nodarkmagic (nodarkmagic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-05 22:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, diana meade, james kirk |
Who: Diana & Jimm
What: Space-diving!
When: Late July
Where: Space and then not-space
Rating/Warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
“It’s perfectly safe.” The shuttle was in orbit over Hong Kong, the rear hatch open with a forcefield keeping them safe. Jim was checking Diana’s suit, while also showing her how to make sure his was safe and secure.
Just your normal, every day exciting morning. He flashed her a grin. “Easy.”
Yes, she did check his suit, forcing her focus on what he was doing so that she could do the same thing and not on how fast her heart was beating. Perfectly safe. Ha. She didn't know why she agreed to this except that Jim had suggested it and promised she wouldn't die. Mostly because Jim had suggested it, though. It was a problem.
She gave him a look when he smiled at her. “If I die, I'm going to haunt you and I promise to be a very annoying ghost.”
Jim was, after all, a terrible influence and he knew it. But that was life! Life was for the living, and Jim liked to live. And if he died, he hoped it was doing something he loved or helping someone else.
“Only if you promise to knock before peeking in the shower.”
“Who said I was going to peek in the shower?” She looked over at him and arched an eyebrow. “Because I was just planning on being really, really annoying. Not peeking at you while you’re naked.” Okay, she was blushing, but she hoped that he wasn’t going to notice. They were in space after all.
“Also if I die, you don’t get a choice in what my ghost self does.”
“Too bad.” Jim shrugged, then guided her over to the door. A forcefield popped into place behind them. “It’s depressuring now. Once all the air is out, the forcefield in front of us will drop, and then we’ll jump out. I’ve latched you onto me, and there’s also a tether in case we become separated. If either of us fails to engage thrusters and the parachute, the suits will automatically do it for us.”
Diana nodded at his words. It was nice to know that they were somehow connected and that the chance for death was seemingly low. She was just going to prepare herself for the dive into space. She really had no idea what to expect because she’d never done anything like this before. She hadn’t even gone skydiving yet. But at least she wasn’t on her own. It was just that she also wanted to be able to say she hadn’t chickened out and been too afraid to do things that she’d never even imagined she might do. “I trust you.” Even if that didn’t stop her heart from racing.
“Close your eyes. On the count of three, we go. One.” And then Jim jumped with her, his laughter ringing through the radio. They floated in zero g for a few moments, the planet stretched out beneath them, impossibly huge. No view screen, no window, just the Earth and the moon rising in the distance and the starfield all around them. Jim turned them, the shuttle coming into view, and then there was the Enterprise hanging majestically, white on black, lights twinkling.
He turned them again, and the Earth looked a little larger, but it still didn’t feel like they were falling.
“YOU SAID THREE!” But they were already going. Her heart raced, but the moment she opened her eyes, all she could see was the Earth. She hoped this wouldn’t end with her burning up and dying. She hoped that trusting Jim was reasonable enough.
And then they turned and she could see the shuttle and the Enterprise. They weren’t moving...not really. It was actually somewhat amazing once she moved past the initial panic. “I can’t believe you. I mean...I can, but at the same time, I am really tempted to shake you.”
“Shake me later,” Jim laughed again. “The scary part is about to come up.” Earth was getting bigger and bigger, and Jim could feel a little bit of gravity kicking in. “Once we break atmosphere, things will … heat up.”
“I hate you so much right now.” She did not feel incredibly calm in that moment. In fact, she felt not very calm. She just tried to remind herself that things were set up to make sure they didn’t die. “You’re not really helping.” She looked down at the Earth below her before looking up at Jim. “Space is a lot less majestic when you’re about to go through the atmosphere and possibly catch fire and die.” The one thing she could say for it, though, is that she wasn’t thinking about anything else that was going on. Nothing else mattered except for what was happening right at that moment.
“Sure you do.” Jim hit a button on his suit, and little thrusters moved them until they were heading head first into the atmosphere. “Relax. Breathe. The shields will protect us, and the suits add additional protections if the shields fail.”
Just that moment, the visors on the suits dimmed to protect their eyes from the brightness of reentry. A little number started counting down in one corner of the HUD. “Three. Two. One.”
A sound not unlike a roaring fire surrounded them. Because they were actually on fire.
They were on fire. They were on fire. She was trying to keep herself relaxed and breath, but she was a little distracted by the fact that they were on fire. Maybe not their bodies, but they were on fire. Even with that, she reached out to grab hold of Jim’s hand because if he was going to laugh at her discomfort, he was going to have to do it while dealing with her crushing his hand.
“You failed to mention the part where we have to go through the atmosphere.”
Jim laughed again. It was exhilarating, what they were doing, and honestly Diana’s alarm was kind of funny, and a little cute. “We’ll level off soon, promise!”
And a few minutes later they were through, the heat fading away and the visors returning to normal. Jim adjusted their angle until they were basically gliding. Or rather, plummeting to their deaths at a more enjoyable angle. “We’re about to pass Hawa’i,” he told her.
Diana was going to remind herself to either hit him or find a spell in her book to use. Nothing actually dangerous, just a little bit annoying. She just had to find something.
Despite the fact that they weren't on fire, Diana still felt her impending doom. “This is not how I pictured the first time I saw Hawaii,” she said, trying to ignore the feeling of falling and the thought in her mind that reminded her this was probably going to happen again, but with skydiving. This was a level of self punishment she'd never reached before. “I kind of expected to be in a plane or on the ground.”
“We can visit it later if you want. A short little vacation for a few days. Soak up some sun, do some surfing, meet some hot locals…” Jim’s smile was evident in his voice, as he spoke casually of vacations while plummeting at terminal velocity.
They rapidly approached North America, and Jim started to adjust flaps and thrusters to slow their descent. “I’m glad your stomach seems pretty iron.”
He’d seen cadets who got sick in space suits before. Not fun.
“Of course you’d want to meet hot locals.” Not that she was saying she wasn’t interested in talking to people, but she wasn’t sure hot locals was her first thought either. Not that they’d been his. “I’ve also never been surfing.” There was a lot of things she hadn’t done in her life. She could cross ‘plummeting to her death from space’ off the list now, however.
“I didn’t actually eat much before this because...well, I’m really not in the mood to throw up. Also I’m pretty sure I was distracted by the near death part of the adventure.” Still, throwing up would have been embarrassing and gross. And her hair really wouldn’t have thanked her for it. Neither would any of the rest of her.
“You’re holding up well.” They were in a safer part of the fall, and he unlatched himself from Diana. A tether still remained, of course, but now they could drift around each other like they were skydiving. Just about then, they sped past a 747. Which meant they were still three times higher than a typical skydive.
“Your compliments won’t make me forget the parts where you laughed at me, you know.” She felt oddly weightless, but she knew she was still plummeting toward the Earth at a speed faster than she really wanted to know. “I still don’t think I’ve forgiven you for the bedazzled vibrator incident.”
“You’ll just have to get me back one day,” Jim said. “And it was funny. I almost didn’t do it but I remembered the look on your face when I mentioned the idea, and then I couldn’t resist.”
It was immature and stupid but it was also funny. Let him live.
“For you! I’m the one that has to look my dad in the eye.” It would probably be funny after more time had passed and her dad had stopped giving her looks across the room. “I’m letting him believe that a girl sent it to me so you don’t get killed. You’re welcome.” Not that she really thought her dad was capable of killing anyone (that would change after more dreams), but still.
“Thanks, I appreciate the not dying thing. Not the way I want to go, murdered by your father.” Jim pulled her close via the tether, and locked them together again. He wrapped his arms around her. “Brace yourself.”
Twin pairs of thrusters fired, realigning their trajectory. The ground rushed up towards them and just when it seemed like it would be too late the chute deployed.
“I figured I’d be nice. We couldn’t almost die multiple times otherwise.” Which she would miss, even if she wasn’t really sure she understood this part of her. “You’d be dead after all.” When Jim pulled her close again, she closed her eyes, trying not to completely tense up. She really wasn’t sure she believed they weren’t going to hit the ground at full speed. But the impending death she expected didn’t come, which was kind of a relief at the end of a very long fall. She’d been jerked upwards instead.
Once the chute deployed, there was a sudden jerking motion. And then they were drifting towards the ground. Jim had deployed them a little higher than he would have normally, mostly to give Diana’s heart a chance to slow down before they landed. “When we land, you’re going to want to run a little to absorb some of the momentum.”
Running. She thought she could manage that. So the moment that they reached the ground, she started running. It seemed a bit kinder to her knees, but she still felt a bit of a jolt. “I have never been happier to be standing on the ground in my entire life.” Even if the weightlessness of space had been amazing in a way. She just preferred the part where she was in the spaceship and not spacediving through the atmosphere. But if she ever did it again...at least she’d know what to expect.
Laughing, Jim removed his helmet, then helped Diana out of hers. “That was exciting, and now you’re one of only two people in this entire world who’ve spacedived. No one else has re-entered the atmosphere outside of a shuttle or capsule.”
For that matter, only a few hundred people had ever been in space!
Diana pulled her hair free, giving Jim a pointed look. “There is probably a reason why so few people try to go through the atmosphere.” Underneath all the fear, there was both more fear and some hint of excitement. She was pretty sure she was leaning toward ‘more fear’ all the same. “But I guess that does make me a little more special than I was yesterday.” Having magic was not incredibly special around here, but she was still working with it. She could do some things, but other things? Things that took real power? She was lost to. She needed the circle. She’d managed to figure out how to light candles without a match, though. It was kind of neat in a way.
“I need coffee.”
“I’ll get you coffee,” Jim promised. He put his arm around her. “And you’ve always been special, Diana. Doesn’t take jumping out of a starship to do that, either. That’s just a bonus.”
Diana gave him a look before bumping him with her elbow. “It’s a side effect of being me, I guess.” She smiled. “But yes. Let’s get coffee and then I guess we’ll go from there.”