//------------------------------//
// 3: Extravehicular Activity 
// Story: Equestria: The Vast Infinity 
// by Teru9133 
//------------------------------//

I nudged Navi a little as we followed Skipper, “So, any idea who this new pony on our crew is?”



Equine had been cleared of any trace of IDI, so our current mission had been dealt with. However, Lan, the governor of Equine, had told us that there was an addition to our crew waiting at the CSA embassy on the planet, which was where we were headed.



I bumped Navi’s pink side again, but before I could ask her yet again, she sighed, finally giving up, “I’ve you before; I don’t know who it is.”



Despite my disappointment, I persevered, “I hope it’s not someone green. Remember Lue?”



I instantly regretted having brought the poor mare up, as Navi just grimaced; she turned her head around and sternly said, “Let’s not talk about her, please?”



I nodded and made a mental note to not forget about their little incident out on the Titan’s hull, to put it simply, and to not have any details go into the explanation, Lue was given to us to train and to not have be such a, say, “green” pony. At first we thought they meant rookie, little did we know that they meant the green part; Navi has never been able to get out of the ship’s airlock without having some trace of disgust from the hallucination smell of Lue’s vomit after her first flight out in space.  



The pink mare turned around, trying rather hard to stay as professional as possible, and not shivering her bones out, I muttered in a somewhat apologetic voice, “Right, sorry… But don’t you hope it’s someone good too?”



She shrugged, not turning back around and focusing on following Skipper since we ran into a rather large crowd of ponies; it was, after all, lunch rush, “Of course I do, why would I want yet another rookie?”



She had me there, after all, why would she hope for one? I let the subject drop after that, and continued on to watching the Equine buildings and streets go by. A equestrian pony’s first time there would be surreal.



The colony was built on the planet, except not on top, yet it was. They essentially created a fish bowl city on the now barren planet, except they used magic to enchant the “bowls” to portray views of what you’d see on Equestria; the bizarre thing is though, you were on Equestria, if you didn’t have you mind straight. You could feel the sun’s heat, and there was plenty of lively nature on Equine, it was quite a wonder really.



After a few more blocks, I remember the news board talking something of a “Nightmare Cult.”



“Hey Navi, any idea on the cult that announced its existence?” I had said in a low tone, because of the situation.



“Other than the fact that they claimed to had have caused the ion storm, and that they are intent on making sure no pony makes it past Equine, and eventually push every pony back onto Equestria, not much.”



I sighed, but then much to my surprise, Skipper chimed in, apparently having heard the conversation, “The Nightmare Cult are supposedly an organization that thinks space should be left alone, and that ponies should stay on what we now consider an oasis of life, as we have yet to encounter any others civilization, or living organisms for that matter.”



I was thrown back by the Cult’s desire and ultimate goal, “That sounds wrong though! To not have ponies be in space-“



Skipper stopped and looked right into my eyes, and said very grimly, “That is reality Starsky, we have our perspective, they have theirs, and so long as they don’t take too drastic of actions I don’t care much for their opinions, and you shouldn’t either.”



I stood there like a dumb colt, and then realized she had finished and nodded my head in one slight movement, before she went on ahead, trotting through the streets.



Navi came up and smirked, “Don’t forget you’re our rookie still, until this new person comes aboard that is.”



I rolled my eyes, and picked up my previous pace, then asked out of curiosity, “Why do we need another pony on our ship anyways?”



A chuckle escaped Navi’s mouth, but before I could protest, she hastily explained, “We have two pilots, and a gunner, which would be me, the thing of it is, we need another pony to control the dorsal turrets, as well as do maintenance on the Titan, which, frankly, the ship could use.”



I just kept trotting, acknowledging what Navi had said, it made sense at least, and no matter how you looked at it, we could all use the new company.



We had finally reached the Equine’s CSA Embassy, and entered the small, low profile orange building that had dual glass doors with CSA soldiers guarding the entrance. Once we had been cleared on the inside that we were CSA employees/members, the clerk input the standard code, and we were let through to the elevator, which descended into the more recognizable abyss that was HQ.



We observed the layout, there were computer systems along the walls of the huge room, and in the middle was the holographic strategic emitter (HSE) that allowed Celestia herself to talk with the commanders of the various CSA headquarters across Equestria, as well as the embassy on Equine. Right now, it was only being used to go over recent situations, mainly revolving around the ion storm incident. 



"Ah," I said, looking around, observing the fellow ponies working on most likely some highly classified assignment which we porbably already know, and the public does not, "It's good to be back to HQ!"



Skipper tilted her head like she had rolled her eyes and now has a headache, "Even if it isn't the one you were brought into our crew from?"



I reminisced the days before I was on the Titan. I was maybe 19 and had been a part of the CSA for a year then, when I was called up from my previous assignment to be put on a crew that would work on the trade routes between Equine and Equestria, making sure no pirates or rouge ships got a hold of the valuable resources Equine occasionally requested and needed. I couldn't believe my dream was about to come true, being able to go up into space. The first time I had looked up into space, and asked my dad which stars were which, was when I had learned to love the stars, and got my cutie mark, which was 3 stars in an upside down triangle, shrouded by a veil of faint color of black, which complemented well on my dark navy blue coat of fur. 



I sighed after the remininsce, despite my dream having come true, the HQ was a really nice place to be, "Any HQ is my home."



Navi choked down a scolding laugh at the cheesy reply, but Skipper simply continued walking, probably face-hoofing herself mentally, cursing she had even brought up the question.



We made way to the center of the whole facility, where we met a tan colored mare that was eagerly waiting for us.



"Glad the crew of the CS Titan could come here today," He said in a moderately tenor voice, his grey eyes scanning each one of us, "I'm Commander Net, and I'm sure we will meet each other at another time than this."



After his short laugh, and us looking at each other quizically, we then waited for him to continue, "Ah, yes, the new recruit, her name's Star Twirl, and she's your first pegasus I presume?"



At that, we all grimaced, remembering Lue. Navi and Skipper were Earth ponies, and I was a unicorn, so naturally we were helpless in trying to help Lue with her EVA duties. 



Net saw our faces, and understood immediately, if not remmebering a portion of a report given to him, "Ah, yes... Well, she is your first Equinen right?"



This took us aback a little. I didn't know Equinens were a part of the CSA. And almost as if hearing my thoughts, Net laughed rather loudly and explained, 



"Equinens were never banned from working with us in the CSA, they just never thought to. After all, they are already in what is considered space, the thing most of us Equestrians go after doing."



He had a point, I thought to myself as Skipper cleared her throat, "So where is this new pony?"



"She's coming out of her quarters behind us once she's got her things and is ready to go out with you guys," Net said sternly, as if he decided to go back into commander mode.



The three of us just stood there, nodding once to acknowledge and register the given knowledge. It had been a while since Lue had been aboard, so I was a little nervous as to how we might do, considering we were a little rusty with our extra vehicular skills.



Generally speaking, a crew of one of the CSA's ship would contain five members of the crew: two pilots, two gunners, and an engineer. We never actually had a second gunner for whatever reason, but Navi does fine enough job keeping bandits off of us as well as some terrorists, the likes of which we would see more often now with the Nightmare cult announcing its existence. We did have an engineer not too long ago, Lue. 



The point of the engineer is that in the event the turrets are jammed or the wings on the ship are not operating as they should, etc. Ultimately, they are the EVA players of the ship. The very reason we didn't have an engineer is the very reason that we have not been on the duty we were originally created for as a crew: to patrol the trade routes as well as guard any caravans that had happened to be carrying valuable resources which Equine needs.



A few moments had passed before we had heard the distinctive thud of a satchel bag landing behind the commander, who turned around in subtle surprise, only to find the mare that had materialized there.



I was quite taken aback by her, she wasn't some pony I had expected to be in the CSA. Her blue mane sharply contrasted with her milky white coat, completed with the green eyes which looked like the shade of emerald. But it wasn't that that made me think she didn't belong there, it was her absolute cheery mood and the gargantuan smile across her face. In the CSA, a cheery innocent person does not belong.



With a big smile, she said, "Glad to be a part of the crew! I'm Star Twirl, which you probably already know by now thanks to this commander you see here," and with that she payed the back of the commander, and judging by his facial expression, it was a little harder than she had intended it to be on the middle aged stallion.



Skipper stepped up a little and said in response, intentionally stiffly, "Welcome to my crew, I'm Skipper, the captain, and this pink mare here is Navi, our sole gunner."



Navi did a simple nod, probably hoping for the apparently hyped mare to not attack her, a hope found to be lost. 



As Star Twirl tackle/hug Navi, she beamed in a somehow even higher pitch, "Glad to meet you Navi! You too Skipper!" She then noticed me, and she didn't exactly lose her cheer, but rather become curious, "And who is this stallion?"



I was opening my mouth when Skipper abruptly stopped my attempt and said, "This here is our pilot, Starsky."



With that, I just shut my mouth. Thanks Skipper... I had thought to myself before Star Twirl's voice entered into my thought process,



"Nice to meet you Starsky! Try to keep the ship steady while I'm on top of the ship!"



I blinked twice, remembering that this mare was joining the trio on their ship, and with that, I merely replied with a smile, "I can't give any  guarantee, but I'll try my best."



The white mare gave me a warm smile, and then went back to her hyper-ness. She might've been just what we needed, I thought to myself, and with that I smiled to myself.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"So you say you had experience back in the Equine Trade and Space Agency?" Navi had asked to Star Twirl as we entered the CS Titan.



The walk back to the ship from the CSA Embassy was rather uneventful, since Star Twirl apparently was temporarily in the hyper personality, and that she was actually serious when needed to be. Which I won't be complaining about anytime.



Star Twirl just nodded, which I could see since I was toward the back, "Yea, so I know the business of patrolling the trade routes, but I've never been out of the ship I was on because I never needed do."



The three of us thought the same thing, there was no doubt about it, at least she's been in space. The silence following her reply was too long.



"What?" She had said, with a hint of panic and confusion all tied up in with trying to be defensive.



Before anything else got out of hand, I quickly explained, "Before you, we had a rookie engineer on our ship, and we had to teach her how to do EVA, to keep it simple, her being green meant more than her being a rookie..."



Star Twirl could only stifle a snicker as she said, "oh."



Navi kept quiet up until that point, she exasperatedly yelled, "Oh come on!" Which forced me into a death laughter, which eventually infected the three mares. 



After the laughter died down, we realized we made it back to the CS Titan, Star Twirl was the first to step out and admire what little we could see of it on this side of the airlock. This was also the first time in a while that I had thought about the Titan and how it looked like.



It was really just a standard Celestia's Ship, with it's overlapping color scheme of yellow, orange, and grey. The design was somewhat stocky, but held the impression of a Griffon Tank. The body of the ship was somewhat long and wide, and it had to be, it held the pilot compartment, armory, and the living quarters for the members of the ship. But my personal favorite part of the ship were the turrets, sweet Celestia. 



There were two turrets on the Titan, as opposed to older models with only one, and newer ones with four. Anyways, the two turrets were place towards the center of the ship, one ventral, and one dorsal. They weren't round, but not all that boxy, if you will. There were two types of cannons aboard the Titan, one was the standard cannon used in the services of the Celestial Royal Army, with this version having an obscenely long barrel, to allow more propulsion of the shell, be it armor-piercing or high explosive. The second cannon was a more or less experimental design. It was the new ion cannon which allowed the production and propulsion of extremely ionized particles. I shouldn't say experimental, because it has been developed over the years, but it's far from being perfect. The Ionic Particle Discharger (IPD) would take no more than a few atoms from the air in the ship (oxygen, nitrogen, etc) and would ionize them by heating the inside of the compartment of the cannon to the point where the titanium alloy of the cannon would nearly melt, all while throwing electrons on the atoms and molecules while relentlessly thrashing them into each other while also splitting the electrons away, in effect producing ionized atoms that'd otherwise be not harmful, and these atoms are then launched at its target at near light speed with accuracy that lasers want when they grow up. We've only used it once, the IPD, and once we did, we understood why it takes up half of the turret's space (due to having to vent the heat within out into space as well as housing the compartment for the ionizing process) as well as how long it takes to cool it down.



The times when we had ever used the cannons were when terrorists were around, and that was only because the strict regulations were satisfied in those situations. That's all I know for that part of our ship, as for the engines, I only know that they're placed within the hull (we have two) and how they work is that they somehow use space to move, this in effect allows us pilots to feel as if we're driving a car on ground, the only difference is we can go up or down. I never knew much about the engines though, that was Lue's job, and now Star Twirl's. That wasn't all they did though, engineers that is, no they manned the turrets not being operated by the gunner (Navi preferred the dorsal turret), as well as went outside of the ship to check external sensors and systems.



It would be easier to have electronics do this, but it's more widespread that engineers go out and do it, this is why we needed an EVA specialist, which Star Twirl was apparently not.



After a couple moments of reminiscing, I had realized every pony else was doing the same thing, and chuckled, which brought the others out of their trance. After I explained to them why I chuckled, we piled into the ship.



"I'm not going to be the one to teach her...." Navi mumbled once Star Twirl went into her new quarters and the door had shut behind her. 



Both Skipper and I looked at each other, and knew exactly what we were going to do, we rushed to the pilot compartment.



We bumped into each other a couple of times, almost tripped on my part, but after about 5 seconds of this to get to the cockpit, I beat her by a hair.



"I beat you!" She squeaked, and I defiantly stood up at her, with a "oh no you did not just say that" look, and with that, Skipper admitted defeat as I went to claim the pilot chair. 



With one last set of clearances from the Equine Space Trafficking Control, we went off.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"So uh, how are we doing this?" 



We had spent about 2 hours getting off and away from Equine, and when we did we went off a further away to prevent jamming up the space there, why? Because we had an EVA training session to do for Star Twirl. At this point, Skipper is leading Star Twirl to the airlock door, and I'm keeping tabs on the two via video.



"It's not quantum physics, it's just going to the EVA closet and pulling out a suit that is meant specifically for a Pegasus. If anything, this is rocket science. What was your grade in that back in the Equine Academy?" Skipper chided at Star Twirl's question.



After Skipper's short burst of chuckles, the poor white mare mumbled out either an A+ or A-. With that, I chuckled to myself at how she even beat me at the final grade I had, which was a B+, but the Equestrian Academy might have been harder, I don't know.



They made the corner from the living quarters to the airlock in a couple more seconds, and then Skipper directed Star Twirl with some silent gestures to the closet on the opposite side of them. A few moments with some sounds of Star Twirl's hooves transporting her to the closet and into it. Even if it is concealed, I'm just glad I out grew being a little colt. Well, mostly anyways.



A few zipping sounds here and there, and the white mare stepped out of the closet in a greyish black suit, which completely encased her body, and enveloped her wings, still giving flexibility, despite the appearance of being rigid. It also covered her hooves with black boots that seemed as if they were made of steel. Her helmet had only the front and to the side of the rectangular shape that was glass. She didn't need the back side or the full sides though, not when she had a radar that was holographically projected on the lower right of her forward field of vision. As she stepped out, she strayed over to the yellow mare within my view and stayed with her, all the way to the airlock. There, Star Twirl went into it, and once Skipper had gone in, I closed the airlock. I waited the few minutes where the air was being drained back into the ship, rather than be vented off into space. Once the air lock was but a vacuum, I opened the door which went out into space. After that, I just listened to them talk and ramble.



Skipper started by explaining how to operate the EVA suit, "It's not that hard, all you have to do is steer like you're flying, while letting the jets and thrusters do what your wings would, as for actually going forward or backwards, for which you'd lean in accordance to gravity, just think of going forward, there are little electrical receivers that pick up the brain's thoughts when you put on the helmet, that'll respond to 'forward, go, backwards, and stop'."



Star Twirl nodded a little too firmly, and perked her heard out of the ship like a gopher looking out from underground, scanning the vast field if emptiness and space around her, it was too funny. That is, until you saw how nervous she looked, or was it terrified?



Skipper must've noticed, because she consoled her, "Don't worry Star Twirl, I won't rush you out of the air lock until you feel you're ready."



Star Twirl turned around to see her temporary teacher, and realized one important detail.



"You're not a Pegasus," she said to Skipper, not so matter-of-factly, but more a doubtful statement, and could almost be mistaken as a question.



At that, Skipper chuckled quietly to herself, then explained, "Starsky will be taking me around using his magic."



At that, I couldn't help but give a smug, content look to nothing in particular, feeling for once prideful for something the other ponies did not possess, my magic.



A certain pink mare startled me by saying, "So you're prideful of being used like a chauffeur? Stallion, you're stooping that low?"



I jumped in surprise, and yelled, "GET OUT OF HERE!!!!"



After a quick trading of swearing of which sailors on the Equestrian seas wouldn't attempt, she finally left, and after what had seemed like 5 hours, probably only barely a minute, I changed my field of vision to Star Twirl who had yet to leave the air lock.



But much to my dismay, she was heading back into the ship, and I dramatically raised my hooves up as if to flip a table, "Celestia damn it!" And went through the resealing process of the airlock chamber so the ponies could come back in. Apparently, it had been as long as it felt.  Although I have the feeling that Skipper mind my abscence from that session too much.