Once You Find You're In A Rocket

Just Breathe, Your Lungs Are Gonna Need It.

Ten clutched the grippers of the steering handle of the space shuttle with baited breaths, waiting for Nine to start directing her once more.

"Okay, so this steers the ship, as you already know, but this is going to be the first manual ship, most of them are automatic and take exactly to your destination, no problem, but I felt like people should start getting more attached to the craft." Nine pet the creation affectionately, "When you know how to make something move..to do it yourself, you establish a connection to it...You learn that you and that object are one, it won't look much like an object anymore..it becomes an extension of you."

Nine sighed, as if he had already established such a thing with the ship.

He probably did, knowing him.

Ten smiled, "I know, I used to have a horse when I was younger.."

"Oh?" Nine sat down next to her, starting up the hologram sequence so that Ten could start, "So you know the feeling then?"

"I know it well," Ten sighed, suddenly remembering where she was and needing to keep professional, "What do I do?"

"Well, this...does stuff..things like thrusters and all."

Ten stared at him incredulously, "..Are you serious?"

"I think so..or was that the brake?"

Ten leaned back and sighed, "Okay...so..do you actually know what you're doing?"

"Well, sorry. It's all muscle memory, I have no idea what anything is off sight."

Ten pressed her head to her hands, wondering why off all people she got paired up with such incompetence...

Well, she couldn't judge the others off of Nine alone, who knows?

Eight and Six actually seem like professionals in their line of work.

She wasn't even betting on Seven knowing which way was up.

"Do you want to sit here?"

"Yeah, that's probably a better idea." Nine shifted into the chair as Ten stood up, and it seemed as if a lightbulb went off, he clicked several buttons and flipped a switch, the rocket gave a deafening roar, in response, "There we go, you got all that?"

Ten nodded, "You're lucky I'm a visual learner or you'd have had a situation."

Nine shrugged in response, "Lucky indeed, good thing we don't have that. So, watch this next, because this does...you'll see."

The mechanic reached over to the main keypad and typed in several numbers, "Remember that code.."

Ten brought out her notebook, writing it down, "Does the rest of the crew know it?"

"Just me and you, I can't risk everyone having the ability to launch the rocket."

"True."

"Press these.." Nine leaned forwards and pushed another button, sitting back again, "Ever flew a plane?"

"Plenty."

"The rocket works exactly the same."

"But..wouldn't space..make everything work differently? Since there's no air resistance?"

"Yeah, I designed the rocket differently though, because when a plane flies, there are 4 forces acting on that plane. A plane would fly horizontally at a steady speed, and then lift from the wing's force that balances out the plane's weight force, the thrust balances out the drag force. But, during takeoff, the thrust force from the engines pushing the plane forward exceeds the drag force, also known as air resistance. Since there's none in space, I designed the rocket to account for those forces on its own. So it'll be just like Earth."