P Jay A Tour.

Waking to the rumble of the shuttles hull as it moved through turbulence, Jay grumbled something under his breath.
He didn’t need to see inside the sealed cockpit of the Starbug to know that the pilot had failed to compensate for solar winds. Even back here, in the windowless mid-section, away from a single navigation console he could tell exactly the speed and trajectory of those wind just from the feel of the vibrations in the ships hull.
If he were flying, people in the back would be getting a good nights sleep that’s for sure. Christ it had been too long since he’d flown.
Still, he had to admit, after 6 months on security detail on an asteroid the captain had sent a mining crew down to he was looking forward to setting foot back on the Blue Dwarf. Even if it wasn’t HIS Blue Dwarf.
Six months. He’d not even been able to say goodbye to Cass and the others. When the asteroid belt was discovered, with such a plentiful supply of essential minerals the captain wanted to set up a mine immediately and dispatched a crew to set up right away.
It had been mostly uneventful, and Jay had felt it was a waste of his talents, but still – he was under no illusion that he needed to earn the respect of his superiors given the apparent incompetence of the version of himself he had replaced in this universe.
Still, it hadn’t been totally dull there’d been one or two incidents that had needed his attention, not least the attack by giant space bugs that brought back far too many memories.
He felt the Starbug land (badly) and got up and began to climb down the hatch into the landing bay where he was greeted by his commanding officer who informed him to report immediately to the captains office.
“Golf?” Jay sputtered. “Seriously?”
“Deadly” replied Ferrington-Blonde. “And the entire crews lives depend on it. The specifically asked for you, the ‘worst pilot on record’”
Jay grimaced at that statement. She really had no idea.
“They insist that you fly the ship over there, against my better judgement and take part in the tournament. I’m led to believe that there are even holes that require a Blue-Midget just to tee-off”
“Rest assured Chrysler, I fully expect failure given your record, but I have no choice. At least by sending you all we have a chance…”
“Captain, despite what my record may suggest, I’m….a different person these days. I can do this.”
“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed a new confidence in you. But confidence in no way equals competence, and that’s what worries me. Believe me if there were any other choice, you’d be the last person I’d be sending on this mission”
“I’m flattered…but trust me, I’ve done things over the last 6 centuries you wouldn’t believe.”
“Excuse me?”
“Months. 6 months”
“Have you even played golf before?”
“How hard could it be? It’s calculating trajectory and thrust, it’s like flying a shuttle from the outside”
“Flying one from the inside has never been your strongest point, let alone outside. I suggest you get to practising in the AR suite…”

<Jay’s in…and HOPEFULLY I’ll be more frequent in my posting from now on!>