Free Josiah West 1: Kaleidoscope by C. T. Christensen Page B

a double set of drive coils with one set oriented for a heavy reverse effort. Almost all drive coil type vessels designed for planetary surface operations had the ability to lift straight up against a 1G gravity field using the coils even if the ship was fully loaded; the problem was that the power levels that were required to do that created the largest possible danger zone. So, for the last thirty years, all drive coil vessels short of deep-space-only types were fitted with a GS system on the underside that cancels any gravity field and gives the vessel a “neutral buoyancy.” This allowed the drive coils to be able to maneuver the ship in any direction with minimum power settings when deep in a gravity-well.
     
    Parente placed her left hand on the left attitude grip and swept a look to the left side of the boat, “Clear left.” Josiah did his check to the right, “Clear right.” They lifted straight up for 200 meters and then forward away from the buildings before swinging north to intercept the Tampa area climb corridor that went straight up 200 kilometers.
    “Landing pads up.”
    Josiah pushed the slide switch at the end of the center console to the upward position. In a few seconds the six indicators alongside the switch went from a blue ‘DOWN’ to a yellow ‘UP’. “Landing pads are up.”
    Josiah noted her handling of the ship with critical attention at this point. Most flying was done on auto-pilot because of the speeds involved and the usual inability to see any problems before you were on top of them. Takeoff and landing were the two parts of a trip when the pilot got to actually fly the ship. A vehicle designed to move in three axes without atmospheric influence had a control system that required skilled coordination to say the least. Josiah was pleased to see the smoothness and skill that she displayed. A natural , he thought.
    They entered the climb corridor at the west side and rotated to a vertical climb in the “09” slot or sometimes called the “9 o’clock” slot that was reserved for high speed or critical traffic. The “Admiral” call sign gave them critical status and Parente had taken advantage of it. On entering the 09 slot and beginning the climb, she switched to auto-pilot and watched the screens as the boat stabilized its alignment and accelerated to 1000kph. “OTC this is Admiral two-zero, I am in the zero-niner slot at one-triple zero, say traffic my slot.”
    “Admiral two-zero acknowledge zero-niner at one-triple zero. Traffic times two your slot.”
    “OTC, Admiral two-zero say range to traffic my slot.”
    “Admiral two-zero, range is five-zero and eight-zero at one-triple zero, no conflict.”
    “Admiral two-zero.”
    She moved her elbows back on the armrests and interlaced her fingers in front of her while her eyes kept sweeping the screens, “That matches my readings. ETA to Starline is 58 minutes from lift-off.”
    Josiah turned his head in her direction, “My readouts say something closer to 54 minutes.”
    She kept her eyes on her screens, “A dose of reality, sir, I figure metal-to-metal, and those Starline TC people tend not to be the brightest bulbs on the string. Hopefully, our Admiral call sign will help.”
    Ten minutes later they were reaching the top of the climb corridor. “Admiral two-zero, transfer to Starline direct as filed, monitor OTC on one-niner-two.”
    “Admiral two-zero, transferring to Starline direct and switching to channel one-niner-two.”
    She did nothing but watch as the auto-pilot followed the flight plan, aligned the boat onto the traffic corridor to the Starline Facility, changed com channels and ran the drive up to 5G’s. Fifteen minutes later the power came off the drive and the boat rotated for deceleration. She watched as the nav system made its calculations and, at the calculated moment, ran the drive back up to 5G’s. Thirteen minutes later they were coasting up to the mid-Atlantic synchronous orbit of the Starline