fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

Anakin was leaning against the reconfigured flight simulator when the flight students arrived.

"Today we're going to do something a little different," he said, walking over to the television from his room and pushing a few buttons. A three-dimension projection of a world rotated in front of them. "We're going to complete an entire military mission. This planet is being slowly starved to death by the blockade set up by these donut-looking control ships and their army of droids."

Anakin gestured to the projection. "Working in pairs, your job will be to take off from the planet's surface, fight past the enemy's droid fighters and destroy the control ship." On the projection, the target glowed red. "The only way to destroy the ship, unfortunately, is to blow it from the inside--its shields are too powerful for the starfighter's torpedos to take out from space." He put his hands behind his back and paced. "You're up against a deadline as well. On the surface there's a battle taking place: your people against a droid army that doesn't get tired. Taking out the control ship also powers down those droids. Take too long to blow it up and you won't have a reason to go back to the planet--the enemy will have won through battle what they had been trying to achieve through blockade."

He pointed at the simulator. "You'll be flying the Naboo N-1 Starfighter," he said. "They're a little more sensitive than the F-16 from last week, but not quite as twitchy as the Jedi starfighter. And remember that once you break atmosphere, you won't be fighting gravity any longer so you don't have to yank on the controls quite as hard. The droid starfighters are faster than you are--and there are a lot of them--but they're also pretty stupid. Watch each other's backs and you'll do fine."

He grinned. "And in case you're wondering, yeah, this was a real battle. And the exercise can be accomplished." He tossed two deeply silly-looking helmets into the flight simulator. "Those will allow you to talk to each other. Plus, they're terribly stylish."

He put his hands together in front of him. "When you successfully complete the exercise, you get a donut to make up for the ugly one you've just removed from the sky." He gave them all an excited look. "Oh, I hope to see you all on Sunday for the field trip to the Air and Space Museum, but more importantly, I've heard from home. I'd asked for permission to have an actual Jedi starfighter brought here so you could get some non-simulated flight experience."

He smiled. "They've done me one better--inviting you all to come with me to Coruscant for a few days and see how the simulated stuff measures up the real thing." He turned serious. "Of course, I'm not going to bring you all to a new planet and have you blow up because you weren't paying attention, so this week--and next, which will be an actual flying experience--I'm going to be watching your technique to see if you're ready to fly an actual starfighter."

He waved them towards the simulator. "So impress me, all right?"

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"You can sing now," she offered generously.

"No."

"Not even a little song? I could sing Macarthur's Park. It has a cake and rain...."

"No more singing! None," she says, and now that the control ship has gone nice and boom, she's landing really quickly.

Rory sighed, also landing. "But it makes things more fun. And entertaining!"

Anakin met them once the door opened on the flight simulator holding the box of donuts.

"...interesting run," he said finally. "The singing..."

Yeah, he couldn't come up with words to express just how much that hadn't been what he'd had in mind.

He held out the box to Rory. "Pick one." He grinned at Aeryn. "And you get two. For, um, taking out the control ship so efficiently." And not killing Rory, but he wasn't going to mention that part.

"Thank you," Aeryn says, with a glance that says You're a brave, brave man and I'm not doing that again both at the same time. And takes her doughnuts.

"You heard the singing?" Rory squeaked.

Anakin nodded. "I heard the entire op."

"Oh."

Rory took her doughnut. "She wouldn't let me help with the blowy-uppiness," she explained.

"I noticed," Anakin said, biting the inside of his cheek not to laugh. "You both came back in one piece with the mission accomplished--that's what's important."

Rory was still crimson. "And I should get points for creativity."

"The singing was definitely...something," Anakin replied diplomatically.

"I entertained myself, still focused on the task at hand, and provided Aeryn with background noise to keep her focused," Rory said, crossing her arms and going into 'I Deserve an A, Dammit' mode. "I should get two doughnuts for resourcefulness and thinking outside the box, not to mention caring about the lives of thousands of simulated people."

"The ones on the ground?" Anakin asked. "Because the ones you weren't shooting at were droids and thus not people."

"Droids are people too," Rory tried.

Anakin looked at her like she was insane. "No....droids are droids. They're programmed. In this case, programmed to kill you. They're not people."

"They talk. They can form opinions, right?" Rory asked.

Anakin shook his head. "No. They're like...toasters or something. They don't have that same spark that sentient beings do. They don't resonate in the Force like life does."

""But you said droids can be bossy," she pointed out. "If they can be bossy, they can make choices about which action they'd like to take."

"Threepio can be bossy," Anakin corrected. "Just him--I think I did something weird to him without really knowing it. But they can't make choices that aren't programmed into them. And the battle droids aren't going to decide to spontaneously take up a life of basketweaving. It's not in their makeup."

"Fine, then what about the work that went into their construction and that of the ships?" Rory pursued. "Who made them? Do you think that every single person who constructed and designed those things was completely against us? There are plenty of innocents involved in war because of economy and necessity."

Rory thought that was a pretty nice little speech. Worthy of a second doughnut, even.

Anakin resisted the powerful urge to beat his head against the sim. "Not this time," he said flatly, "but I don't want to discuss it." He held out the box of doughnuts. "Here," he said.

Rory grinned and took a second doughnut. "Thank you," she said graciously.

Anakin sighed and let it go. "You're welcome," he said.

Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

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