Book 3: Chapter 17: Underway
Icarus
January 2232
Interstellar space
The phrase middle of nowhere took on an entirely new meaning when you were between star systems. I sat in the middle of a sphere of empty space, with nothing more than the occasional lonely hydrogen atom for literally light-years. The Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky Way stretched across the sky, annotated by overlays showing distances, readings, and the location of local tourist attractions. Sixty trillion miles to next gas station. I snorted at the thought.
“Status check.”
I looked up at the call from Dae. Right on time, as usual. Well, why not? I didn’t begrudge him his tics, and he didn’t tease me about my wraparound planetarium view.
I returned to my library and opened up my calculation page before responding. “Everything’s in the green.”
“Your tau is a little low.”
I glanced at the status board. “I was drawing slightly ahead of you. I had to cut back my acceleration just a tad.”