Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

VIII. A N Tsay I like women who have similar interests in advanced roetry and skillfulzero-g manoeuvers.”“Now you just sound dirty, doctor. Oh, hell. Just call me Mielle.”“Uh, I'm just Paul. Everyone who works with me usually just calls me byname anyway.” Dr. Grovepath smiled nervously. “I do hope that our cooperationgoes as smooth as possible, Mielle. In any way.”“If you really want it, Paul, aer all this is over, maybe we could head to LStation and I could show you some skillful zero-g manoeuvres.”“Right! As was probably slightly apparent on the New Avalon, I guess I stillneed… some zero-g training from an experienced instructor, before I can head toL. If you don't mind teaing me…”Daleworth laughed. “Nonsense, you handled yourself fine. But I'll… be happyto help you.”“By the way, this is a beautiful place”, Dr. Grovepath said and looked around,admiring the skylight above them that revealed starry sky. It was a beautifulplace, one that looked like it belonged to a commercial FTL cruise line spaceshipthan a military vessel. Dr. Grovepath had imagined the Mannerheim to be acramped, labyrinthine ship, and it certainly looked like that in the publicly availablediagrams, but once again, the scale was surprisingly deceiving. e corridorswere spacious, and tall; Almost every arterial corridor had two monorail linesgoing in opposite directions, on whi one-seat, streamlined cars sped forth atstaggering speed, zipping around well over the heads of the people who preferredto walk. When Dr. Grovepath had just had to pun in the room number andhe was transported across three des in less than two minutes. “I had no ideamilitary spaceships had this sort of… nice spaces. Skylights above and beneswith upholstery and everything.”“You should see the zero-g section.” Daleworth sighed. “Sorry, I get a bit… saltywhen I get anxious. Anyway, yeah, the community spaces are kind of awesomein most of the frigates. ey wanted the starboard cafeteria to look as good aspossible on the Mannerheim. She was named aer a field marshal who fought forthe people of his homeland, so that they could keep drinking coffee freely. Andnot the tea. e enemies, who had already invaded many other countries, drunktea.”“Oh. And this was in…?”“World War .”“You would imagine a bit more detailed history would survive from that era…”“It did, but frankly, when I was in the Academy, I wasn't very interested of themotivations of war, so I can't remember everything. I just wanted to know howto survive through them. Politicians try their darnest to prevent wars. Soldiersendure through them, one way or other, in the unlikely event the politicians failat their jobs.”