interfaces.
"If you're done playing..."
Jason looked over at Deetz sheepishly. "Just playing a hunch," he said.
"Ah. Well, if you're done we can lift off and get out of here. Once we're in flight please try to control your hunches; I'd rather not have one of them activate the self-destruct." Deetz's hands flew over the controls and a deep, steady hum started building in volume and pitch.
"This thing actually has a self-destruct?"
"No."
Deetz rested his hands on two dimly glowing hemispheres on either side of his seat, the blue light shining weakly between his fingers. While Jason couldn't exactly make out the motions the synth made, it was obvious these were the manual flight controls when the ground dropped away. He quickly gave up trying to decipher how the controls actually worked, being a far cry from the familiar stick and rudder, and enjoyed the view as Mars slid underneath them at an increasingly fast rate. Deetz was speaking out loud in that same alien dialect he used when Jason first stormed the bridge, obviously talking to the ship. As he spoke he could hear and feel changes in its configuration; some solid thumps seemed to be the landing gear coming up and locking and the pitch of that oppressive whine seemed to be directly related to their speed. "Want to see something incredible?" Deetz was now looking over at him,
How do you say no to that? "Of course." He would come to regret those words immensely. Deetz sharply spoke out a single word. The lights on the bridge dimmed instantly and a whole new set of displays came up in front of Jason. Before he could ask if the lighting change was the incredible thing he was waiting for, a hearty "boom" resounded from somewhere aft of the bridge and the ship leapt forward with enough ferocity to press him back in the seat despite the artificial gravity. Deetz made a series of exaggerated motions with the controls and the ship swung wildly until it was pointing nose down and plunging back towards the Martian surface. He leveled out a split second before Jason would have screamed in alarm, but there would be plenty of time for that later. They shot over the edge of the Valles Marineris trench and banked hard to the right while descending into the enormous chasm. Despite the fact that the Martian geological feature dwarfed the Grand Canyon on Earth, the speed at which the ship was rocketing into it made it seem no larger than a drainage ditch. The canyon walls rose up until they completely blocked the view of the sky through the canopy, and Deetz was still accelerating and still in a dive, heading for the bottom.
For the second time in as many minutes, the ship leveled out deep within the trench just as Jason's muscles clenched up and an alarmed yelp would have escaped his lips. The velocity at which they were powering up the canyon at was stunning, Jason wished he could understand the scrolling numbers and indicators in front of him so he could know just how fast they were moving. Apparently that wasn't the extent of the incredible something that Deetz had promised. At another spoken command from the synth and a few hand movements on the controls an immense roar issued forth from the engines and Jason was planted hard back into his seat. The ship's speed increased to what could only be described as suicidal as they thundered along the floor of the canyon kicking up a huge trailing plume of dust. Deetz had a wide, maniacal smile on his metallic face as he piloted the ship in a terrain-hugging course that brought them perilously close to the rises along either side. Jason had gotten an "incentive ride" in an F-16 fighter jet during his time in the service, but it didn't compare to the thrill/terror of blasting along the alien landscape in an equally alien, and incredibly powerful, spaceship.
After ninety
"If you're done playing..."
Jason looked over at Deetz sheepishly. "Just playing a hunch," he said.
"Ah. Well, if you're done we can lift off and get out of here. Once we're in flight please try to control your hunches; I'd rather not have one of them activate the self-destruct." Deetz's hands flew over the controls and a deep, steady hum started building in volume and pitch.
"This thing actually has a self-destruct?"
"No."
Deetz rested his hands on two dimly glowing hemispheres on either side of his seat, the blue light shining weakly between his fingers. While Jason couldn't exactly make out the motions the synth made, it was obvious these were the manual flight controls when the ground dropped away. He quickly gave up trying to decipher how the controls actually worked, being a far cry from the familiar stick and rudder, and enjoyed the view as Mars slid underneath them at an increasingly fast rate. Deetz was speaking out loud in that same alien dialect he used when Jason first stormed the bridge, obviously talking to the ship. As he spoke he could hear and feel changes in its configuration; some solid thumps seemed to be the landing gear coming up and locking and the pitch of that oppressive whine seemed to be directly related to their speed. "Want to see something incredible?" Deetz was now looking over at him,
How do you say no to that? "Of course." He would come to regret those words immensely. Deetz sharply spoke out a single word. The lights on the bridge dimmed instantly and a whole new set of displays came up in front of Jason. Before he could ask if the lighting change was the incredible thing he was waiting for, a hearty "boom" resounded from somewhere aft of the bridge and the ship leapt forward with enough ferocity to press him back in the seat despite the artificial gravity. Deetz made a series of exaggerated motions with the controls and the ship swung wildly until it was pointing nose down and plunging back towards the Martian surface. He leveled out a split second before Jason would have screamed in alarm, but there would be plenty of time for that later. They shot over the edge of the Valles Marineris trench and banked hard to the right while descending into the enormous chasm. Despite the fact that the Martian geological feature dwarfed the Grand Canyon on Earth, the speed at which the ship was rocketing into it made it seem no larger than a drainage ditch. The canyon walls rose up until they completely blocked the view of the sky through the canopy, and Deetz was still accelerating and still in a dive, heading for the bottom.
For the second time in as many minutes, the ship leveled out deep within the trench just as Jason's muscles clenched up and an alarmed yelp would have escaped his lips. The velocity at which they were powering up the canyon at was stunning, Jason wished he could understand the scrolling numbers and indicators in front of him so he could know just how fast they were moving. Apparently that wasn't the extent of the incredible something that Deetz had promised. At another spoken command from the synth and a few hand movements on the controls an immense roar issued forth from the engines and Jason was planted hard back into his seat. The ship's speed increased to what could only be described as suicidal as they thundered along the floor of the canyon kicking up a huge trailing plume of dust. Deetz had a wide, maniacal smile on his metallic face as he piloted the ship in a terrain-hugging course that brought them perilously close to the rises along either side. Jason had gotten an "incentive ride" in an F-16 fighter jet during his time in the service, but it didn't compare to the thrill/terror of blasting along the alien landscape in an equally alien, and incredibly powerful, spaceship.
After ninety
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