TheGeometryOfShadowsThe Geometry of ShadowsParil takes a direct route to the bridge, leading Dagny to the Bridge deck and strides along. Its doubly clear to Dagny that despite its gleam, this yacht is clearly meant as a working ship, rather than a pleasure craft. Memories of novels suggest salons, observation rooms, and relaxation rooms that have now been converted to storage or other purposes in this design. The bridge of the Long Distance Voyager, to Dagny's eyes, is as clean and crisp looking as the remainder of the ship. The accents of the ship are in blue, green, black and electrum, much like the personal colors of her host and new cousin, Kieran. Kieran, for his part, is in the captain's chair, with some files and documents visible on a handrest viewscreen of some kind. Kieran has removed the majority of the armor he previously wore and is now dressed in a dark green shirt under the faded black vest that covers his torso and upper thighs. Dark blue pants are tucked into the black boots. A black belt with an electrum buckle is worn outside the vest with a dark green tartan sash underneath it. He is still wearing the bracers from the armor. The weapons he previously carried are still in the same positions. "No one, Kieran." Paril observes with a whistle of appreciation "is going to mistake this for an over the hill ship. No one." "You noticed that too;" Kieran says almost mournfully. "Might be time to change our cover story to that of moderately successful dealers in rarities and exotics. Either that, or we've got a lot of work to make Voyager look run down again." "Why do you need a cover story?" Dagny asks. Kieran sighs. "Palpatine has installed himself as Emperor not all that long ago there. Force sensitives in general, and Jedi in particular, like me, are being hunted down and forced to join the Empire or die. My ex-girlfriend...;" Kieran stops and looks at Paril; "used to work for the Separatists and Dooku. She works for the Empire now. Anyroad, she wants us both. Alive if possible, dead if not. Our cover...allowed us to move around on the fringes of the galaxy without attracting a lot of notice." "I don't understand," Dagny frowns. "Why do you--and your parents--choose to stay in a Shadow where you are hunted, and have to skulk around the place of your own creation?" Kieran thinks about this for a few moment as they walk. "Good question;" he says eventually. "Why do we stay here..." He shrugs his shoulders. "Because it's our home. Mom and I were both born here. Raised here. Republic space, the 'star wars' shadow, is like a second home to me. Both places are worth fighting for." Another pause, then; "So will Amber and Corwin's place become to me I suspect." Kieran pauses, then grins. "The Rebel Alliance started long before Episode IV. Paril and I, we've had a hand in getting the Rebels some goods to sell for credits and some war materials. Usually, direct from Imperial shipping. You have seen the movies, right? Mom's got an awesome collection of movies and music from that Shadow Earth place most of the family members like going to. I've downloaded all the stuff I liked." "Right;" Kieran says. "We'll meet them at the boarding ramp." He stands up and turns around revealing a small model of a sailing vessel; single-masted but with three hulls, a large main hull with smaller outrigger type hulls to either side in his hand. "This is a model of what Voyager shifts to when not in starship mode. It's called a trimaran." He set the model down atop one of the consoles. "Well then, let's go say 'goodbye' and all that, shall we?" Dagny nods, and follows Kieran out. Paril lingers long enough to stare at the trimaran model, and trails Dagny and Kieran down the hallway and to the boarding ramp. By the time the trio arrives at the boarding ramp, Gate is there, burbling. Kieran nods at Gate as they link up. As the head for the main hatch, Kieran's right hand starts typing a series of commands into the small console built into the bracer on his left arm. "Gate, send me what you have on the Baroness' ship and our last encounter with her. I'm making a file for Mom and Dad to go over." Gate squeaks and whistles his acquiescence. The data is soon streaming from him into the bracer. Kieran detours to the main lounge just long enough to grab a data card. He and Gate download his logs and images of Narek, her ship, and the technician he talked to; stored in his HTD and copies of Gate's sensor recordings of the battle onto the data card. The images are just holo images. Percy and Brandeigh, surrounded by a group of men that Kieran will know and Dagny can guess are officers of the ship based on their uniforms stride across the deck and stop at the bottom of the ramp. Kieran smiles at his parents, nods to the officers as they stride down the boarding ramp and on to the deck of the Griffon. The eight officers snap salutes in the direction of Kieran. Kieran salutes back reflexively. Inwardly, he sighs but at least he's wearing clean clothing. Dagny's mouth quirks into a half-smile. Brandeigh is carrying a black box about the size of a notebook under her arm. "The letters of introduction I promised, as well as optically stored information on the Omphalos." Brandeigh says. "Thank you, Brandeigh," Dagny replies. "I'm proud of you, son." Percy says. "Good luck in Amber. The both of you." He looks at Dagny. "It was good to see you again, even for this brief time. You'll come back to visit after all of this, yes?" Dagny smiles. "Sure. Thanks for the invite." "Good" Brandeigh says. "Take good care of our son, all right?" Kieran mock groans; "Mom..." He smiles. "I can take care of myself you know." Dagny flashes a fraction-of-an-instant knowing smile at Brandeigh. Kieran smiles again as he takes the box and hands the data card over in return. "Thanks Mom, Dad." He nods at the data card. "I suspect you two will want to go over this when you get a chance. It contains information concerning Baroness Narek and her ship. I hope she doesn't show up here, but at least you'll be able to recognize her ship if it does find its way here." Percy takes the card and looks at it thoughtfully, as if he could see the information on it. He nods. "If she shows up anytime soon, I think the Keltic fleet will not be in a mood for any shenangians." "If she does come here." Brandeigh adds. "We'll contact you, immediately. And give her a very warm Scotan welcome." Her eyes flash with amusement. Kieran nods. "Don't kill her please;" he says. "I'd like to talk to her." He pauses in thought. "I'd post some deep recon units out where Dad and I arrived and maybe increased scout patrols. Just in case." "We're going to do that anyway, after that mess with the Coranians and their new friends." Brandeigh says. "Fear not, Kieran. We wouldn't dream of killing the Baroness out of hand. After all, discovering just how she is shadow traveling is important." Brandeigh replies. "And now." Percy says. "Its time to wish the five of you a safe and good journey. Permission to disembark from the Griffin of Scota. May the Unicorn and the Gods of Keltia watch over your trip." The officers snap salutes in Kieran's direction, and then bow to both Kieran and Dagny. Percy and Brandeigh make ready to stand clear. Kieran returns the salute and then nods to his parents. He turns to head back to his ship. Back on the ship, and soon back on the Bridge, Harmony speaks as Kieran, Dagny, Paril and Gate arrive on bridge. On the viewscreen, the hangar deck has been cleared for the Voyager to maneuver. "We have been given clearance to depart by the Griffin of Scota to leave the hangar" Harmony says. "Local space around the Admiral's ship is clear for us to depart. I would be pleased to bring us out, Captain." "Course, Captain, once we are clear?" Harmony prompts. "Take us out, Harmony;" Kieran says while settling into the pilot's seat. "Deep space, three quarters sublight, for now Harmony." Kieran turns to look at Dagny. "I don't think the direction we take really matters does it? And you ever piloted a starship before?" "It shouldn't," she replies. "And no, I haven't, not as such." Paril has taken a seat of his own, monitoring readouts and controls. The smoothness of Harmony's flight is considerable, although Gate chirps to Dagny. "Gate says you should sit if you're going to give directions." Paril says casually to Dagny. Dagny feels that she almost understood Gate on her own, and perhaps a little more conversation will allow her to understand his vocabulary as easily as Kieran and Paril can. It only takes a minute or so for Harmony to ease the Long Distance Voyager out of the hangar and into space. Without being told to, Harmony maneuvers the ship so that, on the viewscreen, Dagny can see a view of the blue planet "below". as well as the larger pride of the Keltic space fleet, framed against it. Slowly, Harmony ramps up the speed to the requested velocity, the view of the planet and the Griffin of Scota being replaced with a field of red-shifted stars. Dagny takes a seat and looks vaguely uncomfortable. "You mean, I have to speak my directions in order to ShadowShift us? I don't know if I can do that." Slowly, Harmony ramps up the speed to the requested velocity, the view of the planet and the Griffin of Scota being replaced with a field of red-shifted stars. Kieran shakes his head. "No, not at all;" he says calmly. "On the way here, I flew while Dad shifted. But he had a course plotted out for me to follow." He frowns in thought then nods to himself. "Okay, I can think of a couple of ways to do this. One, we give you a quick course in piloting; it's much like flying or driving a speeder. Uh, a car I think you might call them. Or two, I take us down into a low orbit over the planet while you do whatever it is you do when you want to move through shadow. The second option should give you plenty of visual references to check how well your doing and once we get close enough to Amber that electronics start getting temperamental we can land on a beach and transform Voyager into sailboat mode." He glances at Dagny; "Whatever works best for you." "Having never seen Amber from space, I think numero dos is the best option," Dagny replies, "though I still wouldn't mind that crash course in piloting." "Right;" Kieran says in a deadpan tone; "First rule of piloting; Don't crash. Life will be a lot more enjoyable if you keep that in mind." He grins and then his expression turns serious once again. "I'll teach you on one condition; you let me make a Trump of you. I'll give you a couple of mine in return as well." "Oh." Dagny seems surprised at Kieran's offer. "Um, okay." "Worst comes to worst." Paril pipes up. "We could always put your Dad or Mom on the comm and ask their advice. I think, though." he looks from Kieran to Dagny and back again. "that this was some sneaky sort of test on their part. Testing your skills at working together, maybe." Dagny shoots a look at Paril. "I dislike the implications of that suggestion. I wasn't aware my skills needed testing, or that my contemporaries had the right to put me through my paces." Kieran chuckles softly at this. Kieran looks at Paril and nods his head. "That's like them all right. So, we don't call them; until it becomes absolutely necessary. Deal?" he says to Dagny. Dagny shrugs. "Dude, they're your parents, not mine. It's totally up to you." Kieran nods his head. "I had my doubts about this... endeavor they dreamed up. It would have been much easier to just use a trump to get to Amber after all. But, I think this trip will be all right now." He then reaches into a pouch on his belt and removes a small deck of cards. He goes through the cards and removes two. These, he hands to Dagny. "I know, they both look the same, but trust me, they're not." He taps the first card; "Try that one first if you want to contact me. If I don't answer use the second one." Dagny takes out her Trump deck and inserts the emergency card face-down, and the other card face-up. “Thanks.” He then swivels his chair and raises his left arm and points it in Dagny’s direction in a clearly non-threatening gesture/move. “Smile for the camera.” “Or look fierce?” she quips, before doing so. “Your holo, your call;” Kieran says while activating the scanners. Light beams out from the bracer to surround Dagny briefly, then the beam winks out. “Display initial image, scaled down to .25 meters in height;” Kieran instructs the device. After a moment, a small holographic image of Dagny appears above the bracer. It slowly begins to rotate. “How’s that look to you?” Kieran asks. “Well enough,” she replies. “Does the Trump stay three-dimensional, or do you print the image on cards next?” “Yes;” Kieran grins. “Begin compiling trump image;” Kierans instructs the device. He looks at Dagny; “I can do both. I prefer to keep it all in holo-imagery though. It takes a long time to print out a trump.” “How do you activate a holographic Trump?” she asks, curious. “Same way you do a Trump on a card;” he replies. “Paril, hop up and let Dagny take the copilot seat;” Kieran says after a moment. “I can show you the controls and basics of piloting while your trump is being made.” “Sure” Paril switches from the copilot seat to one of the other stations. “Sounds good,” she says, taking Paril’s seat and examining the controls. Kieran shows her the flight controls and readouts. “It’s not unlike driving a car or a plane;” he says. “Turn the wheel left, we go left. Pull back on the wheel and we climb. And so on. Throttles for the sublight engines are there;” he points to the appropriate spot. “Harmony;” Kieran says; “let’s give her a simple flight plan to follow. Display it on our screens and on the Heads Up Display as well.” “Confirmed.” Harmony replies. “Given the lack of celestial bodies on our current heading, artificial ones will be generated.” The heads up display, as well as the viewscreen sets up a course for Dagny to take the LDV through an phantom asteroid field. The course is indicated by a series of glowing vector arrows as well as more conventional numerical representations. Dagny will go ahead and follow it. The course is easy at first, with wide margins indicated between the asteroids. Dagny can find it very easy at first, as if the course was deliberately designed to be easy, for beginners. As Dagny gets used to the controls and the course, the course gets a little harder, with faster and tighter course changes necessary to keep on course and avoid hitting the asteroids. After about thirty minutes, Dagny is able to clear the field and finish the flight plan. There are clearly nuances to piloting that she isn’t picking up—yet. But To Kieran, its clear that she has at least raw potential and talent that could be channeled into a real pilot. For now, though, she’s good enough to get her feet wet. And in that thirty minute interval, a first pass of the holographic trump image is ready. "Not bad for a beginner;" Kieran says sincerely. "You've got the talent to be a pilot. We can set up some more training sessions and actual flight times if you like." "Sure, but I think if we're going to be Shadow Shifting I should probably concentrate on that for now," she replies. "I don't think I trust my flying skills while trying to subtract green clouds and a purple sun from the sky." Kieran nods. "I see your point." A smile. "All right then, you still want to head towards a planet and start shifting while we descend into an orbit around it?" "I won't be able to shift until we're low enough in the atmosphere that I can make out specific geographic and environmental features," she replies. "I have only been to Amber once, and this is my first time going about it the long way. Plus I've never seen Amber from this angle. I'll need all the markers I can get." Then the HTD (Holo Trump Deck) indicates the trump is ready. Kieran displays the image for all to see once again. "I'll need to fine tune it a bit, but I think it came out all right." Dagny looks at the Trump. "It's fine by me. Thanks for that." Kieran looks up at her. "No, thank you. Do you need a copy for yourself? It'll take some time, but I can have a couple of 2D images printed out for you, if you need them. Dagny smiles, pleased. "Actually...yeah, that would be great. I don't have any of myself. Thank you." "Done;" Kieran replies while keying in the request to his HTD. What if we find a relatively barren planet to try this?" Paril pipes up. "Something with little topography so that we can fly low around with little danger of hitting something?" "Would that make it easier or harder to do what you need to do?" he asks Dagny. "A moon or small planetoid should work for that matter;" Kieran adds thoughtfully. "She could work on getting the type of atmosphere she wants while getting us to a place with an atmosphere." "Sounds good to me," Dagny agrees. Kieran nods while checking the astrogation charts for something suitable. Once he's found something, he plots a course and then transfers the plot to helm and the HUD. "Ok, follow that Dagny and we'll be on our way." He pauses and glances over at her. "What kind of music do you like? Or, more to the point, what do you feel like listening to at the moment?" Kieran blinks, then searches his memory and comes up blank. "Who?;" he says after a few moments. "What kind of music does he play?" Dagny looks a little embarrassed. "Oh. I thought you might have a universal music feed or something. It's, um, space music. He composes music for planetariums in my home Shadow. And this being my first time in space, that's just where my mind went. Never mind." She bows her head over the controls and fiddles with them a bit more. "So...why don't I leave the music selection up to you." Kieran frowns thoughtfully and then calls up a small holographic keyboard from the HTD. He quickly enters a series of keystrokes and then leans back in his seat while the HTD goes to work. "No, no, you're a guest;" he says. "Requests will be honored, whenever possible." The HTD's display calls up an image and a song list. "And I do have access to a lot of music and music feeds." He pauses while browsing through the song lists; "Here we go." And then Dagny's song begins to play. She smiles, says "Thanks," and continues to fly. Kieran nods his head and listens to the music silently. It's definitely not his cup of tea, but for the sake of his guest... Gate gives off a burble. "I think this IS the music of her homeworld." Paril says, looking at the droid. "It's some of it," she chimes in. "It's pretty diverse. I think this is one of the lesser known genres, really, but I find it relaxing." Enroute to the planet after Dagny's song, Kieran queues up 'The Launch' by Boston followed by 'Fuel' by Metallica and then 'Cool the Engines' by Boston. "As I said, diverse," she adds as the music ends. The course Kieran lays in is relatively easy for Dagny, now that she has had some time, with Harmony's help, to get a feel for the Long Distance Voyager's controls. About twenty minutes of flying at faster than light speed, and listening to Dagny's musical choices as accompaniment brings the ship to a K3mn star with a small family of planets. None of the planets are quite in the narrow habitable zone for the star, but Kieran's scan and plan brings Dagny to a well-cratered planet a little larger than Mars with a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrogen. Enroute to the planet after Dagny's song, Kieran queues up 'The Launch' by Boston followed by 'Fuel' by Metallica and then 'Cool the Engines' by Boston. The southern hemisphere of the planet, however, has a large part of its area smoothed and covered over with an ancient basaltic lava flow, providing a flat and low region that, if the planet had any water, would likely be filled by a wide ocean. Kieran scans the system and then the planet as they approach it. He nods his head; "This'll do for a starting point. Take us down, until we're not more than a few tens of meters above the surface;" he says to Dagny. Dagny looks askance at Kieran, but says nothing. Kieran glances back at Dagny, raising an eyebrow inquiringly, or perhaps, in challenge. "I'm your cousin, not your flunky, and I don't take orders," she says evenly in response. "That's the second time you've given me one. Things like 'please' and 'thank you' would be more appropriate." Kieran considers this for a moment. "I'm used to giving orders on my ship;" he says neutrally; "Force of habit. It's not personal, just how it has to be to keep us safe and maintain order when we're aboard ship." He pauses, then; "There's an old saying; 'Their can only be one captain on a ship.' When we get to Amber and from there to dealing with the Omphalos, I'm quite content to follow your lead as you've more experience with both than I do." "When you get us to a place with a breathable atmosphere and open water, we can descend to the water and shift Voyager to sailboat mode." Dagny steers the ship down towards the planet's surface, and starts Shifting. "I've only seen your father do this, and that was in space." Paril says with admiration as the terrain starts to change. It's slow at first for Dagny, given her inexperience in shifting terrain while flying a spacecraft. Kieran nods. "I've seen Mom and Dad do this a few times;" he says. In shifting, details are everything. The details that you look away from, or don't yet see, and anticipate. Gradual changes. Over a rise in the terrain, the sky goes from the thin reddish dusty sky of the planet to blue in stages. Kieran's instruments start registering changes in the planet. Planetary atmosphere thickens and thickens, jumping upward toward breathability. Finally, over a narrow range of mountains, the planet has a breathable atmosphere, a light shade of blue. Open water is next. It takes effort and trial and error for Dagny to manage it. Ironically, it takes some thickening of the atmosphere some more before standing water will stay on the surface. At first its small and narrow ponds, but as Dagny becomes more confident and skilled at it, the Long Distance Voyager is soon flying above some sort of inland sea that stretches to the horizon. Have there been any changes inside Voyager yet, or is the ship still pretty much the same as when they left Keltic space? No, the Voyager has remained absolutely the same, as far as Kieran can tell looking at bridge and the instruments. All of the changes have been, to this point, external. "Excellent work;" Kieran says to Dagny in an approving tone. "I thought bringing us down low to the planet's surface would help you focus and, in the event we travel to a point where we start losing the electronics and power systems, its not so great a fall." He grins. "We're faster in this mode of travel;" he adds; "But whenever you're ready to shift to sailboat mode, just say so." "If we'd started to lose systems, I would have Shifted back and notified you we couldn't continue that way," she replies. "But when we switch to the sailboat you'd better take over. Not only do I not know how to sail, the Shifting is going to get harder the closer we get." Kieran nods his head. "Alright, but I should point out that the need for the giving and taking of orders will be more important once we've switched to sailboat mode. There are any number of things I may need you and Paril to do or not do when I say to keep us afloat or to keep you from being injured." Paril gives a nod but does not interrupt the conversation between Kieran and Dagny. Dagny shrugs. "There's a difference between a life-and-death situation, and simple person-to-person interactions. But anyway." She looks out the viewscreen at the seascape. "Since it is much quicker this way, let's see how far we can push things before it gets too dangerous." At this she will actively push to achieve the seas of Amber, pulling back only if systems start to fail, and then just enough to ensure their safety before sailboat transformation. Kieran nods his head. "Alright;" he says and then focuses his attention on the ship's instruments. "Harmony, Gate; give me a full sensor sweep of the surrounding area and then run a security sensor sweep throughout the ship as well." Gate burbles his acquiescence. "Confirmed. Sensor sweeps in progress." Harmony chimes in. After a few moments, Gate burbles again, and Harmony speaks once more. "The interior of the Long Distance Voyager is secure. I read several moderately sized sailing vessels 25 kilometers behind us, on a course perpendicular to ours." It is at this point that Dagny's changes start to come in, fast and hard. The oceans change rapidly, deepening and turning blue. Over the next hour, the world changes again, and again, and again. As a consequence of trying to change so hard, there is a cough as the engines start to shut down, and the ship begins to rattle. "Kieran." Harmony says. "Structural integrity is falling." "We're falling apart at the bolts." Paril says with rising alarm in his voice. Dagny frowns at the controls and stops Shadowshifting forward, and pulls back a little, like I wrote above. "We ought to be okay, I'm taking care that we don't pass too far into Shadows where this technology doesn't work. We seem to be skirting that line, though." She looks at Kieran. "Sailboat time?" Kieran nods his head. "I agree;" he says calmly. "Reduce our speed to a crawl and bring us down closer to the water, to wavetop level." After a moment's pause, he adds; "If you would, please." "Certainly," she says, and does so. The LDV reduces its speed to one that, if it were an aircraft, would just be above stall speed. The spacecraft skirts the topmost heights of the waves of the sea or lake that the ship flies across. Kieran pats the instrument console in a friendly gesture. "See you later Harmony, Gate." He glances over at Dagny; "Once we're close enough to the water's surface, I'll try to time the transformation in order to have the boat appear on a wave crest." He briefly wonders if there will be a model of the starship version of Voyager when they're in sailboat mode, like there's a model of the sailboat when they're in starship mode. Then, when the timing is about as good as they can manage, he reaches out and gives Voyager the mental command to transform. He's envisioning the people all appearing in the boat's cockpit with himself at the ship's wheel, and all the sails furled or stowed. The ship drops the couple of feet from the crest of the wave, and into the water, spilling some water into the boat. The boat! No longer a starship, in its place, there is a trimaran.The sails are furled and the ship is sailing along, with the wind at their back. Kieran, Dagny and Paril are standing in its cockpit in its main hull, the door to the interior of the ship behind them. Of Gate there is no sign. Paril swears quietly. And then, speaks, louder. "It worked!" Above the ship, the sky is a deepening blue as a yellow-white sun sets to starboard. Backlinks |
