She locked the helmet onto her suit and scrunched herself into the box. The club didn’t have time to secure passenger seats and install them, so the foam padding inside was her only protection. She gave a thumbs-up to Luis, who peered in. He tapped on his head. No radio communications today. She opened the helmet’s visor.

“If you reach behind you, through the foam, you’ll find a harness,” he instructed. “Strap in and stay that way until you feel the second stage fall off. You’ll be floating before that, but stay buckled in or you might get hurt during the separation.”

“Got it,” Welga said, looking her brother in the eyes with all the confidence she could gather.

“One more thing,” he said, then stared at his feet in silence.

“Luis, if you’re going to say something about god, so help me I will—”

“I love you.”

Tears tickled her eyes. “I love you too, little brother.”

Luis gave her the world’s shittiest salute and sealed her in. She closed the helmet and strapped herself against the foam cushioning. In seconds, sweat drenched every centimeter of her body from her scalp to her toes. Space suits. She could not live like this. She powered the suit on and activated the fan. It would recycle her evaporated sweat into drinking water, but she had only two spare battery packs to power it. She couldn’t afford to expend them on cooling more than necessary. The suit, like everything in her gear pack, was built for emergencies, not a substitute for a passenger launch.

The crate lifted and swayed like an amusement park ride, making Welga glad for the restraints. Light leaked through the cracks in the wooden slats. She couldn’t help yelling when they dropped her with a thud. Christ, had they forgotten that this one had a human in it? They pulled, slid, wiggled, and bumped her until darkness blanketed the box on all sides.

Silence. Stillness. She could almost hear her heartbeat.

She hadn’t imagined this was how she’d take her first trip to outer space.

Engines rumbled to life. The jets blew first, shooting her upward with a sensation similar to a sub-orb.

Then a roar penetrated into her bones, and the engines thrust her backward. Her teeth rattled. The force crushed the air from her lungs. She couldn’t lift her wrist to check the clock on the suit’s exterior. Hell, she couldn’t move any part of her body. A giant hand pressed her into the foam until it hugged her like a dear friend.

She fell forward against the straps, her stomach dropping—no, floating! Her sense of direction went haywire, then the second stage kicked in and pressed her back again. When that ended, the absolute stillness stunned her. She floated with a perfect neutral buoyancy that transcended her best scuba dive. Her teeth felt like shaken ice cubes, but her mind soared.