Flight Delayed (short story inside)

[Sunlitsecrets]

"Welcome to the first galaxy-wide shuttle service, simply known as Supernova Airlines. You are among the first to ever step aboard a ship where you can fly from Earth to the other end of the Milky Way Galaxy in less than an hour without the big, noisy engines or the cramped spaces. It's quite the privilege! I am robot CS01 and I will be helping to make sure you're all comfortable during our flight today."

It was a long speech, it was a boring speech, and no one was paying attention to CS01 after ten minutes or so of this. They were here, after all, to get to where they needed to go. But no matter if they like it or not, he thought, I have to say all this. Company policies and all that. "The ship we're taking may look like the hot air balloons of old, but it is far more -" CRASH! suddenly was heard from behind him, where everyone was supposed to eventually board the spacecraft.

The crowd CS01 had been talking to all tried to peer out the door and find out what was going on. He shifted over a bit to try and block their view, and continued on. Probably another false alarm. We had nineteen of those last week, after all. "It is far more sophisticated. For example -" another crash could be heard "- It manages to travel at the exact speed of -"

One of the other members of the crew, a black cat CS01 knew as Chase, had carefully crept inside and over to the orange-and-blue robot and was now tugging at the end of CS01's cape. He frowned and looked down at Chase. "What is it now?" he whispered, trying to ignore the stares of the people gathered around.

"Don't you know? The ship's on fire! One of the engines exploded," Chase calmly explained, and then sauntered away.

"WHAT?" CS01 gasped. He turned and looked out at the spaceship, which was entirely ablaze. He sighed and turned back to the crowd with what he tried to make a smile, but could have been a grimace. "I'm afraid we'll have to delay our flight. In the meantime, though, there's plenty more facts about the ship I can tell you! For example, did you know..."