"Control? The delay, how long will it be?" Commander Shaw couldn't help but roll her eyes. Their launch had been postponed twice in the last month and was aborted the week before during preparations. Shaw had been in the middle of putting on her gloves when they were given the news. The close-out crew had groaned and undone all the belts and locks. Shaw forced herself to not think about that. She realized she was working her jaw muscles and tried to relax. Her patience was running out. John Reese, her pilot, four mission specialists, and her were buckled into their seats, had been for 3 hours. Their launch window was closing. She loathed being stuck in an idle shuttle. "Houston Flight is no-go. We will hold for 5 more minutes," came the answer. Shaw heard a chuckle from one of her passengers. The one she disliked the most. Mission Specialist Samantha Groves, Root, as everyone called her, had been the reason for a billion eye rolls since their first meeting. She wished the coms weren't open, she never caught a break from Root.
Shaw sighed audibly. Take-off better be happening soon. Reese turned in his seat, as far as the tight restraints allowed it, and she knew he was giving her a look. She knew what he was thinking without seeing his face. He was as impatient as she was but hid it well. Finally Control gave the "All systems go. We got T minus 10 minutes." The corner of Shaw's mouth twitched, soon the powerful engines they were strapped to would come to life and bring her to 17,300 mph. Transmissions were hurried now. Instructions and acknowledgments went back and forth between the flight deck and Control.
"Final test of flight control surfaces started."
"Purge of the main engines concluded."
"O2 flow initiated."
"Caution and warning memory cleared?" Shaw cleared the memory and responded, "Affirmative."
"We got proper flight pressure in tanks." While control went through the final parts of the launch protocol Shaw compared the information listed to the ones on her monitors. And confirmed when prompted. Reese nodded along with every identical number displayed on their screens. Flight Engineer Ellen Lewis confirmed the data as it was read to her. Finally Finch addressed the entire crew. "T minus 30 seconds. We got auto sequence start," a small pause and he added "Don't break her, Shaw." With a full on smirk on her face Shaw leaned back in her seat. The deafening roar of the engines and strong vibrations caused small butterflies in Shaw's stomach. She couldn't help but smirk as the gravitational forces pressed her into her seat. Traveling with 2,933 mph definitely got her heart pumping. As they kept picking up speed her grin widened. One of the MS was breathing heavily, not being used to the exertion. One MS was humming a song. Despite the incredibly loud noises of the engines a very distinct and annoying song could be heard over the com. Shaw wished Root stopped humming "Major Tom".
Two minutes into their intense ride in the roaring,rattling and vibrating shuttle, a jolt went through the shuttle shaking its passengers as the rocket boosters were separated with a loud flash bang, shutting Root up. For now. "Booster separation confirmed." Reese started to copy data from Control and Lewis, who was called "H", read them back to them. Shaw liked not having to do that. "Negative return at 6200 mph." With every mile gained, with every mile between her and earth a weight was lifted off of Shaw. Here she was pressed into her seat by three time gravitational force and she felt great. She would deny if asked, but the time she got to spend in space was the time she was most attuned to her feelings, the few ones she had. At 355,000 feet Shaw rolled the shuttle into heads up position. Shaw blew the connecting nuts and steered clear from the disengaged external tank. Eight minutes after take-off they reached zero G and were officially in space.