Aru chriped an affirmative and Corwin set course. He’d never been technically inclined, but his lifestyle change had made him learn; he was starting to get the hang of this star ship pilot thing. He punched in the last of the coordinates and kept an eye on the readouts for an estimated course calculation time.
“She’ll be ready for Transit in … 15 minutes, Aru. I’ll be in my quarters.”
The hardest thing Corwin had encountered in getting used to the space-faring life was how incredibly slow it was. He’d grown up on tales of glory and excitement where heroes zoomed around the stars and Transit took only seconds, and interplanetary explorers could find wonders on a half dozen planets in a week. The truth of it was quite different.
Corwin’s inner twelve year old had been very dejected to discover that even the shortest Transits generally took a complete day at a minimum, and travel times of between one and two weeks weren’t uncommon.
He was lucky that this relatively unknown world he had to visit wasn’t complicated to reach; he’d be Transiting for about three days. Three days which he would have to spend catching up on paperwork for his job at the university. “Yup, it sure is a glamorous life,” he said aloud. Aru twittered inquisitively. “No, nothing, just talking to myself Aru.”