[color=00AEFF]“Any of the civvies. Most of them know nothing about the ship and many probably have a very basic understanding of human physiology. Throw in increased rations for every day they’re translating until Wodan has enough data for a working translation program and we’ll even get volunteers. We don't need an ambassador yet, just a walking dictionary.”[/color] At least she assumed Wodan was working on that. As soon as they had a library of words and grammar rules, using headsets and wristpads to translate outgoing and incoming words between two languages wasn’t difficult.
[color=00AEFF]“And it’s not just your FTL knowledge. Teach them basic sanitation, and suddenly one kingdom has far less disease, therefore far fewer dead, therefore a manpower avantage. Teach them to make high strength steel, and they’re unlikely to start building bridges spanning vast lakes. Far more likely the first person they’ll pass it to is an armorsmith. I don’t care if half of them look like something I had for lunch a week ago, I refuse to be the one who hands some space Hitler his wonder weapon, fuck that. Let’s not pretend Silbermine is the only one who showed up here with troops, though at least Nellara and her squad didn’t grow up in a barn and have some manners and common sense.”[/color] This was said less to Ixtaro and more to the entire assembled group, speaking with pauses so Gar'Tan would have time to repeat it to his compatriots.

But as soon as Nellara - through Ixtaro’s translation - mentioned Silbermine’s intent on disassembling the Jotunheim, Vigdis flared up. [color=00AEFF]“We didn’t slave over this ship for two years for some dick from a mountain to call finders-keepers and take it apart, bad enough we binned it on its maiden flight.”[/color] People often said things like ‘It’s his/her ship.’ when referring to the captain, but any ship was really the baby of its engineering team. Even if Vigdis wasn’t supposed to be part of it, she was now by circumstance, not to mention being one of the builders. Only then did her brain catch up to her mouth, realizing the common Russian phrase referring derisively to a stranger that Venerians adopted along with the language might be misinterpreted as referring to the people who actually came from the mountains, rather than Silbermine. Using the word ‘slave’ wasn’t the smartest thing to do either, they were all volunteers and paid handsomely. Maybe Gar’Tan was still listening to her brain and this would be cleared up. Hopefully. [color=00AEFF]“Though I would very much like to see a gaggle of ponies who’ve never seen an allen wrench in their life try to figure out how to dismantle the Jo without breaking everything they touch.”[/color] What kind of tools could they even have? Mallets and hand-forged pliers?

With only a few of them and a lot of the locals, Vigdis turned to Kerchak as soon as his questions were conveyed to her. [color=00AEFF]”We do use wind, in a way. Except instead of trapping it in sails, we use devices called compressors to compress and accelerate it in a desired direction, which propels the ship in the opposite direction. This is old technology, we've had this type of propulsion for around…
”[/color] 2296 minus 1939 is… [color=00AEFF]”...357 Earth years. An Earth year is 365 days, which are only a little shorter than days here.”[/color] Detailed enough to answer the question, hopefully simple enough to be understood and vague enough not to be useful. It almost felt like she was back home, answering children's questions during Fleet Days, Vigdis thought with a fond smile before answering Kerchak's second question.
[color=00AEFF]”This world, at least around here, is very similar to parts of Earth. But there were too many of us for it to sustain us, and we also wanted to see what lay beyond our home's borders. Other planets we've settled aren't similar at all.
Mercury is an airless, barren world with one side always facing the Sun, scorched by its rays while the other side lays in endless, frigid night. We only live at the terminator line, in areas of perpetual sunrise or sunset, in cities covered in domes that keep air we brought with us in.
Venus is toxic and hot enough on the surface to melt lead, so everyone there lives in floating cities high above the surface where the temperature is survivable.
And Mars is so far away from the Sun and the air is so thin that it's a cold desert covered in rust-brown sand.”[/color]
As she spoke of Venus, she unclipped her wristpad from its mounting and turned the screen toward Kerchak and anyone else who was interested, showing the animated desktop [url=https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/012/190/678/large/sergio-botero-tflp-venusian-colony-illustration-v2-web.jpg?1533534588]background[/url] depicting the Venerian city of Mariner and airships coming and going.

Then she had a thought. [color=00AEFF]”When Silbermine learns we intend to leave, he'll lose his fucking mind, won't he?”[/color] She couldn't see a religious fanatic learning that his gift from the gods wants to go back where it came from and taking it well.