Suddenly the ship lurched as Bert changed gears and sent them into a side-slip. “Bert! Why are we drifting?! There aren’t any corners in space!” Ben exclaimed as he held on to his nav console. “Ah! But we’re passing close to a planet so I can use the gravitational pull to slingshot us around the other side and save us some fuel!” Bert gleefully replied. Ben knew the manoeuvre. It had been first performed by some really ancient space travellers trying to catch up to a giant meteoroid that was headed to their home planet. Apparently, it worked.
The ship groaned as the metal plates strained against their bolts and then suddenly, Bert floored the accelerator for a short burst of fuel and they were through. The noise dropped to a hum as the ship drifted out of the planet’s gravitational pull at high speed.
The Nav computer beeped and Ben saw that they would arrive at their destination 3 hours ahead of time. “Well, good job… but maybe a little warning ahead of time would be helpful,” Ben remarked. Bert shrugged, “Whatever you say Cap’n.”
No comments:
Post a Comment