"Come on! Let's get it down on paper!"
The rocket lay huddled in the belly of the launching tower, her needle-like body quiet, waiting, her control panels flashing signals and instructions to her masters, her circuits buzzing with the tenseness of the seconds before blast off. The steady counting drummed through her wires, tripped relays, and her masters flipped the switches, pressed the buttons and pulled the levers that readied her for her maiden flight. Eight seconds, seven seconds. Six seconds, five, four. The switch was jerked upward and she felt the power beginning to move in her vitals.
Three, two, one!
The driver button slammed home, her rockets roared out in ferocious birth, snarling, roaring, growing with each passing second. She settled back upon her rockets as if in protest at their screaming growth, then was forced to give ground and the ship moved up the shaft. Her rotating band and bourrelet fins dug deep into the spiraling grooves, her body began to turn ... slowly, so slowly. Then she suddenly leaped forward, her hull whirling upward; the shaft raced by in dizzy swiftness, her rockets roared louder and she raised her spinning body further. She was free! Her body hurtled up and up, her needle nose straight and true, her velocity leaping forward....
"Off rockets! Set up emergency interstellar drive for instant activation if needed. Signal in scanning screens. Activate force field and take a breather, boys. We're on our way and the blast off was perfect."
The pilot's mechanical sounding voice droned through the speaker in the moon-bound observation room and simultaneously the air was ruffled by the deep exhale of relief, the rustle of slowly relaxing bodies strung tight with the hopeful tenseness of the blast off.
Mars gazed up at the disappearing silver streak, his blue eyes intent, glistening with pride and excitement. "I never thought I'd see the day," he breathed. "Look at her, she's going straight and true. She's the most beautiful thing I ever saw."
Bronsen's face relaxed into a happy grin as the gleaming rocket hurtled up out of sight. He glanced at Mars and gave him a companionable smile.
"Even more beautiful than Mars that day? Or the old rockets?"