Kam's accident.

Posted on September 21, 2008 @ 01:21AM

Kam and I were training together twice a week on the advanced simulators. I’ve been working out, because believe it or not, those things play hell on your body. They’re designed to be as close as possible to actual flight, so they factor in gravity, and thrust – all the different forces at play. Kam is a splicer, so naturally stronger than me, so I’d think he’s possibly more fit to be a pilot.

Today we were on our second simulator session for the week. The cockpit of the sim is exactly like the Politia FX-80 fighters, with a display that can be loaded with environments, enemies, you name it. I was waiting for Kam to finish his session and his sim proceeded to a rest. Kam didn’t get out for a while, and I was starting to wonder what was up. We’re not supposed to approach the sims until the hatch is open, and I was getting kind of worried. Finally, it opened and Kam got out. He looked really shaky, and walked towards me slowly, and off balance. It was then I noticed that his nose was bleeding.

I ran over to him, just as he collapsed. I tried to check if he was ok, but his eyes rolled back. I freaked out, and called the Tosadae emergency service. The guys arrived in about five minutes, Kam was still breathing, but he turned over and threw up. They put him on a stretcher and then into an ambulance. I rode with him as they took him to the hospital.

I found out later that Kam had been running simulator sessions without me. He hadn’t been working out as much as me, and just assumed that his splicer physiology would compensate. I’m not even bothered that he was training without me. I’m just worried what this tournament is doing to him. He’s going to be okay, he just needs to rest up for a while. I’m going to have to make sure he actually does this. His behavior lately makes me think he’ll probably try and skip out and get back to the sims anyway.

I’m worried about my friend.

The simulator is a wingless cockpit mounted on a giant gyroscopic frame, which is controlled from the cockpit, to simulate maneuvers. It can also be set to simulate collisions, or can be activated to randomly spin out, so the pilot can practice correcting himself.

Kam and I hit the sims hard, mainly feeding in maps and tracks to fly through. The canyon race would . definitely prove to be the hardest (Not to mention the most likely to cause death) so we focussed on that for the first week of our training leading up to the tournament. The chance of getting into advanced Politia training was a tempting idea, but I was planning to do it as cautiously as possible. It wasn’t worth getting killed over.

I was worried about Kam. Now that he was in the tournament, he was throwing his all into it. He was determined to win, to fly. I knew he had what it takes, he was a great pilot, but I was afraid he might be pushing himself too hard. He didn’t have much to do with his girlfriend Havel anymore, and the tournament became to consume him. My friend was obsessed.

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