"Well," Neil sighed, running a hand through his hair and placing his hands on his hips as the bay door opened. "She runs hard and jiggles when you hit the thrusters. But that pretty much describes the substitute university instructor I lost my virginity to. I think I can handle it." Within a minute they were inside the cramped ship, dark and nearly too short to walk through. Multiple levers of unknown purpose jutted out of the wall at random intervals. There were only four seats at the helm, and each were sunken into the floor to allow a normal sized human a full area to sit.

He placed his hands on the steering levers, and noted even those had a ragged, sandpaper-like quality to them, bits of leather peeling off from frequent use. He'd driven enough stolen vehicles to know if he lifted his hands up he'd see dark smears on his palms. "If she blows up halfway there, just remember this wasn't my idea." He quipped, though he was just trying to lighten the mood. He wouldn't have gotten in it if it didn't look safe enough. [i]Granted, safe enough for me is hazardous for most.[/i]

He saw her raised eyebrow and he returned a smile.

"We got luck on our side. The babe on the side reminds me of Zalli..." He said affectionately, and pulling the 3rd lever to the left, the junker began to jiggle and shake, before wafts of smoke suddenly billowed outwards from an unseen porthole. Yanking the rudder and keel thrusters, it slowly began to lift upwards as Neil entered the exiting codes. "By the way, do you remember anything that happened last night? Felt like I was hit by a Kerminian BulGor," he said, referring to those legendary horned animals that could send small tanks flying from their charges. 

Soon the rectangular mining junker was out in open space, moving at its fastest pace, which was still about a thousand kilometers per hour slower than the [i]Highlander[/i]'s cruising sublight speed.

[@Penny]