Chapter 2

“So they didn't ask about the sabotage attempts on the other ships? Weren't they concerned at all?” Aaron's voice sounded tinny in the phone as she held it to her ear.

“Not any serious questions, anyway. They didn't seem too worried. Who knows, maybe they haven't been keeping up with the news.” Jass scanned the items in her refrigerator, looking for something that seemed remotely appealing. She already knew the freezer was mostly empty: she was working on finishing up all food in her apartment before leaving on the supply run. Finally she pulled out a package of almost past-good lunchmeat and put together a quick sandwich.

“I guess the big money guys are all the same: don't worry too much about us little guys, if we get blown up it's our own fault. They get the insurance money if we get spaced, so it's all the same to them. They can blame us for the lax secutiry and just book another run with some other company.”

“that's not quite fair, Aaron,” Jass said, trying to swallow a bite of sandwich before speaking. “They just don't really get what we do. It's ok; they're still taking a risk by booking us instead of going the safer route with Federated.”

“We're cheaper.”

“Yeah, the private companies are all cheaper. We're also still untried in their eyes, and a lot higher rate of insurance with less payoff. They are taking a risk on us, and not everyone is willing to do that. Give them a break.”

Aaron sighed. “Fine. I'm just itching to get back into zero g again. Gravity is annoying.”

Jass laughed. “I can't argue with that. I think we're all ready to get offworld again. Twenty-eight days, Aaron. Just a few more weeks.”

The gym was mostly empty when she entered. She tended to go late at night, both because her schedule didn't allow her to go during the day, and because she hated exercising in front of others. She stripped down to a tank top and shorts, stuffing the other clothes in her locker. She warmed up on a few of the weight training machines, then went into the zero g training center.

The training center was in a small room in the middle of the gym. Only pilots and offworld crews used it much, though all citizens were encouraged to use it to help acclimate themselves to off-world travel.

Jass went into the middle room and changed her gym clothes for a one piece swimsuit. At the center of the room was a deep pool with several structures under the water. She took a breather from a hook on the wall, and slipped into the water and made for the ladder on the outer wall of the structure.

The water was cold and the metal was no warmer. Her hand closed around the padded grip on the ladder and crept around the outside of the structure. As she returned to the starting place, Jass checked the time on her watch. Damn. Not as quickly as she had made the round after her last off-world trip. She'd let herself slip and get too busy with preparing for the voyage. She made the circuit of the underwater structure twice more before allowing herself to float back up to the surface.

She lay on her back for a few minutes, eyes closed, shutting out the utilitarian ceiling of the room. ?Instead, she imagined herself in the cockpit of the Curious Machine, floating free and gazing at the stars from the forward windows.

It reminded her of being in zero g, but the illusion was less than perfect. Here she was cold and wet, and could feel the water at her back. There was nothing quite as glorious as swimming through the air in a space bound ship. She had spent hours soaring through the Curious Machine until she knew every inch of it, from the metal floors to the rivets on the ceiling. Being supported by nothing but air, she had spent countless hours looking out of the cupola at the stars going by, or the tortured surface of Mars beneath her, or the pale rocky surface of Phobos. She had gone into space at the age of 15 for a school trip, and nothing had been the same since. Most of her classmates had spent their time giggling, or slamming into one another, but Jassmyn had found her way to the back of the crowd and begun spinning and twirling, seeing how well she could manuever by her own effort, and what a well-placed push could do. Just before the ship had re-entered gravity, she had spun, plannted a foot, and propelled herself down the length of the room, tucking in her arms to avoid crashing into her classmates. She was late getting back into her seat as the ship prepared to re-enter the atmosphere, and her teacher chastised her, but Jassmyn had barely heard her. All she could think of was getting back into space again as soon as possible.

With a shiver, Jass came back to herself. The room was colder than usual, and she saw that her skin was covered with goosebumps. She adjusted her breather and dove under the water again, this time opening the door to the structure. If she hurried, she had just enough time to finish the zero g analog exercises before the gym closed.

The next morning, Jass arrived at the hangar bright and early. The sun was up but not yet at full brightness, and the atmosphere retained a hint of the dimness of dawn and it was a little hard to judge distances clearly. Jass wiped the moisture off the keypad and let herself into the hangar. All of the buildings under the Spirit City dome were prone to dew in the early mornings, though the atmosphere outside was dry as a bone. Sometimes, if you happened to be by the edge of the Dome in the early morning, you could see droplets on the glass itself, but it was heated quickly by the sun and the dew soon disappeared.

The hangar was cold and dark; she made her way to her office by the dim light coming through the windows. Closing the door behind her, she sat in stillness for a few minutes, lost in thought. Then with a quick movement, she stood and walked into the main hangar bay. With the flick of a switch, the lights came on, lighting the hull of the Curious Machine.

She was not a beautiful ship. She was, as most ships of her class were, a utilitarian ship. Her hull was a dull grey, plates of heat-resistant alloy forming a jigsaw pattern that caught the light at strange angles. She was a long ship, an oversized slate-colored pencil, with windows and cupolas jutting out from the side like last-minute attachments. The red circle of her logo looked like a black spot in the dim hangar lighting, but it still made Jass smile. She made a mental note to visit the museum in Bradbury Dome one more time before the voyage; she never missed an opportunity to see the old Curiosity rover. Like most Martian school children, she had taken a field trip to the museum in high school. Her classmates had been bored by the ancient technology in the rover rooms, but she had been fascinated. Curiosity had looked like a bulky ungainly spider, with her wide flat body and six wheels, topped by a tall mast and laser-eyed head. The other rovers and landers had been about the same height as a human, but Curiosity towered, as if she were stretching her neck to get a better view of the then-unfamiliar landscape. As soon as Jassmyn had saved enough to purchase the Curious Machine, she had given it the name of the rover and commissioned an artist to paint the emblem on the hull.

It was still another hour before any of the rest of the crew would be there, and Jassmyn wondered if she should retreat to her office to work or simply stay in the hangar. She sighed and turned to go with a final look over her shoulder at the ship.

The days went by in a blur until the week before launch. The hangar was a blur of activity: the last of the suppliers brought aboard their loads of fuel, oxygen, food, and other supplies for the mining colonies. The hangar fuel tanks were filled in preparation for the Curious Machine's fueling, and the machines that would move her to the launch pad were moved into position.

Two days before launch, Jassmyn closed up her apartment, shut off all but the most basic power systems, and set the alarms. She loaded the last of her clothes and other personal items into a transport and made her way to the hangar. At this point, all of the crew would be sleeping in the crew quarters aboard the ship: it was more convenient than going home, with all the work that remained during the day.

The streets were quiet this late at night. Jassmyn always felt an essential disconnect in her life at times like this. The other inhabitants of Spirit City were mostly asleep, some perhaps at night shift jobs, but all on a schedule determined by the rising and setting of the sun. Jass and her crew were part of another culture, one that set its time by the movement of the planets and the most efficient route between them. The nearer they were to launch, the less their schedules meshed with the schedules of those around them.

The rest of the crew had not yet arrived when Jass got to the hangar, so she unloaded her personal items from the transport and readied them for loading aboard the Curious Machine, then left the hangar. On the other side of the street was an all-night coffee shop and bar that catered to the pilots and crews that flew strange schedules.

She ordered a large coffee and was looking for a place to sit when she heard her name being called across the room. Aaron was sitting in a corner and beckoned for her to join him.

“Ready for the big day?” she asked as she slid into the booth.

“I'm not worried about the launch, that should be pretty standard. It's the rest of the run that will be the challenge.” He bit into a pastry, spewing crumbs across the table. “It's still an awfully big route for a small ship to cover.”

“More and more ships of our class run it every year. This is the future of shipping and supply, not behemoths like Federated. They have bigger ships, sure, but they're slow, expensive, and unreliable. Did you know that last year, any given item shipped by Federated had a one-in-ten chance of not reaching its destination? And good luck ever getting anything back from them, they'll just insist that they never had it in the first place.” She sipped her coffee, and felt the warmth of the cup seep into her fingers. “We're the future, Aaron. Little ships, private companies: we're flexible, adaptable, more efficient...It's not too different from when we first started arriving on Mars. No government was able to land humans there, they were all too tied up in red tape. The private companies got there first because they could innovate more quickly and cheaply. It's the same principle here.”

The navigator didn't respond, but stared out into the coffee shop. Jass had known Aaron for nearly ten years, but she had always found him hard to read. She had never known someone who talked so much while giving so little away. The lock of dark hair combed over one eye gave him an enigmatic quality that contributed to the effect.

Finally, Aaron leaned forward and met her gaze. “Look, I'm in this thing 100%. You know that. I don't care how much Federated would pay, they're still a dinosaur headed for extinction. But that won't stop them from trying to stop everyone else.”

“What? You don't think they're behind the sabotaged shipments, surely...”

He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. But they have a hell of a motive for narrowing the playing field.”

Jass took another sip of her coffee, but it no longer warmed her. She ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it back. Her Indian heritage had given her thick black hair that could be pulled into a heavy braid as thick as her wrist. Most of the other female spacers she knew kept their hair cut short, since it was easier to manage in zero g, but she had never felt the need to do so.

“It doesn't matter what they do. We've checked the ship ourselves every day this week and found nothing. The only way they could get something aboard is to go through one of us, and even then, that person would have to find time to work alone long enough to rig an explosive charge. No one is ever alone that long. There won't be a chance to sabotage the Curious Machine.”

Aaron shrugged. “Hope you're right.” He popped the last crumb of his pastry into his mouth and grinned, erasing the pensieve look he'd worn to that point. “And no matter what happens, we still get to ride that rocket up to orbit, and that's always a good thing.” He dropped a few coins on the table and walked out the door before Jass could respond. She eyed the inch of lukewarm coffee in her cup for a moment before setting it down on the table. She added her tip to the change Aaron had put on the table, and left.

On the day before launch, the Curious Machine was hooked up to the powerful little carts that would tow her to the launchpad. Once there, she was pulled upright by a crane and latched onto the booster rocket that would take her and seven other small ships past the pull of Mars' gravity. The crews of smaller ships had adopted the practice of old Earth sailing ships, and slept in modified hammocks that could hang at any angle whether the ship was vertical or horizontal, or anywhere in-between, with straps to hold them in regardless of gravity's pull.

The morning of the launch was clear, as were all mornings on Mars when the winds did not whip the dust into vast storms. Hours before launch, the crew gathered to board the ship.

“Last time to feel Mars under your boots,” Kristin called to Martina, as the younger girl made her way up the ramp. “You won't feel Gs like these for another 9 months, better get your fill now if you want it.”

“I'm ready to get off this rock,” said Martina, though Kristin thought she might be faking a confidence she did not yet feel. “I loved my zero g work on Phobos the week I spent there.”

“A week in zero g?” scoffed Merriam, checking the pockets on his jacket for any loose items that had escaped his notice. “You're still a terrestrial!”

Under her breath, Dani muttered, “Says the guy who spent his entire zero g internship aboard his father's orbiter.” Merriam blushed as a few of the others chuckled, but the subject was dropped.

Shortly afterward, there were no jobs left for the crew to do: it was all up to the launch technicians. Jass always hated this part of launch the most. She preferred having something to do, instead of waiting on others, but this was a necessary evil.

The crew of the Curious Machine strapped themselves into their launch positions at their consoles and prepared themselves. Then the waiting began. The crews of the others ships were still getting themselves strapped in and ready to go, there were the inevitable delays, but finally the calls for “we are go for launch!” were completed.

Jass could hear the creaks and groans of the rocket as the cold fuel warmed slightly, and knew that the moment was near at hand.

Aaron looked around the edge of his seat and grinned. “Nothing like a launch, right? Time to light this candle!”

Dani clutched the edge of her seat: she loved the freedom of zero g, but hated having to go through launch to get there. “Remind me again why I live on a planet with gravity.”

“Because after a few years of nothing but zero G, your heart would no longer function.” Aaron knew far too much about the effect of zero G on the human body, and loved to torment Dani with the gory details of long-term gravity-free living. She rolled her eyes and ignored him.

“Remember the comms are live, cut the chatter.” Jass spoke calmly, though she could feel her heart pounding. Aaron was right: there was nothing like a launch. She loved watching them, but nothing could compare to riding a rocket up to the line where the ochre sky turned to black and the stars launched themselves at you like spears of light, feeling the force of millions of pounds of thrust pushing you into your seat and rocketing you away from the pull of gravity.

The voices of the launch crew echoed through the cockpit. “All systems go for launch, you have clearance to depart. Countdown resumes at T minus one minute in four seconds...three...two...one...countdown resumes. One minute to launch.”

Jass kept her eyes fixed on the cockpit window: she could see nothing of the giant rocket that the Curious Machine was fastened to, only the copper-penny sky.

“Forty seconds to launch...thirty-nine...thiry-eight...Rocket is now on internal power...”

All other sounds seemed to have been turned off, only the voice echoing in her headset and the cockpit speakers came through clearly. She found herself wondering about the other ships latched onto this booster rocket. Who were their crews? Where were they going?

“Twenty-five seconds...twenty-four...twenty-three...”

“Come on, baby, come on...” Jass heard Aaron muttering, but wasn't sure if he was referring to the booster rocket, the ship itself, or something else entirely.

“Launch in ten seconds...nine...eight...seven...”

The entire ship shook as the booster rocket engines shuddered to life. Jass felt the ship twang forward before settling back. Come on, she thought, come on.

“Main engine start! Four...three...two...one...”

With a rush, and a rumble that shook the bones of all the crews, the rocket slowly lifted off the pad, bearing its burden of eight ships up to the sky. Flames pounded the ground, licking at the red dust as they pushed the cylinder further into the sky.

Jass' ears were full of the roar of the rocket, and she could no longer hear the launch crew in her headset. There was nothing in her world at that moment but the realities of speed and thrust, the yearning of the rocket for escape velocity, pushing against the ground and the air that sought to hold it back. Faster, faster, and faster it went, shedding gravity all the way.

The rocket rolled as it headed into a trajectory that would put it safely in orbit, and Jass felt her stomach turn as the G forces pulled at the ship. She could feel the slackening of the thrust for a moment, then another wave of force hit as the ship punched through the upper atmosphere.

The sky looked strange now, no longer ochre. Up above the dust of Mars, the sky looked different. She wondered what it would be like to look up at a blue sky. She'd seen pictures of the blue sky of Earth, and even talked with people who had grown up there, but she didn't think she could get used to a blue sky.

As she watched, the sky darkened and all of the stars appeared, shining more brilliantly than she could ever see them on Mars. She felt the rocket stop and the inertia carried her body forward into the launch harness.

“Oof!” She heard Merriam call out as he was thrust forward into his own harness.

“Thought you were used to zero G,” Aaron called out, and a few others laughed.

“Yeah, but I never used a rocket to get there. My father has a fleet of orbit-capable ships, and I always got a ride on one of those.” He sounded slightly petulant.

“Nothing like riding the world's biggest firework into the black,” retorted the navigator. “I hope we hit Phobos station soon, I'm dying to float free.”

“We'll be there inside of two hours,” commented Jass mildly. “Until then, we all stay in the restraints. We'll take her into port for fueling, which will take five hours, and you can float all you want then.”

In fact, it took only one hundred and six minutes to reach the orbit of Mars largest moon. The moon had been covered with spaceship docks, fueling stations, and research facilities, until large parts of the surface were no longer visible. The long-reaching arms of the docks gave the little rocky body a prickly appearance. One hundred miles out from the moon, the rocket loosed the ships it carried. They floated a safe distance away, and each activated their own drives to move toward the moon. The spent rocket body fired small thrusters and began to fall back toward the planet. It would fall through the atmosphere and land itself outside Spirit City, where it could be recovered and reused.

Jass took the controls, and smiled as she felt her ship respond. “Alright, everyone, we are in motion under our own power, so I guess this marks the beginning of our first supply run to the asteroid belt. We'll be docking at the fueling station in about 20 minutes. Once we're securely docked, you'll be free to move about the cabin. Until we're in deep space, the rest of the ship is off-limits. I don't want anyone to crack their head on a corner during an acceleration.”

the ship moved closer and closer to the docking port. With a final burst of energy from the thrusters, the crew of the Curious Machine felt the slight jolt of soft dock, then the clanking metallic sound of hard dock.

“Curious Machine, you are on time for your fuelling appointment. Fueling will begin in 5 minutes. Please do not touch the controls of your ship during this time. Thank you.” The tinny voice in the loudspeaker fell silent, shouted out by the whoops of several crew members as they freed themselves from their launch harnesses.

“Yes, you're now free to get up and enjoy zero G,” Jass said, unbuckling her own restraints, “but next time, please wait for your captain to give the go-ahead.”

“Sorry, boss!” said Aaron as he did a mid-air somersault and launched himself across the room. Dani Chiappari had already headed for the ceiling: she preferred to spend her zero-G time there, since most of the others kept closer to the floors and walls of the ship.

Jass stretched, flexing her stiff limbs and turning slowly in midair. Kristin was also stretching, her hair puffed up in a halo around her head. Martina had slicked hers back with hair gel and put the end in a short ponytail.

“Now there's a view you never get tired of,” said Denjiro Takahashi, pointing to the window. The great arc of Mars had begun to come into view as Phobos turned, and it glowed with a reflected red light.

“It looks so calm from up here,” commented Martina, her face flushed with the warm light of the planet below. “I can't even see any of the cities.”

“I don't think we're over any of the big domes right now, but we should be coming up on Spirit City before too long.” Jass glanced out the window, her eye immediately drawn to the ragged gash of Valles Marineris on the horizon. “We'll complete an orbit before we're done with the fueling.”

“I think all planets look better from orbit,” Denjiro continued, not noticing the interruption. “From orbit, they're peaceful, clean, quiet...Earth's just the same, you know. It's a mess on the ground, but from orbit, it's a big beautiful blue marble, with green spots and oceans so wide you can't see across even from 380 kilometers up.”

“It's so weird that you went to college on Earth, Den,” Martina commented, still looking out the window.

He shrugged and pushed off the metal wall, sending his thin body sailing across the cockpit. “Everyone in my family has gone to the same college, regardless of what planet we grew up on. For that matter, we've all stayed in the same dormitory.”

“That's because your family paid for that dorm to be built, Mr. Moneybags,” said Aaron with no hint of bitterness. “I think they'd have to give your family dog a room if you asked.”

“Good thing Hiro shows no desire to get a degree, then,” Denjiro laughed. “Though he's still smarter than you.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Aaron stretched his arms and popped the vertebrae in his back. “Ahhhh, so much better! My skeleton always gets out of whack during a launch.”

Jass left her crew to their chatter and began filling in the details of the day in her log. It was easy to fall behind on those entries, so she liked to enter them as soon as possible.

After the first hour, the crew had settled down and only soared across the cockpit as a form of travel instead of recreation. Kara and Dani appeared to have fallen asleep, and Jass made a mental note to wake them in the hour before the fueling finished.

Seeing the window unoccupied at the moment, she floated over and braced herself against the frame. Mars rolled by serenely almost six thousand kilometers below, seeming to be so close that she could reach out and touch it. She thought for a few moments about what a beautiful red world it was. How anyone could love a blue-green world was beyond her: such cold colors, and so much of the world uninhabitable! She let her fingers rest lightly on the thick pane of the window. “See you in nine months, Mars.”

With a clunk, the fueling stopped; in an instant, the crew became animated, moving as quickly as possible to their seats and buckling the harnesses. Jass checked every harness before strapping herself in.

“Curious Machine, this is Phobos Main. You are complete for fueling, and are clear for retraction. Do you read?”

Jass waited for the light on her console that indicated that Kara had reactivated the comms, and replied, “We hear you loud and clear, Phobos Main. Thanks for the juice, we'll see you in a few months. Over and out.”

“Acknowledged, Curious Machine. Safe travels. Phobos Main out.”

“Alright, crew, you've heard the good news, we are cleared to go. Next stop, deep space and Gaspra orbit.” Jass placed her hands on the controls of her ship. The familiar metallic clunking of the hull as they undocked from the fueling station echoed in the cockpit.

The ship pulled away from the dock slowly, pointing her nose into deep space. “Undock complete,” said Kara, scanning the communications from the station. Jass nodded, and took a deep breath.

“Communications?”

“We are go!” Kara scanned her console with the easy circulating gaze of an experienced communications officer.

“Science lab?”

“All items are secure for transit.” Merriam sounded tense, but confident.

“Cargo bay?”

“All items accounted for and secured for transit.” Kristin sounded almost bored, though Jass knew that she was itching for a trip off-world.

“Intern Olesson?”

“Ready for transit, awaiting orders.” Martina's voice trembled.

“Engineering?”

“All engines are nominal and go for transit.” Denjiro made no attempt to hide his own excitement.

“Programming?”

“All computer systems nominal, ready to input additional information as it arises.” Dani's voice was quiet but clear.

“Navigation?”

“Navigation is go for transit, route planned and entered into the ship's computer.”

Jass smiled. “The Curious Machine is go for transit on her maiden voyage to the asteroid mining colonies. Mr. DeWitt, send your planned route to the engines.”

Aaron grinned. “With pleasure, Captain.” He punched a bright red button marked “Transmit,” and in nanoseconds, the engines received the complicated series of commands which would route the ship to the asteroid in the most efficient way possible.

Jass saw her own console light up as the engines requested the captain's approval. “Route is accepted, and we are on our way.”

The engines flared with the brilliance of a small sun, and Phobos fell away behind them. It looked, Jass thought as she watched the view from the aft cameras, like Phobos was falling into the planet. Only a trick of perspective, but she found it unnerving and looked away.

With every minute, the shape of Phobos grew smaller and smaller; soon, even the great red circle of Mars was noticeably smaller.

“How long until we cut off the main engines cut out?” Jass asked Aaron.

“Two more minutes of acceleration from the main engines, then we'll cut in the ion drives.”

“Acknowledged, thank you. Please give us a countdown for main engine cut-off.”

“Yes, captain. Main engine cut-off in...ninety seconds.”

“Everyone, prepare to go to zero g when the main engines cut off. Check your harnesses now.” Jass checked her own harness as she gave the order.

“Main engine cut off in sixty seconds.”

Quiet settled over the group as they waited, still held in their seats by the acceleration of the main engines.

“Cut off in ten seconds...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one...main engine cut-off achieved.”

The silence was sudden and total: Jass felt the familiar sensation of falling forward into her harness as the massive acceleration gave way to the more subtle acceleration provided by the ion engines.

“Wait...did we stop?” Martina struggled to release the latch on her harness.

“Wait, I haven't given the order to release yet,” Jass said, glancing around the cockpit. “Everyone still secure? Good. Is the cockpit clear of any loose items? Excellent. You have permission to release.”

Eight harnesses released their inhabitants, and Jass turned to Martina. “To answer your question, no, we haven't stopped. In fact, we're still accelerating, but the rate of increase is so small that we don't notice it. The ion drives only produce a small amount of acceleration, but it builds up quickly.”

“Oh...I remember that, from training...but it just looks like we're stopped. The stars aren't moving or anything.” Jass held up a hand to stop Merriam, who had just opened his mouth to reply.

“We're still traveling very close to our sun, in galactic terms,” Jass explained. “We're not even going to go far enough to see any of the stars from a new angle. It's something you have to get used to: in deep space, it rarely feels like you're moving at all.”

Dani had already made her way up to her accustomed perch near the ceiling of the cockpit, computer floating in midair in front of her. Aaron, who had already checked to make sure the ship was still on course, was slowly making his way back into the other parts of the ship along with Denjiro, Kristin, and Merriam.

“Why don't you go help Merriam get the science payloads set up, Martina?” Jass suggested. “Once you're done with that, report to Kristin in the cargo hold and she'll show you how she prepares the various payloads for arrival at their destination.”

As the younger woman made her way out of the cockpit door, Jass grabbed Merriam's arm and whispered in his ear, “You may know more science than she does, but don't forget that this is your first deep space trip, too. Cut her some slack.”

“Slack gets people killed, you know.” He made to pull away, but discovered that it was near impossible to do without something to grab onto.

“She's been through all the training, she'll be fine. Just help her get used to being a spacer. And yes, that's an order.”

Merriam looked frustrated, but didn't argue. Jass let him go and looked around the cockpit. “Kara, there's not going to be anything for comms for awhile, you should go get some sleep. I'm going to do the same. Dani, I trust you'll sleep at some point?” The programmer nodded, engrossed in her work.

Jass pulled herself along the main corridor by the handholds bolted to the wall. It felt a little like swimming, once you got used to it. In fact, given a clear passage, Jass could usually pull herself along faster than she could run down it in gravity. Now was not a time for speed, though. She found her small cabin and pulled herself inside.

Suddenly, she felt the adrenaline rush of launch drain away, and found herself acutely aware that she had been awake for almost twenty-four straight hours. She set her comm to wake her in eight hours, changed into her sleepsuit, and got into her hammock, fumbling to strap herself in.

In twenty seconds, she was soundly asleep.