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fandomhigh2017-07-03 09:30 am
futurespacemom) wrote in fandomhigh2017-07-03 09:30 am
Entry tags:
Getting to Know Your Own Backyard | Monday, Period 1
Another summer workshop term. Another class instructed to meet Kanan and Hera at the landing pads in the Scrapyard. Kanan was clutching tightly to a travel cup of caf when the students arrived.
"This place is hell-bent on making me get ready earlier every class I teach," he muttered, waving for students to follow him on board the Ghost.. "Please, just throw me into the sun. Not that we'll be close enough, but at least it'd wake me up before I cook to death on my way to being utterly obliterated by gravity and burning plasma."
"Please do not throw anyone into the sun," Hera said, giving Kanan a look. Not that she wasn't clutching her caf just as tight, but there would be no spacing anybody on her watch.
Well, nobody that was here today, anyway.
"Anyway, it looks like we've got a smaller class than before," Kanan mused. "Good. We won't have to snuggle up in the cockpit so much this term. And one new face, so it's introduction day, which we'll do on our way to the Sun. I'm Kanan Jarrus, basically Hera's maintenance guy here, though I've got my own fair share of piloting freighters around the galaxy we come from. Nothing as nice as the Ghost here, but... freighters."
The Expedient had given him plenty of experience when it came to maintenance. So. There was that, at least.
"I'm Hera Syndulla," Hera said with a wave. "The Ghost is my ship, so I'll be your pilot. You may also see my droid Chopper around; he's doing work, so do not disturb him." Because he'd be doing work, and not at all because he was a cranky bucket of bolts.
"Neither of us is from around here, so we're using these classes to get a read on the local system," she said. "Last class we went to all the planets, so this time we're doing the nonplanetary bodies. Starting with the system's sun."
"Pretty sure we're all familiar with the sun by now," Kanan mused. "That big ball of plasma that's been trying to kill us all summer. Basically the reason the Earth can support life in the first place. Well. That and water. And a breathable atmosphere..." Kanan, you were getting off-track. "Anyway, it's what's known as a G-type main sequence star, which roughly just translates to a yellow dwarf. Main sequence - that's the part that translates to 'dwarf,' by the way - stars are the most numerous true star in the universe, though most of the stars in this galaxy are of the red persuasion, making this one brighter than roughly 85% of the rest of the stars in the Milky Way. Either way, this particular yellow dwarf exists eight light minutes away from the planet that Fandom is currently parked on, Earth."
He was pretty sure there was maybe one person in this class who was even from Earth. So, this term would be a fun tour.
Hera had them launched and into hyperspace quickly enough; it was barely a minute to get there. "It's a little over one hundred times the size of Earth and…" excuse her while she did the math "...three hundred thirty thousand times its mass. Not huge as stars go, but respectable. Mostly hydrogen, lots of helium, a few other things. Pretty typical for a star."
"Looks like this particular star is somewhere around middle age," Kanan mused, looking at the readings. "Which means, hey, it'll be stable for another five billion Earth years, give or take. Not even stars last forever, even if they'll typically outlast any of us. When this one destabilizes into a red giant, it's pretty much going to just swallow up Mercury and Venus and turn Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland. If it isn't one already by then."
This wasn't meant to be a knock against Earth humans in particular. Honest. He'd seen plenty of planets turned to garbage in his own galaxy by the Empire in his lifetime alone, and had read of plenty more that had gone bad well before his time due to one conflict or another. Taris was not exactly a resort planet, for example. Not to even mention what had happened to Makeb.
"Hopefully Earth's species will be on other planets by then," Hera said. She liked to keep positive. "We'll be doing a few passes; keep your eyes on the horizon and maybe you'll get to see a mass ejection. Looking directly down's probably going to be pretty boring." Hey, at least they had shields up so nobody would get blinded.
"Oh," she added, "and introduce yourselves!"
"This place is hell-bent on making me get ready earlier every class I teach," he muttered, waving for students to follow him on board the Ghost.. "Please, just throw me into the sun. Not that we'll be close enough, but at least it'd wake me up before I cook to death on my way to being utterly obliterated by gravity and burning plasma."
"Please do not throw anyone into the sun," Hera said, giving Kanan a look. Not that she wasn't clutching her caf just as tight, but there would be no spacing anybody on her watch.
Well, nobody that was here today, anyway.
"Anyway, it looks like we've got a smaller class than before," Kanan mused. "Good. We won't have to snuggle up in the cockpit so much this term. And one new face, so it's introduction day, which we'll do on our way to the Sun. I'm Kanan Jarrus, basically Hera's maintenance guy here, though I've got my own fair share of piloting freighters around the galaxy we come from. Nothing as nice as the Ghost here, but... freighters."
The Expedient had given him plenty of experience when it came to maintenance. So. There was that, at least.
"I'm Hera Syndulla," Hera said with a wave. "The Ghost is my ship, so I'll be your pilot. You may also see my droid Chopper around; he's doing work, so do not disturb him." Because he'd be doing work, and not at all because he was a cranky bucket of bolts.
"Neither of us is from around here, so we're using these classes to get a read on the local system," she said. "Last class we went to all the planets, so this time we're doing the nonplanetary bodies. Starting with the system's sun."
"Pretty sure we're all familiar with the sun by now," Kanan mused. "That big ball of plasma that's been trying to kill us all summer. Basically the reason the Earth can support life in the first place. Well. That and water. And a breathable atmosphere..." Kanan, you were getting off-track. "Anyway, it's what's known as a G-type main sequence star, which roughly just translates to a yellow dwarf. Main sequence - that's the part that translates to 'dwarf,' by the way - stars are the most numerous true star in the universe, though most of the stars in this galaxy are of the red persuasion, making this one brighter than roughly 85% of the rest of the stars in the Milky Way. Either way, this particular yellow dwarf exists eight light minutes away from the planet that Fandom is currently parked on, Earth."
He was pretty sure there was maybe one person in this class who was even from Earth. So, this term would be a fun tour.
Hera had them launched and into hyperspace quickly enough; it was barely a minute to get there. "It's a little over one hundred times the size of Earth and…" excuse her while she did the math "...three hundred thirty thousand times its mass. Not huge as stars go, but respectable. Mostly hydrogen, lots of helium, a few other things. Pretty typical for a star."
"Looks like this particular star is somewhere around middle age," Kanan mused, looking at the readings. "Which means, hey, it'll be stable for another five billion Earth years, give or take. Not even stars last forever, even if they'll typically outlast any of us. When this one destabilizes into a red giant, it's pretty much going to just swallow up Mercury and Venus and turn Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland. If it isn't one already by then."
This wasn't meant to be a knock against Earth humans in particular. Honest. He'd seen plenty of planets turned to garbage in his own galaxy by the Empire in his lifetime alone, and had read of plenty more that had gone bad well before his time due to one conflict or another. Taris was not exactly a resort planet, for example. Not to even mention what had happened to Makeb.
"Hopefully Earth's species will be on other planets by then," Hera said. She liked to keep positive. "We'll be doing a few passes; keep your eyes on the horizon and maybe you'll get to see a mass ejection. Looking directly down's probably going to be pretty boring." Hey, at least they had shields up so nobody would get blinded.
"Oh," she added, "and introduce yourselves!"
Re: Introductions!
Look, they were probably a lot more interesting stories than ones about growing up on a colony world mostly populated by scientists.
Re: Introductions!
"Hera can back me up on that time we got law enforcement to leave the bar by shoving a friend of ours," he used the phrase loosely, "in a supply closet and making him impersonate a vomiting Wookiee," Kanan offered. "And bar fights. Do I ever have stories about bar fights."
Most of which had Kanan right in the middle of them.
Re: Introductions!
She had to know, okay?
Re: Introductions!
Besides, Charko had had it coming to him.
Re: Introductions!
Re: Introductions!
"Really, it isn't a night at the Asteroid Belt if you haven't had to tell a drunken Ugnaught to stop dancing on the bar," Kanan agreed, his tone maybe the slightest bit wistful. "Everybody there was completely blasted off their boosters, and it was great."
There was a reason he'd stuck around Gorse as long as he had, even though it was a horrible steaming mudball.
Re: Introductions!
Re: Introductions!
"Well, I'm not planning on making any runs back to Gorse," Kanan noted, because, you know, someone there would probably kill him and all the people he'd been close to there were dead, "but hey, who knows, maybe a future class I teach will just involve tours of every grimy cantina I ever loved back home."
There were not enough classes in a semester for a tour like that.