Georgie and Fred [Tankiverse Fanfic]

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Georgie & Fred

Fanfic in the Tankiverse by Hippin_in_Hawaii

 
“A date?”
 
“Yes, a date.”
 
“A date date?”
 
“Yes, a real date.”
 
“A proper date. Not beer in a strip club?”
 
“The Stiletto is pretty far away.”
 
“So a proper date? Tablecloths? Candles? Wine? A wandering violinist?”
 
“Do you even own girl clothes?”
 
Georgina glared.
 
“Yes, a date date. You. Me. No one else. Talking. Companionship. A spectacular after-dinner show.”
 
“But I need girl clothes, right?”
 
“No, actually. You’ll need warm clothes. And a sleeping bag. Earmuffs and mittens.”
 
“An outdoor venue?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“What’s the show?”
 
“The Leonids.”
 
“The Leonids? I don’t think I’ve heard of them. Are they new?”
 
“Old as dirt.”
 
“What’s their thing?”
 
“Light show. It’ll be one of the most visually stunning displays you’ve ever seen. Well, maybe. Weather matters.”
 
“Of course. It’s outdoors.”
 
“So you’ll come?”
 
“DInner and a show? I’d love to!”
 
“Ok, I’ll pick you up around twenty-three hundred Friday.”
 
“Wait, what? Twenty-three hundred?”
 
“This is a late-night event. We’ll probably be out until dawn. You may want to take a bit of a nap.”
 
“Don’t we leave on patrol Saturday morning?”
 
“Yeah, Saturday’ll be a rough day. There’s nothing to be done for it, though. We miss this show, it’ll be a year before we get another chance.”
 
“Annual tradition?”
 
“Something like that.”
 
A few days later, at 22:00 sharp, Fred pulled up in front of the company’s tent city in a small car.
 
“What, not taking the tank?”
 
“Hard to manage without bringing Al and Liza along. Plus, parking.”
 
Fred pointed the car into the darkness and pressed the gas. Soon the camp was falling behind them and they were swallowed by the moonless night, driving down an unlit road through the undeveloped fields that surrounded their current base location.
 
“Is there even a city this way?”
 
“Nope. Not for thousands of clicks.”
 
“Where are you taking me?”
 
“See that big hill over there to the right? That’s the spot.”
 
“There’s a show on a hill in the middle of a field?”
 
“There’s a show on the hill in the middle of the field,” he replied, singing the words.
 
She laughed, and they continued in unison: “There’s a show, there’s a show, there’s a show on the hill in the middle of the field!”
 
Georgina laughed, happy to let Fred have his little secret. She settled down in the seat and contented herself with studying his face in the glow from the dashboard indicators. He had a good face, an honest face, she’d often thought. It was a rare treat to be able to observe him like this while he was busy navigating the car.
 
“Ok, it’s going to get a bit rough,” he said, slowing then turning off the road. The car bounced a bit going over the gravel at the edge of the lane, then smoothed. They were now plowing their way through a field of tall grass, higher than the headlights, which Fred switched off.
 
“I think this is alfalfa,” he said. “This was cropland a few decades ago. The economy tanked and people abandoned the whole area. But the crops keep growing.”
 
It was a bit surreal, the car a submarine, or maybe a boat, pushing its way through a gently waving green sea. Well, she assumed it was green. It had been back when the lights were on.
 
Fred slowed and peered ahead.
 
“What are you looking for?”
 
“I left a chemlite on top of a big rock. That marks the path up the hill. I’m not really interested in smacking into the rock.”
 
Georgina sat up and peered into the night. Together they searched the darkness as the car slowly forced a path forward.
 
“There!” Georgina pointed, then realised the futility of that move. “About twenty degrees to the right.”
 
“Got it. Thanks!”
 
As they approached the hill, the grass grew shallower, and Fred switched the lights back on. A narrow road, more suited to carts than cars, wound up the rocky slope. Fred babied the car up about halfway, where they came to a small level clearing with a tent erected.
 
“Planned this ahead of time, I’m guessing?”
 
“Spent all afternoon on it. I think shepherds used to camp here. It’s on the leeward side of the hill, had a fire ring set up, and no stones worth mentioning. Probably been used for thousands of years.”
 
They left the car and walked into camp. Fred had left embers banked in the fire ring; it was only the work of a few minutes to resurrect a blaze with the timber he had stacked nearby.
 
“So your idea of a special time is to take the infantry woman camping?” chided Georgina.
 
“Did you ever? Before the service?” he asked.
 
“Camp? No, I was a city girl. A blanket in the park for a picnic is about as close as I came to camping. Until, of course, basic.”
 
“Well, this is a little different. Here,” he grunted as he pulled over a cooler, “we have ground meat, some new potatoes, a lovely onion, some carrots, a couple of apples, some salt and pepper. And, of course, tinfoil.”
 
“Oh, of course!”
 
He gave her a disparaging glance. “Hobo meal, your cityness.”
 
“Show me.”
 
“Ok spread your tinfoil like this. Use at least two layers; I like to use three. Make it big. Now, hand me that cutting board. Grab a sani-wipe for me, will you? Thanks. Ok, there are different schools of thought at this point, but I prefer to slice my carrots into little coins. It takes a little extra time, but is worth it, if you ask me. Now we put down a couple of layers of the carrots on the foil, like so. Good. I sprinkle a little salt and pepper at this point. Not too much; we’re going to add more! Ok, next, the potatoes. I like to cut mine into good, bite-sized wedges. A real mouthful, y’know? Then we layer those on top of the carrots. Another light dusting of seasoning. Good. Now, a really thick slice of onion. You don’t want to skimp here; this is a major source of flavor. Break the rings apart and spread them like so. Ok, now we take the meat, and we form it into good sized balls. I prefer a three-bite ball, myself.” Fred had to pause for the inevitable laugh. “Spread the balls like so. Now, take another slice of onion, and one ring goes on each ball. Dust again with salt and pepper. Ok, grab the ends of the foil, and bring them together like this. Fold one edge over the other, that’s good, and roll this down. Right, clear down to the meat. Now grab the open ends like this, and do the same thing. Make sure to fold the bottom over the top, and roll it like so. Otherwise, the juice will leak out and this won’t be delicious.”
 
He leaned over to inspect her bundle. “That’s good.”
 
“So I pass hobo cooking class?”
 
“That remains to be seen. Now the apples. We’re just going to wrap them the same way. Make sure there are no tears in the foil. Good.”
 
Fred stirred the fire. “I’ve had this going half the day; there are some really good coals going down there. We just place these carefully in there...ow! And again...OW! Now we rake more coals over them, and add a couple of pieces of wood.” He sat back and dusted his hands proudly. “There we go. Dinner in two hours!”
 
Georgina looked at him suspiciously. “And what do we do for two hours?”
 
“Come this way!” Fred jumped up and walked into the darkness, following the curve of the hill. Georgina rose and stumbled after him, her eyes dazzled by the firelight. “Easy, watch your footing. Just a little further around the hill,” came Fred’s voice from the darkness ahead.
 
Georgina came upon him sitting on the ground. “Here, sit, I spread several blankets.”
 
Georgina sat beside him. “So where’s the show?”
 
Fred gestured at the heavens. Georgina leaned against him, felt his arm wrap around her shoulders, and snuggled close. “It is pretty.”
 
“It’s perfect. There’s no moon, the sky is clear, and Leo is rising.”
 
“Leo?”
 
“The lion. Look, there, see that one tall tree on the horizon? Ok, now go straight up and just a little left. See that first bright star you come to? Ok, that’s Regulus. His front shoulder is there. Now look to the left and a little down. See that triangle? The three bright ones? That’s his butt and tail. The one farthest to the left is Denebola. Ok, now back to Regulus, and go up. See that arc of stars, the big semi-circle of five? That’s his mane.”
 
“Ok, I can see the mane, and maybe I can see a tail, but I’m having a hard time filling in the rest.”
 
“It’s ok, just keep your eyes on the lion.” Fred shifted and laid back, propping against a sleeping bag. “Come back here, get comfortable. We’re going to be a while.”
 
“Well, it’s two hours til hobo,” she snarked.
 
“Shush, you. Watch the lion.”
 
They lay in silence, each enjoying the other’s warmth. Suddenly a bright speck streaked across the sky, a glowing trail lingering ever so briefly behind. Georgina sat straight up. “Holy ****! Was that a shooting star?” She turned to Fred, wonder on her face. “I’ve never seen one before!”
 
He laughed. “Keep your eyes on the lion, silly! You won’t see them if you’re looking at me!”
 
She settled down beside him. “Will there be more?”
 
“The Leonids are an annual meteor shower. For most of November, the Earth is flying through a comet’s path. That path is full of chunks of rock and ice and whatnot that have broken off the comet over the centuries. It just happens to line up so that those bits of comet crap look like they’re falling from the sky out of the constellation Leo. Thus, Leonids.”
 
“There was another!”
 
“Yeah, that was a good one. As our eyes get more used to the dark, we’ll see even more, some that are just too faint for us right now. It’s hard to predict, but if this is an average night, we could get fifty meteors in an hour.”
 
“Really?”
 
“Really. At the turn of this century, for three years running, this was a mind-blowing show, with counts as high as three thousand per hour. Can you imagine? Like raining fire!” The awe and excitement in his voice caused Georgina to turn her head towards him, then stretch over for a kiss.
 
No one knows how many meteors they missed during that kiss. If it was an average year, probably eight or so. Then they returned to watching the show, holding each other close.
 
Time passed and meteors fell, blazing across the night sky. Some were brief, mere pinpricks of light, barely enough of a flicker to catch. A very few were bright, unmissable, leaving their trail across the sky for several seconds. Most were somewhere in between, but all held Georgina captivated. She couldn’t believe it when Fred started to push her up.
 
“Time to eat,” he said.
 
“I don’t want to miss this,” she complained.
 
“The higher Leo gets in the sky, the more we’ll see. This show should peak around oh-three-hundred. We’ve got plenty of time to stretch, pee, eat, and then get back and get our eyes readjusted. Come on.”
 
They went back to the campsite; the fire had mostly died down. Fred used a shovel to carefully pull out the scorched foil bundles before tossing a couple of small sticks of wood on to brighten the blaze.
 
“It goes without saying, these will be hot. Open one end of the foil just until you see steam, then we’ll let them sit while we have a beer.”
 
Hobo meals may well have been the most delicious things Georgina had ever tasted. Certainly one of the top five. They laughed and supped and finished their beers, then headed back to the darkness.
 
“So how do you know so much about the stars?”
 
“I wanted to be an astronaut.”
 
“What, seriously?”
 
“Seriously. From the time I was old enough to understand what space was, it’s all I could dream about. I had posters of all the planets. My friends in grade school obsessed over augmented-reality monster games. I memorized the names of every moon. They moved on to idolize singers and actors. I idolized astronauts. They could quote sports statistics. I could cite planetary masses and orbital periods.” She felt him shrug. “It never stopped being fascinating. I’d still go out there, given the chance.”
 
“So how did you end up here?”
 
“Well, I never had the aptitude for many of the requisite skills. Math and science are hard for me. No matter how bad I wanted it, I was never going to be good enough to successfully compete for a job that fewer than a hundred people have ever held.” He shrugged again. “Besides, this is better.”
 
“Commanding tanks is better?”
 
“Yep! An astronaut only gets to fly a few times, no matter how good he is. There are very few opportunities to go up, and the radiation exposure is both intense and cumulative. No, with my tank, I get to sit in a confined cabin breathing the same recirculated air as my crewmates nearly every single day. Sometimes for as much as a week without a break!”
 
“A week? Really?”
 
“We did ten days during training. Simulating the situation in a contaminated battle environment. Assuming you still have support personnel running around in hazmat suits, and that they can resupply your consumables cleanly, you could stay in a tank forever. It would ruin your posture, but you’d be alive. Without the support crew, water is the deal breaker. After two weeks, it’s time to start drinking urine.”
 
“Cheery thought.”
 
“What about you?”
 
“I’d just as soon not drink urine, if that’s what you’re asking.”
 
“No, what did you want to be?”
 
“I don’t think I want to tell you.”
 
Fred shook her gently. “Come on. I promise to laugh.”
 
She sighed. “I wanted to teach horses ballet.”
 
True to his word, Fred chuckled. “You wanted to what?”
 
“I wanted to teach horses ballet. I loved watching ballet, and especially the Nutcracker. And I absolutely adored horses. Thought they were the most beautiful creatures in the world. And it just seemed as natural as rain to me that such beautiful, graceful things should have a place in the most beautiful, graceful dance. So I was going to grow up and teach horses to do ballet so I could dance with them and be a star.”
 
“That’s really a beautiful thought.”
 
She smiled, and snuggled closer. “Maybe. But opportunities for horse training are pretty rare in the city. My folks did manage to scrape enough to send me to pony camp for a few summers, and I loved it, but the fascination waned as I grew up. I also tried ballet lessons a few times, but there wasn’t much glamour going on.”
 
It wasn’t a spectacular night for the Leonids, but neither was it a poor night. Certainly it was a source of wonder and amazement for a horse ballet instructor who had never seen a shooting star before, and because of that, it was a night of magic for the astronaut who held her. The skies stayed clear; Leo ascended into the night sky, sprinkling fiery trailers in his wake. And, for a time, the world consisted of two people who couldn’t have been happier.


 

Mahalo (thank you) for reading; I hope you enjoyed! This story is part of a series. Information on the series, and links to the other stories, can be found here.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Hippin_in_Hawaii

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

- No edits made

 

Approved

 

 

Just wanted to say that I really liked how you executed the Meteor Shower scene; you did a good job being descriptive without feeling like information was being dumped on my head. I feel like the beginning dialogue is a bit difficult to follow (I had to double back and re-read it since I assumed the wrong character was leading), but I didn't change it because it'd ruin your stylistic choices.

 

There's a bump on a log in a hole on the bottom of the seaaaa!

[Viking4s 10,791]

Make a book out of it and find a publisher.

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Make a book out of it and find a publisher.

I'm thinking about, once the story has run its course, publishing it as a novel. Putting all the dirty words back in, tweaking a few things to make it seem like I knew what I was planning from Day One, giving it a good once-over. Although I think most of my potential audience consists of people who are reading it as it happens...

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Loved it!

Edited March 29, 2018 by GrandExecutioner

[shafter9 156]

I'm thinking about, once the story has run its course, publishing it as a novel. Putting all the dirty words back in...

I'd buy it, provided that the words were dirty enough. :ph34r:

Back to the story- in a tank, there may be ways to distill urine? Boil it, capture the vapor, recondense it? 

Edited March 30, 2018 by shafter9

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

 

Back to the story- in a tank, there may be ways to distill urine? Boil it, capture the vapor, recondense it? 

It would have to be enough of a priority that the still was built into the tank. That's possible, but unlikely. Tanks travel with support, and water purification is a pretty big job in even a small army. It has its own group of people and equipment. Even if the tank were of the still-carrying variety, though, only about 2/3 of your body's fluid is excreted through urine. The rest comes out through sweat, mucus, saliva, even the moisture in your breath. Having a urine still would extend the possible length of your stay, but not make it indefinite. 

[Viking4s 10,791]

It would have to be enough of a priority that the still was built into the tank. That's possible, but unlikely. Tanks travel with support, and water purification is a pretty big job in even a small army. It has its own group of people and equipment. Even if the tank were of the still-carrying variety, though, only about 2/3 of your body's fluid is excreted through urine. The rest comes out through sweat, mucus, saliva, even the moisture in your breath. Having a urine still would extend the possible length of your stay, but not make it indefinite. 

in a small closed space you will need a water condensator/collector, otherwise it is going to be the amazonian forest in your tank in no time!

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

in a small closed space you will need a water condensator/collector, otherwise it is going to be the amazonian forest in your tank in no time!

Obviously tanks come with climate control. But there's a difference between moisture collection and reclamation. Is moisture collection critical to a MBT functioning? Of course it is. But distilling it into clean water... tanks aren't meant to be extreme-range autonomous vehicles. They require continual support. A still just isn't a practical use of the very limited space.

 

 

Even on submarines, where stills are a given to produce drinking water, and operating months in a sealed condition is the norm, reclamation of waste moisture isn't deemed practical. They vent waste to the sea, and just make more clean water.

 

In space on the ISS, all moisture is reclaimed. Cause it's really, really hard to get water to them. And expensive.

 

If you were on Arrakis, and wearing a still suit, then you'd be talking about reclamation!

[shafter9 156]

True, tanks have extensive support networks IRL.

But isn't recondensed water clean by default? Only the water turns into vapor, leaving contaminants behind, and assuming the condensing surface was clean...

 

I have never seen any sort of support for tanks in-game outside of "drugs." Which, I suppose, are comparable to necessary supplies. But the logistics are way unrealistic.

 

[sensei_tanker 3,098]

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

I have never seen any sort of support for tanks in-game outside of "drugs." Which, I suppose, are comparable to necessary supplies. But the logistics are way unrealistic.

Well, in the game, the tanks only operate for 15 minutes at a time! Even on the pro battles, I don't think I've heard of a single battle running more than a few hours. There's no time for support to be needed! 

[tweezers 1,034]

 

It was a bit surreal, the car a submarine, or maybe a boat, pushing its way through a gently waving green sea. Well, she assumed it was green. It had been back when the lights were on.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

It wasn’t a spectacular night for the Leonids, but neither was it a poor night. Certainly it was a source of wonder and amazement for a horse ballet instructor who had never seen a shooting star before, and because of that, it was a night of magic for the astronaut who held her. The skies stayed clear; Leo ascended into the night sky, sprinkling fiery trailers in his wake. And, for a time, the world consisted of two people who couldn’t have been happier.

 

Love the descriptions, and the last paragraph made me very happy indeed!