Page 23 of Life-Debt

Mystoran did a better job of hiding his discomfort, but the Veloc’s crest lay flat to his skull, and he clutched the armrest with his capped claws.

As I intended to make Delta take it slow and easy, I allowed Pandora to sit in the co-captain’s chair in her harness, which was clipped to the seat. I petted my fox, pleased she’d slept with me the entire quarantine period rather than snuggling up with her feathery friend.

Once we returned from his maiden flight, Delta would leave quarantine and go home with Mystoran, and I would resupply my ship with some help from Mystoran’s kin. Within five hours of our return, I would be on my way to the black market to find out the truth of the core shiftgem crystals hiding beneath my engine.

“All right, Delta.” I pointed at the comm button. “Press that button and tell the traffic controller my ship identification number, your status as a temporarily licensed training captain, and that you wish to depart from our quarantine bay to head to the first set of coordinates on our flight path.” I took the time to tell him precisely how to phrase the entire thing and had him repeat it back to me before setting him loose.

He did as told, and the traffic controller approved our departure, informing us he would have all space cleared for an additional ten minutes to account for novice piloting education.

At my prompting, Delta confirmed reception of the transmission.

“All right. We’re not going to do a stress test of the engine, but I’m going to teach you how to do the same maneuver but at a lower speed.” I reached over, pressed the communication button, and said, “Instructor Captain Viva here; we will be practicing the orbital escape launch at a quarter speed. Approval requested.”

“Approval granted up to thirty percent speed,” the traffic controller replied.

“Roger.” I directed Delta on how to change to the correct frequency for the next stage of launch. “Checklists are a way of life, but as you are not a linker, you can’t make use of my specific checklists, so I will relay the checklist to you. Do as you’re told, and you’ll learn.”

“Roger,” he said, and he swallowed.

Step by step, I coached him through the basic system checks, which took a little longer than my normal, but he managed with admirable speed for someone handling the complicated instructions for the first time. Once he made it through the safety checklists, I had him start the engine.

As everything felt and sounded normal, I directed him on the first phase of launch, which involved hovering the ship three feet over the quarantine bay floor and directing the ship’s flight path to the correct angle to safely leave the spaceport. The quarantine bay doors opened. A single tug waited off to the side, a protocol that would be present until my departure.

They took engine overhauls seriously, and a quick tug could prevent disaster—and bring us safely to a halt if the engine failed partway through leaving the area.

“Initiate forward and rear thrusters to twenty-five percent,” I instructed, gesturing to the correct controls on the seat. He obeyed, and he took care to initiate thrust at the same rate. Given time and good coaching, I suspected he’d make a damned good captain.

He could read the manual and listen.

I’d miss having intelligent company capable of speaking the same language when I ventured to the black market.

Once he had my ship purring and ready to go, I said, “Forward thrusters to zero percent.”

Without the forward thrusters holding the ship back, she zipped out of the quarantine bay and hit the vacuum of space at the appropriate speed. “Maintain speed,” I ordered, and informed him how to lock the thrusters into position. Then I guided him through establishing a flight path to our first set of coordinates before having him send a communication to the control tower we had cleared the spaceport and were on route to our destination.

I unclipped Pandora’s leash and gave her permission to roam, and to my amusement, she went to the Veloc and began squeaking at him in her version of reassurance.

“I can’t tell if she’s telling me off or what,” Mystoran admitted.

“She’s trying to comfort you. She thinks you’re scared.”

“Oh, I am scared. Little Cousin is flying a spaceship, and we haven’t died yet.”

“We won’t be dying today. This is an easy flight. I’ll spare your nerves and handle the landing portion, as that requires a license he is not qualified to hold yet. The only reason he got away with an orbital escape launch is because I hold a higher license and am qualified to teach it. It’s also fairly basic and easy on this ship and in the conditions at the spaceport, which also help. I have enough hours in space as a captain to hold the top-level license.” I took over the co-captain’s seat and made myself comfortable. “Now you just get to adjust our flight path as we reach coordinate points and see where the spaceport is sending us out on our cruise. If they’re assholes, they’ll send us into an asteroid belt.”

“There are no asteroid belts close enough to reach in the time we’re allowed. Fortunately,” the Veloc reported. “But we’ll fly by his home world. It’s the farthest point in the flight path. I may have requested that on purpose.”

I chuckled. “It’s pretty close to the spaceport, then.”

“There’s a shiftgem gate.”

Damn it. I laughed at the ruthlessness of the control tower and the spaceport operators. “It’s your lucky day, Delta. You get to learn how to jump my ship. Oh, this will be fun.”

“Fun for you, maybe,” Delta muttered.

I laughed and nodded. “Fun for me. Don’t worry. You might have some fun, too. I’ll get you back to the spaceport safe and sound.”

* * *