The wrenching, tugging feeling deep within her gut had kept her awake despite the sedative she took. She curled up in her bunk and groaned under the yoke of this agony. Cold sweat glistened on her brow and her crimson curls were plastered to her face by it. She felt cramps in her calves and her hands were shaking. Gritting her teeth and knotting her brow into a strained expression she finally yielded and got out of the bunk, walked across her quarters, and accessed the holo-control to ready her ship.
***
Oppold on the far edge of Metropolis region. She would have to take thirty-four jumps to her destination – the Amarr Throne Worlds – and then back again. Any other pilot would have felt disheartened by the prospect, but not her, not under these conditions. The leaden feeling of sleep deprivation was gone, and her body shivered with anticipation while her ship aligned with a slowness that only increased her elation about what was to come.
'Warpdrive active' came the expected announcement from the ship's systems. The simple message was a promise of ecstasy for her.
Two hundred and fifty million metric tons of ship mass. A cargo hold crammed full of products up to the last cubic meter. She felt all of it until deep within the core of her being. The sensation filled the hole she had felt inside of her with a delightful tingle. A blissful smile appeared on her face as she floated in the liquid cradle of her capsule while the warp field started to form into a wave that would catapult her ship through space within seconds now. When the release came she felt like screaming with joy. Nothing around her mattered anymore, she was the massive bulk of her ship moved by forces of stellar proportions. She gave herself over to the flooding of her senses.
When the ship slowed down at the first gate her body relaxed in preparation for the next sensation.
She barely registered the massive expanse of the stargate structure, so lost was she in the afterglow of the warp and the expectation of what was to come. The brainwave monitors outside her capsule flared in the second before her ship dematerialized and shot lightyears across space. Her mind screamed in rapture and her body shook uncontrollably when she landed in the next system on her route. She would have laughed ecstatically if she weren't in her capsule. The mental impulses of the reaction coursed through the ship's systems and made lights and control consoles pulse with energy throughout the vessel.
Evettullur … Hjortur … Illuin … thirty more after that. It was like a promise of ravishing excitement for hours to come. Enough to make her bear the deprivation that would await at her destination, when her cargo would be unloaded and her holds filled with new materials to bring back into the wormhole. After that she would have the pleasure of jumping all the way back again. Even now the prospect drew a smile on her face while the Orca aligned again.
'Warpdrive active' She prepared herself for the next plunge.
***
'She looks awful' Cedrien said with concern as he looked at the sleeping pale woman in the sickbay bed.
'I've seen it before with capsuleers.' the medic said 'She's jump-hooked. Often happens if you take too many long trips with heavy-mass ships. The sensory overload produces endorphins.' He checked a readout. 'It's like an addiction.'
'So what can you do about it?' Cedrien asked
The medic shrugged 'Keep her heavily sedated and on intravenous sustenance for a week. I'd recommend having her fly only light ships for a month or so after. That should ween her off'
Cedrien nodded and sighed. 'Well, at least we now have all the materials to start building that carrier we had planned on for months'
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