Winston arrives at the ship
2018-11-14

Winston! Hi!

Hi.

You have no idea how much willpower it takes not to race around you like an idiot.

But you're cute when you get the zoomies.

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2018-11-16

Your friend Jill made a good suggestion. Spend some time on the ship while it's still on the ground.

The time to find out if I panic is when there's atmosphere on both sides of the airlock.

Does your captain know I might be traveling with you?

Not yet. Let's go talk to him.

A human passenger makes it far less likely I'll be taken out by a robot controlled mass driver. Welcome aboard!

Again, words that do not reduce my level of anxiety.

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2018-11-19

This will be your cabin for the trip.

It's small.

So, given the size of my room, the size of the cargo bay, and how big the common area is…

I should go completely stir crazy in three days, seven hours, eighteen minutes.

May I remind you that cabin feverology is not an exact science.

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2018-11-21

If this ship were to suddenly depressurize, how much time would I have to react?

You would have about five seconds of useful consciousness.

Five seconds…

Under normal conditions. If you had been exercising or otherwise running up an oxygen debt, it would be less.

That sounds like an excellent reason to stay home. See you there.

That was stupid of me. As much as doctors, engineers need a reassuring bedside manner.

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2018-11-23

Winston, space travel is very safe. Depressurizations almost never happen.

I know you're not afraid of flying. We've been on suborbital flights.

That was different. We were close to the planet. If something went wrong, we could get out.

It might require a parachute, but I'm fond of transport you can run away from.

This would be a bad time to point out that above mach one, your options to run away are very limited.

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2018-11-26

Could we continue this talk outside?

Of course.

You're starting to smell more relaxed.

Well, this is exactly what a spaceship isn't.

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2018-11-28

Of course, you running off the ship so fast is going to hurt our reputation for hospitality and fine cuisine.

Yeah. Sorry about that.

No worries. It would have been hard to earn a Michelin star using dehydrated space rations anyway.

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2018-11-30

If space travel bothers you so much, don't go.

My parents would be very disappointed if you were willing to go the distance to meet them and I wasn't.

Also, they've never met a genetically engineered wolf. I should be with you.

Mom will probably be okay with it. Dad? I don't know how he's going to feel about the possibility of having grandpuppies.

Don't be silly. Everyone loves grandpuppies.

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2018-12-03

So, hibernation all the way?

It does seem to be my best option.

It's so stupid. Logically, I know I'm fine. I know how few accidents there are. Robots wouldn't even let me on board if they felt it was unsafe.

None of that stops me from going into flight mode and wanting to get out.

Hibernation then. Leaving a space ship after take off is a bad way to learn that flight mode does not mean what it sounds like it should mean.

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Едва ли переводимая игра слов. Flight означает одновременно и “побег”, и “полёт”. Так, Доктор сначала говорит, что у него включается “режим побега”,
а Флоренс ему замечает, что узнать на своей шкуре, каково это, выпрыгнуть из космического корабля “на ходу”, будет не очень приятно. (Mitrill)

2018-12-05

It will be easier this way. Experienced technicians will put me into hibernation. No offense, but a single person in space can't match a trained team in a facility set up to handle it.

Once under, I'll use up food, water, and oxygen at a slower rate.

And I won't be able to sing “99 bottles of beer on the wall” or ask “Are we there yet?”

Which translates to us all using up sanity at a slower rate.

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