Private Lost in the Circuits

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra caught the tension beneath Starlin's laughter and immediately slowed down. She had spent so much of her life around cockpits that the controls had become second nature, and it was easy to forget just how overwhelming the collection of switches, displays, gauges, and warning indicators must look to someone who had barely encountered this sort of technology before. "One at a time," she agreed, smiling reassuringly. "Sorry. I got ahead of myself. You don't need to memorize the entire cockpit in one sitting."

When he identified the yoke, she nodded. "Right. That's your yoke." She leaned beside him, pointing toward it without taking control away from him. "Think of it as telling the ship which way you want its nose pointed. You don't have to worry about every kind of movement yet. For now, remember that this is what you'll have your hands on when you're actually steering." His next choice earned another approving nod when he found the speed indicator. "That's your speed. And yes, that's the throttle." She tapped beside it. "Forward for more power, back for less. You found all three. It doesn't matter that you had to search for them. That's why we're doing this while the ship isn't moving."

Rather than throwing another series of questions at him, Lyra let him sit with those controls for a moment. "Let's make this easier. Forget everything else on the panel for now." She pointed to the yoke first, then the throttle, and finally the speed display. "Direction, power, speed. Those three belong together in your head. You tell the ship where to go with this, how much power you want with this, and this tells you how fast that decision is making you move. We can add the other instruments once those don't feel like they're hiding from you anymore."

She straightened slightly and looked across the crowded cockpit, realizing there was another way she could make this less intimidating after she left. "Actually, I can make you a diagram if you want." She gestured broadly toward the controls. "A picture of your cockpit with the important controls labeled. Yoke, throttle, comms, navigation, shields, engines, distress beacon, the displays you need to watch. Nothing you don't need yet. You could keep it here and use it until you stop having to think about where everything is."

Her smile turned a little playful. "And before you worry that needing one means you're bad at this, it doesn't. Pilots use checklists. Mechanics use diagrams. I've been around ships my entire life, and I still look things up when I'm working on something unfamiliar." She rested a hand against the back of the pilot's seat and nodded toward the yoke. "So we're going to go as slowly as you need. Ask me the same question ten times if that's what it takes. I'd much rather explain something again here than have you sitting alone in space someday afraid to admit you didn't understand it."

Lyra waited a moment before continuing, giving him the chance to settle again rather than immediately piling on another lesson. "When you're ready, we'll add one more thing. Just one." She pointed toward the engine-status display. "We'll learn how to tell whether your engines are happy. Then you can show me these four again, and we'll keep building from there."

Starlin Dinn

 

[Starlin Dinn]

When she slowed them down to more of a crawl, Starlin let out a short exhale of relief. "Thank you" he said, "I'm sorry, it's just... a lot. I know you probably have more important things to tend to. I appreciate you, I really do."​

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He set his hands back to the yoke and shifted it ever so slightly. Not enough to move the ship, though it was grounded and wouldn't move anyway, just enough to get a feel for it. "Its nose?" he said. "So it controls just the front end, and the rest moves with it? Not the center of mass?" That would be very important to remember.​

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Relieved to have found all three, he sat back in the seat, hands back at his side, and looked up at Lyra as she loomed over the side of the seat. "Direction, power, speed" he echoed. Then he smiled.​

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"A diagram would be wonderful" he agreed, "if it's not too much work, of course."​

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He drew a long breath, exhaled again to calm and quieten his mind, then brought his hands back to the controls. "Yoke, throttle, speed gauge" he whispered to himself. "Direction, power, speed."​

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Then he nodded. "Okay, I think I'm ready for checking the engines."​

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They would go on like that for some time, Lyra introducing something new and Starlin committing it to memory before moving on. Slowly but surely he became more comfortable with the sight and touch of the cockpit's panels and controls, and as the afternoon dragged on he felt himself becoming distracted by his aching stomach.​

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"Have you eaten?" he asked, "beside the biscuit I mean. If I don't pause to eat, I'm not going to remember any of this later."​

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Lyra Ventor ​

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra smiled when Starlin questioned her description of the ship's nose, pleased that he was doing more than simply memorizing the words she gave him. "The whole ship moves," she clarified. "I'm using the nose as an easy reference for orientation. You're changing the attitude of the ship around its center of mass. If you pitch up, the nose rises while the rest of the ship rotates with it. Same idea with yaw and roll." She kept the explanation there rather than burying him beneath more terminology. He'd understood enough to ask the right question, and that mattered more to her than whether he could recite everything perfectly.

From there, Lyra kept her promise and slowed the lesson down. Engine status came next, followed only when Starlin seemed comfortable with communications, shields, navigation, and the handful of warning indicators she considered essential. She repeated herself whenever he needed it and occasionally had him show her something they'd covered earlier before adding anything new. More importantly, she watched how he approached the controls. The uncertainty never completely disappeared, but neither did his willingness to try. By the time the afternoon had worn on, he was finding several of the controls without having to search the entire cockpit first.

She had also kept her promise about the diagram. While Starlin practiced, Lyra used her diagnostic unit to put together a simplified image of the cockpit, stripping away anything he didn't need yet and labeling the essentials they'd covered. Direction, throttle, speed, engine status, communications, shields, navigation, and the distress beacon were all clearly marked, with a few short reminders beside the controls most likely to matter in an emergency. Once she was satisfied with it, she transferred a copy somewhere he could easily access it from the cockpit. "There. Your emergency guide to making Pluto go where you actually want him to go." She smiled. "And before you ask, no, making it wasn't too much work."

Starlin's question about food made Lyra realize just how much of the afternoon had disappeared while they'd been working. "No, I haven't," she admitted. "And you're right. We've reached the point where anything else I tell you is probably going to push something useful out of your head." She gathered up her diagnostic equipment, though she didn't pack it away entirely. There was no urgency now that Pluto was functioning properly, and Starlin had absorbed more than enough for his first lesson.

"Come on. You're on my homeworld, and I'm not letting you survive on whatever shelf-stable supplies have been sitting aboard this ship." She nodded toward the way out with an easy smile. "There's a place I like not far from here. We'll get something to eat, give your brain a chance to recover, and you can tell me more about Mercuitie without having to remember which button keeps you from becoming stranded in space."

Before moving away, Lyra glanced back toward the cockpit and then at Starlin. "You did well, by the way. You asked when something didn't make sense, you remembered more each time we went back over it, and you weren't just guessing to make me think you understood." Her smile warmed. "That's exactly how you learn this. The rest is practice." With that, she gestured for him to follow. "Now let's get you fed."

Starlin Dinn

 

[Starlin Dinn]

By the time the break for food began, Starlin's head was throbbing with the weight of so much new knowledge. It felt like he had just crammed for a test he had no clue he would be taking, and his worry was that he would forget a lot of it the moment the adrenaline wore off. He was grateful that Lyra agreed to stop there, rubbing his forehead several times over as he settled back in the pilot's seat and surveyed the controls and the info-sheet that was up on the screen.​

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"There's a lot to it, huh?" he said, "Be honest, have I even scratched the surface?"​

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He pushed himself out of his chair and followed her from the cockpit, bringing... absolutely nothing with himself. Starlin owned precisely what he wore, and anything else in this place had come with the discovery of the ship.​

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"I don't have any way to pay for anything just yet" he said, frowning; Pluto had already transferred Lyra anple credits for her efforts, but Starlin knew nothing about that nor how to access those credits his Father had stored away for him. "I wasn't exactly prepped for travel when I found myself trapped with ole Pluto there."​

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He warned her of this before they even stepped foot near the boarding ramp, knowing better than to surprise someone with I left my wallet at home once everything had already been ordered and devoured. "I can make us something here?"​

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Starlin was glowing from her praise, but he tried not to let it get to his head. There was still a lot for him to do remaining.​

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Lyra Ventor ​

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra glanced back toward the cockpit when Starlin asked how much he'd actually learned, and a sympathetic smile crossed her face. "You want the honest answer?" She waited just long enough to make it sound ominous before relenting. "You've scratched the surface." Her expression softened immediately. "But that's all you were supposed to do today. You know what the important controls are, where to find them, and what they do. Nobody sits down in a cockpit for the first time and walks away a pilot a few hours later. The rest comes from doing it until you stop having to consciously remember every single step."

His admission that he had no credits stopped her before they reached the boarding ramp. For a moment she simply looked at him, then shook her head when he offered to make something aboard instead. "Starlin, I get enough shelf-stable food in my life." Between long flights, repairs, and everything else that could keep her aboard a ship longer than intended, she had eaten more than her fair share of meals designed primarily around the principle of being technically edible for several years. "Live a little. I'll take you to my favorite place. My treat."

She started toward the ramp again before another possibility occurred to her. "Or we can go see my parents, and Mom can make us something. Fair warning, though, that option comes with my parents." A laugh slipped into her voice as she glanced back at him. "Dad will probably want to hear about your ship, Mom will probably have questions, and there's a very good chance neither of them will let you leave hungry once they discover you've been living on whatever was stocked aboard here."

Lyra gestured between the two possibilities. "So, your choice. Favorite place and I buy, or home-cooked food and you get subjected to the Ventors." She smiled when she noticed how seriously he still seemed to be taking everything she'd taught him. "And stop worrying about paying me back for lunch. You can do that someday by successfully flying somewhere without crashing into anything."

She paused at the ramp, waiting for him rather than deciding for him. "Food first. Flying later. Your brain has suffered enough for one afternoon."

Starlin Dinn

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"Yep." Honesty was always the best thing, after all. Her response made him groan, though a smile remained upon his lips throughout. "I hope I figure it out, or that at least Pluto will continue to cooperate once you're gone. Thank you, by the way, you're an amazing teacher."​

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It was clear that the last thing the woman wanted was to eat something found onboard a ship, that had been sat there for who knew how long. His cheeks burned, but he slowly nodded his head in understanding. "I'm sorry I don't have anything else to offer" he said sincerely.​

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When the next option was given Starlin watched the change in Lyra, and his smile widened.​

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"Yeah?" he said. "Something home cooked? Will they mind..?"​

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It sounded nice, he had missed being cooked for. Real food... the thought left his stomach growling.​

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Lyra Ventor ​

 

[Lyra Ventor]

"You've definitely only scratched the surface," Lyra admitted with a sympathetic smile. She wasn't about to lie to him when he had specifically asked her not to, but neither did she want Starlin walking away thinking the afternoon had accomplished nothing. "But you scratched the important part of it. You know enough now that Pluto isn't just a wall of mysterious controls and flashing lights, and you've got the guide if you forget something. Next time we can actually practice instead of me pouring half a pilot's manual into your head." His compliment caught her a little more off guard, and her smile warmed. "And thank you. I don't know if I'd go as far as amazing, but I'll take it."

The apology about food earned an immediate shake of her head. "Hey, you don't have anything to apologize for. You weren't exactly planning this trip." She certainly wasn't offended that he couldn't pay for a meal, particularly when Starlin had arrived in the wider galaxy with little more than the clothes he was wearing and a ship he hadn't even known how to control. The fact that he'd warned her before they left instead of letting the problem appear afterward said considerably more to Lyra than whether he had credits in his pocket.

His interest in something home-cooked made her grin, especially when his stomach offered its own opinion. "Oh, they won't mind. You won't be the first stray I've brought home." She let that sit for precisely a heartbeat before laughing and raising her hands. "No offense intended. I'm not actually calling you a stray." Although, considering he'd unexpectedly found himself lost in the galaxy aboard an ancient ship and wound up on Commenor needing help, she couldn't entirely deny the comparison.

"My mom will be home for sure. I'm not sure about Dad. He might be out working." Lyra started toward the ramp again, leaving the choice entirely settled now that Starlin had clearly brightened at the idea. "But Mom won't care that I didn't warn her, and she'll definitely feed you. Probably more than you can actually eat once she hears you've been living off whatever Pluto had stored aboard." She glanced back at him with another smile. "Come on. Let's get you some real food."

Starlin Dinn

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Starlin did not need to be told twice, not when it came to food. He followed her down the ramp, casting one last cautionary glance over his shoulder toward the cockpit and the droid within it, before another thought crossed his mind.​

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"Say, Lyra, how do I lock this thing?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, to make sure nobody just comes onboard and takes it away?" A slight frown played over his expression. "It's kinda all I've got right now." He could not risk losing it and never finding his way back home again.​

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For now he supposed it was safe enough, it was housed within a vast indoor space, unbeknownst to him a starport, so with any luck someone would notice if another tried to enter.​

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Then again, how would they know they didn't own it?​

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Questions, questions, so many worrying questions.​

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Lyra Ventor ​

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra had made it several steps from the ramp before Starlin's question brought her to a stop. She glanced back at the Jellyfish-class corvette, then at him, and immediately understood the concern behind it. The ship wasn't simply transportation for Starlin. Right now, it was practically everything he owned and, more importantly, his only potential connection to wherever Mercuitie actually was. "That's actually a very good question, and probably something I should've covered before we walked away from it."

She stepped back toward the ramp rather than expecting him to leave the ship unsecured while they went to eat. "Most ships have some form of access security. Since Pluto recognizes you as the owner now, the easiest option should be telling him to close and secure the ship behind us and only open it again for you." She gestured toward the corvette. "You can authorize somebody else if you want them aboard, but otherwise Pluto shouldn't lower the ramp or unlock an exterior hatch just because somebody asks nicely." Considering how thoroughly Arcturus had locked Starlin out of the flight controls, Lyra suspected security hadn't been completely neglected either.

"Go ahead and tell Pluto you want the ship secured once we're outside, with access restricted to you unless you personally authorize someone else." She smiled, leaving the actual command to Starlin. This was his ship, and learning to give Pluto instructions was every bit as important as learning what the controls did. "Then when we get back, you can tell him to let us in. If he doesn't cooperate, we'll figure out exactly what security protocols your father left behind and fix those too."

Lyra waited beside him rather than continuing toward the starport. "And you don't ever have to feel silly asking me something like that. If you're about to walk away from the only ship you've got and suddenly wonder whether somebody can steal it, that's exactly the sort of question you should ask before we leave." She glanced back toward the ship once more before looking at Starlin. "Make sure you're comfortable that it's secure, and then we'll go."

Starlin Dinn

 

[Starlin Dinn]

He looked relieved to know she had an answer, and in the aftermath Starlin hurried back up the ramp. "Be right back" he called over his shoulder, with a bright smile.​

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The lad wasn't gone long, just long enough to give Pluto his instructions and ensure he understood, then he was reappearing at the top of the ramp.​

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"Okay" he said, "All set, no more questions, I promise."​

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Once they were at the bottom of the ramp he called back up toward the droid. "Lock the ramp, Pluto!" He looked so incredibly proud of himself when the droid complied.​

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"So cool" he whispered, before heading off in the direction Lyra had previously been headed.​

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"So what is this place?" he asked, "Where is this place? I know you already said but... I was a little preoccupied; sorry."​

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Lyra Ventor ​

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra waited at the bottom of the ramp while Starlin hurried back aboard, smiling to herself at how quickly he'd gone from worrying that someone might simply walk away with his ship to confidently giving Pluto instructions. When the ramp finally began to close at his command, she caught the unmistakable pride on his face and couldn't help sharing some of it. It was a small thing compared to everything she'd spent the afternoon teaching him, but being able to tell his own ship to lock itself and actually have it listen seemed to mean considerably more.

"See? You're getting the hang of this already." She started walking again when he joined her, heading through the starport at an easy pace. His promise about having no more questions earned an immediate shake of her head. "Nope. Don't promise me that. Ask all the questions you have." She glanced sideways at him with a smile. "You ended up somewhere completely unfamiliar without planning for any of it. I'd be considerably more worried if you didn't have questions."

His next one was easy enough, at least. "This is Commenor. That's the planet, not just the city." She gestured loosely around them as they continued on. "We're sort of near the Core, but not entirely. Commenor sits outside the Core Worlds themselves, so you're close to the more heavily traveled parts of the galaxy without actually being right in the middle of them." She wasn't going to bury him beneath sectors, hyperlanes, and galactic geography when he'd already admitted his head was full from the flying lesson.

"And don't apologize for forgetting. I gave you enough information today to make my head hurt, and I already knew it." Lyra laughed softly, then looked toward him as they walked. "If you forget where we are again, ask again. Same goes for anything else you don't understand. I promise I'm not keeping count." She paused for a beat before adding with a grin, "Besides, you've got until we reach my parents' place to think of several dozen more."

Starlin Dinn

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Oh he was proud; proud, and excited, and finally feeling like he had some semblance of control over his life again, rather than merely drifting on through limbo.​

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"I might have a lot and a lot of questions though, Lyra" he warned with a grin, "Then we'll be drowned in the back and forth of it. Drowned, I say!" He had a little skip in his step, not too dissimilar from the kind his beloved Uncle often had when he was in his more carefree mood, and as they made their way out of the starport and into the city proper that didn't change.​

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He turned his face toward the sun, basking in its warmth after so long in the cold shell of the jellyship, and let out the biggest sigh of relief known to man.​

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"Commenor" he echoed, before looking around. Beyond the city itself, a whole world spread. Mountains in the distance caught his attention more so than anything else, he looked on almost longingly. "It's very pretty" he said, "I've only ever really known the desert. I think we lived in a mountain when I was much, much younger, when I was still with my mum and dad, but I don't really remember it."​

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Mum and dad, foreign words on his tongue to be sure. The closest he had used in recent years was Papa, said to Theryn Hearthfire when no one else could hear. His uncles were the only parents he needed.​

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"Core worlds, are they the main worlds or are they centralized?"​

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Lyra Ventor ​

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Starlin's enthusiasm proved remarkably contagious. Lyra laughed at his warning, and by the time they had left the starport, she found herself matching some of the energy in his step. "Then we'll drown," she declared with suitable gravity. "But at least you'll know considerably more about the galaxy by the time we go under." Watching him emerge into the sunlight made familiar Commenor feel a little different to her, too. She had grown up with these mountains on the horizon and barely thought about them most days, but Starlin looked at everything as though he'd been handed an entirely new galaxy to explore.

His mention of his parents drew her attention briefly, though she didn't press when he moved on. Instead, she smiled when he called her homeworld pretty. "I suppose I forget that sometimes. I've seen it my whole life." She glanced toward the distant mountains he'd been studying. "If you're used to desert, you're going to discover there are a lot of very different worlds out there."

His question about the Core had Lyra reaching for her datapad as they walked. "Centralized, mostly. Here, this will make more sense if you can actually see it." She brought up a flat galactic map and enlarged it between them, showing him the broad regions marked across the spiral. "This is the Core." She indicated the region around the Galactic Center, then traced outward through the Colonies, Inner Rim, Expansion Region, Mid Rim, and Outer Rim. "The names mostly describe where regions sit as you move outward. It gets more complicated than that, because apparently nobody in galactic history believed maps should remain simple."

She shifted the display so he could see Commenor's position relative to everything she'd just shown him. "And we're here. It should give you a better idea of where you've ended up." Lyra glanced from the map to Starlin, grinning. "Go ahead. You threatened me with a lot and a lot of questions. I'm waiting."

Starlin Dinn