Entry 48

The next few days on the ship were tedious and long. Or at least, so they felt to me. John spent the time learning as much as he could about the Universe we were now members of. He spent hours talking with Blaue about the current political atmosphere and the place of humans in Society. Blaue was never too busy to talk, because she could make several projections of herself. She could be talking to John and me at the same time while still working with Ven in the cockpit. As a hologram, she had no physical limitations.

While John spent his hours reading or talking, I was bored out of my mind. I guess I could have done research like John, but I had never been the kind of person to read about something before doing it. That was John. I swear he read the entire history of football before he tried out for the team. I was always the sort of person who just jumped in feet first. I joined band without knowing anything about music or instruments. I chose to play the clarinet because it seemed interesting. I did not do any research in advance. I never did. I just wanted to be a part of the Universe, not study it.

I suppose that’s why John and I have always made such a good team. He brings knowledge to the table, and I bring action.

[John would like to interrupt at this moment to say that his research has never kept him from action, which he feels is what I insinuated. He thinks I should not be encouraging you to believe my “sort of recklessness” is acceptable. Whatever John. I don’t like to waste time studying what I’m going to learn by doing.]

I spent a lot of my time exploring the contents of Ven’s ship. Blaue let me go anywhere except the cockpit and Ven’s personal chamber. I wandered through the cargo area, though I was forbidden to actually open any of the cargo. I fished through every cabinet in the mess hall and Blaue even let me make dinner for everyone one night. Sometimes I just searched my own room. My closet was full of wonderful clothes, like a clothing wonderland. The entertainment Blaue hooked me up with was the closest I came to studying the culture of the Universe. I started books so alien I could barely comprehend a word, even though it was translated into English. I watched movies so bizarre that they left my mind reeling. I did not let it bother me. The easiest way to understand a culture is to dive into it. Without any understanding, entertainment usually yields little to those of us who aren’t anthropologists.

What I really wanted to do was visit the cockpit, to see how the ship was controlled. Blaue tried to dissuade me from the notion, telling me it was not exciting. After all, she was the ship and she did most of the controlling. However, visions of Han Solo and Chewbacca maneuvering the Millennium Falcon filled my mind. I could just imagine the debonair Ven evading Imperial TIE fighters with the assistance of the witty and beautiful Blaue.

I harassed Ven unmercifully, trying every tactic from begging to ordering. However, nothing swayed him. He would not allow me or John into the cockpit. He was staunch, always saying, “The bridge is no place for a girl who has no idea what she was doing.”

“Is that what you tell your sister?” I demanded the first time he said it, thinking he was blowing me off because I was a girl.

“No, my sister is trained in how to fly,” Ven responded to my surprise. “I let her handle Blaue, with my supervision of course. “

“So teach me to fly!” I exclaimed, just imagining myself, like Luke Skywalker, piloting an X-wing.

“No,” Ven always answered.

Blaue kept trying to convince me to give up, but I was just as stubborn as Ven. I wanted to learn to fly and nothing was going to change my mind.