This post has the following content warnings:
"Another world," the strangely dressed man says, "and you can never come back. I don't know where; I don't control it. But you can send others on, as will they in turn. The sharing and the sending are one."
There are a hundred things that should go through her head. He's crazy; it's a street performance; it's a con; it's a joke; it's a prank. None of them do.
It's never really a choice.
She takes his hand—
and she's gone.
"No we do not. Ah well, it would be too much to ask for to get an aerospace engineer in our random world-hopping visitor."
"Sorry.
...I have a vague idea of the shape of the cross-section of an airplane wing, but heavier-than-air flight probably isn't workable without petroleum fuels, for energy density. Gasoline and stuff. We get that out of the ground.
I've... heard of biodiesel, but I have no idea how to make it, and you probably want to keep the farmland for food anyway... might be another floatgrass-leavings application, I guess. Still no idea how to actually make it, though."
"Floatgrass leavings aren't good for much because they're mostly inert plant strands. If they had more carbs, we'd make alcohol and we can burn that, if they had oils we could render it but they just don't. Goats and pigs and cows like them okay, chickens don't. Paper still might work though."
"Hm. Inconvenient.
I don't know how the energy density of alcohol compares to gasoline, but... I'd expect that planes would use alcohol as fuel if it was efficient, and I think they don't. Might still be possible, but weight is a big deal for heavier-than-air flight."
"Weight is a big deal for anything around here. We're used to low weight. Heavier-than-air flight might just be a 'no', though. We do use wings for maneuvering and such though."
"Net weight matters, but the theory behind heavy flight is that the right wing shape generates lift if you can maintain airspeed. So you need the wings and the engine and the fuel and everything to all weigh less than what the wings alone can support. A balloon would slow you down, too much drag. I don't think I've ever heard of a heavy plane as big as this ship. Airboats, not airships, if you will."
"And you'd need somewhere to take off from and land... And lots of expensive mechanical parts for light high-performance engines..."
"We're making do. Hmm, what else could be useful... Ooh, do you know how solar panels work?"
"Nnnnot in any detail. I think they involve silicon wafers? Maybe? And they're dark blue or black, with silvery lines – probably thin wires – in a grid sort of shape. I know there's a color threshold for the photoelectric effect, only the bluer frequencies work. That's only of theoretical interest, it works just fine in sunlight, but if that gives a clue to how things work."
"Hm. That's probably not enough to figure it out. Do you know if it's DC - it's probably DC. Hmmmmm. Never mind."
"Probably DC, yeah, but I don't actually know. Sorry.
I do know the photoelectric effect was discovered relatively late in the study of electricity, if that helps."
"Hmmmm... Well, I shouldn't monopolize your time and make you write out everything you remember."
"I don't really remember things in order, anyway. No matter how much I tried to write out, there'd still be something else I'd forgot but that could be brought out with the right question."
"Yeah, that's probably true. Walta's flying the ship for now so I have nothing to do, is all."
"Aha.
...I should wash the dishes, porridge gets gluey and hard to scrub if it's left. I can keep talking, though."
"I should teach you skills. You'll need them. Has Walta shown you how to work the greenhouse?"
"Well if she's planning to do that later, I won't take it away from her. I'll show you some weather and navigation and other ship stuff instead. Won't make a captain of you in a day, but maybe enough that some other ship could take you on."
So Nick helps with the dishes and then teaches her some things. He has books to read from and examples to give by metaphorically dragging her into the ship's innards. This is how to check ballast and lift balance and how to judge wind and this and the other thing...
...she's not gonna remember all of this.
She does at least manage to ask intelligent questions, though.
Nick is not particularly skilled as a teacher. And probably won't notice her not remembering all of it unless she says something. The questions get intelligent answers though!
"Is that—"
As she reaches to point, her hand brushes against Nick's.
There's a... sensation to it. Unfamiliar, but more than that; distinctly other. Like standing at a precipice, tasting the color of midnight, high and deep.
"—did you feel that?"
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
