Read March: A Tale of Salmon and Swedes (The Glothic Tales Book 4) for Free Online

coordinates, latitude 51.513047, and longitude 0.165457, at oh three hundred hours.
    ‘And that is where exactly?’
    ‘I have no information other than the coordinates. Sorry.’
    ‘I understand,’ March said, although he didn’t really, but decided to sit as quietly as he could, seeing that Clikk was concentrating on his instruments and black book, as his red tongue licked nervously at his lips with greater frequency. If they survived the entry through the force field, there would be time to worry about other minor details, such as where he was actually going, later.
    ‘Two minutes to launch,’ Clikk said, as March watched the bay door open in the distance in front of them, giving a view of a few stars twinkling beyond. ‘Launch is quite a jolt, so hold on tight to the hand grips on your seat and push your feet as hard as possible against the foot rests in front of you.
    ‘Does it help?’
    ‘A bit,’ Clikk replied, as he carefully put his black book into a compartment in his seat arm, closed the metal cover, and then began bracing himself for launch. ‘One minute to launch.’
    March could hear the faint crackle of a voice coming from Clikk’s helmet, as he pushed a little harder with his feet and tightened his grip with his hands.
    ‘Thirty seconds,’ Clikk shouted, as a very loud whining noise started to hurt March’s ears, and a huge thud rumbled through the tiny frame of the shuttle.
    ‘Copy,’ March heard Clikk say in reply to something that was probably important, but only for Clikk’s ears, and then he swallowed hard on a surprise torrent of bile that decided this was an appropriate time to launch itself up into the back of his throat. The shuttle vibrated violently, first from side to side, and then from back to front. March pushed his feet even harder against the footrests, and dug his fingers into the armrest to steady his body, but it didn’t help at all in settling his stomach, which was now in the throws of performing nauseating somersaults.
    An enormously loud, ear drum bursting boom accompanied the feeling March had that his face was being torn off and repositioned on the back of his neck, and that his stomach was exiting his body through his back. He had no time to enjoy the launch and the breath taking view it offered in front of him of Earth, and the moonrise near its northern pole. He only had the time to stop breathing and close his eyes.
    He was about to open his eyes, as an eerie silence suddenly fell, and his stomach started inching back into his abdomen from somewhere beyond his spine, but when he heard Clikk shout, ‘hold on again!’ his eyes decided to stay firmly shut, and his stomach abandoned its return mission.
    This explosion was much louder than the one that felt as if it had burst his eardrums on launch just a few moments before, and even with his eyes firmly shut, the sudden flash of light seared through his visor and eyelids. He wondered if it had in fact burned off his eyelids. Before he could think further about that, a thunderous jolt had his face once again feeling as if it was being torn off, and this time being sent all the way to the back of the shuttle. He couldn’t feel his feet against anything, and in fact decided he couldn’t feel anything at all – other than terrified.
    No sooner had March made this decision on what he couldn’t feel, there was, as suddenly as the booms, explosions and blinding flashes had happened – silence and a floating feeling. Perhaps the kind of peaceful, drifting quietness one would associate with one’s own recent passing. As his eyes flickered, he caught the sight of Clikk’s face, and of his mouth moving, yet there were no words he could hear, only buzzing. He blinked again, trying to focus on Clikk’s face, which was wandering to and fro, around and around, and then bobbing up and down.
    March tried to concentrate. He shook his head, blinked some more, and with this, Clikk’s head started to hold more firmly between