WHO: Agatha Heterodyne and Hans Von Hammer
WHERE: His new hidden hangar and living quarters
WHEN: Wednesday night
WARNINGS: N/A
SUMMARY: Von Hammer's Me262 needs some upgrades. He turns to the best, and most trustworthy, genius he knows...
FORMAT: Paragraph, or whatever.
(
Some security was required, of course... )
"I'm pleased to see you too, Hans. It's been awhile. We really ought to get together more often, don't you think?" She couldn't quite decide whether she liked him in or out of uniform better. Not being from this world, she didn't have any bias regarding his involvement with WW2, so perhaps she was more open to him than many would be.
"How are you? I can't wait to get started."
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"We certainly should. I could do with human company, I find. And you certainly come equipped."
He closed the trunk, straightening his tie.
"I am well...and I think you come in a state of perpetual eagerness. I hope you have been well?"
He moved to the passenger side, holding her door open for her. Old guard manners died very hard.
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His manners made her smile. She didn't comment on them, but smiled brightly as she seated herself.
"I've been quite well, thank you."
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"I do apologize for all of this. But I'd prefer the enemies I make do not know you are involved. I know, I know, you can take care of yourself - but the fewer chances we take, the better."
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"I understand completely, and I'd do the same if our situations were reversed. I've already had one friend die because of me, and I'd prefer to avoid it ever happening again."
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"It seems we must all pay a price, if our lives are those led dangerously."
He turns a corner, pulling up to what looks like an ancient hangar, fenced off from the street. It is in an area surrounding by buildings. Camoflagued, as it were, by being in plain sight. He opens the trunk, taking out her tools.
"I think my first training plane weighed less than your tools," he says, making a show of picking them up, hopefully to bring the conversation back to somewhere better.
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"Is that so? What sort of propulsion systems did it have?" Well, the subject was successfully changed to a happy one. Anything to do with airplanes and engines could catch her interest for hours.
Agatha followed him into the hangar.
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He'd made a home of the place, as much as a hangar could ever be a home. About a third was partitioned off, filled with bits of furniture and chairs, things he had managed to find or scavenge. There was, thankfully, a working kitchen.
But what undoubtedly would catch her attention was the red Messerschmitt Me262, sitting shark-like near the hangar doors.
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She gave the hangar a once-over, thinking that she really ought to give him a housewarming present of some sort, before her attention was completely grabbed by the plane. Oh, such a lovely thing it was.
The temptation to just go over and touch it was simply too much. So she did.
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He put his hands in his pockets for a moment as he watched her with the plane.
"She is magnificent. A truly beautiful machine. I often wondered if she would be the last beautiful airplane. Everything else they were designing was built entirely for speed, with no thought to how they handled."
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"She truly is. If I remember the City when I eventually get sent back, I think I'm going to have to use her design in building my own. We have airships and dirigibles and the like, but nothing like this."
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He steps closer to her, ducking under the wing to open an engine cowling.
"Dirigibles were something of a German speciality once. Good machines, if you can get helium. But this..."
He points at the innards. And she will, he's quite sure, love studying the turbine technology.
"well, they are reliable but the mechanical strain is enormous. We had to replace half the engine every half-dozen flights. Less, if there was combat damage."
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But oh, dirigibles.
"Dirigibles are the preferred air travel mode above land back home. Castle Wulfenbach is the size of a city in itself, and never lands."
She paused, thinking regarding the replacement idea.
"I'm sure I can clear up that issue, no problem."
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"I saw quite a few in my day. Nothing as impressive as that, mind you."
He moves out of her way, so she can dig into the engine if she'd like.
"The Jumo is durable, though. But what I really need is something for detection. They were working on air-to-air guided missiles when the war ended...I am sure the technology has advanced greatly since then. This plane can outmaneuver them, I am sure of that...but I would need to know they were launched."
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Oh yes, engine access please! Agatha took the invitation promptly and happily.
"Though I might need to head back for more parts later."
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"Indeed, well, I will not mind transporting you. In the meantime..."
She'll be at it immediately, won't she?
"Perhaps I should put some tea on?"
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