Ætherglow #11

Time to take one step out of your shell and attempt friendship, you think. Easier said than done, how do you just talk to a person? You’ve already both noticed each other, so you just decide to walk up to him.

“Um, hi. I’m Aydan.”

“Yeah, we went to school together, right? I’m Vik, uh, he/they.”

“Any pronoun,” you say.

Time for conversation is cut short by the boarding call, it’s time to go. You walk up to the gate. As a technopath candidate, you no longer need to scan your personal key. You connect your interface to the device remotely and submit your boarding pass.

Once on the elevator you get your first look at the craft. It’s a tiny automated short range shuttle, an LTS-4200, common for flight site-to-site on the Moon or from the Moon to the L1 or L2 clusters. It’s only about 10 meters tall, a cylinder wrapped in insulation that shines gold by the spaceport lights, with a cluster of four spherical modules on top.

You climb in and find the tunnel leading to your section. Like most craft in its family, the 4200 is sectioned off into smaller pressure vessels each carrying two passengers. Since it services only short range flights, there is barely enough room in your half of the compartment for even a tiny femboy like you.

Climbing in after you is your podmate for the flight—it’s Vik! Much better than some complete stranger.

“Looks like we’re stuck with each other,” he says, though smiling.

You strap yourself in, fastening several belts over you that automatically clamp down tighter afterward. Now there is nothing to do but wait for liftoff, staring out at the endless grey desert outside the spaceport from the little circular window above your head.