Starship Armstrong - Season 1

Part 63 - Dragon Slayers (XII)

"Picture space/time, remember space and time are a single interwoven continuum, as a taught sheet. Stars, planets and other large objects are sitting on the sheet. The indentations they make on the sheet are like gravity wells," said Dr. Kang.

"Really?" asked Asher, consumed with fascination.

"No, not really. It's a useful analogy to explain the mechanics to people who lack the sufficient background but it fails utterly to capture the elegant complexity of the gravitational force. Suffice it to say the mechanism by which you're not thrown off the sphere by all the spinning is well understood. Now, is that all?"

"You seem to have an answer for everything," said Asher "You're either as learned as you claim, or such a glib imposter that it would pointless to question you further. I'm satisfied for now."

"Then you'll help us?" asked Gibson.

"I'm still not certain what it is that you want," said Asher "But I'm open to the possibility."

"We have a sort of ship we use to travel between the stars," explained Gibson "It was attacked by... an enemy of our and badly damaged. We're stuck here until we can get some help repairing it."

"Who is this enemy that attacked you?" asked Asher.

"It's a long story," said Mitzner.

"No," said Dr. Kang "It's not. I'm going to nip this one right in the bud and jump in before you two confuse the poor man with your inept explanations of straightforward concepts."

"I hate him so much more when he's right," Mitzner angrily whispered to Gibson.

"You want to know who our enemy is?" asked Dr. Kang, turning to Asher "It's your enemy. It's whatever Devil-figure your people have conjured up in your pissant ancestor cult. It's the thing that destroyed the colonies in orbit of your world, killing your fabled ancestors and plunging your people into the dark age you current find yourself mired in. This thing killed two of our people and we're pissed off. It destroyed your entire civilization. It's more your enemy than it is ours."

Kang was getting intense, waving his arms around and flushing red. Asher's face was a strange mixture of intimidated and enthralled.

"We're here because our leader has some undiagnosed empathy-related pathology that causes her to take on the problems of other people, and you're the the other people in question this week. So here we are, demigods for all intents and purposes, who have dropped from the clear blue sky to kill the Devil himself and then raise your people out of barbarism and put you back in touch with the galactic community. Through the course of doing so our lander got damaged, so you'll have to forgive us the audacity of asking you to help fix it."

Okay, maybe I still hate him the same amount when he's right, Mitzner conceded to herself.

"I'll help, I'll help," said Asher "Whatever you need."

"There was that so much to ask?" said Dr. Kang "Now, take us to your leader."