fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

The flight simulator looked radically different than it had last week.

For one thing, there was only one. It was also longer, sleeker, and painted maroon and white.

Anakin leaned up against it with his eyes closed, holding a giant cup of coffee like it was the only thing keeping him upright--not entirely inaccurate--and waited for the class to arrive. When they came in, he put the box of cookies from J,GoB on a table and turned to face them.

"This is the training sim for the Delta-7 Aethersprite Interceptor," Anakin said, patting it. "It's better known as the Jedi starfighter. Today we're going to use it to practice flying in a zero-g environment."

He pushed a button and the door to the simulator swung open. "Because it's a trainer, it's designed for two people--a pilot and an instructor--to fit. The real things only have room for one being on the inside and an astromech droid." He looked at the class. "Um, think of it as a robotic co-pilot of sorts who can get to mechanical problems while you're flying. For example, fixing shields that have been damaged by laser fire." He pointed at the empty socket on the simulator. "Obviously, I don't have an astromech with me but the sim's been programmed to make up for that. And for very elementary maneuvers like we'll be working with today, you don't really need to learn how to work with the astromech."

He pointed into the inside of the cockpit. "There are a lot more controls on the starfighter than the podracer, obviously. Here you need to regulate atmosphere, gauge fuel and weapons' levels, as well as communications, landing gear and assorted other bells and whistles."

He tried to smile at them. It sort of worked. "But don't worry too much--you're not going to be tested on this." He sat in the cockpit and ~~handwavily~~ showed them how to make the ship speed up, slow down, turn and spin. "Obviously, this moves much faster than the podracer," he said, "and the sim has been programmed with the grav you'd have in your cockpit, so if you spin yourself too fast, you will make yourself sick. And then you will be cleaning out the sim."

Anakin clasped his hands together. "Okay. You'll each get a chance to try the sim out to learn how it works. You'll be in a program set way out in space so there's nothing for you to hit if you can't figure out how to steer right away and stuff. Once you feel more comfortable, there'll be a choice of two courses to run through--one that's strictly testing you on mobility, the other than also allows you to use the laser cannons. You can try either one, or both if you're feeling especially motivated." Anakin closed his eyes and drank from his cup of coffee again. "Get to work."

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"Coffee!" Anakin said, smiling and holding out his hand. "Thank you."

"Not just coffee," she said, handing him a cup. "I also have greasy Mexican food. I had to promise Cesar pretty much everything but my firstborn child to get it, but it's the best hangover cure I've ever found so it's kind of worth it. Mom swears by it."

"Hopefully not everything," Anakin said, "but grease sounds good. Alanna brought me something disgusting in a cup but now the headache's gone."

"Lucky," she grumbled, handing him a taco. "And no, not everything, but I have to find the collector's edition of West Side Story, preferably with Spanish subtitles."

"The movie with the dancing?" Anakin smirked. "Good luck." He took a bite from the taco and closed his eyes. "This almost makes up for a hellish morning."

"Class go badly?" she asked, looking concerned.

Not that he could see the worry in her eyes, given that she had those sunglasses on.

"Hangovers and beginner pilots learning how to spin? Not a great combination," Anakin said, wincing as he remembered it.

He finished off his taco. "And then Cameron stopped by."

Rory raised a brow. "Why?"

"He wanted me to work on the swoop he brought back from Coruscant," Anakin said. "We didn't quite get there."

"Did you hurt him?" Rory asked softly. She sounded slightly disapproving, though not at all as angry as the situation might have warranted.

"No," Anakin replied, sounding disappointed. "But I wanted to. A lot."

"Did you yell at him?" she asked. "He's really good at catching people when they're already twitchy, huh?"

"There were words, yeah," Anakin said, concentrating on the coffee. "There are reasons that Obi-wan does the talking. I'm not very...diplomatic."

Rory sighed and reached over to pat his arm. "How'd it go? What did he say?"

"He's still walking without help," Anakin said. "I told him to stop being an ass. I'm not sure he realized how serious I was."

"I told him to, also," Rory said. "Except I didn't use the word 'ass.' I was more...um, me-ish."

"I also used 'stupid' and 'dumb.' Obi-Wan would be very disappointed," Anakin said. "But he was being a dumb, stupid ass."

"I'm not sure that telling him that probably did anything except stir up a bunch of testosterone," she said rubbing her temples.

"Actually, he looked at me like I'd just run over his pet," Anakin said. "I didn't know what to do with that."

Rory frowned. "You emoed him?"

"Apparently," Anakin said, still looking a little confused. "It was so much easier with Angel. I postured, he postured, we kicked the crap out of each other, everything was fine."

"You're the Angel of this scenario," Rory pointed out. "Aren't you?"

"Right," Anakin said, nodding. "So I should send Cam to the clinic."

"And he should, in turn, beat the living daylights out of you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I think that would make me a little more cranky with Cam than I am already."