"Okay," Cress breathed into the empty room around her, "Today I'm an internationally known pilot. I'm on a mission in my spaceship that could save the universe. My crew and I have to lift off immediately. I'm a confident flier. I've done this a thousand times. Let's do this." She opened her eyes and let out a deep breath. Standing up straight and tall she stepped out the door of her cabin room. The cool metal floor made her toes cold as she made her way towards the cockpit.
Thorne was already waiting for her when she made her way into her co-captain seat. He took a sip from his "number one captain" coffee mug before looking over at Cress and smiling warmly. "Ready?" He asked.
She smiled nervously, "Yeah, I -I think I am." Then she remembered that she was a brave pilot. "I mean, yes captain, I'm ready for takeoff!" She tried to sound as confident as she could, but she was sure Thorne could tell that she was nervous and shaky.
She glanced at him. He had a mischievous smirk on his lips that sent a shiver down Cress's spine.
"Okay then," he said, "Let's get started." He took another sip of his coffee before setting it down in the built-in cup holder on the side of the control panel. Then he patted his lap. "Come sit." he said smugly. "You can only reach ALL of the controls from the captain's seat." He explained. Cress looked at him questioningly before reluctantly standing and sliding over to sit on his lap. He took her hands in his. His hands dwarfed her tiny pale hands and made her feel weak and small all over again.
"Lesson number one of Captain's guide to flying a magnificent rampion," he whispered into her ear, "you have to make sure you're hands are steady over the controls so you don't accidentally hit the wrong thing, okay?." He rubbed his thumbs over her palms. She nodded slowly, careful that she didn't bump Thrones head with hers.
"Lesson two, look out the window at your surroundings. Check to see if there are things in the way. Check to see if you need to hover into the air before going forward or if you can go ahead and fly forward right off the bat."
Cress looked outside. As far as she could see there was rolling hills of tundra covered ground and the occasional pine tree. They had landed in Alaska two days ago to watch the Iditarod dog sleds finish the race. Cress had loved seeing the furry dogs in they're little socks, stick out their tongues as they prodded through the finish line. After they got too cold to stay outside in their puffy winter parka's anymore they had come back to the rampion. Thorne had chosen a desolate tundra to park it in so they wouldn't bother the locals when they took off again.
In the distance Cress could make out the spindly figure of a moose munching on some leaves from a tall bush, but other than that, nothing seemed to be impassable. "I think it'll be okay with that moose over there if we just fly forward."
Thorne chuckled. "Good. Lesson three, always know where you're going to before lifting off and heading in a set direction. You wouldn't want to lift off and go in a random direction and then have to turn around, right?"
"Right." Cress answered. "I'm pretty sure we're going to Cinder and Kai's wedding in New Beijing. Unless you want us to visit somewhere for a pit stop first.?" Cress couldn't wait to go to the royal wedding. Cinder and Kai were obviously soul mates and she loved seeing them together. Plus she liked the idea of planning another wedding (even though the imperial wedding people already had that job, she still hoped to be part of it). After Scarlet and Wolf's impromptu wedding a couple of months ago, she'd started thinking about getting a job as an event planner whenever she and Thorne found a place to stay. The most exciting thing though, was that she got to see all her friends in one place again. She'd been dreaming about it for the last couple of weeks when they got the invitation from Cinder.
"No," Thorne exclaimed interrupting her thoughts, "we should go straight to New Beijing. I can't wait to try out all of the samples of wedding cake those royal chefs will have for us!" He joked.
"Okay Captain, we know where we're going. What next?" Cress thought that she sounded like a real pilot with that sentence, but she was sure she probably just sounded like a little kid playing with a toy.
"Now enter in the coordinates into the G.P.S." He commanded. "Here's how you find out the exact place you want to go to." He released hi grip on her hands and tapped a few numbers into the net screen and a map of the eastern commonwealth poped up. He explained how to find exact coordinates and then he entered the coordinates into a smaller screen to their right, the G.P.S. Cress memorized every movement Thorne made.
"Okay," he began, "now the first step in the liftoff procedures is turning on our maglev thrusters. He picked up her hands again and moved them to the switches above their heads. Then he moved them down to the dashboard where he instructed her to flip an assortment of switches. He explained what each one did to the best of his ability, but Cress could tell that some of them he really didn't know the purpose for. She tried to remember everything, but she knew it would take a few tries to fully remember every little thing.
"Okay now that all the maglev thrusters are in place we can prepare for a automatic liftoff." Thorne explained everything in a way Cress felt was like teaching a toddler how to play tag, but she didn't mind. Thorne seemed to enjoy being in charge, and Cress admired his cool composure.
He led her hands to the the lever that would raise the rampion of the ground and slowly pushed it forward. Cress felt her hands shake under Thorne's as the ship began to rattle. The tundra below slowly turned to blur as the ascended into the sky. Cress ha seen this happen countless times before, but it had never seemed so scary and wondrous as it was now.
Once the ship leveled into a steady stream forward, Thorne put on the auto-pilot heading southwest. "Okay," he exclaimed taking their hands of the controls and placing them in Cress's lap, "the hard part is over. We don't have to control anything anymore, but we will need to regularly check the radar to see how close we're getting and if there's any other ships in our way."
He paused and gently kissed her shoulder. "You did great." He whispered quietly.
Cress smiled and leaned back, sinking into Thorne's arms and closing her eyes. "I was on a mission to save the universe and I had you at my side." She whispered in his ear, "Of course I would do great." His arms tightened around her abdomen, shielding her from the worries she'd had before. This was where she belonged...