The engines of the ESS Argo roared to life. It’s mission, to uncover the truth about humanity’s past in the stars. Its destination, the Pandora system. Estimated travel time six months. Leena looked over André’s shoulder as he plotted their course on the navigation system.
“Six months?” She said, in disbelief. “We can move at light speed; it should take us a quarter of that.” She ripped his star chart from his hands “Why are we zig-zagging all over the place? Just go straight there, surely that’s faster?” André rolled his eyes and took the charts back from his captain. If the ripped jeans and ‘I love Deucalion’ T-shirt she had forced him to wear weren’t bad enough, now she was questioning his work too.
“Of course it would be faster.” He snapped. “But we’d also be dead.” He turned back to the nav system, plotting the next point on his wavy course. “We don’t have enough fuel to get there in one flight, so we have to stop and top up. And even if we did, our flight path passes directly through Apollo’s Arrow.” Leena raised an eyebrow.
“So?” Her tone worried André. She was either stupid, or entirely unconcerned for their wellbeing. Surely it wasn’t worth their lives to get there a few months faster.
“We can’t fly through the middle of a comet storm!” He yelled, irritated that he had to explain that to someone that was supposed to be his superior. “I’ve plotted the closest possible course, far enough out to avoid any of the asteroids, but we should still get a spectacular view, if you like that sort of thing.” He didn’t particularly care for it, but Leena seemed like the type to enjoy such frivolities. She smiled. It was the sort of smile that made André question his safety. A manic grin that sent a shiver down his spine. She sat down in the captain’s chair and flicked off the autopilot. “What are you doing?” A shudder of uncertainty rippled through his voice. Leena turned, still smiling, and deleted his route from the nav system.
“We’ll get a better view from the middle.” She said, and booted up the Hermes drive.
The ship jolted forwards, shaking the entire cabin. André was thrown back into the wall, bashing his head on the panelling before falling to the floor. “Strap in.” Leena chirped. The mocking sweetness of her voice grated on him, but he had no time to get angry. At light speed they would hit the comet storm in seconds. Apollo’s Arrow would rip them to shreds, and he would have the shortest Starfleet career in history. He struggled to his feet and reached out towards his captain.
“Stop!” He yelled, a hint of panic in his voice. Leena’s hand darted forward, slapping the drive switch. André flew forwards this time, landing at Leena’s feet.
“Brace yourself.” She giggled. Rage bubbled up inside him.
“You think this is funny?” His anger boiled over into a scream. Not an appropriate tone in which to address a superior, but he didn’t care anymore. “You could have killed us both…” André’s words faded as he stood. His breath was stolen by the sight out of the window. The view had been painted with the shimmering sliver and golden spray of twenty comet tails. A once black void now awash with colour and light.
“Welcome to Apollo’s Arrow.” A smug tone penetrated Leena’s voice. She was studying André’s face, lapping up any trace of awe or admiration to feed her ego. André caught his jaw before it hit the floor. He tore his eyes away from the window and rounded on his captain.
“I don’t know what you’re smiling for. If you hit that button a millisecond later, it was over. Everything, us, the mission, your precious baby spaceship, all of it.” She frowned.
“But I didn’t, and we’re all still here. No harm done.” There was a definite finality in her voice. Her tone demanded silence, and her scowl warned him not to question her judgement any further. He hesitated, uncomfortably aware of how close the nearest airlock was. Her flying was impressive, but there was still one problem that he needed an answer to.
“Okay.” He grimaced slightly, expecting the worst. “But what now?” A quizzical expression formed across Leena’s face, as if she didn’t understand the question. André paused. If there was an obvious solution, he couldn’t see it. “I can’t navigate through that, and now we’re too close to go around. So, what do we do?” Leena’s grin returned. Obviously, he had asked the right question. She took hold of the manual flight controls and looped into a wide barrel roll. André’s balance was broken once more, and he toppled to the floor. Apparently smooth, comfortable flying would not be a part of this trip.
“Now.” The captain could hardly contain her excitement. “We hitch a lift.” The ESS Argo swooped through fields of comet dust, homing in on one of the larger. asteroids. André braced for impact as Leena picked her way between the smaller rocks. Death never came. The ship twisted and dived around each comet, dancing in an elegant ballet, and throwing its crew around inside the bridge. André had never been sea sick in space before. His captain was proving that the cosmos could be far choppier than any sea.
“We’re hitching a ride on a comet?” He spoke through his hands, trying to hold back the vomit that threatened to escape at any second. Leena nodded, and threw the Argo into one final loop, before touching delicately down on the stony surface of the central rock in Apollo’s Arrow.
“This way we save time and fuel.” She beamed. “The faster we get there, the more time we have to explore.”