* * * *
“Space…” Sofie whispered. Her elbows rested on the sill of the front window; her chin cupped in her hands. Jessie who had taken the same position next to her, nodded in response. The Earth had just disappeared beneath them and they were now staring ahead at the moon. “It's all so beautiful, so full of color. I always thought everything would look dull from space.”
“How long will it take to get there?” Jessie turned to Jade, afraid to talk to Leland who’d been looking pretty grumpy.
“A normal spaceship would take about 3 days... due to fuel limitations, and by how much acceleration the passengers can handle.” Jade answered. “But since we have inertial dampening and… ah, well, fuel’s not an issue, we’ll be getting there in about 4 hours.”
“So just how fast are we going?” Sofie looked up at one of the monitors showing the Earth falling away.
“We're accelerating to a final speed of about 60,000 miles per hour; which will take about 20 minutes.” Leland answered attempting to be sociable. He was going to enjoy this historic flight, and he wasn’t going to let a couple of kids ruin it for him. “Theoretically, we could make it in half the time, but we’ve never pushed the ship that hard in any of our test flights, so we’re playing it a little safe today.”
“Hey!” Jessie and Sofie yelped in unison as they began floating.
“I thought we had artificial gravity!” There was a slight hysteric edge in Sofie’s voice.
Jessie began bouncing around the cabin like a tennis ball.
“We only turn the gravity on when we use the bathroom or eat. We prefer flying to walking any day.” Phyllis unbuckled and attempted to round up Jessie… to keep her from destroying the bridge.
“Why do we need gravity to eat?” Jessie asked as she easily bounced away from Phyllis’s grab at her ankle.
“No reason, we just found it more comfortable. You would just need to drink from the squirt bottles. We’ve got a great selection of snacks and meals. Why don’t you check them out?” Leland’s quick thinking was a success as Jessie shot out the rear door to the galley. Sofie tentatively drifted after.
Chapter 9 ~ Calling Home
Alec's Dream Page 23