01-27-2012, 10:00 PM
Mackie does something because he wants to be his own character.
He builds a racer out of a Blackbird's engine nacelle.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
He builds a racer out of a Blackbird's engine nacelle.
Quote:“Why would you do something like that?”________________________________
“I was sick of being Jet’s sister, is all. I wanted to get known for my own thing....”
“Alright, fine. I’ll go,”
Anika hit the bulkhead with a thump. Something hard and metallic jabbed into her back...
“Ow!,” she yelped, rubbing at her back, “Why didn’t you warn me that the gravitational field switched in here!”
Mackie winced. “I forgot to,” he offered a mollifying smile.
Anika scowled at him, “I might forget your sister isn’t supposed to know about this thing?” she warned.
The boy shrugged, “If we get it started, it won’t make a difference.” he paused for a moment. “Besides, you know what she’s like. She’s already killed her own spark with all that Panzer stuff, I won’t let her kill mine.”
There was a fire in his eyes.
Anika’s shoulders dropped in resignation. “Fine. So, so I sit here,”
“Well, I’d rather here,” He pointed at his lap. A hard glare shot down that idea pretty quick. “But the co-pilot’s seat is fine.”
Anika shuffled over into the chair, taking obvious care with her skirt. She yelped again as her hair was tugged by one of the fixtures on the aft bulkhead.
“It’s a bit cramped,”
The cockpit had barely enough space for both Pilot’s and co-pilot’s seats, and a space in between them just large enough for someone to stand side-on. If they could stand side on, on the rear bulkhead, with their head disappearing forward into the nose of the spacecraft. She recognised the comm-panel in front of her, and the navigation system was similar to the Havoc choppers. The silvered nose stretched in front of the forward windows, a sparks flaring of the mirror-polished metal from the lights overhead in the bay.
“It’s a racer,” Mackie smiled at her. “Cruiser class. For the Solar Regatta,”
“How fast?” Anika asked the obvious question.
“The mass is only about four tons. The boosted main reactor, and I’m running the main engines beyond their rated limit...” He did the math on his fingers, counting it out in front of .
“Yes?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I want to hit the big two-oh. I want to join the twenty percent club,”
She tugged dubiously at some cabling hanging lose under the panel
“Are you sure it’ll hold together at that speed?”
The more she thought about this, the more like a bad idea it seemed to be. Try a racecraft? It sounded like a good idea. Hey, something I’ve never done.
“Waved carbotanium,” he knocked on the cabin roof above his head. “They used to build the top-end single-seat racers out of this before nanotube composites came in.”
“Alright then, fine.... so long as this is just a quick run out and back,”
“it shouldn’t take more than an hour,”
“Famous last words,” Anika sighed. “Just, lets get going,”
“YES!” Mackie grinned. He reached up with one hand, and pulled the hatch closed. The two cabin lights flickered, and Anika felt the last of her enthusiasm for this begin to dry up.
New experiences were one thing. Final experiences were another. Mackie was excitedly punching at switches on his panels, before reaching overhead, selecting a few more to flick with prejudice, then st
Systems in the cockpit began to humm and whine. Lights came on on her panel in front of her, systems finally receiving power. She got to work, bringing the nav-panel to life. It was familiar work, done automatically without thinking. Load the system. Spin up the gyros. Input the starting coordinates and take a transponder re...
“Anika, there’s five cartridges under your seat.” Mackie interrupted the process. Her mind forked, and her free hand kept working. “Take one out and stick it in the cradle beside you,”
“Uh,” She groped with her free hand, grasping something that felt vaguely cylindrical, and coldly metallic. Her other hand finished the work while she gripped it and pulled it free. “This?”
“Yup,” Mackie confirmed with a nod.
She scowled at him again. “A Starburst?”
A type of anti-missile countermeasure, a fusion flare which confused seeker heads and sensor pods for ten seconds.
“I need a fusion reaction to kickstart the reactor core, like an old Coffman starter for an airplane. Those do a great job with a few modifications. Just lock it into the cradle. The firing handle’s on my side.”
It rattled a little, and felt just a little to big to fit. She hit it twice, and pulled down what obviously was a lever to lock it into place. It came down with an oddly satisfying thunk.
“Neutron reflector channels open. Booster valves to choke. DT pumps at start pressure. Deuterium injector choke. Tritium injector choke. Neutron guns in startup position,” he reached up with his right hand, grasping at the round end of another lever... stolen from an airliner it seemed. “Um.... I think I’m good,” He placed his free hand on another keypad on his panel. “Say the prayer to our lady of acceleration,”
“Huh?” Anika blinked, before remembering just where Mackie had awakened. “Right...um.... Roughriders....”
Mackie’s expression flattened. “We say it every time we start the Knightwing. How can you not know?”
“I’m busy,” she stated. “I’ve a lot of hardware to boot up,”
“It’s simple. Just say ‘Our lady of Blessed Acceleration, don’t fail us now’, like you mean it.”
She blinked again. “That?”
“Yes, that.” Mackie confirmed with a gentle nod.
“I thought that was just some stupid Blues Brothers reference,”
“It’s that too. But it is important.“ And he was insistent.
It clearly meant a lot to him. Enough to make Anika feel entirely uncomfortable in what she guessed was the equivalent of the pit of her stomach.
“Alright,” she relented. Mackie’s blue eyes stared at her with an icy intensity, waiting. It seemed to be a family trait. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and offered up what she felt passed for sincerity. “Our lady of Blessed Acceleration, don’t fail us now,” she intoned, with deliberate sombriety.
“Don’t fail!” the boy barked. He yanked down on the lever with his hand, mechanisms thunking and latching in the wall behind. A turbine began to wail. Something else thumped inside the can, followed by a dull roar as it lit building into a deep hollow howl.
“It’s lit!” Mackie grinned savagely. “Come on. Come on,”
He stared at the panel in front of him. It started to chime, slowly at first, but quickly accelerating. Anika surmised it was some sort of countdown to full power.
“Come on.” Mackie pleaded. His eyes never lost their icy intesity as he glared hard at a guage in front of him. The chiming began to building on itself, accelerating in frequency, aiming for a crescendo. “Start,”
The cartidge coughed once, twice and died. The whine in back began to wind down, chimes from his panel came slower and slower as the reactor lost power.
They stopped. His shoulders dropped.
“It didn’t start,” Anika said.
“New rods are always tough to light. It takes time for some of the core elements to transmute.” he heaved a sigh. “Next cartridge.”
She didn’t need to be told how to eject the spent it. It popped out as soon as she opened the cradle, landing with a hollow clank on the rear bulkhead beside. Heat still radiated from it’s burst open end, plastic cap having charred black.
The acrid stink of burnt plastic filled the cabin, a faint glow of green still emanating from within the depths of the cartridge. Anika nudged it as far away from her as she could with the metal end of a fresh one.
It locked in a little easier than the first.
“Do we say it again?”
“No,” Mackie shook his head. “Only at the first attempt,”
He reached up once more, and yanked down on the ignition lever. Again, the cartridge ignited with a thump, chased by a roar that drove a whining turbine which seemed to power the chime on his panel.
“Deuterium injectors. Tritium injectors. Intermix ratio. Plasma confinement. Magnetic constrictors.” he murmured to himself, eyes and hands scanning across instruments making quickfire adjustments on the fly, “Power take-off ratio. Neutron reflection angle. Injector strike angle. Particle beam width.”
The chiming grew to a crescendo, pitch and frequency increasing as the engine approached it’s critical point.
“Come on. Come on,” he urged. “Start!”
Anika’s lips went dry. She could feel her whole body beginning to heat up in anticipation, her mind racing with possibilities. An intensity surrounded him, a raw form of ocus. Every single sparking synapse inside him was aimed at one single task, a laser of concentration trying to coax the reactor to life.
Both his hands were working independently of each other.
“A few more seconds.” he urged.
The cartridge replied with a cough. Then silence. The reactor slowly wound down again.
“Dammit!” He yelled. He closed his eyes, swallowing a long deep breath, holding it to soak up his frustration, before blowing it out through his lips.
“Try again?” Anika enquired.
“Third time the charm,” he said with a grin.
Anika repeated the process, nudging the still cooling cartridge down the bulkhead towards the floor before looking the new one into place. Mackie didn’t say a word, he just glared at his controls before lighting it off.
Anika held her breath in anticipation. She could feel herself beginning to heat up inside.
Mackie mixed cursing with more gruff urgings. “Come on. Start you bastard,”
She crossed her fingers. The chiming grew faster and sharper and it seemed to be getting further along. Closer. Closer. Anika’s body crackled in hot anticipation
“Go! Go! Go!,” Mackie urged. “Go!”
If he could light it by force of will, he would have.
The cartridge sputtered and died, it’s fuel exhausted. The chiming continued, slowly petering down to silence.
Mackie slapped the panel “Skuld’s debt come on!”
Anika frowned. No need to get annoyed, it’s only new. Of course there’ll be teething problems.
“Get the fourth one in,” he commanded. There was fire and ice behind his eyes. He was already resetting the controls for the next attempt.
She shot a glare, but really didn’t feel like arguing right now. Revenge was best served cold and subtle and irritating. She calmly reached under her seat and pulled the fourth from it’s holder, while ejecting the third.
Anika had a brainwave. A quick flash of an idea Mackie’d probably run headlong over in the laser-focus rush to get the core up and running.
“Maybe, when the fourth quits... but before the reactor shuts down, I could try get the fifth one in,” she suggested, with a smile.
Mackie gave her a blank stare for a moment.. “Uh, yeah,” he nodded dumbly, “That’s actually a pretty good idea,”
Anika’s smile broadened as the boy’s cheeks turned a faint shade of pink. Revenge! Of a sort. it was all over his face; a sheepish embarrassment that he hadn’t thought of the same thing,
“Just be sure it’s actually finished before you eject it,” he warned, “Plasma in a confined space wouldn’t be fun,”
“Right,” She repeated the reloading process, nudging the spent cartridge down the bulkhead towards the floor before locking the new one into place. “Tell me when I need to reload,”
“Uh,” the boy nodded, already busy getting punchy at the controls again. Systems spooled up for one last try. “It has to light this time. or Jet’ll come back from Venus,”
He’d be better off with her finding out he’d siphoned off parts and credits to build a working ship, rather than a dead lump of parts and wasted money.
“I’m ready,” said Anika.
“Go!” Mackie slammed the firing lever down.
The cartridge thumped into live. There was no urging. No sound from Mackie, just a silent stare at a control panel as the chimes crept up towards their crescendo.
Closer, closer.
Again, Anika could feel herself beginning to warm as she held her breath. She already had the fifth cartridge in her hands, ready to go.
It coughed
“Now!” Mackie barked.
Anika moved in slow motion, pulling as hard as she could on the ejector. The smouldering cartridge sprang out, still spitting searing embers and smoke. The reactor was already winding down, the chiming slowing and lowering in pitch as it lost energy. It was losing fast, and it was taking her so long to do this. A wash of heat crossed her face as she forced the final cartridge into place. She yelped as something burning hot bit at her wrist, snatching her hand back for a second, before shoving the cartridge in single-handed. It locked down.
“Fire!” the boy yelled.
It ignited with a punch. Turbines inside screamed and whined. Chimes grew more and more urgent, an invisible momentum building alongside the grin on Mackie’s face. He was so busy adjusting things, he’d forgotten to breath. He’d forgotten to blink.
“C’mon ya bollix!”
And when his usual Atalante American slipped, he proved he really was his sister’s brother. Anika felt herself giggle.
The chime became one single, sharp tone, ringing off the cabin structure, pressing hard on her eardrums.
“It’s alive!” he gasped. “It’s alive, it’s alive.... It’s ALI~IVE!”
There was a mad’s fire in his eyes as he began to laugh maniacally. Frankenstein would’ve been proud, and Anika couldn’t figure out if he was doing it for real, or just playing the part with more ham than a pig farm.
She offered a nervous laugh, forcing herself to assume it was a joke.
“it works.... it really works,” he giggled..
“Congratulations,” she said, mildly.
He threw her a broad, shiteating grin that seemed to bisect his face from ear to ear for a few moments. “Now, let’s see if it flies.”
She punched a few commands into her keypad, transmitting them to the local system. “I’m opening the inner airlock door”
Not the main hatch. Too much effort for such a small shuttle.
Mackie edged the throttles forward. The engines came to life with a dull humm, building to a gentle, muffled roar as the shuttle lurched forwards, then accelerated at a slow pace.
He was giggling. He was laughing, he was revelling it it. It was moving at less that 30kph through the cavernous bay, passing over the other Friggan craft.
They landed once more inside the airlock chamber, Anika closing the inner door. The hull creaked and cracked as the atmosphere outside was vented, pressure pushing outwards.
It held. It held tight. No sweet little squeaks or hisses of escaping gas. Pressure gauge steady at .80 standard.
“Opening outer hatch,”
She keyed in the command and the door dropped open, revealing the abyss of black beyond.
“Let’s ride!”
Mackie punched the throttles forward. The chamber receded behind in an instant, as the shuttle was propelled out into still blackness beyond. Moments later Frigga had become a pebble in the rear view mirrors, a moment later a sand-grain, then nothing. Anika didn’t dare ask how hard they were accelerating. Gravity still pulled her back into her chair, gripping her tight.
“A light-minute out and back?” the boy offered with a smirk.
“Fine by me,” Anika nodded. “Just kept it quick
“Sensors?”
“Except for Frigga, empty to maximum range,”
Eight light seconds ahead. Five both sides. Three behind. Nobody to come help if something went wrong. Nobody in the control room at Frigga to pick up a weak distress call. And no traffic expected until the Dragon Wagon returned six hours later.
Fortunately, it proved to be an uneventful voyage.
Just a quick around-the-block really while they ran through a few systems checks to make sure everything was working as it should. It wasn’t.... natural teething troubles.... but nothing critical was wrong. And for a ship intended to break the big two-oh, it was a nice lazy cruise.
She had time to crawl forward along the floor-mounted ladder into the sleeping area. Two bunks faced each other along both sides of the hull, with a pair of portholes built into the top of the hull at the far end. Crew slept strapped in and technically standing up. There was storage behind the beds, and sanitation was a matter for an OGJ skinsuit each.... if they’d been on a longer trip. Or been human...
She drew the line right there. No way was she ever going to crew this. No chance in hell.
She pulled herself back up into her seat in time to see Frigga begin to loom.
Mackie just sighed, dissapointed it was all over so quickly. “Could you transmit the key code for the airlock,”
Lazily, she punched it in to her panel.
It answered with an error.
“It didn’t transmit,”
The boy blinked at her “Huh?”
She hurried through quick diagnostics. “Equipment checks out. It’s just refusing to transmit the airlock code.” She tried a few more keys, “It’ll transmit anything but the code,”
“And there’s nobody in the control room to open it manually, right?”
She confirmed with a sick, silent nod.
“Chigusho!” the boy spat, in a wonderful imitation of his sister.
Well, time to wait.
Six. Whole. Hours.
----
Six hours later. The radio came to life.
“Unknown ship. This is the Dragon Wagon.... state your identity, and business immediately,”
His Sister’s voice. Mackie’s face greened. This was going to be fun.
------
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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