Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Sun and Sea 04 A James Gang Story by Mike C Foreword This is my first attempt after almost six years to get back to writing fiction. I'm starting a new story with my favorite group of people: the James Gang. Let's see how it works out... For those who are unfamiliar with the James Gang, they are the characters introduced in the (as yet unfinished) novel, 'James'. The REAL purpose here of course is to get 'James' finished... although I sense it'll be a while before I can get the skills, and confidence I need to continue that story! Also: I HAVE tried Stories Online, but it's not my thing. Feedback is welcome - but please keep it constructive. Address: mikec (at) nspace.net = = = = = Our meal took a long time because people kept coming by and offering us toasts, and the management bought us a round of soft drinks, even though they have a bottomless refill policy. I finished my order and had to help Sara with most of hers. "So what happened afterwards?" Sherri asked, "I mean about the apartment and..." "So," I said, after Sara stuck her tongue out at her, "we went to registration and..." "Wait, that's not it! You're telling it all wrong!" Sara elbowed me out of the way. "When we finally got to the friggin apartment, we found out why we couldn't find it on the GPS. They called themselves the Riverside Villas on the net but it turned out to be Riverside RETIREMENT Villas." Sara glared around. "Do we LOOK 40 to you? And they told us they never got our deposit - said it's a popular scam for transfer students trying to get accomodations halfway through the school year. So, no bed, no blankets, and no friggin' apartment!" "Man, the duvet and the beach is sounding better and better!" Amanda laughed. "You should see the state I was in, I... I... said nasty things to James..." Sara turned to me, "And I'm so sorry, baby, you know that, right?" "Ahh, yes, Sara's famous non-temper. Something to strike fear in men's hearts!" Amanda smiled. "Well," Sara said. "And... well, you know the rest, cos that was why we sent you the email..." "No, tell me the details!" Sherri urged. "Let's tell it in the car, we need to go if you want to see the university as well." "This is where I come in, I suppose," Amanda said, once she was behind the wheel and back on the road. "I get this call at Regan from the distraught couple and boss man here TELLS us to get the Sabre-25 ready, pronto, like." She sighed, "And of course, what James wants, James gets. "You gotta know, we weren't even finished with the mold!" She shook her head, "You should see Brenda scurry around, trying to get the CNC crew to finish it in 10 hours! And by golly, they did too. I think we went from CAD to a fully sailable proto in 15 days." She grimaced, "And you should hear what the guys were saying..." "What?" "That James was the only guy who could get a new boat in 3 months by fucking three women!" "That HAD to be that Pete!" Sara growled. "So, just when we were getting it all gift-wrapped for their royal pain-in-the-asses. They come sashaying back, cos... they... they..." "They...?" "You tell her!" Amanda said to Sara, "This is so humiliating." "We went back on the weekend because James said since it's a group effort, we should christen her as a group... But--" Sara touched Sherri, "--except you couldn't make it honey, it would've been perfect if you were there!" "Yeah, I wanted to, you don't know how much...!" "So we set up in the small showroom, and locked the doors... We opened a bottle of champagne, and we toasted you..." Amanda said. "Mandie got first honors!" Sara continued, "Because she designed the keel and support structure, she, er, she got to... ahem, lay the keel, so to speak. So, man, right on the astroturf lining, our Mandie got her keel hauled..." Sara was leaning on me, laughing breathlessly. "You should know I had horrible burn marks all over!" Amanda glared at me. "Wow, talk about leaving something for posterity!" Sherri giggled, "Get it - posterity?!" She started laughing. "I'll whup your skinny little posterity if you don't stop it right now!" "OK, OK, so what next?" "I was next..." Sara said wistfully, turning and kissing me, "It was so good, babe. We fooled around a bit on the sunpad over the engines cos Mandie really tired him out and he touched me... all over." She kissed me again while Amanda made gagging noises. "Enough already, geez, I suffer second degree burns..." "On her posterity..." Sherri added, then pulled a zip over her lips as Amanda glared at her. "I'm not kidding - I tell you, she was rubbing her boobs all over him... down there! It was so disgusting!" "Don't mind her, her boobs are so new she doesn't know what to do with them yet!" Laughed Sara. "Uh..." Amanda blinked and looked thoughtful. "So, we did our thing, and then Brenda was all blushing bride and everything..." "Yep - boss lady wasn't used to being grounded and pounded!" Amanda laughed. "And... and you gotta be there!" Sara and Amanda laughed maniacally, "Sh-she had to do it like twice, cos she designed the hull and the slip-panels! And she must've been on her knees for half an hour!" They were wheezing and gasping for breath. "Slow down here, Mandie," I interrupted, "Turn down the South Service Road. Just keep going to the end." We followed a small road on the edge of the University. "Turn right... the red building..." "They're all red, duh!" "OK, turn here... and number 353 is our spot." "Wow, how did you guys rate parking?" "We both applied as Flight Instructors, and as such, can share a spot." I said, "Although it's because they wanted Sara so much that I get to hang my name on the roster sheet. I've been up exactly twice and Sara's gone every day." "No, not that much - maybe every third day." Sara said, "Let's start you at the main entrance... this way." "Anyhow, we have to get Amanda a spot - or for sure they'll fire me as soon as Sara's gone." "I'm not sure they'll let me fly - I'm kind of borderline underaged." "You mean grossly underaged don't you?" "Hah - I look a lot older now!" Mandie puffed up her new assets and adjusted her shades. "So what else happened?" Sherri pressed. "At Regan's." "Oh, so Brenda..." "Brenda looked a holy mess," Amanda laughed, "She was sweaty and red where they bounced off the rails, her hair was pasted on her face, cos his stuff was all over her - I tell you, she looked like a fire-breathing Valkerie, all she needed was a sword!" "And then she REALLY lost it," Sara said, "When Mandie wanted to smash the champagne on the boat..." "Well, it's tradition isn't it?" "And she thought we were ganging up on her cos James said something about breaking it on the anchor, in a paper bag." "So she says, in the Silence-of-the-Lambs-voice of hers, 'What about the designer of the Trilobe-planer?' So we watched him to see how he would christen the boat with himself." Sara looked at me and giggled. "You must admit the idea is kinda funny, if in a gross way." "And so? How did he manage the christening?" "The usual..." Amanda sighed, "He delegated... so what else is new? On our knees again..." She sang. "He told us to apologise to Brenda and..." Sara sighed, "Yeah, it was good..." Suddenly Amanda froze, "Oh my God! You know what we just did?" "No, what?" "We had dinner with him!" "So?" Sherri asked. Amanda looked at her friend intently and said, "Why does he invite us to dinner?" "Oh..." "Do we have to? It's kind of juvenile and disgusting, isn't it?" "Of course! But it's the LAW!" So, right in front of the university's Lindbergh Center, they linked arms and very sincerely said, "'We're his good little cocksuckers!" Some days it's really good to be alive. "The Monument to Modern Flight," Sara announced, as we showed Sherri and Amanda the centerpiece of the University. "A full size metal replica of the Wright Brothers' Flyer." "And rumor has it that if it's hit by a force 4 hurricane from the right direction, it will rip itself out and fly away." I said. "And no doubt that is why they added this humongous slab of metal at the base - to weigh it down so it won't happen!" "Didn't anybody tell them that you can get lift regardless of shape?" "Alumni commitees - they all learned flying with the barn-stormers. Didn't they always say that 'If God had wanted men to fly, they'd given us wings'? Back then, NOTHING that man built could fly - glide a little, maybe, but not FLY." "But they learned to duplicate the bird-wing." "For the wrong reason! They just wanted to generate static lift from it. Nobody was thinking about dynamic lift!" "Until Wilbur and Orville..." "Yeah, they're some smart dudes." "Ah, here is the famous Props restaurant, home of the crap-burger." "Even James won't eat here..." "Now that is scary!" They shuddered. "Head down this way guys, Mandie will want to see this." Sara's Instructor ID allowed her to take us around the back to the airstrip adjoining the university, "Ta-da! Our flight park!" "SWEET!" There were rows and rows of gleaming airplanes, mostly single prop Cessna 172SPs and a handful of Pipers. We followed Amanda as she danced around the planes and worked our way to the advanced twin-engined Seminole trainers, and just behind them, she froze in her tracks and stared. "Katana Twins!" She exclaimed, "Un-fucking-believable!" Built in Canada at almost a million dollars a pop, these half dozen all-composite TwinStar four-seaters were the latest pride and joy of the university. "Oh my my my... talk about the right stuff!" Amanda turned and leaned up close to me, "Oh baby - you, me, the 'Twin and a mile of sky... It's SO gonna happen!" She squeezed me, "Sweet hunk of man, just think, FOUR hours on deck... We could set ALL sorts of records!" "You'd better hurry - they've already done the transatlantic trip and it's just finished circumnavigating the globe!" Sara informed her. "Damn, time's a-wasting!" Amanda decided, "We have to buy me one! How much cash d'you have?" "Er, Sara will have to work a year to get one of these." "So? Oh, right, we don't have a year to wait." Amanda bit her lip in thought, "Sare, you know where Robert Redford lives, right? If he can give Demi Moore a mill to sleep with him, he might be interested in a similar deal with you too!" "Isn't he a bit old?" "And a bit married?" "Detail, details! Sare, when can you leave for LA?" "I have to be in Miami tonight... Besides, if you can stop fondling the plane for a minute, you may want to take a look down here." Through a small side door we went into a large hanger, and directly in front of us was a USAF Jet, over twice my height, and almost 50 feet long. "A Tweety Bird!" Amanda cried, "Un-fucking-believable!" "You said that already," observed Sherri. The T-37 was the premier jet trainer for the Air Force, and was also used by NASA for their astronauts. This one was still in active service, used by the Air-Force Reserve Officer Training program. Amanda had climbed up the service ladder and now peered inside the plane. "Wow, the G5 Glass-cockpit retro!" She looked down at me, "How long does Sara need to work for me to buy this baby?" "She'll have to marry Redford for this one, honey." "Ah..." She thought about it, "And we'll have to wait for him to die too, probably..." She sighed, then shrugged, "It's OK, it's got tandem seating anyways - it'll be hard climbing back and forth." She leaned up and started looking around, "You have a Buckeye here? Or a 'Hawk? They've got the side-by-side seating. Even the T-2A with the crappy engine will do." "No, don't think so, sorry!" "Damn, it'll mean the Katana then," She climbed down dejectedly, but determined, "We'll have to come back tonight, with 50 gallons of fuel, in case it's not topped up... We'll have to disable the squawk of course, and someone will need to clear 1600-feet of runway..." "Honey, you forget that none of us have any multi-engine-training, let alone jets!" "Pfft, minor." She dismissed it. "And that's what your passport says too: Minor!" Sherri laughed. "Do not talk to me, oh ye of no vision!" "But I have! My vision says you'll get five years in jail!" Sherri nodded, "Which is good, cos that means you'll be legal by the time you get out, and ready to commit something really major!" "Amanda, did you see the 'Toot' over there?" Sara asked. "Yeah, it's so yesterday's news," Amanda sniffed disdainfully, "Even the Canadian Air Force stopped using it!" She brightened, "But... it DOES have side-by-sides." "This one's a Toot-G and it belonged to John Travolta." Sara explained as she took us over. "It was sold in the 70's as a light figter overseas. He bought it used, but on delivery, found that the main spar had cracked. It would cost more to fix than what he paid, so he donated it to the university." "Oh you poor baby!" Amanda cried in dismay. Cracks zigzagged the plexiglass cockpit, the tricycle gear was corroded and even the tires were half flat. The innards of its turbojet engine, hydraulics and wiring were visible through exposed panels in the metal body. "There is a lot of sentimental value associated with it, but for almost ten years, nobody could do anything with it. And it just sits here, slowly dying." "That's so sad... So much beauty and pride, and now, just waiting to become junk!" "Yeah, once they found that she will never fly, all the interest disappeared. Nobody even did an inventory of the parts it came with!" Sara took us through another side door, along a corridor by the library. We went up over the new business building and into a cavernous building. Inside, two room-sized platforms sat on a complicated array of spindly legs that reached a full story below. "Ladies, feast your eyes: Two level-6 Full-flight-simulators with the omni-view panorama system. And we've got another dozen more FTDs scattered around." Flight Training Devices are smaller versions of the FFS without the complex linear motion feedback which can emulate even the physical shock of a crash. Computers tailor each simulator to follow the flight characteristics of the planes the students needed to study and familiarize themselves with. "James..." Amanda said, "Let's wait a bit before doing the Katana - I think I should give these a try first!" "Excellent idea, babe." "I was going to give it to you," Sara took her flight suit out of her locker and held it again Amanda, "But I see it could be a bit tight in the chest area!" "Fat chance!" Amanda laughed, "I just want enough boobies to impress someone." She gave me a sidelong look. "Ah, I thought I heard voices!" A man in grey fatigues strolled through the door, "I am very sorry to hear that you are leaving us, Sara! Any chance we can convince you to forego your million dollar paycheck and stay with us?" "At the munificent pay of $15.50 an hour?" Laughed Sara. "Plus parking." I amended. "Colonel Mac, may I introduce you to my dear friends Amanda and Sherri? Colonel Mac is the ROTC's CO and also runs the Aircraft Maintenance School." He shook hands around, and Sara continued, "Amanda will be attending a couple of your courses. She's the mechanical genius I have been telling you about." "Ah the one who can field strip a Rotax 914 and reassemble it in 22 minutes? I am looking forward to seeing a demonstration - you look particularly young to be so accomplished!" "Amanda has always liked to get her hands dirty," Commented Sherri which earned her a glare. "And Sherri, will you be joining us at ERAU?" "Nah," Amanda said, "She's just a model. We only let her hang around cos she invented some Bi-flex Airelon thingie." "The Bi-flex..." Colonel Mac look at her, "Your last name isn't Prevan, by any chance?" Suddenly he laughed, "S Prevan is... a model?! This is too much!" He stopped, "And would that be the same S Prevan who wrote 'Analysis of Secondary Oscillations in Flight'..." He paused, "Of course you would be!" He was laughing so hard he was gasping for breath. "And, so... "He finally continued, "That would mean that your collaborators were... or should I say conspirators are..." He pointed, "Chip Manda, and Bob Osara?!" "They misplaced the second 'O' in her name." Amanda commented. "Oh-ho-ho, this is rich! One of the big new developments in aviation - by kids!" He nodded at Amanda, "And believe me, the university will do everything to make it a rewarding experience for the estimable Chip Manda! "Now Sara, we've been notified that your flight should touch down soon, when it will be directed to hanger 16," he took her hand, "We don't ever let a good one go, young lady - so I expect to see you back soon!" He gave her a grave nod, "Blues skies." We turned to go and he gestured to me, "Mr. Mitchell, a moment... Tell me, how does one find a group of vivacious and talented young ladies like that?" "I really can't say, Sir, I believe they found me." "I have some doubts about that! Now, I am sure you are aware there is mention of a 'Mitchell Boundary Interferometer' in their paper, is that something you may be familiar with?" "Perhaps in passing, sir." "Which then leads me to the conclusion that the Airframe Projects course you are currently registered for will not be sufficiently challenging for you. I want you to go over the course outline on the website and select something that will put your time to better use. And, I want you to prepare a discussion paper on how to apply your Interferometer to general avionics; you will be presenting it to a group of your professors, including me." "Oh... er, when do I have to do this?" "I expect you to have made your course selection either online with ERNIE or with my office by the end of the week, and you will submit your paper before the end of your courses." He turned to go and I tagged glumly behind. "Oh, and Mr Mitchell, since we will be losing Sara's services as an instructor, best be prepared to take over her slots too." "Will the job include parking, Sir?" "I believe we can keep the existing arrangements. Are you planning to continue staying on your yacht?" "It's not a yacht, Sir," I said, "Just a small boat we are doing work on." "Just keep your grades up and I don't care if you live on the Queen Mary!" "Yessir!" "Dismissed!" By the time I arrived, a cream-color G-IV Gulfstream had taken up the entire front opening of Hanger 16, while the ground crew was meticulously loading Sara's roll-on and packaging her comfort foods in foam. "Babe, where were you?" Sara asked. "You OK?" Sherri took my arm. "Colonel Mac is of the strange opinion that because I hang around with smart people, I must be smart too." I said sadly, "He told me to drop my bird course and pick something harder." "I TOLD you! That course is so retired engineers can make spending money!" "Don't worry sweetie," Sherri comforted me, "I'm sure we can try a few things to smarten you up!" "Lots of greens." Suggested Sara. "What's Amanda doing with the pilots?" "She's making sure they know the restart procedure if both jets snuff out in mid-flight." "Those guys look worried." "Wouldn't you? If a teenager knows more about the plane you're flying than you?" "You guys want a tour?" Amanda came back, "We have 16 minutes for the preflight, right?" She asked the pilots. "No, it's only 8 minutes." "My point exactly - do it twice!" We followed the pilots aboard and they quickly disappeared into the cockpit. "Now is this the mostest or what!" "Gee, if I'd known I can get to fly in this, I'd ask for big boobs too!" The entire cabin was laid out with plush wine-color broadloom that went halfway up the sides of the fuselage to merge with dark wood panelling. There were four full size Lazyboys in the front, and a kitchen with a round dining table in the rear. The central portion was filled with a lengthwise leather sofa with a large 42" plasma screen facing it. A well stocked bar and DVD library took up the space under the TV. "Big plane..." Sara invited, "Lots of passenger space...!" A stewardess appeared and offered us drinks. "Do you have AME medical certification?" Amanda asked. "Yes, we are all..." "Level 3?" "Mandie, stop it," Sara implored, "You only need level 3 if we're going over water! I'm only going 45 minutes to Miami!" "Which is SURROUNDED by water!" Amanda yelled, "All it takes is a 2.4-degree deviation to land you in the drink!" "Calm down babe." I grabbed her, "It'll be fine honey, nothing's gonna happen to Sara, OK?" "OK, I guess..." There was a loud "Chunk" and the engines started winding up. Amanda tilted her head in concentration, "OK, the bearing's solid. No impellor noise. That's good." "Girls," Sara turned to them, "Promise me you'll look after him, OK? I'm counting on you... OK?" "Absolutely Sare. And we'll give him greens. Cross our hearts." Sherri said, "And anytime you need us, we're here or we'll go visit!" "Yes, we'll take good care of him, don't worry. Just make sure the flaps are full flush before you let them retract the gear!" Amanda warned. "James..." Sara clung to me and kissed me, "I don't want to leave..." "I know babe, I know." I looked in her eyes, "Know that I too, love you very well..." "Yeah..." "Here's your MP3," I said, "I added a song." I touched her face, "I love you..." "Love you..." Sara kissed me. "Take care, my sweet loves..." She called from the closing hatch. The Gulfstream spooled up and taxied off, and a minute later it roared into the sky, and I thought I could see a tiny face looking out the window. Every now and then When the world steps in, Stealing all our time away. It soon takes so much We forget to touch, That's when I know It's time for me to say: Take my hand Let's walk through love's door And be free from the world once more, Here's my heart - We can hide today And love the world away. Once again we'll be Where our hearts are free And the time is ours to share Love will always stay Just a touch away Come with me All the magic's waiting there Take my hand Let's walk through love's door And be free from the world once more Here's my heart We can hide today And love the world away We can love the world away = = = = = (C) Copyright 2001-2008. MikeC. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of this and other stories can be downloaded from: <http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/MikeC/JAMES/Sun&Sea/>