Thread: The St. Anne

Iona Knutesdottir Bridge of the St. Anne Midwatch Tagged Donovan Open Clearly Iona understood the enigmatic comment from Donovan and held his gaze without looking away or shrinking back like so many other people did. I will, she answered simply, which was odd since it seemingly put Donovan and hers positions in a flip flop. She'd only used it once before, not long after earning the privilege of knowing about it by proving to Donovan that she was worthy of being trusted. Knowing what had happened when she opened the comm directly to him meant she'd only ever use it again if the need was truly there, but she wouldn't hesitate if it was. Iona was a rip the bandage off all at once type of person. Iona Knutesdottir Ventral Bay of the St. Anne Midwatch Tagged Thomyris We can check each other when we're done, Iona answered as she ran a finger down the static tab holding her coverall together. It peeled apart and she shrugged out of it, leaving it floating like a discarded skin she'd just molted from. Beneath it the Captain's skin was molded by an emerald green environmental and life support body stocking that had a wet look to it. She kept her toed socks on and reached out with one of them to snag the floating coverall. While she stripped her shard pistol out of its holster with one hand, she folded the coverall with the other and used both feet as well. If not quite as good as using two hands it was certainly adequately done and Iona tucked the coverall into an empty tool pouch on the left arm of her suit, then slotted the shard pistol into a holster on the right thigh. If she needed it, it wasn't going to be trapped inside where she couldn't do anything with it. Iona's suit wasn't sleek and modern. It was an older generation and showed heavy use but the seals and joints were fresh looking and if the skin of the suit was battered in places it was still perfectly functional. The dimple of a high velocity micro-meteorite impact showed across one shoulder plate but it had been filled back in though it was still visible. A black and white snoopy hat, the name lost across the centuries but still called that, went on her head and she tucked all of her hair away before getting into her suit and sealing up. Thomyris would note that the Captain's suit also had toes on the feet of it, much like the socks Iona wore. Buddy check, she said and spent a few minutes making sure each of Thomyris' suit items were functioning and receiving a second eyeballing of her own. You could don a suit much faster and be back up and working but if you didn't have to rush why rush? Let's go, she said after the checks were completed and she opened the inner lock. Despite the bulk of her suit she didn't touch any part of it as she swam through feet first and grabbed onto a hold with her toes, an impossible to see hold because the suit and her helmet prevented Iona from really looking down and backwards but she'd still grabbed it on the first attempt, a hint at just how much time she had not only in space but on Dogged class freighters. Air rushed out as Thomyris cycled the lock then everything went silent as atmo was replaced by vacuum and sound ceased to exist unless it was inside the suit or transmitted by solid on solid contact. As Thomyris followed the Captain out onto the bottom of the ship, though that didn't have any real meaning in zero-g, Iona waited until the young woman passed than clipped a five meter lead to the back of Iona's suit and the other end to the front of her own. Aft towards where the running light is and there's an underhull storage. Take us there, she let herself float and be towed along as Thomyris' boots with their user activated magnetic soles let them clump along the St. Anne's skin. When they arrived the Captain opened the storage compartment and slowly one-handed a skeletal looking object out. Flying the Annie is easy. She's nimble and responsive and pretty idiot proof. Good software and hardware if a bit dated but she won't let you hurt her or yourself without nagging you to death first. In a pinch anyone, even the cook - the last cook not our new one - can get her to and fro. As Iona spoke she began to unfold bits and pieces, and the form of a two-person gravity sled became obvious. Big reactionless thrusters fore and aft on the central spine, two barebones acceleration harnesses designed to clip onto a suit, and a small bulge in the middle that was both powerplant and a very dense, very fast spinning gyroscope. The St. Anne, well she's a tubby old lady but gets it done. You can't slew her around and have to think ahead, way ahead, of her acceleration and maneuver curves to make sure you don't get caught behind them. It's easy to move her in straight lines but if you don't know how to ship handle you'll bang her up but good. You have to get a feel for her right here, she slapped the middle of her suit, armored gauntlet ringing off the stiff torso piece and carrying through the rest of the suit to the interior where atmo changed it into audible sound. Motioning towards the grav sled, she helped Thomyris get clipped in up front, the pilot's position, then crouched and pushed the sled and herself free of the hull, floating them away from the St. Anne at a slower than walking pace. Iona tugged gently on the tether and pulled herself to the sled and hooked herself in. Right, controls are simple. You've got ample thrust fore or aft along the central spine. The gyro helps dampen out load imbalances, like your head. You can also clutch into it and use it to change your attitude in all three directions but do it while you're not thrusting and it takes less power. There's an approach and rangefinding computer right in front of you but, oh no, Iona said with fake concern, it's gone out on us. Whatever will we do? A chuckle showed that the Captain was teasing, not winding the other woman up. If you twist her open all the way with our mass, you can pull 3-4 gee easily. I'd prefer it if you didn't though if I'm going to be bruised in interesting spots I'd like a little fun to along with it. Keep her between zero and one point five. Get us to the station. It's an easy approach. Steady acceleration to the mid point then you have a choice. Burn from the front so you can still see where you're going and be pulled into the front of your suit by deceleration, or flip us and ride her in backwards. Problem there is you can't really see where you're going except in your helmet's mirrors or the display from the camera in back of your helmet. Oh, and where the station is now isn't where she's going to be relative to us when we started. You need to figure out where she will be and put us there. Iona bent over a little bit, making her mass align better with the spine of the sled and pulled her feet up to tuck them into simple metal c-shaped brackets to hold them in place. You're going to flub up, she told Thomyris. Otherwise, why would I be teaching you instead of ordering you to just take us there? It's okay. I won't let you get hurt or hurt anyone else and we'll be fine. Thomyris, you've got a keen mind for cargo and you're as hard a worker as I've ever seen. You also take things seriously. You've the makings of more than an able hand if that's where you want to go. But I need you to grow in confidence otherwise you'll never be fit to stand in front of a ship's crew and lead them. One way to do that is to learn that you can ship handle in your gut when every other system but steering and propulsion is down and you've got to nail the approach the first time or skip off the atmosphere and have a race between freezing to death or running out of atmo plant. If you ever want to conn my ship and for me to trust you so much that I'll not only turn it over to you but go to my bunk, show me you've got it in your gut. Get us to the station.