“I didn’t know that you knew how to fly one of these things!” Eksi beamed as he strapped himself in. “Is it hard?”
Litvir shook his head. “No, not really. Galyn taught me a while back. I just have not had the chance to fly recently.”
“Have you crashed into anything?” Eksi was very curious.
“When I was learning, I did hit a stray asteroid, but that is it.”
“Ah… What if we hit an asteroid now?”
“The ship has automatic repair functions.”
“Oh.”
Eksi fell silent, then looked over all of the controls. There weren’t many buttons, the control panel was mostly filled with various touch screens, all showing different data. It looked complicated at a glance, but the more Eksi looked, the more he seemed to understand it all.
“Could I learn to fly?” Eksi eventually asked.
“I do not see why not?” Litvir replied. “Although it would have to be after this mission.”
“Yeah, fair enough. When are we taking off?”
“Once Teekay and Relkir are ready.”
“What are they doing?”
“I… am not sure, actually…” Litvir glanced at one panel, which was streaming from various cameras from across the ship. “We should call them.”
Eksi smiled, then shot out a telepathic message. “Oi, pricks, what are you doing?”
A reply came instantly. “We were just sweeping all the rooms, making sure we have everything.”
“My dears, I have already checked everything. Eksi and I are waiting for you in the cockpit.”
There was a brief silence, ruined by a sudden knock on the cockpit door. Teekay and Relkir both entered, but Relkir was holding four small packages wrapped in foil.
“You two ready?” Eksi asked. “Also what are you carrying there?”
Relkir grunted as he handed them out. “I made a packed lunch for each of us.”
“Oh, lovely,” Livtir smiled. “You do realise that we have a kitchen on board, yes?”
“I know, but I believe anything made on the oasis is going to be better.”
Litvir glanced at Eksi, then shrugged. “Are we ready to go?”
Teekay nodded as he and Relkir sat down and strapped themselves in. “We checked everything, we can head off now.”
“Good.” Litvir nodded back, then turned his attention to the various panels and buttons. He pressed a large, red button, which made the ship shake briefly as the engines turned on. Litvir then glanced at another panel and flipped a small handle under the steering wheel. The ship jittered at first, then started moving in reverse, slowly easing the ship out of the hangar and into empty space.
As soon as the ship was clear, Litvir flipped the small handle again, then turned the steering wheel. This caused the ship to rotate in place, until Livir hit a green button and turned the steering wheel back into its default position. Slowly and gently, the ship began to move forward, following a pre-programmed path which Litvir had created earlier.
Finally, Litvir pressed one more button, this one bright pink. In doing so, Litvir had turned autopilot on.
“That was a lot less exciting than I expected…” Eksi grumbled. “It’s basically like flying back at home.”
“What were you expecting?” Teekay asked.
“I don’t know…” Eksi frowned. “And now it’s on boring autopilot. Why can’t autopilot do any of the stuff Litvit just did?”
“Taking off and landing are always done by pilots!” Teekay exclaimed.
“Calm down, guys…” Litvir butted in. “We can do more fancy flying later on, once we get close to our target. But for now, let us be quiet and get on with everything. We have planning to do.”