Adam was asleep in the back of the ship when he was awakened by movement coming from next to him. He looks up to see the Lady starting to move away.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked, without turning around.
"Next to you, who wouldn't?"
"Most everyone, but good Final Fantasy VII quote."
He takes a look at the clock, and said: "Well, we'd better get ready to land pretty soon."
She tosses him a small, individually wrapped square - one of the many benefits they got from their long time information exchange with the Asgard.
"Ack," he says after eating it, "you'd think that after all this time, we'd figure out how to make these not taste like crap."
"Heh."
A few minutes later, they are putting on their dress uniforms. Adam gets her attention by adding something to it however: what looked like a belt with suspenders.
"You're wearing a body shield?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he answered, "and you should too."
"Surely it won't be necessary. They wouldn't try anything here."
" 'For, thy last breath shalt also be mine own' " he quoted from the traditional A'millian wedding vows.
"Well, since you went through all the trouble of forming a coherent, logical argument, I guess I have to."
He looked at her, smiling, for a couple seconds, then finished fastening the shield and started to put on his boots.
"Yeah, also remember their might be telepaths there," he said.
"So block our minds. It's not like we've never dealt with them before."
"Yeah," he agreed, putting on the uniform's ceremonial sword on his right side.
He always found ceremonial weapons to be kinda bizarre - a weapon made for looks rather than use. These swords have decorative handles and blades, but weigh very little and have no true blade nor point. Contrasted to his regular sword, which some have said is a ugly lump of enhanced laconia with a crystal orb superglued to the handle, made to channel magical energy and be conventionally deadly at the same time. It might not look nice, but it has worked oh so well for over a milennium despite endless abuse. These fancy swords seem to need replacement at least every fifty years, and that is with heavy maintenance.
Next comes the double layered cape, covering his left side. (looks like like
this).
The Lady also puts on her sword, on her left side, and her cape, covering her right side.
After he sees that she had the cape on, he steps up to her and says: "You have some grease on your face, old friend, let me get that off you."
She leans back, laughing and says: "No I don't! You're such an ass!"
He stands smiling at her as she starts to put on her ceremonial hat.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, smiling as well.
"I love you" he answered.
"I know."
"Nice Han Solo quote."
"Just put your hat on and fly the ship."
"Yes, sir."
Soon, they drop out of warp and go to impulse power for Vulcan orbit. They pass by Kreshna's ships: the
Executor and two
Eclipses.
"Looks like the Dark Lord brought a fucking attack fleet," Adam commented as he piloted the tiny ship past the super star destroyer, that just seemed to keep going forever.
"We have authorization to land" the Lady told him while turning dials to reinforce the structural integrity fields for a cool atmospheric landing.
Adam flips a switch, retracting the warp nacelles, then presses another switch and the tiny ship's delta shaped wings deploy. They both ensure they are securely strapped into the chairs then he takes a look over the navigational data provided by the Vulcan air traffic controller, takes a quick scan of the atmosphere below, and then sets the computer to descend.
The shuttle's computer masterfully makes the intricate moves needed to bleed off large amounts of gravitational potential energy. Not even the experienced A'millian could possibly react fast enough to land a orbital glider manually, so they just sat back and waited while the computer, SIF and shields kept the little ship from burning up. Indeed, it remained rather cool in the cockpit itself.
About fifteen minutes later, the computer finishes the last needed S-turn, and the radio beacon from the Vulcan landing strip was detected. Adam retightened his hands back on the control stick, pushing it slightly forward and carefully manuevering the ship in giant spirals to line up with the quickly approaching runway.
He pulls back on the stick and the Lady pressed a button to deploy the landing gear. Shortly, the real wheels hit the runway, and Adam pushes forward on the stick, pushing a pedal with his foot as the momentum jerked him forward. Simultaneously, the Lady pushes a lever to open the air flaps. Once that is finished, she presses another button and a large parachute shoots out the back of the small ship.
They finally come to a stop; the exterior far to hot to open the door, so they remain inside and start to power down active systems. After a few more minutes, they power down the SIF, the flight computer, and finally the internal lights.
Illuminated only by the light of the Vulcan sun shining in through the cockpit window, the Lady turns to the Lord and says: "I see even after all this time, you haven't lost your touch."
"Not half bad, if I do say so myself."
They unbuckle, stand up, straighten their dress uniforms and stand by the airlock, waiting for the external gauges to return to safe levels before opening the door.
Some ten minutes later, the gauges indicate it is safe to open the door, so they go through the airlock, and walk down portable stairs that the Vulcan ground crew prepared.
They get into a car and a Vulcan driver drops them off outside the meeting hall where Galadriel waited.
:thumbsup
