Spaceships 101- 1st period- Week #1

[solo_sword]

Jaina had sent a handwavy e-mail to the students in her class directing them to meet in the flight shed. She'd even been considerate enough to attach directions to the flight shed, with the new kids in mind. Or maybe she just didn't like people being late, it was hard to tell with her.

When everyone got there, they'd find Jaina standing in front of the simulator, greeting them with, "Good morning. Sorry to drag you all out of bed so early for this, but hopefully you'll manage to stay awake week after week. My name is Jaina Solo, and you'll be listening to me lecture at you for the next semester. Just call me Jaina. I know too many of you for it not to be weird to call me anything else." Plus, she was related to some of them, which would make it weirder, but she wasn't going to throw that out in class. "And to those of you who know me, yes, I'm older, let's get that out of the way right now. For those that don't, some background: I'm from a galaxy far, far away. I've been flying since I was a kid, I joined the military as a teenager, and made my way up to colonel, though I'm on leave now. I do know what I'm talking about with this stuff, and I promise to go easier on you than I did on my squadron." She really didn't want to make high schoolers cry unless she had to.

"What we're going to be covering in this class are ships from my galaxy. For the most part, I'm thinking starfighters. It means getting to shoot at things without hurting anything, which can be a pretty great way to start your day, depending on who you are. I will try to mix things up for you and get you in some other things, so if dogfights aren't your thing, you can relax. We're going to be using this simulator here for the class most weeks," she said, patting the side of the sim. "I'm going to trust you all to only treat it nicely, but know that if you don't, you not only have to answer to me, but Professor Skywalker, so let's just avoid that.

"This is going to be an easy class this week," Jaina continued. "There's JGOB for you guys, and we're going to be completely unoriginal and do introductions. So, give me your name, and tell me how good you think you are in a cockpit and how good you want to be. Let's start with you."

Comments

Introductions

[solo_sword]

Name, how good you think you are in a cockpit and how good you want to be.

Re: Introductions

[not_tylerdurden]

"Calvin, I'm awesome in the cockpit." He wasn't. "I'd like to be the best."

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"Always good to see some high standards," Jaina said with a little smile. "What kind of experience do you have?"

Re: Introductions

[not_tylerdurden]

"Plenty." In his head. Outside of it, one of Anakin's flight classes.

Re: Introductions

[likes_scoundrels]

"Leia Organa," Leia said, staring at Jaina a bit because she hadn't seen her recently. "I'm fairly good, but I want to be better. I have a family legacy to live up to, or so I'm told."

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"I know a little something about that, yes," Jaina told her. And no, this wasn't strange at all. "Do you have a light of true flight experience yet?"

Call her curious. Considering Jaina's Leia had managed to shoot down Jag, of all people, she had to wonder where she was at here now.

Re: Introductions

[likes_scoundrels]

There was possibly a rather large paradox in the making now, what with Anakin, Jaina, Ben and Tahiri all teaching Leia to fly.

"I'm well-versed with the simulator now," she said. "But before that most of my experience was my father" -- no, the other one -- "allowing me to pilot his personal shuttle from time to time. But I did manage to fly a Lambda-class Imperial shuttle from Kashyyyk to Alderaan by myself." Well, with Artoo's help.

Re: Introductions

[onlymistaken]

"My name is Cally." Who might only be in this class for today as far as she knew, but wasn't going to waste the opportunity to learn something new. "I have experience flying small shuttlecraft from my home, but nothing complicated or designed for out-of-system travel."

She found herself shrugging as she considered the last part of the question. "I would like to be competent. My specialty is communications, not piloting, but I want to be able to do whatever's needed from me."

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"I think we can help you there," Jaina told her. "is where you're from equipped for interstellar travel?"

Re: Introductions

[onlymistaken]

"Yes." Cally bobbed her head once. "We have a space fleet, but it's very small, and largely scientific."

Re: Introductions

[weetuskenraider]

"Tahiri Veila," she answered, more for the benefit of the class than Jaina because hi, they knew each other; her eyes were sparkling with amusement at having to introduce herself. "I'm decent enough in a snubfighter that I haven't gotten vaped yet, but with people like you and Master Skywalker and General Antilles setting the bar, all I can say is I'd like to keep not getting vaped."

And crash-land less. Even though that was kind of fun.

She could have said something about how Jaina ought to already know about how good she was, but . . . hey, doing some growing up here.

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"And I'd like to help keep you from getting vaped," Jaina said with a touch of dryness. "Sorry for the high bar, but I like it that way."

Re: Introductions

[weetuskenraider]

"I'm not complaining," Tahiri answered. "I leave the crazy piloting up to your family . . . and the help would be appreciated."

Re: Introductions

[endsthegame]

"Ender Wiggin," said Ender, knowing well enough that that part was just a formality, at this point. "I can manage not to run anything into a wall, but that's as far as it goes; anything above that, I can live with."

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"Considering there aren't a lot of walls in space, I'm pretty sure we can get you above that," Jaina smiled. "Glad to have you here."

Re: Introductions

[momslilassassin]

"I'm Ben Skywalker, and I don't tend to crash," Ben replied. "I want to be good enough to get a StealthX like everyone else has."

Not that he's jealous. Much.

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"Something tells me we can manage that," she assured him. "And please stick with the not crashing."

Re: Introductions

[momslilassassin]

"It's definitely the goal," he said with a smile.

Re: Introductions

[longislandiceme]

"Bobby Drake, and uh... I took the flight class over the summer and didn't crash that much?" he shrugged. It was accurate enough, even if some of those crashes had been on purpose because he didn't want people knowing he had flight experience outside of class. "I guess I want to be good enough to take 'didn't crash that much' down to 'doesn't crash at all'." High standards: he had them.

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"I like that goal," Jaina said immediately. "It's one we're going to strive for here."

Re: Introductions

[notagoose]

"Shane Gooseman," Goose said, "I'm pretty good in the cockpit but there's still always room for improvement,"

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

Jaina nodded, liking that answer. "What do you usually fly, Shane?"

Re: Introductions

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"I'm Bobby McCallister," Bobby said, almost breathless in his excitement. This was his teacher who was talking about spaceships and starfighters and had been in one like she was from Space Battles or something. ...was there another part of the question? He'd forgotten.

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

Jaina waited for a moment, waiting to see if he was going to follow that up with anything. Nope? Okay, she'd try not to smile. "Have you ever flown before, Bobby?"

Re: Introductions

[heromaniac]

Fandom was totally weird. Jaina was a teacher now?

"Momoko Akatsutsumi." Momoko waved excitedly. "And I am totally awesome at piloting. I've been in Flight club since I got here, and I've taken Professor Skywalker's Flight and Flying class, and back home I have my own mecha." Sort of her own. "I want to get better, especially with space ships, but I also just love flying!"