Sal's Reality, Port aux Basques: The Official Road Trip Thread

[fire-in-flight.livejournal.com]

"So." Sal leaned on the hood of the van, sneaking in one more cigarette before they left for Florida. It was quite the sight: the massive maroon vehicle was stuffed to the rafters with luggage, snack food, and had a full tank of gas.

"So?" Ven was staring at her from the other side of it, completely amused at his mentor's stressed outlook. In all the years he'd known the woman, he'd never seen her really lose her cool - but she was coming close.

"So we've got ourselves reservations for the eight o'clock boat. And it's ten after six and we needs to get goin else we misses our spot. An' Mu launches in exactly forty-eight hours and..."

Ven stooped down to pick up Shae, who had barrelled down the stairs with her still-yawning mother in tow. "And we'll get there just fine. Didn't you say she had a portal waiting for you in North Sydney, anyway?"

Sal extinguished her cigarette and blew the smoke away from Shae, watching Jav, Kurt, and Vic come down the stairs hauling the rest of the luggage. "Yes, yes, and yes, but still, b'y, I hates bein' late." She held out her arms in response to Shae's attempt to get closer to her grandmother. "Give her here, look..."

She was interrupted by a loud bang that sounded like it was coming from her kitchen. She looked at Shae, who was grinning.

"D'you know what all that noise is?" she asked the toddler.

"Nope," the little girl shook her head, brown curls bouncing around.

"Want t' go find out with me?"

"Yeah!"

They went up the stairs together, Sal maneuvering Shae into a piggy-back position. "I betcha it's Leeroy. It always is."

"Uncle 'Roy is funny," Shae declared. "He's always doin' somethin'." The girl had a slight Newfie twang and it amused Sal to no end.

"Yes, b'y."

They opened the front door and peered into the kitchen where Sam had Leeroy in a headlock.

"Do I want t' know?" Sal asked resignedly. "Or should I just yell at the load of ye to get yer butts downstairs 'fore I loses it?"

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[fire-in-flight.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, Sal was handing the parts of a radio to Jav.

"Now, me son," she said, emerging from the closet with the last bits of radio, "how much did Mu tell ye about what's to be expected durin' a launch?"

She grinned and hoisted herself through a window to a fire-escape that allowed her access to the roof, and motioned for Jav to follow. "Coz I can see how this might freak ye right out."

He handed her the speakers through the window, and she set to work arranging the radio on the roof and tuning it in so they could hear all the communications. She then looked up and was startled to see that almost everyone had gathered on the roof.

"What d'ye know," she said to the assembled people. "Ye beat me up here."

"...t-minus four minutes and counting..." the radio chirped.

Sal bit her lip and grinned nervously.

[i_salted_dean]

Sam studied the cottage as she got out of the van, then quirked an eyebrow as she saw Sal and Jav appear on the roof. "Fire escape."

She glanced at Mykayla as the smaller woman crutched toward Scrat, who was urging them to hurry.

"Or we could ask him for a hand." A finger pointed to where Josh hovered.

[random_xtras]

"She didn't tell me anything," he responded absently in Mando'a, his eyes locked on the shuttle.

[fire-in-flight.livejournal.com]

"Alright," Sal said. "But we're two minutes out now, so I'll have to give you the blow-by-blow description. I was a liason between the Burgites and NASA when Jeimu went up the first time, so I knows me stuff. Now we're at the two minute mark, the crew's gonna seal their helmets shut and work on their internal oxygen."

She pauses and listens intently to the radio. "By this time they've tested out the orbiter flight surfaces. As of right now, everything's good to go. They can cut out th' engines right up til there's 1 second left, but I doubt that'll happen."

Sal can't tell who's more nervous - she or Jav.

[random_xtras]

If he could have paced on the roof he would have, instead he hunkered with his eyes on the shuttle and gnawed his finger, not even looking around as Sam and Leeroy helped Scrat lift Mykayla up.

The last two Pi guys followed her, then reached down and pulled Sam up.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

They hear a very familiar voice on the radio - but they can't make out what it's saying.

"Is that Mu?" Leeroy asked Sadri, whose eyes had been fixed firmly on the horizon the entire time. Shae had crawled into her mother's lap and was watching as well.

"I think so," Sadri replied, not blinking as the one-minute mark was passed and some offhand comment about the orbiter powering the launch sequence made its way over the radio. "Goodness, I hope everything's okay." She placed one hand on Kurt's shoulder and reached for Ven's hand with the other, starting a giant amalgamated group-hug.

[random_xtras]

Suddenly Jenny was beside them as Josh hovered just over their heads with his eyes fixed on the shuttle. Something was off.... What was...?

"Something doesn't sound right."

[fire-in-flight.livejournal.com]

"They'll catch it," Sal said from where she sat beside Jav with her hand on his shoulder. "It's fine."

The radio counted down. Thirty seconds.

"Time for you to fly," Sal whispered in Mando'a.

Twenty seconds. Sal's brain processed all the things she had learned from the first time Jeimu had done this.

"Water jets," she said to Jav. "To keep the noise down."

Sixteen seconds. Still no scrub. She wondered about Josh's eerie prediction.

And though Jeimu wasn't actively communicating, she was clearly sending a message of controlled excitement and calmness.

Seven seconds. "Engines up."

Sal looked at Jav.

"Don't blink," she whispered, smiling at him. Oh, he did love her. What if something were to happen? All this and more went through Sal's head.

Time slowed down.

Three seconds...

[random_xtras]

Jav was unconciously rocking just a little, holding his breath, teeth clenched on that finger as his eyes locked on the shuttle.