A LITTLE BIT MORE THEN :

We left the flight deck and exited Albatross while Dick headed off toward the cafeteria to inform the rest of the crew what we were up to. Nick and I crossed the taxiway toward the open rear loading ramp of the Martian starship parked opposite. I was the first to enter the hull, with Nick following so close on my heels that when I suddenly stopped just inside the hull, he bumped into me.

“I don’t suppose you thought to bring a flashlight,” I said, just before the whole ship was suddenly filled with light, blinding us for a few seconds.

“That’s interesting! Next question: how do we find the flight deck on this thing? There are corridors leading off in all directions.”

“It’s usually toward the front, Drew,” Nick said with heavy sarcasm.

“Let’s tallyho toward the front then, shall we, Watson?”

Nick stepped past me and walked down a wide corridor to the left of us, which appeared to head toward the bow of the ship.

“Follow me,” he said.

Having nothing better to do, I did as he commanded. The corridor seemed incredibly long with many doors on either side. After what seemed a very long time and a great distance traversed, Nick led me up a short flight of steps and into a short corridor, then through a door into a room filled with monitors and instrument panels. There were no launch chairs for the intrepid, brave pilots to sit in while expertly piloting their ship as it blasted through the universe. Instead, there was a comfy-looking semicircular couch facing the flight deck windows.

“What the hell?” Nick and I said as one as we stood transfixed for what seemed like quite a while.

“Terrific; just as I’d hoped.”

Nick and I spun around to find Dick standing in the doorway with the rest of the crew behind him. He raced forward and grabbed something off the dashboard. Then he turned and held it out to me.

“Put this on.”

I stepped backward. “What the hell is it?”

“It’s a headset. It will allow you to talk to the ship’s computer through your mind. Given about thirty seconds, or in your case probably quite a bit longer, it will tune in to read your thought processes, which will allow you to interface with the ship’s computer and command it to do whatever you want it to do.”

“This I can do?”

“Yes, I think so.”