Road Trip [for losthunter]

[boldygoing]

It's a beautiful spring day in Riverside, Iowa. The skies are clear and the weather is pleasantly mild, and across the endless fields that stretch out into vast distances, automated farm machinery is hard at work planting corn for the season.

There's no such machinery around the Kirk farm, though someone has bothered to zap away some of the weeds threatening to devour the foundation. The old homestead still sits disturbingly empty, all but abandoned if not for a few small signs that someone has been there recently. One of those signs sits just outside the house, leaning up against his motorbike as he waits for another rider to come join him, a set of riding goggles resting against his forehead.

The motorcycle has clearly seen better days, but it's nothing like twenty-first century bikes. There are no spokes in the wheels, for one thing - indeed, the wheels don't even seem attached by anything visible, held in place by some invisible force. It's keeping itself upright without a kickstand, as well, even though the young man in question is leaning most of his weight against it.

Comments

[losthunter]

"Why do I picture a mini skirt in your future?" Hunter chuckles.

[boldygoing]

Jim looks slightly amused. "Nah, it'd be too much like wearing a uniform."

[losthunter]

"Well, whatever you decide to wear, you will look great. And I can do our nails before we hit the club."

[boldygoing]

Jim perks up slightly at the word 'our.' "Do I get to see you in a slinky dress too?"

[losthunter]

"Yes. You do." Hunter blushes slightly. "The Queen's love a drag with tattoos."

[boldygoing]

Jim's rather looking forward to this now, and not just because the mental image he has of Hunter in an evening gown is an appealing one. A lot has changed in the centuries between their times, and it's nice to hear that the early twenty-first century isn't quite as uptight as he'd thought. It'll be a little bit more like the social standards he's used to.

"Cool," he says with a smile.

[losthunter]

"We could make it a whole get-together. I could invite a couple of my other friend. See if they want to hang out with us."

[boldygoing]

"Sounds good to me." So far, Jim has gotten along well enough with all of Hunter's friends. "I don't think I've gone to an actual club in... at least four years."

[losthunter]

"Then we definitely need to do it soon." Another thing to help Jim battle against sitting around and waiting.

[work kidnapped me. No one is around to pay the ransom]

[boldygoing]

Jim smiles across the table at him. "Sure. Just let me know when."

His own meal is finished, so he nods slightly toward Hunter's pie plate. "You ready to head out?"


[Hopefully you get rescued or escape soon!]

[losthunter]

"I sure am. This was a great meal. Thank you."

[One of my co-workers is leaving on vacation in one day. It will get worse before it gets better]

[boldygoing]

"Hey, you're welcome." He certainly doesn't like thinking about why, but ensuring that the people that he cares about are fed and content makes Jim happy.

"So besides metals, any other type of material you're looking for?" Jim asks as they return to their bikes, and he enters a search in the Monoceros' nav system to find the nearest craft supply store.

[losthunter]

"Fabric. Maybe something that is other-worldly." Hunter tilts his head for a moment. "And I always love finding new paint colors."

[boldygoing]

"'Other-worldly,' you say," Jim repeats, a little amused. But he knows what Hunter means. Even just the clothes in this era tend to be made from materials that weren't invented or discovered until after first contact.

"Well, let's go see what we can find."

[losthunter]

"I might need you to float me for a few purchases." Hunter doesn't have access to a Starfleet account like Jim does. And he is pretty sure his paper currency would get too many stares.

[boldygoing]

Jim smiles as he starts up his bike. "Don't worry about it. Unless you're planning to get a lot, you're not going to put too big of a dent in my account."

[losthunter]

"I am sure we can barter out another arrangement." Hunter started up his bike. Once again the revving of the engine caused some attention from nearby people.

[boldygoing]

If Hunter really feels the need to pay him back, Jim isn't going to argue. And he leads the way through traffic, following his nav computer towards the hardware repair shop. It's a relatively small store, and while most of what's in stock is specialized repair parts, there's a section in back that displays wires made out of all sorts of metals, everything from common aluminum and steel to rarer metals like silver and gold, and a few metals that Hunter won't recognize, like duranium and terminium.

Since the store is intended to supply hobbyists, the spools of wire range anywhere from twenty feet to one hundred feet, and they're of varying thicknesses as well. Hunter could get quite a variety pack of metal to work with here.

"See anything you like?" Jim asks, looking utterly unconcerned by the prices on display.

[losthunter]

"We are talking about the metal... right..." Hunter teased him slightly. He is drawn to the metals on display. Especially the ones he doesn't recognize. He is looking at a spool of duranium wire, wondering how flexible the metal would be.

"This looks like a similar color as your ship." He comments.

"Is it easy to work with?"

[boldygoing]

"Good eye," Jim praises him. "Enterprise's hull is mostly duranium. It's really strong and holds up under stress pretty well. You'd need pretty high temperatures to melt it down, but wire's a lot easier to bend than hull plating, which is usually several feet thick."

[losthunter]

"Then this would be perfect to complete my sculpture." He debates over getting twenty feet of wire, compared to more. It is a new material, and he would enjoy making other things with it.

[boldygoing]

Jim can take a guess at the reason for that thoughtful look on his face. "It's better to have too much than too little, right?"

[losthunter]

"Especially since I can not buy more later." Hunter considers the 100-feet selection.

[boldygoing]

"I can always get you more," Jim points out with a smile, bumping his shoulder against Hunter's. "Good idea to stock up now though."

[losthunter]

"Good point." Hunter decides on an in-between spool size, 50-feet, of the duranium. And also a few smaller spools of the silver and gold.

"These would be lovely."