It is after dark. Mor has donned her pants and begun stowing supplies in their places, letting Breen sleep in the meantime. Turning the cabin lights on, Mor starts to check fasteners on doors and such. Breen awakes and watches her move about the cabin. Mor spies him spying on herβ¦
"Well, pilot, so good to have you back." Again, she flashes that smile.
"Well, it's nice to be back. Dark out?"
"Yes. It has been for some time. Are you ready to fly us out of here?"
"Well, I've never been readier." Sitting up and stretching, I was actually very apprehensive about the whole flying thing. I had flown before, but this ship was much more advanced than what I was used to.
"Do you know anything about the controls that could save us some time?" I was trying to put it delicately, hoping she wouldn't think I was an ignorant fool, trying not to lose face. By the way, if you haven't figured it by now, that's exactly what I was: a fool.
"I was never allowed to witness Mol Dett operating the controls. I was kept bound and hooded during all travel. This will be the first time I will get to sit at the console during flight."
"Shit."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing."
"You said 'shit'."
"I said 'shit'?"
"You said 'shit'."
"I said 'shit'." To be honest, I couldn't successfully lie to a tree.
"Why did you say 'shit'?"
"Mor," sigh, "I have flown before, but this thing is way different from anything I've ever seen before. I'm not sure I can fly it. I'm afraid I don't know what I'm doing. Are you mad?"
"Breen, being angry won't get us out of here. We will carefully figure out how to get this ship off the ground and we will travel south." Smiling her reassurance, she continued with hatches.
Ok, you big goon, I told myself as I sat at the main control console, you're going to get smart on flying this thing, and you're going to do it fast.
A lot of the symbols were foreign to me, but some were familiar. With time, and Mor's encouragement, we got the bird up above the trees and headed in a southern direction. We were doing quite well and I was feeling much more comfortable with the controls. After a couple of hours, I began a little experimentation with the controls. Things were going quite well. Mor mentioned that we were doing just fine and that experimentation might get us into trouble. I passed it off. I flipped a little blue switch. Both of our heads snapped back as the ship kicked into super speed. I don't know how fast it was, but it was fast. After a minute or five, the ship reached top speed and I made my way back to the console and flipped the switch the other way. The impact of my face on the console was excruciating, though I made sure to see if Mor had seen me hit before I winced and tried to suck up the pain. She hadn't seen it, but she didn't need to.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." I whined as I poorly attempted to regain my composure.
"Are you all right?" She asked, concerned, and, I noticed, fully recomposed.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine." I lied poorly.
"Breen?"
"Yeah?"
"No more buttons."
"No more buttons. Right. Do you have any idea where we are?"
"No. Let us slow down and find us a place to spend the day. While we are doing that, I will check the maps and try to figure out where we ended up. And let me just say no buttons, I'm unbuckling and do not wish to die bouncing around inside this ship." She quickly unbuckled, grabbed the maps, sat down and buckled up. There was obviously a little doubt in my abilities now.
An hour or so later, we recognized a peninsula and group of islands matching one of the maps and decided to camp on the most remote. And, I might proudly add, our approach and landing were eventless but for the slightly hard impact of the actual landing.