Firebrand Tours To The Galaxy Now Boarding. Kevin Colbran

gear together, then go in two days time?” Senior suggested, “Take about an hour to drop into Gympie load up then we are away.”

      “Sounds good, I can tell the brass that we off to plant the kangaroo flag on a new planet,” Kev suggested.

      “Perhaps not that but suggesting Mars may stop them asking too many questions,” Senior laughed, “I have practised the hyperdrive locally which is harder than a longer distance.”

      “Okay I will ring back in half an hour with the yea or nay,” Bill said, “So pick us up the night before, we then camp at your place overnight then away first thing in the morning.”

      “Sounds like a good plan, I had that in mind, great minds think alike,” Senior said as he rang off.

      Hardly had he done so when Bill rang back. “The boss is getting a bit bored with our comings and goings, just said file the flight plan and no need to bother him,” Bill said, “So as long I write a report, which is my job description.”

      “Boring is good, excitement usually leads to extra laundry bills,” Senior laughed, “I will drop in at 1500 hours Friday and then we are off.”

      “I will see you then,” Bill replied.

      Friday arrived, and Little Red settled into Fairburn where Bill and Kev were waiting to load their gear, this was done fairly quickly as they were travelling light.

      The crew loaded the equipment aboard; Senior then received clearance and headed back to Charlton to stay the night. Loading a little extra gear the preparation was complete, so the shuttle was ready to leave in the morning. The evening was used to brief the two on the programme they would follow; Humph had supplied navigation data and what to expect. Senior’s son Tom was joining for the trip; he had dropped in earlier and Steve had told him about the tour, as there was not much happening at UQ, was keen to experience the exercise.

      “He‘s coming because we need the extra muscle to shift the fuel,” Steve advised, “And balances the load up.”

      “Ha, ha Dad; Bill, Kev glad to meet you,” Tom said with a wry glance at Steve, “I brought my computer and a heap of games if it gets too tedious.”

      “Just to give you something to do you can be the flight deck supervisor and go space-walking if we have little green men wanting to land,” Steve quipped.

      “Hey you promised no old dad jokes on the trip,” Tom protested.

      “Ah but we haven’t started yet,” Steve returned, “Promise cuts-in once we are away.”

      “So when do we go? And what do we take?” Tom asked.

      So Steve laid out the expected programme with first the refuelling stop, then off to Alpha Centauri to say they had been there as that was the closest neighbour and distant destinations would be in Big Red.

      The morning rolled around, and Little Red lifted off and headed to Gympie for the fuel load where they formed a chain and soon filled the tank returning the empties to the feed rack. Task completed, the crew boarded and strapped in, then headed out over the Tasman Sea to commence the climb through the atmosphere.

      Breaking through the clouds and accelerating towards escape velocity with the radar looking ahead for satellites. Apart from the displays, there wasn’t much scenery to watch, except New Zealand rolling up the horizon far below to the starboard side.

      “Good thing there is a gravity damper,” Steve said, “Under your seats, you will find your space suits, and it is a good enough time as any to wear them. Once in space, the off-duty crew can just have them close though there should be no danger. There are shields to divert any debris from striking. Note the red switch turns this off so please fingers off.”

      “Thank you, hostess,” Tom offered, “So when do the bikkies and cuppas come round?”

      “Anytime you feel like it, you may do the honours, please remember I make the jokes around here,” Steve retorted.

      As they headed out of the earth plane, there wasn’t much to see except bright pinpoints of light except for the sun in the rear cameras a glare even with the filters in use. The earth dwindled in size as they accelerated to interplanetary speed achieving mass clearance before engaging the hyperdrive.

      “Well despite exceeding previous speed records for an Australian vessel it will still be another ten hours to jump point, so who takes the first shift, Bill, Tom?” Steve asked, “I will check if everything is where it is supposed to be and put the kettle on, any takers?”

      “Yep, NATO with a sandwich,” Bill acknowledged with a brew order, “I have the con heading 010 Sol centre.”

      “Okay, coffee two sugars I will warm the other seat,” Tom accepted.

      “That’s two NATO since you are hanging around with service types best you learn the jargon,” Steve advised.

      “I will tie down the luggage and set the bunks; it is going to be a long trip if the lame jokes have started,” Kev stated.

      As they set about their assigned tasks it wasn’t long before cups in hand they were back observing the cosmos unfolding before them.

      “This Hyperdrive how does it work besides damn fine?” Kev asked.

      “It is a slight variation of my parallel universe doors where there is one which has very close star systems. The ship then travels at near light speed to your target system and then step out again nearby,” Steve paraphrased, “A mass bigger than 10 metres at 10 kilometres pops the bubble, and then you drop back to interplanetary drive to arrive at your destination.”

      “That’s a bit close if you are high C velocity?” Kev noted.

      “The shields would bounce you off unless you were square on, the chances of that are remote. Earth-size or bigger mass you bounce out at one AU, so even at light speed, you have roughly eight minutes to duck,” Steve calculated, “So we approach the exit on the brakes with hands on the controls. In Humph's case because he is faster than any computer he can cut the fudge factor to a minimum.”

      “So when do you expect to train up one of these Droman?” Kev asked only slightly reassured.

      “When we have the big ship, I nip over to Droma and ask if someone is interested,” Steve related, “According to Mike an adult may be curious or because there is a shortage of home territories you can offer a home for a meld of 21 juveniles making one adult Droman. Then you have the training task ahead not long because some are older than us.”

      “Oh something to work out in a corner when you have some spare time on your hands,” Kev said sceptically.

      “The bigger ship will have navigation computers which can’t fit in this one,” Steve assured, “Actually if you look in that cupboard you will see something familiar.”

      So with a wry face thinking that Steve was taking the Mickey went over and looked to find a dome-headed barrel with sensor and lens arrays. “Bugger me dead an R2 robot.”

      “Not even alive, that cute little beastie I have dubbed Gizmo, he doubles as a short-range nav computer as well as a repairman if the shuttle needs fixing,” Steve smiled, “Makes us a little standby but he is a useful crew member.”

      “He hasn't been steering?” Kev looked bemused as he was a pilot and not keen on autopilots.

      “No just monitors the ship serviceability, assess the navigation maths and sets the exit points. The drawback is that Gizmo is programmed not to endanger anyone, so is very cautious. You have to switch him out of the system when someone like Humph is steering, or he gets the conniptions and freaks out,” Steve explained, “For now it means he scans ahead and before we even approach one AU he pulls the switch and drops us out well clear. The early dropout gives us an extra few hours planetary cruising; safety first is the go.”

      That left Kev plenty to ponder about so when it was his turn to command he was quite happy to do so. The time estimate to drop out was