Memory transcription subject: Alvi, Metaphorical Kid in a Metaphorical Candy Store.
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 15th, 2136. Early 4th Claw.
Lights glittered around me as I spun around the helm, taking in every line and lever I could see! Two seats sat at the forward, the captain and engineer lit with electric life, with two more inactive stations a few tails behind them; the wide console across the forward, bridging both captain and engineer stations, was scattered with screens and interfaces glowing with information and readouts. The captain’s seat was the most specialized of the lot, covered in switches, levers, and buttons for a hundred actions the ship could take, and the systems that supported them. Chris had been patient in answering my questions, and I soaked in every word like rainfall on my wool.
“... So I need to make sure both the intake collective and the stern magnetic directors are set up right. After all that, I can light ‘er up.” My attention snapped to his hands as he punctuated his lesson with the ignition and the ship woke from its rest. The engine’s building hum echoed through the frame and through me as my rushing blood seemed to match its growing resonance.
My ears tingled with the almost inaudible change of tone in the engine, and it clicked in my brain, “OH! So the power manifold needs to reach the superconductor’s lock phase so you can direct fuel through the oscillating magnetic fields, tripling their force output! Why didn’t I think of that!”
My mind bolted madly through the thousand possibilities this new process could create! I could hear Chris’ baritone at the back of my recollection, but my hearing couldn’t keep up with my thoughts, “So that means if you could take the outside atmosphere and run it though the same accelerators, you could really get her moving! Or even bypass the need for fuel AT ALL! OH I wonder if you could use negative gravity just inside the engine intake to pull in and condense atmosphere?! The engine compressor would pull it all one direction, charging it, which would allow it to be accelerated further with the same magnetic accelerators we already use! Then if you run the charged atmosphere over a warp plate, it would charge the plate, and create a field of null-gravity, reducing friction and accelerating it even further! ”
“We actually had a senior design project trying that in university! They got close but they could never get the timing right, never had consistent flow rates. Heard they tried to patent it as a new kind of wool dryer!”
I swung around to the new voice, seeing Taisa watching me with a warm joy behind her eyes. “You went to University? Is that where you learned about all this?!” My excitement at the possibility of whole schools dedicated to picking apart machines set me bouncing on my pads, my ears and tail high as they focused on Taisa.
She whistled a giggle as she passed me, slipping into the engineer seat and booting up her station, “Yep! Well, most of it at least. The classroom’s great, but no one’s a better teacher than your workshop at home. All the book smarts in the world can’t replace experience.”
I hopped around the captain’s seat to stand between it and engineering, peering over Taisa’s shoulder as she ran through her checks, “That’s incredible! I tried to tinker on what I could, but never really had access to a workshop. Having a whole ship to play with would be a dream come true!”
Taisa purred as she split her attention between me and the console, slowing her routine so I wouldn’t miss a single step. “It really is, how about I give you a tour of the engineering spaces after we get underway?”
My heart lept and my tail thrashed behind me in ecstatic acceptance at the invitation, bouncing in place as I imagined what incredible things I would see! Chris’ hand hovered over the hail key, and Taisa focused her attention on her console as I watched them perform their launching routines before I felt a soft hand on my shoulder.
Maeve gently guided me out of the helm while I kept an eye and an ear on the pilots, before the door slid shut between us.
“Sun’s light! I’m going to see the rest of the ship!” I couldn’t contain my excitement as I bounced off the walls of the corridor, my tail flailing about completely devoid of language as it struggled to keep my balance while Maeve guided us through the ship. “Did you see how she worked?! Paws just flying across the screen, like it was the easiest thing in the galaxy! Tenets, Sun, and Stars; I wish I could do that someday!”
Maeve giggled as she walked behind Valek and I, his tail trying and failing to curl around mine in an attempt to keep me grounded, “Well, Taisa said the best teacher was a workshop, and guess what Elva’s got in the back room?”
I spun round on my claws, my attention all on Maeve as I realized, “You think she would?! That I could use her workshop?!”
Valek chuckled as he wound an arm around my back, pulling my hip against his, the weight of his paw on my side halting my ecstatic bounding. I leaned into his side and laid my head on his shoulder and his weight sagged against me in tired support, “Once we get you something to play with, for sure… and I’ll pick up any books I find for you at the library.”
Valek finished with a wide yawn, “Nap in the park not do it for you?” Maeve asked as Valek’s tail swung a tired ‘No’.
I marveled at the ship around me, noting the separate rooms for individual crew; I knew from shows that larger ships used shared living, but this must need a smaller crew. I noticed a service panel near the floor at the start of the corridor and tapped it, prompting it to push open and slide aside. It opened out to a tight service shaft running along and under the deck of the corridor, lined with color-coded conduit. Just behind the service panel on the floor of the shaft was an engineering readout, detailing the conduit's loads and destination. All readings showed green, and I noticed many rooms were on drought settings; Galley, Engineering, and Helm were on full power of course, and the Captain’s Cabin. Most of the Crew Cabins were on low power, few of the storage rooms…
… and so was the Engineer's Cabin… huh.
“Just can’t wait a moment, can you, Alvi? Ya know, some engineers would call that rude.” The giggling Venlil cooed behind me, making me jump out of my wool and fall into the service shaft, her giggles growing to an abrupt bray ahead of Maeve’s bubbling laughter.
I whimpered as I lay there in a tangled heap, limbs and tail spilling over and out into the hallway, before Taisa bent to offer a paw and help me up, quickly followed by Maeve’s gloved hand. I brushed the gathered dust from my wool and nursed a sore shoulder as their humor filled the corridor.
“Yeah, ok, I guess I deserved that. Sorry Taisa, I should have waited.”
“It’s alright, Alvi. It’s nice to see someone so excited about what I do!” She responded, tapping the low panel with her tail and making it slide back into place with a soft hiss. “We set up Cabin 4 for passengers, just down the hall here. It’s only got two beds, I hope that’s not a problem?” She asked as her attention flitted between Valek and I.
“I-I think we can make do.” I answered as she moved to address Maeve, hoping the distraction kept her from seeing my rising bloom.
“Of course I’d invite you too, Maeve, but if you don’t mind, would you keep Christopher company in the helm while I give Alvi the tour? I usually stay up there with him and I’d hate to leave him chatting with air.”
Maeve smiled genially as she nodded to Taisa, “I think I’d like that; it’s been a while since I’ve talked to a human. Valek, would you like to join me?”
Valek’s ears stretched to the back of his head as he squinted through another wide yawn, “I think I’ll nap here, if you don’t mind.”
“Perfectly fine, darling.” Maeve planted her lips on his crown and ruffled my own, “You don’t make too much trouble alright? Wouldn’t want you gettin’ stuck in the Holodeck fighting Noir Borg in a speakeasy!” Before the cabin door wooshed closed behind her.
Silence filled the room in her absence, and Taisa was the first to speak behind incredulous laughter, “What???”
Valek shrugged his tail from the bed, answering as he got comfortable, “I’ve no idea. She does this all the time, mentions some human thing that makes the translator short out.”
Taisa let out a sigh, pawing her snout as her tail curled. “So does Chris, having a perfectly normal conversation one moment and the next the translator is shouting about some Human Cultural context I’m missing!”
Each of our tails swung in sympathy, before Taisa clapped her paws together with a sharp breath, “So, Alvi.” Taisa started, cutting through the sudden silence before fixing me with her favored eye. “Ready for that tour?”
“You’ve no idea!! Where to first?!”
Taisa led me out of the cabin, as Valek quickly fell asleep, his soft whistling nearly drowned out by the bulkhead door.
"So what kind of power's she runnin' on? You guys splurge for the annihilation generator?"
Taisa's tail waved a lazy 'No', "She's got a stock Fissan Fission power plant. Not quite the Umph of the a-bats, but the fuel's a lot easier to find, and twice as reliable!"
My ears flicked back with worry before focusing back on her, "You're not worried about leaks?"
"Nah; her shielding is prime crop. And if something hits us hard enough to comprise the power plant, we've got a lot more to worry about than a little radiation poisoning."
I followed Taisa down the hall toward midship, in awe as I peered through every clear pane and panel we walked past. Bustling circuitry and winding conduits hinted at the incredible workings of this giant machine, each piece working together, a herd of metal and lightning, to span the stars themselves! Taisa brought me to the end of a long hall, ended by a wide door and my heart hammered in my ears, barely registering the giant designation painted on the door as Taisa’s words sunk in.
“Say ‘Hello’... to Polani!”
The wide door slid open, the glow of the Power Plant filling the room from its far side, reinforced and shielded glass letting us see the planet below us. Immediately in front of us lay the primary console, wide and semi-circular, positioned such that we could see each subdivision humming with life and energy!
“So, portside we’ve got a Starliner in-house drive, haven’t gotten to test her yet but everything I’ve looked over so far tells me she should work smooth as a dayside wind! On starboard, over there, we’ve got the power plant; she’s an older Fissan Fission unit, but she still makes consistent power.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
She gestured to the walls with the flick of her tail, “Hydraulics reservoirs, pumps and sensors are all in the walls alongside scrubbers, pneumatic compressors, the workbench for parts, armament subsystems and the mechanical rams for the landing gear.” She stepped forward, gesturing to the wide multi-screened console only a few tail lengths from the doorway as the system came to life. “Where the thrusters are her legs, the plant is her heart and the guns are her paws, this is her brain.”
I cast my eyes over the console, taking in every piece of data it had to share. The center displayed conduit paths and loads, their flow rates and power tolerances, while the port and starboard sectors, corresponding to the drive and reactor positions, laid their detailed readouts.
Most of the displays were data feeds, but they also included wear-maps, showing each unit’s full diagram and color coded for localized heat and damage. I eagerly hopped to the terminal, my paw hovering over the displays before I hesitated, looking beside me at Taisa, my tail asking permission. With a happy wag from her, I pressed my paw to the reactor diagram, zooming in and out, turning and flipping the digital representation to see its every piece and part.
I tapped on several pieces, the model exploding to localized disassembly and isolating the selected part, giving me details of its install date, lifetime average heat and torque loads, and expected date to replace everything from parts to lubricants.
Taisa giggled over my shoulder as I investigated nearly the entire drive, before whistling gleefully, “So, Alvi. What sparks your curiosity more?”
My eyes soared and my ears swiveled around at the cornucopia of discovery that surrounded me, my claws itching to piece apart every tail of the craft, before my attention landed, “Can we check the thrusters? They look like bigger versions of the ones on Elva’s droids!”
Taisa’s wool fluffed with excitement, her eyes sparkling as she took me by the paw and down the stairs to the service access for the starboard thruster, the pulsating hum of its matter accelerator forcing us to rely on tail-speech. She invited me inside, and I was captivated by the mac-coils surrounding the chemical thruster.
Our ears were pressed tight against our heads, trying in vain to keep out the incredible noise, but I kept one eye on Taisa’s tail as she told me about how they worked.
Angry. Wet. Make. Storm… Captive. Light. Make. Storm. More. Fast… Push. Basket. More… Less. Angry. Wet.
Of course! Fission powers the mac-coils, which magnify the thruster exhaust! But something was missing… I couldn’t hear the roar of gas, so was fuel being burned?
No. Storm. Noise… No. Angry. Wet?
Taisa’s tail shook an emphatic No, before continuing.
No. Sky. In. Night… Captive. Light. Alone… Captive. Light. Wind. Weaker. Than. Home. Wind… Storm. In. Sky… Captive. Light. Out. Sky.
So Ion engines aren’t powerful enough for a rig this large in atmosphere, so they use them out of atmosphere only… that must be why the droids are so expensive, they probably use some anti-grav tech to lighten the load!
Our tails were a flurry of questions and answers as she showed me how each piece of the thruster interacted with the others, and we brainstormed ways they could be improved. Weaving through the Engineering Bay, it felt like we had grazed through every system and subsystem, but I knew this was only a tiny scratch on this lampan melon of a tour!
We left Engineering with pounding ears and sore tails, laughing to each other about mechanical mishaps and over-ambitious colleagues; I told her of our droid woes back at the Berrypatch, and she complained about the old mag-locks their last shuttle had used and Chris’ overeager flying habits.
We were just passing the Galley as the ringing in my ears finally quieted with a soft Pop as I worked my jaw against the pressure, sighing with relief when I could hear the resonant hum of the ship again.
Taisa flicked her ears, puffing out her cheeks for a moment before shaking her head. “Stars I need to get some proper hearing protection for out in the thruster spaces. At least most of my hearing is back now.”
“Agreed, much more of that and you’ll be deaf long before harvest time. What’s the humming from? Is that the Power Plant?” I asked as we wandered the halls, suddenly aware of how noisy our clicking claws on the hard metal deck made us; I wonder how that could be fixed…
Taisa shook her head, signing No with her tail. “Starboard thruster mounts are long past their harvest date. A friend in Heartwood has a good trail for an M600 ‘HC’ variant that uses a bigger version of the ones already on her. Once he’s got it secured we’re gonna see what we can get it off of him for and start stripping her for the good stuff.”
I whistled with delight, “Sounds like a dream paw to me! Could probably spend the better part of a harvest tearing something that big apart. Any big plans for her?”
Taisa’s eyes sparkled in front of me as her tail twitched with excitement, “Well, first thing’s gonna be a brand new set of fresh-picked cooler fans, heatsinks and transfer tanks. Replace and upgrade the whole cooling system. Little extra work now will help save my tail later on with how he flies; I don’t know how much you remember of that flight, but The Grove to Hidden Plains is supposed to be a lot longer than [ 4 minutes ]! After that, I promised Chris new thrusters, more power, better maneuverability, the works. Probably be a pain getting them mounted without a hangar and gantry crane, but I’m sure I can swing it with a few extra sets of paws… and maybe a rented hangar.”
Taisa’s ears fell as she thought of the, I’m sure, several bills and invoices that loomed in her future. Only a moment before she took a breath, and lifted them again, “The HC Parnel’s got a trail on should pick me a new high capacity shield array that hopefully will just slot into the old ones carrier space. Also has the Mk.2 variants of these inertial dampeners, they’ve not been a problem yet but with how he flies, Stars only know how long until he’s tossing cargo around the hold. He keeps going on and on about new guns but that’s a ways down the trail of priorities. Also need to do a couple of things in his quarters, luckily the U.N. said they’ll pay up on that field.”
My memory pricked with my curiosity, “How about Engie’s quarters? Noticed from the status logs on that service hatch that it was getting drought power; you sure that’s comfortable?”
She stiffened a little, her tail curling and uncurling as she stared one eye at me. “Well… I, uhm…”
My ears snapped forward, and my tail curled with mischief and understanding, “Unless you got a ‘space-heater’ of course.”
Taisa was brimming with joy and relief, “Yeah! Yeah, I, uh… I don’t need much, s-so I just keep a little space heater in there!”
“Yeah, ‘little’! I’m thinking about three tails tall, self-powered…” Taisa’s ears were steadily turning a brilliant shade of orange, “... built-in ‘grooming’ function…”
Her paws shot to her snout, covering her bloom as she let out a soft whine, “Polani’s Mercy, not you, too! Are we really that obvious?”
I slumped in the nearest chair, braying laughter as she tried to explain how they were just ‘saving power’ and ‘it was so nice sharing a room at the Meetup’; after catching my breath I tried to reassure her with ears and tail, “It’s fine! It’s fine! I’m in the same field. Scarcely 4 paws ago, actually.”
Her attention snapped to me, sudden interest in her bloom-ridden ears as they focused. “Oh? Really now? Care to spill the crop on that?”
I flattened my wool as I sat in the chair, looking out the wide window at the golden sands of the Burning rolling under us, “Not a whole lot to spill, if I’m honest! Ever since we met on the Ring, they’ve welcomed me into their herd, almost like I was meant to be there. Valek welcomed me into his home, and Maeve even gave me a few things once her apartment was finished! I just… I feel like-”
“Like meeting a Human was the best thing to happen to you? Like all that meandering, wandering, and failure throughout life finally might have had a purpose? Like… like everything’s just better now?” She sighed, a wistful look in her eyes as she stared with me out of the wide bay window on the side of the lounge.
“... Better. Yeah. Before all this, I… I had a really hard time finding a herd. Every time I found someone, they would- I mean we had our problems, but every time, Valek was right there beside me, and Maeve was ready to just listen. To be there, and support me and-” My vision blurred and my voice caught, remembering every closed door, every dismissal, every time they would drop me the moment I was anything except the perfect Venlil.
“They just love! So completely and-and freely! And they have enough for Me! That they can spare any for- that I can finally have-”
“Have someone. Someone that actually cares.” She sighed, sliding down into the chair across from mine. “Trust me, I spent nearly a rotation trying to find a crew to hire me and didn’t have a single sprout. What little bit of a herd I managed to forage for myself just left me once we’d graduated and… and aside from Mama, Papa, and Renkel, I was alone. A-And then I got the ad for the exchange and now I’m…” Her ears flailed about, her paws gesturing around us. “Now I’m the engineer for a ship, Our ship. I-In a partnership with my best friend! It’s only been a few herds of paws! H-how?! How can life change that fast? What’d I do to finally deserve this?”
We dissolved into hysterics, overcome by the cavalcade of coincidence that made our lives what they were, that led us both to something each of us could finally call Happy. As our whistling quieted and the hum of the ship filled the space between, I looked around at the ship that surrounded me, letting it sink in that this incredible piece of technology was run and maintained by the Venlil in front of me. The same Venlil who couldn’t find a herd, until they found one in a predator our people were taught to be terrified of.
“She’s a fine ship, Taisa.”
Her tail swayed happily, “That she is… And in far better condition than any of the old rust-buckets I worked on in university. Stars, with what the federation gives them in grants, you’d think they could’ve afforded some better examples to work with!”
My claws twitched as I remembered Taisa walking me through the ship thrusters, eager to see their function, sighing with awe and envy as I spoke, “I can’t believe you got into University! I’ve looked at classes but… I went right into work out of school, and a girl’s gotta eat.”
“Never too late to try! Have you checked the Hidden Plains University?” Taisa asked, her attention now off the view and onto me.
“Maybe… Honestly, the thought hadn’t really occurred to me. I love machines, how they work, how they move, how they think… I’ve grazed to root every book I could find! Valek’s been, so maybe…”
“Well then, it sounds to me like you’d positively shear through your courses! I’d bet they’d let you take them online if you were worried about getting there. Stars know, you might even be able to test out of a few of them!”
My tail curled around me as thoughts of building, changing, perfecting… making something like this. Like the droids at the Berrypatch. Something to help people. The fantasy blossomed in my mind, filling with color and possibility, becoming more real, more possible, every moment it lingered.
“I… I think I could do that!”
---
Memory transcription subject: Valek, Venlil ‘Space heater’.
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 15th, 2136. Middle of 4th Claw.
Woosh
Tup Tup, Click Click.
Warmth. Weight.
Drag.
Wool. Breath. Taste. Twine.
Three. Together. One.
Home.