GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE; RUSS AND JOHN
Taal: Attention.
R: (laughs) Hello Taal, Taal is one of the pilot leaders, if I remember right.
Taal: Correct, Officer.
R: My former Officer and Field Commanding Officer when I get back into a ship here once in awhile.
Taal: Yes.
R: Well, how’s life been treating you Taal, any good excitement lately?
Taal: Yea, I had another confirmed victory for myself.
R: Hey! Congratulations.
Tahl: Thank you.
R: Good deal. And what was the circumstances surrounding this?
Taal: Uhm,...
R: You’re not talking about Mark and your guy’s session in the Hologram-room ...(laughs)
Taal: No. Although, I have challenged him.
R: Oh good.
Taal: But, he did not accept or decline. No, this was a vessel that would not yield for inspection.
R: Oh. Okay.
Taal: It would not stop for inspection. I fired a warning shot across it’s bow. It carried on going. I fired a shot at it’s engines, so it’s disabled; it returned fire.
R: Bad call on his part.
Taal: So, I scanned, took down it’s shield, and scanned again. It continued returning fire. So I destroyed it.
R: You gave it plenty of chances.
Taal: We are meant too.
R: Yea. Now that reminds me of something, Taal. I was reading about an incident that happened back in 1954 where a ship crashed in the desert...
Jo: New Mexico....
R: In New Mexico, and apparently what had been shown is that, apparently it came out of the atmosphere and burned up and the bodies inside burned up. But knowing the shielding and the capabilities of it, it seems like it was disabled first before it made it’s headlong plunge into our atmosphere.
Taal: That was not me.
R: Well, I know it was not you. But, I mean, that sounds like something that would happen.
Taal: An engagement would ... the primary function of engagement is to take out shielding first. By disabling the shielding, it makes the pod easier to board for inspection.
R: Right. Now. Wouldn’t it be necessary, standard operation procedure, to make sure that the crafts disintegrate before it hits the ground?
Taal: If the crew is alive it would be...sorry I do not know the word ....
Kiri: practical?
Taal: thank you Kiri.
R: Okay, so those crafts that were found where the crew had died, but the ship survived intact; was that just maybe pilot error?
Taal: Possibly, yes.
R: Some of these guys that fly around here probably aren’t that greatest pilots.
Taal: There is no such thing as bad pilot. Bad pilot, dead.
R: That’s true. What’s your next mission?
Taal: I will be escorting on Wednesday a group of two vessels to Sirrius. I will be returning with that group a week later.
R: A ski team, I believe.
Taal: Yes. We are part of Honor Guard.
R: Excellent, so you get to go to the races.
Taal: Yea. I am not competing.
R: How is Katrina doing?
Taal: She is going also. We are having, you would say, a second honeymoon.
R: Ah, I take it, she’s one of the shuttle pilots.
Taal: Yes.
R: Lucky guess.
Taal: Yes. Only chance she had the chance to fly in over a year.
R: The child growing well, she doesn’t have to be running inventories in the hangers anymore. She should be able to fly, shouldn’t she?
Taal: She is still ground crew.
R: Really?
Taal: She is, will be for another six to twelve months.
R: That must just tear her up.
Taal: Yes. She is requesting to be a shuttle pilot.
R: That’s good. Are you taking the little one with you?
Taal: Yes.
R: Excellent, good.
Taal: He will be flying with me.
R: His first trip to Sirrius, I take it?
Taal: Yes.
R: Good. That will be nice. What a nice vacation, second honeymoon with a child and everything.
Taal: Yes.
R: Oh, fantastic. Okay. Well, I look forward to seeing you whenever I can. You’ll be on the base, at least till Sunday then?
Taal: Until Wednesday. We start on Sirrius to rendezvous with other ski teams so we go there for big arrival display.
R: Formation flying and all?
Taal: Yes. Have always wanted to go to surface of Centari Base out of facilities.
R: I’ve been to Cetarri Base, nice base.
Taal: Looking forward.
R: Yea, you’ll have a good time. A lot of nice things to do out there. And will you do any recreational skiing once you get there?
Taal: Yes, probably. Katrina wants to ski, she said name of mountain and she had wistful look in her eyes.
R: Well, that will be fun for you guys. By the way, I understand your wingman had a bit of an experience a while back.
Taal: Frizzling?
R: Yea.
Taal: Yes. Again, he has accident prone. His vessel still been sent for repair, has a new one.
R: Oh, he has a new one.
Taal: Yea.
R: Poor guy got jumped and everything.
Taal: But, he made it back.
R: Well, that’s good.
Taal: Like I said, no such thing as bad pilot. Thank you. Dismissed.
R: Very well.
Jo: Thank you.