Day Tripper

"Once again, ladies and gentlemen, here's the drill. Our plane is ascending to an altitude of 33,000 feet, wherein we will perform a series of parabolic arcs, at each peak the plane will dive and we will sustain a condition of zero g for approximately 30 seconds. Make sure you have your airsickness bags in your jumpsuit's front pocket. First dive in one minute." The microgravity coach turned to the intercom to tell the pilot that her students were ready. Daria checked her seat harness. She and Jane were strapped in the back of the plane, along with Charles Ruttheimer III.

"Whose bright idea was it to have Upchuck with us?" said Jane.

"Ms Li's," Daria replied. "Lawndale High got to send a school journalist to cover our 'mission', and he was the best reporter the media department had, they said."

"You mean he's going to be with us until we leave Earth?"

"I kind of wish he would leave and we stay here," said Daria.

"Ladies, you wound me," said Upchuck, holding up an HD camcorder. "Forget I'm even here."

"If only we could," Jane said.

LunaCor's zero g training aircraft continued its climb over the skies of New Mexico, then suddenly crested the top of an imaginary hill and dove for the earth below.

The increasing heaviness they were feeling vanished, making Daria feel as if she were in a falling elevator. The queasiness passed after a few seconds and she unbuckled her harness. "Okay, easy," said her coach. "Grab hold of the handholds on the wall and pull yourself up. You too, Jane."

Daria found herself headed towards the cabin ceiling when her hands missed her grip. She bounced off, and headed back down in a slow spin. Just as she touched down, she felt the grip of gravity as the plane reached the bottom of the arc and headed up once more.

"Ow! My ass!" grimaced Daria. "Jane! Stop this crazy thing!"

"How long have you been waiting to say that?" said Jane, lying face down beside her. "Whoops! Here we go again!"

With each period of weightlessness they found it a bit easier to move about. Daria and Jane were soon tumbling and spinning like dolphins until suddenly, it hit. The contents of her stomach were letting themselves known that they wanted out, and Daria barely got to the airsickness bag in time.

Jane floated to Daria's side. "C'mon, Daria! Don't let 'Ralph' win! You can - ulp!" She whipped out her own bag.

Unfortunately, Daria missed hers, and it was only the fact that the plane was at the bottom of another arc that kept her breakfast from floating all over the cabin. The coach crawled over with some towels and quickly mopped up the mess.

"Happens all the time," said the coach. "You'll get used to it. Just hang on and sit out the next couple of arcs." She floated back, and they sat until they began to feel better.

Charles had kept his camera on them all this time. "Don't worry, ladies. I'm sure that a little skillful editing, I can keep this incident from seeing the light of day - for a price," Upchuck smiled.

Daria forgot all about her airsickness. "How would you like my boot as payment? You can keep the change." Squinting, she said, "Wait a minute. How come you aren't sick?"

Charles shrugged. "Don't know why. All my life I've ridden planes, trains, the wildest roller coasters made. Never bothered me a bit."

"You mean to say," grimaced Jane, "That a guy with a nickname of 'Upchuck' is -"

"Immune to motion sickness," finished Daria, burying her forehead in her palm.