Guybrush led Elaine up to the third level, and into the cockpit.
As he'd been expecting, Wally was here, sitting in the copilot seat and working with the computer. Guybrush came forward and sat beside him.
"Hello, Mr Brush," said Wally.
"Hi, Wally. How's it looking?"
"Not so good," said Wally. "The nearest star is two light-years away, and it looks pretty bare. I've got the computer doing a probability estimate on the nearest planetary system, but that'll be about ten minutes."
"Oh," said Guybrush. He looked out of the viewscreen, at that unfamiliar pattern of stars and galaxies. Tens of thousands of lights pricked at his eyes. Constellations never before seen by man. Neutron stars. Supernovae. Nebula swarms. Dust clouds and brown dwarfs. Just imagine the mysteries concealed all around them. Alien civilisations. New chemical compounds. Completely different systems of thought and belief...
"Ahem." Elaine, coughing, broke what had become a long stretch of silence. "So this is what you guys do all day?" she said.
Guybrush and Wally both turned around. Wally perked up. "Elaine?" he said. "You turned up!"
Guybrush, a little resentful at being pulled back to reality, said, "Well, no. Normally we'd have more to do, what with flying through the solar system, avoiding debris and shooting space pirates. It gets very busy here. Usually."
Wally jumped out of his chair, looking eagerly at Elaine. "Is there anything I can get you? Food? Cushions? A small electric fan? Anything?"
"Wally," said Elaine, "the only thing I want is to get off this ship."
"Oh." Wally looked thoughtful. "Well... do you want to take a shot at flying then?"
"Flying?" Elaine looked like she might break out laughing. "Why not?" She came forward and sat down in Wally's seat. She sat down and grasped the flight yoke, then looked at Guybrush. "Any objections?"
"Go ahead," said Guybrush. "If you're going to be staying with us, you may as well learn to fly this thing properly. You have got some experience, right?"
"You'd be surprised," said Elaine. Rapidly, she flicked the throttle to fifty percent, then rolled inverted. With the ship level, she pulled the yoke back until they had levelled out, the ship pointed in the exact opposite direction. There had been almost no g-force at all.
"Great," grumbled Guybrush.
"Wow," breathed Wally. "A perfect split-s! You're a pro, Elaine."
Elaine looked critically at the readouts. "Not bad. You must have serviced this ship recently."
"We sure have," said Wally. "That was incredible flying. Can you do another maneuvre?"
Elaine shook her head. "Flying maneuvres in empty space isn't what I'd call a good use of time." She stood up. "I'm going back to my quarters. See you later." She walked out of the cockpit. Guybrush heard her boots clank on the ladder as she climbed down to the second level.
Wally turned to Guybrush. "Boy. She sure is something, isn't she? Beautiful, smart..."
"You must be thinking of a totally different Elaine," said Guybrush. "I can't stand her. I don't like stowaways, and this one's irritating."
Wally looked at Guybrush, his face now serious. "Do you..." he started. When Guybrush wouldn't finish the sentence for him, he continued, "Do you think she likes me?"
"I don't think she likes either of us," said Guybrush. "Why?"
"I want her to like me," said Wally.
"I don't believe this," said Guybrush. He sighed. "You're really twisted, Wally."
"I want her to like me," said Wally stubbornly.