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Not that we could exit the Vehicle according to Anderson's rules. I glanced at Bryan as the door closed and locked behind us, watching him as he entered the coordinates into the module. Fawkes wasn't exactly a rule follower; maybe wewouldbe breaking Anderson's rules on this flight.
I checked the coordinates and then gave the go/no-go for Flight. Bryan acknowledged the go/no-go and, without further ado, hit the launch button. He wasn't mucking about. I couldn't see the nebula that would have been forming outside the Vehicle, but for the first time ever, I think I felt it. Stars formed behind my eyelids as they usually do for this, quickly followed by massive g-forces and then weightlessness.
But before the rockets could kick back in for the second part of the flight, I felt something press up against me. Not physically, although it felt real enough. Perhaps it was all in my mind and the mind is what makes us feel. I don't know. I just know that I touched the vastness of space for a moment, and at that same moment, the vastness of space touched me back.
I was shaking when we landed. A textbook landing by the look and feel of things. But my body would not stop shivering and my skin felt cold and clammy. I pressed a hand to my chest, over my heart, willing my rapid heartbeat to settle. I blinked my eyes, sparks of light glinting and flickering behind my eyelids. My throat felt dry, and I coughed, which somehow affected my heart, making it thud harder inside my chest.
I was moments away from panicking. What the bloody hell had that been?
"Location and time?" Bryan asked, as he would usually do.
I couldn't offer a reply, though. He must have looked at me. I didn't see him do it, but in the next breath, he said, "Location and time match. Mimi?"
"I'm fine," I said.
I opened my eyes and found Bryan watching me, a grim set to his mouth and jaw.
"Flight sickness?" he asked.
I nodded. What else could it be?
"Thought you'd got over that."
"Me too," I managed, my voice sounding croaky, as though I hadn't used it in much too long.
I stared at Bryan for a moment longer, using him to anchor me to this time and space. The brief, flickering thought that Time had more to do with what had just happened than a bout of flight sickness was there and gone again.
I sucked in a breath of air and felt my body relax as if the moment had passed and I was safe again. None of us were safe, I thought, looking up at the International Orange sine wave on the main viewscreen. It was large and irregular and close to tearing this time apart.
"That can't be good," I said, nodding toward it.
"No," Bryan acknowledged, starting to work on it. He hadn't even mentioned leaving the Vehicle, but then, Grumpy was stroking his pistol where it rested in a thigh holster on his thick black-clad leg and Black had turned his chair around so he could watch us both closely.
They expected us to cause a problem, and so when neither of us mentioned exiting the Vehicle and just got on with the job and fixed the rip in Time, they both relaxed.
And that was when the door to the MPCV opened without anyone issuing a command.
