A Tale of Pendor 206 / 0916 "You are cleared for connection, Rat's Asking, in docking port 24-24.A Tale of Pendor 206 / 0916 "You are cleared for connection, Rat's Asking, in docking port 24-24. Do you copy?" "Two-four by two-four, we copy, correct?" "Affirmative. Pilot confirms. See you in twenty minutes. Welcome to Parma, Rat's Asking." The radio clicked off unceremoniously. Tasha leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Well, we're close, David. I'm going to get myself a cup of coffee. You want some?" "Nah," David replied. "You should learn to like decaf," Tasha teased him, grinning before she unbuckled her harness and hauled herself out of the pilot's chair by her lanky Katckin arms. "Only in my worst nightmares," David muttered, glancing over the controls. Docking a cargo freighter was an enormously dangerous task, but David felt confidence in Tasha's extraordinary ability to maneuver a ship against a docking ring. The next ten minutes, however, consisted of nothing more than waiting while the ship coasted closer to Parma, against which the 60,000 ton freighter would look like little more than an insect on a barn wall. Tasha returned to her chair, a ship's mug in her hand. The mug found its place in a gryostabilized holder Tasha had built herself, and then the Katckin found her own seat. She pushed the button to Engineering. "Denni?" "Engineering, Tasha," a voice replied from the other end. "Power's at optimal control." David glanced over at the speaker and sighed. He didn't understand why, but her voice alone had become enough to give him a small frission of pleasure. |