As the cargo bay door sealed with a racket of clunks that reverberated through the small ship, Nack made sure the luggage for his passenger was strapped down against any sudden acceleration. Once the bay door was sealed Nack jogged up the ramp to the small bridge of the Osprey, shouting over his shoulder at Josie. “You’ll want to strap in up here in the second seat. We’re lifting in two minutes!”
Nack settled into the comfortable pilot’s seat and looked over the boards to make sure the auto-preflight check had gone as it should. Green lights across the board, everything was a-okay. Good thing, since if it wasn’t green he’d be stuck here longer, hiring a mechanic to figure out what the problem was.
The sound of the girl trying to manage the five point harness of the second seat got Nack’s attention. “Gorramit girl, we’re 90 seconds out, get buckled.”
“I’m trying! What is all this, who straps in like this on a ship anyway?” Her voice had gone up a full octave from the husky purr she’d used to sucker him into taking her as a passenger off these docks.
Nack spun in his chair and lunged at the second seat, startling the girl badly judging from the way her eyes went round and her head jerked back. Nack’s hands pulled straps and buckles from around her slender waist and jammed the rig into place tight around her, ignoring her protests as her breasts got more than a bit smushed and manhandled. Throwing himself back into the pilot’s seat just in time for its automatic strap system to wrap him up safely Nack heard the engines of the Osprey boom to life astern and the small ship started vibrating intensely.
Hands tapping out commands onto the boards, eyes focused on the readouts above, Nack muttered, “You’ll want to hold onto something and I sure hope you haven’t eaten anything in the last few hours”
“What? What did you saaayyyyyiEEIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!”
The courier ship leapt up off the landing pad; right on its launch window, not one second late or early. Blasting upwards and rotating to face nose to space, the Osprey was not a comfortable ride. G-forces pushed you down into your seat hard, rotated you around, dropped you a few hundred feet then drove you upwards hard again.
Nack was used to it; if he wanted a smooth ride he’d hire a real pilot. His passenger didn’t sound like she’d ever been on a ship quite like this though, judging from her screams of terror.
Barely audible over the roar of stupidly-overpowered engines and a young woman screaming in mortal fright right behind him, Nack heard the piping voice of his Blackburnian Leet, as always right on his shoulder.
“d00d, u suxxor!”
“Shaddup, Leetie…”
4 comments:
*nearly chokes on her coffee picturing this*
As a pilot, Nack's a really good bartender.
Which is to say, he can't hardly fly his boat at all, but thank god for automation! The best money can buy!
So what if it's a little... erratic. ;D
*snorts with laughter!!!* Josie has NO idea what she's gotten herself into. Granted, I don't think Nack does, either.
He is a Leaf to the Wind...if only that leaf were tied to a brick and punched through a window in the middle of a Sandstorm.
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