Log:Kadi's First Drive?
Kadi's First Drive
OOC Date: June 11, 2017
Location: Corellian Sector, Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Qadira_Suuryet, Ax, Bruce Tuesday, Waywards
How hard can it be? Kadi has watched Ax drive it, and Lily, and well, this time the petite redheaded engineer is driving for herself. The hovertruck is full of lumber planks, pretty nice ones at that. So it's heavy and unweildy, with lots of excuse for going slow. Probably why Kadi got this far, with everything in one piece. And none of the cop-types stopping her. Slow hovertruck? Everyone just zooms around it. Now though, she's trying to zig and zag around the traffic here, so she can get where she wants to go.
Another cloudy day on Nar Shaddaa, and with it a small chill. For the third day in a row, Bruce Tuesday has elected to don his large, cumbersome coat. The gray and black furs and leathers protect him from neck to toe against the inclement weather. He has taken the day off as well - or rather, no one requires his immediate service. He walks through the Entertainment Plaza, a medium-sized carton of bite-sized chunks of fried... space bird. Bruce isn't sure what the species is, but it's delicious. He pops another piece in his mouth and chews slowly, savoring the snack. The investigator looks around, pondering a visit to the park. He is about to cross the street but pauses as he spies a slow, lumbering hovertruck coming down the way. He can see he has enough time to cross, but doesn't like the way it seems to be moving. For now he waits where he is, tossing another piece of the fried meat into his mouth.
Inside that lumbering hovertruck, Kadi is having a fight with the gear shift. Has been ever since that last corner. And now, Lily starts beepwhirring something or other, and it just irritates Kadi. "It can't be that hard," she says, just as she manages to gun the ignition, while the steering is still stuck in - yeah. That's not so good, The hover craft jumps forward about 20 feet, and then it starts to spin while it keeps moving forward. "Oh, damnit, this is going to make me seasick," Kadi gripes. Lily mutters more, and Kadi pauses to glare. "If you're just going to be smartmouthed you can get out and walk." Good trick, that, for an R2 unit. Ahem. Several speeders scatter, and two pedestrians totally head for the next block. The nose of the speeder dips, and it touches the ground with a slight screeching sound, before it bounces up. Too high. Now people are starting to notice.
Oh, that's not good. Bruce watches, completely transfixed except for the arm that continues to move slowly between his carton of popcorn spacechicken and his mouth. All thought of going to the park has left his mind now as the large repulsorcraft begins to spin like a Twi'lek dancer down the street. It's still a good distance away, the man judges, but if it's speed increases too much it could be on him sooner than he realizes. He stands his ground for now, though, in the transient safety of the sidewalk, and puts another piece of food in his mouth.
At least she's on the road still? Mostly? Well, she was, but as she tries to correct the spin, it turns into more of an S, so it goes over to the left sidewalk, then across the road to the left, and back. And forth. And the nose wobbles up, then down, up - yeah, it's just about out of control as Kadi naturally continues to do the exact opposite of what she should. One thing occurs to her, so she toots the horn. Loudly. Get out of the way, lumber coming through! It even speeds up some, heading towards Bruce in a very haphazard fashion. Okay, maybe she's really heading for the Art Gallery.
Ax had only been back on Nar Shaddaa for a few minutes, having been away on a cargo run. When he'd arrived, he'd been assaulted by employees and droids alike that were frantic because Kadi had tore out of the hangar in Ax's hovertruck. "Oh dear god," Ax mutters before hopping onto a swoop and taking to the streets of Nar. It doesn't take long for him to spot the vehicle, fortunately he had a good idea of where it was heading. Ax accellerates, moving to catch up, keying up his commlink. "Kadi, can you hear me? If so, pull off to the side and power down. You've dropped lumber and scared the hell out of half the citizens of the Corellian district." And here he thought she was a bad pilot.
Finally, Bruce's eatin' hand hesitates. The vehicle's awkward spinning fails to abate, and the man tears his eyes away from the truck to find something to take cover behind. There are a few parked speeders, a shop entrance, the Gallery, and a small alley in close proximity. He looks between them, trying to make a decision. Before he can move, however, the vehicle's horn sounds and Bruce looks back to see it bearing down on him. His feet go into motion as if on their own and he begins to move towards the cover of the alleyway, a few pieces of his food falling to the ground behind him as he runs.
Kadi jumps when Ax's voice comes across on the comm. She might even look a little bit guilty. "Aw, crud," she mumbles. "Don't even start, Lily." Of course, she's got this tank of a truck with lumber occasionally falling off, spinning and yeah, fine. The thing moves forward, gradually slowing as she powers it down. That isn't good for the thing, and there's the horrid sound of gears grinding, metal on metal and even a pop, and a bit of smoke from somewhere, but the darn thing comes to a stop, totally blocking that alley way that Bruce just ran into. And it lands with a thud.
Ax cringes as the cargo hauler comes to a grinding halt. Good thing his wife was a better engineer than she was a driver. Pulling the swoop along side the truck, he sets it down and dismounts. "Everyone alright?" he asks in a louder tone as he makes his way towards the hovertruck's cab. "Kadi, my love? I thought we agreed that I'd help you move all this," he says.
Bruce can't see the vehicle from where he crouches behind a heavy metal dumpster, but he can hear the nasty groaning of the brakes and the explosive pop of the engine. When the hovertruck finally screeches to a halt, the investigator silently counts to five, then peeks over the top of his cover, doing a quick survey of the scene. Hearing a familiar voice and finally spotting Ax, Bruce stands up and straightens his thick gray coat the best he can with one hand. His other, of course, still holds his small bucket of food. He says nothing yet, suddenly aware of the morsel still in his mouth from before he took off running. He does move from his cover though, taking a few tentative steps towards the hovertruck, unsure of what scene might be waiting inside the cockpit of the vehicle.
Lily is beepwhirr scolding Kadi, who is ignoring her with all the dignity she can muster. Ax's question gets a half wince. "Sort of," she replies. "But you weren't there, and I wanted to get the first load to Rheisa, so she can get started," she explains. "And - I wanted to try - " she adds, before she sighs. "I think I need to practice more." Queen of understatement right there. As to the state of affairs inside the truck's cockpit? Well, Lily has a couple small dents, but nothing major. Kadi has managed to not throw up from the spinning, at all, which is good, but she might have a couple bruises, including one on her forehead from that abrupt stop. Not that she's noticed it yet. It might even grow into a goose-egg bump. If she's unlucky.
"Ya think, or let Lily drive. Most astromechs are programmed with that ability," Ax says, no anger in his voice. "I'm going to call a towing company and get this moved back to the hangar. I guess we're close enough to unload what you've got left in the back. Not like it's going to be much. I have some crew gathering up the half you dropped back at Corestar." He grins, looking to the pedestrians gathered.
Finally swallowing the piece of poultry, Bruce takes another few steps forward. The steps are more confident than the ones before, now that everyone seems more or less safe. As long as the truck stays powered down, Bruce thinks to himself. The thought is immediately rewarded with Ax's words of a tow company. As he gets to the speeder he offers a wave with his free hand. "Uhh... is everything okay here? Is there something wrong with your hovertruck?" He looks it over for a second before taking another bite of his bite-sized snacks.
Well, there is now, yup. Kadi's thought doesn't somehow reach her lips, but it's a close call. "Mr. Tuesday," she exclaims, as she gets out of the hovertruck, and wobbles a bit on her feet. Lily's exit is by far more graceful. "Oh, whoops," she says, as she reaches for the nearest thing to hold on to. Hopefully Ax, and not Bruce. "I'm a little dizzy." A pause, and then, "Hey, I did not drop half at corestar, I was very careful to - " Course she gets a look into the back of the hovertruck now, and she visibly wilts.
Ax steps forward to help his wife. "Maybe it wasn't half, but it definitely wasn't secured properly and you lost several of the boards." Even as he speaks, one of the cargo droids from the Waywards hangar arrives, the lifter carrying a large amount of the cargo that had fallen out of the hovertruck. "See what I mean?" Ax asks. He chuckles a bit. "Mr. Tuesday, I'm glad you weren't harmed in this. Kadi isn't normally the one to haul any cargo anywhere," he says. "Other than maybe a crate or two of droid parts."
A crinkle appears over Bruce's eyebrows. "Please, just Bruce is fine," he says to the couple, just after swallowing his food. "And I'm fine, just a bit of a show to go along with dinner." At the word dinner, he looks down into his bucket and pulls out the last piece, popping it happily into his mouth. He takes a few steps over to smaller garbage receptacle than the dumpster he hid behind and tosses the empty food container into it. Turning back around, he watches the load lifter arrive with it's cargo of lumber. Bruce compares it to the amount left in the hovertruck and raises an eyebrow. Good thing he isn't still a cop, the investigator thinks to himself.
Kadi leans in against Ax, and frowns at the cargo loader as it arrives. "I am not /that/ bad," she grumbles. Lily snorts one single beep, and Kadi pouts at her. One hand raises to gently rub at her forehead. "I didn't hit anyone," she protests. "Not just - Bruce here." Which is somehow luckily true, due to some fast footwork on the part of a pedestrian or two. Certainly, there were a few close calls, mostly due to the lumber that fell off.
Ax just chuckles, directing the droid towards the gallery to unload. He then looks back towards his wife, giving her a gentle squeeze. "You want to call a tow service or shall I?" he asks, glancing at the hovertruck. "And, should I get it towed to your shop or someone else's? As it's not likely to get there on its own."
"Fortunately for everyone you were going slow enough to make it easy to avoid you," Bruce offers, before adding dryly, "And you barely even rode up on the sidewalks." The man moves to peek out from the alleyway, surveying for any damage in the wake of the spinning hovertruck. Miraculously there was none. That would certainly reduce the fine, his police-brain tells himself. He shakes his head, clearing the thought from his mind. There probably isn't a police department on this entire moon, he tells himself. And most of the people seem to be moving on, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Bruce just shrugs, thankful the job of lumber cleanup isn't his to oversee.
Kadi sighs. "My shop, I suppose," she replies, still not impressed with her complete failure to drive. "And - I can get it towed, I guess." She reaches for her data pad, only to deflate still more. "Maybe you better do it." Seems that the datapad has a cracked screen and isn't powering on after all the ruckus.
Ax chuckles. "How about we find a less crowded area to teach you how to properly drive such a vehicle," he says to his wife. He then looks towards Bruce, giving the man a nod. He steps away, looking at his commlink to call a tow service to bring the hovertruck home. Meanwhile, the loadlifter droid begins unloading the rest of the lumber from the truck.
Kadi looks to Bruce, (cause her player missed it!) and she nods. "I went slow on purpose. So I wouldn't lose the lumber and so I could keep things under control." The best laid plans ...
Turning back to the hovertruck, Bruce looks between the couple again, returning the nod from Ax. At Qadira, the investigator smiles, "A wise precaution, to be sure." And undoubtedly may have saved lives today. But he doesn't say that out loud. He looks as if he's about to say something else, but then the muffled ring of a datapad alarm sounds from within his thick coat. He pats his pockets for a second, then locates the device, pulling it from beneath the waist-level of his coat. He looks at it for another second, then clicks it off. Looking up at the other two, he sighs. "I'm afraid duty calls. Good luck with all this." With that he he turns and walks out of the alley, quickly melting out of sight, into the crowd.
