It's a fine Saturday afternoon that finds Arkian once more entering the hangar of the Silver Star. The ship itself is clean and sleek, although at first there appears to be no one else in the hangar. After a few moments, however, the underbelly hatch of the ship lowers, and a rather short, wiry man emerges from the vessel. "Someone out here?" he calls out.
"Only me," calls back Arkian, walking towards the ship. "Are you the pilot I was supposed to meet?"
"Think so," he replies with a grin. "Name's Richard Thibodeaux, but you can just call me Rich. You must be Arkian, right?" He sticks out a hand towards Arkian.
Arkian grasps Rich's hand firmly. "That's right," he says. "I've been looking forward to this."
"Can't blame ya," he says with a grin. "She's a real beaut, ain't she?" He turns to look at the ship for a moment, then back to Arkian. "Heard you've got some flyin' experience already, but no idea how much."
Arkian shrugs. "I flew cargo ships and ferries to Earth and back for a couple of years. I know my way around a cockpit."
He turns and thoughtfully looks the Silver Star up and down. "That said, it's been a while. And most of the flights I took were over relatively fast, but this crate'll be in flight for a sight longer."
"Well, I know her pretty much better than anyone," Rich replies. "I've been her test pilot since the first prototype model came out. And lemme tell ya, she's no crate. Not as quick or nimble as some of the fighter craft I've flown, but a damn sight better than most of those freighters that make the Earth-to-Moon runs."
Arkian shrugs. "I'll take your word for it. Mind showing me around?"
"'course not, that's what we're here for," Rich replies, leading you inside the ship.
Once inside, you recognize the cockpit layout as fairly standard - a pilot and copilot's chair, with the typical main controls - a steering yoke and throttle mounted on the console. However, like most other newer ships, the console is arrayed with a dizzying array of switches, most of them not very intuitively labeled. "All right," Rich says, flipping a pair of them - and the lights on the console spring to life. "You've got main power, and the hangar's set to open once the ship's been powered up. Give it about a minute for the doors to open, and you can take her up."
Arkian glances over the controls, mentally ticking off in his mind such vital controls as 'Engine Power', 'Open Ramp', 'Navcomp set'...
Flicking a couple of other rudimentary taking-off-procedure switches, something catches his eye!
"What's that button do?" he asks, pointing to a big red button.
Rich glances over at what you're pointing to. "Oh, that's the hold jettison button. They tell you about that?"
"No," replies Arkian, turning on the engines proper. "What's it do?"
"Cycle takes about three minutes to complete, but it basically seals off the cetner hold and dumps it right out the bottom of the ship. Heard it got put in just in case you guys picked up anything that started causin' too much trouble."
"Is there a flightbook?" asks Arkian, glancing over all the controls. "There's plenty of stuff here I've never seen before."
"Should be one in the slot next to your seat," Rich replies - and indeed there is. A quick review of the book reveals that it really is primarily a standard set of controls, simply poorly labeled. One strip of switches that you weren't sure about, on the far left side of the pilot's panel, is devoted to fuel sources - apparently the ship runs off a hybrid hydrogen/magical drive, and the two can be switched at will.
"Allright, I'm about ready," says Arkian. "Buckle up, because I'm *quite* out of practice.."
He pulls back on the throttle, and moves the joystick to bring the ship out of the hangar!
"Er, I hope I didn't need flight clearance, or anything," he says.
Rich chuckles at that. "Don't worry about it. Flight control knows we were due to head out for some training today, although we're going to be working in space for maneuvers more than atmospheric work."
The ship rises - a bit shakily, you note, but you at least don't hit the hangar doors on the way out. The ship rises quickly, the viewscreen in front of you showing the ground receding rapidly below you.
"Of course," replies Arkian, nodding. "Anything special I should know for exiting and reentering the atmosphere, or is it all standard?"
If there *is* something special, it better be told before Arkian plows through the sky; he's jammed the throttle and moving *quite* fast.
"Naw," Rich answers. "You've got magically-augmented heat shielding, so as long as you're not moving with the transplanetary drive on when you hit the atmosphere you should be fine."
He watches Arkian's performance carefully. "Ease up on the throttle a little, and don't hold the yoke so tight. I've got second seat, so it's not like we're going to crash if you screw up. Calm down a little."
Arkian deliberately tells himself to 'loosen up'. "Right," he says, keeping his eye on his viewscreens and not the front window; experiance has taught him that it isn't fun to find yourself looking directly into the sun (rare, but it *does* happen.)
Within a matter of about five minutes you've left the Lunar atmosphere, and the ship slides into orbit smoothly - VERY smoothly.
"All right, here's where the fun begins. Ready for a quick run to Earth?" Rich asks with a grin.
Arkian pulls the ship around and points it towards the aforementioned planet, admiring the view.
"Why not?" he replies, activating the space-thrusters and switching the ship from 'Atmospheric' to 'Vacuum' mode.
And the ship responds. Quite rapidly. You feel a momentary pressure pushing you into your seat, and the ship lurches a bit.
"Whoa, ease back on the throttle before you switch the engines over," Rich advises. "The transplanetary engines have a hell of a lot of kick to 'em, so you want to drop the throttle back to almost nothin' before you switch into 'em." He points a finger at a pair of markings next to the throttle. "These are estimated speeds here," he explains. "The left side is standard thrusters, right side is transplanetary." As you examine the markings, you notice that the transplanetary markings are several orders of magnitude higher than the standard ones.
Arkian whistles. "That *is* a damn sight faster than the stuff I used to pilot," he remarks, easing the throttle back. "On the other hand, though, it's not likely I'm going to hit anything out here."
He points the ship at Earth and guides it forward..
As you fly, you notice the ship making visible progress towards the blue planet - which is unusual. From your freighter-piloting days, you recall the long trip through the vacuum between the Earth and its lone satellite was just that - long and fairly boring.
Rich leans over and punches a few keys on a keyboard between the pilots' seats, and the ship seems to straighten out just a bit. "There, punched it over to automatic course control for a bit. Should arrive in Earth orbit in about, oh, two hours or so. Computer will take care of the deceleration once we hit the halfway point, so it's pretty much just sittin' back and enjoyin' the ride now."
"Great," replies Arkian, leaning back in his chair. "The ship'll pretty much pilot itself for the majority of the time. All I really need to do is turn it on."
"For the most part, yeah," Rich agrees. "It'll set off an alarm if it finds anything in your way, like a good-sized asteroid or anything, and you'll have to go around it. But it's designed to do most of the work itself."
"Do I need a copilot for anything?" asks Arkian, flipping through the manual. "I don't believe I have one for the flight."
"Naw, you should be okay by yourself. The co's chair is mainly here as a just-in-case - you know, in case the nav computer gets fried or somethin'. Not too likely to happen on a ship this new, but eh - it's still possible, I guess."
Arkian shudders at that thought. "I'd hate to be caught out as far as Mercury without a navicomp," he muses. "Well, maybe not so much on this ship, but on most others, it'd take long enough to get here with one, let alone without."
Rich grins at that. "Me neither. Hell, even FINDIN' the Moon again from that far out would be a near miracle. But I don't expect any equipment failures - this ship's been through three times the testin' that most normal new ships have. She'll hold up for you, I'm sure."
"Who was in charge of the design?" asks Arkian, curiously.
"Think it was Doc Kawashima who came up with the initial design, although I've heard practically everyone in the tech branch has had their hand in it somehow, from Doc Mizuno right on down the line."
"With a lineup like that, it's hard to think of anything going wrong," replies Arkian, grinning.
"Damn right," the pilot replies. "They've really gone all out for this survey thing." He glances over at you curiously. "Why'd you sign up for it, anyway?"
Arkian turns to look at Rich, and there's a flash of excitement in his eyes. "Can you imagine?" he asks, smiling; "Can you imagine being one of the first people on an uncharted planet? In a world nobody has seen in thousands of years? To put your foot down on the surface, and know that because of you, men may tread this ground in the soil?
A natural landscape beyond anything Earth or the Moon has to offer. I could learn volumes just by standing there for a few hours. It's like a dream..."
He chuckles at that. "I can see you're ready to get goin'," he replies. "I guess it does sound pretty excitin' when you put it that way. I applied for it myself, but didn't make the cut - what I got told was that I didn't have the right skills for the mission." He snorts a bit. "Seein' this ship, I know why. But at least I've been able to help get it ready for the rest of you."
Arkian chuckles. "I'll treat you dinner when I get back," he says. "Least I can do."
"You've got yourself a deal," he retorts.
The two of you chat amiably for about an hour, and the next time you look up, you've already settled into an Earth orbit.
"Didn't take long at all, did it?" Rich says with a grin. "I'd offer to let you land her, but we don't have clearance for a berth on Earth at the moment."
"So now what?" replies Arkian, pulling the ship into a curve. "Should I put it into orbit, or just turn it around?"
"Just take her back to the Moon," Thibodeaux replies. "If you want to try putting her through her paces yourself, go ahead - your call how much you want to do here. You seem to know your way around a cockpit well enough."
Arkian turns the ship around to fly back to the moon, but instead of taking a direct route, he goes through a series of turns, dives, rolls, spins; getting a feel for the ships more in-depth piloting rather than intersteller flight.
Once that's done, however, he heads back to the landing bay.
The rest of the trip is fairly uneventful, although Rich does give you a few pointers on aerobatic techniques. The two of you say your farewells and part once the ship is back in its hangar, and you proceed on to your last weekend of rest and relaxation.