Emily is a bit nervous

The door to the shuttle closed shut with the nine science team member and Captain Delvok and the engine roared to life. With the initial jerk, the science team was off the ground and on their way to the Massachusetts.

Emily grabbed your hand and squeezed it nervously.

"The initial dampeners should have made that jerk feel like nothing." She whispered in your ear.

"This is an older model shuttle, the computer's probably getting a little slow in it's old age. Nothing to fear." You respond.

Emily loosened her grip a little before Captain Delvok corrected you.

"Incorrect, Mr. Mitchell. The computer is more likely to fail catastrophically before it becomes "slow" as you put it. It's more likely that improper maintenance on the shuttle's secondary systems is the cause for the insufficient dampening."

Emily tightened her grip on your hand out of fear now.

"I know, Capt. I was just trying to help Emily out with her fear of flying in a shuttle."

"Your fear is illogical, Miss Sandrine. The improper maintenance will only provide a minor annoyance and we will more than likely not suffer any casualties as a result. Mr. Mitchell, while I applaud your attempt to calm Miss Sandrine, I do not understand why you chose a more serious and potentially lethal scenario to calm her."

Her grip loosened again.

"Not to insult her, Sir, or any others, but her field is in geology and I assumed that any believable excuse would calm her down if I said it with enough confidence."

"Interesting. Miss Sandrine, did you experience less stress given Mr. Mitchell's incorrect explanation?"

Her grip tightened again. It was nice having blood flow while it lasted.

"I uh... I did feel better... Sir." Her voiced trailed off to nothing at the end, she was so nervous. Hopefully Captain Delvok will just assume this is still from the small jerk and not that she's actually scared of him.

"Fascinating. I will make a note of that." His attention turned back to his datapad.

Emily and you look at each other as if communicating to each other with a single look. You the look out the front view screen as the Massachusetts becomes clearer and clearer.

She's beautiful and you'll be calling her home for quite a while.