Echo-1 The Whale

33: Nidi Grows Up

Nidi got another education from X, a wild one. It was a fast couple of years to adulthood and we all went along with her on the ride. Nidi got her own Robo-a-gogo. It was bright yellow when she got it, but after smashing into everything on the ship, it became more yellow-streaked. 

She flipped it, crashed it, and slid it sideways down corridors. She shot it a few times for fun. She chewed the seat when no one was looking. To see her and X ride was a sight in contrast; X in her pristine Diamond-a-gogo sparkling like a gem and Nidi in her smashed up clunker. One wreck damaged it so badly that we had to cut the top off to get her out. Then she rode with her upper body sticking out the top like a dog with her head out the window.  

The whole thing was a total wreck. We offered her a new one, but she insisted she liked a more "lived in" model.

Charisma fashioned Nidi a pair of custom goggles to wear when she rode. I suggested she get a scarf to complete the look, but no one understood the reference.

Nidi's friendship with Charlie also had an effect, she became a gearhead extraordinaire. Where X saw vehicles as tools to break and replace, Nidi saw them as things to fix and improve. Charlie taught her everything there was to know about small ship construction, propulsion, and the technical guidelines for ground vehicles. For those lessons, I made a point of being present. 

I admit I cheated and downloaded the specs for all the vehicles aboard the Banga. 

Charlie was a true master craftsman. There was nothing he couldn't build. Charlie wanted to build Nidi a Robo-com-wolf-suit, but she wasn't interested in being encapsulated in vehicles. She liked her fur in the wind.

Nidi soaked up lessons like a sponge. It might have been her genetic engineering, but we were all impressed with her rapid development. She mastered the Robo-a-gogo, then turned to piloting. On Nidi's first space flight I had to be there. 

Word got out that I was taking out the Blue Hand diamond scout to watch Nidi. To my surprise, Dixon wanted to come. She had never actually left the Banga, so it was a first for her too. Charlie and Charisma came, as well as Veronica in her four-armed avatar. We all met at the port hangar. 

X and Nidi prepped two fighters. Death was there in his new diamond battle suit with three droid probes rigged with laser turrets. I initially asked Blunt if I could borrow Styx for a co-pilot on the training flight, and he said that for Nidi's first flight he would be there personally. 

When Dixon and Veronica pulled into the hangar, Blunt and I were backing the scout ship into the airlock. Charlie and Charisma stood on the dashboard. I opened the side door and Dixon and Veronica came aboard. 

"Dixon's first time off the Banga, Nidi's first solo flight, and the inaugural flight of the Blue Hand." 

It turned out that Dr. Death put the handprints on my scout ship. He did it before the mission to the Vedma. I think he assumed we would be taking my ship and not Sunshine's. The Blue Hand was a good name.

Death closed the inner airlock door, opened the outer, and we launched out into space. The rush startled Dixon. 

"Oh!" was all she was able to say. 

X and Nidi raced ahead with Dr. Death between them. The three probes flew single file behind him. They stayed in a perfect arrow formation. I broke off and took up a position about twenty kilometers off the upper port side. 

Dixon leaned over my seat and put her arms around me. "I had no idea it would go on and on like that." 

Below us, the surface of the Banga expanded forever. Its white metal top stretched out like a continent. The flight team dropped down to the deck and sped along the surface. I knew they were going to buzz the forward battle bridge, where Uzi would be watching.