“Ew, that's disgusting!” I screeched as I tried to turn away and close my eyes from the camera located in an occupied toilet, I instantly found the camera had turned off, but the microphone was still active, and I could hear him screaming.

  “Who the hell is there, you better show yourself, you perverted freak, and do it before I get mad!”

  “No one, who wants to see your disgusting self!” I screamed back at him while thinking he already sounded mad. It took a few more seconds before I thought about muting the microphone, and was instantly pleased the sounds from that room were muted.

  The next second, I was aware of a radio somewhere inside the ship activating and giving me instructions. I tried to follow them, mentally thinking about each bit as I lifted the drop carrier off the hangar floor, feeling it wobble. As I activate a thruster, a little more than one on the other side before equalising them. After a few more moments, I began to float in the middle of the room, and I quickly raised my landing gear. Made an announcement we would be departing momentarily. I watched the hangar floor retract, sliding open from the middle. I was also watching all the people in their drop-ships locking themselves into their seats, the pilots going through their pre-flight checks, this was when I noticed one of the pilots of a platoon drop-ship was Zeo. I grinned and focused On the drop-ship speakers.

  “This is your captain speaking, we are preparing for departure. Please make sure all your tray tables are in their upright and locked position and if Miss Zeo could please turn off her phone before the departure it would be much appreciated. Thank you, and all of me at drop carrier 204 wish you a happy and safe trip.”

  I watched her head snapped up and look around as she muttered to herself.

  “What the heck? Kenna? Is that you?”

  It was too easy, I couldn't resist.

  “No, this is your conscious asking if you need a vacation? But if you are thinking about the irresistible Kenna so much, then maybe you should send her some credits.”

  “She really is irresistible, I really should send her two hundred million credits…”

  Zeo, lent back into her chair and didn't move. I waited. Then I waited some more. I was about to prompt her when I heard her snicker, and it all fell into place.

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  “Oh you bitch!” I muttered, but it was loud enough for her to catch and start laughing loudly. I mentally waved my hand dismissively at Zeo as I declared.

  “What ever, I have to get back to flying this Drop Carrier, it's a super important job you know.”

  “Love you too, Kenna!”

  I mentally turned away from her as I focused back on my job. I had noticed Ashley sitting in a drop-ship, but I had decided to ignore that for now, as I didn't exactly want to show favouritism to my own company. My mind was being pulled back to that bizarre, weird feeling of all that input crashing into me, causing me to feel a little overwhelmed. I could hear the radio talking, and I was trying to focus on what was being said. However, I found it difficult and after a few moments I gave up, attempting now to focus on a single thing. Suddenly, my mind snapped into focus. A single camera become my eyes, and everything else became background noise.

  I had accomplished this by focusing on a camera showing outside the front of the ship. I had decided the rest of the information I was receiving was less important as the things that would allow me to pilot the ship, as if I was sitting in the pilot's seat. And I quickly came to realise someone had ordered me to deploy, and was even now shouting at me to do so on the radio. So I angled the nose of the ship down and thought about adding power to the thrusters at the back, and slid forwards out of the hangar.

  As I flew out of the hangar, I was instantly Aware of it closing behind me, I was also aware of the thousands of other ships deploying from the Side of the carrier that I was on. I have no idea why, but I suddenly had the urge to turn the Drop carrier thirty degrees to starboard and angle the nose down by forty Degrees. Then apply twenty percent More power to the rear thrusters. I rocketed forward and away from the spot that was suddenly occupied by a frigate's thruster fire as it turned toward the planet. My sensors picked up It's identifying call sign. I mentally accessed the radio and transmitted on the temporary carrier deployment channel.

  [FLT. Mackenzie: Drop carrier 204 to Expanding Widow frigate, please watch your distancing. You nearly barbecued us with your rear thrusters.]

  I swear on a stack of bibles. I heard it, I heard the cursed whisper under his breath before The official response came. I even Somehow knew how to go into the data log and check To make sure I didn't imagine it. I let out a growl of annoyance as I read it in the logs, ‘[SGT Lerda] Damn, I missed.’ I couldn't believe what I was reading. I was so shocked I barely caught what he did say loud enough to be transmitted properly.

  [SGT Lerda: Expanding widow frigate To Drop Carrier 204. So sorry about that, I will monitor our distancing more diligently from now on to insure it does not happen again.]

  I was suddenly aware of exactly how far every ship near me was from my deployment corridor. And none of them seemed friendly anymore, it felt more like they were eying a juicy buck as they waited for their opportunity to pounce. I decided to add more power to the thrusters, shifting it up to eighty percent. Leaving twenty for emergency manoeuvre. I rocketed forward, angling myself back into my deployment corridor, and quickly left all the big ships behind. I was about to let out a sigh of relief when I was mentally aware of a window that I couldn't see. It was a new and weird experience reading it without seeing it.

  You have been automatically fined five hundred credits for exiting your deployment corridor and endangering Other ships.

  You have been automatically fined five hundred credits for excessive use of thrusters in close proximity to the Terance.

  You have been automatically fined one thousand credits for excessive overuse of thrusters in a crowded deployment zone.

  I felt annoyed at the messages as I cut the power to the thrusters down to the previous percentage and eased it further down to cruising speed. I lost two thousand credits over this bull dung, and I hadn't even reached the planet yet. However, on the brighter side, I was now away from all the other ships. Back on the downside, I was running out of credits fast. I pushed it all out of my mind, right now I needed to focus on getting to the planet.

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