Jax and Naomi crept around the back of the single-story building. They could still hear Hasim shouting. Out back, they found a row of sleek winged craft parked in a row. They were all garishly painted with neon colors in stripes and zigzags. Each skimmer featured a cockpit in which the pilot lay prone, surrounded by a transparent shell. All the skimmers’ cockpits were open, like clamshells. The main fuselage of the sleek craft featured a swept-back wing design with articulated turbo fans set in each wide wing. A small grav-lift was embedded in the lower section of the body to assist in maneuvering.
Jax looked the lightweight vehicles over. He turned to Naomi. “Think you can fly one?”
She shrugged. “Only one way to find out. There must be an RI installed or something.” She gestured to the nimble-looking craft. “They can’t let any yahoo with no piloting skills climb into these willy-nilly.” She looked at the nearest craft. “Can they?”
Jax quirked an eyebrow. “Any yahoo, huh?” She made a rude gesture, then turned to a different skimmer, a bright purple one. As she got situated on the foam platform, the two halves of the cockpit closed. The entire assembly slid back toward the main body of the fuselage.
From somewhere inside the cockpit with her, a voice said, “Hello, I am your flight assistant. There are many available options, depending on your skill level.”
Naomi cut the basic intelligence off. “I’m not a pilot. I need all the help you can give.” She reached out to touch the main console, her hand glowing.
Jax approached one of the open cockpits and crawled in. Once situated and comfortable on the foam platform, he found the canopy control. As the two transparent halves closed, the entire cockpit slid backwards into the body of the skimmer. The fuselage unfolded as the craft powered up, wings hinging down to lock into position. He looked over at Naomi and gave a thumbs up. She returned the gesture.
As Jax taxied his skimmer away from the others, a voice said, “Hello, I am your flight assistant. Would you like me to handle take off?”
Jax shook his head. “Nope. Disable all flight assistance.”
“Very well. You need only say, ‘flight assist,’ to re-engage my services.”
He pushed the throttle all the way forward. The powerful turbofans roared as the skimmer leapt into the air.
From her skimmer, Naomi watched Jax soar into the air. She looked to the side just in time to see Hasim jogging towards her, a tablet in one hand. She quickly reached out and touched the primary control module again, accessing its primitive systems, disabling the remote kill switch. “Get us airborne and fly,” she said out loud.
“Very well,” the RI replied.
She concentrated on the control systems of her skimmer, finding the software controls for the wireless networking gear.
“Hey, what the hell?” Jax exclaimed over their comm channel. Ahead, his skimmer was banking in a wide arc back towards the rental facility.
Naomi closed her eyes. Her tattoos glowed brightly, all of them. Using the networking gear in her own skimmer, she reached out to Jax’s. It was easy to disable the recall functions and then enable a rudimentary firewall. It would not keep a determined hacker out, but would most definitely keep Hasim out long enough. “You’re good,” she said out loud.
“Thanks.” His skimmer circled back to be alongside hers. “I didn’t know your tattoo magic worked long distance.”
She sighed, “It doesn’t. But my skimmer and yours are on the same network, so I…well. It’s not fun or easy. We’re good now. I threw up some simple firewalls.”
“Fair enough. Thanks.” He waggled his skimmer’s wings, then shot off ahead of her.
The sun was low in the sky now.