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"Nervous?"

The voice caught Charlie off guard, pulling her away from her thoughts. Reyna looked at her from her seat across the deck with a raised eyebrow.

"No," Charlie replied indignantly. "Why?"

"Because you're tapping," Reyna said, pointing down to Charlie's hand. Charlie followed her indication and did, in fact, see herself tapping her fingers against her thighs.

The truth was, shewasnervous. Not scared, exactly, but nervous in the way you get before a test you've studied for but haven't taken yet. She'd been studying the stars her entire adult life, and learned even more growing up in the Beckman household. But to actually stretch it beyond what any human had ever accomplished? To be the first one to travel this way? Charlie absolutely knew she was the first human to ever do...anyof this. But up until now, maybe it was the fact that it hadn't been staring her in the face through a viewport at the aft of the ship.

She'd never studied to be an astronaut because it had never been part of her goal. But now she wished she had taken advantage of the free courses JPL had offered employees to give them a look-see into the life of an astronaut on a spacewalk. She was worried she was going to make a fool of herself in front of the entire Emberkind crew.

"I'm fine." Charlie could hear the higher pitch in which she uttered that sentence. Shewasfine. She just needed some time to wrap her head around the open space concept. And being out in it.

"She said after the longest hesitation known in Emberkind history," Reyna quipped, her mouth twitching into a teasing smile.

"You know, in my defense, I actuallyamcommitting history here for Earth, I'll have you know," Charlie retorted. "I'll be the first human to do the whole open space... travel... thing."Eloquent, Charlie, good job, she thought to herself. Way to defend the human race.

This time it was Maren who piped up from two seats to the right of Charlie. "Actually, that's not true," she said brightly. "Despite the non-contact status of Earth, we've had a few humans interact with the Coalition and participate in inter-galactic space travel in many forms!"

Great. So now she was just nervous for no god damn reason.

"That's true," Reyna added, looking from Maren to Charlie. "She's right. So it seems you might actually just be a little... scared?"

Charlie actually grunted under her breath before she blew out from her mouth, making her bangs flutter against her forehead. "Okay, fine, you know what?" Charlie threw up her hands in defeat. "I'm not one to mince words. Yeah, I'm scared, okay? I'm actually scared shitless!" Charlie saw Reyna's eyebrows raise high up her forehead. "I mean, that's open space out there!" She pointed out the viewport towards the back of the shuttle. "That's.... that's...." What was it? Vast? Boundless? A sweeping cascade of never-ending nothingness?

"It's incredible," Reyna provided, and Charlie looked back at her. Gone was the teasing smile and the quirk of her eyebrow. But there was still something there, something in her choice to use 'incredible.' And Charlie realized, she was right. It was incredible. It just needed a perspective change to see it that way.

"Yeah," she responded, feeling her heartbeat slow and her tensions calm. "I guess you're right."

"Don't worry. It'll feel like being in a flight machine from Earth. That's what was told and put into the Coalition history texts, at least," Maren provided, giving Charlie something to latch on to.

"You'll have to tell us if they got that right or not," Reyna said. "Besides, it's not like you haven't been flying through open space for the past two weeks anyway." Then she winked at Charlie.

Well, damn. She hadn't thought about it likethat. And, gratefully, that made Charlie feel even better. Calmer. Shehadalready been doing this, just in a much bigger vessel. With smaller windows further apart.

Reyna brought theokayagain, allowing Charlie to feel more than ready to handle this trip.

"You're right," Charlie said honestly. "Thank you."

Reyna nodded. "I'll always be around to try and listen, and to help set the record straight if you need a little," she paused while she seemed to think about her next word. "Assistance." Her smile returned and Charlie couldn't help but roll her eyes at Reyna's tease.

"Yes, thank you for your services, Captain," Charlie remarked flatly.

"My most sincere pleasure." Charlie knew they were teasing each other again, but something in the way Reyna responded, and the look that followed that captured Charlie's eyes for just a moment longer than she thought was needed, made Charlie consider her a moment beyond the job and tasks of a Captain. She began to wonder what Reyna was like, as aperson.

After that, Reyna went to the bow of the shuttle and spoke with the pilot to discuss the course. The rest of the crew began to file in around her. Torvax took a position near the pilot with the focused stillness of someone who had done this hundreds of times. Kess settled into the medical station with her equipment already laid out. Maren had already been at the engineering console, running pre-flight checks, and continued to complete her list. Cael was in the seat furthest from Charlie, his posture stiff and his attention conspicuously elsewhere.

Minutes later, it seemed everything was in order for the shuttle's launch. Torvax was the one to call out the launch tasks as they officially started the mission.

"Gangway up."

"Gangway up," a crew member near the aft of the shuttle called out.

"Sublight thrusters set for ignition."

"Ignition set, Torvax," came a voice, this time from the pilot.

"Directional assist for departure 'go' on my mark."