Star Road by Matthew Costello, Rick Hautala Page A
Authors: Matthew Costello, Rick Hautala
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his seat, he took a shallow breath and looked at his porthole.
It’s all normal. Everything’s fine, he thought, feeling the SRV pick up even more speed.
And for God’s sake, don’t get roadsick, he told himself when a wave of salty nausea swept though his stomach.
The air in the SRV suddenly seemed too thin to breathe.
Rodriguez told himself he couldn’t actually feel the atoms in his body rearranging themselves as the SRV shot up the ramp that seemingly ended in a wall of nothingness.
He tried not to think about the disastrous fall to the rocky desolate landscape of the planetoid below that was seconds away.
Next time, stay home, he vowed as he closed his eyes and tried to settle in his seat. Next time, send someone else.
~ * ~
Annie checked a screen to her right, which showed the terminal’s air locks shutting behind the SRV.
There was no turning back now, and—at this speed—no stopping.
She pulled back on the wheel and felt the SRV pick up even more speed. The alloy wheels on the ramp surface made the vehicle shimmy like it might shake itself apart.
Some of the first-time passengers might not be enjoying this part, sitting helplessly in a vehicle that was screaming up a ramp that looked like it ended in nothing but a solid, black wall.
Stomachs must be lurching, to be sure. Vision distorted. The dimensions of the cabin shifting, twisting.
It only lasted for a short while, but with the space-time distortions, it felt like forever.
She hoped people remembered to use the bags in the pouches on the seat back in front of them if they needed to.
She turned to Jordan.
“Still okay on your end?”
“I’d tell you if it wasn’t.”
Less than a minute away.
Annie’s hands tightened on the wheel.
She thought: This... never gets old.
No way in hell...
~ * ~
Sinjira moved her head from side to side, taking in the vastness of space on either side of the SRV. It was difficult to get a clear view of what was ahead, but that might be because the physics of Road travel were warping space, time, and gravity—at least, that’s how she understood it.
Hers wasn’t the first chip documenting a Road trip. Not by a long shot.
But with their destination the farthest outpost of Omega Nine—where along the way anything was possible—she wanted it to be the absolute best.
She wanted it to be— real.
When a chip was so good, that was the only word you could use. Not amazing, not fantastic. Real.
She leaned against the window so she caught a view of the ramp ahead. It ended abruptly, and she suddenly identified with that crazy-ass Seeker back there.
Accept it.
It’s out of your control.
She kept her gaze fixed on the edge of the ramp, eager for what was going to happen next.
Even if she wasn’t ready.
No one ever is their first time.
~ * ~
On the screen just below Annie’s wheel, the clear image of the portal swirled like the storms on Jupiter or the mammoth flaring sunspots on the Earth’s sun, changing colors, shape, pulsing as if a living, breathing thing.
Who knows?
Maybe it is.
The trickiest part of her job was about to happen.
On the screen, the SRV’s nose entered the portal. For a timeless moment, the SRV seemed to stretch out to an infinite length. Straight ahead, through the cockpit window, the SRV headed—seemingly—into absolutely nothing.
Even the most seasoned captain couldn’t help but be rocked by the feel and experience of this distortion of length, width, height, depth, and time.
A single moment that one poet described as a “fall into the dark backward.”
It’ll pass, Annie told herself as she watched her hands—looking strangely disconnected from her—run over the controls.
And then: speed.
It was as if the vehicle hit something that sent it rocketing even faster. There was no
It’s all normal. Everything’s fine, he thought, feeling the SRV pick up even more speed.
And for God’s sake, don’t get roadsick, he told himself when a wave of salty nausea swept though his stomach.
The air in the SRV suddenly seemed too thin to breathe.
Rodriguez told himself he couldn’t actually feel the atoms in his body rearranging themselves as the SRV shot up the ramp that seemingly ended in a wall of nothingness.
He tried not to think about the disastrous fall to the rocky desolate landscape of the planetoid below that was seconds away.
Next time, stay home, he vowed as he closed his eyes and tried to settle in his seat. Next time, send someone else.
~ * ~
Annie checked a screen to her right, which showed the terminal’s air locks shutting behind the SRV.
There was no turning back now, and—at this speed—no stopping.
She pulled back on the wheel and felt the SRV pick up even more speed. The alloy wheels on the ramp surface made the vehicle shimmy like it might shake itself apart.
Some of the first-time passengers might not be enjoying this part, sitting helplessly in a vehicle that was screaming up a ramp that looked like it ended in nothing but a solid, black wall.
Stomachs must be lurching, to be sure. Vision distorted. The dimensions of the cabin shifting, twisting.
It only lasted for a short while, but with the space-time distortions, it felt like forever.
She hoped people remembered to use the bags in the pouches on the seat back in front of them if they needed to.
She turned to Jordan.
“Still okay on your end?”
“I’d tell you if it wasn’t.”
Less than a minute away.
Annie’s hands tightened on the wheel.
She thought: This... never gets old.
No way in hell...
~ * ~
Sinjira moved her head from side to side, taking in the vastness of space on either side of the SRV. It was difficult to get a clear view of what was ahead, but that might be because the physics of Road travel were warping space, time, and gravity—at least, that’s how she understood it.
Hers wasn’t the first chip documenting a Road trip. Not by a long shot.
But with their destination the farthest outpost of Omega Nine—where along the way anything was possible—she wanted it to be the absolute best.
She wanted it to be— real.
When a chip was so good, that was the only word you could use. Not amazing, not fantastic. Real.
She leaned against the window so she caught a view of the ramp ahead. It ended abruptly, and she suddenly identified with that crazy-ass Seeker back there.
Accept it.
It’s out of your control.
She kept her gaze fixed on the edge of the ramp, eager for what was going to happen next.
Even if she wasn’t ready.
No one ever is their first time.
~ * ~
On the screen just below Annie’s wheel, the clear image of the portal swirled like the storms on Jupiter or the mammoth flaring sunspots on the Earth’s sun, changing colors, shape, pulsing as if a living, breathing thing.
Who knows?
Maybe it is.
The trickiest part of her job was about to happen.
On the screen, the SRV’s nose entered the portal. For a timeless moment, the SRV seemed to stretch out to an infinite length. Straight ahead, through the cockpit window, the SRV headed—seemingly—into absolutely nothing.
Even the most seasoned captain couldn’t help but be rocked by the feel and experience of this distortion of length, width, height, depth, and time.
A single moment that one poet described as a “fall into the dark backward.”
It’ll pass, Annie told herself as she watched her hands—looking strangely disconnected from her—run over the controls.
And then: speed.
It was as if the vehicle hit something that sent it rocketing even faster. There was no
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