Space Corps - Explorer (Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

properly?”
    “Come on, are you trying to say you don’t trust my work?”
    Robert shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s just that I’ve never piloted a ship with that kind of engine before. All I really have to go on is what the manual says it will do. I just want to make sure you think they got everything right.”
    “You don’t have to worry.”
    “But you know I will.”
    “Yeah, but I promise I double checked every piece of that engine yesterday. Everything’s exactly like it’s supposed to be.”
    Robert forced a smile.
    “Besides,” Ashley said, “if I didn’t think it was completely safe, I wouldn’t let the ship take off. You know me well enough to know that. I’m just as excited as you are, but we have to get some sleep.”
     
    “Test vessel X-759, have you completed pre-flight checks?”
    Ashley took one last look over a checklist before securing it under a piece of Velcro.
    “That’s affirmative, Command,” Ashley responded into her radio.
    “Test vessel, please begin the ignition sequence as we remove the docking clamps.”
    It took several minutes for Ashley to run through the series of buttons she had to push to prepare the engines. To her delight, she didn’t hear a single unexpected noise as the engines began winding up.
    “Alright then, Robert. It’s ready to go.”
    Robert smiled. He couldn’t contain his excitement over flying something no one else had ever flown.
    Robert said, “Command, engines are prepared. Please confirm that the docking clamps have been fully removed.”
    “It’s confirmed. Docking clamps are removed.”
    “Glad to hear it. Requesting permission to depart.”
    The voice on the other end of the radio changed to that of the former Administrator of NASA. “Test vessel, you have permission to depart. Have a safe journey.”
    When the transmission ended, Robert hit a series of buttons that fired off a few thrusters. They pushed the test vessel to a safe distance away from the station before thrusters on the other side of the ship brought it to a stop.
    “Are you ready for this?” Robert asked.
    Ashley couldn’t say anything, but didn’t need to. She double-checked the harness that held her to her seat before gripping the arms of the chair.
    “We’ll start this off slow,” Robert said as he carefully pulled a lever toward him.
    Robert pulled the lever and a whooshing noise filled the tiny vessel as the engine slowly started pulsing. The more he pulled the lever, the faster the engine pulsed, and the faster the noise went. The ship jolted as it moved forward.
    On several screens in front of her, Ashley watched as data came through about the status of the engine. So far, so good.
    “Ashley, we’re coming up on twenty percent of top speed.”
    “Alright, everything’s looking good. Feel free to go faster if you want.”
    “You know I do.”
    Robert pulled the lever farther back and watched as the ship sped up to fifty percent of top speed.
    Leaning forward, Ashley strained to see the moon on her left as they passed it.
    “Can you believe it?” Robert asked. “It took Apollo Eleven three days to get as far as we are.”
    “And we just did it in three minutes.”
    Robert tried to catch a glimpse of the monitors in front of Ashley.
    “How are we looking so far?”
    “Great,” Ashley replied. “Want to take it up to top speed?”
    “You know I do.”
    The ship pushed forward at speeds never before seen by mankind, but they hardly felt it inside the cockpit. With the emptiness of space around them, Ashley and Robert could hardly tell they were moving at all. The only indication they had was the steady whooshing noise of the engine.
    “Command to test vessel, please come in.”
    As if broken out of a trance, Robert jumped before grabbing the radio.
    “Command, this is test vessel, go ahead.”
    “Excellent flight today. Come on home. We’ll see you back in Houston soon.”
     
    When the vessel landed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston,