Funny Finding You Here

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"They give you a choice." Kurt said as he grabbed onto the first rung of the ladder and began to climb. "Some guys go with heavy freighters, others go with medium, a few even take the luxury vessels so they can do passenger runs alongside cargo runs."

He shrugged.

That hadn't been for him. The Luxury runs...well they could get boring. People generally tended to get rather high and mighty during that sort of thing and Kurt simply hadn't wanted to deal with anyone bossing him around. Of course he probably could have just avoided this kinds of fares, but he preferred the simple life of cargo runs and smaller package deliveries. It was easy for him, and far more enjoyable. There were advantages to all of it though.

"This one? Won't take me long, maybe a year or two. Sif pays pretty well, especially on the more dangerous runs." Which were usually the ones that he took.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She tilted her head, watched and waited quietly for Kurt to climb to the upper level. What he said made sense. That would give her a chance to look through whatever was available, see even more ships, and find something that suited her. "Taking passengers sounds fun. It wouldn't be so lonely that way." She said, thinking about the stories she might hear from those who she gave passage to. "Sort of like me, I guess."

Once Kurt had made his way up she placed her hands and feet on the bars, climbing up to follow along into the cockpit. When she laid eyes on all of the controls, buttons, and levers, she let out a small gasp. Her lips parted and her neck muscles strained slightly in disbelief.

"That's....A lot of controls."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He shrugged. "Everyone is different. You can get paid doing either, or both."

The company was good that way, the question was what one wanted to do. For Kurt it was easier delivering packages and moving goods from one place to another. It let him set his own schedule rather than being defined by someone else's. He rather liked that aspect of his job. Though, it did get problematic when it turned out that other people wanted the packages he was delivering, such as the time when several Sith had decided they really needed whatever he had been delivering.

That had been unpleasant.

"It's not so bad." He commented as he took the pilots chair and began to point toward controls. "Most of them are for smaller stuff, a lot of them don't ever get used unless you're flying fancily."

Kurt motioned for Jamie to take the seat besides him.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The look she gave him was almost comical as she took the seat beside him. "Not so bad...Easy for you to say." She looked at everything. There were no labels. No hint as to what anything did. Nothing. How did people remember all of this? It seemed insane. What would happen if you mistakenly pressed the wrong button? The damn airlock might open and suck everything and everyone straight into space!

Oh boy. What are you doing here, Jamie? Flying starships is not your thing.

"Maybe cargo is the better idea. At least cargo won't fear for its' life when I screw up."

The controls on such a small ship seemed incalculable. She wondered just how astronomical it must be aboard some of the massive star destroyers and cruisers she'd seen photos of. Those things were huge! There was no way a single person piloted those, but even still, it seemed almost impossible to imagine those being commanded. Impressive.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt began to flick several switches. He started with the ones that were connected to the reactor, explaining to Jamie that there was usually a series in which ships had to be started in order to function properly. "Generally, you start up reactor, engines, then shields and weapons. It's a series. You can push it all to do it near instantly, but doing it over and over again will generally put the ship out of commission quicker. For most Vanir ships the reactor can be...finicky."

He explained further as The Messa rumbled into life.

"The ship's reactors are different from what's usually in vessels of this size." He pulled the controls towards himself and pointed out a few of the sub-systems. "So the ship runs fairly hot. That means that the reactor overworks itself almost at all times. Makes for a faster ship, but also more dangerous to fly."

Perhaps he should have started her on a training ship.

The Varactyl class wasn't exactly the best starter ship, considering that the vessel was probably the fastest of its size in the galaxy.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Her body shook a little bit as the ship rumbled to life. The girl's stomach dropped a little bit when he mentioned the ship was a bit dangerous to fly. "What exactly do you mean by, 'dangerous'?" Was she sitting on top of a potential bomb? She didn't like the sound of that. Who made ships that could detonate like a Life Day firework display at any moment all in the name of going fast? Crazy people and their crazy designs. She silently prayed that she would make it to where they were heading without any headaches, or death.

Jamie took a minute to adjust her hair, pulling it back and lifting it into a small bun before tying it off. She didn't want anything interfering with her ability to see, or allow herself the habit she had of playing with her hair when nervous or bored. "Are all of these buttons and things generally the same for most ships? Or are they built differently on every starship out there?"

Not only was this incredibly complicated, but it was also being taught at a rate that was likely not standard. She had to assume most pilots had a few years of training on a simulator, or ship intended for such training before jumping into the cockpit of a real ship. Hopefully this would go smoothly.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He shrugged.

"The reactor has a tendency to overload if you do too much." Kurt said it as though it were not a big deal. "It really only happens under extreme circumstances. Like if you're flying the ship at fastest possible speed, shooting the weapons, taking damage, and then decide to turn on the afterburners. The ship will not like that."

He hadn't ever done it of course, but he'd seen enough of the reactor tests to know what would happen. The same could be said for many fighters flying around the galaxy. Overusing and overdriving the reactor was not a good thing, especially in a ship like this. "Generally the same. A few are specialty but you'll find that most vessels have the same layout."

That was true, though it different from class of ship to class of ship.

Kurt grasped the controls and pulled back on them, The Messa lifting off of its landing struts and slowly pushing into the air. He would fly for now, then when they reached space he would have her take over.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Well that was definitely a relief. For a few moments there she thought if she simply pushed forward the accelerator a bit too much the ship might just rock and then explode! That would have been a pretty quick game ender for her. If what Kurt was saying was true, she really didn't have all that much to worry about after all. She was then able to relax again and sit back in her seat, watching as the ground beneath her faded from view as they began to exit the trade station.

"Maybe this won't be so bad then. And maybe one day I'll be a better pilot than you." She laughed, she knew that was likely never going to happen. As much as she wanted to learn how to pilot a ship, she certainly didn't want to make it her lifetime career by any stretch of the meaning.

"So what is it you're after in the end? This can't be your only life goal. Are you searching for the right place to settle down?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He smiled, though he didn't say anything.

Piloting was the one skill that he truly had, the one thing that he could do well. Most people called him a screw up in other areas, and in reality it was probably true. He had never been much good in school, hadn't been a great farmer, and the military had been an utter disaster for him career wise, but he could fly. Oh he could fly. No one had ever doubted him in that aspect, not even the commanding officers who had sat during his court marshal.

Funny, that.

"Nope." He said as the ship pressed out of the hangar bay and began to cut through the atmosphere. "I'm happy with where I am. I get to see the galaxy, have fun, meet interesting people."

Kurt smiled at her when he said the last. It might have seemed sad, but he had no grand aspirations, he was happy with where and who he was, that's all that mattered. "I'm just seeing where the galaxy takes me. No rush, no fuss."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Simple goals." She said quite matter-of-factly. "I suppose a rather care free life suits some folk." That had been her life, before this, for the most part. Classes, saber tournaments, political courses and mentoring were more or less her every day schedule, and rarely did anything deviate from that. She had always felt she wanted more, to live a more exciting and fulfilling life. To have never left the planet would seem almost like opportunity wasted. The closest thing she had ever felt to being on a distant planet had been visiting the underwater cities. Those were something spectacular.

"And Kaile? Does she share the same desire to be a drifter?" Jamie couldn't help but feel like there was something more to this story than just being roomates. It seemed odd that the two would share so much time together, in such close proximity, to have nothing going on behind the scenes, so to speak. Not that it was any of her business or anything. Still, she found it curious.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt shrugged, the ship pushing its way through the atmosphere with an odd sort of grace. The stations shielding parted before them, the dark of the sky suddenly becoming oddly clearer, the haze of the ray shield that surrounded the space station completely gone. He sailed there for a moment, letting the ship simple zoom forward at its own pace. He smiled slightly, looking over at Jamie before finally answering her question.

"Kaile does her own thing." He'd never really questioned or cared, thinking that her business was her own. "She goes off and does things at times, I dunno what. Never really much cared. It doesn't bother or hurt me, so why would it matter?"

That might have seemed odd, but to Kurt it really didn't matter. Kaile didn't bother him and he didn't bother her. They had fun together, that was all that mattered. "Alright, take the controls in front of you."

This was a good a time as any.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie nodded slowly, rather sarcastically with a snarky look to her eyes. "Mhm. Alright." She turned back forward without another word but a shrug of the shoulders. If Kurt didn't want to admit there was something between the two of them she wouldn't pursue it further. His little games weren't gonna get to her. Ain't no way two people living together on a ship, alone, weren't anything besides friends.

She leaned forward and with a hint of nervousness pulled the controls towards her. "Right. First question...Is down up and up is down? Or is it up is up and down is down?"

Before making any kind of attempt at maneuvering anything she wanted to be certain of how exactly the controls even functioned at their most basic levels before jumping into anything that Kurt might have planned.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Pulling back will send the ship up, pushing forward will send the ship down. Right is right and left is left." Not difficult, though he could see how it could get confusing for someone who had never really flown a ship.

Of course there were more nuanced controls, like the thrusters and the throttle and the engine flaps...but for now they would avoid those.

Jamie was sitll a beginning, and over-complicating it all would only lead to headaches.

"Try to get us there." Kurt pulled up a location ping on the screen in front of them. It was about two hundred thousand kilometers away from the space station, a good flight away. They would move through normal maneuvers and try to see what Jamie could actually do. Then they would get to more complicated stuff like jumping through hyperspace. "Should be easy."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She moved the controls, first forward to dip the ship down slightly before pulling sharply back to level it off. Initially the ship took a sharp drop which surprised her at how sensitive it was. Thankfully there was nothing in their direct flight path that she could crash into, so it was relatively safe for her to test things out and get the general hang of how the controls reacted to input. She pulled up on the controls, this time more gently to raise the ship a bit, then twisted slightly to the right to make a wide turn, circling back around until the ship was facing straight again.

"This isn't so bad. Though I imagine that being in open space is mostly the easy part. Nothing to hit, and all of that."

As she navigated on a fairly rudimentary path she slowly started to understand where the sensitivities within the control arms laid, making her transitions of up and down, and left to right much more smooth, though there was nothing fancy at all about it.

"Thanks for doing this." She said rather quietly, a bit of shyness beneath the words. "You didn't have to."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He let her handle the ship entirely, not really worried about her crashing into thing.

Flying through space was far more easy than learning in an atmosphere, and in fact if Jamie ever wanted to really pilot anything she'd have to go to a more...devoid planet like Tatooine or Felucia, somewhere there was no traffic. Byblos was too dangerous for lessons, and they couldn't really take a sidetrip anywhere else. Space was easy, flying through atmosphere? Not so much. When in atmo one had to take into account wind, drag, and all sorts of other variables.

"It's not an issue." He said, though he wasn't quite sure where this new 'rescue the damsel' syndrome had come from. "Just remember you'll need to learn more."

The ship ducked for a moment, and Kurt watched her carefully. "There's all types of things you'll have to worry about in the future, especially on different planets."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I understand. But hey, what's the worst that could happen?"

She laughed, then lunged the controls forward, dropping the ship like a banshee in a rather prominent nose dive towards nothing in particular, before pulling back up so that it would recover from it's near perfect vertical position. Jamie looked over at Kurt with a sort of wolfish grin. Perhaps if there was something truly dangerous to hit he might have been genuinely worried. Perhaps she'd wait to test his resolve when they entered the atmosphere on Byblos.

"It kind of feels like those games at the arcade, ships zooming about all over, making crazy maneuvers to dodge and out run the others!" She looked around along the cluster of controls in front of her, noticing a central lever that appeared to slide both forwards and backwards. She reached for it, while simultaneously asking the question. "Is this the accelerator?" Right before leaning it forward to the far edge.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Yes." Kurt confirmed, eyeing her suspiciously.

The Messa was a surprisingly speedy ship, capable of overtaking even some interceptors.

That was due to the vessels afterburners, as well as the central location of the engines. The Varactyl Class was meant to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, freighters in the galaxy. It's massive engines and over-sized reactor made that rather easy. Of course, it came with the drawback of having the ships engines be rather sensitive, with a single concussion missile being capable of taking out the entire ship if it hit in the right place.

"Be careful." He told her. "Push it forward only very gently, this ship can get fast."

Even the inertial dampeners didn't make up for it all the way.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

How fast is fast? She wondered.

Again she nodded her head to his call for caution. What was she to do, though? When someone tells you something is fast, you don't put around like a senior citizen. You crank it up to 10. So that's exactly what she did. With a cackle she gripped the accelerator and thrust it as far forward as it could go.

"Let's try it."

As she did exactly the opposite of what she was told by Kurt, there was no momentary hesitation, no second for the ship to pick up. Unlike speeders that required a moment to process the input and adjust fuel and other electronics, the starship appeared to have no such timing. Instead, it lunged forward and cast off into the darkened void of space at a blinding rate of speed. Dots of white that sort of resembled stars passed by almost as a singular stream in her peripherals as the ship gained more and more speed.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt could've slapped the woman. Pushing the ships engines that fast, that hard, was a bad thing. The reason would had to slowly ramp up speed was so the engine had time to properly process the power it was being fed by the reactor, without that time, it was very easy to burn out the engines and damage them. That damage could then lead to the ship reacting violently, and that violent reaction almost always turned out to be a very rapid release of energy; also known as an explosion.

The two of them were thrown back into their seats, the instant speed pressing hard against their chests. Kurt let out a loud breath, a gasp for air as it was forced from his lungs. The Inertial dampeners, as expect, couldn't quite keep up with the acceleration.

He grasped her hand, overlaying his fingers over her own.

Suddenly he wrenched back on the thrusters, pulling back on the throttle and using his other hand to grasp the controls. He wrenched the ship down and to the side, flipping them suddenly and pulling the ship into a sharp overhead turn. Then he pressed the thrusters forward just slightly, pushing the engines forward just a bit against the forward momentum they just held and bringing them to a perfect floating stop within space.

"Don't do that." Kurt breathed.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Sturdy seats were a good thing. And that put them through a significant test of their resilience. The sudden throw back against the back rest was something she was hoping for; A little excitement. What she hadn't accounted for was the sudden change in lung function as she felt the same impact against her chest as the man next to her. She let out a wicked cough as she struggled to keep her head facing forward until Kurt had managed to grab hold of the accelerator and dial it back, make a few calculated maneuvers and halt the ship's momentum.

Air flooded her lungs once more, the abrupt emptying having momentarily paralyzed her. She looked over at him, he was noticeably angry, or distraught, or frightened. Perhaps some combination of the three. The girls' lips parted showing off pearly white teeth as her neck muscles flared, her expression turning to one of playful remorse. "Sorry." She said, though started to laugh immediately after. She had sated her lust for testing out the ship's capabilities, and would hopefully take the remainder of the lesson a bit more serious, assuming Kurt even let her continue from that point.

She looked from his eyes down to his hand that rested atop of hers still on the accelerator, then back up again. "Won't happen again."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]