Clara Oswald is going the long way round (alwaysbeenthere) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-15 20:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, clara oswald, james kirk |
Who: Clara and Kirk
What: Hanging out
When: Recently
Where: Planetarium
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Jim had invited Clara to the planetarium. They were supposed to do a show on Novas and he suspected they’d both seen such a phenomona live and in person in their dreams. Hers were still of interest to him, especially has he’d dreamed of time travel. Not just what had occurred after that strange illness, but deliberately going back to the 1960s, where the Enterprise had been an UFO.
He waited outside, hands in his jeans and observing people as they came and went.
Birth of a star? Check. Clara had actually gone with her dad to the ‘Skyrocket’ galaxy to see one here. Death of a star? She’d been to the ends of the known universe and end of time. She’d seen the birth and death of the universe all in one trip while investigating a ‘ghost’. Admittedly in the dreams. But still. Getting to see a show on novae? That was still exciting to her. Mostly because it was something new.
Even if going to see a nova in her TARDIS would be better. Note to self. Put it on the calendar. She had a time machine after all. And it wasn’t like she needed to sleep anymore. Honestly, she was getting to the point where she didn’t feel grounded anyway, even with her job. Maybe she should look into something else, the question of course being what.
But that wasn’t really something she needed to think about right now. Instead, Clara made her way to the planetarium and smiled with a wave as she noticed Jim, jogging up to him. “Hey, hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”
Even if it wasn’t actually standing on a deck watching a Nova live, it was still interesting. Kirk was actually interested in seeing how the knowledge matched up with what he knew from Starfleet Academy and from actual exploration. And doing so with a friend? Even better. Too bad he didn’t have the Enterprise…
Though, well, if one wanted to be grounded, Captain Kirk was probably not the best person to hang out with. Unless they wanted to get grounded via other means, in which case he’d heartily volunteer.
“Not too long, Clara. Kept busy people watching. It’s interesting to see how similar people are now, to the future in my dreams. And how different.”
Clara was pretty sure none of her friends would be good at the grounded thing. Even D’Artagnan. He was maybe the most grounded of them, but really not. But that was the way life was. Then again, there was probably something about no longer being technically alive that made the staying grounded thing all the more complicated. There were things to investigate and adventures to go on. She could afford to be more reckless (not like it had ever stopped her before) and so here she was. Wondering if she really could just keep a normal teaching job when she felt less and less connected to this Earth.
Perhaps it wasn’t just her dad who needed the check ins and reminders.
“Good to hear. Lost track of the time. Which okay shouldn’t be so easy with a time machine, but you know. Maybe it makes it easier.” Oh great, she was even sounding like her dad. “Either way… but right? It’s rather fascinating how things both do and do not change regardless of what time you’re in.”
Jim grinned at her. “If I had a time machine, it would be really easy to get lost, I think. You’d never remember what time you were supposed to be in.” He gestured towards the entrance. “After you. And I finally have a chance to talk time travel. We took the Enterprise back to the 60s in one of my dreams recently. Ended up being a UFO.”
Well at least her explanation of losing track of time wasn’t met with confusion or thinking that was absurd. “Oh I know. My dad does it all the time, both here and the dreams.” Go fetch me coffee… come back three weeks later and not even realize it. That had been fun. Mostly Clara had been annoyed because she’d been in Glasgow and had to get back to London. On her own. Without money initially. Such was life with the Doctor. Walking into the planetarium, Clara looked back over her shoulder, “Did you? How exciting!”
Just because time travel was normal for her didn’t mean that it still wasn’t exciting for when others go to.
“Oh yes. We accidentally blew up a fighter jet. Oh, we fixed things eventually but it was tense for a little while there.” Especially when they’d discovered that pilot’s son would play a pivotal role on the first manned mission to Saturn. It had gotten dicey. “I think it was an attempt to use the slingshot technique we discovered to explore history as well as space, but after that incident I’m probably going to recommend we reserve it for only the most necessary missions.”
Accidentally blowing up a fighter jet? Yeah, that was awkward and Clara cringed. “That’s good… Time isn’t always locked and that sort of change could be quite devastating to the future.” Fun time learning that when arriving at random in the middle of the Cold War and risking a nuclear explosion that could have started WWIII or… just destroyed the planet despite what the history books said. “Probably a good idea, yeah.”
“Something tells me I’ll find out. I just hope not too disastrously.” Jim shrugged a little, holding the door for Clara and then leading her through the planetarium. “I believe the Nova presentation is in here.”
“Oh I’m sure. That does tend to be the way of it.” Because they could never figure those things out before something went wrong. Of course, that was true for both the dreams and real life. Though okay, the dreams might as well be real life in the way they could affect a person. “Brilliant! I’m looking forward to this!” Grinning up at Jim, Clara ducked into where the presentation was and found a couple of seats for them.
Jim followed her in, grinning at her excitement. They were like nascent space bros, and he was quite happy with that development. “Good choice, we should be able to see just about everything from here.”
The ceiling was a little domed, with constellations and stars glowing softly. He hoped there’d be a display up there.
The more people who could appreciate space travel from the dreams, the better. She had the shared dreams with her dad, but given her ending it wasn’t like she’d get to have anymore of those. And even knowing that he would dream more, she wouldn’t and that was sometimes hard to swallow. Then there was Martha which was brilliant. But to Clara? The more the merrier.
If there wasn’t a display on the dome, Clara would be disappointed.
“Right? I’m excited to see what all they show.”
“There needs to be at least a little cheap CGI. But I believe they’ve gotten a few big donations lately, so I hope they’ve put that to good use.” Some people might think flashy displays were a waste of money. But there was value in educating people, and value in entertaining them at the same time.
“I demand my money back if there isn’t.” Because cheap CGI was the norm in these presentations. “I’m sure they will though.” After all, the better made a presentation, the better the press and more people would then come and support the planetarium. As she was (still) a teacher, Clara never underestimated the benefit of educating through entertainment. It stuck better.
“At the very least the intro should be a disembodied voice, while the lights flash and do that…” Jim waved his hand. “Spinning around… thing.”
He was sure she’d know what he was talking about.
Laughing some, Clara nodded. “Yes, I’m sure it that at least will be what happens.” Because it was tradition for these sorts of things. And universal. That same sort of introduction happened at planetariums in the UK as well as the US. To not happen? Clara would worry she was in some alternate reality which, okay, Orange County, one could never be sure.
Jim didn’t have a goatee, they were probably safe. And true to form and much to his delight, the cheesy music and slightly echoey voice started the presentation, as the lights whirled around above their heads. On a screen in front of them, cheesy CGI depicting a comet traveling through the solar system acted as the introduction. Jim put a hand on his chest, and said dramatically. “I just feel… so blessed right now.”
Laughing some, Clara placed the back of her hand to her forehead, as if feeling swoon. “Be still my heart, it is everything I would want in such a presentation.” Because Clara played off those she was talking with and it was just what they wanted for the beginning of such a presentation. Yes, she was interested to see what it would show. But the introduction was clearly quite important.
He laughed too, resting his arms on the arm rest and leaning back in his seat. “It’s almost like we’re actually there. In space.” The intro turned out to be the cheesiest part. The actual presentation was well made, and there was clever use of the dome itself. Jim wondered if they’d actually ‘blow up’.
“Almost.” Because while it definitely did have that feel to it, there was nothing like traveling in space. Really being there, on the Enterprise (which admittedly she didn’t know that one) or in the TARDIS. Either TARDIS really. Add in Clara’s perchance for reckless and how she had quite literally hung out of it once to create a map of sorts with the sonic sunglasses without a care in the world. Either way though. It was almost like you were there, but not quite.
Still, the dome added to the effect quite nicely, having it mostly all around as if being immersed in space.
“This really isn’t that bad,” He whispered, pointing at something. “Up to date on the science. They aren’t exaggerating all that much.” He’d attended one on the solar system once, where they tried to demonstrate planet size. It hadn’t really been that successful.
Still, this did make him long for the stars, for really seeing them out the viewport or the observation deck.
Looking to where Jim pointed, Clara nodded in agreement. She was impressed. These things could be rather hit or miss. Even before she had started traveling through space in her dreams and then here when the mood struck, she had known that they weren’t always up to date. So the fact that it was? Definitely nice. But they did have the money.
There was something about watching space above that made Clara feel the strong urge to go into space. So after time had passed and the lights rose, Clara just grinned as she looked at her partner in crime.
“So, wanna go to space?”
It was a good show, and Jim was impressed too. But he got pulled out it if, like the scratching of a record, and snapped his head in her direction. “Are you serious?”
That was always a good reaction, which just caused Clara to grin and nod.
“I have my TARDIS here, it showed up in pieces but is completely functional now. So we can definitely go to space if you want.”
And who wouldn’t after watching the presentation?
Jim burst into a huge grin, sitting up straighter. “You had me at “so”, Clara.” Jim really was easy to please, at least in this circumstance.
As was Clara. She could be complicated, anyone could. But getting the chance to show off her TARDIS? Especially to someone who hadn’t been in one before? All the better. “Brilliant!”
With that, it was off to where her TARDIS was so that they could thus go to space.