Ay Ee ay Ee Ay, You're My Little Butterfly

[Scherezade deWinter]

. : Ando : .​

. : [member="Kathryn Foster"] : .​

Ando. Scherezade cursed as she saw the planet come into view from her cockpit. A planet with so much water that it made her nervous; it had been little over a year since she had been brought tout of the pebble by a woman who would later betray her, and in all that time, she'd never had a moment to actually learn how to swim. As such, planets that were covered in a lot of water always seemed to make her nervous. The project she'd been working on for months on Kamino had done little to quiet her down on that front. The fear of falling into those murky waters every time she exited her ship and made her way to the facilities had given her a healthy fear of drowning.

And now she was on Ando, another water planet, and once again she was here because of a choice she had made. With the rising amount of wars the Confederacy found themselves in, Scherezade had realized that he way she navigated her ship would not always keep her safe. In essence, she did not know how to navigate her ship; it was one thing to know how to take off and how to land, but the rest of the time she relied on the AI to do its job.

However, for the purpose of this, Scherezade had borrowed a Sith Infiltrator from the Confederacy. It was the same model as her own ship, but this one did not have the remains of blood magic and other things that were a reminder to the traumas she had suffered since coming out of the pebble. It was… Safer.

Landing at the docking port, Scherezade left her ship and looked around. She was looking for a woman by the name of Kathryn Foster – the only woman who had not balked at the sound or look of Scherezade's name and had accepted the mission to teach her how to manually fly. Scherezade hoped that by the end of the day, Foster would not regret the decision.

 

[Kathryn Foster]

Well, this was a first time alright! Sher... Scher... Scherezade? How did you pronounce that, exactly? Hmm.

The former republic pilot leant against the wall of the docking bay, on the small rocky island on the planet of Ando. Surrounded by a small village one could smell the ocean all the way inside here. Although deriving from Denon, a planet which did bear much resembelance to Coruscant, she had fallen in love with the sound and the smell of oceans on planets like Ando. Naboo. Zeltros. Even Kamino had been an interesting place to visit. The waves lived their own lifes, much like herself. Thinking about it for a second, that little trait haven't always bought things of good with it, though.

Now, when she was a freelance pilot and the missions within the small fleet of freelance expeditionary force were temporarily on hold, she had quite alot of free time to spend on her own. Appropriately enough, she had been contacted by this [member="Scherezade deWinter"], who somehow had heard about her and got hold of her details. She had asked for private flight lessons, offering a few credits in return. At first, Kathy had thought it to be a rather odd question to a person you never met before, but had accepted it in the end and after some time of messaging between them. Her tries to search for more information about this deWinter were pretty much fruitless, though. She could take on a pupil in the art of flying, right? With the right guidance, everyone could fly. More or less.

The sound of roaring reversing engines reached her. She looked up to be met by the silhouette of a so called Sith Infiltrator blocking the sun as it were setting down nicely in the docking bay. Even if it was herself who landed it, it didn't tell much about the skills she possesed. Or lacked. This would certainly be interesting!

Kathy straightened herself from the wall, carrying a backpack with all the necesseties for a day-trip of lessons and took slow but confident steps toward the lowering boarding ramp. For the occasion, Kathy had choosen to wear her black flightsuit along with a utility vest and boots in the same color, her LBD-series blaster were as usual hanging in a holster on her right hip. Her to-be pupil looked a few years younger than herself, quite a few actually. She put on a warm smile for her and offered a hand.

''Hi! You must be Scherezade?'' Did she got that pronouncing right? Hope so! ''Kathryn Foster. You could call me Kathy if you want. So! You're looking for flight lessons, I hear?'' she said to get the conversation going.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Taking the hand that was offered, Scherezade nodded with a smile. Had Ms. Foster asked about her pronunciation, she would have told her that yup, she got it right! It was a bit rare for people to get it on the first try, but the pilot instructor was getting extra cookie points for that alone.

"Yup yup!" Scherezade answered, doing her best to sound… Chipper? Bubbly? So far the woman wasn't trying to cancel on her, so that was a very nice starting point; people within the Confederacy often responded so badly to her and she was entirely lost on how that whole good first impression thing went. And good second impression. Or any impression, really.

"I can do the lift off and the landing just fine," she explained, "but I got a droid and an AI that take care of the rest, so I never actually learned the manual piloting stuff. I tried a while back and I almost crashed my ship into a building and it was all whoops, better not do that again."

Pausing a moment, Scherezade bit her lower lip. Was that a silly introduction?

"So yeah," she sighed, "I'm always flying around and I basically live on my ship, so I should really learn how this whole manual piloting thing works." Turning around, she motioned to the ship she'd brought with her, "that one's identical to mine, so I figured if we could get this one to not crash while I'm piloting, mine would be good too."

And then turning back to Kathryn Foster, she paused a moment, not sure what else she was meant to say. Was this where she told the other woman she could ask whatever she wanted? Was there anything to ask at all? Was she instead meant to ask something? Scherezade opened her mouth once and then closed it again. Better let the other woman take the reins from here.

[member="Kathryn Foster"]

 

[Kathryn Foster]

The young brunette woman surely seemed to have the spirit to realy try and improve her flying skills, which would be thankful for laying a solid ground for a rising learning curve. How old was she? 22? 25? Age didn't realy matter if you got that inside you. Thinking of herself, even though she had deviated from the protocols more than once. This was not the military though, so here a few home cooked tips and tricks would be allowed. Things that worked but you could not find it in any manual. Things that got the more conservative commanders to loose their marbles.

Her chipping spirit got Kathy to smirk softly, and when she told her about the time she almost crashed into a building, it widened. ''Well, we don't want that to happen for real now, do we?'' she said while raising her eyebrows.

So, she had lended a ship for the purpose? ''Aaand... We'd spare your own the risk of getting into a thousand pieces?'' she said with a knowing smile. Even if the girl did not admitted it right out; of course, any sensible person would not risk that. She would have done the same. After a short pause of checking her reaction on the statement, she continued in a more reassuring tone. ''That's smart of you, though! However, it doesn't change the fact that we want to come home in one piece, right? But don't worry, I'll guide you through... and make sure to pull the breakes if you're about to loose it.'' she said with a friendly smile before making a short gesture with the hand to the ship behind behind Scherezade. ''So, you wanna show me it and we'll get going after a short bearing at the controls?''

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"I'm more worried about people seeing what's going on inside my ship than I am about breaking it," Scherezade admitted sheepishly. She wasn't about to elaborate on that though; the woman standing in front of her didn't need to know about the text of blood magic that covered the walls of the Giggledust, no about the endless experiments with acid she conducted there or the Blueprints of Doom that could be found almost in every nook and cranny. Having her personal ship crash was a concern… But it was not the Sithling's biggest one by any measure.

But yes, she nodded to getting things started. With a smile, she turned around, motioning for [member="Kathryn Foster"] to follow her. The ship she was at was compromised of two stories; the first, ground floor, being the hangar bay, and all the goodiness of rooms and cockpits being upstairs. Unlike with Scherezade's actual ship, the elevator on this one existed and worked, so the two wouldn't have to climb ropes to get there.

Within moments, they were standing in the cockpit.

"So…" Scherezade said, "I know what the on/off switch does. I know how to handle the yoke… Sort of. But then there's all these millions of buttons and I don't know what any of them even does."

[member="Kathryn Foster"]

 

[Kathryn Foster]

Scherezade's statement and expression made her eyes peer in a slightly sceptical manner. Were she too proud to admit it to other that she now wre taking private flight lessons? She didn't say anything though. It wasn't a problem for her and didn't matter for the teachings, so. Instead she followed Sharezade towards the ship which they, from now on, would spend quite a few hours in together. If they got along well, that was!

Upon entering the cockpit, Kathy put her bag down by the co-pilots seat and leaned over it to take a quick glance over the instruments. Most of them shut down and dark at the moment as the engine were shut off.

''Impressive! But you've missed the fun part if you've let the AI do the flying between start and landings!'' she replied lightsome after turning the head back to Scherezade. She came to think about the years in the academy, back on Carida. Being behind a joystick were something Kathy truly enjoyed. Would it be a challenge making the young trainee enjoy it as much as she did? It was about time to find out, as Kathy gestured to the pilots seat for Scherezade to take.

''I think that's your seat. Definately not the AI's, that's for sure.'' she stated with a friendly smirk before taking the co-pilots seat, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked back at Scherezade, when it crossed her mind if she were pushing her to early.

''Nervous?''

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade laughed as Kathryn mentioned that the fun part was what the AI did. It had never been fun for her; with some things, such as Force training, Scherezade rarely needed an external instructor. There was so much information burned into her mind that she had all the theoretics down and the rest was simply putting it to use. Yet her grandmother had not known how to pilot either, and that information had not been passed to Scherezade as a result of that. Trying to learn it on her own had been… Complicated.

Taking the seat she was offered, Scherezade stared at all the buttons, her mind jumping to the day she had taught Gerwald how to pilot. Shytbubble ton of buttons, was how she's described the cockpit to him. A memory of happy days, before they all turned bitter.

When Kathryn asked if she was nervous, Scherezade shook her head.

"Not yet," she said with a little smile, "taking off is easy. I'll be nervous enough when we get to the actual piloting bit."

To show what she meant, she quickly clicked al the right buttons to star the ship, and pulled on the yoke a few times. In an instant, the ship took into the air. "Normally, this is where I head for orbit," she explained, "I rarely fly from place to place on a planet. It's usually just to get from planet to planet instead."

Looking at the world stretch before them, Scherezade shrugged. "Do I fly us over the city? Into the swamplands?"

[member="Kathryn Foster"]

 

[Kathryn Foster]

Unprepared for Scherezades quick start up and take off, she sat back in the chair and buckled the seatbelt. A bit by old habit from the academy and service, but mostly out of wish to stay alive for more than a few minutes in the air.

''Whoo... And this is where we go through a few things first, okay?'' she said and forced forth a slightly uneasy smile. Great, now she seemed like the nervous one. Although, it changed to a more relaxed one when she found herself again. ''Look. I'm sure you're eager to get a hold of this, but it's as important to get a feel of the ship as it is to master all the levers and buttons.'' she said assuringly. She turned the gaze out of the windscreen in front of them and fell in thoughts for a few seconds, then turned back to Scherezade again.

''Take us nice and easy to the swamplands. No hurry, but try to get a feel of the ships handling... The throttle, the sensitivity of the yaw, pitch and roll... No need to go one houndred percent on any of those yet, though... Just feel it. I'll watch and be ready to assist you if you need me.'' she explained and took a quick glance over the controls on her side. It was a different ship than any of the ones that she had flown before, but it would come quickly to the experienced pilot.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade concealed her grin at Kathryn's race to belt herself up. She knew she had that effect on some people; but when it came to piloting, the sensation was rather new. There was probably something within this that she could use to cause more people to react that way. There was no malice behind that train of thought though; Scherezade was a creature of Chaos, down to her very core. It was a shame that this was something that was so looked down upon more often than not, considering her methods, while very much removed from the box, were effective. Her entire personal file showed this, easily.

And now they would be going through some things. Scherezade nodded like an excited puppy, taking her hands off the steer as she listened. Getting a feel. "It's not quite like getting a feel for a weapon," she admitted after a few moments. With weapons? It was easy. But a ship, while it could be considered a weapon from more than one point of view, was a lumbering mass of metal that sometimes contained weapons. It was not an extension of her hands, arms, legs, torso. It was like trying to control a building that sometimes had a mind of its own.

"Swamplands it is," she nodded. But then came the next question, "So like, I can get us there because I know where they are. But if I had to find it on the ship's map and then navigate to get there?" Scherezade turned to look at Kathryn but only for a moment, since her drop in focus on the steer caused the ship to dip down a few meters before she raised it again, "So how do I do this with the map thingie? How do I even find it it without relying on just telling the AI to do it?"

[member="Kathryn Foster"]

 

[Kathryn Foster]

''Exactly! What do you do with a weapon? You point and shoot, right?'' she asked rethoricaly but soon corrected herself for the rough simplification. ''Well, in all honesty it's a bit more to it than that... But the point is, it's a completely different thing. Your whole body is needed to sense the ship. Like, become one with it.'' she tried to explain, unsure if the Scherezade understood what she meant. ''I'll try to explain it better the further we go.''

She met with the womans green and curious gaze as she had more questions in store. About to answer her, they were interrupted and slightly rattled when the ship took a sudden dip before Scherezade pulled it up again. Clearing her throat after the little surprise.

''I'm glad we weren't closer to the ground for that one...'' she stated and chuckled slightly, surprised but yet could not hide a bit of amuse to the younger womans rush to correct her lost focus. Who couldn't help to be at least a bit amused when those things happened that tickled your stomach, like riding some sort of hovercoaster.

''I get the picture that you're traveling alot? Then it's crucial to know if, or rather when your AI breaks down...'' she said and leant closer to her and forward to the navigational screen. ''You seem to have a pretty simple interface though...'' she continued musingly while tapping some buttons back at the start screen and then threw a glance back at her flight student. ''You with me, Scherezade?'' she hailed her attention before turning back to the screen. ''Manual input... Then you simply choose the way you want your destination to be located with, be it by coordinates or if you don't have those...'' she tapped another button and their current planet, Andor, were projected and slowly rotating in front of them. ''You can get the planet up like this and scroll through the preloaded points of interests from the galactic navigational network. It's not realy a hassle.'' she ended and looked back at her to see if she had followed through the menues and buttons.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Let her entire body become one with the ship. Scherezade shook her head. She knew how to get it done with a weapon, but a ship… A ship wasn't an extension of her limbs, it was more like a big metal cage that was sometimes a home, sometimes a bus, and sometimes just where you lay down with your legs above your head because you had too long of a day.

To the question about her traveling a lot, Scherezade just laughed and nodded. It was… Sort of an understatement. Most of the time, she was either flying somewhere, or was flying back to Geonosis, for various reasons. Staying put was something she didn't even know how to do at this point, which was probably why her ship was her home. She'd never even considered getting a planet-side residence, even though her job with the Confederacy made her viable for getting a pretty fancy one in the city.

"I always rely on the AI," she explained. Manual input, yes, she knew it was a thing, and she was blessed to not have had to deal with it thus, but she listened intently anyway, taking careful notes inside her head.

"What's the worst piloting thing you ever had to deal with?" she found herself asking, looking at the other woman for a moment before remembering that she was manually piloting the ship and had to pay attention to what was going on. Yet eyes on the sky, she remained as attentive as ever, hoping that Kathryn would be willing to tell her.

[member="Kathryn Foster"]

 

[Kathryn Foster]

''You gotta take it into account that it might fail you one day...'' she stated in a firm but friendly tone. One should never rely on anything in an aircraft. Always be prepared for what to do if the tech fails to follow your orders. Always a plan B.

She might have sounded unintentionally firm all of a sudden. A light chuckle left her as she thought of it. ''God, I'm sounding like one of my old instructors...'' she continued before Scherezade could reply. Kath shaked her head slightly and glanced out of the windshield. She looked back at the young woman who brought up another question that changed the subject a little. Kathy pondered some and bit her lower lip to the question.

''Oh, well... You ever faced off against a TIE silencer before? It's one of the best known fighters of the First Order, and it's pretty much a nightmare to dogfight if you haven't got an equal powerful ship and clocked more than a few training hours to go with it...'' she answered and tried to sound as humble as possible to the subject. She were utterly honest, though. Were the brunette asking for her experience in battle?

It was a good moment to try to make the young woman relax behind the wheel, all while flying manually it might help her to feel the ship and its characteristics better. She took the chance to continue on the small-talk.

''What about you, then? Where do you fly and what do you do for a livin'?'' she asked and looked curiously at Scherezade.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She knew. She knew it would one day fail her. The mere fact that it so far hadn't really was a blessing, and it had been part of her reason to look for someone to teach her. Everything was supposed to be a learning experience, wasn't it?

When Kathryn scolded herself for sounding like her instructors, Scherezade couldn't help but smile. "I get the same thing when I teach people how to wield a blade," she said, hoping to encourage the woman. So far, she was doing just fine. Both of them were alive, the ship hadn't crashed, and she was showing her much more patience than almost anyone else in the Confederacy.

The grin remained on her face as she shook her head. "I've never done space pew pew's," she explained. No, that was never for her. She always let others do that bit while she held on for dear life in the hangar bay or wherever else they put the non-pilots. When she had her own ship, Scherezade preferred to use its stealth mode to get in and out of situations as fast as possible. Her own ship didn't even have active weapons on it.

"That sounds horrible," she said, her voice full of sympathy, "Dying while in ship combat sounds terrifying to me. Not enough control."

Adjusting the yoke just a tiny bit though, Scherezade felt like she was starting to get the hang of it.

"I'm with the Knights Obsidian of the Confederacy of Independent Systems," she smiled, looking to the real pilot, "Combatant. Usually front line on any battlefield. I specialize in uncommon means of mass destruction and melee, both hand to hand and blades. I also have a company that organizes children's birthday parties. Apparently there's really good money in that."

[member="Kathryn Foster"]

 

[Kathryn Foster]

The comment about death in space got Kathy noticable close-bitten. She were close to her feelings around her friends but even if just having met Scherezade, those thoughts were overwhelming. She looked out of the windscreen and zoned out, the faces of her fellow Republic pilots that had vanished in the line of duty against the First Order showed up in the glass. A silent moment passed before she looked back at the young woman.

''Yeah... What control you've got lays in the ship you're piloting. You got to utilize it to it's full capacity. Trust yourself and dare to do what feels right.'' she said on a slightly flitty voice, but tried to keep it together for her student. ''Protocols means next to nothing out there.'' she continued with a shake to her head. In the service of the Republic, she had faced the First Order in more than one occasion, and many of her colleagues had sacrificed themselves for their cause. That was one of the reasons that she had now joined up with a neutral explorer fleet, she needed a break from all of that.

Thankfully, Scherezade's explanation of what she did took the conversation in a completely different direction.

''I like the mass destruction/children's party mix!'' she said with a small and a bit ironic chuckle. ''You got own kids too?'' she continued and gazed upon Scherezade, she would be quite a young mother if so.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"I'm not a very good girl when it comes to following protocol," Scherezade grinned from ear to ear. In truth though, she should not have; her chaotic tendencies had often landed her in trouble that she could've otherwise avoided. Though, if she were honest, it seemed most of the bad stuff that had come of her thinking outside the box was in how people treated her. When it came to the test of results, she always delivered. When you wanted something efficiently handled, she was the person you called up. The higher ups of the Confederacy loved to give her hell for it, even while they reaped the benefits of the way she operated. It was mind boggling.

And then came the question that made her face go paler than it had been a moment ago.

"No," she answered, "I'm too young," came the explanation. The easy explanation. The one in which she didn't have to say that she was pretending to be around eighteen or nineteen while in reality she'd lived for not even two years. The one in which she didn't have to tell the woman next to her that there was only one person she'd considered having children with but he was uninterested in her entirely.

And besides.

"I won't have children," she said quietly, "not before I'm strong enough to protect them from the harshness of this existence. I can't give them a better life when mine sucks so much."

[member="Kathryn Foster"]