[oom] A visit to the Milliways Garage with Adrian Shephard

[dejah_thoris]

 She finishes her coffee and turns to Shephard.

"Would you mind if Woola joins us?  He enjoys exploring almost as much as I do."

Comments

[dejah_thoris]

"It's not flying, Mister Shephard. It's skimming. It should feel similar to your wheeled craft."

It might be a subtle difference, but she recognizes the psychology of the thing. She reaches back and grabs his hand, dragging it around her waist.

"Still. Better hold on."

She shifts her foot against a lever, and the landing gear retracts. The craft is quiet, the hum of the drive felt more than heard. The clattering of the wing's 'pin feathers' reconfiguring is louder. It shifts under their weight, and she pulls back on the skimmer's hand controls, moving it into reverse slowly.

[hecu_marine]

"Yes ma'am."

Reputation to the contrary, Shephard does in fact know that there are times when it is better not to argue.

(Which doesn't mean that he doesn't close his eyes for just a little bit as the thing starts moving. He'll open them shortly. Really, he will.)

[dejah_thoris]

True to her word, she keeps it low and slow, even though she'd rather do exactly the opposite.

He can hear Woola padding along behind them as they back out of the slot, and he can feel the kah-clunk of the wings as they spread again. If he was looking, he'd see they could easily open to twice their current wingspan. But this seems a modest configuration for their purpose.

"Everything all right back there?" He can feel them shift directions, moving forward now, not even fast enough to ruffle his hair.

[hecu_marine]

"Think so, ma'am," says Shephard. When he feels the direction shift, he opens his eyes. "I c'n manage, anyways. Go ahead'n pick up the pace some if you like. I ain't gonna git much worse regardless."

[dejah_thoris]

She does, but only a bit faster than walking. "I don't want to betray your good faith, Mister Shephard. And maybe, I'd like you to enjoy this little jaunt."

He can hear the grin in her voice.

[hecu_marine]

"I'll try, ma'am," Shephard says. "Ain't makin' no guarantees, but I promise you I'll try."

After a moment he adds, "See that silver car up ahead? Turn left once you git there. That's the way to the helicopters- I used to fly some of those, before the damn things got destroyed back home."

[dejah_thoris]

The ride is actually quite smooth, and the quiet click clack of the wings is never really still.

"As you wish," she says. She banks gracefully, all yaw, no roll to speak of. "Oh those are strange looking craft." She slows as she looks over the lot of them. "The lift comes from the rotors? And the -- oh I see. The tail rotor acts as stabilization?"

[hecu_marine]

Shephard nods. "Turns're done by tilting the rotor blades," he says. "Bank the main rotors so they'll offset lift in one direction, 'n smooth it out with the tail rotor. That little fucker's the only reason the main rotor don't wind up spinning one way while the fuselage spins the other."

And oh God does he ever hate knowing that fact.

[dejah_thoris]

She wrinkles her nose, pondering the vision he presents.

"Seems like a terribly fragile system. And they use these in combat?"

[hecu_marine]

"'Fraid so, ma'am," Shephard says. "Things're unstable as fuck but they c'n take off'n land straight up and down, and they'll hover in place for a pilot who knows his shit. Our medics swear by 'em for rescues."

"Better not plan on emergency evac, though, the prop wash from the fuckin' rotor blades'll fuck the ever living shit out of your parachute if you try. Only way out of one of these in the air's into a convenient pile of somethin' soft, or a lake or some shit like that."

[dejah_thoris]

She chuckles and lets the skimmer drift in place for a moment. It bobs as gently as a cork in a bathtub.

"You sound like you speak from experience."

[hecu_marine]

"You only have to jump out once for it to stick in your memory, ma'am."

(All the other unplanned exits from flying machines involved crashes.)

[dejah_thoris]

She turns her head, just enough to speak to him.

"You're calling me ma'am again. If you insist on attaching an appellation to my person, I'd prefer -- professor. Or doctor, whichever you prefer."

[hecu_marine]

"Force of habit. Momma and my DI drummed it into me but good," Shephard says. "Sorry 'bout that."

[dejah_thoris]

"No need to apologize. It simply makes me feel like your mother, or your commanding officer. I'd prefer to be your friend, if that's all right with you?"

[hecu_marine]

"Fair 'nough," says Shephard. "Most folks who ain't from my part of the country back home ain't used to hearin' it used much either, so I'll do what I can to avoid it."

[dejah_thoris]

She grins, and nods. That's all she can ask, really.

She leans forward and grips the control bars again, banking them away from the rotor craft. The aisle stretches ahead of them as far as the eye can see.

"So how fast do your two-wheeled craft go, anyway?"

She shifts her weight, and the craft begins to pick up speed. Nothing faster than the golf cart so far.

[hecu_marine]

"Up to a hunnert-twenty miles an hour," says Shephard. "I don't reckon I ever did much more'n about eighty or ninety on-"

He stops; a thought occurred to him.

"Y'all use miles or metric on Barsoom? Or somethin' else entirely?"

[dejah_thoris]

"I'm familiar with Earth's Imperial measurements in distance."

She can do the conversions in her head adequately enough.

[hecu_marine]

"Mmkay. Most I've done on my old Buell's about eighty-five miles an hour, then," says Shephard. "Legally I was only supposed to be doin' sixty at the time."

Ride a few hundred miles without seeing a cop, and you get all experimental.

[dejah_thoris]

"There are legal limits on the speeds your vehicles can travel at?"

She puts on a bit more speed, her hair beginning to flutter around her shoulders.

[hecu_marine]

"Used to be," Shephard says. "Ain't no rules about that kind of thing no more. Ms. Vance'n my momma've got a shitload of better things to do than make stupid-ass rules."

[dejah_thoris]

"I suppose in more populated areas, it might make sense. I think the people of Helium would laugh if I attempted to decree something so ludicrous."

A little more speed, probably twenty-five miles an hour now. The pin feathers of each wing adjust constantly as their weights shift.

"I see what you mean when you say this place goes on forever."

[hecu_marine]

"Some of it's safety," Shephard concedes. "Last thing you want's some culero who don't know the local roads proper takin' a hairpin curve at forty when twenty-five's the fastest you c'n make the turn and not go flyin'. Straightaways, though, most of the time it's pretty much dumb as shit."

"Aw, you ain't seen the half of it yet. Keep on goin' 'til you git to a big blue chopper with a little grey'n black one next to it, then hang right. You got to see the Jaeger."

[dejah_thoris]

"Jaeger? Those are the massive armored suits that Mister Pentecost was talking about?"

She assumes by chopper he's referring to the rotor wing craft. She pans her gaze over the line of strange panoply vehicles they're passing. A little less than a minute passes and she sees the ones he'd described. She banks the skimmer and immediately cuts back her speed.

"Holy Mother Issus..."