[Open]

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi glared at the console, and instructed the computer to bring up the simulation once more. It was a fairly simple one - just dodging an oncoming asteroid field - but she'd run it three times now, and each had ended with her ship as an asteroid bug-splatter not too far in. She could drive a car just fine, but the finer controls of the ship eluded her. She had imported the Ptolemy's basic design and control scheme into the program, so at least it was a ship she was vaguely familiar with.

Nonetheless, ten minutes into this fourth run, a fairly loud stream of curses - in more than one language - could be heard outside the door to the sensorium she was using.

Comments

[morganknight]

"I know someone who can," Morgan said immediately, with a wicked grin.

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Anyone I know?"

[morganknight]

Morgan chuckled, folding his arms on the back of her chair. "If you do, I'll be amazed. Stephen Valkonan. My best friend from back home. Absolute genius, total recluse."

[indeliblepast]

She smiled. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell."

[morganknight]

"There's a shock." He shook his head, willing to bet there weren't five people on the ship who knew Stephen's name or could identify him on sight. "But he also is my mechanic. His specialty is cars, but he managed to make the controls on my car like nothing you could ever imagine, and that was working within the pretty conventional schema of steering wheel, brake pedal, gas pedal, you know?"

Maybe she didn't know, who knew how they drove 300 years in the future?

"Anyway, I bet I could get him to take a look at this and we could work out some kind of better control system. If you were interested!"

[indeliblepast]

"Hmm. Well, I think this ship's about half a task for a programmer rather than a mechanic - but I'll keep him in mind, at least."

[morganknight]

"On my car there's not much of a difference either, so no worries. I'll tell him to look out for you." He spreads his hands a little. "Stephen! A cute girl is looking for you! Do not be alarmed! This is perfectly normal! Do not hide in your lab from the girl!"

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi laughed. "Don't warn him, I might need the element of surprise to corner him."

[morganknight]

"Pfft, it's not harder to corner him when he barely ever leaves. Just jump in and tackle him, then bribe him with the excuse to look at electronics before he can panic."

Oh, Stephen. Your best friend does so enjoy poking fun at you.

[indeliblepast]

"I'll keep that in mind. I can think of a few MS pilots who'd benefit from that strategy too, I think."

[morganknight]

"So why the sudden urge to practice piloting?" he said, turning back to the issue more at hand. "Just for something to do, or are you planning to try out for the... Squadron that I can't remember its name at the moment."

[indeliblepast]

"Nah," she replied. "Got a ship but no pilot. I've got the basic qualifications, but basic isn't good enough for combat."

[morganknight]

"That's true." Morgan looked back up at the controls and the display screens, smiling a little self-deprecatingly. "I'm kind of envious, actually. Flying a spaceship is something honestly pretty amazing to me, coming from when I do. The closest thing we had to any sort of space travel was a space elevator, and that was my doing, damn it. If Knight Aerospace hadn't ponied up the dough to work on that... humanity as a whole seemed so absolutely certain to never leave the planet again. No one cared any more what was out there... they only cared about themselves."

He sighed, then chuckled. "Sorry, personal irritation kind of came through there."

[indeliblepast]

She gave him a small smile. "It always has to start somewhere. By my century... there are three orbital elevators, and a solar ring that supplies energy for most of the first and second world nations."

[morganknight]

"And spaceships, clearly," he said, patting the seat he was leaning on. "I hope it becomes an era of possibility and not confinement, though."

Which was an odd thing to say, but something he meant quite sincerely, to judge from his voice.

[indeliblepast]

She nodded, understanding what he meant. "I hope so too. It's my goal to try and keep humanity on the path of possibility, at least."

[morganknight]

"...I want to make a terrible comment to that, but I can't think of one that's not too terrible," he said, smiling.

[indeliblepast]

She laughed. "I was in the military for years, I think I'm immune to terrible jokes."

[morganknight]

"Terrible in the sense of how bad the flirtation is, too," he clarified. "Military?"

His respect went up a notch, mostly due to the spillover respect he had for another ex-military woman he knew.

[indeliblepast]

"Oh, there was plenty of that too," she replied with a grin. "And ex-military, now."

[morganknight]

"Well, yeah. Kinda hard to still be military given the circumstances if nothing else." Not that he still didn't consider himself an Akashic Brother, though... "Space corps of some sort, I would take it?"

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi shook her head. "Nah, I quit before that. This ship isn't military. Our goal was... well, to end war, as idealistic as it sounds."

[morganknight]

He stretched up on his toes to lean over the chair back, peering down at her curiously, as if he was re-examining her in light of this new information. After a moment of that, an odd but sincere smile flitted across his face.

"I didn't take you for an idealist, but I think I like how that image fits you. What led to that happening?"

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi gave him a lopsided smile. "I was in the military. That's what happened."

[morganknight]

"I can understand that," he said. "But what I meant was more... did you have an opportunity to act on, or was it just you knew it had to be done, and you'd figure out how to make it happen as you went?"