Let Me See You Shake

Posted on Sun Mar 28th, 2021 @ 10:24am by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss & Chloe Waltz PhD

Mission: Back in Black
Location: Santo to the Black
Timeline: Day 24 - 15:00hrs

If there was one thing that made Alden Loxley simultaneously celebrate and panic a little, it was taking his and Alison's fiesty little ship from ground to atmo and up out into the Black. Every time seemed to give a new rattle, shimmy or whining sound that hadn't been there before. Every upward journey had its own pleasures and pains.

This time though, as he took his seat next to his favourite pilot and fastened his belt, Alden was confident the old girl would hold together. Said old girl being the Echo, of course. And the reason for the captain's high hopes this time was down in the engine room, meticulously seeing to every detail. Not that Noah hadn't done a bang-up job, but because the new pair of eyes on top of Noah's prior expertise had to have covered all the kinks, right?

"Ready when you are," he said, and grinned in expectation of some pithy comeback.

"I was born ready." Alison gave Alden a playful grin and flipped few switches, making sure that the ship is locked and pressurized, the power flow is within optimal levels. Seeing the board lit up green, the blonde pulled on the steering. Gently, the Echo rose in the air, danced on the spot like a horse happy to go into gallop. Sighting with a bliss, Alison closed her eyes briefly. Her hands were on the cockpit feeling the vessel. "Heading for orbit." She added. Opening her eyes, Alison opened the throttle, making the freighter quickly increasing the speed, though doings so gradually so the internal dampeners easily compensated for that.

Chloe hummed in the engine room. This, here, was one of the places she was happier. First off, she was alone. She liked that. People were complicated. Old Firefly class engines were not. Second off, she was in her realm of expertise here, and Chloe's expertise and knowledge was the one thing carrying her along in this strange lot she pulled for her life. The small woman didn't have to do much more than watch, turn a few dials for optimization. When she had taken over from Noah, parts of the engine were running manually, with a user required to babysit them. Chloe didn't have the patience for that, not after being used to ships like the Legerity. So she had fixed it. Simple as that. It wasn't going to win any races or beauty contests, but now at least Chloe could simply breathe in and watch while they were taking off, instead of worrying about it all.

He felt it, that go in their ship as she rared to leave the confines of atmo and gravity and reach up into the stars. He felt that need ironically echoed in himself too, that fire to be gone from Santo and leave all that land-locked baggage behind for a while. A mission, a client, a plan. And a ship full of folks along for the ride. Companions, expected and not so much, including one with that very vocation. Nine days together on this little flying truck.

"Let's do this," he responded to Alison, knowing she didn't really need his permission despite her self-demotion.

Unlike Ali, Alden didn't close his eyes even for a second. He wanted to see everything, take in every detail. The clouds, the burn, the sense of freedom instilled deeply in his very marrow as they left the pretty blue layer of atmo behind then. Everything. "Everything okay, Chloe?" He called down the intercom to the engine room out of a fraternal need to connect with the quiet person on the other end of this exodus.

"Everything is okay enough," the engineer said, leaning back in a metal chair that she had dragged into the engine room and tied to the wall. "The engine is working smoothly. A bit out of the ideal efficiency range... but I suppose we aren't working on a laboratory setting. Well within the expected values of a ship its age." The woman's definition of "okay" was a bit more strict than "would the ship get from point A to point B with no issues". "Is everything okay up there?" The woman asked back.

"Perfect." Alison replied enjoying every moment, not just with her eyes but also feeling with her being. Flying had this magical charm for her that only few things could compare to. She glanced at Alden and smiled satisfied. "We are about to reach orbit, so I am going to kick off the pulse drive." She said while the atmospheric drag became almost negligible, making the ship fly smoother. Entering the Ghost's coordinates and using instruments to align the course of Fortune's Echo, Alison added. "Are we ready for the pulse, Chloe?"

"We're ready," Chloe responded, hitting many buttons around the engine - though none of which included the intercom, so she was effectively talking to herself.

Alden was envious, and he didn't bother to even try to hide those mixed emotions from his face. Take-off and landing, the fun challenges of flying, and he'd really not done that much of either lately. Ali was having all the quality Echo time, he was... well screwing everything up. He leant back in the co-pilot seat and stared out the cockpit's main window, silently wishing time away until his next chance to fly in atmo.

"You got this, girl," he said, giving the Firefly's console a comforting pat with the palm of his right hand. "You got this.."

"Oh," Chloe said, only realizing then that she hadn't spoken to the rest of the ship. Back on her old ship they had fancy devices to automatically pick up when she was speaking over the environmental noise. But they weren't on her old ship... she'd be without luxury for a long time yet. "Yes," she clicked the intercom, talking to Alison. "We're ready."

With clear signal from Chloe, Alison reached for the button engaging the pulse drive and flipped it. With a gleeful smile, she watched the black outside change as the ship accelerated. There was something magic about flying and Alison was hooked on it for a long time. "Well, looks like we are keeping you around Chloe. You know how to handle a girl..." Alison said licking her lips hungrily. "I might go down there and learn from you."

Okay, well now that was just unfairly distracting, Alden considered as he read the inevitably other meaning into Ali's sentiment. It wouldn't be the first time his friend and partner-in-crime had handled a girl, and that imagery flooded his mind for a moment.

"Fly first," he said, quietly but firmly. "Then the learning."

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