#he's technically been in a spaceship already but the novelty's still there

[whataboutfractions]

[aion-rsa]

The Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Best Define the Franchise

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By the time my generation got to watch Star Trek: The Original Series, the episodes often were being presented in top-ten marathons. When I was ten-years-old, for the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek, I tape-recorded a marathon of ten episodes that had all been voted by fans as the best-ever installments of The Original Series. Later, I got lucky and found Trek stickers at the grocery store and was able to label my VHS tapes correctly. But do I think all the episodes that were in that marathon back in 1991 were really the best episodes of all of the classic Star Trek? The short answer: no. Although I love nearly every episode of the first 79 installments of Star Trek, I do think that certain lists have been created by what we think should be on the list rather than what episodes really best represent the classic show. 

This is a long-winded way of saying, no, I didn’t include “Amok Time” or “The Menagerie” on this list because, as great as they are, I don’t think they really represent the greatest hits of the series. Also, if you’ve never watched TOS, I think those two episodes will throw you off cause you’ll assume Spock is always losing his mind or trying to steal the ship. If you’ve never watched TOS, or you feel like rewatching it with fresh eyes, I feel pretty strong that these 10 episodes are not only wonderful, but that they best represent what the entire series is really about. Given this metric, my choice for the best episode of TOS may surprise you…

10. “The Man Trap” 

The first Star Trek ever episode aired should not be the first episode you watch. And yet, you should watch it at some point. The goofy premise concerns an alien with shaggy dog fur, suckers on its hand, and a face like a terrifying deep-sea fish. This alien is also a salt vampire that uses telepathy that effectively also makes it a shapeshifter. It’s all so specifically bonkers that trying to rip-off this trope would be nuts. Written by science fiction legend George Clayton Johnson (one half of Logan’s Run authorship) “The Man Trap” still slaps, and not because Spock (Leonard Nimoy)  tries to slap the alien. Back in the early Season 1 episodes of Star Trek, the “supporting” players like Uhura and Sulu are actually doing stuff in the episode. We all talk about Kirk crying out in pain when the M-113 creature puts those suckers on his face, but the real scene to watch is when Uhura starts speaking Swahili. The casual way Uhura and Sulu are just their lovable selves in this episode is part of why we just can’t quit the classic Star Trek to this day. Plus, the fact that the story is technically centered on Bones gives the episode some gravitas and oomph. You will believe an old country doctor thinks that salt vampire is Nancy! (Spoiler alert: It’s not Nancy.)

9. “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield” 

There are two episodes everyone always likes to bring up when discussing the ways in which Star Trek changed the game for the better in pop culture’s discourse on racism: “Plato’s Stepchildren” and this episode, “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield.” The former episode is famous because Kirk and Uhura kiss, which is sometimes considered the first interracial kiss on an American TV show. (British TV shows had a few of those before Star Trek, though.) But “Plato’s Stepchildren” is not a great episode, and Kirk and Uhura were also manipulated to kiss by telepaths. So, no, I’m not crazy about “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Uhura being forced to kiss a white dude isn’t great.

But “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield,” oddly holds up. Yep. This is the one about space racism where the Riddler from the ‘60s Batman (Frank Gorshin) looks like a black-and-white cookie. Is this episode cheesy? Is it hard to take most of it seriously? Is it weird that Bele (Frank Gorshin) didn’t have a spaceship because the budget was so low at that time? Yes. Is the entire episode dated, and sometimes borderline offensive even though its heart is in the right place? Yes. Does the ending of the episode still work? You bet it does. If you’re going to watch OG Star Trek and skip this episode, you’re kind of missing out on just how charmingly heavy-handed the series could get. “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield” is like a ‘60s after-school special about racism, but they were high while they were writing it.

8. “Arena”

You’re gonna try to list the best episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and not list the episode where Kirk fights a lizard wearing gold dress-tunic? The most amazing thing about “Arena” is that it’s a Season 1 episode of The Original Series and somehow everyone involved in making TOS had enough restraint not to ever try to use this Gorn costume again. They didn’t throw it away either! This famous rubber lizard was built by Wah Chang and is currently owned by none other than Ben Stiller.

So, here’s the thing about “Arena” that makes it a great episode of Star Trek, or any TV series with a lizard person. Kirk refuses to kill the Gorn even though he could have, and Star Trek refused to put a lizard costume in a bunch of episodes later, even though they totally could have. Gold stars all around.

7. “Balance of Terror”

The fact that Star Trek managed to introduce a race of aliens that looked exactly like Spock, and not confuse its viewership is amazing. On top of that, the fact that this detail isn’t exactly the entire focus of the episode is equally impressive. The notion that the Romulans look like Vulcans is a great twist in The Original Series, and decades upon decades of seeing Romulans has probably dulled the novelty ever so slightly. But, the idea that there was a brutally cold and efficient version of the Vulcans flying around in invisible ships blowing shit up is not only cool, but smart.

“Balance of Terror” made the Romulans the best villains of Star Trek because their villainy felt personal. Most Romulan stories in TNG, DS9, and Picard are pretty damn good and they all start right here.

6. “Space Seed”

Khaaaan!!!! Although The Wrath of Khan is infinitely more famous than the episode from which it came, “Space Seed” is one of the best episodes of The Original Series even if it hadn’t been the progenitor of that famous film. In this episode, the worst human villain the Enterprise can encounter doesn’t come from the present, but instead, the past. Even though “Space Seed” isn’t considered a very thoughtful episode and Khan is a straight-up gaslighter, the larger point here is that Khan’s evilness is connected to the fact that he lived on a version of Earth closer to our own.

The episode’s coda is also amazing and speaks of just how interesting Captain Kirk really is. After Khan beat the shit out of him and tried to suffocate the entire Enterprise crew, Kirk’s like “Yeah, this guy just needs a long camping trip.” 

5. “A Piece of the Action”

A few years back, Saturday Night Live did a Star Trek sketch in which it was revealed that Spock had a relative named “Spocko.” This sketch was tragically unfunny because TOS had already made the “Spocko” joke a million times better in “A Piece of the Action.” When you describe the premise of this episode to someone who has never seen it or even heard of it, it sounds like you’re making it up. Kirk, Spock, and Bones are tasked with cleaning-up a planet full of old-timey mobsters who use phrases like “put the bag on you.” Not only is the episode hilarious, but it also demonstrates the range of what Star Trek can do as an emerging type of pop-art. In “A Piece of the Action,” Star Trek begins asking questions about genres that nobody ever dreamed of before. Such as, “what if we did an old-timey gangster movie, but there’s a spaceship involved?”

4. “Devil in the Dark”

When I was a kid, my sister and I called this episode, “the one with giant pizza.” Today, it’s one of those episodes of Star Trek that people tell you defines the entire franchise. They’re not wrong, particularly because we’re just talking about The Original Series. The legacy of this episode is beyond brilliant and set-up a wonderful tradition within the rest of the franchise; a monster story is almost never a monster story

The ending of this episode is so good, and Leonard Nimoy and Shatner play the final scenes so well that I’m actually not sure it’s cool to reveal what the big twist is. If you somehow don’t know, I’ll just say this. You can’t imagine Chris Pratt’s friendly Velicrapotrs, or Ripper on Discovery without the Horta getting their first.

3. “The Corbomite Maneuver” 

If there’s one episode on this list that truly represents what Star Trek is usually all about on a plot level, it’s this one. After the first two pilot episodes —“Where No Man Has Gone Before” and “The Cage”—this was the first regular episode filmed. It’s the first episode with Uhura and, in almost every single way, a great way to actually explain who all these characters are and what the hell they’re doing. The episode begins with Spock saying something is “fascinating” and then, after the opening credits, calling Kirk, who is down in sickbay with his shirt off. Bones gives Kirk shit about not having done his physical in a while, and Kirk wanders through the halls of the episode without his shirt, just kind of holding his boots. 

That’s just the first like 5 minutes. It just gets better and better from there. Like a good bottle of tranya, this episode only improves with time. And if you think it’s cheesy and the big reveal bizarre, then I’m going to say, you’re not going to like the rest of Star Trek. 

2. “The City on the Edge of Forever”

No more blah blah blah! Sorry, wrong episode. Still, you’ve heard about “The City on the Edge of Forever.” You’ve heard it’s a great time travel episode. You’ve heard Harlan Ellison was pissed about how the script turned out. You heard that Ron Moore really wanted to bring back Edith Keeler for Star Trek Generations. (Okay, maybe you haven’t heard that, but he did.)

Everything you’ve heard about this episode is correct. There’s some stuff that will make any sensible person roll their eyes today, but the overall feeling of this episode is unparalleled. Time travel stories are always popular, but Star Trek has never really done a time travel story this good ever again. The edge of forever will always be just out of reach.

1. “A Taste of Armageddon”

Plot twist! This excellent episode of TOS almost never makes it on top ten lists. Until now! If you blink, “A Taste of Armageddon” could resemble at least a dozen other episodes of TOS. Kirk and Spock are trapped without their communicators. The crew has to overpower some guards to get to some central computer hub and blow it up. Scotty is in command with Kirk on the surface and is just kind of scowling the whole time. Kirk is giving big speeches about how humanity is great because it’s so deeply flawed.

What makes this episode fantastic is that all of these elements come together thanks to a simplistic science fiction premise: What if a society eliminated violence but retained murder? What if hatred was still encouraged, but war was automated? Star Trek’s best moments were often direct allegories about things that were actually happening, but what makes “A Taste of Armageddon” so great is that this metaphor reached for something that could happen. Kirk’s solution to this problem is a non-solution, which makes the episode even better. At its best classic Star Trek wasn’t just presenting a social problem and then telling us how to fix it. Sometimes it was saying something more interesting — what if the problem gets even harder? What do we do then? 

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The humor and bombast of “A Taste of Armageddon” is part of the answer to that unspoken question, but there’s also a clever lesson about making smaller philosophical decisions. In Star Wars, people are always trying to rid themselves of the dark side of the Force. In Star Trek, Kirk just teaches us to say, “Hey I won’t be a terrible person, today” and then just see how many days we can go in a row being like that.

What do you think are the most franchise-defining episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Best Define the Franchise appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[coolrobotsupremacist]

Modern Les Mis AU this. Modern Les Mis AU that. Star Wars Les Mis AU when

!!!!!!!!! Not soon enough

The scales have fallen from my eyes, my whole world changed in just one flash of light, Star Wars is the logical place to go for a les mis AU and I can't believe I didn't see it before now. The existence of destiny, the importance and possibility of redemption, heroic doomed rebels, DEmOCraCy.

Weird mix of headcanons and plot? Below.

Jean Valjean as a kind young Jedi trying to keep order in the galaxy even as the Clone Wars escalate. He works himself to the home because he knows that in addition to defending the republic he is also keeping the galaxy safe for his family though he hasn't seen them since he was a child. Order 66 happens and he flees back to his family but is devastated to find them missing, presumed dead. The trauma of war was for nothing and he flees, falling to the darkside and living as an outlaw from both the newly formed Empire. A massive bounty on his head because he's one of the last Jedi known to be alive. Valjean gives into his worst impulses and lives from day to day doing whatever he needs to do to survive and evade the Empire. He stops thinking about the innocent people who might get hurt along the way until one day he comes across a Jedi temple and out pops Myriel.

Big redemption time.

Myriel fixes him up with a new identity and valjean sets out again a slightly less broken man.

Javert is a Bounty Hunter who, unlike most other bounty hunters, refuses to deal with criminals and only chases bounties put out by the Empire. He wears what looks suspiciously like a reclaimed Stormtrooper armour and everyone is too afraid to ask( isn't the point of this job that we DON'T have to wear uniforms)

Fantine meets Tholomyès on Coruscant and when he abandons her she decides to go off world to find work and a new, safe home for her and Cosette.

Cosette is kidnapped by the Thenardiers who are at the height of their power and influence as a family that controls a fleet of pirate spaceships and are on the lookout for force sensitive children to mould into a private army of force users. Fantine, desperate to get her back, turns to the most dangerous and lucrative profession she can find and becomes a bounty hunter in order to raise enough money to hire a team of mercenaries to save Cosette. She ends up teaming up for a bounty with Javert, who wants her help infiltrating a mining station because he suspects something fishy is going on as it's not turning the profit it should be, this just turns out to be its workers being paid a fair wage but Javert is vindicated because, gasp, guess who owns the station?

Hijinks ensue but Valjean eventually agrees to be taken in because he hears why Fantine needs the money and as he's already been exposed as an outlaw he knows he can't do any more good at the station. Fantine shoves Javert down a rubbish shoot and brings in Valjean herself, taking all of the bounty. Then she immediately breaks him out again and they go and rescue Cosette.

Cool battle ensues pew pew pew smash SMASH BOOM. They rescue most of the children and find them good homes all over the galaxy then flee with Cosette to one of the few Jedi temples left. Knowing Star Wars that temple is probably on a desert planet. Thenardiers pirate empire is essentially crippled and he is left with only a few of his child soldiers. He swears vengeance.

Years later Marius is a Prince of a planet with a suitably keysmashy name Snarfan-5? Snarfan-5. With his grandfather as regent Marius trusts that the right thing to do is agree to the demands of the Empire, until he finds out that his Father was a Mandalorian who didn't abandon him but was killed when the Empire attempted genocide in all the Mandalorians. Marius buys a helmet which he vows to never take off until he restores Madalore to its former glory, and starts to reclaim his roots which he's fairly sure have something to do with being good at fighting? He'll figure it out as he goes. Hopefully he can find this Thenardier guy who once saved his father's life.

Then he runs away to join the rebellion.

Enjolras was a Padawan before the republic fell who escaped Order 66, he never got to finish his training and accepts that the Jedi Order had a lot wrong with it but that didnt stop him from internalising all that stuff about the only acceptable love being vague love for people as a whole. He only used his force abilities when absolutely necessary: he considers it an unfair advantage.

Combeferre is fascinated by the force as it's both a proven scientific phenomena and a religion? Wild. When he was a child he wanted to work as a diplomat travelling from planet to planet, solving problems peacefully. Part of him hopes that if enough systems band together, they can force the Empire to yield peacefully.

Coufeyrac doesn't need the force to let you feel the love hes primarily a pilot and picks up Marius on a supply run. Not in the least bit force sensitive, cheerfully so.

Feuilly used to work in a workshop that made cybernetic limbs. He taught himself how to use the force without really understanding until later how unheard of it was. His long-term goal is to rebuild the Jedi without all the toxic feeling repression. He's most fluent in droid because he grew up around them and he really hates how people often treat droids as expendable machinery.

Prouvaire knows about force ghosts, we all know what he's doing with his time.

Joly has taken 345 vaccines for diseases which aren't transmissible to humans but better to be safe than sorry, right? He's always excited to go to a new planet because it means he can research local diseases/medicine.

Bossuet has been accidentally shoved out of 345 airlocks.

Grantaire is technically a darksider. He was a Padawan at the same time as Enjolras but struggles to live by the Jedi code, and was pretty easily seduced to the dark side as a result but he made an even worse Sith than he did a Jedi because he couldn't jam with the cruelty and sadism. Upon realising that the Sith were actually philosophically evil instead of just really liking the aesthetic he sort of sheepishly slips out the back door. The lesson he took from this is that there is no right way to wield power: you either become ineffectual monks or megalomaniac sadists so the only option is to give up. He eventually nominally joins the resistance and he keeps having horrible force visions about all his friends dying which he trys to drown out with copious amounts of alcohol(it never works). 

Bahorel is a Wookie. I don't think that requires further explanation.

Marius settles in with them although he learns to keep his mouth shut about the glorious old days of the Mandalorian empire.

Thenardier tried to train his few remaining child soldiers by throwing sharp objects at them. Long story short Eponine still can't use the force and only has one ear but she is very good at dodging things. Gavroche escaped on his own and is basically a 13 year old Han Solo. He stole a novelty yacht in the shape of an elephant, despite this hugely distinctive ship he has never been gotten close to bring caught. Has close ties with the resistance.

Cosette is taught at Fantines insistence how to use the force and blast people to hell and back, she learns these skills pretty well but more importantly Cosette is given more love that any one person needs so she grows up to be exactly as kind and loving as she is in canon. Valjean is secretly delighted to have a Padawan but also scared that he's going to pass his icky Sith germs onto Cosette. Blasters are Fantines speciality; she teaches Cosette to shoot first. They are eventually honest about their pasts with Cosette, mostly because it would be dangerous not to be. Cosette makes the decision to leave dispute the danger not wanting to live in hiding for the rest of her life.

There's a prophesy about a chosen one and everyone keeps mistakenly assigning it to Enjolras but it's very very clearly about Cosette

[tisfan]

And Tell Me Did Venus Blow Your Mind

(Was it everything you wanted to find)

[Part One: Lift Your Eyes and Let Me In (’Cause Baby I’m an Alien Like You)]

So, space was terrifying.

Not that Tony didn’t know that. Not that he didn’t realize that before he said goodbye to everything that he knew to venture out into the unknown.

Well, unknown to him. Peter and the rest of the Milano’s crew were pretty familiar with space. Although any of them (including Peter, who was actually a Terran and it might have been nice if he remembered that sometimes before commenting on how backwater Terra was) would have said that Terra was alien and unfamiliar. Not a part of the larger galaxy. Just a tiny little planet that really, no one noticed or cared much about.

That was both humbling and weirdly soothing at the same time. Tony Stark on Terra: Big Deal. Tony Stark in the wider galaxy: Non-entity.

“I’ve never been a nobody before,” Tony commented. He was sitting in what Peter called the copilot’s chair, but his hands were well away from the controls. A copilot was seldom necessary and Gamora had already told him that she’d bodily rip him from the chair and throw him across the ship if a copilot was required. Drax had laughed at that, Rocket had made some disparaging comments about humies and their inability to function like normal people, and did he know what a pencil was, which was just rude, and pretty much par for the course as far as Rocket was concerned. Groot announced that, once again, he was Groot.

“You’re not nobody,” Peter insisted. “You’re Star Lord’s consort. That makes you somebody. Just somebody to a very small, select group of highly unstable people.”

“Well, that sounds about like home, yeah,” Tony said. He couldn’t help but smile at that. Boyfriend. It was a nice word. And Peter, unlike everyone else Tony had ever been claimed by, didn’t care about all the rest of the baggage that went with dating Tony Stark. Playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, genius, superhero, merchant of death. None of that was important to someone who was, as Rocket said, a two-time galaxy savior.

Tony was keeping his eyes on Peter’s hands as he moved the various knobs and levers, punched buttons and flipped switches. There were four screens, solid-light or some similar tech. For a spaceship, the Milano was a little retro. The stick was like sticks for ships and planes everywhere that Tony had ever seen. Roll, pitch, yaw, and go.

“Does it take long to learn to pilot?” Tony asked. He still hadn’t looked out the front window, keeping his gaze firm fixed below the ship’s dash.

(read more, or the whole thing on A03 [x])

“Yondu taught me to fly when I was ten,” Peter said. “I was piloting the Milano on solo missions at thirteen. Now, most of that was because I had the patience of a Nartilibian, and about as much sense, so I kept stealin’ M ships and running off with ‘em. Might also had somethin’ to do with how Yondu kept threatening to let the crew eat me, if I kept misbehaving. I’m almost positive that was a joke. But the almost is still a bit worrisome.”

Tony blinked. “Is that a thing that happens?”

Peter shrugged, which wasn’t exactly reassuring. “Hasn’t happened to me, but there aren’t so many Terrans in the galaxy that we exactly have equal representation at a council hearing or anything. Who’s gonna argue?”

“There aren’t laws against that sort of thing?”

“Well, that depends on whether or not you consider humies to be intelligent life forms or not,” Rocket said, coming up behind them. “Some of us do not.”

Tony hid a smile behind his hand, scratching at his beard. Rocket did not like it when he thought Tony wasn’t taking him seriously enough, and Rocket was also pretty damned disgusted by Terra’s lack of scientific advancement. Even the Iron Man suit -- which Tony had upgraded to be space-worthy before they’d left -- was bulky and pointless, as far as the raccoon was concerned. Of course, calling Rocket a raccoon was asking for more trouble, but since it was trouble that Peter appeared to delight in anyway, Tony allowed himself to slip up. From time to time.

“So, Quill, we’re uh, within a few jumps of landing on Archeopia, right?” Drax asked. He was hanging in the pilot’s bay, one hand on the main support-strut.

“Yes, Drax,” Peter said, carefully. “That was, indeed, on the list. Delivery of four hundred barrels of sunflower seeds, Terran-grown. As requested, and I might add, prepaid for delivery, so please tell me that you did not come up here to tell me that, I don’t know, Groot’s decided they’re long-lost kin or something?”

“I did not come up here to tell you that Groot’s adopted the seedlings,” Drax said, dutifully. “I am here to tell you that sunflower seeds are delicious. And also, if you spin the barrel around really really fast in the gravity room, it makes a wonderful pasty substance that can be eaten between slices of bread.”

Peter groaned. “How many?”

“Two.”

“Not slices of bread, you hulking portable stomach. How many barrels did you eat?”

Drax belched, loudly. “Six.”

“Well, I suppose that’s an improvement,” Peter said, tipping his head back and forth. “Don’t eat any more of it, though.” He sighed as Drax wandered off. “One day, just one trip, one job, one… hour.”

“I’ll pencil you in for an hour, after dinner,” Tony suggested, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Peter grinned. “I actually do have you pencilled in for dinner, and after dinner. Archeopia’s a nice planet, very scenic. I thought… we might have a picnic.”

That was going hand in hand with some of Tony’s earlier dates with Quill, all simple stuff that he could manage without having access to the Stark Fortune in space. Hard to wine and dine a guy when he was your meal ticket, Tony thought, trying to avoid squirming in the co-pilot’s chair, feeling just a little guilty about it.

“Tell me about the planet,” Tony suggested.

Quill waxed poetic for a while; Archeopia’s main population were aviary folk; they’d been through some pretty terrible things, including being tracked down and slaughtered by Peter’s father, which was how Peter ended up discovering them in the first place. Tony knew a little bit about trying to make up for a father’s sins.

“Technically, this isn’t their original planet, the original one was destroyed centuries ago, but some of them were out wandering -- that’s what the space-faring group of them calls themselves, the Wanderers. Kinda like Ronin or something, that’s cool, right?”

“Yeah, Angry Birds in Space,” Tony agreed. “It’s cool. Totally a thing.”

“But they picked this one because it’s just… wild and overgrown, and there’s lots of trees. I thought it’d be a good place for a picnic,” Peter went on. He touched Tony’s wrist, rubbed his thumb gently over the pulse point. “Want to show you the galaxy, sunshine.”

Tony couldn’t help but hum into Peter’s touch; there was something about that thumb on his wrist that felt intimate, a private caress that Peter did, no matter where they were. No matter who they were standing in front of. Tony had to admit, he liked it.

There were things Tony knew about space and extraterrestrial planets and then there were things that he’d been told. And then there were things he had to learn about the hard way.

Gravity.

That was a thing.

Now, Tony was perfectly aware that different planetary densities and size would make for different gravities; what he hadn’t accounted for was that there were personal graviton devices. Peter had given him one, the first time they’d docked the Milano. The disc stuck to the back of Tony’s neck, interacted with the gravity on whatever planet they were on, and adjusted it for earth-norm, so he could walk, breathe, and generally be able to operate as normal -- some species who were more space-faring than his own had used the various gravities to their advantage; heavy gravity planet aliens were stronger and denser than Terrans.

And while Tony’s gravity wasn’t the lightest out there, earth-normal was less than the average. Earth was a tiny, backwater planet…

And he’d adjusted; not worried about it too much.

Right up until he was on Archeopia, which had a very light gravity. With a population that flew, so they hadn’t bothered to develop or install the graviton fields that allowed Tony’s disc to work.

When Tony stumbled under the light gravity, he’d launched himself off the side of the flet where they’d docked. Which was supremely bad, since the flet was a good eighty stories up, at least, and while the gravity was light, he would still fall eventually. And he’d already been warned that the jungle under the canopy was a dangerous place, filled with wild and poisonous beasts.

Peter’d been forced to rescue him; diving after Tony with those rocket boots on, red leather coat flapping in the breeze. He’d looked like a space angel to Tony as he dropped into position and caught Tony up in a princess carry.

“My hero,” Tony said, with a nervous burst of laughter.

“Hey, sunshine,” Peter said. “You want me to carry you over the threshold, all you gotta do is ask.”

Tony was going to very carefully not think about that for a while; he was still enjoying the novelty of having a boyfriend that actually seemed to like him. Pepper had been great, but she was always exasperated with him and his antics. Steve… well, the less he thought about that, the happier Tony was going to be. Peter was different. He didn’t seem to mind anything, found Tony endlessly fascinating and amusing, and what was even weirder, he didn’t laugh at Tony when Tony wasn’t trying to be funny, which was a real switch up.

“I feel like Wendy in Peter Pan,” Tony complained, changing the subject.

Peter smirked. “I’ll never grow up.” And then he kissed Tony while they were flying, spinning them around in dizzying circles until Tony was clinging to him and panting for breath, legs wrapped around Peter’s hips.

The second thing he learned the hard way was that all alien food was not created equal.

Tony wasn’t sure how he could have forgotten to worry about that; Pepper, for instance, was allergic to strawberries, which was an earth person, unable to eat a food from earth. How messed up was that? He’d passed on some of the more exotic fare that Peter had tried to interest him in; anything that moved, wriggled, or was in some still alive while it was being eaten. (Drax in particular had a fondness for flarn, a writhing mass of something green and chewy and the less Tony thought about that, the better able he was to keep from heaving into the nearest trash receptacle.)

But plants, and the meats of some of the various planetary life-forms had been acceptable. He never ate anything that Peter didn’t also eat, which seemed safe. Mostly.

Except that it wasn’t, and apparently Tony was somewhat allergic to a meat-product called spoo, a pale blueish meat that had roughly the same consistency of tofu and was insanely delicious. And made Tony break out into unattractive patches of greenish rash across his throat and torso. He also started gasping for air and they had to cut their picnic short for a trip to the somewhat dubious comfort of the local hospital.

Or, whatever passed for it, thereabouts.

The medic; a brawny canary-yellow bird man, complete with feathers, beak and clawed feet, supposedly had studied some xeno-biology, but the first few treatment options actually made things worse, until Tony was covered in boils and vomiting every other hour. Gamora had rolled her eyes a few times and placed a call to the Nova medics on Xander. She and Rocket mixed a few things up, injected Tony in the ass with a needle the size of a screwdriver, which seemed really unnecessary, and given that Rocket was involved, Tony wasn’t quite sure it was accidental, but at least it cleared everything up in about an hour.

And the day might not have been a complete wash, except that apparently rumor had spread that Starlord was in port.

They were just headed back to the Milano, Tony leaning heavily on his boyfriend’s arm, when Peter brightened. “Delara?”

A blue-skinned woman with leathery scalp-tendrils was waiting for them, leaning on the wall outside the ship’s port. “Peter!” She strode over and hauled back, slapping Peter across the face, hard enough that Tony staggered and nearly fell over.

“Nice to see you, too,” Peter snapped, adjusting his jaw.

“Asshole,” she spat, and flounced away.

Peter watched her go, then shrugged, not even embarrassed. “Pretty sure I deserved that.”

A moment later, another -- woman? Person? Tony wasn’t sure, he’d never quite seen an alien like that, all tentacley and green and -- yelled at them. Peter groaned. “Lorrrrr’sa, darlin’,” he started, and the alien backhanded (back tentacled?) him with several limbs.

“Mighta deserved that, too,” Peter said. He shook his head, a series of little red welts popping up on his cheek where the suckers had gotten him.

“You’re very… popular,” Tony commented, dryly.

“Yeah, well,” Peter said -- was he blushing? “What can I say? I was waiting for you, but I wasn’t doing it alone.”

Tony laughed. “You don’t have to apologize to me for having your wild oats. I’m the very last person to complain about a thing like that.”

“At least you never banged an A’askvarian,” Peter said, gesturing back toward the octopoid. “You would not believe the places they have teeth.”

“Quill!” Another angry, female voice, and Peter turned, catching someone’s arm before they slapped him.

“No, Nebula,” Peter said. He shook her arm a few times and threw her backward. “Not from you. Go bother your sister. What are you even doing here?”

The woman, a blue-skinned cyborg with no hair, scowled at him, all teeth and anger. “I need a ride.”

“Oh, well, fuck, of course you can come on board, you psycho hose beast.”

“Thank you.” She stalked off toward the Milano.

“I didn’t mean it!” Peter cried after her, but she was already onboard.

“Gamora’s sister?” Tony guessed. He hadn’t met Nebula, but he’d certainly heard about her before, adopted daughter of Thanos, trauma for days, and a streak of I want to hurt Someone and I don’t Particularly Care Who It Is a mile wide.

“Yeah, she’s… a real sweetheart,” Peter said, in a voice that meant anything but. “You’ll like her.”

“I’m sure,” Tony said. They boarded the ship and Peter helped Tony back into their bunk, pulling the blankets down and all but tucking him in like a toddler.

“Sunshine,” Peter started, brushing a tangle of his brown curls out of his face, “look, I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“Worst. Date. Ever.”

Tony laughed. “Oh, honey, you don’t even come close,” he said. “It’s been a rough day, I’ll give you that, but… in the end, I’m still in space. And I’m still with you. And you, honey, you rock my world.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “That’s a good thing?”

“That’s a good thing,” Tony said. “Now kiss me goodnight and we’ll try to make tomorrow better.”

Peter kissed him, tentative at first, as if he was still somehow afraid that Tony was going to reject him. God knew, it had been a bad day, a bad date, but that didn’t make Peter a bad boyfriend. Tony knew the difference. Peter was still there, still wanting to make things better, still wanting to be with Tony, no matter how high maintenance Tony was. He kissed like Tony was some fragile, dissolvable thing that might vanish at any moment.

Passion swirled to life in the few inches between their bodies and Tony pulled Peter closer, relishing the feel of Peter’s heat, the solid chest, strong arms, smooth skin. He let his hands wander, touching Peter’s back, his throat, the side of his face. It wasn’t enough, it was never enough. Peter was all masculine energy, human enthusiasm, and alien novelty all at once. Something Tony would never want to be without.

“Starlord,” he murmured, tempting Peter’s mouth into falling open, letting his tongue slip between Peter’s lips. “My starlord.” His fingers ached for the feel of Peter’s bare skin under him, over him, any way he could get it.

Peter was like the very best sort of temptation. Tony hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in the last three years, at least, but he was drunk on Peter’s taste. It was love; it had to be.

“You gonna blow my mind, sunshine?” Peter drew back a little, grinning.

“Among other things, yes.”

[biercepage4]

Space tourism to be a reality any day now

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Space tourism to be a reality any day now

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Space tourism to be a reality any day now

was written by , 2019-05-11 07:13:05 be sure to visit their website, source link is at the end of the article

Santa Fe: Billionaire Richard Branson is moving Virgin Galactic’s winged passenger rocket and more than 100 employees from California to a remote commercial launch and landing facility in southern New Mexico, bringing his space-tourism dream a step closer to reality.

Branson said Friday at a news conference that Virgin Galactic’s development and testing programme has advanced enough to make the move to the custom-tailored hangar and runway at the taxpayer-financed Spaceport America facility near the town of Truth or Consequences. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said a small number of flight tests are pending. He declined to set a specific deadline for the first commercial flight.

  An interior cabin for the company’s space rocket is being tested and pilots and engineers are among the employees relocating from California to New Mexico. The move to New Mexico puts the company in the “home stretch,” Whitesides said. The manufacturing of the space vehicles by a sister enterprise, The Spaceship Company, will remain based in the community of Mojave, California.

Taxpayers invested over USD 200 million in Spaceport America after Branson and then Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant. Virgin Galactic’s spaceship development has taken far longer than expected and had a major setback when the company’s first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.

Branson thanked New Mexico politicians and residents for their patience over the past decade. He said he believes space tourism is likely to bring about profound change. “Our future success as a species rests on the planetary perspective. The perspective that we know comes sharply into focus when that planet is viewed from the black sky of space,” Branson said.

Branson described a vision of hotels in space and a network of spaceports allowing supersonic, transcontinental travel anywhere on earth within a few hours. He indicated, however, that building financial viability comes first.

“We need the financial impetus to be able to do all that,” he said. “If the space program is successful as I think … then the sky is the limit.” In February, a new version of Virgin Galactic’s winged craft SpaceShipTwo soared at three times the speed of sound to an altitude of nearly 56 miles (99 kilometers) in a test flight over Southern California, as a crew member soaked in the experience.

On Friday, that crew member, Beth Moses, recounted her voyage into weightlessness and the visual spectacle of pitch-black space and the earth below. “Everything is silent and still and you can unstrap and float about the cabin,” she said. “Pictures do not do the view from space justice. … I will be able to see it forever.”

The company’s current spaceship doesn’t launch from the ground. It is carried under a special plane to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) before detaching and igniting its rocket engine. “Release is like freefall at an amusement park, except it keeps going,” Moses said. “And then the rocket motor lights. Before you know it, you’re supersonic.”

Space tourism has not been a complete novelty since millionaire US engineer Dennis Tito in 2001 paid USD 20 million to join a Russian space mission to the International Space Station. Branson’s goal has been to “democratise” space by opening travel up to more and more people. The endeavour began in 2004 when Branson announced the founding of Virgin Galactic in the heady days after the flights of SpaceShipOne, the first privately financed manned spacecraft that made three flights into space.

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