Magneto levitation Launch (Maglev) Even after all the times in space she still hated the process of getting out there. Back in the old days when they used the gigantic rockets, it was different. The acceleration was modest, and no special preparations were needed. Now, however she had just finished a rather uncomfortable thirty minutes on the toilet, emptying her intestines completely for anything that might produce some kind of gas. She had had her eardrums popped, as they called it, when a catheter was inserted into each ear. It was rather painful, and left her a bit disorientated and with a quite reduced hearing. She entered the small launch vehicle , or the projectile as most people called it, closing the airlock behind her. The cabin was the size of an elevator, where there was just enough room for one bed. "Ready for depressurizing?" a voice came from the speaker in the roof. A small video camera was keeping an eye on her. She nodded, and instantly a loud hiss came from the ventilation shaft. The room was first filled with pure oxygen, while the pressure was decreased to the minimum of human survival. "Commence pressurizing!", she said, looking up at the little electronic eye. Another hiss came from the ventilation shaft as the pressure was increased to 7 times the atmospheric pressure, while the pure oxygen gas inside the cabin was mixed with helium. The pressure was similar to that of 60 meters depth. There were two reasons for this tedious process. First, any gas cavities that were trapped inside her would have expanded enormously during the decrease in pressure. If so, she would have felt it, and would have been able to abort the process. Next as they increase the pressure, any minor gas bubble still inside her would be made even smaller, and thus minimizing the possible risks.

Finally during the extreme acceleration the pressure gradient in the water was very high, and by increasing the initial pressure the differences would be relatively smaller. As the doctor so pedagogically had explained, "At sea level, the pressure is one bar. At 10 meters depth the pressure is 2 bar, and so the pressure is doubled; that is a 100% pressure increase. Given that 10 meter of water only gives 1 bar extra pressure, the difference between the depth of 90 meters and 100 meters is only 10%.

She stood in front of the launch bed. It was in many ways just a high-tech bed in a bathtub, filled with quite cold water. She shivered at the thought of getting in. Reluctantly she undressed, wondering if the water really needed to be that cold. She was only going to stay in it for about 5 minutes. Safety measures were always taken, and she knew that incase something went wrong, there would be more time to save her from suffocation if her body temperature was lowered.

Slightly shy she gave the camera a quick glance as she entered the watery launch bed. With both feet in, she mustered all her willpower to lie down in the cold water. "Two minutes!" the speaker called. In two minutes she would be lying in the cold water with water in her lungs, and in her ears and nasal cavities. She was lying on her back keeping her face barely above the surface, it tasted like sea water. The ‘drowner’ swung over her and stopped right above her face. This horrible instrument was much like a mechanical version of the aliens cubs illustrated in the old classical film by Aliens. The ‘drowner’ once she had placed it on her face, would clamp itself around her head and insert a tube into her lungs.

"One minute!", the speaker counted. She took a deep breath, and laid down her head on the rubber pillow. The salt water filled her nose with a bubbling sound. All sounds were further muffled. The water barely covered her, as she reached up and pressed the 'drowner' down onto her face. She could not help but feel like she was insane to willingly drown her self like this. Four steel arms came out from the drowner and held on to her head like a spider. The tube was inserted down her throat and split into each of her broncos. She fought the urge to cough and failed, this was one of the worst feelings she knew. She knew from previous experience, that her lungs were being filled with water, and very soon, the uncomfortable feeling of being drowned would cause her to panic for a few seconds, before the tube retracted leaving her with water filled lungs. She would be practically drowned, and conscious.

The voice from the speaker penetrated the water like a voice from another world. ”Twenty seconds! All personnel secure! Commence Launching sequence!” She waited. She could hold her breath for over 3 minutes this way. The drugs she had taken made her overwhelmingly relaxed as her body temperature dropped. "10...9...8...7...6...", the voice shouted. She could hear sirens in the background.

"5...4...3...2...1", it was like the ground below her exploded. A sting of pain came from her right knee, and both her ears felt like someone had put a glowing iron into them. The rocket or projectile she was inside now accelerated up a 4.5 km magnetic driven shaft. Within three seconds she would have reached 3000 m/s or MACH 9. The force on her body was equivalent of 100 times the force of gravity. Once by it's self the projectile would start the rocket engine and continue to the space station. It was amazing how slow the three seconds passed, but then the pain disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared.

The water drained out of the bed, and as the water level sank down below her face, she breathed out. It was almost like throwing up, as the water poured out of her lungs. She coughed, and gasped for air, coughed out more water and gasped some more. Once again she was on her way into space.