Galactic Axia Adventure 1: Escape to Destiny Read Online Free PDF Page B

out there on the farm?” the boy wanted to know.
    “Mrs. Hassel and I go to Jasper Station four times a year for a week of refresher and qualification training.”
    “You do?”
    “Sure. Don’t you remember when we were gone on vacation for a week last month?” the farmer asked. “We weren’t out shopping for corn seed, you know.”
    “Do you mean to say Mrs. Hassel is a pilot too?”
    “You bet your life she is,” Mr. Hassel answered. “She has more flight time than I do. She was with the fleet, you know.”
    Delmar had no idea the old couple were flyers. He sat in the passenger seat of the flitter and strapped in while Mr. Hassel performed a preflight check of the flitter’s systems. When he was satisfied the craft was flight-worthy, he looked over at the boy and told him to hold on to his hat, they were on their way.
    It only took a minute for Mr. Hassel to receive departure clearance from Keeler operations. Then with a flick of his left hand on the axis ball and a gentle nudge on the throttle bar, the flitter shot straight up into the air. Delmar felt the ground suddenly fall away from him and soon found himself face-to-face with one of the most beautiful clouds he had ever seen.
    Mr. Hassel looked over at Delmar and smiled. “This is a better classroom, isn’t it?”
    “You bet it is!” Delmar laughed. “I’ve never been in one of these things before!” Mr. Hassel advanced the throttle and the flitter began to glide gracefully through the clouds.
    “Anyway,” Mr. Hassel said, picking back up on the lecture he had interrupted yesterday, “a by-product of a ship’s drive is both the canceling of inertia inside the ship and the creation of a repulsion field around the outside that prevents collisions with the debris of space. That’s why you didn’t feel the gravity pull against your body when we accelerated on take-off. The drive on this ship is different from the early ships which used what was referred to as a bed-springs drive system, so called because of the array of rods sticking out the rear of the ship.”
    Mr. Hassel reached over and took Delmar’s left hand and placed it on the throttle bar hanging from the ceiling of the flitter. “Control of the ships is through a simple throttle and axis-ball control system. The throttle consists of an iron bar hanging from the ceiling similar to what one sees in old steam locomotives. It’s common in all Axia ships, from the largest cruiser right down to this simple flitter. Go ahead and give it a little nudge.”
    Delmar pushed the throttle bar forward ever so slightly. Mr. Hassel spun the axis ball and nosed the flitter down below the clouds. Delmar could see the ground far below them racing by at great speed.
    “The axis ball is mounted next to the control chair and is rolled by the pilot’s left hand to change the attitude and direction of the ship,” Mr. Hassel continued. “You can’t reach it from there, but watch this.”
    While Delmar watched, Mr. Hassel used the very tips of the fingers on his left hand to caress the axis ball. The flitter moved from side-to-side in a gentle sweeping motion, reminding Delmar of the swing on his own front porch.
    “It must be dangerous out there in space,” Delmar interjected. “How does the fleet protect themselves?”
    “Of course, this flitter isn’t armed,” Mr. Hassel answered, “but weaponry aboard line ships consist of various rays, from the small swivel-mounts all the way up to the large ray that runs along the axis of the ship.”
    A voice over the headset instructed Mr. Hassel to ascend to five-thousand feet to clear the way for an incoming deep-space transport. He answered while at the same time rolling the axis ball back just a touch. The flitter nosed upward and leveled off at the requested altitude.
    Delmar watched his teacher operate the simple controls. I could do that , he thought. A few minutes later a large transport ship passed below them, apparently heading for the field