The Equestrian Starliner

by computerneek

Chapter 14

It’s a few hours later. The rest of her conversation with her dad had been more of what he had expected- or, at least, what might have happened had magic not existed. He is a worrywart, when it comes to his only daughter- even before she was transformed.

And because he’d asked, she now knows ponies are genetically incompatible with humans. Nevermind that that fact is irrelevant; as of yet, she’s had flat nothing of a love life… which means that anyone she spends enough time near to even consider that will have been exposed to her magic quite a lot… and transformed. Athena had been able to confirm genetic compatibility between two ponies- and she’s pretty sure she hadn’t even bothered computing that answer.

Oh- and there’d been the expected mention of her refusal of Lieutenant Commander Chaftan, but that went over almost exactly as it did in the simulation.

She’s spent the time since she finished talking to him on a tactical exercise. It had taken a little bit of time- a few minutes, really- between the two activities in figuring out how to use the control panel with hooves.

It hasn’t worked out very well. Her little exercise just ended in abject failure, mostly because she’s having difficulty with the touch controls.

She lets out a sigh. “Athena?”

A tone sounds.

“How long until my crew starts waking up?”

“As of one minute ago, members of the first flight are completing the transformation process. Natural awakening is expected shortly.”

“Uh… Okay? Is something happening?”

“Affirmative. After your transformation, you awoke naturally at the same moment thaumic densities stopped rising within your form. Additionally, at that moment, thaumic energy began to bleed outwards; generation did not abate. At no point between your awakening and use of the transporters did your internal thaumic density rise beyond this recorded density; energy expenditure was observed during this time, primarily in object manipulation. Internal thaumic densities regenerated at the same rate as in the final stages of slumber.”

“... And they’re in that regenerative state, then.”

“Affirmative.”

“Alright. If we assume everypony caps off at the same density, how long do I have to wait?”

“Assuming peak internal density equivalent to yours upon awakening, Lieutenant Commander Sta’leen will awaken in one hour, forty-seven minutes.”

She tilts her head. “Huh? Did I change or something?”

“Affirmative. Immediately upon return by transporter, your internal thaumic densities resumed regeneration at increased rate, exceeding the prior limit, and have not yet peaked. Energy lost to expenditure, primarily in flight, was instantly regenerated, in addition to ongoing regeneration. Unlike prior regeneration, your current regeneration does not appear to be connected to your metabolism.”

“So…”

“At this time, thaumic densities within your form are approximately eighty nine point four percent maximum densities recorded from the origin dimension.”

She blinks. “Uh… okay. I guess I’m going to hope there are no negative side effects to massive thaumic densities. Um, would it hurt to wake Sta’leen up?”

“Negative. Update on Manufacturing progress: Thaumic control surface test piece has been completed.”

She blinks. “Yes! Lemme try it first, then I’m gonna want to go wake him up.”

“Orders confirmed.”

With a brief flash of light, the test piece appears on the panel in front of her. A tablet- not unlike the iPad her dad likes using as a portable console.

She reaches out a hoof and touches it gently.

“Thaumic detection and localization successful. Launching accuracy test.”

She blinks, and the formerly blank screen switches to something familiar. A keyboard covers one half of the small screen, a blinking cursor on the other half.

She pokes at a few keys, making flat zero mistakes. Even when she knows for a fact that her hoof landed on the wrong button at least once.

“Completely accurate,” she states. “And… is it just me, or did my hoof land on the wrong button at some point, but a different one respond?”

“Affirmative. Fourteen times, physical contact between hoof and tablet surface indicated one key, while thaumic flow indicated another. Characters were selected based on thaumic flow.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Now I’m curious.” She rests her hooves against the keyboard, and concentrates on the letters. Imagines some forty or so fingers, one for each key, hovering just over the keyboard, punching down at just the right moment.

The message comes out legibly.

“Huh… So, I can type without even moving. Couple typos, but they’re consistent- probably because I couldn’t see the keys.” She glances at her hoof. “Makes me wonder, how far away can I get and still make it work?”

She tries holding a hoof over the keyboard while she performs the same mental exercise. Then a little further away. And a tad further; if she leans to the side a little, she can see which keys are under the edges of her hoof.

It works every time.

Then she tilts her head, puts the hoof down on her seat, and tries again, with no hooves anywhere near the tablet.

She gets one character to appear- and accurately, at that- before being distracted by a strange tingling on her forehead. “What the heck…?” She raises a hoof, touches her forehead at that spot- or, not so much. Turns out that spot is where her horn is. “Athena, did something strange just happen?”

“Negative. During your final trial, thaumic flow was originated from your horn, rather than hooves, for vastly increased precision.”

She blinks. “So…” She looks at the tablet, concentrating briefly to ticker out a message- with perfect accuracy. The same tingling came from her forehead again- and this time, she’s able to spot a gold-ish glow at the very top of her vision as she does so. “So, in the simulation, I could levitate and teleport… and in the real world, I can type.” She chuckles. “I think I prefer it this way. In the simulation, I had to hoof-peck to get anything written- or tell you to do it for me. But now?” She punches in another message, and chuckles again. “I hardly even have to think about it. Yes, yes, definitely a keeper- and that’s a go for upgrading all the control consoles with this. The others will still have to use their hooves… but at least they won’t have to deal with any ridiculous hoof-pecking. Anyways, Sta’leen is still asleep, isn’t he?”

“Affirmative.”

“Alright then, let’s go fix that.” She hops off her command chair, turning to trot back to the door.

“Update on Crewing Operations: four thousand medical personnel have scheduled to come aboard in eighteen hours.”

She doesn’t break her trot, headed towards Sta’leen’s room. “Nice! Anything else?”

“Automated supply vessel will be docking externally in four point seven hours for delivery of hydroponics supplies; thirty-nine thousand two hundred additional crewmembers have been assigned, arrival time unknown. The United Space Administration has requested reassignment of seven of your present bridge officers to lesser areas of this vessel, and has sent higher-ranked replacements.”

“Requested?”

“Bridge Officer reassignment must be authorized by Command personnel.”

“So… me or Sta’leen.”

“Affirmative.”

“Roger. Approve those, then- they were a… less than stellar bridge crew. Though, is Sta’leen still my exec?”

“Affirmative.”

“What about me?”

“You have been granted acting status as Rear Admiral of the Green.”

She blinks. “That far?”

“Affirmative. Transmission interceptions suggest multiple parties are working to make it permanent.”

She pauses to plant a hoof in her face, ignoring the pain. “I’ve been a full Commander for all of a week and they’re trying to give me flag rank? Wow. Just… wow.”

“Analysis suggests a political move, intended to atone to your father for their failure to remove testing equipment from this vessel prior to commissioning.”

She lets out a snort of laughter and resumes her path. “Their bad luck he doesn’t forgive easily- and that massive promotion spikes like this are more likely to get them fired than forgiven.”

---

He awakens instantly to the high-pitched buzzer, one arm snapping off the side of the bed to disable the-

He lets out a pained yelp as the arm in question falls on nothing but air, instead flexing over the edge of the mattress in a way it’s not quite supposed to. Nothing broke, though, so it comes back onto the mattress just as quickly while he rises to a sitting position, glancing around for the alarm… even though it’s already gone silent.

Then he pauses, his tail lying flat on the bed, underneath the covers.

He’s certain he didn’t have one of those last night.

He doesn’t look at it, nor at any other part of himself, even though he can’t seem to feel his fingers against the sheets… and feels oddly drained. Instead, he looks up, at the ceiling. “What happened?”

“Adaptation process for Unknown Energy One, now christened Thaumic Energy, completed in your form approximately two point three minutes ago. You were awakened prior to completion of initial thaumic regeneration, as the Captain has requested your attention.”

He almost curses. “Alright… Next question, what am I?”

“Adapted forms are christened ‘pony’; visual similarity to a pegasus.”

He takes a deep breath. “Well, that explains the tail, the fingers… and the ears.” He’d noticed the last one, moving on the top of his head, while Athena had been talking the first time. He shakes his head slightly. “Wings, I can investigate later, unless there’s a related involuntary action that I should be aware of?”

“Negative observed involuntary wing motions.”

Sigh. “So, none that we know of. Whelp…” He carefully lifts himself out of bed, dropping to the floor on all four… He actually looks down at them now. Yep, hooves. He takes a few experimental steps, then nods to himself. “Alright, I can do it. How long was I out?”

“Sixteen point two hours.”

“Shoot.”

Comments

[Booster Spice]

I like those Thaumic controls. Powered by intent. Which is a really obscure injoke in computing and canon terms.

As for Staleens reactions, thats up there at Riker class.

[LostArchivist]

That little trick with the keyboard was actually something I had wanted to pioneer for my story, but hadn't even written down yet. Drat you for getting ahead of me! :D

Though I was going to use a physical keyboard and an odd use of hoofgrip, admittedly.

I'll also follow up BoosterSpice's comment on the intent-based programming bit. I caught that one too, and there are so many times I wish my computer actually did that. The downside is that by the time we invent something along those lines, it will get bought out by some big company who will either make it cloud-based, require licensing, ship it as compiled binary, or share your surface thoughts with anyone who pays. Most likely all of the above. There are times I hate living in the future.

Okay, that's a silly example (though admittedly something that would be awesome in theory) but why can't people consider the idea of making software portable anymore? A lot of hardware these days gets EOL'd due to nobody supporting the software anymore and updated/fixed versions just not existing. I actually prefer older tech as long as it works offline and not needing to phone home to its true masters!

[Kentavritsa]

He’s certain he didn’t have one of those last night.

okay, this is priceless