milliways_bar | (no subject)

She was more awake this time, and she waved at him from the bar.

Before her was a binder and a book on airflow dynamics.

"Hey, Ray."

Ray looked over from where the Bar was trying to persuade him that macaroni ought to be made out of whole wheat and have a green sauce, and waved back. "Hey, Bonnie," he said. "Can you identify this stuff for me? I think the Bar's trying to infiltrate my soda into my food or something."

Poor bastich wouldn't know pesto if it bit him.

She blinked and sat up on her stool a little to look before... just raising an eyebrow. "Okay, the whole wheat pasta, I can recognize. And I think something similar was served at a Foundation fundraiser not too long ago... ..It didn't eat me when I was served then, so I'm guessing it's safe?"

Neither would she, unfortunately.

Ray sniffs at the stuff a bit. "Smells like... I don't know. Some kind of plant, I think. And cheese. Lots of cheese. Nothing too blatantly artificial that I can tell... oh, well. Can't be much scarier than that cheese and gravy glop it gave me last week for Canada Day. How're you doing?"

"...You've went and made me hungry for appetisers," she muttered and glanced significantly at the bar. "Spinach-stuffed mushrooms, please?"

A plate appeared, and Bonnie picked one up to inhale the scent. "These, I can identify, and love."

And after that first mushroom was demolished, she answered Ray. "Well, I'm doing a lot better today. But I started a Project - with a capital P."

Ray grabs a fork from somewhere and starts in on his dubious macaroni. "Oh, that sounds promising. What've you got?"

"Even Kitt and Karr don't know, so I'm trusting you to silence with this, Ray," she said seriously. "But... it'll take me a few years just to finish the design. It's going to be that complex, and I've not got more than spare time to devote to it.

"Kitt and Karr are both equipped with what's called Pursuit Mode. Basically, this puts a lot of eatures on cold standby while more energy is devoted to speed and precision in driving, as well as heightened sensor capability. Their top speeds in Pursuit Mode are over two hundred miles per hour, even over three hundred on the right terrain.

"I'm looking to enhance that."

"... is that even possible without the addition of rocket-based propulsion systems?" Ray asks, a little awestruck. "I thought the land speed record for a car built with the body of a commercial vehicle was something like 210 for a seriously kitbashed Camaro- I can see you getting the extra speed out of the boys that way- but- faster than three hundred... Damn! What are you doing to the tires?"

"You forget they're already turbine powered," Bonnie pointed out. "And for your information, the Camaro and the Firebird are both F-body GM makes."

That, she grins at.

"The tires won't need much work, honestly. Maybe a little something to increase traction, but since they're as MBS coated as the rest of the car, there's not much to worry about in the way of heat damage. I'll probably be able to manage it without too much effort. Of course, the engine will have to be stepped up, and with that there'll have to be more air intake to cool it, and a higher drag coefficient on the rear - I make cars, not planes - but I figure that, if I ramp up the turbine... It's the shell I'm not sure about yet.

"True, true... Ah, okay. I guess I should've realized that about the tires. I assume you've also got the fuel mixture and additives firmly in mind, eh?" He glances down at her notebooks. "Unfortunately, aerodynamics isn't my thing, but there've been some marvelous advances in aircraft design and automotive aerodynamics in the last twenty years. I could probably snag a few issues of Road and Track and a book or two on the subject next time I went home, if you want."

"That sounds great," she chuckled. "The more I study up on airflow, the better. I've got to watch it, though... I know that the mods I make will have to be made... retractable. Kitt and Karr already draw enough attention with how customed they are, compared to the normal TA line. Add all this in and we'll have every eye in the nation on them.

"That's the real challenge."

"Well, the fun thing about Road and Track these days is that they publish photographs of experimental cars on the road, when they can get them. You get a pretty good grasp of how not to disguise a modification, because you see what draws the photographers' attention. But, yeah, that's just a start... hmm."

"Now that sounds fun," she chuckled. "But it makes me wonder... If there are a Kitt and Karr in your world, you might find them in one of those magazines - that is, if they take candids."

And she was just a little worried about that.