Horizons
Page 22
Joe looked at Rhea and winked. Was he nervous? Fuck yes he was nervous, but he’d never let them see him sweat.
Prure rubbed his chin, “Where were we?” he looked down and saw that everyone had their pills out of their wrappers and ready. “Right. Now, before you put the tablet in your mouth, just know that there might be some discomfort, but it is highly unlikely that it’ll come from the pill. This being your first jump, you’ll probably feel a little woozy, so there are bags located in a dispenser on the wall near the food machines in case your stomachs need to relieve themselves.” He smiled and clapped his hands together. “Right. No water required here. Just place the tablet in the centre of your tongues, and let the nanobots do the rest.”
Rhea gave Joe a concerned look and reached out to him. He gave her a final wink. “Bottoms up!” He yelled, the old soldier coming out, and tossed the tablet into his mouth, and was met with an immediate sensation of what felt like a billion tiny pricks running down his throat, and a second later the feeling was gone.
Prure looked over the group, then moved down the row collecting the plastic wrappers. “If you are curious, your windpipes have now had their pain receptors turned off, via chemical injection, and now the nanobots are going about building a filter that will allow you to breath A-1 air. And that is my cue to leave. In the event of a medical emergency, just shout for a medic. There is a fully capable medical drone at the rear of the compartment if you feel unwell, and one of my team or I can be suited up and in here in a few moments time in an emergency.” Prure moved towards the door. “This room will very slowly convert to A-1, and hopefully you shouldn’t notice a thing. The next time I see you, we’ll be 1500 light years away.” He laughed and closed the door behind himself.
Joe closed his eyes and listen to the chatter that was being piped through from the bridge. “Epsilon, please proceed to jump-box and prep for departure to Mechcharga.” The voice sounded mechanical and unknown to Joe.
As he sat there, he felt a hand run down his left arm. Opening his eyes, he spotted Rhea, gently stroking his jacket. “Once upon a time, sailors must have wondered what lay beyond the horizon. Thinking the world was flat. Fearing that they’d fall off into oblivion. Up until now, our horizons have been our planet, our tiny little corner of the universe. This is something new. We’re going to a place that was once the stuff of fairy tales and mystical dreams. We’re going beyond the horizon, out into the darkness of space.”
A voice came back over the speakers. “Jumping in ten, nine.”
“This is it, Joe.” She squeezed his hand, a single tear running down the side of her cheek. “And I’m glad I’m sharing it with you.”
He squeezed her hand back and slowed his breathing. He wasn’t sure if he had told her that he hated flying, but something about that moment, on the verge of doing something no one in the history of mankind had done before, he felt a sense of ease tangled with excitement. Part of the reason he had joined the army was to get away from the small corner of America where he had grown up, and in the years since he had commissioned, he had seen parts of the world that his old buddies from high school could only read about.
“Joe,”
He looked back to his left. Rhea looked as beautiful as the first day he saw her sitting by the rooftop pool in Lima the previous summer. It had only been half a year, but Joe knew that he had found the one woman who was his equal, and who he could spend the rest of his life with.
“I love you.” There was a tenderness in her voice. She looked to Joe like she was overcome with emotion. Emotion for the magnitude of what they were about to embark on, and perhaps she was also coming to realise what the brash, rough around the edges, Army officer she was sitting next to meant to her.
“Jumping!” The notice came quick and sharply over the ship's intercom.
Joe knew that there would be a delay of a millisecond before the ship jumped and he used it to lean closer to Rhea and place his lips on hers, giving her a gentle kiss before pulling away and giving her one of his cheeky winks. Staring at the woman he loved, Joe tried to think of one of his classic one-liners to deliver, but before he could the Epsilon vanished from Earth’s view into subspace and rocketed across 1500 light-years in the same time, it took for his heart to beat. They were hurtled across the cosmos, past hundreds of planets, dozens of systems, and deep into Alliance territory. They were racing into the future and over the horizon.
To be continued................