Free Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout by John Zakour

Searcher,” I yelled.
    “I will,” Elvin yelled back. There was silence. There was more silence. Still more silence. Finally Elvin yelled, “We’re clear!”
    “You know, there’s no need to yell, you two,” Zenna noted. “You’re both less than three meters from each other.”
    “Good point, sis.”
    “Sorry, just got lost in the moment,” I said, while holding the control stick firmly to keep the shuttle straight, but gently enough to be able to respond to anything that might pop up.
    I took a deep breath. I slowed to sub-impulse speed. I took another deep breath.
    “Nice job, team,” GiS said. “But before you get too cocky, remember that all we really accomplished was to not kill ourselves or blow up our ship within the first hour of our mission. In fact, our problems have now put us fifteen minutes behind schedule.”
    “Fifteen minutes and twenty two tics,” Elvin corrected.
    “All the more reason to regroup and prepare,” GiS said.
    Part of me felt like telling GiS off. We had done more than that, I thought, but thinking a bit more, I knew he was right. All we really succeeded in doing was not ending our mission before it started.
    “Where’s Kymm’s shuttle?” I asked.
    “I was able to get reverse thrusters online so they have come to a complete stop. They are in section 23.7 of this quadrant. They are a mere 1001 kilometers away,” SC answered.
    “Actually it’s 1001…,” Elvin started to say.
    “Actually, Elvin that super exactness gets old really fast,” I said.
    “Agreed,” SC said.
    “I’m forced to agree with Baxter, Elvin. There are times when we need to be exact, but we don’t need to be exactly exact all the time,” GiS stated.
    “It’s about time you guys told him that!” Zenna chimed in. “It’s not like this is rocket science.” She stopped to think about what she said for a few tics. “Okay, maybe it is rocket science, but it’s still annoying.”
    GiS and I nodded our heads in agreement.
    Elvin shrank back a bit. “Sorry, sometimes I may get a nano, quantum, wee bit carried away.”
    “No problem,” I said.
    Kymm’s voice came booming over the intercom. “While I hate to break up your little love fest, my shuttle is dead in the water here and I’m going to need a tow into dock.”
    I looked up at the intercom.
    “Right, Kymm, I’ll be right there.”
    “What does she mean by, dead in the water? We’re in space.” Zenna said.
    “Figure of speech, Zen,” I said.
    Zenna smiled. “Oh right, I knew that!”

Chapter 10
    After what we had just been through, it was easy to use our tractor beam to tow Shuttle K-II into the Searcher. I had towed shuttles in simulators at least a hundred times. The last ninety of them I had done it flawlessly. Even though this wasn’t a simulation, the simulators were surprisingly accurate, so I was prepared. Towing is actually an easy procedure. Just latch on to the ship with your tractor beam, stay 100 meters behind the ship and 30 degrees above it as you guide it to its destination and then gently push it in. Then, after the landing bots roll it out of the way, you drop down to landing level and then land yourself. Easy as pie, or in Elvin’s case, pi. That’s what I kept telling myself.
    The only problem was my nerves. We had locked on to Kymm’s shuttle easily enough. Towing it to the sphere wasn’t much harder. We were in gravityless space. The weight of the shuttle we had locked our tractor beam on made little difference in the handling of my shuttle. I just had to remember that there was another shuttle being pulled in front of us that I had to guide into the docking bay. Whenever my nerves would kick in, telling me this wasn’t a simulation and if I mess up we’re dead, I would imagine I was still on the simulator. I know it seems lame but it worked for me. (Once I tried picturing Commander Jasmine in a bikini, but that didn’t turn out well at all.)
    The landing bay door on the base of the sphere opened