Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Of course, at this point, going back really wasn't an option. Oleg had just tried to kill them. Even Amarilla, who didn't even want to be on this mission in the first place didn't try to argue for going back. Simply put, they couldn't go back until Yuri had dealt with Oleg, and that was assuming he even would, but why would he not? Yuri was clearly in charge of this operation, and Oleg had publicly disagreed with him on how to proceed. Until then, they would remain on course for Tartarus.
Sparky watched as Korolev and Marusova spoke to DC Hopely up in the pilot's cabin. She could only wonder what they were talking about. DC Hopely's ability to speak Cossack was something of a concern to Sparky. It wasn't that she distrusted her, or thought that she was a communist; it would be silly to assume that she was just by having a Cossack name. The real concern was that since DC Hopely was the only one able to speak to Korolev and Marusova, it had unintentionally thrust her into a leadership position, and now that they were in outer space on a seemingly one way trip to Tartarus, it was certainly a stressful situation for all of them. She was afraid that DC Hopely might crack under the pressure.
It wasn't that she didn't have faith in her friend's ability, far from it. If anything, DC Hopely was the strongest willed of all of them, with the exception of maybe Dizzy, or Juan Carlos. Sparky knew for certain, if she were the one that needed to make split decisions like the one that DC Hopely had made back in orbit that had saved their lives, she would have cracked under pressure. She wished that she could be strong like that. Maybe she was just projecting her own fears about their situation onto DC Hopely, maybe she shouldn’t be concerned at all.
They'd since taken down the wire mesh floor that sealed off the cockpit, and they now had access to the rest of the ship, which really wasn't much. The room behind the cockpit was hexagonal in shape, and as it did not have artificial gravity from the rotating section, the room had clearly been designed for zero gravity. Auxiliary control panels had been built into the walls and the ceiling, as well as access ways to the ship's rotating section.
While the ship was operated from the zero gravity cockpit, there were also control systems in the rotating section itself. Sparky played around with one of the control panels in the rotating section and discovered that the ship did not have a VI operating a central computer, and it was nothing short of a complete miracle that she was able to figure that out, because everything was in Cossack.
Sparky hypothesised that the Præsidium and their satellite states did not rely heavy on VI technology as the Equestrian Republic, and the other nations that shared similar ideologies to them. In fact, the more she poked around, she realised that the Leninov's computer operations were not centralised at all, and that they were not networked. Rather, each system was operated by its own computer terminal, and could not be accessed from any other. Isolating exactly what each terminal did would be something of a challenge; she would have to work with DC Hopely to translate.
Sparky had to wonder, was something like this normal for the Præsidium? Or had it been cleverly designed this way for their mission? Both options were just as likely. This mission would involve interfacing with the Discovery One's Hannibal-class VI, which, for all they knew, had gained self awareness, and/or was completely insane.
Sparky eventually decided that this set up had to be normal. The Leninov wasn't something that was recently cobbled together, or designed specifically for this mission. It couldn't have been. The fate of the Discovery One crew had only been made public earlier this week. The Præsidium had to have other plans for the ship, but changed them at the last minute when they heard about the tragedy.
Sparky glanced around, and out of the corner of her eye noticed that Dizzy was watching her from the far corner of the room. 'Something up Dizzy?' she asked.
Dizzy snapped to attention, her face turned bright red and she looked away. 'Nothing! Sorry! Just... praying', she said quickly before getting to her hooves and trotting into the next compartment.
Sparky raised an eyebrow. That was odd, especially for Dizzy, who was usually calm and collected. She dismissed the incident, choosing to take Dizzy at her word. What reason did she have to lie, after all? The Leninov wasn't very big, only about fifty metres in length. Most of the ship as they had seen it on the launch pad had been rocket boosters, which had since been discarded. There wasn't exactly a lot of space, and there certainly wasn't anything in the way of privacy. Sparky had never seen Dizzy pray before, and she got the impression that it was something of a private affair. She would apologise to Dizzy later for interrupting her prayer.
'Hey Sparky!' Shortfuse called over to her from a panel at the far end of the room, Sparky looked over, and offered her friend a small smile and getting up and trotting over to her.
'Hey Shortfuse? What's up?' Sparky asked as she took a seat next to her.
'I'm trying to write a translation algorithm for these computers. Slow going, can't really do anything without having DC Hopely to translate the first few lines, after that I should be able to figure it out on my own, I'm stuck waiting for her to finish up talking with the commies about how much damage we took', Shortfuse said with a shrug. 'How are you?'
'I'm doing okay, I guess', Sparky said with a shrug. 'Here I am, aboard a Præsidium spaceship, going to Tartarus on some snipe hunt for the NKVD with my best friends... and Amarilla and Juan Carlos, with still no idea on how I got this damn cutie mark or why', Sparky said, looking back at her flanks at the mark, giving it a frown.
'Who knows? Maybe we'll find something on the Discovery One that'll explain it?' Shortfuse suggested with a shrug.
'That's a lot of wishful thinking', Sparky said with a frown.
'Yes it is, yes it certainly is, but almost everything about this is wishful thinking', Shortfuse said with a shrug.
'Can't argue with you there', Sparky said nodding her head. 'How about you? You doing all right? We haven't exactly had much chance to talk lately'.
'I'm doing all right, first thing I did when we were able to move around was start looking for where they hid the vodka', Shortfuse said with a grin.
'Shortfuse!' Sparky said with a loud sigh and face hoofed. 'That's a racial stereotype, not every Cossack drinks Vodka, and...'
'Sparky, I found it in less than five minutes', Shortfuse interrupted, raising a hoof to silence her. Sparky stared blankly at her shaking her head in disappointment. Shortfuse merely grinned at her. 'It was good too!'
Sparky let out another sigh and face hoofed again.
'Speaking of hidden things', Shortfuse said. 'Let's talk about you and Dizzy'.
Sparky raised an eyebrow. 'What about Dizzy?' she asked.
'Oh come on Sparky!' Shortfuse said with a sigh. 'Dizzy totally has a crush on you!'
Sparky recoiled slightly at the statement, that wasn't what she was expecting in the slightest. 'What? You can't be serious', she cried out.
Shortfuse sighed again. 'Jeez Sparky, you need to slow down and start paying more attention to things. Do you know how ironic that is for me to say that? I'm serious, she is totally into you. You should hear the way she talks about you when you're not around!’ Shortfuse said, and chuckled. ‘She thinks you're the best thing since the micro fusion reactor! You would have noticed if you stopped, slowed down, and paid attention for once'.
Sparky blinked slowly, processing the information. 'You're sure?' she asked suspiciously, the last thing she wanted was for this to be another one of Shortfuse’s practical jokes, if it was, it would end in nothing but complete embarrassment, and possibly alienate Dizzy completely.
'I'm sure', Shortfuse said. 'Go talk to her about it'.
Sparky nodded her head. The more she thought about it, the less likely this was to be a joke; it was too cruel a joke to be coming from Shortfuse. She got up from her seat and trotted over to the compartment that Dizzy had gone into. Sparky found her sitting in the corner of the compartment; she was completely silent with her head tilted downwards. Was this prayer?
'Dizzy?' Sparky asked.
Dizzy jumped in surprise; she turned her head slowly to look at Sparky over her shoulder. Her face was bright red. 'Sparky... uh... hi', she said nervously.
'Are you all right?' Sparky asked.
'Me? Yeah, I'm fine, I'm sorry... I just... I...' Dizzy said.
'You do have a crush on me, don't you?' Sparky asked.
Dizzy's face turned completely red. 'You... you know?' she asked with a gulp. 'I thought I was good at hiding it... then when you caught me watching you... I just sort of fell apart'.
Sparky frowned and sat down next to her. 'Hey, Dizzy, it's all right. I don't mind, I'm flattered actually', she said with a smile.
'But you don't feel the same way... not that it matters, things wouldn't work anyway', Dizzy said with a frown.
'Dizzy that's not... wait, what do you mean?' Sparky asked.
'I've been praying for guidance on my feelings for you', Dizzy said. 'That's one of the problems with our faith; there are conflicting views on sexuality. The Book of Nephi condemns same sex relationships... but at the same time, some of our leaders have said that it's okay. Here, listen to this’, Dizzy said, pulling something up on her outdated MIP. ‘“While the Book of Nephi provides us with guidelines to live by, we must remember: they are merely guidelines. The Book of Nephi also encourages us to make our own opinions. Matters of the heart are no different, while the word of the Book of Nephi is good, we cannot allow it to think for us”', Dizzy read.
'That's... not something I would expect from a nephite to write', Sparky said.
Dizzy smiled slightly. 'That was written by Graham Cracker, he was one of our greatest leaders. Believe it or not, our society is not much different than yours, we've got just as many liberals as we do conservative, and we really like to voice our opinions'.
'So, what do you think then?' Sparky asked.
Dizzy frowned. 'That's just it; I don't know what to think. No matter what I eventually decide what to think on the matter, someone is going to be looking down on me, I choose to stay towards a more traditional stance, liberals will look down on me for not following my heart, if I were to choose the opposite, conservatives would look down on me as a homosexual whore'.
'That's rather harsh', Sparky said with a frown.
'Welcome to society, Sparky', Dizzy said with a smirk. 'Like I said though, it doesn't matter, because you don't feel the same way, and why would you?'
'Dizzy...' Sparky said.
'I mean, why would you? You're you, you’re great! You’re smart, you’re brave, and what am I? I'm nothing special, I’m just a kid out doing missionary work', Dizzy continued.
'Dizzy...' Sparky said again, somewhat more sternly.
Dizzy continued, having completely drowned Sparky out for the duration of her monologue, 'The other parts of our cultures are too different. I'm a nephite missionary, my faith is my life, and you're an atheist. Not that it's wrong that you are but...'
'DIZZY!' Sparky cried out.
'Huh? What?' Dizzy asked, snapping back into focus.
Sparky placed her hooves on Dizzy's shoulder and smiled at her, she was getting caught up in the moment. 'Dizzy? Just shut up', she added, before leaning forward and planting a kiss on her lips.
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This story is going kinda fast.
471821
How so?
I think I'd agree, the last two chapters haven't had enough time to really figure out what's going on. It kinda feels like everything has happened in the last two chapters has only taken five minutes. Ten at the most.
I love some of the little hints and not-so-subtle symbolism you have going on here.
The pacing is a bit weird to me at times, but I've been reading slower paced things recently.
But yes, Sparkplug. The ignition system to make a motor run. And so it turns over and splutters to life, powering something. To what end...? Well, there are some hints, but I'll keep that to myself.
im likeing this story a lot
471837
I dunno. I think I've read stories that are about as paced as this and they didn't seem to be going NEARLY this fast.
But you have to admit, that ship came from nowhere.
Wtf I didint expected this shit to happen
Sudden but cute
Nice.
A little fast: try and develop emotions a bit more. The story is good, but it feels like you're trying to force a cube object into a circular object, and the length of a square-face on the cube and the diameter of the circle are the same....
In other words, it most likely won't work out.
Take your time, and let the story guide you. No matter how small the conflict, try and make a great rising action and climax segment, and let it be smooth. It seems as if the whole 'crush' thing came into play in 1 chapter (for a majority of it), and that's pretty fast for something that major. I would've dropped a few hints and built up to the moment, but of course, I'm not really a writer or an author, so it's merely just a suggestion from a viewer.
However, I love this story so far, and it's definitely something I enjoy.
Wow this is moving fast... But hay, WE'RE IN SPAAACE~!
And there, the comparison between the nephites and their IRL counterparts breaks down. It surprises me that they would lessen the canonicity (canonicalness?) of the record on the Silver Plates.
This issue in question, though is one of the major forces presently at work in the IRL organization. With the doctrine being what it is, I don't know how much the church CAN shift, or WILL shift, but the culture of the people is changing slowly. Where we (as a church) end up is anyone's guess, and I certainly won't venture one, but I do know that God loves His children. (1 Nephi 11:17)
May I take your developing plot as a commentary of sorts?
Hold up, we went from: "By the way, Sparky. Dizzy has a crush on you" to "placed a kiss on her lips" in half a chapter while they knew each other for ca 20 chapters? This is a little fast Imo, especially when it took in the same time to propell Sparky from small desk-job analyst to saving the world astronaut and all they comment on that is "oh my, how sorry I am to have dragged you into this mess". I mean, I say that when I puke on a friend's backseat Friday night. Wouldnt be my first choice when finding myself on a spaceship to Jupiter.
Not that it really matters now, its 1am, I read 23 chapters already...might as well finish it up.
Yeah, that relationship sprung out of nowhere with essentially no buildup. If you ever go back and re-edit some of this, try to at least insert a few stray thoughts or actions on both sides of the line to explain it. I can understand not seeing much from Dizzy, she was trying to hide it. However, given the amount of time we spend with Sparkplug as POV around her, not having any hints of feelings in THAT direction makes this feel like she's just doing it to make Dizzy feel better or as a fling with someone willing, not an actual relationship.
If that's what you were going for, congrats, but I seriously doubt it after the whole black-dress thing.
I'm sorry to say that, that was really wooden.
Of course I'm not saying that every love story should be as sweet as one of Little Pip and Homage in Fallout: Equestria, but still, I'm kinda disappoint.
Well that was...sudden. Agree with most of the comments on this chapter. Hey I'm on a blimp/plane thing! Hey now I'm in space! Hey now I'm kissing a friend I've know for several days who I just found out has a crush on me. In SPACE! Fast paced much? If you do do a rewrite..thing of these few chapters try and spread the transitions out. Maybe.
Yeah, Dizzy was just praying that you didn't notice her oogling your flanks! Seriously, does everyone want Sparky?
And it's good to hear that you haven't forgotten that all of this started because of a cutie mark!
"Speaking of hidden things," CALLED IT! Though, I guess how open Shortfuse was about the whole thing means she was either never really into Sparky, or didn't think it would work out.
592020 Couldn't it also just be that the situation opened her eyes to how cute Dizzy is? She'd never considered her in that light before, but here she is just stammering away, blushing as red as rubies. And no one said it was a particularly sensual kiss. Perhaps it was just a peck.
The only thing I'v deducted from the last few chapters:
They're in space.
With Russians.
Who are Communists.
With Vodka.
Sparky just kissed Dizzy.
--TwilitLightning
Umm..... Wow? Ok, too much, brain overload; first, the uk style writing, then Russian ponies, and now ditzy doo's and vinyl's decendants are in a homo relationship (expected from Vinyl, but Ditsy?). My brain is now everywhere but my skull. I love this story.
....Am I the only one who remebers that Dizzy is only 15?
It seems kinda fast, but I am liking this nonetheless. Dizzy and Sparky together, seems appropriate somehow