Rush Art

"The testing was largely done during the first R&D run of the tilt drive, ma'am. We don't do it now because the drive hasn't really changed since then."

Teriahnah tapped her finger on the desk in front of her and lowered her eyebrows at the holoform of a man sitting across from her.

"And why aren't you doing any new research now?" She asked, her confident soprano voice tinted with derision.

"Somebody somewhere probably is," the man said, "but we're not a research shop Ms Kristy. We build PICs, not drives."

"Your listings say you design custom crafts," Teriahnah said pointedly, "do you not design custom crafts?"

"Ma'am, we design the ship and then build it out of parts we can order or fabricate. Tilt drives can't be fabricated in house. We've got to buy them like any other shop, and then install them to the specs the manufacturer designed," the man replied. He sounded exasperated. Teriahnah supposed she'd be exasperated too if she were so inflexible.

"Then buy a drive that fits into the design I want," she demanded, tapping one nail against the image displayed on the desk surface.

It was a stunning design. Teriahnah had made her name creating fashion for the elite of Paunoon and various customers throughout much of the Quayar inner system. Her designs were worn on runways and in board rooms with grace, and some of her sculptures had landed in front of prominent buildings like the Paunoon Central Repository and the Chief Cenotaph of the Vookware on Baygere. But this was the first time she'd taken a crack at designing a spaceship, and she didn't wonder whether she'd found her calling.

The small Personal Interplanetary Craft, or PIC, was simply inspired. It used mixed materials to hide the required position lights and cockpit portholes among the external design of the vessel, and the sweeping, bulbous design looked unlike anything else in the sky. This was going to be her personal PIC, and she wanted it done right. Yeston Fabrication was said to be the best custom PIC builder on Paunoon, but perhaps she would have to shop off-world to get this done right.

The man displayed across the desk from her rubbed one hand through his hair. "I'm trying to explain, Ms Kristy, that we can't. Drives like that don't exist. They need space around them for the warp to happen, and we can't have any equipment in that space or it'll get wrecked."

"Then move your equipment out of that space!" Teriahnah raised her voice, "I don't care where you put the equipment, there should be plenty of space!"

"Ma'am, there is plenty of space. We just need to move the cockpit forward of the warp effect and we can..."

"Don't you dare!" This imbecile. "Can't you see that the position of the cockpit and its viewers is integral to the design?"

There was a moment of silence as the man gathered himself. Teriahnah didn't wait.

"I've done all the research. The warp from the drive only damages equipment at the effect radius and wireless communication isn't affected," she said, now that he seemed to finally be listening.

"It does affect it but the signal gets through, yeah," the man admitted.

"That's why my design has the drive and the cockpit co-located. Connect the controls to the rest of the craft wirelessly and everything will work!"

The holoform image stared at her wide-eyed. "You... co-located? As in you want the drive under the seat?"

"Obviously," Teriahnah said, "It's like you didn't even read the schematic."

"The center of the drawing is where the drive position defaults to in software," the man said, "I just figured you hadn't moved it."

Teriahnah raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. She wasn't going to admit that was what had piqued her curiosity at the beginning of this design. Inspiration could come from incredibly mundane sources, but she guarded that secret closely to maintain her mystique.

"Ma'am, there are reasons we don't put the tilt drives in the cockpit besides equipment safety," the man started.

"I'm well aware it can be uncomfortable for the passengers to be so close to the warp effect," Teriahnah interrupted, "but I've done my research. It's not fatal."

"Maybe not immediately fatal," the man started again.

"I'm well aware of the risk," Teriahnah interrupted again, "but sometimes discomfort must be endured in favor of true art. Just build the craft the way I've designed it and use wireless connections across the warp effect boundary."

"I... All right, Ms Kristy," the man finally caved, "I'll uh... have a contract ready for you this afternoon. Shouldn't take us longer than about six months."

"Take as long as needed to do it right," Teriahnah said, her voice light from the smile of victory on her face, "you can't rush art."

---

Teriahnah was giddy with excitement as her ground car pulled up outside the Yeston Fabrication facility. It had been a long eight months, but she had waited patiently, refusing to visit to see the progression of her PIC, settling for occasional still images just to make sure the exterior profile was progressing as desired. But everything had gone according to plan, and today it was ready for its first functional test.

The man from her initial holoform design consultations, a Mr Yeston, walked from the door of the facility to greet her as she disembarked from her car. He was smiling almost as widely as she, clearly won over by the superior design details of her PIC. She hurried forward to shake his hand. 

"Ms Kristy, good to see you," he said.

"Of course of course. I'm just excited to finally have a reason to come!" Teriahnah replied jubilantly.

"Yes, you've been very patient over the course of this development cycle," the man said, leading her toward the door, "but she's ready for a full functional drive!"

Teriahnah followed him into the front of the shop. He led her through a short hallway of offices and past a conference room before moving through a door and into an enormous shop. In every corner there were PICs of every style and size in various states of completion. But near the door, front and center and eye-grabbing in a seemingly impossible way, was hers.

She walked to it in a swoon, ignoring the other vessels and whatever the man was saying. She circled underneath it and around it, moving in close to feel the metal skin and stepping back to take in the lines. They swooped and curved in an almost seductive way, the craft seemingly already in motion despite standing perfectly motionless. It was the most beautiful ship she'd ever seen. It was perfect.

She returned to the man after several minutes of taking it all in. He was grinning at her almost stupidly. But why not? This was probably the best thing he'd ever made in his life.

"You want to ride in her?" he asked.

Teriahnah gave him a level look. Obviously she did. He nodded excitedly and directed her to a porthole on the bottom. A contact pad beside it caused a panel to slide aside and the pilot's chair to lower. She had designed the ship for only one occupant. Everyone else would surely rather enjoy it from outside, after all.

She sat down, the chair soft and supportive at once, luxuriously comfortable, just like she'd asked. She heard the man say something as she triggered the chair to lift back into the ship, but aside from him shouting a radio frequency for her to turn to she didn't hear it.

Once inside she took stock of the controls. Everything was laid out elegantly and the space was cozy yet comfortable. The interior had never been the focus of her design, but even still this was a very pleasant place to be. She turned on the batteries and tuned the radio to the proper frequency.

"Can you hear me Ms Kristy?" The man said over the radio.

She looked toward the entrance to the shop and saw him standing with several other smiling technicians. Odd that the entire staff seemed to be watching something as simple as a small, indoor test flight, but then the ship was truly something to behold.

"I can," Teriahnah replied.

"Good. With the batteries on you should be able to activate the drive and initiate a hover. Do you need any help with the controls?" the man asked.

"Not at all," Teriahnah replied, locating the drive panel and powering it on as he said.

The sensations that rippled through her as she did so were intense. It was as if a wave passed through her entire form from foot to head, somehow... displacing her. The sensation passed quickly, leaving her just slightly disoriented. She gathered herself for a moment and then initiated a hover.

That strange sense of displacement was back stronger this time. It twisted at her insides and she gasped, suddenly dizzy. Gripping the arms of the plush chair she sat motionless for several moments, gathering herself. Blinking quickly she was finally able to stop the cockpit from swaying in her field of view, but she was still somewhat dizzy and suddenly had an extreme need to pee. Still, it wasn't painful, just... well, uncomfortable. Was this all people were complaining about the with warp effect? The discomfort was well worth it simply to be inside something so stunning.

"Is everything okay Ma'am?" the man said over the radio.

Teriahnah paused before responding to gather herself, but she was quite pleased with how steady her voice was as she replied "Yes, just a little disorientation, I'm fine."

"Good to hear," the man said, "when you're ready, go ahead and set her to point-one forward and we'll see what she does."

Teriahnah sat back up in the seat, crossing her legs and squirming against her bladder. Certainly worth noting that she'd have to use the bathroom before piloting anywhere, but that was manageable to look this good. She reached for the drive controls and set it to point-one forward.

The squirming within her was far more intense this time. She doubled over as the world swam around her and watched in detached alarm as a dark spot grew across her skirt. Some time passed before she realized that it was coming from her bladder, which she could no longer feel. She couldn't really focus on feeling anything, in fact. She could see her feet and hands, but they seemed to be miles away from her. Teriahnah tried to sit up, pushing against the floor and the seat, but her head swam around to the left instead. She couldn't be sure, but the ship must have been spinning rapidly. Although... the view out the porthole didn't seem to be spinning, but the porthole was. Was she spinning? There was another sudden twist within her and without warning the porthole was blocked from view by an intense stream of vomit. Was that... was that her vomit?

An eternity seemed to pass before the spinning suddenly stopped. She could hear the sound of the ship settling back to the ground and the drive powering down. She sat unmoving in the pilot's chair as it slowly lowered through the bottom of the ship.

"Was there some discomfort, Ms Kristy?" she heard the voice of the man ask.

"I actually feel fine," she heard herself say softly. She blinked repeatedly, trying to get her eyes to focus. "But the visibility could be improved."