Starbound
Chapter 07 - History Lessons
“Repeat the stellar system’s specifications to me again,” Jack instructed.
Only two days had passed since the Fatal Circuit incident. As promised, Timaeus had given them an updated starmap for installation on both of their ships, and that knowledge was currently being used in the same way it had been only a month and a half ago. The robotic crafting table was still under construction and the armor moulds were almost finished, but both Timaeus and Jason said they’d be finished soon.
“Five-planets, yellow star,” recited Twilight, “Equus is the second planet, and the only planet with a single moon, and it has a very diverse climate.”
The seconds passed as Jack ran the searching algorithm on the known planets in Sector Gamma, but to Twilight’s surprise and joy, four results turned up positive for fitting the stipulations.
“Four results,” Jack said, gesturing at the board. “Let’s see…”
He opened it up, and on the computer’s screen appeared a visualization of the system. However, upon looking at it, Twilight immediately could feel it wasn’t the right system.
“No, that can’t be it,” she said. “Continent shape is all wrong.”
Everything had appeared the same, but for that glaring error. And sad though it was, it was the closest result to how Equus had appeared. She let out a groan after the last planetary system vanished from Jack’s computer and rubbed at her eyes with her hoof.
“Two more sectors,” she grumbled. “And they only get larger and more dangerous.”
“Can’t help but share your sentiments,” Jack sighed. “I really don’t want to go anywhere near Sector X if I can help it. That’d put you in too much undue danger.”
“You know, you don’t have to baby me,” Twilight replied irritably. “I’m not helpless, you know.”
“What?” Jack asked, confused. “I never said you were.”
“Sure seemed like it,” she retorted.
“Twilight, are you still that upset over the whole PTSD thing?”
“I’M NOT UPSET, AND I DON’T HAVE PTSD!” she yelled, slamming a hoof into the floor of the Ulysses. “I’m perfectly capable of helping, and I can prove--”
Her reply was cut off as she was suddenly lifted off her hooves. After a moment of surprise and panic, she stopped kicking out her hooves before she managed to nick Jack. Jack, however, paid no attention to the four hooves that were currently flailing in all directions and just held her there, hugging her until she calmed down.
It took Twilight all of a minute, but after a long moment of letting the last dregs of her anger vanish, she finally relaxed as he held her there.
“Why?” she asked, hiding her face so he couldn’t see the redness that had started to tinge her cheeks.
“You looked like you needed a hug,” he responded simply. “You’ll get through this. There’s no magic cure for a psychological condition, but you’ll get through this.”
Twilight simply hummed to herself as she realized the truth in his words. Sometimes she just knew she was her own worst enemy. That well-known quote about the doctor ignoring or denying his own symptoms echoed through her mind, and only making herself feel that much worse about it.
“You know, you’re really tactile when it comes to your affections,” she noted, still content to simply stay in the hug.
“You’re one to talk,” retorted Jack, smirking. “What with the nuzzling and all.”
“My race is very tactile when it comes to showing affection,” Twilight stated. “Your’s isn’t, and yet you seem to do it all the time. Sometimes I think you’d fit in with us ponies better than with your humans.”
“I can’t help it,” Jack replied, smiling to himself. “You just look so huggable sometimes. You’re like living teddy bears, or something.”
“Teddy bears?” Twilight asked, feeling thoroughly bemused. “What are teddy bears?”
“They’re these little dolls filled with fluff that we used to give to children so they’d sleep better. Shaped like bears, obviously, and named after one of the old United States of America’s earlier presidents and a weird little hunting incident.”
“You name children’s dolls after an incident in which a human went out and senselessly killed an animal for sport?” Twilight asked, her deadpan voice making it clear just how dumb she felt humans had been in that particular moment in their history.
“Well, the story is he didn’t shoot the bear after his friends tied it to a tree, but it had to die anyway, and then it got all political and people drew cartoons of it, and then some guy went and made a stuffed doll of it. And suddenly, just like that, children are sleeping with teddy bears all across the world for hundreds of years.”
Twilight shook her head.
“You humans have some really strange history.”
“Oh, and you ponies don’t?” Jack asked. “Everyone has rather ridiculous moments in their history. Know why the Apex got so smart? They literally started by just crafting tools specifically to get to the bananas that were only just out of their reach by inches on their homeworld.”
“Seriously?” Twilight asked.
“Yep,” Jack said, and she felt him nod. “And the Florans had consciousnesses long before the Hylotl began to feed on them. When the Hylotl started to use Floran plants as their main crop, the Florans evolved specifically to stab them back.”
“That… I… how does… what?”
“Yeah, everyone has goofy bits in their history,” Jack said, nodding sagely. “There was this one time where a group of humans at war with a different city decided to pull back and lull them into a false sense of security.”
“They were at war, right?” Twilight asked. “Just pulling back would make them think the fight was over?”
“Well, no,” said Jack, grinning mischievously. “Not that alone, in any case. They built a giant wooden horse and left it at the city’s gate. The city, called Troy, thought it was a surrender gift and pulled it right into their city.”
“How did this lower their guard?” asked Twilight. “I mean, I get they thought it was a gesture of surrender, but wouldn’t they just close the gates behind them, or something?”
“Oh yes,” Jack said, nodding again. “But the Greeks hid soldiers in the horse. And when it was night time, out came the soldiers. They unlocked the gates for the Greek army, which hadn’t left at all, and then they all set fire to Troy.”
“Wow. Humans are idiots sometimes,” Twilight said., failing to keep a straight face.
“Hey now,” said Jack, rolling his eyes. “Maybe we were, but just look at what we’ve done since.”
“Yes, that is true,” Twilight agreed. “Humans have done a lot. You’re more advanced than ponykind are, that’s for sure, and I don’t mean to brag, but I had a huge helping hoof in getting us as far as we are today.”
“Did you, now?” asked Jack, surprised. “Considering how smart you are, I’m not surprised.”
Twilight smiled bashfully at his praise.
“So, here’s the question. Were I to show you where different human revolution periods, do you think you could pinpoint the current era you ponies currently live in?” Jack asked, getting out of the pilot seat of the Ulysses and walking back to his ship’s main computer. One of the things Jack had gotten installed on it was a special encyclopedia to help him store information on races during his travels, the better to relate and work with them. But he had made sure to keep a complete encyclopedia of human history as well.
“I suppose I could,” Twilight said as Jack powered it up. A holographic user interface appeared before her, with a long list of different eras. Prehistory, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Classical Era, the Medieval Era, the Renaissance Era, the Industrial Era, the Modern Era, the Atomic Era, the Space Age, the Information Age, the Nano Age, the Stellar Age, the Interstellar Age, and the Galactic Age.
Jack touched the Interstellar Age line with his index finger. “Technically, the human race is still in the Interstellar Age, as we have yet to really create technology that can communicate over 100,000 light years away,” he explained. “But when that happens, we will have made the jump.”
“What’s the Renaissance Era?” asked Twilight.
“It’s an era of human technological advancements, starting in about 1450 CE, where a guy by the name of Gutenberg created the printing press. A few years later, Christopher Columbus discovered the, quote, ‘New World,’ which was just the West Indies islands in his search for India.
“See, the Medieval period had been a period where very few inventions had appeared. With this one invention and this one discovery, everyone everywhere started making things, and human technology made great leaps and bounds. It was in this era that Pierre de Fermat came up with his last theorem and a man by the name of Leonardo da Vinci created all these different diagrams for inventions that wouldn’t be realized for several hundred more years, like a flying machine.”
“So, you would say the Renaissance is where the technology level advanced to a great degree?” asked Twilight. “And also, ‘CE?’”
“Oh, CE stands for Common Era,” Jack explained. “Before Year Zero, as it’s called, we call it BCE, or BC, and after, for about two-thousand years, we called those years AD. BC and AD are tied together, because we used to measure time based on one of the historical religious figures by the name of Jesus, whom a certain sect of religious people call Christ. So BC is ‘Before Christ,’ that is before his traditional birth date, with his actual birth date supposedly being four years earlier, and AD is anno domini, which means ‘In the year of our Lord.’ They changed it because suddenly it dawned on people that not everyone worshipped Jesus. Took several years to really catch on, and even now, we still have some people who use the traditional notations, but it’s not like it hurts anyone, so no one really cares anymore.
“And yes, I would say the Renaissance is what you’ve just described.”
“Based on that knowledge, I’d say… actually, can I see some of the inventions of the Renaissance era?”
With another touch of his finger, different images began to appear around Twilight. A machine labelled a printing press, a refracting telescope, a microscope, some clocks, even eyeglasses.
“Well, I can see we were already mostly past that when I helped start our revolution,” she said as the images vanished. “What about the Industrial era?”
A steam engine, an aeroplane, a cotton gin, a telephone, and several others appeared around her.
“Well okay, that’s clearly not it either. Modern era?”
As the many inventions of the Modern Era appeared, Twilight’s eyes brightened.
“That’s it. Well, that and a little of the Industrial Era, but the Modern Era is where we mostly were when I got things going.”
“And now?”
“Well,” Twilight tilted her head to the side, thinking. “What’s the Information Age?”
“It was the age at the turn of the second to third millennium, in which computers and their applications became immensely powerful. It lasted a good forty years until advances in nanotechnology took us to the Nano Age.”
“I’ve never heard of nanotechnology before,” Twilight mused, “but with all of the computers we had to build just to get the Enterprise flyable, I guess, you could say we’re currently in the Information Age. Out of curiosity, what is nanotechnology?”
Jack opened his mouth to answer, but he stopped, paused for a long moment, and then closed it.
“You know, I really can’t explain it very well. I know it involves working with subatomic particles and atoms directly, but beyond that, there were a lot of advancements that I couldn’t even comprehend. The Nano Age lasted for another forty or so years, and then we arrived at the Stellar Age, which is when we first started to expand past the Sol System. Didn’t set up cities like Terra Stella for another hundred years or so, but this was when we started putting finite colonies on other planets to see if we could. Once we perfected warp and made it commercially available, and especially once we got Terra Stella up and running, we officially entered the Interstellar Age.”
“Wow,” breathed Twilight, letting her mind run through the possibilities. What if ponykind expanded beyond the Celestine System? What if they became like the humans, the avia, the hylotl and the many beings that roamed the galaxy? The possibilities for ponykind’s technological and scientific growth were endless!
“Say Twilight,” said Jack, interrupting her thoughts.
“Hm?”
“I know this may seem a bit out of the blue,” he preempted, “but what ‘s your life been like?”
“I beg your pardon?” asked Twilight, confused. Jack rolled his eyes at his poor way of phrasing that.
“I mean, we’ve been talking history, and it just suddenly struck me that I really don’t know much about your life. What Equestria’s like, where you’ve lived, all that stuff.”
“I could say the same thing for you, Jack,” countered Twilight.
Jack could only nod. “Yeah, exactly my point. We’ve been traveling together for a while now. Think we should get to know each other a bit more?”
Twilight had to be honest, she was surprised it was him that asked the question and not her. She’d wanted to get to know Jack a little more for quite a while now, but there had never seemed to be a good time to ask.
After her moment of surprise, she smiled and nodded. “Yes, I think that would be nice.”
They left the Ulysses in orbit around Terra Stella’s planet and returned to their hotel room, reasoning that it would probably be a lot more comfortable than in a metal ship with only one seat. Along the way, Twilight told Jack about her time growing up as Princess Celestia’s pupil, of her time spent in Ponyville with her friends, of the time she had uttered those fateful words that had transformed her into an alicorn, and of all the adventures they’d had ever after.
“For twenty years, everything as perfect,” she said. “We went on even more adventures, we spread the magic of friendship,” Jack snorted, “and all the time, I aided the scientists of Equestria more and more, leading to a massive technological boost. About a year ago, before I was going to go into my training to handle the Enterprise, though, we all met together in Ponyville for something Pinkie Pie had labelled on the invitation as a ‘Super-Duper Special Occasion…”
As usual, Rainbow Dash was late. Though when you had become a celebrity, not to mention you spent almost every waking hour of the day training in some way or another, Twilight supposed there was little of that they could blame her for.
As the five of them stood around Sugarcube Corner, a giant dish cover placed over what Twilight could only assume was a recreation of the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness over on top of the counter that Pound and Pumpkin were dutifully tending to, Twilight felt a familiar pang of sadness over what she had to know the real occasion was.
Her bittersweet feeling was mirrored in the eyes of the others, though not the smiles. Rarity was telling them all about her recent invitation from Hoity Toity to be a judge in Equestria’s Next Top Model, which would be taking place up in Canterlot in two seasons. Even Applejack seemed impressed.
“Something on your mind, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy quietly, her pink mane showing only a tiny sliver of fade.
Rarity stopped in the regaling of her tale, to give a look in Twilight’s direction.
“Yes, darling, is there something wrong?” she asked.
“I… yes, there is.” She took a deep breath. “I think we all know the real reason why we’re all here today.”
Pinkie’s omnipresent smile faded slightly.
“I mean, let’s face it, with me heading off to Hoofston in three days, this will be the last time in five years the six of us will be able to be together as… well, the six of us.”
Rarity smiled wanly. “I know, Twilight. This has been the most wonderful chapter in my life-- in our lives, I’d say!-- but all good things must come to an end.”
“I mean,” Pinkie cut in, “it’s not like we won’t be friends after this, right? We’re still super-duper-pony-friends forever!”
“But… our time together has run its course,” said Fluttershy. “I mean, Applejack and I will still be in Ponyville, but with Rainbow Dash always gone with the Wonderbolts, you going off who knows where, and with Rarity moving to Canterlot and Pinkie and Pierce moving away to Manehattan while you’re gone, we won’t be the same anymore.”
“Fluttershy’s right,” Applejack stepped in. “We may even get to meet each other every now and then, at the very least we’ll all see each other at the Galas when Twi gets back, but Ah think this really is gonna be the last time we’re all together as best friends.”
“Girls, come here,” Twilight said, eyes watering and holding her arms open. The others didn’t need any better invitation and the five of them just held each other.
The door banged open and an incredibly frantic Rainbow Dash flew in.
“I’m not late, am I? I had to stay back because some rookie got lost in the Weather Factory again! Tell me I’m not late!”
Twilight could only let out a giggle. “You’re right on time, Rainbow Dash. Get over here and join the group hug.”
Twilight was startled to feel her eyes sting, and that the fur on her cheeks was suddenly damp.
“Are you going to be alright?” Jack asked, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“I… I just… I miss them so much,” she said, as her lip trembled. Jack immediately swept her into another hug.
“I know what that’s like,” he muttered into her ear, which twitched slightly, before she pulled away.
“You know what everything’s like, don’t you,” she said bitterly. “I’m beginning to wonder if you actually mean it.”
She felt him stiffen against her for a moment, before his arms let her go. Startled, she looked up at him, only to find that he was looking away, an unreadable expression on his face. Twilight couldn’t tell if it was hurt from her comment, or if it was pain from something only he knew about.
The moment she saw that expression, it finally occurred to her what she had said without thinking.
“I’m sorry!” she blurted out.
He just held up a hand to forestall a response, before shaking his head.
“I really do know what it’s like, Twilight,” he said quietly. “You’ve told me your story. Would you like to hear mine?”
She could only keep quiet still while she watched him. But after a moment, she hesitantly nodded.
He sighed and glanced out a window, where a number of thunderheads were starting to gather overhead.
“I told you about the UNA, the EU, and China, how they all became superpowers because more and more countries couldn’t support themselves,” he said, “so bear in mind, when I say ‘America,’ I mean what was once the original 55 United States of America.”
“Fifty-five?” asked Twilight. “Fifty-five countries that make one big one?”
“Sort of,” Jack rubbed his temple with his index finger. “There were originally thirteen, but then they added more and more until they owned 48 states in one big body of land. Then they added Hawai’i’ and Alaska which are a bit of a ways away from, shall we say, the continental US. About a century after they came in, some island territories like Puerto Rico and Guam were granted statehood, and then it stayed that way for several decades.”
He yawned slightly, before shaking his head wildly as he came out of it, causing his red hair to flail about and take on an almost flame-like appearance for just a fleeting moment.
“I was born in Boston Massachusetts, capital of one of the original 13 states. When I was four, my parents both died due to sickness. The country was so massive, and so much of it’s resources were going towards preparing for the inevitable war with China, that there were too many sick people and not enough doctors. My parents were also poor, and as a result, they died because they couldn’t get treatment.”
“That’s horrible!” exclaimed Twilight. “How could such a country exist, that doesn’t allow people medicine if they don’t have money?”
“You have no idea,” Jack said in a low voice. “No idea. A few hundred years ago, one of our presidents introduced a new healthcare system designed to provide health insurance to people who couldn’t afford regular health insurance, and therefore couldn’t afford medicine or treatment, and the political party set against him just went apeshit over it. A few decades later, everything just went back to the status quo. And it all led to the deaths of my parents,” he spat.
Twilight’s mind was still reeling from that. What kind of country doesn’t even take care of its own citizens?
But Jack continued. “So there I was, four years old, and living on the streets. Ended up meeting a couple of other orphans like me.” He smiled fondly at the memories. “There was Ross O’Donnell, the son of Irish immigrants whose parents had also been lost to sickness, and Rory McKellan, a Scottish-American kid whose parents had died in a car crash with a drunk driver.”
“How did you all survive?” Twilight asked.
“My third friend, whose parents hadn’t died yet,” answered Jack. “James Kent, whose father happened to be a Colonel for the United Nations of America Space Marine forces. He took all three of us in in addition to his own son. Didn’t raise us like his children or anything, but he still kept us fed and healthy, and let us have a place to sleep.”
“He sounds like a good person,” observed Twilight.
“Oh yeah, Mr. Kent was the best,” Jack suddenly grinned. “I remember the time we were in his backyard playing baseball, and we accidentally broke one of Mr. Kent’s windows. He comes right outside, angry as could be, saw what we were up to, and then proceeded to join right in.”
He giggled. “I think we might have broken at least twelve windows that day. He told us he was getting them replaced soon anyway, and he couldn’t sell them. Mrs. Kent got all the glass cleaned up without a problem.”
His smile fell.
“We got older, he got promoted to a General in the UNASM forces, so he was out of the house a lot. He staked us all in college. But when World War III looked like it was about to start, we went our separate ways. I of course left the planet on the Ulysses, but I had Rory with me. He’s still somewhere in Terra Stella, last I heard, but I have no idea what he’s up to or even where he’s working, and it’s been four years since I last saw him.
“James’ dad got him a job with the UNASC, and since I know Mr. Kent’s now the UN’s top admiral, I can count on him to be safe from Earth’s destruction, since I know for a fact Mr. Kent’s keeping his family aboard UN Home One, the UNSC’s space station orbiting Earth.
“But Ross... “ he shook his head. “Ross got involved with the USCM before the schism. I have no idea which side of it he’s on, but given that 90% of the USCM forces went for the xenophobic side, and they pretty much massacred everyone who wouldn’t cooperate, it’s most probable he’s either dead or turned.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
“See what I mean? You miss your friends, and I miss mine too. I only know where to find one, and I ain’t going anywhere near Sector Sigma any time soon, and the other two could be dead for all I know.”
He let go of his nose and leaned his head back. Twilight saw him take a long breath in through his nose, hold it for a moment, before slowly letting it out through his mouth. That simple action did wonders for his composure, since although he had been trying to hide it, she could see the effect it was having on him, talking about his friends’ fates when almost none of them were happy endings.
“I don’t mean to belittle your own plight, Twilight,” he explained. “I’m just saying, I know. I understand. And if you need anything, a shoulder to cry on, someone to laugh with, that’s why I’m here. I’m your guide, in a manner of speaking, but I’m also your friend, and I’m here for you.”
Twilight didn’t know what to say. Jack didn’t seem to know what to follow it up with, but in the end, after a moment of letting the silence hang, he smiled and ran a hand up Twilight’s neck, before tousling her mane, much to Twilight’s good-natured irritation. No one messed with her mane.
“Well, our armor and the moulds should be ready in a couple of days. We’ll be exploring Sector Gamma in the next few weeks, and hopefully we can find Equus when we reach Sector Delta.”
“Hopefully,” repeated Twilight.
“I’ve got a few things to do, Twi,” h said, suddenly getting up and stretching. “I forgot, I have to go grab a few extra things for the Enterprise.”
“Wait, a few extra things?” Twilight asked. “What are you doing to my ship?”
“Getting it properly repaired, that’s what,” Jack said. “I’m no expert mechanic, and the job I did to fix your ship was little more than a patch job. Now we’re here, we can get it fixed by actual starship mechanics. It won’t take more than a couple of extra days, coinciding with our armor being finished. I figure a properly-running ship will help more than just about anything, won’t it?”
Twilight grinned. Ever since it had been wrecked and stranded above Alpha Prime III-B, it had felt a bit clunkier. Good to know that it would be fixed.
“I’ll be back, Twilight. Want me to bring any dinner?”
“That would be welcome, yes,” she nodded.
Jack smiled and left with a little wave. But it left Twilight feeling strange. A little wave and some eye contact, leaving her with a strange giddy feeling?
That’s impossible, she said, thinking back to the couple of other times she had felt like this regarding someone else. How… how is that possible? I’ve only known him for almost a month!
Still, he had saved her life, begun shepherding her home, and was offering himself as an emotional crutch when she needed it. And that wasn’t to mention the fact that they both had been through so much since they had started space travel.
Sure, Jack probably wouldn’t ever be on the same level as her when it came to total experience, given her extended lifespan, but there was already a connection forged in fire between them.
And with all of that information going through her brain, she was forced to confirm the inevitability to herself.
Twilight Sparkle liked Jack Thomas.