Free Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) by P. S. Power

and braised strips of beef in a wine sauce.
What she needed to do was test the idea, and the final project might well be
huge, as far as work went...
    Still,
it was a thing for her to try later, if she got a chance and didn't mind
failing. Right now she had to find their ship. Or to be more correct, Terry
went off to find it. It wasn't hard, since it was right in the middle of the
landing area, waiting for them. One of the men in his black space jumpsuit
jogged over, a clipboard in his hands. It made him look pretty official. He had
an Austran accent and looked to be in his sixties or so, as well as being
familiar. She'd met him before, she thought. Or at least seen him.
    In
a restaurant in Austra, of all places.
    "We
got word you were coming! Welcome everyone. This is the transport vessel
Cloudcraft. Today we'll be going up to the Ranford, the Flagship, for a partial
crew transfer. It will take one hour and fifteen minutes to complete that task,
so, naturally, once we get there, you all have to rush off as quickly as you
can so that we can get the others on board." He winked at the kids who all
just looked at him somberly. After a bit he cleared his throat, clearly feeling
a little uneasy. They didn't smile or laugh at all. "You don't have a stay
length scheduled... I take it that you're planning to leave by space
drop?" He grinned as if it was a joke, but Karen waved her hand at him a
bit, as they all stood there.
     She
stood very officially, with her hands behind her back, looking almost military
herself.
    "I
don't know that term?"
    The
man actually laughed, but it sounded like a good natured thing, not mocking or
mean. Tiera decided to like this man, if she had the chance. He seemed
friendly.
    "A
space drop is what we call coming back to the planet using only the new
shields. Only a handful of people have even tried it. The idea is clearly
insane, after all."
    Tiera
thought about it for a minute and then looked at the kids, who seemed to be a
little bored, if she were going to be honest.
    "We
should do that then. This is a special trip, and we'll all be outside anyway,
part of the time, testing the new speaking units."
    The
older man shook his head a bit, clearly not thinking she was doing anything but
playing with him.
    "Well,
if you do, remember to do it during the daytime. Impacting with a planet at
those speeds could really hurt."
    She
looked at the ramp to the Cloudcraft and that was enough to get him to go that
way, the conversation done already, or nearly.
    "These
vehicles are similar in many ways to the Noram Fast Craft. Have any of you
ridden on one of those?" He spoke while walking, but didn't stop to let
them chat about their experiences. "You won't feel anything much inside
them, but the speeds traveled at are incredible. Tens of thousands of miles per
hour. Most of the trip will be taken up by waiting and very slow moving
maneuvers, like docking. We do it that way for safety reasons. Do you have any
questions?"
    It
turned out they did, but they also got to sit while they quizzed the man. The
inside of the craft was done up very efficiently, but the seats were large and
very comfortable, and, of course, all done up in a nice orange color. That was
Space Fleet though. A lot of things up there were orange. It was pretty
much a given. That or some color that went along with it well. Copper, light
yellow, even brown, as long as it had a bit of a pumpkin overtone.
    That
would be the seats, she realized, glancing at her arm rest. It wasn't too bad,
but the way that they were set up, she ended up being alone. Near the front
too. The back of the craft, which was smaller than she normally kept her Fast
Craft, except on missions, was filled first, but one of the seats was already
taken, by a very common looking young woman that smiled sweetly at Terry when
he filed in first, ending up right next to her. She was to the norm for her
type, with decently dark skin, dark hair and brown eyes. The only thing that
really stood