Space... well it's kind of a frontier...
Once dinner was cleared away the three Noonians, began to finish up the preparations for flight. Which mostly seemed to consist of putting everything loose away, finally Noon and Kirrin looked at their passengers, Noon ushered them towards the stairway that led up to the flight deck, “Safest place for you all is in your bunks with the shutters down
( Read more... )
So, Noon's offer to teach them how to experience zero G was a welcome change and the activity would do them all good. Danny was the first to volunteer, and started stripping down to his skinsuit before Noon was out of her many layers of clothes. "You know that I'm all for having a go." He saw the weapons, noting his father's lack of surprise. He had grown up around people who were a lot different than they seemed. He grinned back at her. "I think you dispelled that notion as we left Earth."
"I'm in too." Xiao stood ready and bowed. "Vampires can move through the air faster than humans. It will be interesting to see how zero gravity will change that."
That only left Hsu who was still sitting as they all looked at him. "Of course I'm going to try this." He was over two thousand years old, and while he followed his motto of Power, Profit, Pleasure, a trait that had served him well over his life was curiosity. At his age, now, there were very few activities that were new or he'd never tried, so he was more than ready to try out every part of space travel. "Well, lead the way, Noon," he said as he stepped out of his clothes and neatly laid them on the seat.
The skinsuit might show Noon's trim body, but they also showed off the muscular physiques of the three men as they followed her in hooking up their breathers.
Reply
Noon shook her head at Xiao “Whatever you do don’t try to move fast then, hold back as much as you can, or we’ll be wiping a smear off my walls,” she paused a second and then added “Or if all movies I’ve watched have any truth in them, removing dents from my walls.”
At the doorway Noon’s arm blocked their way into the hold. “Wait here until I call you across, and make a note of which way is up and which way is down for when you step back out later. Although it’s generally not a mistake you will make twice.”
The empty hold was a vast space that she only heated and pressurised when needed, like now. Noon placed her hands on the door frame and carefully stepped through, as she did she began to float, she used the doorframe to pull herself back down to the floor and then gently pushed off towards the ceiling and the centre of the room.
Halfway across she tucked into a ball and like a high board diver in slow motion began to roll and turn and twist so that her feet were now heading towards the ceiling and she was looking down at them. She was in perfect control of her motion and gently landed bending her knees to absorb the momentum letting her hand catch one of the handholds close to her. Then she stood up.
“Ok, who’s first, don’t try to do the turn that takes practice, just gently head up here and if you need it I’ll catch you.” Noon grinned at the three men peering through the doorway.
Reply
"In my case, it would probably be a dent, but I cannot say the same for these two." Xiao was smiling, but he also took Noon's advice to heart, even his non-beating one.
Once at the doorway to the hold, the three of them listened and then watched Noon as she sailed with so little effort towards the ceiling, and they were impressed by her acrobatics along the way. It might have surprised her to see that a man like Hsu Danmei, who was once Attila the Hun, focusing so intently on her instructions. However, he was a man who had to be in control, particularly of himself, and he was determined to master this correctly and not make a fool of himself in front of them all.
Daniel was, somewhat predictably, the first to volunteer and raring to have a go. He was the daredevil, accomplished skier and snowboarder, plus an expert dancer so he was very familiar with how his body moved. He braced himself against the doorway and gently pushed off. Daredevil, perhaps but he wasn't that reckless and feeling all your bones heal at once was never fun. The sensation was strange as that little bit of momentum carried him upward towards Noon, but he hadn't quite judged correctly and his push-off hadn't been quite as gentle as he'd thought. By the time he'd nearly reached Noon, he saw he was going too fast. "Wooaaahhh! No brakes!" His arms flailed trying to stop and reach out to Noon before he went sailing past and into the wall.
Reply
“Right so at the very least I need to make sure that you don’t hit the walls. They will probably bounce, unless they kick off too fast.” Noon nodded “Ok, I like to have my priorities straight. Save the vampire, let the humans bounce.”
Noon watched as Daniel headed towards her and realised fairly early on that he was going too fast, but waited to see what he would do. Noon sighed as he took to flailing about and gently launched herself away from the wall and alongside Daniel, as she drifted past she grabbed his ankle just in time to stop him from hitting his head. The two of them drifted out to the middle of the hold.
“So nine out of ten for take-off, nothing for the landing and as for style, I'm tempted to give you a negative score.” She laughed as she gently nudged him towards the ceiling, “This time remember you have two arms and two legs, in this environment they are the same.”
“Who’s next?” she called down to the other two “Launch when ready, and remember you have four limbs.”
Reply
"I'll go." Xiao was looking forward to this, and although he wasn't of the kind of vampire who could fly, he was experienced at jumping from heights and therefore judging his landings well. The most difficult part would be not pushing off too fast and dialing back his preternatural strength. With the slightest of pushes, he let go and launched. He was far more graceful than Daniel, and his confidence showed during his uneventful flight. The only 'wobble' was right at landing when he had to reach a bit further than intended for a handhold, but he got it, and secured, he twisted so that his feet were on the ceiling and he hung upside down like a bat.
Reply
“Excellent, and no dents in my ship, even better.” She looked down at Hsu from where she hung in the middle of the space. “So, your turn, remember gently does it.”
Noon then tucked and rolled in position, so that she was positioned to grab hold of Hsu if he did end up heading off too fast.
“Ok, launch when ready.”
Reply
He pushed away from the platform very gently, and he drifted nicely into the cargo hold and towards Noon, whom he was staring at intensely as reaching her was his goal. His confidence rose as he came nearer to her and as for the sensation, he'd never felt anything like it in his life and, at well over two thousand, that was a rarity indeed.
It became obvious, though that he had been overly cautious with his push-off and was not going to reach Noon. Or any of them. He was determined to keep his cool and not look ridiculous with flailing around like Daniel had. There was nothing that he could push off from within reach, so as he drifted to a halt, he forced himself to relax and look like he totally intended to do this.
Reply
She looked around from her spot just out from the wall, “As am I but I came prepared.” And she pulled a tennis ball from a pocket and threw it at the ceiling which was the closest surface to her. She caught the ball as it bounced back and began to sail back across the space to the floor. She waved at Hsu as she floated past.
Reply
Sticking his hand up as if he was in class, Danny. "We just sit and watch him float about for a while. It'll be entertaining to see how long Dad's patience lasts" At that he gave in fully to his laughter.
And much to Hsu's chagrin, Xiao was also chuckling at his predicament. "You do look quite comfortable there, Milord."
They all watched as the tennis ball left Noon's hand and bounced back to her, the momentum enough to move her towards the wall. As she drifted by, Hsu muttered just loud enough for her to hear. "You could have supplied us all with such high-tech equipment."
Reply
She looked over at Hsu, “Folks, you need to figure this out, because in a minute I will dump another of you into the middle of the space. Minute after that all three of you will find yourselves stuck there.”
Noon kicked off from the wall and shot past Hsu, heading towards the opposite surface at what appeared to be break neck speed. As she neared the other side Noon tucked and began to spin losing momentum as she used up the energy of her push off. After a few spins, she untucked and landed cat like on the wall, bending her knees to absorb the energy left. Her hand caught hold of one of the loops in the wall.
Reply
Sitting there in mid-hold, Hsu looked over to Dan and Xiao. "Well? It's not like I can solve this without your help." As Noon when flying past him, he sighed. "Perhaps something like that?"
A few more seconds passed with both Dan and Xiao looking quite smug. Then Xiao climbed along the wall towards his lover's son. "You've played pool, correct?" Dan nodded. "This is what we'll do...." There was a moment or two more of whispering, then Xiao pushed off, quite hard and directly towards Hsu. Just as Xiao reached Hsu, he gave the Immortal a powerful shove, sending him towards Noon. Xiao's own inertia was checked, and he drifted in the opposite direction. He probably would have run out of motion before he reached the wall, but Danny then pushed himself away from the wall, and this time instead of just giving Xiao a shove, let his movement carry both him and the vampire towards the wall, letting Xiao be the one to take any impact against the wall...as he could.
Reply
She looked over to see how Hsu had faired.
Reply
The other two weren’t so fortunate. There were yelps of surprise, and indignation, from both as Noon sent them frantically spinning off into the middle. By that time, Hsu had slowed enough and grabbed a handhold on the wall and could watch. He caught Noon’s eye and smirked. It really served his lover and son right for laughing at his expense earlier. “This seems an excellent point to wrap up the lesson, don’t you think?”
Reply
She was flying over towards the exit, “Don’t forget which way is up and which way is down before you step through the door.” And she turned herself full circle, then pulled her feet down to the threshold and stepped carefully through the hold doorway.
Reply
Leave a comment