fandomhigh | Surviving Deep Space - Thursday, Period Two

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deep space survival

Surviving Deep Space - Thursday, Period Two

A fresh new semester, a fresh new batch of ~~cadets~~ ~~students~~ ~~victims~~ students for him to teach...

Rimmer's holographic heart almost swelled out of his holographic chest as he waited in the Danger Shop for his class to arrive. Their syllabuse--syllaba--the many copies of their syllabus that he'd made were laid out on the desks, carefully checked to make sure that there would be no mentions of fish or him being one for at least an entire class.

As soon as his students arrived, he turned on the little display at the back to simulate being on the 'Dwarf.

"Good day, children," he began, nostrils flaring with glee, "and welcome to Surviving Deep Space."

...first person to mention that it was being taught by a dead guy would probably be screamed at.

[Class Roster and Syllabus]

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If you're here, you might as well admit it.

Andrew Wiggin

Karla

Anemone

Valentine Wiggin

Tahiri Veila

Ben Skywalker

Danny Fenton

Toshiko Sato

Mirax Terrik

Kaylee Frye ~~whose player apologizes profusely for the late sign-in~~

Don't expect him to be pleased if he catches you.

This was liable to be interesting-- or not, as Ender recognised their new professor's poise fairly easily for what it was. Still, this was something he knew how to deal with. He sat there, quietly.

On the one hand, this class was filled with friends. That was nice. On the other, Karla had no idea why she was in this course or what good it would ever do her.

She suspected Morton was behind this somehow, even if she had no idea how.

Yes, Tahiri had picked up on the fact that the teacher was not exactly alive. The hologram thing didn't sit too well with, er, certain aspects of her.

She wasn't fidgety, just quiet and watching Rimmer warily.

Any thought that Valentine might have had about the fortuitousness of this class being on the roster started to fade as the class went on, replaced by the familiar reminder that she usually did much better on her own accord in things like this. Thankfully, she was also incredibly used to that feeling, and to putting it in the back of her mind to appear your only slightly more than average student.

Ben wasn't generally much for chatter anyway, which was why he was keeping his head down as he listened.

"As this is the first class, and we will be going through any number of harrowing adventures together," and he really sounded like he believed that, "let's start with introductions.

"My name is Arnold J. Rimmer, acting Captain of the Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel Red Dwarf, and I have extensive experience not only surviving deep space, but doing so in the presence of the three most worthless, spineless, evil-minded goits ever assembled in this or any known universe."

He pointed to the first student he saw.

"You. Name, rank, and experience in deep space. Go."

"Ender Wiggin," Ender replied, managing to modulate his voice to sound perfectly acceptable and military, "Sophomore, I lived on a space station for several years before moving to an asteroid."

He knew Rimmer's like. This might have explained why he sounded so agreeable.

"Wiggin," he repeated, sounding rather pleased with the name.

"Very good, Wiggin. Are you considering deep space travel in the future?"

~~Up until he hit the year 20,000, yes. Healthy.~~

"Yes," Ender replied, and you would only notice the lack of real respect if you knew him very well. "I'm considering travel to see the space colonies after high school."

"Very good," and Rimmer nodded, mostly to himself, as he paced in front of the class.

"And where are these colonies? I'm just curious, you understand."

"Anywhere ranging from fifty to more lightyears from Earth," Ender said, all matter-of-fact.

Rimmer nodded, though it was obvious he couldn't actually figure out where that would place them.

"Very good, very good."

Ender offered him another curt, military nod, and made a clear mental note about Rimmer's confusion on the topic. Either they had no colonies in his time, or their professor knew far less than they did; no matter what, he'd be relatively easy to deal with.

Surviving? Karla didn't actually say that out loud.

"By rank, do you mean Jewel rank, social rank, or caste?" she asked. Then she heard Ender's introduction and reddened. "Never mind. Karla, freshman, none. I...have no idea why I'm in here, actually." She--barely--managed to not sound sulky about it.

"You're in here to learn," he said, his voice going just a bit snippy at the end there.

"I should think that was obvious."

Oh, Karla could do snippy right back. "Considering my world has no spaceflight, I'm not entirely certain how I'll be putting my vaunted knowledge into practice. Sir."

"Yet," he answered back.

"Also, you never really know when you'll end up in deep space. Sometimes, it just happens."

No, really.

"I'll keep that in mind," Karla replied coolly.

Ooooooooooooh, rank! Anemone sat up a little straighter, looking rather smug. She almost never got to pull rank.

"Anemone, member of the Special Operations Forces, Commander of the Ageha Squad," What was left of the little brats, anyway, "and currently reporting to Captain Jurgens of the Super Izumo," she continued cheerfully. "I've flown in space a few times, but my specialty is stratospheric combat."

He looked a little disturbed by her answer but firmly shook it off. The power of Rimmer's self-delusion was kind of epic.

"I see. And your class here?"

"Senior," she answered proudly. She'd totally passed, again. At this rate, she might even graduate!

She wasn't annoyed. She wasn't annoyed. Really.

"Tahiri Veila, junior," she said shortly. "I've spent a good amount of time traveling between planets the past seven years --" and crossing the intergalactic void in a worldship, but shut up, Riina, that totally didn't count -- "especially on missions the past couple of years. I might be adding some flight squadron experience onto that soon, too."

Er. She might not have mentioned that message from home. Yes, she thought that was kind of crazy. But she couldn't say no, either.

"Veila," he repeated, getting a taste for it. It sounded like some sort of cheap wine you'd get from a quick pit-stop at an asteroid resupply station. No matter...

"Glad to see that you, like many other of your classmates, is suitably prepared for the normal threats of deep space."

To be fair, he was right in thinking the ones he was going to present his students with were fairly odd.

"Define normal," Tahiri replied dryly. She'd long since figured out that the value of 'normal' was pretty skewed between different worlds.

"Valentine Wiggin,"--and, in a combination of how everyone else was interpreting rank, she added, "senior, civilian. No experience in deep space."

Yet.

"Well, that will complicate matters, having the two of you," he said thoughtfully, glancing between the two students with the same last name.

"You're 'Other Wiggin'."

And he left it at that.

Other Wiggin. Well, story of her life, right there. Valentine glanced toward Ender for a moment, contemplating pointing out a few things, like the fact that she was older so Ender should be Other Wiggin for a change, or mentioning that she could easily be Girl Wiggin and he could be Boy Wiggin, but ultimately decided that it wasn't worth it and Other Wiggin suited her probably way too much anyway.

"If that helps you make the distinction, sir," she said.

[[...I totally feel ya there. No worries.]]

"'If it helps you--'" Rimmer started, glaring at her for half a second before letting out a snort.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't not-so-subtly intimate that I cannot tell the difference between a boy Wiggin and a girl Wiggin."

He had to admit, it was sort of a fun word to say. Wiggin wiggin wiggin rhymes with, er... spriggin? Dig in?

Teaching now, song lyrics later.

Valentine could have said a lot of things there, but she nodded and decided to just stick with her quiet route. Other Wiggin, Girl Wiggin, Quiet Wiggin. They could be easily interchangeable.

"Yes, sir," she said. "I certain didn't mean to suggest it, of course."

"I'm Ben Skywalker," he began, "formerly a lieutenant in the Galactic Alliance Guard, and I basically grew up traveling between planets."

"Danny Fenton, no rank, and I've gone into space a few times, but nothing really beyond Earth's atmosphere," Danny replied.

"If anyone is interested in being my teaching assistant, please do speak to me. As soon as possible, of course."

And as such, he was waiting after class.

*G*

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Surviving Deep Space - Thursday, Period Two

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Rimmer

OOC