The Quest of Qarukkin Minninsha

The trip to Bel'Hratha is probably the most dangerous part of the expedition, Qarukkin thought as the ship began to shake violently. The quest will be a piece of cake.

As the fuel components entered the combustion chamber, the resultant explosion of hot gasses, blasting their heat against the base of the launch pad, caused tremors in the ground that could be felt for miles. The ship itself throbbed and pulsed so hard it felt to Qarukkin as if it would split open and dump him and the rest of the crew out and onto the pad.

When the ship began its rise into the atmosphere, the shaking was almost unbearable. There was a bit of too and fro as the massive missile found its center and began the serious business of accelerating against the forceful pull of the planet.

Damn! This had better be the hard part, he thought as the ship surged upwards while his body's inertia tried to bury him in the cushions of his flight bench. The immense pressure on his chest and abdomen, combined with the violent shaking of his head inside his helmet, worked together to convince him that he wasn't going to survive lift off.

However, after what seemed an eternity, the acceleration became bearable and he realized that the shuddering of the capsule had subsided to imperceptible. Alarukkin's helmet turned in his chair to face Qarukkin as his voice came over the helmet speakers.

"Wild ride, eh Qaruk?" Alarukkin shouted, not thinking that he didn't need to shout over the sound of the engines. "Hope the rest of the trip is this exciting!"

"Yeah. Wild Alar'k," Qarukkin replied, shakily. "Qarullin, how are you holding up?

Qarukkin rolled his head to the left, forcing his helmet to roll a bit as well, until he could see his big sister. She struggled a bit, but managed to get her helmet visor to face her brother.

"I'm good," She said brightly. " Alar'k is right. That was a crazy, wild ride."

She turned back to the panel in front of her, reaching out to adjust the display.

"Looks like we're just about out of the last of the atmo. We should be experiencing micro-gravity any minute now."

"ALL RIGHT!" Alarukkin shouted, again, too loud for the comms. "On to Bel'Hratha!"

"Qaruk, do you think you can quiet your friend down?" Qarullin said calmly as she worked with the control panel in front of her. "I need to confirm our position with Flight Control and make sure our course is laid in properly. A little quiet would go a long way."

"No need Qaruk," Alarukkin replied with greatly reduced volume. "Message received, loud and clear!"

"You two are going to be so much fun on this trip." Qarullin muttered softly as she hailed Flight Control.

Albecron Zet, please confirm your coordinates and prepare to receive course computations. The synth-voice of the Flight Command Computer rang out in all of their headsets. A moment later, the ship's navigation system began downloading the course details from the Flight Command computer.

"Course received and set." Qarullin announced to both her shipmates and Flight Command. "Awaiting approval to leave orbit."

Albecron Zet, flight plan load confirmed. Prepare to leave orbit in 32 seconds... 31...30...29... The Flight Command system continued its countdown to the anticipated outcome.

"And we're off, boys!" Qarullin shouted gleefully as the countdown reached zero, and the newly laid course was initiated.

The attitude thrusters fired, angling the craft away from the planet, pointing its bow at deep space. As the ship approached the launch point, the main thrusters blasted their flaming exhaust, pushing the enormous ship away from the minuscule pull of the planet, and into the relative void of space.