Kolya tried not to laugh at Donovan's startled moan when the gravity cut out. Having been through it a few times, she'd known what to expect. She grasped his hand to reassure him and to give him an anchor. She smiled at him and took a slow look around the spacious lab. Luckily, all the equipment had already been secured in drawers and cupboards or otherwise locked down.

Even after several years of space travel, the thought of a ship's gravity being switched off in specific rooms still kind of blew her mind. Only a few decades ago, Terran ships like the George Vancouver had used rotating sections to generate gravity. The new technology had come from a trade agreement with the mulathi, who had previously sold it to other species over the centuries.

The technology wasn't perfect, though. There would be spots around the edge of the room where the rest of the gravitational field would intrude past the walls for a few centimeters, or even a meter or so. Kolya had learned that by floating into one such "tendril" of gravity not long after she'd left Earth. The crew members who'd seen her hit the deck had thought it was fucking hilarious.

"Easy, there." She gave Donovan's hand a gentle squeeze. "Just keep away from the walls and you'll be fine."

He nodded, kept his eyes closed, and held his breath for a moment, prompting another soft laugh from her.

"Normally," Zadra said, "we'd do this as a real EVA, but that's not such a good idea while we're in hyperspace. Once we arrive at Gamma Orionis b, we'll need to get the Vancouver back into a stable orbit as quickly as we can, so we're taking advantage of the transit time. So don't worry about putting your helmets on. We'll go over that later, but you're in your spacesuits now so you can get accustomed to moving around in them."

Nishara flipped herself forward and her body pinwheeled in midair. Dylan grinned and several of the others laughed.

"Show-off," Grishnag said while applauding.

The end of Nishara's tail slapped the floor and she winced. "Ow!" She giggled and shrugged her upper shoulders before pushing on the ceiling to regain control.

Another wave of laughter rippled around the room before Zadra got back to business.

"We'll start with the basics. And by that, I mean learning how to get around in space without whacking parts of your body into the hull." She waited for more laughter to subside before continuing. "Once you've mastered that, we'll start training with the thruster packs. Oh, don't worry, they'll be set at a fraction of their power level to prevent you from losing control in here." She motioned at Nishara and Kolya.

Kolya plucked her coffee bottle out of the air and tugged on Donovan's hand. "Come on, you can help us out."

"I'm really not sure how I could help since I'm just learning this stuff."

"Well, I can use you to demonstrate a few rescue maneuvers."

"Gee, thanks." He tossed a lopsided grin at her.

"We'll go easy on you," Zadra said.

"Hah. Where have I heard that before?" Donovan aimed a shit-eating grin at Cora, who snickered and gave him a theatrical bow that started her tumbling forward. Dylan, Zilaka, and Grishnag reached out to reel her back in, and Dylan managed to get both hands on her chest plate while halting her spin.

"Oops." He grinned and winked. "Totally an accident, I swear."

"Not that I'm complaining." She grinned and turned her head to kiss him.

Kolya laughed again and then took a sip of her coffee as Nishara floated over to them.

Donovan closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and visibly expended considerable effort in opening them again. He tightened his grip on Kolya's hand ever so slightly.

"Okay," he mumbled. "Let's get this over with."