"Ignition…lift off of the Falcon Heavy!" - SpaceX Livestream, February 6 2018.
The moment we've met Queen Magrat was the moment I got a taste of character development, I remembered first imagining her as a weakling but then she ended up shooting an elf on the eye through a keyhole with a crossbow, and she matured from there onwards.
This dark moment of the locals of Lancre was no exception for her, she was quick to organize her remaining servants to help pack up their bags, seal all doors, lock all gates, and appointed Shawn to keep an eye on the castle, all the while we were hanging around in the throne room with nothing much to do, other than act paranoid and glance out the window to look for any elf snipers.
The next thing to happen would be Magrat entering the throne room with her bags and saying, "Well, can't we go to your vehicle now?"
"How about Verence?" I asked.
"He's being assisted by Shawn to your Dragon as we speak." said Magrat, "Come on now."
We went back to Dragon Two, that's where we saw King Verence II with Shawn, "Mister Ogg, who are these people?" asked Verence.
"They're here to help us, Verence." said Magrat, "Come on now, let's…get into this…thing." she added.
Jeb opened the hatch and assisted Verence into a chair, while Bill assisted Magrat with her bags, which he - interestingly enough - stowed in the cargo area meant for scientific experiments.
Once we strapped Verence and Magrat into the chairs, we shuttered the hatch and strapped ourselves in, that's when Jeb notified me with something that I had not wanted to hear ever, "Captain, we can't fly into a low Disc orbit, it would be a bit unsafe going for a high trajectory into a city."
"So that means…we would have to fly like a helicopter to somewhere just outside of Ankh Morpork?" I said, it was not supposed to end as a question but somehow it did, because it would mean that we'd have to fly over…
"Yes sir, we would have to fly over the most chaotic parts of this place, The Chalk…or so based on your information." said Jeb.
I shook my head, "That's where the Cunning Man and Elves are." I said weakly.
"Don't worry, Captain, I can fly this thing fast and near horizontal like a bullet." said Jeb confidently.
"I sure do hope that." I said as he grabbed the manual override stick.
"Wait, how does thing thing fl-" Magrat was about to ask but the four hypergolic engines kicked into high gear, thrusting our heads against the seats.
During our first Disc-to-Disc flight, we entered 'space' and as such the only bumpy parts of the trip would be liftoff to space and return to atmosphere, but this time we would be travelling like a bullet through the atmosphere.
I would like to emphasize the words 'like a bullet' because we ended up flying in a slanted angle, about forty five degrees, so that we don't get into any unwanted accidents like crashing into a tree or a mountain, it also allowed me to see the ground through the window in addition to the cameras.
Our side mission to evacuate the King and Queen of Lancre was going nominal until, "Captain, all engines are running at a lower thrust than expected…" announced Bill.
"What, how!?" exclaimed Jeb, reaching for the manual override thrust control and jabbing it forward.
It did not help our situation, I had my screen show the thrust status and trajectory, things were not looking good, in fact I recalled our emergency training with the Dragon capsule at that point, "Jeb, I trust your judgement in going forward…but we should execute EEM number three." said Bill.
Jeb looked to me, "Captain, it's your call."
I was against Emergency Escape Maneuver Number Three - Number One was a simple Pad Launch Abort while Number Two was an Orbital Abort, but Number Three felt like cowardice, it was a lander abort, something that was not in Neil Armstrong's dictionary - but something changed my mind.
"EEM THREE, NOW!" I ended up shouting.
"Right, sir!" Jeb said snappily, "What's our designated landing zone?" he asked.
"There, there!" I immediately had a screenshot of what I saw on the cameras forwarded, not just to his visor, but to everyone in this mission; Houston, Hawthorne, The Falcon, Dragon One, everyone.
"What the hell." said Bill when he saw the photo.
Earth eventually buzzed in, "This is Houston - CAPCOM, we're trying to get SpaceX on the line to explain THAT."
"I'll get close to that thing, don't worry." said Jeb.
When the Dragon Two landed, I immediately removed my harness and opened the hatch, "Where are we, this isn't Ankh Morpork, why are we stopping?" asked a clueless Magrat.
There it was, the same thing we all cheered and saw on our screens during February 6, 2018, it was that news-stealing piece of the rocket that had earned SpaceX the full trust of NASA in finishing The Falcon.
In the distance, right behind the object, was the famous horse of The Chalk barely visible against the snow, and I don't want to know what it crashed on, the worst case scenario would be the Feegle mound or maybe there could be an even worse scenario than that!
There it was, the second stage marked by the red Falcon logo with the large black letters spelling 'FH' and the words 'Falcon Heavy' beneath the large letters, powered by a single Merlin-1D Vacuum engine and with Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster on the fairing adapter, and not to mention the dirt it dug up.
It was also belting out David Bowie's Life On Mars on max volume in an indefinite loop, those Tesla Batteries must be something!
"Captain, how the hell did this happen?" asked Valentina through the comm lines.
"Remember, the Disc sort of went into an orbit heading towards an intercept along the Martian orbit, pretty much where this Roadster was heading, but since the Roadster did not have any sensors on board, we did not know that it would have intercepted the Disc and crashed." My heart felt like it stopped when I spotted a human shaped thing with its arm buried underneath the Falcon Heavy Second Stage.
It was not Starman - the dummy sitting aboard the Roadster, it's still chilling in the Roadster - but it was someone who once lived and whose last few moments was spent getting killed by a Falcon Heavy Second Stage while wearing midnight black…"oh shit!" I exclaimed loudly.
I ran to the body, I fell to my knees, "Damn you humanity!" I cried out, while fighting the urge to vomit.
There it was, a severely decaying corpse of a woman, an old woman with graying hair, who wore a black dress, black pointy hat, and a necklace of a leaping hare, this was Tiffany Aching's older self, the woman who had helped younger Tiffany fight the Cunning Man.
I removed my helmet, felt dizzy, and cursed every single bad word in the lexicon, including the non-English ones! "Captain, what's wrong?" asked Valentina in that soft and gentle voice she would use when she sensed that there's anger floating in the air, well I was outright broadcasting it!
"Remember what I briefed you people about I Shall Wear Midnight, how Tiffany had beaten the Cunning Man?" I began, "Well, you can say that sometime near the ending, you can write 'But then as older Tiffany was about to help the younger Tiffany by setting fire to the area to trap the Cunning Man, she was killed by Elon Musk's f*cking Roadster!', this…THIS is the reason why this Discworld, this version of this fantastical planet, is a crap yard."
There was silence on the line after my long rant, in fact, I thought immediately after that moment that I may have gone overboard, but then again it was a painful idea, that it was possibly our fault for screwing things up badly.
Who would have known that we'd end up cheering for the launch of the rocket that would end up killing the witches? On one hand, we couldn't have known given the erratic orbit of the Disc, but then again 1 in a million chances happen nine times out of ten around here, and if someone said that the odds of the Roadster hitting the Discworld and somehow surviving intact was a million is to one, then it's definitely going to happen.
"This is Houston - Flight…we're…we…we're kind of speechless around here, the Internet is going crazy with the discovery."
"Yeah, well no kidding." I replied, it was unbelievable that we could end up changing a story, someone else's story, this dramatically. Now I know why the Planet Protection Officer of NASA was kind of pissed off about the Falcon Heavy Test Flight.
I then saw something in the distance, the Chalk was a wide and open hill area with not much trees and since it was snowing there's obviously a lot of white, a figure surrounded by this misty darkness stood not far from me, not far from us.
It was with slow comprehension that I realized who it was, but then my enemy at that moment were my own biases, but then as I won a short mental battle with these biases, the figure made these sound that even until now I could never forget, but at the same time I could not describe.
I turned around and saw Tiffany Aching, who was as Not-Tiffany as the Not-a-Flamethrower sold by Elon Musk, and she was wearing her usual green dress which was torn at some parts and was generally dirty, and did I tell you that her eyes were missing?
I was stuck in a corner, this Cunning Man-possessed-Tiffany Aching stood in between me and Dragon Two, "Bill…you better listen to me now, go to Ankh Morpork and get the two safe, then come back for me."
"But, Captain…"
"Not now, Bill, don't argue with me now, I have a fight to win." I said before switching off the transmitter and receiver.
This was not some heroic stupidity I was executing at that point…okay, maybe it was a tiny bit-…a lot, but I had a plan and that is to unlatch the Roadster, hop on it, and RUN!
As the Dragon Two blasted off into the sky, which for a few moments distracted the Not-Tiffany and thus allowing me valuable time to run to the cargo/fairing adapter and detonate the explosive bolts; either the Cunning Man is stupid or my white spacesuit blends in with the white snow and the white Falcon Heavy Second Stage, but the Not-Tiffany was unable to find me.
I grabbed the Starman dummy, shoved him into the passenger's seat, started up the Tesla Roadster - yes, Elon, the keys were in the glove compartment! - and ran for it, the Roadster accelerated faster than a gasoline supercar (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi , you name it.)
The quick movement of the Tesla and its bright red against white caught the attention of the Not-Tiffany and she began to give chase, at that moment I switched on the Tesla self-driving Autopilot, then I turned around and stuck my tongue out at that monstrosity, all the while I was rocking out to David Bowie, best day of my life!
I needed a solution, no, I needed a fire, the way Tiffany had killed the Cunning Man was by trapping him in a shrinking circle of fire, now I needed a flamethrower and a really good shot at that thing, I wondered if Elon left a flamethrower somewhere inside the Tesla.
If there was no flamethrower, then the only option would be to bait that Cunning Man near the Falcon Heavy Second Stage and detonate it, we're talking about thousands of delta Vs worth of highly explosive highly refined kerosene and Liquid Oxygen, it would take out the entire Chalk area.
Either way, I had to get away from that thing first, somewhere safe, maybe somewhere the Cunning Man knows that he'd end up being surrounded in, something inside my head told me Baron's Castle or maybe Aching Farm, but then I thought of Feegle Mound.
Eventually I was forced to head to the Baron's Castle because I ended up overshooting the Aching farm, by the looks of it, and the castle was looming up ahead.
If you're driving at a hundred kilometers per hour over dirt road, it would feel hell of a lot bumpy, but the Tesla's design somehow mitigated that effect and it felt a somewhat smooth ride.
When I reached the castle, the drawbridge was still down for some reason as if nothing happened, or that is something happened and the castle was abandoned. I switched off the Autopilot and drove the Roadster into the castle grounds, it was an electric car so it was silent,don't think of it as having the usual engine noises.
I opened the trunk before getting out of the car and when I got out of the car and went to the back, a white futuristic looking gun was sitting in the trunk with the words 'Boring Co.' on it in black, it was a flamethrower!
I shut the trunk and smiled as I hefted the flamethrower in my hands, I then went up to the large wooden doors and knocked, no one answered and the door simply swung slightly open with a loud and theatrical creaking noise, I opened the door just enough so I could squeeze in.
The Baron's castle, the very place where the witches held their final meeting before Tiffany battled the Cunning Man, was now an abandoned and deserted place, its walls unkept, its paintings dusty, the furniture was not cared for, and there was a creaking noise coming from somewhere.
I went after the creaking noise, I guess it was because I have a flamethrower at that point, and thus my confidence sort of ballooned at that point, the confidence that I could take any threat head on. The creaking noise, which began to sound to my ears as footsteps the closer I get to it, came from somewhere in the upper floors.
I went up to the upper floors and found myself in front of a door which was locked, "Is anyone there, I am here to help." I said loudly.
Someone then looked through the keyhole and the door was opened, it was a shaken looking Baron Roland, "Y-…yes, what may I do for you?" he asked.
"What the hell happened to you?" I said.
He rubbed his eyes, "I'm sorry, I-…am trying to forget a big mistake."
"Please don't tell me you had ordered soldiers to dig up the Feegle mound!" I exclaimed.
Baron Roland looked at me and said "How did you know? Are you from around here?" he sounded depressed and an empty shell, speaking in sighs and sometimes being somewhat incoherent.
"Sir, I'm only trying to help, where is Tiffany Aching?" I asked, that was a stupid question because I already know where she was at that point, she was most likely chasing after me.
"She disappeared into the darkness of the forest…and then she came back with no eyes and disappeared from there on." said Roland.
"Okay, how about Preston, one of your guards?" I asked, out of curiosity, he and Tiffany ended up becoming beaus, as in I wrote fan fiction of them getting married at some point.
"He-…jumped off the highest floor of the castle when he found out that Tiffany had lost…he took his own life." said Roland.
The one mistake the Cunning Man did was that he relied on a physical body to go after me, meaning the only way in for the Not-Tiffany is through the door where the Not-a-Flamethrower would be waiting for her!
"Baron, where is your wife?" I asked.
"She's asleep in our hiding place, away from the threats…we no longer know where or what happened to our people." said Roland.
I looked out the window and spotted that darkness in the snow approaching the door, "Alright, Baron, I have some fighting to do."
He did not respond, in fact he looked beyond me and said "Who're you fighting?" he asked.
"Your worst nightmare." I answered before legging it to the entrance hall where I would be waiting for that Not-Tiffany.
When I did reach the entrance hall, everything was quiet and still, too still, in fact it was so still that I couldn't quite believe that it would be a showdown. I decided to try and get the upper hand by keeping my back to the wall right next to the door, so when that Not-Tiffany would enter, I could burn her.
I remembered reaching for the necklace Valentina gave me which was stowed in a small pocket and I held it in my hand, it somehow at least helped me in remaining calm, but then I was forced to let go of it in my pocket and seal my pocket as I heard the door creak.
The door creaked open slowly at the same pace as those you hear in horror movies, the dark figure of this Not-Tiffany walked in dramatically and was looking for me, I do not know why it was so interested in me given that I am not a witch, but I believe that the Cunning Man knew a thing or two about technological superiority.
I screamed at the top of my lungs the battle cry I would usually shout as I took off in a fighter jet, "ARGHHH!" which made the Not-Tiffany face me, allowing me to kick her in the abdomen, which knocked her on the floor, and I just kept kicking her over and over again.
That's when I heard a voice, an evil sounding one, "Go on, keep kicking me, make my day, kill the most powerful witch, I could just kill Magrat later on."
I stopped, "Why did you stop? You're not a witch, you can't possibly defeat me." said the Cunning Man…I think.
I smiled and pointed the flamethrower at the Not-Tiffany and just fired, burning the most powerful witch…or rather the Cunning Man, because you see the thing about Tiffany Aching is that she likes fire, and she is the hare who leaps into the fire, and the fire likes the hare/Tiffany who therefore does not get burned.
As for the Cunning Man however, that would be a completely different story, the fire is his weakness, it's what killed him when he was still human! A cloud of dark mist escaped Tiffany quickly, no it was not the smoke of her burning clothes and/or flesh, it was the Cunning Man.
When I stopped the flamethrower there was a seemingly intact body, my heart was beating fast, I do not know if I had burned Tiffany or if the Cunning Man had killed Tiffany in a last act of spite and hatred, but to my relief the body laying on the floor opened its eyes and began to breath.
I ended up smiling, I looked at the Tesla, and then at the flamethrower, and then at the suit, and just as Tiffany (yes, the actual Tiffany) asked "Who are you?" I exclaimed "THANK YOU ELON!" and did a fist pump.
"Who's Elon? Are you alright?" asked Tiffany.
I then dropped the flamethrower and embraced Tiffany, alright it was a creepy thing to do but if you're hero - who was nearly killed by your own species - survived because of you, who therefore has redeemed the blood on the hands of your species, then of course it was a special moment.
"Um…okay?" said Tiffany, "Who are you?"
I let go of her, "Oh sorry, I am Jack Dudley, Captain Jack Dudley."
"I"m Tiffany Aching…" she then felt dizzy and held her head, "I'm sorry, I can't seem to remember what happ-" she then saw the Tesla Roadster, "Wait, I saw that fall from the sky and kill this witch I saw in the distance."
Oh yeah, she doesn't know who the witch in black with the hare was until the very end where it was revealed that it was her older self, "Yeah, that's okay, the Cunning Man is gone now!" I said happily.
"How do you know about the Cunning Man?" she asked, "Never mind, where is that thing? I was supposed to face it down…"
Oh crap, this is where the bad part comes, "Tiff-…" I sort of kneeled in front of her and held her hand, she was somewhat shorter than I was, "you were possessed by the Cunning Man…"
"But that means that…" she gasped, she was unable to say the words.
"All the witches burned, nearly all; Granny has died, Nanny Ogg, Annagramma maybe, your fellow witches…though Queen Magrat is alive." I said.
Tiffany was those types that know the truth, as in they're not afraid to accept the truth, but this one may have been too hard hitting, "I'm sorry, I…need to…be alone." she said, tears flowing down her eyes.
The teen witch walked to a corner of the entrance hall and went into this trance, she was looking at the last place where she stood, addressing her fellow witches, where Granny had asked 'What's your plan?' and her answer was 'Not to lose'
I decided to check in on the comm lines by switching on my transmitter and receiver, to my surprise I heard applause, cheers, and my name being cheered.
"Hello, this is Hawthorne." said a very, very familiar voice, "you're welcome." said Elon Musk.
"This is Houston -…screw it, this is humanity speaking, we're all feeling a lot of emotions here in Houston, in fact the Internet has been watching your dramatic showdown through your helmet cameras." I heard the Flight Director crying somewhat, "That-…was…it would certainly go down in history as the most dramatic moment for NASA."
"This is The Falcon - Valentina, oh my god, Captain, that was the best!" exclaimed Valentina.
I was apparently being celebrated as a hero but I did not feel like a hero, the voices kept coming, "This is Dragon Two, we heard the action over there and we want a piece of it, we've dropped off the royals and we're now on our way back there."
"This is Houston - CAPCOM, the President of the United States congratulates you for saving humanity, as far as we're aware, the Cunning Man could have infected Earth but you stopped it before that happened, some of us here are chanting 'Medal of Honor'."
"Guys, guys…" I began, suddenly everyone was silent, "I'm not a hero, I was only fixing our mistakes…sorry to Elon for my rant, it turns out that the cause of this had also helped me."
"This is Hawthorne, no offense taken, oh and you can keep the car."
I shook my head and took a deep breath, man that was some action, more action than any of the bombing runs I executed, but as I sunk into this relaxation mode, that all problems were finally resolved, I swore I saw Starman - the dummy - walking across the entrance hall.
"Hey, that's not funny Bill or Jeb!" I exclaimed, I thought that they landed somewhere far and snuck into the old Starman spacesuit and tried to prank me, but then I heard a shout of "CRIVENS!"
I smiled, "Rob Anybody?" I said.
"Aye, Rob?"
"What is it Daft Wullie?"
"Did he just…call yer name?"
There was a loud clonk sound, "What do you think the bigjob said!?"
The helmet popped off and a blue head popped out of from the hole where the head and neck would be, "Where's our Big Wee Hag? We're gunna save her from that daft scunner!"
"I saved her." I said.
The Feegles then trooped out of the suit while staring at me in a curios sort of way, maybe they couldn't believe the fact that I saved her, "Did ya really save her?" asked Rob Anybody, I mean based on the earlier exchange it was Rob Anybody, I could tell so by his voice.
"Yes, I did, go speak to her there." I said.
The Feegles rushed to their Big Wee Hag, while I picked up the helmet and the suit and sat the dummy back to on the Tesla Roadster, I ended up saluting Starman.
Eventually the Dragon Two came and so did Bill and Jeb, who immediately rushed to me and embraced me, shaking my hands, patting my shoulders, and calling me their Captain and a badass.
"Do you hear the ruckus back on Earth? It's loud, Captain, and it's your name being cheered!" said Bill excitedly.
Jeb then whispered - in order to simulate a huge crowd chanting - my name, "Jack Dudley, Jack Dudley!"
While the other two cheered, we saw a downright depressed looking Tiffany walking out through the door, she shot us a glance and said nothing, "Tiffany?" I took a step closer to her.
She shook her head and said, "I don't know, I don't know…"
"It's our fault you lost, we're sorry." I said, "It's our fault, our race's fault, that the witches have burned…"
Tiffany then said lamely "It's okay…" before walking away from us with a long face.
"Ouch, she took it hard." said Bill.
"Of course she took it hard, we screwed her and her team up!" I exclaimed, "Sorry, just-"
"No, I was wrong Captain, that was insensitive." said Bill apologetically, "Look uh…we would for certain be receiving a recall order from the President or from NASA or both, we should head back to the Falcon, this world will fix itself…I hope."
I did not react, I was as empty as Tiffany and Roland, I walked back to the Dragon Two without saying anything to my colleagues, they followed closely behind. I was silent throughout the whole start up and return to orbit.
"This is Houston - Flight, the President of the United States has some few words to say for you, he's doing so at the front of a special session of the United Nations General Assembly."
I remained silent, the President began his speech, "This is the President of the United States, that has got to be the most action packed moment for all of humanity, in fact it happened in the middle of a special session of the United Nations General Assembly attended by heads of governments from across the world, and from this international forum I address our astronauts.
Based on the advice of the President of the Philippines, a well known Discworld expert, we do not need to issue a recall order, instead that power will be up to the Captain and his crew.
You have all done well, we trust you with all our hearts now that you've proven yourselves as not just astronauts but as heroes, ambassadors of humanity, therefore we are giving you freedom to explore the Disc as you think is necessary since there is no longer any threat.
That is all, thank you."
I replied, "This is the Captain of The Falcon, thank you, Mister President, we will be conducting our expedition as we see fit, thank you for trusting us, over and out." I said.
Our trip back to The Falcon took some time, in fact we first had to insert into a Low-Disc Orbit before adjusting our orbit to have an intercept of The Falcon, the whole process took two hours, however it all felt quick somehow as the moments that I had just survived flashed before my eyes.
When we docked back to The Falcon, which itself took thirty minutes of careful adjustments before Jerry announced, "Dragon Two, you have a hard dock."
Once the airlock was cycled and the airlock doors opened, I saw Valentina pop her head into the Dragon Two and saying "Jack!"
I tried to smile, I really did, but I was too tired to do so, she offered a hand to help me into The Falcon, I accepted her hand and she pulled me into the airlock chamber and then into the cargo area, that's where she unlatched her helmet before unlatching mine and kissing me on the lips.
"You're back!" said Valentina excitedly in a voice that had melted all our hearts, but had just barely reignited mine, though her large eyes looking at me had made recharged me a bit.
I embraced her, "Yes I am."
Jeb floated beside me with his helmet off, "Don't worry chief, we won't tell NASA or anyone that you'd be sleeping in Val's cabin tonight." he then gave me a friendly punch on the arm.
I did not laugh nor did I react, "No, I need my own cabin and a rest….a long rest." I said.
Just like that, the big preparation to take back the Chalk and all other affected areas went to nothing, but for the best reason that the Cunning Man was defeated.
Valentina nodded, "Captain, you can sleep in my cabin, I'll leave you alone, honest!"
I had enough energy to nod but apparently not enough to move, I ended up sleeping on the spot, though I was just barely aware of what was going around me as I fell into sleep, though the last thing I remembered was me being floated back to Valentina's cabin.
You know how dreams could be weird sometimes? I somehow found myself floating in space in my spacesuit with the Disc below me and The Falcon far above me, I blinked and then suddenly I found myself in a zen garden of some sorts, it looked like one of those Buddhist gardens with spinning prayer wheels and-…
Yeah, it was the Monastery of the Time Monks, everyone - from the starters to the experts, and even a certain bald man who was the janitor of the place - stood around me.
A young man appeared in front of me, "You seemed to have atoned for the mistakes of your species."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I am time itself, my name is Lobsang Ludd." said the young man, "Your vehicle has caused some troubles here in the Monastery, we had been working on restoring the timeline for two years now, it was the biggest mess we've had since the glass clock was built for the second time."
I nodded and smirked, "Yeah, I know about that…"
"Mister Dudley, your defeating of the Cunning Man had helped our work become easier, we thank you for that, and now we have just sort of pulled your conscience out of your body for a few moments just to inform you that when you wake up the Disc would be back in the way it should be."
I smiled, I felt alive, "Thank you so much." I said.
"Now, now, I think we should give you a present, my master had told me to never take for granted any help received, especially from an honest stranger." said Lobsang, he reached into his cloak and gave me a small trinket, it was a green jade looking stone.
"What does it do?" I ask.
"Nothing precisely…I don't know, Q just gave it to me." said Lobsang.
It was at that moment that I remembered about the necklace, I know it was in my pocket still, "Thank you, sir." I said.
"Now, now, it's time for you to go back." said Lobsang, "You gave us some memorable day here."
When I woke up, it was at the most awkward moment ever, though the first thing I felt in my hand was the green jade stone, now as for the other thing I opened my eyes to, "Oh god, Jack, I thought you're going to wake up later." it was Valentina and she had a towel wrapped around her body as she brushed her floating hair.
"I'm sorry." I said, looking away.
Valentina giggled, "It's okay, we're…sort of in a relationship now, right?"
I nodded, "Right, right." I said, "Excuse me, I think I need to shower."
"You can shower with me." said Valentina, "I am not done yet, I mean I am only getting my hair straight before stepping into the shower."
The Falcon's shower was interesting, the walls were lined with shower heads where the water would be spraying out of, and then the water would be sucked up into drainage holes that would pump it into the water recycling module for other uses.
Yeah…we showered together, naked and all, I guess we both had been developing feelings for one another during training and during the flight to the Disc, it was only then we openly spoke about our feelings did we know how deep it was, and I won't get into the really dirty things we said but I can tell you this, we ended up in a cute water fight - think a snowball fight but with orbs of water instead - where we were laughing loudly and being playful with one another before we dried up and wore our spacesuits.
"Where will we be going now, Captain?" she asked.
"Back on the Discworld, a friend of mine told me that it should all be fixed by now." I said.
"And how much do you trust this guy?" asked Valentina.
"Enough to land this thing on the Disc." I answered.