Free Asteroid Crisis: Star Challengers Book 3 by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers Page B

that had blown up the Eye in the Sky satellite. She decided to stay away from those.
    Another screen displayed a curved line that looked like the course the ship had flown from the Moon. Swoop symbols around a cluster of knobs implied direction—a way to choose movement. A set of colored graphs was … velocity? She found a lever below the propulsion systems and pushed it gently as if afraid it might give her an electric shock. “Let’s see if this does what I hope it does.”
    “Again, I advise caution, Cadet Wren,” Fox admonished.
    Then beneath JJ the hatch slid shut and sealed. She felt the starfish ship moving, vibrating, and making a faint grinding sound. “The good news is, I think I’ve discovered the docking controls.”
    The starfish ship detached from the ISSC with a puff of decompression from the node room, and an automatic burst of exhaust propelled it away from the station. The change in movement bumped her from one side of the cockpit to the other.
    “I’m not doing that!” she said. “Automated systems have taken over.”
    Sensors were guiding the starfish ship away from the ISSC—hopefully, without causing any damage. She had seen how easily the stations solar panels and observational instruments could be damaged. Her mind was whirling. She remembered the cockpit gauges and systems inside the Piper Arrow that she had flown with Uncle Buzz. “The controls aren’t insanely complicated,” JJ said, sounding as if she were trying to convince herself. Voices were shouting over the helmet radio, and she transmitted back, “I’m doing what I can—just let me think for a minute.”
    As the screen images showed the ship drifting farther from the space station, she couldn’t find any override. When no better idea sprang to mind, she decided to try the propulsion systems herself and see if she could fly the thing. Once she got far enough away from the space station, she would have all the room in the solar system to maneuver—as long as she could get back to the ISSC. She had a few hours of air in her suit. That gave her time to solve the problem.
    With a little experimentation, matching the directional symbols she had memorized from Dyl’s cards, she could make the ship move along the three axes, just as she had moved the waldo arm in the Challenger Center. She cautiously tested the alien systems and was pleased that she could tilt the starfish ship left and right, back and forth, up and down. When she tried to accelerate, the vessel began to spin like a Ninja throwing star—a shuriken—but she didn’t feel dizzy. In fact, the control chamber seemed balanced like a gyroscope. She flew farther away into space, then shifted direction to head back toward the looming green, blue, and white planet Earth. It looked so beautiful in front of her.
    “Just don’t try to shoot me down,” JJ said into her helmet radio. “I’m in control here—sort of.” She didn’t want to try anything fancy, but the starfish ship flew and spun. This vessel had traveled from the Moon to Earth in only a few hours, an amazing speed! But she wanted to remain in the vicinity of Earth.
    Fortunately, the controls didn’t really require her to think like an alien. With a lot of trial and error, JJ figured out how to guide the starfish ship. She found herself feeling giddy. At the speed she was going, the planet below and the distant space station moved at a blur, and it made her lightheaded. She decided to take a trip around the Earth, orbiting above the clouds and continents. She had no way of knowing how much fuel the craft had, but surely the Kylarn pilot must have expected to fly back to the Moon. This little side trip should be nothing by comparison.
    She watched the view through the screens, studying her lovely home planet, with its peaceful wisps of clouds, the familiar outlines of Africa, Europe, North America. Traveling westward, opposite the direction of the ISSC orbit, she saw the expanse of the Pacific Ocean,