During jump they continue the battle simulations, one
per day. Kalida gets plenty of practice at the gunnery console, but
doesn't have sparkly pink mode, whatever that is. Misha Ravanos and
Kalida are the only two on the bridge who don't have a sparkly pink aura around
them during the simulations.
Vonish goes back to practicing gravcraft operations,
glad not to be pressured to be sparkly pink. He also performs a
very valuable duty in bringing the crew lunch.
Kalida continues to get her practice with the lasers
and missiles, eventually getting her smallest salvo down to about 20 missiles.
The rest of the crew continues to be impressed with her performance.
On her part, she is still astonished that they continue to use 20 g
acceleration in the simulations -- anything over 6g would surely need a
g-tank. It takes her a while to adapt to the rapidity of the Nightshade
in terms of targeting, but she does get up to speed quickly. There's
still no sign of any defensive weapons systems such as sandcasters or shields;
the ship does take "hits" during the simulation, but they are apparently
ignored. Helia can break sensor locks, at least.
Kalida actually asks whether the ship has been hit
by lasers in real life. Helia and Robert both indicate it has. As
to what effect they had, Helia says, "Nothing," and Robert says, "Not
much." Helia adds that the thing that causes the bubble in the water
pushes the lasers away -- it's either that or the material of the hull. It
just works.
She also notices that a lot of the simulations are
run with the transponder active, so the enemy ships can see where they are.
Kalida did notice the ship was military black, but it does seem a bit
overkill to announce their presence to the enemy.
Robert continues to work on his "new weapon" -- the
ability to take over and shut down opposing force ships. There are
of course physical interlocks on Imperial military ships -- he can't blow
them up like Mich tells him happened to the Sir Walter Raleigh all
those years ago.
After the first simulation, Kalida asks what the pink
effect is.
Helia replies, "Sparkly pink mode. Think of it
as communing with the ship. Talking directly with the ship?"
"And telling it to do...?" prompts Kalida.
"Instead of pushing buttons or something, you tell it
what to do. And it does. Do you want to try it? Vonish
can't do it, it doesn't agree with him. We tried it, him piloting,
me gunnery. Yeah, you just have to want to try it. What do you
think, Misha? Think she's ready?"
Before Misha can reply, Robert says knowingly, "She's
ready for everything?"
Helia's face falls. "Oh. That's true. Let's get to Digitis
and
try it after that. Maybe you should get used to being on the ship
and everything first."
Kalida agrees. Things are strange enough on this
ship already without communing with it.
Helia smiles to herself, "I can't believe we're going
there. It's cool."
Mich spends a lot of his spare time working out how to integrate his jumpspace vortex generator system into the Nightshade 's dynamic grid. He's not getting very far yet...
Helia practices with her zack, and hangs around in
her hammock. She's added a rope from the hammock to the floor of the
bridge, so she can use it to get in and out.
She also asks Vonish to teach her to cook. The
chef is pretty busy, with lots of cookbooks to go through, but he's glad to
help the larian learn the basics. Helia says they don't cook much where
she comes from.
Grand Admiral Baron
Bridgehead tries to draw Kalida into a conversation
about fashion and so on, and is delighted to find that she's knowledgeable
and a good conversationalist. The old GrandAm is so pleased to
have someone to talk with about civilized matters. Kalida's gossip
from Rhylanor
is a little out of date, of course, but nowhere near as out
of date as the his last news.
Helia tells Kalida about the library on board, when
she hears that the new crew member enjoys reading. There's certainly
quite a collection of local history and other books on board.
After six days in jump, the Nightshade arrives
in the system of Digitis
. They're running the transponder, saying
they're from Dulu
/ Scorpio / Foreven -- there's no reason to be in stealth
mode here.
Kalida has read the local information they have on board
about the planet they're visiting. There's quite a lot of stuff that
was apparently picked up on the last visit here. She's a little surprised
that the crew said the jump would be exactly six days, but everything on this
ship is so surreal anyway...
Nevertheless, Helia explains why jumps always take six
days. Her explanation suffers a little from the level of jumpspace maths
of the audience, and Helia's quick happy delivery. She explains why
the computer sometimes gets it wrong, and how it is so much quicker and more
accurate to do the jump calculations in your head. Mich adds that some
of the slack in the computer's calculations is due to tolerances in the jump
drive, and a well-tuned ship will let the astrogator calculate more accurately.
As they expected, there's navigational beacons and the
usual starport
transmissions. They are apparently the only ship in
the system -- at least, the only one with a transponder. Robert finds
no data beams are being transmitted in the native language of the ship.
Helia takes them in to the mainworld. The ship
has already talked to traffic control, and advises her on the approach procedures.
Her approach is done at a quick but not outrageous rate.
Landing here is only permitted at the city of Down
Port. They're familiar with the restrictive approach procedure, having
been here before. Helia brings the Nightshade carefully and
politely down through the atmosphere, and into a gentle water landing in
the harbor. She moves slowly over to the pier by the customs house,
settles it into the water, and locks the ship relative to the dock.
As last time, the approach gave them a beautiful view
of the ocean. Helia brought them over one of the shipping lanes, which
she knows they prefer here, and so the crew could watch the view as the ship
approached the harbor. Clearly it's set up for sea traffic rather than
starships.
The customs house is a red and white building where
the pier meets the shore. Everyone is expecting the ship to be met
with an official carrying paperwork, but that isn't the case yet.
It's a beautiful sunny day. The crew waits and relaxes
while waiting for a bureaucrat to approach the ship.
It's been a good while, so Misha sends the paperwork expert,
Vonish, to the customs house to handle the procedures.
Vonish and Helia go out the starboard ramp behind the
bridge, and walk along the pier to the customs building.
The reception they get is very different from last
time. Apparently the Nightshade's "administrative assistant" has
already filled in all the required information in the local language, completely
to their satisfaction. "Everything's in order. Your captain has
an appointment here at 8 am tomorrow to discuss your plans while you're here.
Here's your docking assignment. I am informed you already have
charts, so you can find your berth. Thank you very much, and please
send your captain -- in person of course -- tomorrow morning at 8."
Vonish is speechless at the ease of entry, leaving it
to Helia to thank the customs officer. They walk in stunned silence
back to the ship.
Helia walks onto the bridge. "Robert, did you
fill out any paperwork before we landed? No? Can you see if the
ship filled out any paperwork with Digitis
for us?"
Robert tells her that the ship had a nice conversation
with the customs officials, and dealt with all the necessary forms. All
part of the landing procedure.
"I love this ship," smiles Helia. She climbs up
into her hammock.
Vonish tells Misha he has an appointment tomorrow morning
at 8, and they're to wait in their berth until then.
Helia sails the ship slowly to the berth. No doubt
the locals are expecting them to physically tie the ship up to the mooring
buoy, but Helia just locks the ship into position while floating naturally
on the sea.