"This is the Alacritous Regress of NASA requesting permission to land at Nike central space port."
"Ships ID confirmed, please proceed to landing pad two." Quick turns off the comm panel and starts strapping into her rig. The rest of us are already strapped in, ready for the decent down to the planet's surface below.
"Well, that AI was a lot kinder than the ones we normally have to deal with," Quick glares up at the intercom speaker as she says this, despite the fact that Al's cameras are on the opposite side of the room.
"It wasn't being kind," Al informs her, "That was a dumb AI and is incapable of thinking for itself and being creative."
"And I assume you're different?"
"I'm a smart AI, we can be creative and have feelings, which by the way, you just hurt."
"Sorry, you want a hug?"
"Knock it off you two, we have a ship to land." The names Shooting Star, I'm the captain of the Alacritous Regress, the cr__iest ship in NASA's fleet. Being a captain, even of a ship like this comes with advantages. One of these advantages is that I can perform weddings. "Arron, drop us out of orbit."
"My pleasure captain." The ship's massive engines power up as the fuel synthesizers kick into gear and our orbital speed is slowed to a standstill.
We're coming to my sister's and my home world of Nike for her wedding. It's going to be a big event with plenty of members of our family there.
"Course set for landing," Arron declares, "It's all automated till we hit air. No satellites to dodge, no holding patterns, nothing bigger than a drone in the city's airspace. The place is practically deserted. What do you do here on Nike?"
I think back to my childhood. "Mostly it's an agricultural planet, almost completely self sustaining. The planets number one import is information, number one export is information."
The view outside the cockpit starts turning from black to a dark blue. "That sound quaint," Kyle speaks up from the back, "No reliance on other planets, no necessary imports or exports. Sounds nice. I grew up on Mars where we have complete reliance on mineral exports and carbon imports. It would be nice to not have to rely on other planets for your very survival."
"Yeah, but its hell trying to get off planet," Tail speaks up, "On average two ships come a year. One to deliver and pickup data, and a NASA ship to run some routine inspections." She sighs, "Me and Shooting got a ride on a NASA ship after graduating."
The light outside becomes a lighter blue. "So we're almost doubling the number of ships this year?" Blue asks.
"Doubling," Rivan nods, "My relatives come too. They use aunt's yacht to meet us here." Tail's face take on a look of terror that she tries her best to hide. She has know that they would be coming, but each time she hears it, she has the same reaction. Personally, I have no idea why she fears meeting Rivan's family. Rivan meeting our family, now that is something to fear.
Our decent starts to slow as the ship's wings catch the air. "Does that yacht happen to be a Pegasus 9 patrol shuttle with a NASA logo painted on it?" Arron asks with a grin, being certain that he already knew the answer.
"No, it a VL 8 as said in your language. Large space craft with rounded box wings and lots of glass. Looks nothing like a PS-9," She tells him. "Why you ask?"
"Because our scopes picked up a ship at landing pad one, a NASA Pegasus 9 shuttle."
"Latest images show its name to be White Lion. Ring any bells."
STAI LEGGENDO
Journey of the Alacritous Regress Volume 1: The Dead Canary
FantascienzaThere's the best of the best, and then there's the worst of the worst. The Alacritous Regress and its crew are the most expendable ship in NASA's fleet, and their missions reflect it. As they rush head first into danger only one thing is clear, thin...
