fandomhigh | Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You, Week VII [Monday, Period 4]

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keeping your advantage

Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You, Week VII [Monday, Period 4]

"Welcome to your last official class of the semester," Ghanima said as the students arrived. "Today, we're looking at a type of terrain that is near and dear to my heart: the desert."

Deserts take up about one third of the Earth's land surface, and usually have a large diurnal and seasonal temperature range, with high daytime temperatures and low nighttime temperatures that can reach 45 °C/113 °F or higher. The dry desert air is incapable of blocking sunlight during the day or trapping heat during the night without water. Thus, during daylight most of the sun's heat reaches the ground, and as soon as the sun sets the desert cools quickly by radiating its heat into space."

"Most deserts are formed by rain shadows; mountains blocking the path of precipitation. Deserts are often composed of sand and rocky surfaces. Sand dunes called ergs and stony surfaces called hamada surfaces compose a minority of desert surfaces. Exposures of rocky terrain are typical, and reflect minimal soil development and sparseness of vegetation."

The Danger Shop rippled around them, and the students would find themselves standing on a rocky outcropping, looking out over a landscape of sand and blinding sun. "It is unfortunate that many people equate deserts with a hostile environment that conspires against human life," Ghanima continued easily, seemingly unbothered by the change in scenery. "In the popular media, desert areas seem to be considered to be at the top of the wilderness list for danger. The historical fact is, however, that the human race was cradled in arid lands and people are well adapted to survive in deserts. Learning to be part of the desert's ecosystem, and not view it as an antagonist is the first step of desert survival. Preparation starts with how you dress. People stand upright and receive only 60% of the solar radiation that animals on all fours do. By adding a proper hat, with a wide brim and closed crown, the head and body are further protected. A common mistake made by new desert visitors is wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts. Loose fitting long sleeves and pants provide good air circulation and much better protection than sunblock."

"Deserts are defined by their lack of water. Learn to ration sweat, not water. By staying in the shade, limiting activity to cooler times such as night and using your available water, your chances for survival increase greatly. Sipping water does not get it to the brain and vital organs. Take a good drink when you need it. People have been found dead from dehydration with water in their canteens. Also, do not rely on "parlor tricks" such as solar stills as a primary source. These will often produce more sweat digging the hole than is obtained from water gained. Learn to locate water through areas of green vegetation, flights of birds, converging animal trails and digging in the outside bends of dry creek beds."

"You're probably all expecting a final," she said, looking at the students. "I hate to disappoint you, but you aren't getting one here today. Instead, go ahead and play in the sand. Try not to get bitten by scorpions, get heatstroke, or burn your hands. Learn how to walk - and run - without falling."

"Next week, for those who are interested, we'll be going on a little trip." Ghanima tilted her face towards the sun, shutting her eyes and smiling. "Anyone is welcome, and we will be going to Arrakis. Dune. Seat of the Imperium and fiefdom of House Atreides. Those of you who want to go along will get a final of a different sort, something that cannot be replicated in the Danger Shop to any degree of accuracy." She waved one hand, and another hologram shimmered into being.

"You will ride the worms," she said simply, walking over to one of the rising behemoths and placing her hand against its side. "They say that God created Arrakis to train the faithful. In truth, I think he made it for Shai-Hulud to roam. Nowhere else in the Known Universe will you find these beautiful creatures; they are the life and breath of this planet, and the primary mode of distance transportation for the wandering tribes of Fremen. That does not, however, mean they are tame."

"The sign-up sheet will be on the door of my office until next Monday." Another wave of her hand, and the worms vanished as she turned back to them. "Now go play, and no throwing snakes at each other."

[OCD up]

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"Please?" Dinah said, looking hopeful. "I'd do it with you if I had a rope!"

Of course not. It's not like this plan had any flaws in it, right?

This was kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The kind of opportunity that had Zack swinging into the huge creature's mouth, standing up carefully around the rows upon rows of teeth, and staring around in awe.

"Whoa. Glad this thing isn't real," he decided, turning around to face Dinah's toes. "Okay, I'm here! You can swing in, now!"

Gulp. Eeek! Aaaaand--- swing the legs in, and then Dinah's fingers started to slide. "Eeeee---!"

Zack's brain registered the thought, 'Wow, Dinah has one heck of a set of lungs,' at about the same time his legs registered that they had to be moving forward right now, and his arms realized that it was a great time to be reaching forward to catch that which was slipping. Because, wow, most people were not made to fall that far. Ever. Probably not even in simulations. Maybe?

Either way, Zack was moving like hell on wheels to catch Dinah. Because that kind of plummet would suck. And anyhow, she had to see this. This was awesome.

Ghanima had been... not ignoring Zack and Dinah's little adventure, but trying not to see it. Exploration was good for the young soul, and this way they wouldn't try anything too stupid (hopefully) once they were on Dune.

"If you two fall, I am authorizing the clinic to use instruments that have been kept in the freezer during your check-ups, and you do not get lollies when you're set free," she threatened. "That is not a jungle-gym."

Dinah-- mostly heard this. Especially the part about the lollies and lack of same. So she dug in her fingers, and tried not to shriek any more. Mostly. "Okaaaaay!" she called back, and then Zack got her legs, yay!

Which allowed Dinah to correct enough to fall and roll into the mouth of the Sandworm, probably inevitably over Zack. "Ooof."

[*dies of laff*]

"Ooof!"

Yes, Zack was in total agreement of the 'oof' part, there, and it took him a moment to realize that he'd been bowled over before he could actually pull himself back out from under Dinah again, laugh, and then crawl over to the edge of the worm's mouth.

Yes, he was totally waving down at Ghanima. Why?

"We're fine, thanks!"

He had the situation totally under control. Honest.

Edited 2009-06-23 02:17 (UTC)

"We're good, Professor!" Dinah called, crawling over to stick an arm between teeth and wave it next to him. "Really!" Then she looked around, torn between wrinkling her nose at the smell and wetness, and being totally gleeful. "Look at it!"

"We," Zack announced as he climbed to his feet again, "are in a really, really big mouth."

He was so very observant.

"Let's never try this again?"

Because the next time they encountered a really, really big mouth, it would probably commence eating them shortly afterward?

"Yeahno," Dinah said, agreeing immediately. "That would be bad. But this! This is!" She looked around, and picked up one shoe to look down. "Ew! So gross!" In the tones of, awesome cool woooo!

And that earned another good round of laughter and a pair of thumbs-up. This was so gross. But it didn't really compare to the gator guts, so they were doing well!

"I have nooooo idea how we're getting down from here," he added, still grinning. They weren't going to be climbing up again, and climbing down kind of involved some creative hand-hold-hunting, because they were going to have to do some kind of freakish sandworm-monkeybars act to get to some piece of the worm that wasn't horizontal.

"Ummmm..." Okay, someone else hadn't planned any further ahead than climb into the monster's mouth here. "Me neither. I guess we could, um, crawl along the sides?" At nearly a ninety degree angle, all the blood rushing to their heads... "Or something?"

Dinah poked at a tooth, fascinated. "But not yet!"

"If it comes down to it, I could make the jump," Zack decided dismissively as he started to look around. Pointy things everywhere!

And he was perhaps never going to get over the fact that they were inside a mouth.

Dinah was exploring the... tongue? Tongues? Ewwww. And patting the walls of the mouth. "How realistic do you think this is?" she wondered. "Do you think we could end up suffocating in its stomach?" She stared down the throat, then shuddered. "Um. Yeah. Jumping-- maybe?"

Blink. Blink.

"Let's do ourselves a favor and not get too close to the throat, huh? We'd be better off falling the other way, I think."

Smothering in the gut of a giant worm was not his idea of a good time. Ever.

"It would be an easy jump," Zack mused, walking back to the edge and peering down. A few hundred feet. Into sand. Oh, heck yeah. It was a breeze. "Well, kinda. I don't think you'd want to make a leap like that."

Dinah joined him at the edge of the mouth, and stared down. "Um. No." She turned to look at him. "You could?" Maybe, if the Danger Shop caught her....

Zack peered down again. Hmmm.

"Pretty sure," he settled on, and then gave her a firm nod. "Maybe not on my feet. A jump like that, I'd probably mostly-land, and then fall on my butt or something. But we make jumps like this in training."

A pause.

"Out of helicopters," he clarified. And then there was another pause. "Onto moving trains."

Face-first.

"I could jump with you?"

"Seriously." Dinah stared downward.

The thing about jumping, is sometimes, you just want to do it, even if you're not sure it's safe.... "We wouldn't die, right? Or make it so Professor Atreides denies us lollipops?"

"If it doesn't work," Zack decided, "I'll buy the lollipops to make up for the potion-taste after we land."

That was fair, right?

"Um." Gulp. "Okay. How--- how're we going to do this?" Dinah made wavy motions with her hands, then peered over the rack of teeth again.

"Oh, just like--" This required a small running start, and then Zack's arm was around Dinah's waist and the two of them were sailing through the air and into a stone-like plummet toward the ground. "This!"

And Zack was, besides insane, taking this jump at a nose-dive as he scooped Dinah into both arms while they fell.

Yeah, that would be Dinah screaming. And clutching onto Zack hard. Then stopping screaming abruptly, opening her eyes, and watching the sand approach with morbid surety of We're gonna die we're gonna die oh my god we're gonna get Detention and we're gonna diiiiie--

And an additional bit of, Wheeeeee! WHEEEE!

Edited 2009-06-23 03:39 (UTC)

Oh, yes, there was that reminder that Dinah had quite the set of lungs. But Zack was too busy laughing to really worry about the ringing in his ears. Laughing, and kicking his legs out and twisting in mid-air so that he was finally facing the right direction by the time the sand jumped up to greet them.

He hit the ground feet-first, bent at the knees, went into a roll with Dinah still in his arms, and finally ground to a halt, sand in places he didn't knew he had, in a half-crouch.

No, no, there went his balance. He was now sitting on his butt.

"Ow," he decided. Not because of the landing. Because of his ears.

By now Dinah was laughing hysterically, unable to believe neither of them had broken anything even in a simulation, and gulping for breath in the cinnamon-sand-smelling air. "Heeeeeeee. Oh, my, god." She took a breath, and looked up.

Someone who knew her might think she wanted to do that again.

Zack was quite content to remain in the sand on his rear, grinning up at her.

"Told you I could make it!"

He wasn't bragging. Honest.

And if he was, it was in a very pleasant, Zack-y kind of way that was mostly intended to be reassuring and possibly just coming across as bragging.

He was bragging.

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