NEO-FWLS 2.8 - The Run by Stefan Gagne Several star systems and a wide, wide expanse of nothing. That's how far I had to cover in five minutes for the run. I strapped in, clenching my teeth as the neurostimulants were injected into my right arm. The shuttle's engines warmed up, running several self diagnostics on the warp coils and hyperspace drives. The self-buckling elastic webbing wrapped itself around my torso, in front and behind. I checked with the computer, to make sure the cargo was secure and kept at the correct temperature levels. It was absolutely crucial that the cargo be maintained at acceptable levels; my fate depended on it. Nerves on edge as the stimulants mixed with perfectly innocent blood cells, I breathed a silent prayer, braced myself, and tapped the LAUNCH button. The shuttle tore through the atmosphere, leaving a smoking crater behind on the launching pad. The stimulants kicked in, disorienting my brain enough to make it ignore the incredible G forces. After leaving the planet's grip of gravity, the webbing tightened, holding me into my seat. The main window, the windscreen as it were if there were any wind to screen, went completely black to keep me from seeing the sickening light show as my ship shot through hyperspace at warp speeds. I tried to keep a firm eye on the navcomp and keep from passing out as my brain swam in a sea of synaptic fluids. I had to do some very fast computations to avoid slamming into some planets. As usual, the company hadn't programmed the nav computer correctly. The timer ticked down, at the 2 minute mark, reaching the dead-end limit of zero. Strange displacement- induced visions danced by my range of vision. I swallowed them down and concentrated on the green blip, the destination, as it approached at unimaginable speeds. I grabbed desparately to my spinal column to keep it from shooting out of my back. The chair slammed more stimulants into me as the ship lurched out of warp and reentered pure hyperspace, then slipped out of that with a sickening groan. My body was in five places at once, each place being defined as 'not fun'. The webbing tightened even more, to the point where I couldn't breathe, chest compressed as the ship flew screaming down into the new atmosphere, preparing for a hopefully soft landing at the coordinates. Various traumatic childhood memories picked the worst time to surface. Tears, phlegm and saliva ran together in pools at the back of my helmet. I comforted my sanity, which was busy panicking and crying like a baby who had just been terrorized by an anal thermometer, and grasped the armrest in an iron-hard grip for impact. WHAM. My inner ear mixed around like a cuisinart and my bone marrow turned into white water rapids as the ship made a rickety three point landing outside the house. I hit the RELEASE button, and the webbing retracted, as well as the other restraints and visors. I jumped out of the cockpit, falling upwards against gravity. Clutching the grass to keep from falling off the world, I stumbled around to the rear, and pulled the rectangular box out of the cargo hold. Pausing only to vomit out a third my guts out on the lawn, I lurched on. I would have retched up the rest, but I had a deadline. I checked the clock. Thirty seconds, as far as my blurred vision could tell. The ground bobbed up and down as my system tried to cope once more with normal gravity, and I made a lunge for the doorbell, falling sideways, but managing to hit it. Ding dong! Creeeak. "Hello, Lightning Pizza," I rasped, forking over the box. "I made it in the five minute limit, so the pizza's not free. You owe me seven dollars for an extra cheese and a pepperoni." "I didn't order a pepperoni," the girl at the door said. "I wanted a supreme pizza. Can you take them back and get my real order?" I fainted.