The Hoverskiff!

[phdbilly]

Who: Kaylee Frye and Billy Buddy
Where: In the Workshop
When: Day after his thread with Elphaba
What: Billy wants to know more about the hoverskiff

Comments

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee had forgotten to close her drapes last night, and when you are used to sleeping in a windowless compartment in the middle of space, the sun rising and smacking you in the face bright and early tends to be an unwelcome wake up call. Shuffling over to the windows she shut the curtains and stumbled back to bed but it was too late. She was up.

Sighing, she dragged herself out of bed and got ready to start her day. Figuring it was way to early for most people to be up she decided to go down to the garage and work for awhile and check up on Xander once it was a more civilized hour.

Pulling on her favorite cover-alls she headed down stairs making a pit stop at the buffet to pick up a piece of fruit before hitting the garage. When the door to her workroom was already opened she was more than a little surprised. Poking her head in she saw it was because she wasn't the first one down here. Sure she had visitors once in a while, but folks didn't usually beat her down there. Especially at this time of the day.

"Hi there," she greeted the unfamiliar man as entered the room.

[phdbilly]

For the second time in the same number of days, he jerked at the unexpected voice, tripping over a stray can and nearly ending up tangled on the floor in his own limbs. "Sorry," he muttered, righting the can, swallowing hard. At least he didn't hit his head this time. "I was just, um... uh, looking?" he tried, quickly looking away from the newcomer, who just had to be a girl.

A sort of pretty girl.

It was making him blush.

Plus, he'd never been the best liar. Even under... ideal circumstances.

"Hi too," he added, blinking awkwardly and trying to figure out what to do with his arms.

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee's grin widened, giggling lightly, he was sort of adorably awkward. "It's alright, you can look, she ain't going to bite," she said crossing over to the skiff and giving the machine an affectionate rub.

"I'm Kaylee," she introduced herself.

[phdbilly]

Billy stared at her for a moment before averting his eyes. "I'm Billy," he mumbled, staying where he was. There went his great plan to fiddle with the machine. But maybe... "I like stuff. Like this," he clarified, "Experimental stuff like this. I'm a scientist. Sort of."

"I wanted to know how it worked," he said, still staring at the space a foot to the left and down of Kaylee.

[kay_lee_frye]

"Nice to meet you Billy. I'm a mechanic so I like stuff like this too," she offered, trying to draw him out of his obvious shyness.

"Course where I'm from this ain't experimental, it's just a way to get around," she joked, "but I could show you how she works. I'm almost done, she ain't as pretty on the inside as she would have been if I didn't have to machine most of her parts together myself but she'll get the job done."

[phdbilly]

Looking at her for a split second before awkwardly laughing, he took a couple steps forward. "That would be nice. We don't have to drive it," he said quickly, "I mean, I went on a ride before, in a car, with this green girl Elphie, and she drove really really fast. I'm sure she's fast," he said, finding it easy for some reason to think of the machine as 'she'. "If that's what you mean by showing me how she works. I'm sure she's fast, I'm just... partial to going fast." More than partial, but that detail wasn't important.

"Yes please," was his sheepish straightforward answer after a pause.

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee wasn't sure if that meant that Billy did or didn't want to go for ride, but either way, unfortunately that wasn't in the cards today.

"Well she ain't exactly ready to go out yet, I need to finish up the undercarriage before I do that the air intake will suck up too much sand and she'll choke up," she explained. "That and the interior, it wont be a very comfortable ride the way she is now," she added gesturing to the lack of seats beyond the crate she had left in there to sit on while she was running tests.

"But I can fire her up and show you around the engine," she offered instead.

[phdbilly]

Billy nodded, "I'd like that. To see the engine. Not for her to choke up in the desert. That would be bad." He cleared his throat. "I like finishing my creations, making them look nice. Sleek." See, he thought, smiling, he understood.

"What does it run off?" he asked curiously, coming closer, slowly becoming more comfortable now that they were onto things that didn't require much tact and talking about themselves.

[kay_lee_frye]

"Rechargable diesel fuel cells," she answered hopping onto the skiff and firing her up, getting that satisying rush she always got when it gently lifted off its props to hover in the air. "You can hop on if you want."

[phdbilly]

"They have those here?" Billy asked, slightly surprised. "Or did you make them." In which case he would be equally surprised but also impressed.

The machine lifted up and he looked at her dubiously. Well, she said that it couldn't go anywhere. Tentatively he went to stand next to her, putting his leg over the edge and falling into the thing. It thrummed under him and he couldn't help but grin. "This is really neat," he declared, sitting up and touching the edge of her gently.

[kay_lee_frye]

"Well the diesel I siphoned out of one of the trucks that was a casualty of a fire fight that happened a while back in the garage, the cells I had to put together myself," she answered. "Seems like most of the vehicles here were all part of the reason Earth-that-was got used up in the place," she mentioned idly.

"Ain't it though," she agreed. She was rarely happier than when she was playing with one of her pet projects. "The controls themselves are pretty simple like. Ignition, clutch, throttle, steering," she pointed them out went.

[phdbilly]

Surprised and impressed it was. "I'm from Earth-that-was," he said absently, examining the inside of the hoverskiff and nodding as she pointed out the various functions. "I don't drive," he felt like he needed to say, though he was well aware of the basic theory behind it. Turn it on, put it into gear, add some gas, make sure to avoid stationary objects. And also the moving ones.

"This the only project you've been working on?" he asked, looking at her. Then he realized that he was looking at her, and looked away.

[kay_lee_frye]

"Most folks around here are," she said with a casual little shrug.

"This is my baby," Kaylee answered. "What I spend the most of my time on, but I've done a couple smaller side projects in the meantime. Folks around here have learned that when things get broke, I can most likely fix em. Busted iPods and the like. I also boosted the signal to a comm with a transmitter once, not a lot of good it did for us though," she shrugged again. "Once I'm done with the skiff, Dean and I have plans to build a dune buggy to race it against," she added brightly. "That should be fun."

[phdbilly]

Billy couldn't help but raise and eyebrow. All this skill and she was going to build a dune buggy? "Haven't you ever thought of maybe trying to figure a way out of here?" he asked, trying not to be offensive.

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. "I've been here for years Billy," she revealed, with a sad sort of smile. "And there are folks here that have been here even longer than I have. I've seen people come, go and sometimes even come back again. They're ain't a lot of rhyme or reason to this place, but one thing is obvious. You don't leave until the hotel lets you."

She paused for a long moment. "The best thing to do I've found, is keep your loved ones close and try to keep busy so you keep from goin' crazy." That's why she started her skiff in the first place, it was something to occupy the endless free time in the hotel.

[phdbilly]

Years... he frowned, looking down at his hands. Years was a really long time. A very long time. He was feeling torn.

"If you stay here... you can't hurt anyone. But you're stuck here. Maybe... maybe it's for safety?" he ventured, "They keep you here for your own safety? And the safety of others? Well, not the others that are here too..." He didn't have any loved ones, so that didn't much apply to him. "I don't know," he muttered finally, his eyes going back to the hoverskiff. "I don't know anymore."