fulfilling a promised lesson on the fine art of blasting things ...

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Walking back to the Millennium Falcon through the Nexus has gotten a little bit easier each time.  The first time, it took him more than an hour to get back despite the fact that his ship has always been parked about a thousand yards away from a path that leads to the forum.  The shiftable nature of this place makes no walk to and from anywhere as straightforward as it seems, but you can get used to it.

 

For a while, he cleans up the areas that he thinks both he and Verity are likely to be in for a while - the cockpit and the lounge especially, but also near the entry ramp and the living quarters.

 

He did promise lessons on how to fly and in due course, he will get her into the sky with him ... but he's still doesn't have a ton of fuel yet and the priority was always teaching her how to use the blasters.  So he's pulled four weapons out of the storage lockers, completely disassembled them and cleaned them.  He also discharges all, but one, of the plasma magazines.

 

They get placed them on top of the holochess board, which, sadly, is among one of the biggest flat surfaces available to him on the YT-1300 and then, he takes a shower and slips into a light weight pair of pants.  It seems to take a long time for him to drift off in the small bunk that he's claimed for himself.  The sound of the winter wind skips across the surface of his ship and makes a low howling sort of sound.

 

This is one of the reasons it's always preferable to put your ship in a proper hanger, but, when you're Han Solo, you work with what you got.  After a few hours he wakes up, not knowing what time it is, until he opens the entry ramp and looks outside.

 

It seems too early for her to arrive.  The sun hasn't even reached the apex of it's path yet, so he decides to lay back down.  Leaving the ramp down for her to facilitate her letting herself in. 

Comments

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"The hyperdrive system is more advanced. It's job is to get you into a part of space-time called hyperspace. That's basically faster than light travel where I'm from." He says, struggling to come to terms with how best to explain it.

"Sublight engines are for flying through real space. It's a lot slower, but it's where you'll do most of your take offs, landings and evasive flying."

When they get to the rear of the ship she'll be treated to a view of a lot of equipment literally built into the stern of the ship. All the moving parts, which wouldn't be moving anyway since they're on the ground, are housed in blocky looking structures with removable panels.

There's not all that much to see, but it's one of the areas of more open space on the ship. That will probably be a good thing for her to know for later.

[brave_heart_verity]

He might be struggling with the wording, but she seems to be understanding. The broad strokes, at least. Maybe he's better at this than he thought?

"So you'd use one or the other, but not both at the same time?" FTL travel has never made a lot of sense to her, but it happens so she tries not to think about all the reasons why it shouldn't work. There is a peace and a sorrow that comes with knowing the limits of your own abilities.

She looks around a bit before adding, "Which one is which?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Yes. Sort of." Han nods. "The hyperdrive acts to push you into hyperspace and then you end up drifting through it with your sublight engines."

He's alright at explaining things generally, but apart from blasters, he only feels so qualified to teach. His mind is sort of ... task oriented for lack of a better term. He feels like he can show anyone a series of steps to accomplish something, but bringing it all together is a bit harder for him

Han gestured to the whole wall and all of the machinery attached to it. "This whole segment of the ship is a series of sublight engines."

He walks over to fairly large cylindrical unit set back from the other engines by about five meters. Like the engines themselves, everything is well paneled up and otherwise turned off, so he ends up leaning against it and toeing it with his boot. "This is the hyperdrive."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Hmm. And the navcom knows where to get in and out to get you where you want to go? And not, say, in the middle of a planet?" Wild guess here, but it sounds reasonable.

The size comparisons are not lost on her. "It's smaller than I would have thought. How fast can the ship go? With all those engines, I'm guessing pretty fast."

Lol. Parsecs. The unit of distance that's supposed to quantify speed. XD

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Yeah." She's just about got it. "Though, it's not like things are static, so you need to continuously update your navigation system."

He would tell her that it's 0.5 passed lightspeed if she were from his galaxy, but he suspects that would be out of her frame of reference entirely.

"So, this goes about four times faster than the large military warships where I'm from. At a certain point, everyone who can get to hyperspace can go pretty fast, so, sometimes the more important accomplishment is how effienctly you can plot a course."

Personal headcanon: he knew it was BS and was trying to impress/testing the country bumpkins.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Mm, I can see where that'd be important. If you're from an ever-expanding universe like me..." She drifts off, but only for a moment before she's focused on him again. "I'd love to hear your universe's origin story sometime. We called ours the 'Big Bang'."

The frame of reference is being assembled as they speak. It may end up looking like Ikea gone wrong until he gets her some proper books, but she's doing her best.

"Are you a very efficient pilot, then?"

Sounds legit to me.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He'd have to get back to his galaxy to be able to bring her back said books, more than likely. There is some carry over from his universe here in the nexus, but that doesn't seem to him like the kind of thing they'd find around here.

"There's a couple of theories, but nothing concrete." He says regarding the beginning of his universe. "More religious ideas and nonsense then actual facts."

Han pushes himself up off the hyperdrive and walks over to her. "Yeah." He says with a nod. "I think I'm real good."

Which is when he knows to up the price. ;)

[brave_heart_verity]

They could try the Library, but that doesn't sound like his idea of a good time. She'll have to be patient.

"We had plenty of that too," she admits. "Most civilizations are religious at some point. I think it's supposed to comfort people." Not that she'd know.

"A fast ship and an efficient pilot sounds like a good combination. Or a dangerous one, if someone's trying to get away from you."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

She could ask. She has a way about getting him to do things that he doesn't normally do, such as let a woman play with his hair while they listen to music together. He's starting to think that her place is better for entertaining even though his us much bigger. Or perhaps he's just boring.

"I dont think most people are trying to get away from me, although, I do get the occasional person who wants to run me down."

[brave_heart_verity]

Maybe she will. It's fun to try new things with friends. As for entertaining, he's not boring. He's used to having the galaxy at his fingertips; she's used to spending her time alone and shut in. He's spent his time better, even if she does have the better music library.

"That sounds like a particularly dangerous stunt in space. Still. Sounds like you'd be a good bounty hunter, if you ever wanted to try living on that side of the law." No, she's not expecting him to try that.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"I'm already on that side, technically." He points out. "Being in the illegal transport business."

He'd make a terrible bounty hunter and he knows that. The good ones have a cold detachment about them that Han could never get to. And there's frankly some things he just thinks are wrong that he couldn't go along with for all the credits in the galaxy.

"Am I not dangerous enough for you?"

[brave_heart_verity]

"Bounty hunting isn't legal? Hmm." Samus would be disappointed.

It's good he wouldn't be much of a bounty hunter. She likes him the way he is. Flaws and all. "Oh, you're more than dangerous enough for me. But not so dangerous I don't want to tease you sometimes."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"I supposes it's actually not, but it is frowned upon by the average citizen."

The Empire will put bounties on people when they want someone someone taken out badly enough, but that's pretty rare. They generally trust in their military to bring 'criminals' to justice.

"Anything you want to see that I didn't show you?"

[brave_heart_verity]

"Oh, well, yeah. Bounty hunters were celebrities sometimes where I'm from. People would cheer for them while they, I dunno, chased people I guess? It was on t.v. I never watched it."

Sounds like SHIELD. If anyone ever introduces Maria Hill to Emperor Palpatine, Verity is officially going into hiding.

"Hmm. I can't think of anything. Thank you for an excellent and educational tour, my captain."

All for keeping Hill and Palpatine on opposite sides of the multiverse.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Wasn't there better things to pay attention to?"

He knows that outright saying that her place of origin is weird rubs a little bit the wrong way because of it's untimely end, but, she's not done much to convince him he's wrong for holding the opinion.

Han looks into her eyes and offers a little smile. "I did the best I could anyway."

YES

[brave_heart_verity]

"I think people wanted to forget what was going on sometimes. The truth is often painful and frequently overwhelming." There's a reason it's a curse, Han, and not a boon.

She gives him a warm smile in return. "I liked it. I'm one of those weirdos who likes educational things."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Well I can't speak for how well educated it made you, but it did make me feel good to share."

Like what he had to share with her was worth something. Like listening to him talk was an enjoyable experience for her. He's actually not used to feeling that way very often, though, he's a smuggler without many friends ... perhaps it shouldn't be too surpising.

"Do you want to ..." Hrm. Struggling to come up with something. "... I don't really have much else planned, but you're certainly welcome to stay around a while."

He's hesistant to go right back to working on her drawing skills, because he feels like they just got done with blaster things and he thinks that might be boring. He definitely does not want to bore her. Even though he doesn't want her to leave, he'd rather her go than stick around and be disinterested.

[brave_heart_verity]

Her smile grows then; he might be feeling self-doubt, but she's pretty happy with how this has worked out. Can he really doubt that it was enjoyable and worthwhile to her when she's smiling up at him like that? "I know more than I did, that's worth something to me."

Ah, that feeling, wanting the company and fearing the rejection. She knows it well.

It's a little weird to be on this side of it.

"I'd love to stay. We can just chill. You don't have to entertain me all the time, Han."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Just chill. What a very earthly thing to say. He gets the meaning though. The idea that he can relax and doesn't have to have every moment planned out to perfection.

She does have a nice smile. Something that he's noticed more than once already.

"I was thinking I'd watch the sunset tonight. I can only go to the bars so many nights in a row before I need a break."

[brave_heart_verity]

She speaks like an Earth girl because she is one. He'll have his slang and his idioms too. It'll be fun to learn that, too.

"That sounds perfect." Nice, quiet, not requiring too much conversation if they don't feel like it. "Where's the best view?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

The words and turns of phrase unique to his universe are fun and the idea of culturemeshing certainly isn't new for him. They've got a nice exchange going on here.

"Back on top of the ship." He says without hesitation.

In particular, the ability to move about and change your view is nice, but it's pretty cold out and bound to get colder while the sun goes down - he does have the means to combat that somewhat, though.

"Though the cockpit is an option. It would be warmer."

[brave_heart_verity]

The exchange rate is equitable and there's always a demand for the supply. Their friendship has a sustainable economic model.

"I can brave the cold if you can. And we can come back in when we're tired of it." It's not like they've been sentenced to death by freezing. "I should have brought some cocoa mix. Next time for sure."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Hot coco will be interesting for Han. You might have to taper off that sweet with a little bit of spice or bitter, Ver. Sweet is very iffy for Captain Solo and it overwhelms him pretty fast.

"Oh, I'm game if you are, sweetheart." He says with a lopsided smile. "We'll get some blankets and heating elements and make a real experience out of it."

[brave_heart_verity]

Good cocoa has some bitter behind the sweet. And for spice, maybe Mexican hot chocolate? He might like that.

She grins up at him. "Sounds nice. Like winter camping, but less crazy. I'll get my coat, then I'll help you carry things up."

And then she'll do just that.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han nods. It sounds like a perfectly acceptable spur of the moment plan to him. He's certainly come up with a lot screwier. Will continue to come up with plans that are screwier. What we're saying is Han's schemes are a little absurd, but they tend to work surprisingly well.

Anyway, Han goes to one of the storage bays and grabs two golden yellow rods the size of his forearm as well as a pile of blankets for the pair of them. It's good that he wants to help because he's not going to be able to haul that up by himself and open the door in one trip. She'll find him at the bottom of the ladder to the access hatch they used earlier, getting on his coat again.