"Yes," she answers. "That ship is called the U.S.S. Farragut. She's big enough to park the Starfalcon inside and still have room for ten more of ships her size. She's also taking people back from Genettha. So that means we'll take two hours in hyperdrive just catching up with her, and then we will actually land this ship inside that one. Then we will unload the cargo and get the cargo delivery forms signed by Captain Moseley, the person who runs the Farragut. Anyway, I've gotta get going so we can launch on time. We wouldn't want the Navigator to get in trouble for being at the Control Room late, would we?"
"Hey," you say, "would anybody mind if I saw the Control Room?"
"You mean while we launch?"
"I just wondered what it would look like. Will you get in trouble if I came along?"
"Not really," Muldoon answers. She pauses, then adds: "unless you talk during launch. Talking takes my mind off the flying whenever I launch, and besides, I've got to keep a continuous commentary on what I'm doing so that the flight records are kept up to date."
"I promise I won't talk," you say.
"Good. Once we're up in orbit, I can introduce you to the crew and maybe show you around the ship."
"That sounds nice," you say.
"Believe me,
we'll enjoy visiting with you and the rest of the passengers more than
you think. Most of the time, we're just flying loads of cargo, and
you can't talk to a load of cargo too easily. There are rumors of
us never leaving passengers alone, and that's true because we like to meet
new people. Anyway, there's less than five minutes before we've gotta
launch. We'd better hurry."
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