Men Among Giants

Part Two

Wilmer climbed the ramp and drove into the rear of the ship. Once the wheels securely locked into place and the hatch sealed us in, I remotely pressurized Destiny's cabin. After a few confirming chimes, we removed our helmets, exited the all-terrain vehicle and took our seats in the ship's cockpit.

When our engines fired, a jolt spread through the ship, followed by a calm smooth lift. The icy East River disappeared beneath us as our eye level rose above that of the tops of the tallest skyscrapers and revealed the city, once again, in its entirety. I entered the coordinates into the ship's navigation computer, and it then informed us the numbers pointed to a small village in the mountains of Colorado.

"The town is called Rockson, elevation 8,342 feet," I said as I studied the out-of-date satellite image. "It's near a massive forest."

"We'll be there soon enough," Stella said. "I'm gonna push her a little harder than I have. Destiny is past her break-in period."

We all felt the thrust from the fusion engines as their power shoved us back into our seats. In the blink of an eye, the eclectic man-made towers, Central Park's dark black abyss, the Hudson to our left and the frigid bodies that made up a bit of Manhattan's population whooshed by, leaving myself with a sick feeling in the pit of my gut, as if I'd never see her again.

Stella had a lot of experience moving at high velocity. Her voice cut through the silence. "The trick in this situation is to not overshoot the target by moving too fast. At these speeds, when the terrain is nothing but a blur, the slightest adjustment to your altitude can send you nose first into the dirt, rocks, water ..."

"Thank you, Stella. As if we weren't hanging on tight enough already," Fin said with a smirk.

I brought up the image our front exterior camera currently recorded. Our main windows showed us nothing but eerie black, so I tilted the camera to Saturn and zoomed in as far as I could. Seven small moons sat seemingly frozen, scattered at different ranges outside of the planet's majestic, vibrant ring system. My crew took notice as the monitor showed off Saturn's perfect sphere, with its atmosphere made up of hydrogen, ammonia ice and methane gas that shifted its colors, depending on the time of year. This night, yellows, browns and hints of blues flowed through its outer atmosphere, giving us one hell of a view.

"Seven groups of rings made up of thousands of smaller rings. The universe is a beautiful place once you zoom in," Fin remarked as he patted my shoulder from the back seat. "Although something about the size of a gas giant really creeps me out."

"Yeah," I agreed and laughed. "I remember when I was a kid, building up the nerve to jump into the deep end of the public pool, the one just off Jefferson," I said, as if my entire crew new my hometown. "A single jump can change your life. I thought that water would devour me." I glanced away from the deep black beyond our main windows, then turned in my seat to face my crew. "I felt like that same scared kid when we passed Jupiter."

Marty laughed and nodded in agreement.

I looked to our pilot, who hadn't taken her eyes off her instruments. "Gas giants are pretty, but, Stella, I'll do your laundry for a month if you can shift us a little farther away from Jupiter on the way home."

We all laughed, but it soon died out. The hum of the engines and the occasional high tone of the computer was all we could hear. Through my peripheral vision, I watched Stella as she cycled through her options on her heads-up display, changing its main color to white against the dark horizon. Her attentive posture kept my reservations about our speed at bay. She had a way about her when flying; it was a look in her eye that reminded all of us how she used to be a fighter pilot. She wore that stare like a badge of honor.