"Vertically," Kiel responded as he entered the bridge again.
Danielle whipped a sharp look at him. Fighters couldn't launch vertically-at least hers hadn't been capable of it before … which meant she also didn't have any experience launching that way. "Alrighty then. Straight up, Gertrude."
She heard a loud mechanical noise above the craft and the scraping sound of metal. Looking up, she discovered that there was a view port above her and that a section of the building's roof was slowly sliding away.
Obviously, they didn't let grass grow under their feet when they had a project to complete! They'd built the hanger from the ground up in less than a month and completely remodeled and reassembled her ship in the same time.
It actually didn't inspire a lot of confidence in their work, Danielle thought uneasily, feeling her stomach sink as the ship began to rise slowly from the floor. It relieved her a good bit that the rise was a smooth, vertical climb. She couldn't detect even a hint of a shimmy, a rattle, or a wobble.
She glanced at Kiel. "You may want to take a seat and strap in."
Surprise flickered across his features, but he looked around and moved to the only vacant chair on the bridge, the jump seat. While she was securing herself, Danielle heard the rustle and metallic click as the men behind her fastened their safety harnesses.
Take offs and landings had always been the most nerve wracking part of piloting to Danielle and she felt her belly tying itself in knots. Actually, she amended as she took the ship out, any flight within a gravitational field unnerved her. Once she was beyond the pull of a planet, she was good. There was nothing to hit and nowhere to fall. It made it all the more nerve wracking that the ship was not at all like the one she was used to piloting and untested. As she took it through its paces, however, and it performed beautifully with each maneuver, she began to relax very quickly and enjoy the feel of the power beneath her fingertips.
For a while, the realization that it was very unlikely that there was another Federation ship to compare to it filled her with pleasure and excitement. Slowly, it came to her that that wasn't necessarily a good thing. If they did really mean to ally themselves with the Federation, it was great. If they decided against it at any point, the ship and the others like it would be just one more nail in their coffins.
"Very good," she said finally, trying to moderate her praise of the ship's performance as she turned to look at the men.
One look at their faces was enough to assure her that they weren't nearly as enchanted with the ship's performance as she was. They were all pale and their expressions strained. Amusement flickered through her when it dawned on her that this was the first time they'd ever flown inside anything. Apparently, it was a lot more disturbing to them than using their wings!
"Ready to take it out for a real test?" she asked Kiel.
"This is not a real test?" he croaked through stiff lips.
Danielle bit her lip and looked away. "Well, it came through the first tests with flying colors. We need to take it into space, though, and then re-entry to be sure everything is working properly."
"Then do it," Baen growled, his tone indicating he was bracing himself for torture.
"Kiel? Jalen?"
"Yes," Jalen replied weakly.
"If it must be done …." Kiel agreed, sounding a little nauseated.
"You heard them Gertrude! Kick it in the ass!" Danielle said cheerfully, struggling with a mixture of amusement, a mean streak she hadn't realized she had, and sudden inspiration.
She's forgotten all about her enjoyment in tormenting them by the time the ship threw off the chains of gravity and shot off into space, partly because of her own discomfort and partly because the ship, once again, had performed with excellence. Focused now on serious testing, she accelerated until they flew past the planet's nearest natural satellite, whipped around it and dove toward the planet again, punching through the atmosphere in a freefall before she pulled up and headed out again.
The second time they hit space, the men threw off their harnesses and stampeded off the bridge, jockeying for first position to lead the way. By the time Danielle was able to throw off her surprise and figure out how to release her seat to swivel, she discovered Kiel had disappeared and Baen and Jalen were fighting to get through the same door at the same time.
"Artificial gravity on," she commanded Gertrude.
She honestly hadn't thought beyond the fact that they were going to be puking all over the place without gravity to direct it, but the sudden engagement slammed both of them into the floor. They didn't bother to get up, or maybe they weren't able at the moment? The sound of puking in treble reached her. Her stomach rolled in sympathy, banishing the last of her amusement.
"You guys alright?" she asked when the sounds finally stopped.
The sound of running water greeted her.
"Uh oh. Little accident."
Kiel finally staggered back onto the bridge, collapsed in the chair he'd occupied before and grappled with his harness. Danielle flicked a sympathetic glance in his direction, but he was clearly too miserable to notice. Feeling like a complete asshole, she focused on Gertrude's readouts on the ship's performance until she heard Baen and Jalen return and settle in their seats.
"You know," she said slowly. "You guys don't actually have to go with me. I could contact your home world and deliver any message you wanted to give them."
* * * *
Danielle had a bad feeling as Kiel, Baen, and Jalen escorted her from the hanger back to her habitat in the city. None of them had said much the entire time she was testing the ship. They hadn't even acted particularly pissed off.
Of course that might have been because even after they'd emptied their stomachs they were still having problems adjusting to the weightlessness of space. They might have been simmering with resentment the entire time, but they hadn't seemed to be.
"What the fuck was that?" Kiel growled the moment they were alone in the habitat again.
Danielle blinked at him. "I'm not sure what you mean," she responded a little weakly.
"The aerial acrobatics," Baen snarled.
Fear, indignation, and guilt moved over Danielle in hot and cold waves. "I wasn't just fucking around to scare the piss out of you guys!" she exclaimed hotly-lie, lie, lie. "Those were necessary stress tests!"
"Ours or the ship?" Jalen demanded indignantly.
Danielle chewed her lower lip. "Look, I wasn't thinking about the fact that none of you had been in a ship before-really!" Lie, lie, lie. "And I certainly didn't do it just to … scare you or anything. That's the way we test the ships. They have to be able to perform maneuvers like that sometimes and it's better to know ahead of time if they can do it or not."
She discovered they were all studying her in patent disbelief.
"If this is the truth, then why suggest that we stay and allow you to take the ship?" Kiel asked in a low growl.
"Uh … Well, I saw you guys weren't handling the G's to zero very well. Everybody doesn't. What I mean I mean to say is, it isn't easy for anybody. We're built for gravity and the lack of it screws up our internal systems, but some people handle it better than others. At the very least it's something you have to get used to.
"I had to be sure the ship could handle whatever we might encounter! Believe me, this is something you want to know before you leave the planet behind!"
The men all exchanged a speaking glance and Danielle held her breath. Finally, to her relief, they seemed to relax. "We will leave tomorrow," Kiel said finally, his jaw tight with either anger or reluctance, possibly both. "Gather your belongings."
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The Forgotten Six Page 4