fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Tuesday, May 12, 4th period]

Anakin stood in front of the door of the flight shed and waited for the workshop students to arrive, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his dark robes.

"Welcome," he said, giving them a nod. "I'm Master Skywalker, and I'll be your instructor for flight this session. I'm from a space-based culture, so my expertise is primarily in those sorts of aircraft, but we'll also be working with the way people fly on this planet. We'll begin with simulators and if you convince me of your attention to detail and your ability not to die in stupid ways, you'll eventually be allowed to fly the real things. Before we begin in the simulator, though, you need to recite the following pledge: I solemnly swear, upon threat of detention and possible bodily harm, to listen and follow Master Skywalker's instructions, not to bring food or drink within ten feet of the simulators, and to absolutely never start a fight anywhere inside the flight shed, as Master Skywalker will let my head get cracked open on something metallic, like I deserve, and then throw me into detention for the entirety of my time at Fandom High."

He was dead serious, too.

After the pledges had been recited to his satisfaction, Anakin waved a hand lazily at the doors and they slid open to reveal two podracing simulators sitting side-by-side.

"All right," he said, pointing at the controls, "everything you need to fly a podracer is located on the handlebars. You push them forward to go faster, pull back to slow down, and pull one or the other towards you to turn." He pointed at the buttons in the center of the console. "That controls the engines," he said. "You push the big button to light them up, and on these two models, you can push it again for an extra burst of speed." He looked at the class. "Which burns your fuel very, very quickly, so save that until you need it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Normally, these are attached to enormous engines--6 or 7 meter long engines--but these aren't real, and the simulator won't really give you the noise that's normally associated with the podracer. But the simulator has been programmed to go very, very quickly." He pointed to the simulator on the left-hand side. "This one, properly piloted, can get up to 950 kilometers an hour. The other can get up to 900. To fly a podracer at those kinds of speed requires iron nerves and split-second reflexes."

He clasped his hands in front of him. "Today you can take a turn learning how the simulators work, then pair up to fly against each other." He gave them a slightly predatory smile. "If you choose, you can fly against me. I built the real version of this podracer," he patted the left-hand simulator, "and used it to win a race when I was nine years old. And I won't give you a head start."

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Ben gritted his teeth as she moved along beside him, then sent her a little mental apology and shimmied his podracer into hers.

Tahiri grinned fiercely, returning the nudge -- and sending a distinct wave of amusement at his apology.

"Ben Skywalker, are you trying to impress me or something?"

"Is it working?" Ben asked, yanking on the controls to smack her again.

"Is it -- whoa!" Tahiri tried to dodge, but got clipped anyway and swerved badly for a second before she got her podracer back under control. She didn't mean to bump him again that time. "Necessary?"

Ben grinned at her before trying to swing his podracer in front of hers. The canyon walls were coming together rather quickly--there wasn't going to be space for the two of them to be beside each other.

"Always."

There wasn't, and Tahiri punched the ignition button again as she tried to gain some altitude on him.

"That's dumb, Ben. You don't have to try," she yelled.

Ben was concentrating on the hole in the canyon wall. He would gain a couple of meters on Tahiri, but only if he didn't hit the sides.

There was a good, oh, foot to spare. Sane people wouldn't try this.

"Of course I do," he yelled back.

"I'm with you, dummy," Tahiri yelled back, and she might be insane in other ways but she wasn't trying that, thanks, so she climbed a little more, dodged a burst of fire from another Tusken sniper, and opened the throttle a little more. "Don't you think that means you've impressed me enough?"

Ben held in his breath as he passed through the hole in the rock--like that would make his podracer skinnier or something--and then yelled back, "Gotta keep you on your toes."

His heart was pounding. He could definitely see the appeal of this kind of racing.

Tahiri laughed and then yelped when, trying to make a turn as tightly as possible to compensate for his sneaky little maneuver there, her podracer barely grazed the rock face; at this speed, the tiniest bit of contact was jarring.

. . . but this was fun, she realized. She fought the podracer back into control, feeling more confident about it now, enough so to push the speed up to just under 900 kilometers an hour and go after Ben once she was clear of the turn.

"You always do, Skywalker!"

Ben had already pushed his throttle as far as it would go (Skywalkers having a Thing about speed), and was grinning and glad that the realism of the program didn't extend to bugs in his teeth.

"Catch up!"

"Working on it!" she practically whooped. She'd dropped low to try and cut wind resistance, so she had to swerve around a dewback skeleton (thanks for that, detailed simulation), but then she was gaining on him. Whether she'd actually catch up was anyone's guess, but the gap was, at least, closing.

Fun. Way too much fun.

If Ben remembered correctly, there were only a couple more turns to go, so he pressed the button for acceleration--hitting close to 950 kilometers an hour, his hair would never be the same--and prayed he didn't run out of fuel.

If it was any consolation, she was going to love the hair later on.

And, Tahiri realized somewhat belatedly when she reached for the ignition button again, she was smaller and lighter than he was. She might have enough fuel to make it the rest of the way, punched the button, and let out a howl of pure glee.

She probably wouldn't catch up to him, and she definitely wouldn't beat him, but unless she spun out on one of these last turns it just might be close.

Ben could hear the roar of the computer generated crowd as he rounded the last turn going just a hair faster than would be safe.

The engines wobbled dangerously and almost collided, but he recovered, letting out a little whoop as he tore the final stretch.

Tahiri, as it turned out, was going to be running on fumes for the last several hundred meters, but she crept up a few meters on him, slipping sideways to get out of the engine wash. It wasn't going to be enough, and her hair was going to be a mess, but she'd be happy with a finish just a second or two behind him.

Barring any last-moment complications, of course.

Ben zipped to the finish line a few seconds ahead of her. "That was astral!"

Tahiri practically tumbled out of the sim in exhilaration.

"Wow!"

It encompassed a lot of things, not the least of which was that she hadn't crashed.

"Your hair is silly," he said, laughing.

Pot, meet kettle.

"Look in a mirror," Tahiri retorted.

She wasn't staring, exactly.

Ben reached up and scrubbed his fingers through his hair.

It didn't help.

Yeah, Tahiri might be turning just a touch red here.

"Maybe we should let someone else have a turn," she said distractedly.

Ben bit his lip as he watched her, then nodded. "Okay."

The internal flailing was strong with this one.

Tahiri started drifting away from the simulators, and if she didn't stop looking at him they might be in for a cycle of flailing. Because hi, hair.

"I'm going to, um, go sit down," she said distractedly.

He messed with his hair some more. "Okay," he babbled, "and I'm going--" he pointed in a random direction, "over there."

Re: Fly against each other

weetuskenraider - 2009-05-12 21:57 (UTC) - Expand