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]

"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."

[boldygoing]

In Hunter's time, that amount of precious metals would likely be fairly expensive. Jim, however, doesn't seem to be aware of that, seeing them as nothing more than common manufacturing materials. "You have anything special in mind for them?" he asks curiously as they move to the front of the shop, and Jim pays in the same manner he did at the restaurant, via thumbprint scan.

[losthunter]

It is a good thing that Hunter is very comfortable with the barter-style setting of the Nexus market. He would be a little worried about how much Jim is spending otherwise. The main thing he keeps reminding himself is that right now, Jim knows how to handle currency matters in this dimension. Things will be balanced when Jim is in Hunter's dimension, and Hunter is paying for things.

"The duranium would be an excellent way to finish the sculpture of your ship. And the silver and gold would be perfect for a few more trees."

[boldygoing]

"It'll be interesting to see how she turns out," Jim says with a smile. "I've seen starship models printed or cast, but never sculpted."

[losthunter]

Hunter smiles softly. He doesn't know if Jim understands that when the sculpture is finished, it will be given to him. But it will be a nice surprise if he doesn't.

"I would imagine it would take a lot of people to complete a real starship." He tilts his head slightly. "Unless, it is mostly technology."

[boldygoing]

Jim suspects, but he's content to let Hunter do his work without too many questions or interference, so his artwork of the Enterprise is in keeping with however Hunter feels the work should turn out.

"There's automation involved, but there's still the need for people," he says with a nod. "A lot of the framework gets put together by machines, and after that, the insides get put together by people. Lots of wiring and stuff."

The craft store is only a few blocks away, so rather than driving there, it makes sense to walk and enjoy the outdoors a little. Even if it is in the middle of a city.

[losthunter]

"It is good to know that the machines haven't completely taken over..." Hunter winks. It is a popular Sci-Fi trope in his timeline.

Walking down the store is rather nice. Hunter can take the time to truly appreciate the sighs and the sounds of the people around him.

[boldygoing]

Jim doesn't quite get the joke, although he's sure it must be a reference to something. "Nah. Machines do the drudge work, people do the fun stuff. I've done some construction work before. It's kind of meditative, sometimes."

[losthunter]

Hunter chuckles. "You and are are going to watch Terminator and Matrix movies, later."

"The biggest 'villain' in some of the movies that I have seen, were machines taking over the human world."

[boldygoing]

Jim frowns a little, a foreign memory tickling at the back of his mind, part of Ambassador Spock's memories that were accidentally transferred through the mind meld on Delta Vega. "The other Enterprise had to deal with something like that, I think. Something called V'ger."

[losthunter]

"Oh? So I guess it depends on the dimension..."

[boldygoing]

Jim shakes his head a little. "Maybe, maybe not. We aren't there yet. Hell, the other me wasn't a captain for another seven years from now." He pulls a face at the horrible mixture of tenses he just used. Time travel plus parallel universes make everything stupidly complex sometimes. "I don't know when exactly they ran into V'ger, it's just a fragment of a memory, but I think the other me was an admiral when it happened for them."

[losthunter]

"I am sort of glad that I have never met another version of myself..." Hunter can't imagine the confusion. "Though with the Nexus... anything is possible."

[boldygoing]

Jim smiles faintly, glancing over at him. "I haven't met another me yet either, but it'd probably be more straightforward than this. At least then I could ask some questions about some of the really out of context stuff."I

[losthunter]

"And imagine, it was only because of the Nexus that we met."

[boldygoing]

"I've wondered if a version of you existed in this Earth's past," Jim admits. "We probably won't ever know. Meeting you and finding the Nexus... It's definitely made things more interesting."

[losthunter]

"If a version of me did, I would wonder if he was an artist... and if any of his art was displayed somewhere." Hunter notes softly.

[boldygoing]

"Were you into art before the whole... magic thing happened?" Jim asks. If not, then it doesn't seem likely. As far as Jim knows, there's no magic in his universe.

[losthunter]

"I was too afraid of that part of me."

"And sometimes I wonder, if other versions of me never had a Kendra... what would have happened to them."

"It is never a good train of thought."

[boldygoing]

Jim certainly agrees that it isn't a great train of thought to chase, but he frowns at something Hunter says. "You were afraid? Why?"

[losthunter]

"My dad... didn't exactly see art as a lifestyle choice."