Day 22, Afternoon, Puddlejumper - Sheppard, Anderson
Miles checked his watch as he headed down the hallway, toward what he was hoping was the jumper bay. After taking a wrong turn and having to get his bearings a few minutes later, Miles entered the jumper bay with a sigh, looking for any sign of the Major.
John saw someone entering the bay through the forward window of the jumper he was prepping, and got out of the chair and walked to the back of the jumper. Sticking his head around the side, he said, "Dr. Anderson?"
Miles startled before clearing his throat and walking around the jumper to find the Major. Stepping up the ramp, he nodded to Sheppard. "Major."
"Nice to meet you," John said. He lead the way up to the cockpit and took the pilot's seat, waving for Miles to take the other chair. "So, how's it feel to be one of the lucky few?"
Miles sat down, looking around the cockpit and taking in the detail before looking at Sheppard. "Lucky?"
"You know, getting the gene, being able to fly one of these," John said, gesturing around the cockpit.
Miles arched an eyebrow, but turned back to the instruments. "Considering I didn't have a pilot's license before leaving Earth, is it really wise for me to be flying this thing?"
"Oh, sure, sure. That's what the training's for, after all, and the jumpers are easier to learn than a real plane."
"In what way?" Miles eyed the DHD, and narrowed his eyes at the panel in front of Sheppard.
"Well, for one thing, it's a lot less finicky than even a training plane," John said, powering the ship up. "Less likely to fall out of the sky if you mess up."
Miles' eyes darted from Sheppard's hands to the panel to the HUD, taking in the major's easy movements and trying to remember them. Glancing up at the forward window, he turned his gaze back to Sheppard's hands. "Any other differences to be concerned with?"
"Good autopilot - in fact, movement in the city is all automated - all sorts of sensors, inertial compensator, that sort of thing." John told the jumper to start lifting off, and as they rose up through the bay he casually added, "And it sorta reads your mind."
Miles' eyebrows rose sharply at that, his eyes snapping to the forward window and watching as the dark interior of the jumper bay was quickly replaced by warm, afternoon sun and a blue sky. "So, it takes more mental discipline than when you're driving a car."
"No, I'd say it's about the same. Usually it won't do anything unless you actually want it do, so you can still talk or look over whatever the screen's showing. That does vary from person to person, though, just like how deep the connection goes."
Miles nodded slowly in understanding, watching as the jumper banked around the city once before flying over the ocean. "Are all of the controls activated by thought, or are there some that require actually toggling switches?"
"Pretty much everything can be done mentally, but most of them have manual control as well. The exception is the weapons array, which as far as I can tell is purely mental, and the DHD, which is just physical." John took his left hand off the control stick and pointed out a few controls. "Here's the overrides for power and the doors, this toggles through sensor views. The copilot's board is a little more extensive, but mostly it just duplicates stuff I can do mentally."
Miles nodded, turning to look at the panel in front of him, narrowing his eyes at the panel and deciphering the script for some of the controls. "Which would make sense if the pilot were incapacitated, but if such were the case, would he be able to fly the jumper in the first place?" He frowned at the panel. "Or there's duplicates in case the pilot has to shoot at enemy targets and literally can't concentrate on two things at once."
"No, there's no flight controls for the copilot. And the pilot controls the drones, too, although they're fire-and-forget for the most part. Mostly the copilot acts as an ECO and flight engineer."
Miles frowned, unfamiliar with the term. "ECO?"
"Oh, sorry. Electronic Countermeasures Officer," John said. "Takes care of the jammers, does tracking of radar contacts, navigates, that sort of thing."
Miles blinked. "Makes sense." Pacing the vessel by concentrating on a small pattern of breakers in the water, he blinked again when the ship overtook them in seconds. "How fast are we traveling, Major?"
"About five hundred miles an hour," John replied. Realizing Miles might wonder how he could tell that, he added, "The jumper told me that. Some people it just sends that stuff into their heads, some people prefer the HUD." When he said that, a small display popped up, showing airspeed, groundspeed, altitude, and distance from the city. "A few days in, they started to show in English instead of Ancient. And they did Japanese for Kusanagi, that was kind of cool."
Miles' eyebrows rose. "Considering the mental component, I can't say that I'm surprised. As soon as it attunes itself to a specific driver, the jumper would most likely translate to a language that the driver either first learned, or is fluent in." He looked over at Sheppard. "Are you flying now as part of an orientation to show me what the jumper can do, or are you finding a safe place on the planet to crash on before letting me take over?"
"The later. Just getting us out into open ocean." John flipped a map on the HUD and after a moment nodded in satisfaction. He brought the jumper to a halt, and then said, "You feel like switching chairs, or you want to watch me fly some?"
"If I'm going to pick up anything else at this point, it'll be from driving," Miles replied.
"You mean flying," John said, getting up and giving Miles room to move.
Miles nodded, sliding out of his seat and taking over the pilot's chair. Settling himself in, he reached out and took each of the control sticks, not pushing or pulling them, but just getting used to the feel. Closing his eyes, he frowned a little as he concentrated, and he could feel it. Opening his eyes, he said, "Like it reads your mind, Major?"
John sat down. "You do a lot of guidance with the sticks, but it tries to anticipate what you want, sorta like a horse. It varies from person to person how deep the connection is. I've got it a lot, and Markham's been doing really well, too. Other people, not so much."
Miles arched an eyebrow at Sheppard before his grip firmed on the controls. Forward, he thought, giving a light nudge to the control sticks, and stopping himself from clicking his teeth. It had taken a while to break the habit after the lessons had abruptly ended, but the memories came back.
Diving forward, however, didn't help. Shit! Up! Breathing in sharply, Miles righted the controls.
"Crap!" John almost dove over the DHD when the ship tilted down and shot towards the ocean, but Miles righted them quickly enough. "And that's why we're at five thousand feet. Okay, quick lesson about the controls. You know the jumper can hover like a helicopter, not just fly like a plane, right? And it's also a spaceship. So it has slightly different controls than a normal aircraft."
Miles nodded patiently. "Yes, Major. Which of the controls is the vertical and which the horizontal?"
"The right stick's more or less the same as a real plane. Forward and back is pitch - that's up and down. Side to side is yaw. It can twist a little to do rolls, but I find it easier to just think about those." John demonstrated with little motions of his hand. "Left stick is for hovering, although you can do it in flight, too. Side to side makes you slip side to side, while tilting it forward makes you go forward and back and also controls acceleration. It lifted a little to do up and down. You'll notice they're pretty sensitive to small movements, but broader motions do geometrically more affect. In other words, you get more change per degree the more you turn it."
Miles frowned, trying to absorb it, but knowing that he was going to forget half of it before the end of the session. He raised an eyebrow, turning back to the control sticks and thinking, Straight forward, imagining his legs nudging at the flanks of a horse. Easing the left stick forward, he glanced up to see the HUD pop into view, the numbers reading a steady clip, but not close to Sheppard's earlier speed.
Squinting his eyes, he eased the right stick to the right, watching as the sky and topography changed as they turned in an easy arc. "Back to the beginning," he muttered, easing the right stick back and trying to straighten the jumper as best he could.
Easing to a stop, Miles narrowed his eyes at the HUD and concentrated for a moment. Suddenly, the statistics switched into Cyrillic, and then into Czech, complete with diacritics. It switched to German and French quickly before settling back into English.
Miles resisted smirking, instead sliding a curious glance at Sheppard. "One mystery solved, I think, Major Sheppard."
"Oh, that was cool," John said. "I bet it got all this over the city's network. It can interface with our computers, if you didn't know."
Miles nodded. "Makes sense. I had to concentrate on languages that I knew, so if your fellow pilot's native language is French, and you only know English, I'm guessing it'll reset if you were to switch seats with him." He closed his eyes and thought, Geh geradeaus, as he eased the left stick forward again. Realizing that he was being redundant, he shook his head and frowned. "Let's try... this."
Rolle nach links, he thought, narrowing his eyes at the HUD. As the jumper rolled left and continued straight forward, Miles smirked.
"Good, good," John said, glad to see Miles seemed to be settling in. "Try doing an Immelman - that's doing a 180 by pitching upwards until you're flying the opposite direction upside-down, and then rolling back to normal. Do it as fast as you're comfortable."
"I take it the maneuver's named for the first person who thought of it, or became famous for using it?" Miles asked, still easing the left stick forward. Left forward, right back to me, upside-down, then roll, he ticked off the mental checklist. One, two, three...
He pushed the left stick forward a little more, easing the right stick back. When the window showed an inversion of blues, darker over lighter, he thought, Roll right, as he pushed the right stick forward to keep from going higher.
John smiled broadly. "Good job, Doctor Anderson. You're getting the hang of it better than some of the others. Let's see...try a few loops or spins, if you want."
Miles nodded, pushing the left stick forward while pulling back on the right. Loop, he thought at the jumper, imagining the horse again.
John let Miles do a few more loops. He seemed to be doing pretty well, certainly better than some of the others had. He didn't seem uncomfortable with the mental interface. Eventually, he said, "OK, that's good for now. How about you try to take her into orbit?"
Miles blinked, glancing at Sheppard before easing the left stick forward, the right one back. "Is taking new pilots into space part of the first flying lesson?"
"Well, it is with a spaceship," John said with a little laugh. "I figure it might be a while before you get in one of these again, so you may as well try it now. It's just as safe as regular flight, honest. Besides, everyone should get a chance to see things from up there. It's really astounding."
Miles arched an eyebrow at him before turning to watch the blue sky darken into the black of outer space. "Did you want to be an astronaut when you grew up?"
"For a while, yeah. I always wanted to fly, and that was as high as you could get. In the end I gave it up, though. Not enough slots, and you don't get to do much real flying. If I'd ended up leaving the service, I might have gone into test piloting or designing for one of those civilian projects."
Miles nodded, 'righting' the jumper by easing the sticks back into their original positions. The HUD still displayed the distance from Atlantis, but included new information about their orbit around the planet and a few other things Miles didn't immediately recognize. "So the jumpers are basically getting peanut butter with your chocolate?"
"Hell, yes. They've even got cool sensors, a cloaking device and weapons - don't think about those, please." John didn't want a repeat of the earlier incident.
Miles blinked, firmly thinking of the first dog his sister had had when he was a kid to keep from thinking about any kinds of weaponry the jumper might have on-board. When nothing immediately fired, he popped open an eye and sighed heavily. "You mentioned a cloaking device?"
"Yeah. You can just think about cloaking, or hit that button there. It takes a second to activate, and it pretty damned useful."
Miles was already imagining himself turning invisible, and one of the lines on the HUD blinked to Cloak ON. He glanced at Sheppard curiously. "So, how exactly do you know if it's not on, other than the jumper saying it is or isn't?"
"Well, people stop shooting at you, for one," John said nonchalantly. "It should give you an error if it won't work, that's what happened when I had trouble after taking a hit."
Miles snorted. "I see." He took a slow, easy bank in order to face the planet. "Is the auto-pilot only for when the jumpers are inside the city, or could you assign the jumper to maintain a geosynchronous orbit over Atlantis?"
"It'll do it just fine," John said. "It'll work for pretty much any course you set, just don't expect it to do any fancy flying on its own. It don't think it'll fly itself into a mountain or anything, but I'd rather not experiment with that."
Miles nodded, watching the stars and other celestial bodies through the window for long, silent minutes before eying Sheppard again. "I take it the first flying lesson consists of making sure people learn the basics of handling the jumpers, and bringing them into space when they've had some practice flying?"
"More or less, yeah," John said. "I just want everyone who might be flying to get a feel for it first and see who needs the most help. I'll be doing more supervised flight time later, and so will the more advanced pilots. For now, I'm concentrating on getting the best up to speed so they can help train the rest, plus those on the gate teams, since they need it the most."
"Are there enough ATA carriers for the gate teams to have a pilot, or is that a stupid question?" Miles asked.
"Oh, yeah. All three current teams already had one - me, Lorne, and Markham. I'll feel a lot better with a good supply of backups, though, both on the teams and back home in the city."
"Good point." Miles glanced at Sheppard. "Is the OMFG necessary for all of the scientists interested in off-world field work?"
John looked over. "Well, I'd certainly encourage it, but there might be some missions where that sort of thing isn't needed. I'd leave it up to the team leaders or make decisions on a case by case basis."
Miles nodded. "I know I've missed the first session, which is why I'm asking." Narrowing his eyes at the HUD and easing the left stick forward, he eased the right stick forward as well, wondering when he'd have to pull up before he hit the water. Then an idea struck him. "Major?"
"Doctor?"
"Has anyone ever tried using the jumpers as submarines before?" Miles frowned, heading for the water, but easing back on the right stick to level off the jumper and let it hover. "Given the design of the jumpers, the lower front end could cut through the surface tension of the ocean, even traveling at high speed."
"Oh." John thought about it for a second. "Oh, yeah. That would be pretty cool. I bet it can."
Miles raised an eyebrow at Sheppard. "Shall we?"
"Well, I suppose we should technically ask an engineer first," John drawled out before looking over at Miles with a shit-eating grin. "Which means yes, we shall. Just take it slow and if the jumper resists, pull up."
Miles arched an eyebrow at Sheppard before aiming straight for the surface of the water, not putting too much speed into it. The sky blue was suddenly replaced by a rich blue-green, and he could almost imagine a cascade of bubbles rising up to the surface. He leveled out quickly, banishing the HUD in favor of an uncluttered view.
"It appears..." Miles said slowly, going through the new information, "that the HUD is giving me the depth of the jumper, as well as the pressure of the water around us. I'm guessing it might also register currents."
"This is so cool," John said as he leaned forward for a better view, his voice full of awe. "I've got a spaceship that flies underwater. This is worth the space vampires."
Miles snorted, making sure to keep them at a depth where they wouldn't have to worry about popping their ears. "So, if the jumpers hadn't existed, you wouldn't have come to this galaxy?"
John eyed Miles. "Well, given that I didn't even know they were here, they didn't have anything to do with it. I'm just saying that the jumpers and the city make up for a lot of other issues."
Miles noticed a school of fish darting this way and that, and then skitter off as the jumper approached their location. "Which would you say is worse, the Goa'uld or the Wraith?"
"Goa'uld," John said after a minute. "I don't think I could stand loosing control like that."
Miles arched an eyebrow. "So, you'd rather be completely drained than dominated by a symbiote?"
"Yes," John said, forcefully. "Goa'uld can live for thousands of years. Being fed on is horrible, but I've seen plenty of other bad deaths, and eventually they all end. Being a host almost never does."
"Fascinating," Miles murmured, noticing the conviction in the major's voice. "How long were you at the SGC?"
"Oh, about two weeks," John said, relaxing a little. "And I only found out about the gate a couple weeks before that. It's a long story. I have been reading a lot of mission reports, though."
Miles arched an eyebrow. "I see." Just to see what the submarine would do, he kept the left stick forward while toggling the right side to side, idly wondering what the jumper looked like. Maybe it was slithering. "Would you call yourself self-centered, or centered on others?"
John shot Miles another quizzical look, wondering where this was going. "Uh...centered on others?"
Miles considered that for a second. "And yet, the first reason you give that the Goa'uld are worse than the Wraith is because you would hate losing control of yourself. Not, for example, 'because they're involved in galaxy-wide slavery, murder, and oppression' or that 'they use humans as a means to an end, where the Wraith simply think of humans as food'."
"Well, just because I like being in control of myself doesn't mean I don't care about the rest of that," John responded. "And being forced to take part in the slavery, murder, and oppression would definitely make it even worse."
Miles nodded. "True. I was just intrigued by your initial response to the question." He contemplated checking the time, and found it provided in the jumper data. Easing the right control stick back while keeping the left forward, Miles watched as the blue-green ocean disappeared, the jumper zooming out of the water and back into the sky again.
"Oh." As they rose back into the air, John asked suspiciously, "What kind of doctor are you again?"
"Linguistics," Miles replied, arching an eyebrow at Sheppard. "Why do you ask?"
"Because you sound like a shrink."
Miles blinked, looking surprised by the idea. "Really?" He eased the controls around, recalling the HUD and squinting at the information, looking for their location in relation to Atlantis.
"Well, yeah. All this talk about 'are you introverted or extroverted' and then poking holes in the answers is pretty shrink-like."
Miles nodded slowly, understanding. "Rest assured, any of the information I learn is more for my own edification, not for some report to be sent up the chain of command to see whether someone is fit to remain at their post." He squinted again at the information. "Did you want to fly back to Atlantis, or should I?"
"You can go ahead and take us back," John said with a shake of his head. Miles seemed a bit odd, but then, that seemed pretty standard for Atlantis.
Miles nodded, toggling the controls and tentatively starting forward before settling into a good speed. "Candy bar for your thoughts, Major?" He would've offered a penny, but he hadn't thought to bring any money with him to another galaxy.
John chuckled. "An entire candy bar? That could get you a lot of thoughts. Got a question?"
"Many, but I'll keep it to just one." Miles' lips quirked into a brief smile. "Do you think we'll be able to make a difference in this galaxy?"
John sat in silence for a few seconds, then quietly said, "I certainly hope we will, and we have an obligation to try."
Miles arched an eyebrow. "But, realistically...?" he prompted.
"Well, we've already managed to wake at least one Wraith hiveship a century or so early, so I guess that counts as a difference." John shrugged and stared out the window. "For now, I'd be happy with survival."
Miles nodded. A few minutes later, he caught sight of the Atlantis spires. He slowed down, circling the city once before glancing at Sheppard. "Where's the hangar again?"
"Top of the control tower. That's the main bay, at least, there might be more somewhere else."
Miles nodded, minimizing the HUD and flying close to the control tower, trying to spot the hangar doors, and suddenly, Miles felt something happen with the jumper, something... fluid that he wasn't responsible for. "Major," he said in a tense voice. "Is this the auto-pilot taking over?"
John looked the display over and nodded. "Yeah, it usually takes over about here. It should just take you right into the bay and onto one of the landing pads."
Miles exhaled slowly through his nose, deliberately letting go of the controls. It was strange to watch the vessel enter the hangar, the bright blue sky turning into the dark interior. The jumper landed gently, not even jarring them, and Miles breathed slowly. "That was certainly... unexpected."
"What was?"
"The auto-pilot," Miles replied, getting up from the chair. "Then again, I'm used to driving cars, not spaceships with underwater capabilities."
"I told you it was automatic in here," John said as he checked to make sure the jumper had shut down properly. Seeing nothing wrong, he stood up as well.
"Knowing it's automatic, and seeing it in action for myself are two different things, I think, Major," Miles replied. Not sure what else to say, he nodded tersely. "Thank you for the flying lesson."
"You're welcome. I'll shoot you an email when we're ready to start doing more."
Miles nodded. "I'll make sure to keep an eye out." He paused before asking, "Is Sergeant Bates the only soldier assigned to weapons qualifying for off-world missions?" He sounded more curious than concerned.
"No, but he's the one in charge of it." John frowned. "You got a problem?"
Miles shook his head calmly. "I appreciate his straightforwardness." He nodded politely to Sheppard. "Now, if you'll excuse me...?"
"Sure, go, go. See you later," John said with a wave.
Miles nodded again and headed out of the jumper, down the ramp and out of the jumper bay, heading back to his quarters, mentally trying to replay the conversation so that he could take adequate notes when he got back to his tablet. A little while later, John headed off to the labs to see if anything interesting was happening there.
John saw someone entering the bay through the forward window of the jumper he was prepping, and got out of the chair and walked to the back of the jumper. Sticking his head around the side, he said, "Dr. Anderson?"
Miles startled before clearing his throat and walking around the jumper to find the Major. Stepping up the ramp, he nodded to Sheppard. "Major."
"Nice to meet you," John said. He lead the way up to the cockpit and took the pilot's seat, waving for Miles to take the other chair. "So, how's it feel to be one of the lucky few?"
Miles sat down, looking around the cockpit and taking in the detail before looking at Sheppard. "Lucky?"
"You know, getting the gene, being able to fly one of these," John said, gesturing around the cockpit.
Miles arched an eyebrow, but turned back to the instruments. "Considering I didn't have a pilot's license before leaving Earth, is it really wise for me to be flying this thing?"
"Oh, sure, sure. That's what the training's for, after all, and the jumpers are easier to learn than a real plane."
"In what way?" Miles eyed the DHD, and narrowed his eyes at the panel in front of Sheppard.
"Well, for one thing, it's a lot less finicky than even a training plane," John said, powering the ship up. "Less likely to fall out of the sky if you mess up."
Miles' eyes darted from Sheppard's hands to the panel to the HUD, taking in the major's easy movements and trying to remember them. Glancing up at the forward window, he turned his gaze back to Sheppard's hands. "Any other differences to be concerned with?"
"Good autopilot - in fact, movement in the city is all automated - all sorts of sensors, inertial compensator, that sort of thing." John told the jumper to start lifting off, and as they rose up through the bay he casually added, "And it sorta reads your mind."
Miles' eyebrows rose sharply at that, his eyes snapping to the forward window and watching as the dark interior of the jumper bay was quickly replaced by warm, afternoon sun and a blue sky. "So, it takes more mental discipline than when you're driving a car."
"No, I'd say it's about the same. Usually it won't do anything unless you actually want it do, so you can still talk or look over whatever the screen's showing. That does vary from person to person, though, just like how deep the connection goes."
Miles nodded slowly in understanding, watching as the jumper banked around the city once before flying over the ocean. "Are all of the controls activated by thought, or are there some that require actually toggling switches?"
"Pretty much everything can be done mentally, but most of them have manual control as well. The exception is the weapons array, which as far as I can tell is purely mental, and the DHD, which is just physical." John took his left hand off the control stick and pointed out a few controls. "Here's the overrides for power and the doors, this toggles through sensor views. The copilot's board is a little more extensive, but mostly it just duplicates stuff I can do mentally."
Miles nodded, turning to look at the panel in front of him, narrowing his eyes at the panel and deciphering the script for some of the controls. "Which would make sense if the pilot were incapacitated, but if such were the case, would he be able to fly the jumper in the first place?" He frowned at the panel. "Or there's duplicates in case the pilot has to shoot at enemy targets and literally can't concentrate on two things at once."
"No, there's no flight controls for the copilot. And the pilot controls the drones, too, although they're fire-and-forget for the most part. Mostly the copilot acts as an ECO and flight engineer."
Miles frowned, unfamiliar with the term. "ECO?"
"Oh, sorry. Electronic Countermeasures Officer," John said. "Takes care of the jammers, does tracking of radar contacts, navigates, that sort of thing."
Miles blinked. "Makes sense." Pacing the vessel by concentrating on a small pattern of breakers in the water, he blinked again when the ship overtook them in seconds. "How fast are we traveling, Major?"
"About five hundred miles an hour," John replied. Realizing Miles might wonder how he could tell that, he added, "The jumper told me that. Some people it just sends that stuff into their heads, some people prefer the HUD." When he said that, a small display popped up, showing airspeed, groundspeed, altitude, and distance from the city. "A few days in, they started to show in English instead of Ancient. And they did Japanese for Kusanagi, that was kind of cool."
Miles' eyebrows rose. "Considering the mental component, I can't say that I'm surprised. As soon as it attunes itself to a specific driver, the jumper would most likely translate to a language that the driver either first learned, or is fluent in." He looked over at Sheppard. "Are you flying now as part of an orientation to show me what the jumper can do, or are you finding a safe place on the planet to crash on before letting me take over?"
"The later. Just getting us out into open ocean." John flipped a map on the HUD and after a moment nodded in satisfaction. He brought the jumper to a halt, and then said, "You feel like switching chairs, or you want to watch me fly some?"
"If I'm going to pick up anything else at this point, it'll be from driving," Miles replied.
"You mean flying," John said, getting up and giving Miles room to move.
Miles nodded, sliding out of his seat and taking over the pilot's chair. Settling himself in, he reached out and took each of the control sticks, not pushing or pulling them, but just getting used to the feel. Closing his eyes, he frowned a little as he concentrated, and he could feel it. Opening his eyes, he said, "Like it reads your mind, Major?"
John sat down. "You do a lot of guidance with the sticks, but it tries to anticipate what you want, sorta like a horse. It varies from person to person how deep the connection is. I've got it a lot, and Markham's been doing really well, too. Other people, not so much."
Miles arched an eyebrow at Sheppard before his grip firmed on the controls. Forward, he thought, giving a light nudge to the control sticks, and stopping himself from clicking his teeth. It had taken a while to break the habit after the lessons had abruptly ended, but the memories came back.
Diving forward, however, didn't help. Shit! Up! Breathing in sharply, Miles righted the controls.
"Crap!" John almost dove over the DHD when the ship tilted down and shot towards the ocean, but Miles righted them quickly enough. "And that's why we're at five thousand feet. Okay, quick lesson about the controls. You know the jumper can hover like a helicopter, not just fly like a plane, right? And it's also a spaceship. So it has slightly different controls than a normal aircraft."
Miles nodded patiently. "Yes, Major. Which of the controls is the vertical and which the horizontal?"
"The right stick's more or less the same as a real plane. Forward and back is pitch - that's up and down. Side to side is yaw. It can twist a little to do rolls, but I find it easier to just think about those." John demonstrated with little motions of his hand. "Left stick is for hovering, although you can do it in flight, too. Side to side makes you slip side to side, while tilting it forward makes you go forward and back and also controls acceleration. It lifted a little to do up and down. You'll notice they're pretty sensitive to small movements, but broader motions do geometrically more affect. In other words, you get more change per degree the more you turn it."
Miles frowned, trying to absorb it, but knowing that he was going to forget half of it before the end of the session. He raised an eyebrow, turning back to the control sticks and thinking, Straight forward, imagining his legs nudging at the flanks of a horse. Easing the left stick forward, he glanced up to see the HUD pop into view, the numbers reading a steady clip, but not close to Sheppard's earlier speed.
Squinting his eyes, he eased the right stick to the right, watching as the sky and topography changed as they turned in an easy arc. "Back to the beginning," he muttered, easing the right stick back and trying to straighten the jumper as best he could.
Easing to a stop, Miles narrowed his eyes at the HUD and concentrated for a moment. Suddenly, the statistics switched into Cyrillic, and then into Czech, complete with diacritics. It switched to German and French quickly before settling back into English.
Miles resisted smirking, instead sliding a curious glance at Sheppard. "One mystery solved, I think, Major Sheppard."
"Oh, that was cool," John said. "I bet it got all this over the city's network. It can interface with our computers, if you didn't know."
Miles nodded. "Makes sense. I had to concentrate on languages that I knew, so if your fellow pilot's native language is French, and you only know English, I'm guessing it'll reset if you were to switch seats with him." He closed his eyes and thought, Geh geradeaus, as he eased the left stick forward again. Realizing that he was being redundant, he shook his head and frowned. "Let's try... this."
Rolle nach links, he thought, narrowing his eyes at the HUD. As the jumper rolled left and continued straight forward, Miles smirked.
"Good, good," John said, glad to see Miles seemed to be settling in. "Try doing an Immelman - that's doing a 180 by pitching upwards until you're flying the opposite direction upside-down, and then rolling back to normal. Do it as fast as you're comfortable."
"I take it the maneuver's named for the first person who thought of it, or became famous for using it?" Miles asked, still easing the left stick forward. Left forward, right back to me, upside-down, then roll, he ticked off the mental checklist. One, two, three...
He pushed the left stick forward a little more, easing the right stick back. When the window showed an inversion of blues, darker over lighter, he thought, Roll right, as he pushed the right stick forward to keep from going higher.
John smiled broadly. "Good job, Doctor Anderson. You're getting the hang of it better than some of the others. Let's see...try a few loops or spins, if you want."
Miles nodded, pushing the left stick forward while pulling back on the right. Loop, he thought at the jumper, imagining the horse again.
John let Miles do a few more loops. He seemed to be doing pretty well, certainly better than some of the others had. He didn't seem uncomfortable with the mental interface. Eventually, he said, "OK, that's good for now. How about you try to take her into orbit?"
Miles blinked, glancing at Sheppard before easing the left stick forward, the right one back. "Is taking new pilots into space part of the first flying lesson?"
"Well, it is with a spaceship," John said with a little laugh. "I figure it might be a while before you get in one of these again, so you may as well try it now. It's just as safe as regular flight, honest. Besides, everyone should get a chance to see things from up there. It's really astounding."
Miles arched an eyebrow at him before turning to watch the blue sky darken into the black of outer space. "Did you want to be an astronaut when you grew up?"
"For a while, yeah. I always wanted to fly, and that was as high as you could get. In the end I gave it up, though. Not enough slots, and you don't get to do much real flying. If I'd ended up leaving the service, I might have gone into test piloting or designing for one of those civilian projects."
Miles nodded, 'righting' the jumper by easing the sticks back into their original positions. The HUD still displayed the distance from Atlantis, but included new information about their orbit around the planet and a few other things Miles didn't immediately recognize. "So the jumpers are basically getting peanut butter with your chocolate?"
"Hell, yes. They've even got cool sensors, a cloaking device and weapons - don't think about those, please." John didn't want a repeat of the earlier incident.
Miles blinked, firmly thinking of the first dog his sister had had when he was a kid to keep from thinking about any kinds of weaponry the jumper might have on-board. When nothing immediately fired, he popped open an eye and sighed heavily. "You mentioned a cloaking device?"
"Yeah. You can just think about cloaking, or hit that button there. It takes a second to activate, and it pretty damned useful."
Miles was already imagining himself turning invisible, and one of the lines on the HUD blinked to Cloak ON. He glanced at Sheppard curiously. "So, how exactly do you know if it's not on, other than the jumper saying it is or isn't?"
"Well, people stop shooting at you, for one," John said nonchalantly. "It should give you an error if it won't work, that's what happened when I had trouble after taking a hit."
Miles snorted. "I see." He took a slow, easy bank in order to face the planet. "Is the auto-pilot only for when the jumpers are inside the city, or could you assign the jumper to maintain a geosynchronous orbit over Atlantis?"
"It'll do it just fine," John said. "It'll work for pretty much any course you set, just don't expect it to do any fancy flying on its own. It don't think it'll fly itself into a mountain or anything, but I'd rather not experiment with that."
Miles nodded, watching the stars and other celestial bodies through the window for long, silent minutes before eying Sheppard again. "I take it the first flying lesson consists of making sure people learn the basics of handling the jumpers, and bringing them into space when they've had some practice flying?"
"More or less, yeah," John said. "I just want everyone who might be flying to get a feel for it first and see who needs the most help. I'll be doing more supervised flight time later, and so will the more advanced pilots. For now, I'm concentrating on getting the best up to speed so they can help train the rest, plus those on the gate teams, since they need it the most."
"Are there enough ATA carriers for the gate teams to have a pilot, or is that a stupid question?" Miles asked.
"Oh, yeah. All three current teams already had one - me, Lorne, and Markham. I'll feel a lot better with a good supply of backups, though, both on the teams and back home in the city."
"Good point." Miles glanced at Sheppard. "Is the OMFG necessary for all of the scientists interested in off-world field work?"
John looked over. "Well, I'd certainly encourage it, but there might be some missions where that sort of thing isn't needed. I'd leave it up to the team leaders or make decisions on a case by case basis."
Miles nodded. "I know I've missed the first session, which is why I'm asking." Narrowing his eyes at the HUD and easing the left stick forward, he eased the right stick forward as well, wondering when he'd have to pull up before he hit the water. Then an idea struck him. "Major?"
"Doctor?"
"Has anyone ever tried using the jumpers as submarines before?" Miles frowned, heading for the water, but easing back on the right stick to level off the jumper and let it hover. "Given the design of the jumpers, the lower front end could cut through the surface tension of the ocean, even traveling at high speed."
"Oh." John thought about it for a second. "Oh, yeah. That would be pretty cool. I bet it can."
Miles raised an eyebrow at Sheppard. "Shall we?"
"Well, I suppose we should technically ask an engineer first," John drawled out before looking over at Miles with a shit-eating grin. "Which means yes, we shall. Just take it slow and if the jumper resists, pull up."
Miles arched an eyebrow at Sheppard before aiming straight for the surface of the water, not putting too much speed into it. The sky blue was suddenly replaced by a rich blue-green, and he could almost imagine a cascade of bubbles rising up to the surface. He leveled out quickly, banishing the HUD in favor of an uncluttered view.
"It appears..." Miles said slowly, going through the new information, "that the HUD is giving me the depth of the jumper, as well as the pressure of the water around us. I'm guessing it might also register currents."
"This is so cool," John said as he leaned forward for a better view, his voice full of awe. "I've got a spaceship that flies underwater. This is worth the space vampires."
Miles snorted, making sure to keep them at a depth where they wouldn't have to worry about popping their ears. "So, if the jumpers hadn't existed, you wouldn't have come to this galaxy?"
John eyed Miles. "Well, given that I didn't even know they were here, they didn't have anything to do with it. I'm just saying that the jumpers and the city make up for a lot of other issues."
Miles noticed a school of fish darting this way and that, and then skitter off as the jumper approached their location. "Which would you say is worse, the Goa'uld or the Wraith?"
"Goa'uld," John said after a minute. "I don't think I could stand loosing control like that."
Miles arched an eyebrow. "So, you'd rather be completely drained than dominated by a symbiote?"
"Yes," John said, forcefully. "Goa'uld can live for thousands of years. Being fed on is horrible, but I've seen plenty of other bad deaths, and eventually they all end. Being a host almost never does."
"Fascinating," Miles murmured, noticing the conviction in the major's voice. "How long were you at the SGC?"
"Oh, about two weeks," John said, relaxing a little. "And I only found out about the gate a couple weeks before that. It's a long story. I have been reading a lot of mission reports, though."
Miles arched an eyebrow. "I see." Just to see what the submarine would do, he kept the left stick forward while toggling the right side to side, idly wondering what the jumper looked like. Maybe it was slithering. "Would you call yourself self-centered, or centered on others?"
John shot Miles another quizzical look, wondering where this was going. "Uh...centered on others?"
Miles considered that for a second. "And yet, the first reason you give that the Goa'uld are worse than the Wraith is because you would hate losing control of yourself. Not, for example, 'because they're involved in galaxy-wide slavery, murder, and oppression' or that 'they use humans as a means to an end, where the Wraith simply think of humans as food'."
"Well, just because I like being in control of myself doesn't mean I don't care about the rest of that," John responded. "And being forced to take part in the slavery, murder, and oppression would definitely make it even worse."
Miles nodded. "True. I was just intrigued by your initial response to the question." He contemplated checking the time, and found it provided in the jumper data. Easing the right control stick back while keeping the left forward, Miles watched as the blue-green ocean disappeared, the jumper zooming out of the water and back into the sky again.
"Oh." As they rose back into the air, John asked suspiciously, "What kind of doctor are you again?"
"Linguistics," Miles replied, arching an eyebrow at Sheppard. "Why do you ask?"
"Because you sound like a shrink."
Miles blinked, looking surprised by the idea. "Really?" He eased the controls around, recalling the HUD and squinting at the information, looking for their location in relation to Atlantis.
"Well, yeah. All this talk about 'are you introverted or extroverted' and then poking holes in the answers is pretty shrink-like."
Miles nodded slowly, understanding. "Rest assured, any of the information I learn is more for my own edification, not for some report to be sent up the chain of command to see whether someone is fit to remain at their post." He squinted again at the information. "Did you want to fly back to Atlantis, or should I?"
"You can go ahead and take us back," John said with a shake of his head. Miles seemed a bit odd, but then, that seemed pretty standard for Atlantis.
Miles nodded, toggling the controls and tentatively starting forward before settling into a good speed. "Candy bar for your thoughts, Major?" He would've offered a penny, but he hadn't thought to bring any money with him to another galaxy.
John chuckled. "An entire candy bar? That could get you a lot of thoughts. Got a question?"
"Many, but I'll keep it to just one." Miles' lips quirked into a brief smile. "Do you think we'll be able to make a difference in this galaxy?"
John sat in silence for a few seconds, then quietly said, "I certainly hope we will, and we have an obligation to try."
Miles arched an eyebrow. "But, realistically...?" he prompted.
"Well, we've already managed to wake at least one Wraith hiveship a century or so early, so I guess that counts as a difference." John shrugged and stared out the window. "For now, I'd be happy with survival."
Miles nodded. A few minutes later, he caught sight of the Atlantis spires. He slowed down, circling the city once before glancing at Sheppard. "Where's the hangar again?"
"Top of the control tower. That's the main bay, at least, there might be more somewhere else."
Miles nodded, minimizing the HUD and flying close to the control tower, trying to spot the hangar doors, and suddenly, Miles felt something happen with the jumper, something... fluid that he wasn't responsible for. "Major," he said in a tense voice. "Is this the auto-pilot taking over?"
John looked the display over and nodded. "Yeah, it usually takes over about here. It should just take you right into the bay and onto one of the landing pads."
Miles exhaled slowly through his nose, deliberately letting go of the controls. It was strange to watch the vessel enter the hangar, the bright blue sky turning into the dark interior. The jumper landed gently, not even jarring them, and Miles breathed slowly. "That was certainly... unexpected."
"What was?"
"The auto-pilot," Miles replied, getting up from the chair. "Then again, I'm used to driving cars, not spaceships with underwater capabilities."
"I told you it was automatic in here," John said as he checked to make sure the jumper had shut down properly. Seeing nothing wrong, he stood up as well.
"Knowing it's automatic, and seeing it in action for myself are two different things, I think, Major," Miles replied. Not sure what else to say, he nodded tersely. "Thank you for the flying lesson."
"You're welcome. I'll shoot you an email when we're ready to start doing more."
Miles nodded. "I'll make sure to keep an eye out." He paused before asking, "Is Sergeant Bates the only soldier assigned to weapons qualifying for off-world missions?" He sounded more curious than concerned.
"No, but he's the one in charge of it." John frowned. "You got a problem?"
Miles shook his head calmly. "I appreciate his straightforwardness." He nodded politely to Sheppard. "Now, if you'll excuse me...?"
"Sure, go, go. See you later," John said with a wave.
Miles nodded again and headed out of the jumper, down the ramp and out of the jumper bay, heading back to his quarters, mentally trying to replay the conversation so that he could take adequate notes when he got back to his tablet. A little while later, John headed off to the labs to see if anything interesting was happening there.