LOG: Haroun and Alison - Prepping the Blackbird

[x-jetstream.livejournal.com]

Haroun and Alison prep the Blackbird for a flight over to Muir. Just in case. The uses of the autopilot system are discussed, aviation fuel is poured, and they relieve stress in the most ancient and time-honored means possible.



Haroun walked around the base of the Blackbird, inspecting it via his tactile senses, looking for minute structural defects that would prevent launch tomorrow for Muir Isle. But in reality - he just liked to touch the pretty, pretty plane. He needed to get it out of his system now before Alison showed up to help with the pre-flight checklist.

Pausing in her slow, sound absorbed by her powers walk towards the plane, Alison stood still and watched, no longer drawing in sound now that she was motionless. He was going to coo any second now. He had That Face and That Look as he roamed around the plane and she was going to hear it. If for no other reason that it made her smile in silly ways each and every time she caught him at it.

Haroun finally broke down. "Yeah, you're a very pretty girl. You'll do just fine running across the Pond." he cooed at the plane. "All buffed and shiny."

Biting her lip hard, even as she grinned like a loon, Alison put both hands over her mouth to stifle any possible giggles as she listened, eyes dancing with merriment at the sight. One day she'd give in and add a purring subroutine to the plane's computer system. One day. Until then, it would be the game of sneaking up on the Blackbird absorbed Haroun to witness moments such as these.

Haroun let his fingertips trail off the wing of the 'Bird and turned to head for the tower to begin pre-flight. And then he saw her, and her silly loony grin, and he knew he was Busted. With the capital B. "Alison! So nice to see you." he said as charmingly as he could.

The smile would have grown wider at that - if possible. But since it was not, Alison settled for a cheerful bounce, both hands going behind her back now that the issue of being spotted was resolved. "Good morning again, Mr. Plane Whisperer." She dimmed the smile, a bit, through pure application of will. "Reporting for pre-flight check, as requested." The 'you look so cute when you do that' line was left unsaid. She'd already told him the last time she'd caught him doing this, after all.

Haroun sighed. He was in for at LEAST a week or two of teasing over this. At least. "While I'm whispering to the flight computers to get the weather over the Atlantic and Scotland, do you think you could go check the fuel tanks and top 'em off if needed?" he asked her.

The 'poor put upon me' expression was equally cute. The day Haroun figured that out, he'd probably kick himself, she knew. A lot. "You got it!" She didn't snap off a salute though she did indulge in a bounce or two on her way to check on the fuel tanks, humming merrily to herself the entire way there. "Watcha need done after that?" she called out before stepping inside to check on the flight board gauges. The actual tank gauges would be next as a double check.

"Well, the ol' girl will need a weigh-in once she's fueled so we can do the flight plan, then I wanted to do a ground-check just to be on the safe side. Scott keeps telling me the right aileron is sluggish, and I'm having a bitch of a time tracking down the bug." he grumbled. "May as well do a full fluids check while we're at it."

With classes cancelled on that day and the Friday and half the staff already gone along with the near entirety of the students, Alison hardly had a booked day to start with. "Sounds good to me," she replied, turning on the bird's comm system so they could talk easily to each other wherever they might be during the inspection. "Fuel reads 85 percent, checking the secondary gauge and then will refuel."

Haroun nodded. "Normally we wouldn't have to, but in this case we never know when we'll be called on to haul ass to some forsaken spot of the globe to pull a mutant kitty out of a tree or something." he said while typing his request into the flight computer. The new weather system was so very much nicer than the old one. He was glad he'd convinced Scott to give it a try. "And can you tell me what the weight is of two fully-loaded gas tanks on this plane?" he quizzed.

She rattled off the numbers by heart to him, tacking on more information because in Haroun's flight class, there was no such thing as too much technical detail. "Which is 25 percent more than the usual weight for a plane of this model without the specifications done to it by Scott and yourself, even though we actually also have a 150% fuel capacity if you compare to the normal baseline plane again." She poked the other gauges she's wandered over to, and confirmed the same readings, then continued. "And the fuel we use is non-standard too, because it's lighter meaning we can lug about more of it."

Haroun grinned. "Very nice. Go ahead and get the fueling truck out and gas 'er up." he said with a laugh. "Just remember, that non-standard fuel is hideously expensive. We can use the regular stuff, but the custom blend makes for a more efficient and cleaner engine."

"And a cleaner engine keeps the engine bugs away!" She chirped out the words at him merrily, keying in the 'prep for fueling' sequence before ducking out of sight, trotting towards the truck with an amused grin. She was humming to herself without noticing it as she unhooked the keys for the truck on the nearby panel, then hopped inside to start it up and drive it towards the Blackbird, the beeping sound of warning as she backed it up into place announcing her return. Once she was sure it was in place she hit the right switches and then leaned out to make sure it was well secured and the clamping lock was well in place.

Haroun knew and trusted Alison to handle the refueling process on her own. He was getting the meteorological data he had asked for, and he tapped in a few commands to shunt it straight to the navicomputer. He kept half an eye on the progress meter as the computers went through their handshake and starting swapping packets of information back and forth. "So - I understand Nathan asked you to sing at his wedding?" he asked Alison as the download whirred.

"Yes!" A lilting sentence followed, sung acapella for his benefit, over the low him of the refueling. "I'm controlling it now but if I start lapsing into a thick Scottish accent soon enough, don't be surprised? I had Rahne help me out with the accent and the words to several of the local traditional songs I managed to get a hold of." A pause followed. "I'm ready. If I freak out about it anytime between now and then, remind me of that?"

"And here I was looking forward to just sedating you." he said with a grin. "And, well, there is one other stress-cute that would do the trick nicely, but I understand we're carrying passengers on this flight?" he said with an unseen-by-her naughty grin.

"I decided I wanted Miles to come down with us, rather than go ahead. Cleared it with Scott and since this isn't official but more just about getting the 'bird over to Muir in case anything comes up," which it would not if it knew what was good for it, "and all that. And bringing Miles along meant bringing Artie along too, of course." She paused, grinning as the refueling indicator blipped on steadily. "Oh. Oh! Naughty man. Yes, we've got a passengers." Her grin grew wider and she chuckled. "Well, two that know they're passengers at least. And another who'll find out when we leave." Of course Haroun would have caught on to what she was up to.

Haroun grinned. "My God, the boy's fresh out of surgery and you're trying to kill him! You get to clean up the mess when he explodes." he said with a laugh. "And it wasn't that naughty - I'm almost positive the thought had crossed your mind before I said anything at all."

Laughter greeted that remark, Alison having no doubt at all that any explosions would wait until after the arrival at Muir. "Was naughty too! Even if the thought had crossed my mind only it would be terrible of me to suggest something like that!" The protest was clearly being made only for the form. "And naughty of me. Very naughty. Am I a naughty person?"

"Darling, you're the naughtiest!" he laughed. "Anyway, on a more serious note - what's the Joint Chiefs think about the trainee and the X-Men training rosters? You guys got everything squared away yet?"

"Well… okay, maybe I am." The ping indicating the fuel tanks were full caught her attention and she started the confirmation and unlatching procedures. "The new training rosters seem to be worked out. Vision's started her individual training sessions in the Danger Room. We're leaving some nighttime sections clear on a regular basis for those who like to do the sneak in and practice as if no one would know routine too." She grinned a bit wryly at that, and shrugged to herself. It was hardly the end of the world, that. The sessions were logged and filed any time the Danger Room was used, anyway. "The new scenarios we've been preparing should be ready in about two weeks or so."

Haroun hrmmed. "I've got several hundred feet of film that I'm digitizing and archiving. Hand-to-hand stuff - I tape all my bouts, you know that. Be good for our more advanced students to do a Film Night and analyze some of it for weaknesses and strengths." he mused over the radio. "And we can always use the data to advance the Danger Room bot AI a little farther."

"It'd also be interesting in giving us a sense of their own weak spots and knowledge lacks in terms of hand to hand," Alison pointed out, engaging the fuel pump's retracting gear. "Just a second, be right back." Once the gear was back in place on the truck, she wheeled it back to it's usual parking spot before trotting back towards the 'bird and ducking inside to join Haroun in the cockpit. "Ah, no more comm talk." She leaned on the co-pilot chair and crossed her arms, thinking the matter further. "It'll show us who's still arrogant and who isn't, in terms of getting to do a critique of someone with far more experience than they have. Even if it's your older tapes," she wrinkled her nose at him. "And they might spot something we don't anymore, being too used to things, too."

Haroun nodded. "Yeah, you never know. We need more Bull Sessions. Time to forget who's in command and who's a trainee. Just sit around and evaluate this stuff." he said, rehashing an old gripe. "I know we do it, but I think we need more of it. Builds team spirit."

"It does," she agreed. "But the newer trainees still need to go through the basics and get used to how things work before we do that. Too much familiarity… yes, I'm the one saying that. But it's still true. We need to give them the chance to get the interaction dynamics ingrained before we slack off on 'em. It's only fair." She glanced at the navigation controls, lips quirking a bit as her gaze paused at the auto-pilot section.

Haroun blinked at Alison, then turned to look at what she was looking at. "Ah, yes. That. Installed it myself a month or so ago. Very advanced. Pulls flight data right from the navicomputer and the control surfaces. So long as the course is relatively simple, this baby'll fly herself." he said with pride.

"That sounds fancier than what was there before," she agreed, with a small smile at the blatant pride about him. He hadn't patted the controls, though. Yet. "You'll have to show me how that works during the rest of my practical training, won't you? We didn't see the new version in class yet."

"That's because I was trying to teach you how to fly the plane yourself, not how to turn on the autopilot." he said with a grin. "Once you pass all the basic solo flight stuff, then I'll give you an intro to the autopiloting system." he promised. "A shame we're going to have passengers - I could have given you that demonstration tomorrow." he leered.

She was so very transparent, she thought with mock dismay. "But it wouldn't be proper," she said primly, the gleam in her eyes being anything but, along with the grin that followed a moment later. "Well, we'll just have to keep that in mind for later now, won't we?" Leaning over was probably pushing her luck but they were pretty much alone on the entire down below levels anyway at the moment. Kissing the tip of his nose, she then waited a bit, right where she was and well within reach. "Should I just wait here until you're ready to do the flight plan?"

Haroun looked at Alison, and then mentally reviewed the list of People Still At The Mansion. He then picked up the radio and with a practiced flick of the wrist set it to a certain frequency. "Jetstream to Hangar Computer. Execute Lockdown One, no notify, non-emergency. Go." he said, then closed the channel. "There. That should provide some privacy..." he mused, and then kissed her.

The kiss somehow also allowed for her to go from leaning next to him to sliding into his lap, even if the 'bird' seats turned that into an interesting activity in and of itself. "Mmm. Privacy is good," she opined after coming up for air at one point. They weren't rushed. The flight plan would be ready for tomorrow. And moments like these just had to be savored properly, whenever possible. Resting her forehead against his for a moment, she hummed the lyrics to one of the songs she'd learned for the wedding to him. "Uair eile gu bhith beo..." Any questions as to the lyrics' meaning were lost as she pressed her lips to his.

~*~

A goodly bit of time later, Haroun pulled on his discarded shirt. "Well then." he said with great amusement. "Feeling better, are we?" he joked with a grin. He returned to the radio and cancelled the lockdown before shutting the radio back down again.

"You are a naughty, naughty man," was the lazy response, Alison pausing to grin at him amidst the sorting out of the buttons on her blouse. She wasn't too picky about it though, which resulted in a slightly scandalous exposure of skin despite the way everything else was gradually neatly set in place.

"And you encourage me so." he retorted with a smile. "I don't know about you, but I even feel better. I shouldn't, but I do."

"Mmm. I'm glad you do," she murmured, pressing her lips lightly to the corner of his mouth before considering actually getting up. She didn't feel like getting up, but they did have a flight plan to do. "And if I felt any more relaxed right now I'd be dribbling through the floor plates."

"No dribbling." he said with a grin, extending her a hand to help her to her feet. "And we've got all the data we need, so you're going to do us up a flight plan."

'One flight plan, coming right up!" Alison did as well on the last word, already pondering the flight plan from the look on her face. "Want to take a break between the ground check and the full fluids check after to go forage for snacks? We've the time for it." Supper was already prepped, though not from anything Lorna usually left for people, having been wedding eaten for a while now. Alison figured ordering in would be the safest way to go, for supper.

As if on cue, Haroun's stomach rumbled. "Food would be good." he said, faintly embarrassed. "What'd you have in mind?"

"I could make some tuna surprise snacks for now?" She could make those with her eyes closed and pretty much anything in the kitchen so long as there were some tuna cans for her to start with. Which there were, something she'd made sure of a few days ago. "And we could order in for supper. There's not that many people left so it'd be simple. Pizza or maybe Chinese, depending on what we feel like by then."

Haroun grinned. "Could it be? Alison is actually going to cook something? I am agog! I am aghast!" he said with a laugh. "And yeah, that sounds good. We can do the flight plan from our room." he pointed out. "So let's go!"

"Ha!" Making a face at him, Alison shook her head. "No actually cooking needed for the tuna surprises! It's just throwing whatever I find that looks right together. Or fun. Or both." She grinned at that, knowing full well it likely wasn't going to sound reassuring to him. "Last one to the kitchen is a rotten egg?"

Haroun grinned. He would have thought she'd have learned by now not to race him. "You're on! But you might want to fix your blouse. I think it looks devastatingly sexy, but you might not want to flash quite that much skin to just anyone." he said with a laugh, darting for the exit hatch to the Blackbird.