(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

The door opens onto an alleyway between two buildings- one residential, one not. "Here we are," Ray says, stepping out and holding the Firehouse door open behind him. "Home sweet- uh, hang on a minute, I need to check the year."

He trots off to the newspaper box on the curb, then gives Kitt a thumbs-up.

Comments

[steadfastknight]

"As I said before, as many times as you need to. But before we do, is there anything specific you'd like to learn?" He, after all, knew all of the tricks that Detroit hadn't even dreamed of yet.

[gone_byebye]

"Hm. Well... getting run off the road isn't as much of a concern when your mass is as much as Ecto's, since it's not as if anything smaller can really force you off. Wouldn't mind learning how to recover from an out-of-control spinout, though, since all it takes is a smash from the right angle at the wrong time and under the wrong road conditions to send even a big vehicle spinning. Oo, speaking of spinning, Bondurant's anti-kidnapping course description said they taught the same PIT maneuvers that cops use to immobilize a fleeing suspect's car. That sounded like fun."

[steadfastknight]

"Those are simple enough," Kitt said, putting those in mind to attend to. "But it's more than one day's work. A day of driving is exhausting to anyone, even when it's not plain highway driving. I won't try to say it isn't. Especially with the trials this sort of thing can have on your musculature. I don't want your arms to be sore tomorrow.

"But I can also teach you primary and advanced evasion, which might come in handy."

[gone_byebye]

Ray nodded. "Fair enough," he said. "My arms aren't likely to be as sore as other people's necessarily- the proton throwers we use in my work buck like firehouses, and we have to control them if we don't want to set a building on fire- but I take your point. The evasion would be good stuff, though. That's probably the most important."

[steadfastknight]

"Bracing for recoil isn't exactly the same as precise driving manoeuvers," Kitt pointed out. "But I do believe we should set some sort of time limit for today. We can always pick up another time."

All the same, Kitt began mentally structuring the rest of the lesson.

[gone_byebye]

"Works for me. I could do with some lunch anyway, and Egon's always telling me I overdo things."

[steadfastknight]

"Then you should go for some lunch," said Kitt, "while I plot the rest of the lesson. I would like to meet Doctor Spengler, but that can be put off for after this trip."

[gone_byebye]

Ray nodded. "Not a problem. We passed a Nathan's on the way here. Can I get you anything? Not necessarily food or automotive parts, but reading material or something? And I wouldn't worry about meeting Egon- he might be at the Firehouse by the time we get back."

[steadfastknight]

Kitt assured him, "I'll be quite fine. There's something I'd rather like to try besides. Bureaucratic computers and I don't exactly get along, but I'd like to see if I can still access the police databases."

Which would be quite a fun trial.

[gone_byebye]

"In that case," Ray said with a smile, "don't let me distract you. You'll be spending your time far more productively than I will, most likely."

[steadfastknight]

"All I am is nosy," Kitt admitted. "I want to see if, somewhere, there's a version of me here."

Or if he existed in fiction.

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, okay," Ray said, because he was the sort of person who really didn't think much further than the surface of a statement if he didn't have to. Of course, he was also the sort of person who had no clue about most of the television of the nineteen-eighties, so it wasn't as if he even had warning bells to go off while he was in the hot-dog place.

(( OOC: I have never decided whether Knight Rider existed in Ray's world or not. Given that the current president of the United States was the mayor of NYC on Spin City, it is entirely possible that other television shows may be real here, too. Or not. Either way. ))

[steadfastknight]

"The police databases would be the fastest way to find out if I'd been reported in any place around the country. Except here in the last few hours, of course."

Kitt's tone seemed to smirk though he had no face to manage it with.

((Well, the call, right now, is yours. And so is how we cover the rest of the day. Do you want to go through detailed lessons or what?))

[gone_byebye]

(( The detailed lessons would probably take too long; I'm good with handwaving, based on what we've got so far. And... hm. ))

"Oh, okay," Ray said. "That makes sense. I understand completely."

As for the scans, Kitt ran into a somewhat frustrating situation early on. The police computers of New York City communicated with the police computers of New York State- and that was it. Their technology, as was so often the case, was woefully behind the private sector's, even in 2004, and the sharing of data was not a common thing in a world without a Department of Homeland Security. To get any kind of national record would require sweet-talking computers belonging to the FBI or some other federal agency.

On the other hand, rummaging through the Internet- available easily enough, as several of the nearby homes and businesses had badly secured 802.11g wireless networks- made for an interesting time. There were references galore to a pair of Star Wars movies called Episode I: The Price of Order and Episode II: Clone Error, with a third, Revenge of the Sith, due out in 2005. There were a few very sad little cult sites devoted to a movie called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and quite a lot of sites dedicated to some cartoon called Jace and the Wheeled Warriors.

And on a number of specialized mailing lists and Usenet discussion archives, particularly one called Inside Line, there were some extremely bizarre discussions of whether the rumored-to-exist 'men in black' ever drove anything other than large sedans. Specifically, whether they might possibly be seen driving something in the Firebird family, at least in the western United States if nowhere else.

[steadfastknight]

But Kitt was higher technology than that. If there was a small connection to the internet, he could get into it by sweet talking the right servers. With a little silver binary and some smooth hexadecimal, as well as a few whispered promises of 256-bit encryption, and he found just a few tiny hints--

But that forum was the most interesting. Firebird family.

There was a kind of sweet satisfaction in Kitt's thoughts at seeing that part. A satisfaction that could've left him purring.

He'd tell that to Michael later.

If he could get over the want to go find himself, even if he knew it would risk paradox.

While Ray was eating, Kitt gathered all the information he could, even scouring for possible images, because he was masochistically curious that way.

[gone_byebye]

The Inside Line discussion was probably the most straightforward rendition of the material. Virtually every other reference to a supposed mystery black sports car had the hallmarks of urban legend all over it- no dates beyond 'a few years ago' or 'February', no link of the person who'd supposedly seen it to the person posting the story beyond the 'friend of a friend' sort. The one site that Kitt finally managed to track down that had any sort of image file to it was... well, not reliable. It featured some painfully obvious faked footage of ghosts and a few moderately convincing 'human hybrids' (one of which turned out to be a sculpture rather than a photographic fake). The car photo was blurry, nearly as much so as the famous photograph of 'Bigfoot', and had been tentatively identified by someone as a concept car from 2002.

A cross-reference with more reliable photographs revealed that none of GM's concept cars from that year had been nearly that angular, as that was a year when even the sports vehicles had been moved sharply towards smoothness for aerodynamics' sake.

[steadfastknight]

The image, Kitt took and stored into his databanks. He'd run it through his image refinement software later. Oh, satisfaction could've been seen dripping off of him if he were human. As it was, he just wanted to crow.

So with that information tight in his grips, he waited for Ray to come back outside.

Concept car, Kitt thought, amused. Concept car! Oh, how much the world could change in twenty years!

[gone_byebye]

Two hot dogs, one large soda, one medium fries, and one trip to the restroom later, Ray emerged. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said as he reached for the driver's side door. "Find anything interesting?"

[steadfastknight]

"Quite," Kitt said, voice more than satisfied as the door opened for Ray's grip. Could cars purr? Kitt was making an effort at it. "It seems I, or someone like me, exist here. Or there is a possibility through second-hand tales. I don't dare test it just yet, but I do know the exclusive Knight Industries frequencies."

It could be done. But he wanted a few rumours of his own first.

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, cool!" Ray said. "Did you want to keep looking, or did you need to do something else first, or should we just go back to the airfield now? I'm good with any of them at this point."

[steadfastknight]

"Lessons are a bit more important than my following what may be a false lead. I've yet to run the image I found through my filters, but that can wait. I don't want to et off any alarms that may come from my presence. Though..."

Here, he got a bit cocky.

"Though if we caused a few rumors of our own, perhaps you could tell me if they contact you..."

[gone_byebye]

Given how much of parapsychology was once founded on nothing but rumor, Ray saw nothing wrong with this. "Excellent idea, Kitt," he said with a smile. "Got anything in mind?"

(( OOC: Bed calls in RL, I fear. ))

[steadfastknight]

"I'll think of something, keeping in mind that I don't want you arrested," he said. "But I do believe that if I were to make enough rumour to reach that board, perhaps I, here, would find out about it."

((No problem.))

[gone_byebye]

"There's enough areas in Manhattan with public security cameras for us to do something that might attract interest," Ray said. "Or upstate New York if you think Dutchess or Ulster County is a better choice for staging this kind of thing. That's highway driving and mostly rural territory, except for a few places like the Culinary Institute and a couple of relatively secret information technology company installations."

[steadfastknight]

"I'll have to find a situation, first," he said. "A turboboost over a potential accident would be suitable, I think. Of course, it would need to be later on, so I can get the action off of police radar as quickly as possible afterward."

Because he wouldn't get Ray in trouble for the sake of intraspecies communication.

"I'm sure you understand."