Spaceship Parking & Beyond, Sunday Afternoon

[firstofitskind]

Liam had made plans with Kaidan and Verity to go on something of a joyride today, so he'd shown up at the junkyard early to give himself time to do an extra-thorough pre-flight check.

The virtual glass shimmered and became permeable as the shuttle recognized his biometrics, and he sat down in the pilot's seat and brought up the HUD.

ID core, optimal; conventional drive, optimal; weapons, optimal; communications, online; backup controls, online... everything seemed to be in working order. Now he just needed his passengers.

[ooc: for them what's mentioned!]

Comments

In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

Introductions made and his passengers settled in their respective seats, Liam brought the navigational controls online. Right arm extended outwards and palm facing sideways, he moved it up along the vertical axis, the shuttle responding to his commands and lifting up off the ground.

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan was familiar with HUD, though this one was different than the one on the Normandy. He watched with interest, then peered out the wall to watch takeoff. "Smooth," he noted.

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

The shuttle lacked anything resembling a physical control panel (except for the emergency controls at the back), there was just the holographic navigational axis. "Gesture-based controls," he explained. "More responsive than anything else I've worked with." Which... wasn't actually that much. But shhh.

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan nodded, "Similar to where I'm from. Display's different. Joker, my pilot, uses them. I trained on them as co-pilot just to make sure we had one."

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

"These aren't the original systems, of course," Liam said, rotating his left hand in the direction he wanted the shuttle to turn. "They've been adapted for human use." As they continued to soar high above Fandom, he turned to ask Kaidan: "So, any idea where you'd like to go?"

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

"Asteroid belt as a starter?" he suggested, more or less because that's where he and Kanan had gone on Tuesday. "The system's familiar to me but this version's different enough that it's..weird. The planets beyond Earth are empty and it's all so..quiet."

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

"Sure," Liam said with a nod. "The fast way or the slow way?" he asked. "Slow way's best if you wanna do any sort of sightseeing on the way." The fast way... well. Interdimensional was easier shown than told.

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

"Slow," Kaidan suggested, "The longer I spend in the black, the better I'll feel."

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

"Gotcha," Liam nodded. Left hand slid along the horizontal axis, and the shuttle's speed accelerated as they left the atmosphere. "We'll stick to conventional drive for now, and if you want to see what Interdimensional's like, that's always an option."

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

"Wonder if it's anything like our Mass Effect drives," Kaidan wondered. Or a hyperdrive. So many ships, so much fun new tech.

He wished Tali were here to see it. Granted, Tali would get in trouble trying to see inside everyone's ships..

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

"So, Liam tells me this was your idea?" Verity asked Kaidan at some point after the guys were done geeking out over the ship.

It was absolutely worth geeking out over, but Verity had been in it enough times before that the controls were no longer fascinating.

The view though? The view got her every time.

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

"Yes and no," Kaidan answered with a smile, "Liam offered it as an activity and I may have pounced on it immediately and pathetically begged to go, though. I'm from a time and place with space travel and have spent the last several years aboard ship."

He nodded at the wall, at the inky yet twinkling view outside, "That's home, far more than dirtside will ever be."

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

"So I'm guessing," Verity said with a small smile. "I expect you'd be less likely to call it 'dirtside' otherwise." She tilted her head. "So, are you from Earth, or, from some, like, galaxy far, far away?"

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

"Earth, just not this version. Close enough that it's creepy. I grew up in Vancouver. When I landed here, I looked up my family and there's someone with my grandparents' names there now. This space is empty, though. Mine.. wouldn't be, even this far in the past," Kaidan answered.

"My universe is multi-species. We made it to space to find out we weren't the only sentients. Minor war ensued because humans don't deal well when they're suddenly not at the top of the food chain, but we got over it and joined the greater galactic community. Being on a monoculture world, barring the residents of Fandom, is..rough."

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity wore a rueful smile. "Yeah, my family's been fighting a semi-secret war for generations because humans don't like to share with others," she said. "My world isn't a monoculture." And she honestly had no idea how many of the worlds where people swore theirs was just had cryptids hiding in the shadows where most people didn't know where to look. "Most people just don't know it. And those who do are split between those who want to help the non-human populations survive and those committed to wiping them out of existence."

Re: In Spaaace!

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan's face tightened briefly, "I really don't like xenophobes."

He really didn't.

"More than half the people I consider family aren't human."

Because most humans were the worst.

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

"Remind me to tell you about the Covenant of St. George sometime when it won't ruin a lovely field trip," Verity said, her mouth twisting. "You'll hate them!"

Which was fair. So did Verity.

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity waited for Kaidan to pick a seat and settled into the other one. "So, when you gonna teach me to fly this thing?" she asked, casually.

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

Liam raised an eyebrow and grinned back at her. "Whenever you'd like," he said, easily.

Honestly, part of him was surprised it had taken this long for her to bring the idea up.

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

She leaned forward and gave him a fond kiss. Look, that grin was just asking for one. "Good," she said. "We can trade flying lessons for tango."

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

"Seems fair to me," Liam agreed. "You show me how to dance on the ground, I'll show you how to dance up here." And if he executed a complicated little maneuver with a flourish of his hand to emphasize, well...

Sometimes he liked being dramatic, okay?

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

And was generally adorable when he did.

"I like it when we dance together," she said, giving him a look from under her lashes. "All the different ways we dance together."

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

And oh, how he loved that look, the one that promised things that... well. Weren't the kind of things they could do when they had company.

"Couldn't ask for a better partner," he agreed.

Re: In Spaaace!

[arboreal_priestess]

"I am pretty great at the tango, I'll give you that," she said, threading her fingers through his and letting their palms touch.

"By the way, sorry about earlier. I didn't know Abrazo was coming along to make a grand and, err, public announcement," she added, very softly.

Re: In Spaaace!

[firstofitskind]

"Don't apologize," Liam said, sending her a quick burst of affection via the Sharing as he spoke. "They have an unerring sense of dramatic timing, after all. And besides... it means they really know I'm in this for the long haul, doesn't it?" He knew the mice liked him, sure, but to know, for real, that they approved of how serious his and Verity's relationship had become... well. It was important.