This guy. Probably for the best that Vigdis wasn't aware of Mallory’s confusion between nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs, else she'd have joined Ixtaro in the 'XO doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground.' club. Though his thoughts did hold a useful idea in giving Silbermine a piece of radioactive material as tribute, out of spite if the worst came to pass if nothing else. Something with a bit of cesium-137 from a medical radiation source or something, they’d just have to make sure he got buried with it to prevent further contamination. [color=00AEFF]”Speaking as a bilingual person: No, they can't. Not in a reasonable timeframe. How long did it take you to learn English back when you were a kid and learning a lot faster? Unless you want to have knowledge magically implanted into your mind, if that’s even something they can do, we’ll just have to talk to them until Wodan builds up a dictionary.”[/color] She could imagine spending a few days sitting over a drawing board or Ixtaro’s holoprojector with the locals, pointing at images of things and stating their names in English and whatever language the locals were speaking. How this was going so far, Vigdis could see neither Kareet nor Ixtaro would take too much convincing.

‘Not Tyrese, Gar’Tan did nothing to deserve that.’ Vigdis thought privately before remembering her thoughts were not private at that moment. They [i]really[/i] needed that direct translation capability. [color=00AEFF]”Commander, have anyone harmless in mind?”[/color] She asked, assuming from her military experience that sorting out the extra crew would be Mallory’s job.

[hr]
Despite her actual intentions, Vigdis could understand why Nellara thought she was being hostile. [color=00AEFF]”I’m not trying to be hostile, far from it. I’m just being cautious. I wouldn’t trust any Tom, Dick or Harry after knowing them for a few hours if they were a human either, the fact that you have feathers changes nothing about that.”[/color] She tried to explain and ease the Castigator’s concerns. [color=00AEFF]”And I’m worried for your sake, too. Going by what I’ve seen of you and learned of your systems of government today, you’re where we were about… I’ll call it 800 years ago?“[/color] She looked to Ixtaro for an opinion as the FTL specialist seemed to know her history a lot better than Vigdis. Sure, she couldn’t see them making a combustion engine or a transistor even if they had blueprints and a detailed explanation, but who knew what magical secrets they held that could replace it? [color=00AEFF]”Suddenly introducing a big change - technological, ideological, whatever - could have unforeseen consequences even if done with the best intentions. Bad enough we already have people claiming we’re divine messengers and massing armies simply because of our presence.”[/color].

The picture of the Ascendancy that Nellara was painting was intriguing. [color=00AEFF]”As a scholar, as you say, I’d like a second opinion, but if what you say of the Ascendancy is true, then we might have more in common than I thought.”[/color] Well, at least it wasn’t a complete lie. The ‘Civilized World’ and those colonies throughout Sol that were derived from it were on paper based in part on merit as well - succeeding on the free market according to your ability, the first few waves of colonists being hand picked according to their skill and suitability and so on. In practice, nepotism, bribery, fraud, politics and other rot of civilisation was rampant, in some places more than others, but Vigdis suspected the Ascendancy in the real world wouldn’t be a paradise as advertised either. Mythandia as described stood on the opposite side of the spectrum. Assuming she was being truthful. And if Silbermine and Mythandia were all they were said to be, Silbermine might even confirm some parts of it if asked - the divine rule bit at least. And as more and more people spoke up, the image of Mythandia she had in her mind morphed further and further into a shithole no sane person would want anything to do with, with the exception of Gar’Tan who, to his credit, seemed to be taking his neutrality seriously. She at least had no problem believing Silbermine [i]could[/i] be everything they were painting him to be. God knew Sol had enough people like that peppered throughout its history. [color=00AEFF]”Silbermine is the space Hitler [i]we know of[/i], Ibarra. Who knows if their equivalent of Stalin or some other nutter isn’t Nellara or Kareet’s superior?”[/color]

[hr]
[color=00AEFF]”If captain Kadıoğlu approves it, we’d be happy to share.”[/color] Vigdis replied to Kareet, assuming Ixtaro at least felt the same, [color=00AEFF]”Although I must warn you that we all have our duties here, so the amount of time available every day isn’t limitless.”[/color] Might be a different story while some of them were working outside the ship though, she couldn’t see much harm if Kareet saw the guts of an engine and she could work and answer questions at the same time.

[hr]
[color=00AEFF]”Close.”[/color] She nodded as kerchak asked more questions about engines, surprised he was aware of the concept of pressure. It took humans a bit more time for Pascal to be born and figure it out. [color=00AEFF]”The engines, which the compressors are a part of, create very fast wind. Now, a physicist named Isaac Newton formulated three statements about motion, one of which - Newton’s Third Law - states that if two bodies exert forces on each other - the acting force and reaction force - these forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. For example, when I push against Eva, I am exerting the acting force on her, and therefore she exerts the reacting force on me, in the opposite direction. And because I am lighter than she is when wearing her armor, I get pushed away even though I am pushing her.”[/color] As she spoke, she leaned against Eva’s side and pushed herself off to demonstrate, [color=00AEFF]”Thank you, teaching assistant.”[/color] She said to Eva with a chuckle before turning back to Kerchak, [color=00AEFF]”The engines are the same. Push air in one direction, the air pushes the ship in the other direction. It’s the same among the stars, except we have to carry our own air because there is none that high.”[/color] Well, argon gas, but the periodic table would have to wait.

What Kerchak said next gave her pause. Her mind - used to traveling the heliocentric system - completely forgot Geocentrism had once been a thing. She judged elementary school astronomy to be another harmless subject. [color=00AEFF]”No. First, planets revolve around their parent stars, not the other way around. Second, the time it takes for a planet to circle its sun is the year. A day is the length of time it takes the planet to make a complete revolution around its axis of rotation. Therefore, Earth rotates faster than Kanth-Aremek”[/color] She decided she wasn’t going to confuse them with Solar and Sidereal time just yet.
[color=00AEFF]”We left Earth because there wasn’t enough space for everyone to live and space to grow and raise food for everyone. The planet itself still supports life.”[/color] Sure, we fucked it up, but you don’t need to know the details of that either, that topic needs chairs and refreshments for a full explanation. She also glossed over Kolvar’s mentions of creators, leaving that for later and perhaps someone more qualified.