She usually felt a thrill when the spectacular image of Earth’s blue and white ball appeared on her monitor. But this time, she felt anguish that forced her to take several deep breaths. David docked with the orbiting fuel tank, filled the ship’s tanks with all they would hold, and then he filled the non-pressurized passageways with fuel. That fuel would be burned first. He moved the saturated starship clear of the orbiting tank, carefully aligned the ship on course, and fired the engines at maximum thrust. Origin began its flight on a path that took light 250 years to travel. The news that Claire and David had begun their journey flashed around the world. They received wishes of Godspeed from the other members of Team Thunder, NASA, and the President of the United States. People from many nations sent messages of encouragement in a variety of languages. Some sounded a bit like English. ▼ As the starship burned off fuel, computers gradually reduced thrust to keep acceleration exactly equal to gravity on Earth, one g.
