The Game, part 2

Yesterday, we saw Rome instruct Junior, the baby starship, in the art of deceit in order to gain a tactical advantage over Captain Keller and the other would-be Ark Lords. She needs the time to figure out how to rescue Aason and Binoda who have been kidnapped by the Darwin people. Everything she is doing is calculated to produce a certain effect.

Today Rome elaborates on the ruse to create a convincing case for manual intervention. She exploits Keller's impatience as much as she does his ignorance:

      “Very well,” Rome said, leaning over and looking at the center viewscreen. “Junior, enable manual control.”
      “Enabled, Auntie Rome.”
      “OK then,” Rome said. “I am going to spin you around and use your thrusters as braking rockets. Watch how I do it.”
      “OK.”
      Rome twisted the joystick which fired the trimjets, spinning the starship around its center axis. When she was satisfied they were exactly 180 degrees opposite their forward vector, she depressed the mechanical button to enable the plasma jets and pushed forward on the throttle. She watched the center display intently as it showed their forward speed decreasing until it achieved a velocity of zero relative to the nearest gravitational point of reference.
      “Very good,” she said. She twisted the joystick around again until they were facing forward. Deucado was a tiny blue star glowing in the sky to the left of Tau Ceti. Grentadar was nowhere to be seen. Rome assumed it was on the far side of the sun. Rome twisted the joystick slightly counterclockwise then quickly halted their motion. Deucado was now dead ahead.
      “OK, Junior,” Rome said. “I’m going to active the PPT generators. When the tunnel is large enough, I’ll use the plasma jets to push us through.”
      “I understand the theory,” replied the spaceship. “I have just never done it before.”
      “It isn’t hard,” Rome said. She bent forward and checked the yellow dial mounted on the front of the armrest to confirm that the calibration triangle was upright. Satisfied, she mashed in the center button as hard as she could to make sure the PPT tunnel went deep.

Too deep as it turns out. Rome has situation all set up. She has turned to game to her advantage. Tomorrow you will see what she does with this advantage.