stykera | Summer's Ship, Hynerian Space, In Sight of Moya

Entry tags:

Summer's Ship, Hynerian Space, In Sight of Moya - Friday Fandom Time

Stark had been fretting about this trip for days but it was too late for fretting now. Not that had ever stopped him before...

They'd stocked Summer's ship with plenty of chocolate and other snacks to deliver to Chiana and the others. Stark had worried about that and about what clothes they ought to be bringing and if they needed to bring gifts besides food. It was too late now to change anything though. They had taken off from Fandom and gone through a portal to Stark's version of Hynerian space. Both the Royal Planet and Moya were in sight.

"There!" he said, face lighting up in the metaphorical sense rather than the literal one as he pointed to the Leviathan now visible. "She's there and she's beautiful. I should call Pilot but he's probably already seen us. Or Moya sensed us. Perhaps both. I wonder if they're waiting."

He paused, looking over at Summer. "Are you ready?" Sure, Stark was far more likely to not be ready for the next few days but he could still ask.

[For the gently modded un-dibsed ginger flying the pink spaceship, obvs, and NFB for distance]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It can't hurt. They know we're coming and I told them about your ship."

Pink spaceships weren't super common out here for some reason.

"Or I can call on my comms? Just... I'll do that." He dug into his pocket and pulled out the small bit of metal and tapped it. "Pilot? We're here."

"Yes, Stark," came the immediate reply. "We see you. The docking bay is open. You may proceed."

He shouldn't be so nervous but he was practically bouncing in his seat as he watched Summer at the controls.

Pink spaceships weren't common in most universes, really, which was why it was clearly the best and kind of the point.

Summer spared a slightly amused glance over toward all the nervous/excited energy (or whatever it was) radiating off of Stark right now, shook her head, then leaned toward her windshield, squinting toward Moya. Then seemed to remember she had exterior cameras that zoomed and flicked those up to locate exactly where this docking bay even was.

"Got it," she said, adjusted again, and started toward it smoothly while trying to definitely not think of Moya's sentience when it came to easing her sleek little pink rocket into her docking bay, a-hem.

Summer's ship was definitely one of Stark's top 2 favorite ships!

"Very nice," he said approvingly. The nervous energy was a combination of being anxious to see his friends and introduce them to his best and most beneficial friend and of excitement about showing off the ship to Summer and remembering that the last time he'd come home he'd been a complete disaster.

"You're ready? To meet everyone? Rygel isn't here, I don't think, but we'll see him and the others ought to all be here and of course Pilot is always here... sorry. I'm just... anxious?"

"Yooou?!?" Summer asked, drawing it out to really highlight just how shocked and surprised by the news she truly was. "Anxious? Nooooooo. I can't believe that."

But, ship now in park, and with a few switches to get it ready for shut down, she grinned softly, reassuringly, over at Stark. "But IDK, you tell me. Do you think I'm ready?"

At least he was self-aware in his anxiety?

"You're usually ready for almost anything," Stark pointed out with a soft smile. "You'll be fine. I might be. Probably."

He stood, then offered her his hand. "Shall we?"

Chiana was almost certainly hurtling down a hallway en route to the docking bay at this very moment.

You know, if Stark had dropped the usually and the almost, that would have been a perfect answer to Summer's question, but once the expectation was adjusted to factor in Stark levels of confidence, that was actually pretty good! So her smirk was a mostly approving one as she took Stark's hand to pull herself up, too.

"We shall," she agreed.

And honestly? If Chiana wasn't already out there to greet them, Summer was going to be so disappointed.

(Understandable excuses notwithstanding, of course).

Chiana could run fast and she wanted to assure herself that Stark was there and in good condition and that might have sped her up a bit. That and the fact that she thought Summer was pretty drad.

So she was, in fact, waiting in the docking bay, bouncing on her toes, when Stark and Summer emerged.

"You made it!"

And Summer was going to get hugged first. Wow, rude to glowy friends.

It wasn't rudeness; it was just a sign of Chiana's excellent sense of priority.

"We did!" Summer confirmed, hugging Chiana excitedly back. "It was, like, super easy! And it's so good to see you! Also?"

She drew away, out of the hug, and then her eyes flicked to Stark for a moment, before she leaned in toward Chiana with a hand lifted to her ear to whisper, "Totally pretend I'm telling you something really salacious and juicy right now and look at Stark while you do, because he was being all nervous and worried on the trip in, and so I figured we should really make him think he has something to worry about."

And then she pulled back with a bright laugh and a, "So, anyway, where's everyone else?"

Extreme rudeness!

Stark was watching them, grinning and then the grin was replaced with a worried frown when Summer started whispering and Chiana giggled and nodded excitedly.

"Crichton and Aeryn?" he asked, looking around. "And little D'Argo?"

"Little D's getting big!" Chiana said. "They'll show up. Wanna see Pilot?"

The question was directed more at Summer but Stark nodded anyway.

One of the little, round, yellow robots that Summer would notice matched the one in Stark's apartment beeped at them before nudging Stark's foot and moving towards the correct corridor.

The smirk on Summer's face shifted to just a pleased smile as she watched the little yellow robot and then let her eyes drift around to start scoping out Moya's interior (respectfully) as she drifter after the bot.

"So what should I know about Pilot before I meet him? Is that, like, his actual name, or just a title thing?"

Pilots just being named Pilot was about 85% of the pilots Summer had met in her universe, so....

"He's just Pilot," Chiana said, awkwardly throwing an arm over Stark's shoulder as they walked. "Name and title. He's got another name but not one any of us can understand."

"His language is far too complex for any us," Stark added. "So he just goes by Pilot. He's large and purpleish and looks a bit like a crab and he's joined to Moya..." his voice trailed off as he tried to think of what else. "We're going to his den. You'll see."

"Big eyes and lots of arms," Chiana added cheerfully, moving back by Summer. "Gets real annoyed at us for being stupid, sometimes, but he loves us all. Really."

The little robot made a noise that might have been amused before speeding up and zooming through a now-open door.

"Welcome back, Stark," came the voice from inside. Another Space Australian accent. This one very precise, as if the owner was choosing every word with care. "And welcome to Moya, Summer Smith."

"Ohhh, thank you, Pilot!" Summer beamed happily, hand to her chest as if the greeting had been some kind of generous compliment. "It's nice to finally get the chance to be here!"

Stark.

Look, it was hard to find the right time to bring your very best friend (with benefits) home to meet the family!

Stark looked over at Summer fondly, then turned to Pilot.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "It's good to be home again." Yes, he really had accepted he had two homes now. "You and Moya are well? I've missed you since I went back."

"You are always welcome back here," Pilot pointed out a bit...pointedly. "Moya sends her welcome as well."

"Thank you, too, Moya!" Summer called out, not really sure to look when she did. "You're a very lovely ship!"

Was that too pandering? Was that just not how it worked? She hoped if that was the case, she could just pass it off as being adorably naive, because all she knew, in her past experience, you did not want to get on the bad side of a sentient ship.

(You also didn't want to get too far on the good side of one, either, but, anyway...)

"She thanks you," Pilot said after a moment. The gentle humming noise that was the background to life on this sort of living ship seemed to support this. "I think she is lovely as well."

His arms were in near-constant motion, tapping various panels in front of him, but his gaze was on the three people in front of him.

"Stark, the DRDs have prepared your quarters. Unless you prefer to sleep onboard your...ship." Some people thought golds and browns were the only acceptable colors for ships. Those Pilots were wrong.

"Or if you wanna bunk with me," Chiana piped up, smirking at Summer.

Oh, that smirk was absolutely getting a smirk back, and she shrugged a little. "Well," she said blithely, "sounds like we've got some options, then."

"I thought you'd be staying with me," Stark said, looking between the women with concern.

But, of course, he didn't have dibs.

"We both could stay with you," Chiana said sweetly, throwing an arm around Summer now.

"I have no need to be involved in discussions of your sleeping arrangements," Pilot interjected. "The DRDs will show you the way to Stark's quarters."

"They aren't far from mine," Chiana said. "Right Starky?"

"They aren't," Stark said carefully.

When Chiana's arm went around Summer's shoulder, Summer's arm moved easily, companionably around Chiana's waist, and it was just kind of nice, really, that, sure, yeah, they were sort of playing it up a little to give Stark a hard time, but it did feel comfortable and natural and just really nice that, even if they hadn't seen each other since her last visit to the island, it was like barely any time passed at all.

"Well," she said, "we should at least check 'em out and get our stuff moved in from the ship now so we don't have to deal with it later. That way, we can just chill and relax for the rest of the day, right?"

Chiana's usual options for female companionship were former-military current-mom Aeryn and very weird and very old Noranti. She was thrilled to have someone else around. That she genuinely enjoyed Summer's company (and teasing Stark) was an added bonus.

"I can help move stuff," she said. "You bring me anything?"

Stark had promised chocolate.

"And we'll track down Aeryn and John and the little guy." Noranti would just appear. That was how she was. "Have a little welcome to the ship party. And I'll give you a tour!"

"Believe me," Summer assured Chiana with a snort, "you will not be disappointed with what we brought with us. And a little welcome to the ship party is as a good an excuse as any to just dive right into a lot of it, too. After the tour, maybe? I'd love to see more."

"There are a lot of things I'd like to show you," Stark said.

Chiana snorted. "Yeah, I bet."

"We can save some of them for later," Stark continued, trying to ignore her. "We should try and find the others. They could help with the things on the ship? Although we don't need to take everything out yet. Do we? Are there things you want to see, Summer? Specific things. We can do whatever you like, you know."

Within reason!

Summer was just going to keep any and all comments about what she may or may not have been shown so far to herself, for Stark's sake, really, though she smirked a little with her shrug.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Nothing in particular, I guess, I just figured we'd sort of just feel out a vibe and just chill with it for a while. I mean, I just mostly want to see what it's like normally around here, you know?"

Stark would appreciate that discretion!

"All right," he said, nodding and pulling his comms back out of his pocket. "Crichton? Would you meet us in the docking bay? We brought presents..."

"Already on our way, Astro," came the immediate response. "Little D can't wait to see you."

"Right," Stark said, nodding again and turning to Summer and Chiana. "Back to the ship then."

"Astro?" asked Summer, quirking an eyebrow at Stark as they started heading back to the ship.

Look, it was either that, or she focused on the copious amounts of time she was going to be hearing the phrase 'Little D' and having to keep a straight face, apparently, so she figured she went with the more gracious option.

(Rich, really, coming from a woman whose alternate versions named her kids after holidays, food stuff, and anime characters).

"He calls me that, sometimes," Stark said vaguely. "Something from a cartoon? He told me once I looked like AstroBoy? I don't really know." But it was nice to have a nickname.

And Little D was, unfortunately, what the comics had decided to call the poor kid. So undignified.

As they returned to the docking bay they were greeted by a couple and their small child of indeterminate age (somewhere between toddler and preschool, perhaps) who was clearly fascinated by the pink ship.

The woman was watching the boy intently, always alert to possible dangers. The man broke into a grin when he spotted Stark and his companions. "Welcome back, man!"

"Thank you, Crichton," Stark said with an answering smile. "Hello, Aeryn."

"Stark." She glanced over at him with a very brief nod before turning her attention back to her son.

Stark gestured towards his shipmates to properly introduce them, "Summer Smith, meet John Crichton, from Earth. Aeryn Sun. And their son, D'Argo Sun-Crichton."

Unfortunate nickname or not, at least Little D clearly had great taste.

And the fact that Stark did make a from Earth distinction quirked Summer's intrigue a little bit, but something to file away and potentially poke at later, because, let's be honest, the only thing more interesting that space in general was space with variants of Earth to compare her variant to, but let's not just dive right into grilling the poor guy about points of first contact, alternate dimensions, history of invasions, blah blah blah...

So she was just adding a smile to that tilt of her head and a wave of her hand. "Hi. Nice to finally get the chance to meet you guys." She then nodded toward D's clear fascination with the ship. "And if he thinks the outside's interesting, wait until he gets a load of the disco ball in the back."

"This may be the most pink he's seen in his life," Aeryn said dryly. "Is it meant as a distraction? To disorient the enemy?"

D'Argo patted the side of the ship approvingly and turned to his father, arms raised for a pickup.

"You got a disco ball in that thing?" Crichton snorted and grinned as he picked up the boy. "Got a light-up dance floor in the back too? Where'd you get a ship like that, anyway?"

"I've never seen anything quite like it," Aeryn said. "Is it from your Earth? Some other planet?"

Summer grinned eagerly, more than happy to have the topic of conversation revolve entirely around her ship at the moment, and she lightly shook her head as she sorted through the best way to answer the litany of questions.

First, she lightly shook her head. "I got it in another galaxy," she said. "Far, far away. It's a heavily modified VCX-series auxiliary starfighter...a friend and I spruced it up from junk and I had another friend paint it for me so it's a little more on brand, plus, you know...distract, disorient, subvert expectations..." She grinned a little more. "And if definitely leaves an impression on people."

Even literal babies!

These were two adults who were thrilled to have a conversation with a new adult about a new ship, okay?

And maybe they were trying to feel Summer out as well. She was in their home now, with their shipmate.

"Sure as hell leaves an impression," Crichton said. "Whattya think, Aeryn, slap some hot pink paint on your prowler?"

"Absolutely not."

"Maybe we could trick out one of the transport pods," Crichton continued cheerfully. "Racing stripes in pink? Maybe something sparkly?"

Chiana snickered.

"She really does have a disco ball," Stark said. "In the back of the ship. I like it. And I like the pink. It's a good color."

A soft snort from Chiana's direction but Crichton just nodded thoughtfully. "I'm sure you do, buddy. So, y'all got stuff to unload? We taking things to your room, Stark?"

Summer was also pretty thrilled to have a conversation with new adults about ships, too, which lead her to making a note to see about having a look at those pods and especially whatever a prowler ended up being, while also deciding that, yes, she liked this Crichton guy already, and Aeryn, too, although whenever she did say anything, Summer was tempted to squint a little bit at her because there was just something almost familiar about her voice...Maybe if she spoke a little more, Summer could figure out what it was making her brain twitch a little about her voice.

"Pretty much just our stuff, right?" Summer asked, turning her attention to Stark as she fished her keys back out of her pocket. "Everything else is mostly just stuff we brought for you guys from Earth, so, like, might as well take that stuff to your galley or mess hall or rec area or whatever you call it, I don't know your set-up here..."

As she spoke, she pushed the little button on her key fob that made a little 'beep-beep!' to then open up the side hatch to the back for easy access to everything they'd brought, revealing the neat boxes and their personal suitcases, the comfy little seating area she'd made for particularly long trips, Pancakes' elaborate series of cat cubbies and scratching posts and climbing towers, and, of course, the aforementioned disco ball.

It did not, however, reveal all the extra stuff she had down below in the smugglers' panels. She was saving that for a dramatic reveal later, preferably a moment where she'd gotten everyone to a point of 'just when you thought this chick couldn't get any cooler...boom. Smuggler shit.'

"You got a cat in there?" Crichton asked, sounding very excited at the prospect. The closest thing to a pet onboard Moya was the DRDs and while some of them had been trained to do certain things they weren't cuddly. Or soft.
"And you do have the disco ball. Love it. Maybe we can get one of those for the center chamber. Or, Aeryn, one above our bed?"

"Absolutely not," Aeryn said without even looking at him. She was too busy peering inside the ship. "What did you bring in all of these boxes?"

"Presents!" Stark said excitedly. "For all of you." He was already picking up their suitcases. "You'll like it. I promise."

Summer gave Stark a somewhat withering side-ways glance before shaking her head and deciding not to point out that that would probably only make most people suddenly start to question if they'd like it or not, but maybe that was just her? So she focused instead on helping and explaining further.

"It's all just a bunch of stuff from our Earth that we figured you guys might want or need," she said, grabbing a box of her own, too. "Because if we were coming anyway, might as well stock you up with some good stuff. But, no, sorry, I didn't bring Pancakes....that's my cat...this time, but maybe next time I can? She's not the biggest fan of space travel, but she can deal with it."

Although Summer would be keeping an eye out for potential shipmates that might try to eat her. She wasn't about to outright ask, that just seemed a little rude.

Noranti might be tempted to make stew out of poor Pancakes, it was true. Not once she was told not to but if she wasn't given instruction ahead of time...

"Didn't need to bring anything," Crichton said easily as he reached for a box. "And a cat'd disappear real fast in here. Moya's huge. Lots of places for a kitty to hide."

Pancakes might just head to Pilot's den where there was a captive audience with several arms who might be able to provide all the pets she needed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Summer's Ship, Hynerian Space, In Sight of Moya - Friday Fandom Time

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject