Steady to rumble forward under its own power.

The inner circle of the gate started to glow, and Diana felt an electric tingle run down her spine even as the faint hairs on her arms rose. She grinned as she gripped onto the seats.

The nose of the ship went through first, and there was a strange sort of distortion in the video feeds that swallowed the ship until, finally, they were past themselves.

The ship lurched.

Diana’s grip tightened as the screens went dark.

It was oddly quiet for a moment. There was the humming of the engines, the faint rattle of life support pushing fresh air into the room, and not much else.

“Did it work?” Diana asked.

Ahvie nodded while pushing herself back from the console. “It worked,” she said. “Ahvie will use the washroom now, then eat something.”

“Wait, we’re in transit now?” Diana asked.

“Yes?”

“It’s not instant?”

Ahvie blinked at her. “Oh course not. The jump will take… four rotations to bring us to Undcup Prime. Then we’re jumping to Awasoem to deliver things, then there’s another two jumps to the meeting place.”

“Aww, that’ll take days!” Diana said.

Ahvie shrugged. “It’s not instant, The Slow and Steady isn’t a very fast ship, even in a jump.”

“Well, damn,” Diana said. “Can we look outside the ship?”

“Ahvie thinks that would be a bad idea.”

“Because looking into the spinning void of faster than light travel can drive you insane? It makes your mind expand too much until it can’t fit in your meaty brain anymore? Oh, does it just capture you so much that you’ll do nothing but want to stare into its infinite beauty?”

“No? It’s just very dark,” Ahvie said. “Where did you hear any of that?”

Diana sighed, a little disappointed. “Here and there, you know?”

“Humans are weird.”

Diana laughed as she climbed out of her seat. “A little. So, you have a kitchen on this ship? If we’re going to be flying together for a few days, we could do a food exchange.”

“Ahvie doesn’t know what that is,” Ahvie said as she started towards the back of the bridge.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Let’s say you cook for me now, and I’ll take care of the next meal. We can try each other’s stuff, you know? I bet you’ll love some human food, and I want to try some mirian grub too.”

“Oh, Ahvie doesn’t mind. But we will need to be careful. Our dietary needs are probably not the same. Ahvie was once very sick when she ate jelsha towap at a kiosk. It tasted very nice at first, but then Ahvie’s throat swelled up and she thought she was going to die.”

“Right, allergies are a thing. ChaOS can check and make sure that everything we trade is digestible, at least. I’m pretty sure I can get my cooking equipment to make sure that anything I serve is compatible for you. It’s not like I have actual meat in storage or anything.”

Diana followed Ahvie out of the bridge and down a tight passage into the living quarters. They weren’t much to look at. A small area to one side had a sort of sofa built into the wall, and a small nook had some books strapped in place. Across from that, there was a little kitchen area with a stove-like appliance next to a drawer that served as a fridge. The washroom was just one room over, and across from that were the captain’s quarters, a tiny room with a bunk bed and some storage space.

Ahvie had decorated a little, but it was clear that her skills didn’t cover interior decor.

That was the space where Diana spent the rest of the trip over to the Undcup Prime system. They had dinner after Ahvie washed up, talked a little over a game played with cards and some dice that Ahvie pulled out of storage, then Ahvie took a nap while Diana returned to the Star Skimmer to freshen up.

She made sure to be back on the bridge when the jump ended. She took the same seat as last time, and bounced with impatience as a count-down timer ticked down the nano-seconds until they arrived in-system.

There was a heavy lurch, the entire ship groaned, then everything stilled once more. The screens all across the ship burst to life, filling with information. Trajectories and information flooding the ship.

“Ahvie’s getting pings from the out-system buoy.”

“The what?” Diana asked.

“Ahvie picked the cheaper option to jump in. That means we ended the jump on the outer edge of the system. It’s a lot more expensive to end the jump back through a gate.”

“We’re saving money this way, then?” Diana asked.

“A lot. It’s also a lot more dangerous. Some pirates patrol the edges of systems, wait for a ping from a relay, then rush over to attack the ships that just came in.”

“Space pirates are a thing?” Diana asked. “Awesome!”

“It’s not awesome when you have to worry about them,” Ahvie said. “This system should be safe; it’s a borel colony system. Only one semi-habitable planet, and all the stations are either borel-owned or Federation run. Pirates wouldn’t bother with this area.”

“Best place to pirate then,” Diana said. “No one would expect you to.”

Ahvie shook her head, and Diana had a growing suspicion that the little alien was imitating her own expressions.

Unfortunately, they didn’t run into any pirates as they flew in from the edge of the system and lined themselves up at the back of another row of ships waiting their turn to use another jump ring.

Diana didn’t get to enjoy her third ever star system as they waited in a queue for their turn. It was all terribly anticlimactic.

“Hey, ChaOS, have you figured out how those jump rings work yet?” she asked as she leaned back.

“Not yet,” ChaOS said into her ear. “A few cursory scans are hardly enough to reconstruct something so complex. Nor do I have access to any resources explaining the principle behind the gates.”

“Well, make it something of a priority. I don’t want to wait in lines for the rest of my life.”

“Noted.”

There, that was practically solved. Now all she needed to do was be patient.

Diana groaned. She hated being patient.

Why couldn’t they be attacked by space pirates? At least that would spice things up a little.

Maybe she could start pinging other ships telling them they were full-up on valuable cargo?

Nah, that would upset Ahvie too much. It was best for her to just sit back and suck it up. They were only a few jumps away from the meeting place, then she could turn her attention to the Tyrant Cracker Hit and Run.

***