I trusted Rose to manage the artificial gravity and inertial systems for me through all the fun that was to come. Through the airlock camera, you could clearly see the assembled ponies both talking rapidly at my lovely copilot and gaping in awe. The surface quickly peeled away from the windows as the airspeed indicator steadily climbed well beyond escape velocity before a thought came to mind. It was a simple but amusing one.

A slow pull on the stick changed our climb from the standard rate to near vertical. After a moment or two, my view was full of quickly deepening indigo full of stars, and the other airlock cameras also showed the earth far, far below. Since we were rising practically straight up, and due to the modern miracle of stabilized cameras, no matter how the ship buffeted, the view remained picturesquely serene.

“Just so you know, I hate you. Princess Boann is asking how artificial gravity and inertial systems work. Thankfully she’s kind of just rambling because I can’t think of a polite way to explain that she wouldn’t understand. Jerk. It is a nice view though since we aren’t crashing this time.”

Apparently I’m not allowed to have nice things. At least I would have space under my wings again in a few more minutes. For a suitable accompaniment, I pressed a button on the console and grinned as the sound of drums and guitar filled the cockpit.

“Oh hey Rose? You might want to explain the noise before I start charging the Q drive when we hit orbit.”

Yeah, they might kinda freak out at first. Most ships keep their drives powered in case they need to make an emergency jump, plus they are weirdly less maintenance intensive than turning them off and on all the time. So they only really ever get powered down when in dock or planetside. Plus they sound fucking weird the first few times you hear one. After that, it becomes a comforting thing to not hear the drive’s banshee wail. Every ship is different because of tiny manufacturing differences. General rule of thumb is if you don’t hear the drive howling as it charges and are in space, the core is ready to jump.

As we climb higher and faster, the sky gets darker and darker until there is nothing but stars in the distance and the glowing curvature of the planet below us. Through the cameras I can see the entire pony contingent staring in awe. That’s when an idea crosses my mind. We’re going to make a slight detour.

“So I’m thinking. Other than the claim that Princess Aine was in the moon for a thousand years, which is kinda crazy, I doubt these guys have seen it close up. I’m going to swing us by on the way to deploy the satellites.”

On the display, I could see Rose nod at my statement while explaining the Quantum Drive to the ponies. Hopefully she was far enough into the speech, otherwise it would be an interesting surprise. Reaching over to the power distribution panel, a quick tap was all I needed to start charging the core. It was impossible not to smile as a deep rumble started to fill the cabin. It was too hard not to grin while the ponies fidgeted on camera, as the rumble turned into a warbling howl and quickly into the screams of the damned. Not literally of course.

By the time we had reached high orbit, the noise had faded once the drive core was charged. I’d taken the time to talk to Rose and explain my idea, as well as plot our trajectory. The master plan was to jump to the moon near the twilight zone and give the ponies a hell of a view. Since the troop bay needed to be decompressed anyhow, the cockpit and engineering space would be purged at the same time. Call me crazy, but I think Rose knows what I’m up to.

“Hey everyone, this is your pilot again. I imagine Rose told you already, but don’t be alarmed when I activate the Q drive in a minute. Yeah, it sounds weird and things get a little trippy for a second or two, but it’s perfectly safe.”

Everyone has a mini freakout on their first jump. Everyone. A soft tap on the console pulled up the jumpdrive systems. While navigation points began to appear and scroll across the HUD, the internal lights throughout the Corvus switched to a solid yellow. The automated version of Rose echoed through the passageways with, “Rig ship for jump. Repeat, rig ship for jump.” Thankfully I knew she was already going through all this with our four legged friends in the airlock. After making sure my flight suit was sealed and switched to internal systems, I looked up to see how everyone was doing in the aft of the ship.

“Hey Rose, you ready back there?”

I definitely missed something as she was laughing over the comms.

“Oh god… they thought they’d have to breathe through feed hose on the backup air canister I hooked up, and decide who lives or dies…

Okay. I’m okay now. Silly ponies. And yeah, we’re ready back here. I can’t wait for you to get my engine all revved up.”

Damn pervert AI.

Not giving her the pleasure of a response, I reached forward and triggered the drive. Immediately the automated voice chimed over the intercom with a countdown. At five seconds, a series of bangs echoed through the ship as the lights dimmed. The core was compressing insane energies into a smaller and smaller space. Three seconds the whine started. By two it was a keening wail that filled all the spaces within the Corvus. At two, everything began to blur at the edges a little. One. One was what always fucked with people. The ship stretched to infinity in front of you for just a heartbeat before the canopy filled with streaming light. Six and change seconds later, the colors blinked out to reveal the moon that orbited our temporary new home.

It was only a few minutes of supercruise to near the rocky surface of the moon. Soon enough, there was nothing but radiation scoured rock and craters filling my view. It was still plenty confusing for how Aine supposedly lived in the moon for a thousand years though. Weird. Somehow I doubted they’d have anything to study from her time here, so I wanted to fix that.

“Hey Rose, since we have to depressurize to toss the satellites out, seal the passage from the multi function rooms and quarters please. That way I can still hop out as needed, but we aren’t putting too much effort into it.”

While I was picking out a suitable crater, she cheerily responded.

“You just want to be the first person on the planetoids and moons in this solar system. I see through you, Mister. I’m tempted to write my name in the surface with the plasma cannons before you step foot down there. That way the universe will know about the Great and powerful AI Rose for eternity.”

It is very difficult to facepalm while wearing a sealed helmet. With her laughter in my ears, I nosed the Corvus down towards our destination. Little attention was paid to the metallic thuds of bulkheads sealing, or blue light strobing for three pulses before going solid. The automated voice chimed in with ‘cabin depressurizing’ as the lights turned. Then a thought occurred to me.

“Oh um, did you explain the whole having to turn off artificial gravity thing to our guests?”

Pulling out of the dive, the pitted surface blow screamed by the windows, slowing as the throttle was dialed back little by little. By the time we were over the spot I’d picked, depressurization was complete. Other than Rose’s voice in my helmet and the ship audio feeds, my only friend was the soft hiss of the rebreather in my suit. The heaters were already kicking in as the internal temperature of the ship dropped. It only took a moment to get the Corvus holding at a stable altitude of 10m for my adventure. Arresting any motion with maneuvering thrusters, we were ready.

“And yes, I did explain that the artificial gravity would be turned off. I think. They didn’t really get the concept too well, but with the way Princess Boann is rambling and asking things, the translation program is improving by leaps and bounds. Go ahead and press the button, I know you want to. You can’t help being a turn-off sometimes.”

Sometimes I really want to just… yeah. Stubborn damn AI. After making sure to pull up the airlock camera in a small window of my display, I reached over to flip the cover off a button inset in the bulkhead. Yes, Rose was recording every bit of raw data and hardwriting it to memory, but I still wanted to see this first hand. A gloved finger pressed the switch down for a few seconds until it finally clicked and locked into place.

It took a few seconds for the gravity generator to spin down, and I was ready for it. Unbuckled and floating the moment one standard G had no grasp on me. Yeah, the moon below had some, but not as much gravity as Luna’s. It is very awkward to seriously laugh in low gravity though. Through the feed, I watched one of the guards who was likely complaining based on how he was jumping in the airlock, float to the ceiling on his next attempt. Boann was gaping in what I assumed was awe at our technical trickery, while Aine was laughing hysterically at the guard flopping in midair. Hell, I was laughing too until Rose glared directly into the camera, before reaching up and gently pulling the armored form to the deck.

Well, that's my sign to get the butt in gear. Next Chapter: 21. Let me play among the stars... <unedited> Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes