Quirks
27 May 2023Ryuko Ntsikana
Quirks
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Poor Chief Bowen, a titan of an engineer when it came to capital ships, was about as comfortable with space legs as a fish is with mountain climbing. As we fine-tuned the altitudes on the surface below, he downed not one, but two anti-nausea tablets just to keep his lunch in place—and we hadn't even hit the hard maneuvers yet. I have to give him credit though; the man stayed conscious when I pulled a cheek-flapping 6g reversal.
Even though the moons we used for testing had about as much atmosphere as a corporate boardroom, they did possess their own unique gravitational personality, and the laws of physics were no more lenient here than they were in the expanse of space. The Chief, I noted with a chuckle, was not exactly giddy with excitement at the angular, transitional, and repositioning antics I was putting the ship through, but they were necessary for accumulating enough data to understand the detector's hang-ups and quirks.
Finally, feeling a pang of sympathy (or perhaps just worried about the state of my upholstery), I let Chief Bowen take the controls, while I guided him through a selection of calmer flight regimes. It's a strange quirk of human nature that when motion sickness kicks in, taking control of the craft often helps to alleviate the green-around-the-gills feeling. It seems that by focusing their mind on other tasks and letting their body anticipate the ship's movements, their stomachs decide to play ball. After all, it's tough to puke and pilot at the same time.
Satisfied that enough data had been obtained to adequately define its parameters, I began to plot a course, back to the carrier, when my neurological processor's statistical capabilities were put to the test, as Chief Bowen looked over, asking that we go instead to the place where the inspiration for the detector began. Imagine the astronomical calculations required to anticipate that!
With the memory of our last encounter at that site fresh in my mind, I wasn't about to stroll in there without some backup. I quickly sent a message to Avery, Rex, and Yatziri aboard the carrier, updating them on our change of plans, and instructing them to prepare the clan members involved in the previous raid. If we were to encounter any unfriendly faces—or worse, sacrificial androids—at the settlement, I wanted to have a rescue squad on speed dial. Nothing beats a good safety line when you're about to poke the hornet's nest.