driftfleet | A Rose by any other name...!

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A Rose by any other name...!

Suddenly, the SS Three Twins and the SS Windrose begin to move on their own... slowly, calmly, they drift to into the same direction, away from the other ships of the fleet. Slowly, they move until they side by side.

Over the two ships' intercom, an old song begins to play. And that is all the warning there is before the engines engage -- full speed ahead.

Like a pair of rockets, the ships torpedo forward. As they move, they start circling around each other, like a synchronized dance. They move with incredible grace and skill, far more masterfully than the average pilot augment. Except, each time that they pass each other, they clearly get closer to one another.

And closer...

And closer...

No matter what buttons the crews press, no matter how much they might panic, nothing is going to stop the inevitable. On the final pass, it becomes clear there's not enough room between them to avoid a collision. Any impact alarms on the bridge are blaring at full blast. Any other ships watching will not have time to attempt any sort of interception.

CRASH!!

As if to shield spectators' eyes from the horrors of ships colliding in space, there's a blinding light upon impact -- and once it gradually fades, the results can be clearly seen by all: There is no wreckage. Nothing is broken. But where there were once two ships... now there's only one.

One ship that is looks completely new, but yet is reminiscent of both the SS Three Twins and the SS Windrose.

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On the bridge, the crews of the SS Three Twins and the SS Windrose arrive, along with the usual pop! of Atroma confetti and ridiculous jingle music upon a successful shuffle. Sitting in the captain's chair is a round cake, just large enough for everyone to have one slice. There's a single candle, and the following message scribbled on top in yellow icing:

"Congratulations - SS Twin Roses!
Happy Fusion!"

... What, did you think you were going to die? Sorry about that.

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I can't say. Never seen a show of the same name.

And no, not at all hospitable for humans. You were around for the moon covered in poison, right?

It's an old one from Earth that ran a long time. It was a western. Which, maybe doesn't mean anything to you under the circumstances. [She doesn't know how much people older than him spoke of earth.]

I was there. It was like that?

You know, there was a desert planet we landed on that I heard some people describe as "western" if the show was like that planet I don't think it would be too far off. [Just add some sandworms, occasional futuristic technology, and a lot more murder!]

And home wasn't poison like that moon was, it's the terraformers, I don't know if you went inside one, but they were designed unsettling familiar to the ones at home. Different power source was the main difference. [He'll leave that topic alone unless she asks more about it. As trying to explain his sisters was never a topic he enjoyed getting into.]

Most people who knew the proper way to care for them and bring out their full potential have either perished or the technology has been so damaged they can't thrive like they could be capable of. If we hadn't have lost both those things then the Plants - our terraformers - would have been able to eventually terraform the planet into a place humans could live.

For now, they're doing all they can to keep producing enough food, water, and basic needs to keep the population we do have going. If we lose those Plants then the planet would be completely uninhabitable for humans.

[When he speaks of the Plants he doesn't have the tone of someone talking of a machine. Instead his tone is one someone may take when discussing someone living. Of course there is the possibility that the affection could be assumed is derived from how important the terraformers are to the planet.]

I think those shows had a desert-ish vibe. Dusty at least.

[She's a nerd for science, but she's also been a bit distant from the places they visit, so she doesn't ask about the terraformers. She'll enjoy a system if there is something to be enjoyed, but for someone who has spent her whole life trying to protect others she's been remarkably uninvolved when people are in trouble. Her last abduction was to a prison that turned out to be virtual reality and they played with people's heads a lot. It was hard—impossible really—to know what was real and what wasn't. And some of that carried over here. She's not sure she's not still in a virtual reality environment and even if she's not she doesn't really believe the people and events they are encountering haven't just been selected for drama by the Atroma. She's not interested in jumping through their hoops. Even if she still pulls in a lot ratings money just from living the life she wants to live. Of course, if someone was in immediate danger in front of her of course she'd act. It's easier to stay away when it's something her augment doesn't suit her for helping with. But right now they aren't talking about the inhabitants of the poisoned moon. They're talking about Vash's world.]

I'm sorry. It must be a rough place if you've lost most of your engineers already. [Unless they were very old to start with, judging from Vash's apparent age she'd think they'd still be around.]

With twin suns my home is very desert. Nothing but actually.

[He shrugs with an easy going smile. Like the fate of his world doesn't bother him when in fact it does.] Well, most were lost during The Fall- ah, a crash that happened when we first arrived. Not to say that home isn't rough, but it's not all bad. The stars at night and all the moons are absolutely breathtaking every night.

Although, I guess that's not so impressive after living in space for this long, huh?

It can still be impressive. I'm still impressed when I see plant life that is growing and healthy. That was less and less common back home. [So more about what they didn't have than what they did, but she wouldn't put down his night sky if that's all he had or even if it wasn't.]

[Sadly, it's hard to find positives on Gunsmoke, but Vash would pretend like it was easy.]

I'm sorry to hear that, but maybe one day it can bounce back a little. [That was the point of Project SEEDs. It wasn't the whole population, just enough to give the Earth a better chance.

~~They hoped.~~]

[Sometimes just the fact that a place is home is something even if that home is the worst. Though she has good memories of home before it was the worst in her case.]

...Maybe someday. [Kurt painted a very doomed picture of the world after her death. But maybe the world will heal itself after all the people are gone and some other race will find it and make a home from their ashes.]

Either way...we're here now.

Here and on the... Twin Roses is what it's called now, right?

That's the name. It's going to take some getting used to. All of it. The crew matters to me a lot more than the ship, but it's still a big change. [Big change to the crew too. It's not like a single new person arriving who they integrate into their ship.]

Yeah, maybe we should check on each of our crews for now. I mean, we're alright, I guess I was kind of hoping with the last ship fusion that happened while I was asleep no one was hurt during it?

[After all, shouldn't they be hurt if it was overly dangerous?]

No one's been hurt. I think pushing more people to interact is probably the goal, not the drama of injuries. Or maybe they just don't want to maintain so many ships.

Probably. Can't be entertaining television after all if nothing ever changes. Or at least, I assume so.

Probably not a lot of television on a developing planet, I guess. Well, I'm sure we'll all have a bonus for this week in our account. Not bad for something you slept through.

None at all on my planet. [He sighs at the idea of sleeping through something so massive.] Lucky me. If there is a big bonus for sleeping though I may just put it towards upgrading the new ship.

Sounds good. We were pretty well upgraded before, but still working on the new ones that opened up. [She always tries to stay on top of that.]

Yeah, I was looking over the new upgrades and saw there were a couple choices for pilots. I've never been a big fan of the augments in general or "upgrading" myself at all. It makes me a bit... uncomfortable for someone to be pulling the strings on my own body.

[Not to mention he's not sure if something might send his powers out of control. That always makes him nervous.]

But I was thinking of taking up one of the offers to upgrade the pilot augment as it could really help the ship out if we're ever attacked again.

No.

[It comes out without much thought or consideration of his position. And he does have a point. After the attack they should be making sure the ship is ready. They need an engineer and a security officer immediately and those upgrades would help, but...]

The description for those talks about improving our reflexes. Us, not just the ship. [And it's a bridge she doesn't want to cross. She doesn't want to make small concessions over her mind and body to them. It's one thing for them to take that agency away and another for her to sign it over and let someone else on her crew sign it over for her. Something she can't stop despite her, "no." Vash or someone else could sign up and pay for it and there'd be nothing she could do except change her augment which is almost as bad or transfer ships.]

[Vash just grins at her firm 'no' to his suggestion. Perhaps even a tad relieved? It's rare to find someone with the same mindset as him on things that sometimes it's refreshing when it happens.]

Alright. I'll won't do it. [It takes that little convincing.] I wasn't exactly comfortable or confident with the idea of someone upgrading me. [His nose turns up a tad at the word upgrading. The idea of artificial enhancing will never sit very well with him. At least when it comes to his own person.]

[She's relieved that he relents so easily because she's sure she would have folded at any resistance. Oh, she's as stubborn as they come, but there is something that feels decidedly selfish in this decision. They could be helping the ship to protect everyone and instead she's protecting herself from their influence—something she's ultimately powerless against anyway.

She nods, looking thankful and maybe just a bit uncertain, hoping that was the best call to make.]

Thanks for understanding. We'll find other ways to fortify the ship.

I'm sure we'll be fine without it! All the ships have been able to keep flying so far after all! [Mostly. After some repairs.]

True enough. But next time there might not be another convenient [too convenient] nearby fleet to bail us out if we get attacked again. [She gets up.] But that is a problem for a day when we did fuse two ships together. I need to go make sure Winn is doing okay with everything.

I'm going to figure out where my real clothes are as my first move.

[And off he will go.]

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A Rose by any other name...!

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