Kent/Feldspar

[videointhenoise]

"Just once more," they had said when Ellie's team petitioned for it. She was busy with Palmer, falling in love with science while he fell in love with God, and Kent was left to pick up the pieces. He wanted another damn go at it. The Machine had a pricetag in the billions; it was begging to be used again.

But they wouldn't let Ellie go. They wouldn't let just anyone go. They wanted someone who knew how it worked, who had been there from the beginning, but someone who isn't completely taken in by Ellie's words.

That leads them to a dozen people and they end up with Kent. He's blind, but that's not what decides it. They claim that he wouldn't hallucinate the way Ellie did. That he has a unique perspective.

And, he's already proven himself steady and loyal.

He experiences it all the way that Ellie does, but something goes wrong on the other end. Maybe another terrorist attack. Maybe not. All he knows is that he's in the sphere and then, suddenly, he's floating, unable to find his footing until a great crash and he slams into the bottom of the machine.

He groans, pulling his helmet on with a grunt and a wince.

"Fuck this," he mutters, finding the edge of the sphere with his hands. There was a door there somewhere. He just - has to find it.

Comments

[videointhenoise]

"Oxygen, yeah, but there's a lot of other stuff in our atmosphere." He pulls himself up inside of the ship and leans back, trying to find a wall to press his back into.

"You know. Mostly nitrogen. Oxygen. Some argon and uh a bit of carbon dioxide, but oxygen is really what we need."

[getfeldsparred]

"Oh." All of that sounds familiar, but they'd have to check with Hornfels - luckily though they know they're waiting diligently by the radio with Slate. "Okay, yeah, I think I can check."

Feldspar follows Kent inside and makes sure they're mostly secure. It isn't as though they've got seat belts on this thing - Gossan wants them, but Slate's arguing about the weight still. "Nitrogen, oxygen. Maybe argon..."

They mumble to themselves as they secure the ladder and then the hatch in the floor of the cockpit. "Okay, so uh, this thing doesn't have restraints or anything, so you're gonna need to find something to hold onto when we take off and land. Lemme just call ground control first..."

They flop into their pilot's seat and bring up the radio, waiting for Hornfels to answer the call for assistance. They almost immediately pick up, a little bit breathless, as though Feldspar calling ground control this soon is a bad sign. Which granted, it probably is. They know their own track record.

"Feldspar, what's the matter? You only just landed! Tell me everything's alr-"

"Hey, 'fels," Feldspar interrupts, knowing their friend well enough to stop that worrying before it gets going. "Yeah, yeah, all went well. Ship held up okay, and the planet's crust is sturdier than it looks. Hey, got a question for you - our atmosphere - oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide? That all make sense to you?"

There's a long pause on the other end. "...yes?" Another pause. "Why?"

"Just checking."

"There's not a problem with your oxygen tank, is there? Stars, Feldspar, please tell me there's not a problem with your oxygen tank."

"Tank's fine, 'fels! I'm just curious, okay? I'm coming back."

"So soon? Okay, now something's got to be wrong. You have to tell us, if we have to send up Gossan we will-"

"Hornfels, I'm fine, alright! I just...made a discovery. Look, clear the launch pad and I'll be down soon."

[videointhenoise]

Kent tries his best not to eavesdrop, but it's hard! The information is right there, and Kent can't help but wonder what kind of radio it is. What sort of frequency it's using, what it's operating with. He wants to touch it a little, but he keeps his hands to his sides. He finds a spot where the wood - the wood?! - is pushed forward a little and he presses his feet against it, bracing himself there.

Maybe he's going to die.

"So, I'm a discovery?" he snorts.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar's fairly sure they've hung up the receiver of the radio when Kent speaks, but if not oh well. Hornfels and the others are going to see for themselves why they'd come back sooner than initially planned.

"The best discovery anyone could ever make," they grin over their shoulder. They turn back to the controls and start flipping the switches. "My discovery."

Better than any of those murals or artifacts they brought home on past trips - this is a traveler from another solar system! Maybe another galaxy or universe altogether! This is the biggest discovery in Hearthian history as far as Feldspar's concerned.

"Okay, I'm going to get us off the ground, so uh...just hang in there. It's not so bad when we're in the air, and I don't usually crash on Timber Hearth. Slate's done a good job with these landing gears."

[videointhenoise]

Just like a fighter pilot, he thinks to himself with a sigh. What a mess.

Still, he has to trust that all of this happened for some sort of reason. He might not be able to pinpoint that reason now, but he can certainly guess.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," he assures them.

[getfeldsparred]

If they don't crash then this is all the more reason to put in those safety belts. Gossan's going to have a fit when they realize.

Feldspar exhales softly, taps their control panel with their fingers three times out of habit (or ritual, or whatever it is), and then raises the ship up off the surface of Brittle Hollow. They're mindful of their passenger, and so their usual disregard for safety takes a back seat as they try to clear the atmosphere and then the lava-filled Lantern without jostling them around too much.

Fortunately Slate was able to install the gravity crystals in the cockpit, so at least Kent doesn't go floating away once they're in the vacuum of space.

[videointhenoise]

For the second time in two hours, Kent has been lifted into the void of space. He still can't see it, but he thinks he knows what it feels like.

Until the ship doesn't move.

"Hey Uh...Feldspar. Why is this ship made of wood? And - where is the gravity coming from?"

[getfeldsparred]

"Because wood is plentiful on Timber Hearth," answers Feldspar, "but other than that don't ask me. I don't know why Slate builds what they do. Only part of it is made of wood - the cockpit part, the rest's all sorts of mineral and metal crammed together."

The controls are...steady. Ish. Feldspar can feel the wheel shake slightly and hopes they won't need to make a pit stop at the lunar outpost for repairs. They like Esker, but this is one of those times it's better just to go straight home rather than make any sort of unscheduled detour.

"Gravity though - that's kind of a fun one. Gravity crystal. Nomai technology we found on Timber Hearth. We realized it makes you stick to the floor or the wall or ceiling, depending on where you place it. No idea what makes the crystal work - Hornfels has a hypothesis, but we can't say for sure. Nomai left all sorts of stuff scattered all over our solar system, all kinds of inventions and records, but we can't translate their language yet."

[videointhenoise]

Kent laughs a little nervously.

"That's not how gravity works," he grumbles, but he doesn't complain aloud. "How...long does it take for you to travel to a new world?"

[getfeldsparred]

“Tell me about it,” Feldspar mumbles. They’ve crashed enough to know all about gravity, and none of the Nomai technology has ever made any sense to them. But the Nomai were an advanced race, so who knows?

“Not long. Solar system’s not too spread out, and our rockets pick up a lot of speed.”

[videointhenoise]

"Like...speed of - you know what? I think that's a question for someone else, fighter pilot," he teases.

[getfeldsparred]

“Are you saying I’m not smart?” Feldspar grins. “You can nerd it up with Hornfels then. They’ll bore you to tears!”

[videointhenoise]

They.

Kent smiles to himself. "I'm saying that you have a particular set of skills that doesn't always involve deep physics. But - Feldspar, answer me this.

"Do your people have genders?"

[getfeldsparred]

That’s an interesting question. “Uuuh, since I don’t know what that is I’m gonna say no. You do, I take it?”

[videointhenoise]

"We have two...well, two main sexes. Male and female. There's a lot of societal pressure involved with each, but most mammals, animals like humans, have male and female for sexual reproduction."

[getfeldsparred]

“Oh, okay, okay,” Feldspar nods. “Yeah, there are animals on Timber Hearth that have two different…what did you call them? Genders? Live birth, right? That’s interesting, males and females.”

Societal pressure sounds…stupid.

“How does all that work then? Who raises the hatchlings?”

[videointhenoise]

"Hatchlings," he laughs. "Uh, we call them kids. Children. And - the parents do, typically. Mother and father. Male and female. The female carries."

He runs his fingers along the top of his helmet. "But I was raised by my grandparents. My mother's parents," he explains. "So it's not a hard and fast rule."

[getfeldsparred]

“Children,” they say, frowning to themself. “Children. Huh.”

Not hatchlings, children. Mother and father. Grandparents. All of it just sounds so weird to them.

“So…you’re one or the other? Which are you?”

[videointhenoise]

"Male," he answers. "So we use - he. Not they."

[getfeldsparred]

He, not they. Oh, they’re going to have a hard time remembering that, but they’ll try.

“Male. So you lay the eggs or ah…carry the child? Is that right? Do you have children?”

[videointhenoise]

"Nope, we just contribute half the genetic code. The female carries the children and they're born after nine months gestation," he says, steeling himself on the floor again as he loses his grip a little.

"How does it work for your people?"

[getfeldsparred]

“Oh.”

That seems like a lot of work on the female, and then they don’t even really have the help of the community to raise the child. Doesn’t seem fair, or really even sensible.

“Uh, well, some of us lay eggs, some don’t. When we…uh…you know, copulate, I guess if you want to call it that, sometimes an egg gets fertilized. Not all the time, else we’d be overrun, but occasionally. We bring the egg to our hatching grounds and when the new hatchling is born we have a ceremony to bring them into the community. The hatchling stays with the elders until they’re old enough to join the communal living space we have for our youngsters.”

[videointhenoise]

"Wow. That sounds like a utopia," he says with a laugh. "We have a saying on our planet. It takes a village to raise a child. Guess you all seemed to take that seriously."

[getfeldsparred]

They laugh quietly. "There's a similar saying on Timber Hearth, but we take ours much more literally. There aren't a lot of us, and our species went through a lot to get to where we are now. But other than the fact that you can't have a private thought in your own head without everyone in the village knowing, it's a good way to live."

They slow down the ship a bit when they feel a little rattle in the controls, letting it coast a little as they pass the Attlerock.

[videointhenoise]

Kent tightens his grip on the wall and closes his eyes behind the helmet's visor.

"You can't have a private thought? You - can read minds?" he wonders, taking him literally.