CHAPTER FOUR – LIFT OFF

Forty-five minutes later, Elizabeth slipped her shoulders into the seat harness, clicked the two shoulder strap buckles into the lap belt, and then clicked the two parts of the lap belt together. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. I can do this!

"Don't forget to tighten the lap belt", the flight attendant reminded her as she passed by.

"Miss?" Elizabeth called out, causing the slender woman to stop walking and turn back towards her. "How long will we remain in our seats?"

"About one hour and eight to nine minutes."

"One hour and eight to nine minutes?"

The young but experienced flight attendant smiled as she recognized Elizabeth as a new traveler.

"Once we've all boarded and the doors are locked, the crew will begin the final check which takes about an hour. You'll know that it's started when you hear loud sounds as the engine prepares."

"Loud sounds. Got it. No problem."

"You'll also feel the thumping of the valves as the systems are pressurized, and then the rumbling of the engine fires as they start up."

"Thumping and rumbling?"

"That's all before we move. Once we get moving, I'm afraid the next eight to nine minutes will be a bit of a jolt."

"Jolt?" Elizabeth said a little more worriedly.

"What do you know about gravity?" the woman asked. "Tighten your lap belts," she instructed the couple in front of Elizabeth.

"Gravity is the force that pulls things to the earth." Elizabeth practically recited part of one of her planned lessons for her younger students.

"Exactly. After lift-off, we'll be building up speed and the force of gravity increases dramatically. You'll be shaking considerably while at the same time you'll be pressed against your seat with a force twice your weight for a few minutes."

"A few minutes?" Elizabeth put her hand to her chest as she imagined two hundred and sixty pounds sitting on her chest.

The attendant held back a laugh as she quickly realized that Elizabeth must have a habit of repeating words when she was nervous. "As we get higher into the thinning atmosphere, the ship picks up even more speed and you're pressed against your seat with now three times your weight."

"Three times my weight?" a wide-eyed Elizabeth anxiously repeated. That's three hundred and ninety pounds! she quickly calculated.

"Kind of like a small hippo sitting on your chest making it difficult to breathe. That lasts about another two minutes. Basically, we're going to go from zero miles per hour to seventeen thousand miles per hour in eight and a half minutes. Don't be scared by the really loud bangs. There'll be lots of them."

"Lots of them?" Elizabeth's voice sounded feeble.

"That takes us out of Earth's gravity. And just like that, after only eight or nine minutes of incredibly strong G-forces, we're in space."

"In space?" Elizabeth wondered if she was going to be sick.

"You'll be fine, Miss. You'll be held in place by your shoulder harness until we turn on the artificial gravity. We might be upside down for bit. But just a little bit", the flight attendant said in a motherly voice even though she couldn't have been more than twenty-eight years old.

What was I thinking?! Elizabeth reached into her pocket and pulled out the transporter instructions.

Did I even read this?! Of course, I did. It just seemed not to be so scary when I was sitting at the dining room table talking to my family and eating chocolate cake.

Elizabeth looked up when she felt someone standing above her.

Jack Thornton!

"This is me," he said in a friendly voice as he pointed to the seat next to her.

Elizabeth simply nodded at him and then returned her attention to the instructions in her hand. She was dismayed to realize that there wasn't a section on emergency landings. We're doomed.

"You ever flown before?" Jack asked after he had buckled himself in. Since she had made the first move to talk at the coffee shop, he reasoned that he could be polite and make the first move at a conversation here.

"Of course," she replied while putting on a brave face. "I was in Singapore just two weeks ago for a quick conference on teaching methods, and in Boston the week before that."

"I mean a space flight. Not sky flight" he clarified.

Elizabeth's cheeks pinked at her quick answer. Stupid! Obviously, he meant a space flight!

"Not a space flight", she said. "But I've been around my father's business all my life so I know quite a bit about it," she added confidently.

"That's good. Are you nervous?"

"Why should I be nervous?"

"Because we're going to accelerate to more than the speed of sound for lift-off. Eventually we'll travel to close to the speed of light. Our stomachs are going to feel like they're in our throats. If there's even the slightest crack in the transporter, we're going to explode into smithereens", Jack declared calmly.

Elizabeth didn't say anything but reached for the plastic-lined vomit bag in her seat pocket.

As the hour of the safety check counted down, Elizabeth became more and more nervous and wondered if her antiperspirant could handle her anxiety.

Jack must have noticed her unease because to his credit he began a conversation to distract her when she began clutching the armrests in tight grips. If she didn't calm down, the leather on the armrest was going to be in tatters. Jack was pretty sure that he didn't want torn bits of padding and leather floating around in his face. Not to mention, she had piqued his interest. Just a bit.

"Did you know that these seats will be our theater seats once we're out of Earth's orbit? Movies. Plays. Briefings. They use this part of the ship for all sorts of things", he said pleasantly.

When she just turned her head and looked at him, he continued in a friendly and upbeat voice which Elizabeth found rather soothing. "I've heard they even have talent shows in here."

"Talent shows?"

"Yeah. Anything to keep us from getting space-cabin fever I suppose. Do you have a talent?"

"I can sing", Elizabeth offered.

"Me too. I haven't done it in years, but now that I think about it, I miss it. I used to sing at bars in the evenings in college."

"I was in a musical in college. I played a nun who became a governess to a bunch of kids."

"Maybe we can sing a duet," Jack responded.

He was so calm. It was as if they were sitting at a restaurant having a friendly meal rather than strapped into seats on top of fuel tanks which could explode at any minute. Elizabeth felt his calmness spread to her.

"I can play the piano", she volunteered.

"Are you any good?"

"I've been playing since I was little."

"Forced lessons or did you like them?" Jack asked with a smile.

Elizabeth laughed. "Forced. But I'm glad I learned. Do you play an instrument?"

"The guitar."

"That makes sense," she said as she forgot about the thumping, rattling, and vibrations around her.

"Why?"

"Because if you were just singing at a bar without a guitar, it would be a tad bit odd, don't you think?"

Jack laughed. "I think you're right. But I also don't think there's a guitar or piano on this ship", he said with a grin.

Elizabeth smiled back. "Definitely over the twenty-five pound weight limit."

"So I think we'll just have to sing our duet without music", he said with another grin.

"I bet we'll win. You have a nice voice."

When he winked at her, she suddenly felt her heart beat a little faster.

And then the powerful rumbling of the engines on fire started.

Fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth kept her mouth tightly shut and swallowed back the vomit coming up her throat as the ship rotated back from being upside down. Her heart palpitations felt like she had just run the two hundred yard dash. And it wasn't from sitting next to Jack. It was from thinking she was going to die at any second. Her eyes were watering. Her hair was floating around her. Her insides felt like they had been stomped on by a herd of elephants.

When she felt a tug, she looked sideways and saw Jack pulling a lock of her hair out of his face. Realizing it had floated into his mouth when he had opened it to speak, she quickly apologized.

"Maybe a hair band would have been helpful", he replied with irritation. It was apparent that even he hadn't enjoyed the lift-off.

Before she could respond, her long hair suddenly fell back into place and cascaded down her shoulders.

It fell! It fell! Gravity! Elizabeth realized that the crew had turned on the artificial gravity. Thank goodness. I love gravity.

"Miss Thatcher, a glass of champagne?" a female voice asked a minute later. Elizabeth noticed the woman standing next to her was the same young flight attendant who had spoken to her before lift-off. "We'll be releasing everyone to go to their living compartments in about ten minutes but I thought you might like something now. I have wine if you'd prefer", she added with a smile.

"Oh. How nice. I had no idea you'd be serving something," Elizabeth answered happily. "Actually, a glass of plain water would be just fine, if you have some."

"I'll be back in a moment," the woman said pleasantly before retreating down the aisle.

"She forgot to ask you if you wanted something," Elizabeth said as she turned to look at Jack. "When she comes back, you can ask for a drink."

"Look around, Miss Thatcher. Do you see anyone else getting a complimentary beverage?" Jack asked rudely. His friendly demeanor prior to take-off was gone.

Elizabeth swiveled her head around and noticed that no one else was drinking anything even as the flight attendant walked past the other passengers and handed Elizabeth a cool bottle of water and a crystal glass to drink from.

"If you need anything else, please let me know," the woman said. She walked away without offering to get Jack anything.

A male attendant quickly moved in front of Elizabeth.

"Miss Thatcher?"

The uniformed man who was holding tongs into a foil bag made a gesture towards Elizabeth's hands.

A puzzled Elizabeth handed her water bottle and glass to Jack to hold for her. Ignoring her seat-mate's scowl, she held up her palms.

Using the tongs, the attendant pulled a small warm damp towelette out of his bag, and placed it into her open hands. "Just something to make your feel freshened up," he said with a smile.

"How nice!" She wiped her face, her neck, and her hands, and then handed the eucalyptus-scented towel back to the man who was waiting patiently. "That felt wonderful. Thank you."

"Didn't you want one?" she asked Jack when the attendant walked away. "It really was refreshing."

"I wasn't offered one."

"I don't understand," a puzzled Elizabeth said.

Without bothering to dwell on it at that moment, she took the glass and bottle from Jack's hands, and set the glass on the floor. After unscrewing the bottle, she drank thirstily from it. "I needed that", she said with a satisfied sigh. "Do you want to share mine? You can use the glass."

"No thanks."

"I still don't know why they forgot to offer you anything. Maybe you looked like you handled the lift-off better than me", she said as she screwed the lid back on the bottle and relaxed into her seat.

Jack raised his eyebrows and scoffed. "You're the daughter of William Thatcher, the president and owner of the company that makes most of the world's transporters, including this one. Did you honestly think that wouldn't be noticed?"

"I –" Elizabeth couldn't think of what to say at first. She looked around the ship at the other passengers. They were talking to one another. Fixing their hair. Looking out the window. Looking at computer screens.

Not one of them had a drink. Not one of them had a warm cotton towelette.

Jack was right. She had been singled out by the crew. And it was only the first hour into the trip. What would the next four months be like if her father pulled his weight?

All she knew was that she felt sudden irritation with her father for putting her in this predicament, and that she wanted to crawl under her seat and hide from the passengers who were patiently waiting – without a bottle of water or fresh towel- to be released to their compartments.

No wonder Jack's attitude had changed. She had gone from being a fellow passenger to someone else.

She was a girl who came from a social standing above him and above everyone else on the transporter.

After a moment of pondering the situation, Elizabeth spoke confidently. "It was my idea to take this job. I am going to Coal Valley to teach and I will do it without my father's help."

"You think you can do that?" Jack asked skeptically.

"I am quite capable of handling my own life," she said firmly.

"I'm not sure you ever have." The condescension he had at the ticket counter was back in his voice.

"You know nothing about me."

"I know about your frozen eggs", he said dryly.

Elizabeth huffed. "Just because you're a Defense officer and a man doesn't make you more capable of living in Coal Valley."

"It has nothing to do with being a Defense officer or a man. Unlike you, I just don't need to be coddled."

"I don't need to be coddled either!"

"I don't mean coddled as in to boil an egg to warm it up. I mean the other kind of coddled", he clarified.

"I know what you meant! I am not an idiot!"

"I think it was hubris that made you decide to go to Coal Valley," Jack replied simply.

"Hubris?"

"It means –"

"I know what it means!" Elizabeth said in irritation when she interrupted him.

"Are you sure? Cause I think that's what it was."

"I'm a teacher! Of course, I know what it means! And I do not have excessive pride or excessive self-confidence."

"We'll see", he said.

He put an end to the conversation by pulling the manifest out of his pocket and reviewing list of names.

Elizabeth watched as Jack ran his finger along the typed names of all the passengers. It was obvious he was calculating the number of people and how they would be divided.

Jack gave a large sigh of relief. Clearly, he liked the answer to his calculations.

Elizabeth glared at him at first. Then she bit her lip to subdue her laugh.

Reaching over, she pointed her finger at some of the names. "See those? They have the same last names. They're families. There are three families onboard. They each get their own living quarters even if there are only three members or up to five members. That jumbles up the rest of the names. Perhaps you should recalculate," she said with a knowing smile.

Jack gave her a suspicious look. Returning his attention to the list, he mentally recalculated. Dividing up the single passengers into alphabetical groups of four. Four passengers to a room.

When he jerked his head to look at her, let out a groan, and then slumped in his seat, Elizabeth smiled even broader.

Yep, he's figured it out.

"At this time, all passengers may completely unbuckle your seat belts", the voice came over the intercom. "Please check your on-board electronic passes which should now contain your assigned living compartments. Your luggage has already been moved there. Meal times are posted in your quarters as well as other rules and information. Welcome to Space. We'll be together for the next four months. We wish you all enjoyable traveling."

Elizabeth quickly stood up and gave Jack a broad smile. "See you in our living quarters, roomie," she said before strolling away.

Up Next: Chapter 5

p.s. Only a truly devoted fan may know from where I got the term "hubris". 🙂