Coils and Curriculum

[Adder]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Lucky that the coil was already in her hands and out of the drive as the loud crack sounded through the workshop. Adder flinched and hastened out of the ship. After an inelegant landing, she quickly deposited the component on the table and swung under the chassis.

“What’d you do?” she peered around the shoulder of the taller man. Somehow, the caf had found its way into her hand again, and she took a loud sip of the warm beverage. “Oh. Pretty sure there’s about twenty couplings in every other cupboard around here.”

She patted his elbow and turned around.

“Don’t sweat it. I’ll go grab a new one. Take a break, we’ve been at it for an hour.” As the pilot trailed into the workshop proper and began sifting through the various shelves, she continued. “You know, actually, I was gonna ask you something. You think it’d be possible to pack a realspace engine and a hyperdrive into the same system?”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

He shrugged. "Probably."

That was the answer his father had always given him when he'd asked if something was possible. In engineering everything was within the realm of reality, one just had to find a way to actually get there. He frowned for a moment, plopping himself down onto the ground.

"Hyperdrives usually take a ton of power." Everyone knew that. "Fuel consumption can be as much as taking a ship through realspace for a few days at a time."

It had been a huge annoyance on The Messa when money had been tight. "The Jump to hyperspace is what does it."

Frustratingly enough.

"Takes a lot of energy to break that barrier." Kurt almost sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

 

[Adder]

Adder found herself nodding as she rummaged through one of the bottom cupboards. Had to flick on the torch on her spanner – it was getting dark.

“Right?” She let out a victorious grunt as she emerged with a new coupling. Wasn’t the exact same model as the rest of them, but it hardly mattered. The tech had been around for millennia, and perfected for about that long.

“Might be a way to make it happen smoother, maybe. Give the ship a headstart in terms of energy, then leave the hyperdrive to just make the final push with a small dose of hypermatter.” She tossed the coupling from palm to palm in thought, then handed it over to [member="Kurt Meyer"].

“Eh, I don’t know. Figuring out this bad girl’s man thrusters was enough of a headache.” She chuckled, strolling around the fighter to resume her work on the hyperdrive. “I’m not sure if I’m ready for another.”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

He considered for a moment. The idea wasn't too far out of left field. The jump could be "slowed" in theory, though making it work would require quite a bit of coordination between the hyperdrive and the Ion engine...though of course if they were one engine it would all be easier.

Kurt mused. "I'll ask my dad."

For a moment the former Courier considered things in his own head, rolling his neck before finally he decided to explain himself further so Adder would understand.

"He's an engineer." She had probably guessed that by now. "Very good at this sort of thing."

Kurt's dad had worked for the Sith Empire, or rather, had been forced to work for them. He and Kurt's mother had fled the Empire shortly before it's fall, landing on Tatooine as refugees and setting up a life there. Most of his fathers work had been with missile systems and smaller starships, one of the reasons he had been so good at building pods.

 

[Adder]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“Cool. Must’ve been nice growing up with that,” she grinned before sticking her head into the splayed drive again. Not much more to be done, now. Except put it all back together, of course. Ha.

“My dad wasn’t too happy about my hobbies.” Adder chuckled as she fiddled with the motivator, careful with each screw. Thing was touchy as all hell, even with a robust model like the Specter. “Although I’ll grant him, now, that underground racing probably ain’t the safest of sports.”

Air traffic on Coruscant was crazy on a good day even in the upper levels. Below, it only got worse – most people ended up in a burning wreckage only a few months in.

Who knows, maybe getting arrested was a good thing.

“If you figure something out I’d love to hear about it, though.”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

"I'm sure he'll have some thoughts." The old man always did.

If it wouldn't make him sound like a bit of a prick Kurt would have described his father as a genius. The man was a stark opposition to himself. Though they were both pretty good at working in mechanical fields, his father had an extreme acumen for the more academic side of things. Unlike his son, Joseph Meyer actually had the ability to crack a book and learn something from it.

Not that he loved his son any less for his inability to do so.

"Most of the time." Kurt said outloud. "I find it best to test things out when it's up and running."

That was how he and Kaile had done most of the work on The Messa. "Though maybe when merging engines like that we should take things a bit more cautiously. Hyperdrives don't really like it when they're messed with."

He knew that first hand, unfortunately.

 

[Adder]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“No,” she agreed with an emphatic nod, amusement evident in her tone. “That they do not.” Force knew she’d set fire to her share of expensive starship components. It’s what earned her the infamous hairdo – an unfortunate accident with a hyperdrive motivator, of all things.

Eventually she took a liking to it and it just sort of stuck.

“Hell, I probably have some notes lying around back in my office. I can send them to you tomorrow, and maybe we can even figure this out.” The pilot set the control unit down next to the rest of the Specter’s internals and wiped her brow.

“My day job involves a lot of waiting around, so I get plenty of time on my hands for crazy ideas.”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

"Sure." Kurt said with a shrug. "Though again, I'm more hands on."

He had no idea how much he'd actually be able to glean from notes, no matter how organized or well put together they were. Usually when doing work like this he just went off of how he felt about things. His gut was pretty good when it came to engineering. Had a natural knack for it.

That was what his father said. "What do you do for a day job?"

Kurt asked, genuinely curious.

There were a lot of people in the galaxy with a lot of different jobs. Kurt himself had floated from occupation to occupation over the last few years, though most of that had been spent on being a simple Courier. He'd never minded that job much, though until he'd met Kaile and Jamie things had been rather lonely. Not that he minded at the time.

 

[Adder]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

She hid her good-natured smile behind the rim of her cup, eyes closing at the smell and taste of caf. Force-blessed drink, is what it was. Ashlan itself, distilled into warm perfection.

“I meant you could send them to your dad,” Adder said after a moment. She set down the drink and grabbed a rag from her belt. Her face and hands gave the impression that she’d just crawled through a chimney that hadn’t been cleaned in a century, which… wasn’t all that far from the truth.

“I’m a pilot for the Alliance.” She could say that much. He wouldn’t find her on any official records, though. Hell, as a GA citizen, she didn’t even exist. Barring a few exceptions, SIS personnel files got purged from the system to keep the enemy from tracking down the agents.

It was just safer that way.

“I lost my last ship that way.” The redhead rolled her lips. “Did a microjump into atmo,” a beat, “from atmo.”

Some days she still couldn’t believe she managed to survive that.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

Interesting.

He'd never actually thought that was possible, though granted it had lost Adder a ship. He considered for a moment, wondering just how she had managed to survive that. He supposed with more than a bit of luck. Kurt shook his head. "Never done that."

Kurt admitted with a smile.

"I don't really like flying in atmosphere." Ironic in a way. Starship piloting in the atmosphere was always extremely limited. You had to watch yourself more carefully, the speed, the tension on the wings, everything. If you weren't careful you could end up ripping apart your ship with one wrong maneuver. It was different in a pod or swoop bike, not by much, but they made it a lot harder to rip themselves apart with just one move.

"Always preferred things space side." He fished something out of his pocket. "Of course it helps when your ship is faster than everyone else."

 

[Adder]

“Yeah I wouldn’t recommend it,” Adder shook her head with a grin. “We got ambushed on Tython by some Sith. My friend was in trouble…” she shrugged as if that explained everything. The redhead didn’t have many of those, and the few she had, she was rather keen on keeping.

“Atmo can be fun. Just gotta be riding the proper craft for it, and a starfighter ain’t it.” She ran her hand across the half-finished hull of the Sundancer like some kind of proud mother.

Green eyes flickered back to [member="Kurt Meyer"]. “Is that right?” her mouth curled up. “I don’t know. Phantom Limb was pretty damn fast, if I do say so myself. What’ve you got?”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

"I don't doubt it." No point in putting down Adder's old ship, most pilots got as attached to their craft as parents did to children. A lot of work went into ones vessel, something that he had plenty of personal experience with. Both The Messa and The Coil were his children.

Of course one of them was no half way across the galaxy with Kaile, but that was alright. The ship that they had modified together would keep his best friend safe, he was confident of that. The little freighter could outpace anything it's size. That was what they had wanted.

"The Coil." Kurt said with a smile. "It's a little Imperial Interceptor, found it originally in some Bunker in the outer rim."

Now that was a memory. "Friend and I modified it. There isn't a ship in this galaxy that can beat it flat out."

He glanced at Adder.

"In space anyway." The Interceptor really wasn't built for atmospheric flight.

 

[Adder]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

She gave a sage nod as she polished off the last of her caf. Funny, how quickly she could work her way through a cuppa. Or maybe they’d just been working that long. Who knew.

“Modded, huh? Nice. Interceptors are pretty solid builds.” She frowned, already lost in hypotheticals. “Bit on the fragile side though… but I’m guessing you don’t get into trouble as much as I do. Good on ya.”

Adder shook her head and pushed off the workbench. Far as she was concerned, that was her for the day. Splicing the drives was something she needed full focus for, and she could already feel her eyelids drooping and her joints popping.

Damned years. How quickly they catch up with you.

Stretching, the pilot suppressed a yawn. “Maybe you can show it to me sometime, yeah? I’d love to take a look under the hood.”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Adder"]

Kurt let out a chuckle. Fragile was an understatement. That Interceptor needed half a laser hit and it was out of commission. That had been one of his greatest fears when he'd flown the thing over Kaeshana against the First Order.

Bloody dangerous.

"Sure." He definitely didn't mind. "It's back on Tatooine though."

The ship didn't have a hyperdrive, nor did it have shields or really anything standard. That was part of why the vessel was actually so fast an maneuverable. Most of it was just engine and weapons, though of course there was also a small cloaking device. "So it'd have to be a field trip."

"My dad keeps it in the Hangar with my pod-racer." He shrugged. "Can't really afford to store it near here."

 

[Adder]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“Works for me. Maybe we can do the Boonta Eve. Fly Kali-U colors, the whole shebang.” She was grinning, tongue-in-cheek, but her eyes seemed bright enough.

The kid reminded her of her a bit herself, she thought. Humble beginnings, awesome ends.

“Yeah, this place is a bit rich for student skin.” Thankfully, her job with Wraith and the SIS paid well enough that she could afford an apartment pretty close to campus and still have credits to spare.

“Speaking of, I shouldn’t keep you any longer. Thanks for your help again, Kurt.” She held out her palm and parted with a firm handshake. “Good luck with Macro economics. I’ll see you around.”