inertial dampener n.

The catwalk on which I was standing shook with subsonic vibrations as inertial dampeners cut in to compensate.

Mike told Jeremy, ‘Hold on—we’re about to launch.’ ‘Wait a minute,’ Jeremy said. ‘Why can’t we—’ It was as if the bottom dropped out of the small pod. Jeremy yelped in surprise and Mike didn’t blame him. I’ve never liked thrill rides, he thought. Give me some good old inertial dampeners any day. Something slammed into the lifepod, and Mike’s head struck the wall, hard. I’d always believed ‘seeing stars’ was just a phrase, he thought. All told, I’d rather look at them through a viewscreen.