mark_asphodel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mark_asphodel) wrote2011-03-30 11:32 pm
mark_asphodel) wrote2011-03-30 11:32 pm
Entry tags:
- au,
- eirika,
- ephraim,
- fanfiction,
- fe8,
- fire emblem
Fic Thing: "Starchild, Part 1"
I see FFNet is still jacked up. Does the "workaround" still function?
Guess I'll archive this at EFFN. I've always been irritated by AO3 and its parent organization, even if they did provide a haven for RPF.
Um, yeah. Have been kicking around this idea for months and finally gave in. Fire Emblem + Cold War + Space Race = WTF. Originally it was more of a mecha/EVA thing but the tropes for that ticked me off.
I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.
Chapter One: The Second Sun
Two suns marked the dawn-- one to the east, a pale disk distorted by a low-hanging haze, the other in the west, brilliant orange and surrounded by a roiling ball of vapor as it crossed the sky with phenomenal speed. Eirika felt the vibrations of the launch in her breast as the Ashera-class rocket ascended on its test flight. The largest, grandest thing that mankind had designed, the Ashera rocket could-- would-- carry humans to another world.
In two weeks’ time, a rocket just like it would be carrying her to space, carrying her high enough above the earth that she would be able to look down and see the world as a sphere out her window. The concept of it, even now, seemed utterly fanciful, something out of a story book. A flying tower that rose to the moon on a pillar of thunder and flame? Not likely. Not even possible. And yet...
Eirika watched until the test rocket had passed completely out of sight, leaving its vapor trail to mark the Jehannan sky.
-x-
Security saluted Eirika as she re-entered the pilot dormitory of Star City. She might not be a true “star-sailor” yet, but Pilot 011 of the Human Spaceflight Programme was still accorded the place in society that had once been given to royalty. A chauffeured car to take her around Star City, a secretary to handle her affairs, a military escort if she had to venture to the capital or elsewhere... and a “palace” of sorts to live in, with others of her kind.
“You went to see the launch?” asked Pilot 009 as they ate breakfast together. “I don’t bother anymore.”
“Well, you’re so busy now I can’t blame you,” Eirika said as she moved the “nut cubes” around on her plate. It was the first day of the diet that was supposed to acclimate her to the rations she’d eat on the mission, and she cast a slightly envious eye at Pilot 009’s omelette and sausage. “All the tours and interviews...”
Pilot 009 shrugged.
“I’d rather go back to being anonymous. If I could just train, and fly, and not worry about the rest of it... I’d go back in time in a heartbeat.”
Eirika said nothing to this, though a warning to the other pilot was on the tip of her tongue. The sentiment bordered on... well, not unpatriotic, but not right for a member of the Programme. It was the sort of thing that might possibly get one passed over when the time came to select a crew for the first lunar mission. What was it the Commander had said to them in his last address?
All the hopes of humanity are invested in you, our voyagers to the stars...
And to fulfill that hope didn’t just mean sitting on top of a rocket and being hurled into space. If Eirika didn’t believe that fully, she wouldn’t be sitting here in a climate-controlled bubble on the Jehannan steppes, staring down a plate of nut cubes and fruit bites.
“You’ll do fine with all that, I’m sure of it,” the other pilot was saying of the life that awaited Eirika on the other side of the mission. “We can all tell that you’ll be a natural out there under the lights.”
There was not a hint of jealousy in her voice-- it was a simple expression of fact. Eirika smiled then at the other pilot.
“Thank you, Lyn. I’m looking forward to it, I really am.”
-x-
The five-rayed design of the dormitory reminded Eirika of ancient temples, like the holy site of Valni in Frelia. It was a temple, in a sense-- only the icons being worshiped were the same humans who happened to live and work in Star City. The triumphs of the Programme were commemorated in paint and bronze all throughout the atrium, just as they were through the whole of the launch complex. Eirika passed a miniature Pegasus rocket and an enlarged photograph of the Pilot 002 on his spacewalk as she walked to the escalator that went to the quarters of female pilots. There were no paintings or sculptures to commemorate any of her triumphs, as she hadn’t yet achieved anything.
As Eirika ascended the escalator, the litany of humanity’s triumphs played through her head yet again.
Mission Starlight: First human spaceflight
Mission Nova: First two-person crew, first spacewalk
Mission Meteor/Mission Valkyrie: First rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft
Mission Hope: Flight endurance record
Mission Aureola: First three-person crew, first two-person spacewalk
She tried very hard not to think of the record set by the Astra mission.
First pilot killed in the course of duty.
To Be Continued...
Author’s Notes: Um, yeah. So, the premise of this is that this is an All One World FE planet, with a Cold War going on with an alliance of human nations facing off against an “empire” of the dragons and their laguz allies. Both sides are devoting massive resources to getting to the moon-- not just to show one another what for, and not just because it’s there. Hotshot pilot Ephraim wants to be the first human on the moon, while his sister and fellow pilot Eirika is more into the inspirational side of the Programme. And much trouble ensues, oh yes.
For what it’s worth, the Human Spaceflight Programme here is based as much off the Soviet moon-shot effort as it is the U.S.A. one.
Guess I'll archive this at EFFN. I've always been irritated by AO3 and its parent organization, even if they did provide a haven for RPF.
Um, yeah. Have been kicking around this idea for months and finally gave in. Fire Emblem + Cold War + Space Race = WTF. Originally it was more of a mecha/EVA thing but the tropes for that ticked me off.
I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.
Chapter One: The Second Sun
Two suns marked the dawn-- one to the east, a pale disk distorted by a low-hanging haze, the other in the west, brilliant orange and surrounded by a roiling ball of vapor as it crossed the sky with phenomenal speed. Eirika felt the vibrations of the launch in her breast as the Ashera-class rocket ascended on its test flight. The largest, grandest thing that mankind had designed, the Ashera rocket could-- would-- carry humans to another world.
In two weeks’ time, a rocket just like it would be carrying her to space, carrying her high enough above the earth that she would be able to look down and see the world as a sphere out her window. The concept of it, even now, seemed utterly fanciful, something out of a story book. A flying tower that rose to the moon on a pillar of thunder and flame? Not likely. Not even possible. And yet...
Eirika watched until the test rocket had passed completely out of sight, leaving its vapor trail to mark the Jehannan sky.
-x-
Security saluted Eirika as she re-entered the pilot dormitory of Star City. She might not be a true “star-sailor” yet, but Pilot 011 of the Human Spaceflight Programme was still accorded the place in society that had once been given to royalty. A chauffeured car to take her around Star City, a secretary to handle her affairs, a military escort if she had to venture to the capital or elsewhere... and a “palace” of sorts to live in, with others of her kind.
“You went to see the launch?” asked Pilot 009 as they ate breakfast together. “I don’t bother anymore.”
“Well, you’re so busy now I can’t blame you,” Eirika said as she moved the “nut cubes” around on her plate. It was the first day of the diet that was supposed to acclimate her to the rations she’d eat on the mission, and she cast a slightly envious eye at Pilot 009’s omelette and sausage. “All the tours and interviews...”
Pilot 009 shrugged.
“I’d rather go back to being anonymous. If I could just train, and fly, and not worry about the rest of it... I’d go back in time in a heartbeat.”
Eirika said nothing to this, though a warning to the other pilot was on the tip of her tongue. The sentiment bordered on... well, not unpatriotic, but not right for a member of the Programme. It was the sort of thing that might possibly get one passed over when the time came to select a crew for the first lunar mission. What was it the Commander had said to them in his last address?
All the hopes of humanity are invested in you, our voyagers to the stars...
And to fulfill that hope didn’t just mean sitting on top of a rocket and being hurled into space. If Eirika didn’t believe that fully, she wouldn’t be sitting here in a climate-controlled bubble on the Jehannan steppes, staring down a plate of nut cubes and fruit bites.
“You’ll do fine with all that, I’m sure of it,” the other pilot was saying of the life that awaited Eirika on the other side of the mission. “We can all tell that you’ll be a natural out there under the lights.”
There was not a hint of jealousy in her voice-- it was a simple expression of fact. Eirika smiled then at the other pilot.
“Thank you, Lyn. I’m looking forward to it, I really am.”
-x-
The five-rayed design of the dormitory reminded Eirika of ancient temples, like the holy site of Valni in Frelia. It was a temple, in a sense-- only the icons being worshiped were the same humans who happened to live and work in Star City. The triumphs of the Programme were commemorated in paint and bronze all throughout the atrium, just as they were through the whole of the launch complex. Eirika passed a miniature Pegasus rocket and an enlarged photograph of the Pilot 002 on his spacewalk as she walked to the escalator that went to the quarters of female pilots. There were no paintings or sculptures to commemorate any of her triumphs, as she hadn’t yet achieved anything.
As Eirika ascended the escalator, the litany of humanity’s triumphs played through her head yet again.
Mission Starlight: First human spaceflight
Mission Nova: First two-person crew, first spacewalk
Mission Meteor/Mission Valkyrie: First rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft
Mission Hope: Flight endurance record
Mission Aureola: First three-person crew, first two-person spacewalk
She tried very hard not to think of the record set by the Astra mission.
First pilot killed in the course of duty.
To Be Continued...
Author’s Notes: Um, yeah. So, the premise of this is that this is an All One World FE planet, with a Cold War going on with an alliance of human nations facing off against an “empire” of the dragons and their laguz allies. Both sides are devoting massive resources to getting to the moon-- not just to show one another what for, and not just because it’s there. Hotshot pilot Ephraim wants to be the first human on the moon, while his sister and fellow pilot Eirika is more into the inspirational side of the Programme. And much trouble ensues, oh yes.
For what it’s worth, the Human Spaceflight Programme here is based as much off the Soviet moon-shot effort as it is the U.S.A. one.