Bracing Hope

Tanya interlocked her fingers, knuckles whitening. Her mom and the other passengers were strapped down beside her. They were all silent, with eyes looking at something beyond their reach. Maybe loved ones that they might never see again. 

"There. Take us close to the big one," the captain said from his command station. "Full burn."

From the back of the bridge-section she didn't see much of what was going on, but Captain Hendriks seemed calm as a breeze. Under the whining alarms, he and the pilots were having the most serene conversation. 

"Brake right on six. Five G, starboard aft."

"Copy," the pilot replied.

The proximity alert intensified sharply. Tanya remembered that sound from her light-craft courses, chiming every time she was about to scrape the docking bay.

"Brake right! Brake right!"

The crew around her were yanked in their grav-seats. Fear itself crawled up Tanya's spine making the hair on her neck want to leap out. The straps and clamps tugged and pulled on her as gravity violently shifted.

"Incoming! CM deployed."

The whole bridge shook, revealing how the floor and wall panels were all hinging on their own dampeners separated from the hull. The main support structure squealed and small rocks and debris rained on the outer hull. Tanya could swear she felt the heat of the blast. But it was only her mind adding the last details to complete the experience. 

"Yeeha!" the pilot burst out.

The pattern repeated endlessly it seemed to Tanya. The hard braking, shifting of gravity and the full burn, and the steady stream of commands from the Captain. She started noticing the rhythm of the various warning lights. The pulsation synchronizing for a brief period and then slowly receding into disharmony, and then back into sync.

"Dammit these rats are clingy." The calm in the pilot's voice was fading.

“We’re doing a Flip Tail on the next turn,” the captain said, irritation edging his voice. “PM charges on both quarters. Dyllan, flip us on a dime and prep for a hard retro burn.”

"Copy that!"

"I want her dead steady sailing aft after that. Enough to get some rounds off with the railgun. And that will be your job, gunny."

"My pleasure, cap," the copilot, or otherwise 'gunny', answered with delight in her voice.

The captain interfaced the holo-displays with the grace of an artist painting on canvas. "Alright. Hang on to your privates. This might hurt."

It started familiar with the same jerk in the seat as before. She heard a faint clank coming at the back of the ship from the charges dislodging from the tubes. And then Tanya was kicked in her chest by Mr. Gravity. Her grav-seat whirled around to compensate and the magnetic charge crackled around her. 

And then release.

She turned to check on her mother who was already leaning towards her with the same intentions. "You OK, honey?" she said.

Tanya couldn't make herself speak so she only nodded back with a short lived smile. But it was enough. Her mother got what she needed, and Tanya got hers: the affirmation in her mother's eyes that everything will be alright.

An orange flash lit up the cockpit and pulled her attention back to the world.

"Hell yeah!" the copilot yelled from her seat. Tanya could only see her arm punching the air above her pilot station. "That's one, cap. The other one got through the charges."

"Fire at will, gunny."

Rapid thuds sounded from below the deck. For several seconds, volley after volley spun out of the railguns on the hull underneath the bridge housing. Flickering blue lights gleamed through the windows. 

"Attention on the rear, Dyllan," the captain said when the proximity alarm started howling.

"Just one more second. I almost got this sucker," the copilot uttered through her teeth. 

"Um, cap?" Dyllan cut in while the proximity alarm intensified. "Remember that beer can you squashed back on the station?"

Tanya pulled herself back into the seat and braced herself.

"Gunny!" the captain said. It was almost a question. His calm tone had started giving way to anxiety.

"Die you sonuvabitch!" the copilot wailed.

A burst of yellow and orange light trickled through the cockpit and back to the terrified passengers.

"Full aft burn!" the captain barked from his throne-like seat.

And then Tanya got what she had prepared for. This was worse than the last one. The air in her lungs puffed out of her. All her weight, multiplied several times over, pressed on her spine. The grav-seat worked overtime, hissing on a high tune as debris rained on the hull outside.

For less than a second her world inverted. The reasons for being here crushed by forces of gravity. Regret. Longing. Confusion. Emotions pulled inside-out. Was this how she really felt about coming here?

As the thrust subsided she found back to herself. Waking up and forgetting the dream.

"Clear!" Dyllan shouted.

"Damn fine shootin', gunny!" the captain said and then popped his head around the seat and looked completely unaffected by the whole event. "You guys alright? We're a little behind schedule. But we'll get you there in good time."

The passenger compartment filled with sighs of relief.

Tanya closed her eyes. Her mother held her hand.

***