Testing The Centaur

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Job Sign-Up: Page 12, Post Number 294

-Motor City, Dr. Hanlon's Laboratory-

Wearing her white Steel Matron t-shirt under her Azure Armor with khaki cargo shorts and white tennis shoes, Victoria walked through the sliding glass doors to Dr. Hanlon's laboratory. She was called here for an important task, but the doctor would not tell her what it was until she got here. Presumably the details were so sensitive that he wanted to talk in person. The moment she walked in she was greeted by that creepy-ass Entertainer bot sitting on the wooden counter. A small gloved hand popped out of its left side and waved at her. Victoria reluctantly waved back and was soon greeted by the doctor himself, who held a clipboard in his left hand as he emerged through the door leading to his laboratory.

"Hello, Victoria! I'm glad you're here!" He greeted her warmly.

"Thanks, Doctor. What did you need me for?" Victoria asked the scientist. Dr. Hanlon smiled at her.

"Today's the day I finally turn my fortunes around and you're going to be the one to help me do it. You see, the DH-40 Centaur's almost complete and I need someone to test it on the local test track. You're the one I want to have the honor of testing it for me." He explained to Victoria. The brunette remembered him bringing up the subject of a test drive the last time she was here. Today must have been the day he chose to finally go for it and see if his new project would be a success or if it needed still more work before it could be released to the public.

"I'm ready when you are, Doctor." Victoria affirmed to him. Dr. Hanlon beamed with joy when he heard her answer.

"Excellent. Now if you'll just follow me, we'll go down to the garage and we'll be on our way to the test track." He said to her. He opened the laboratory door with his right hand and let her pass through before shutting it behind him.

-Inside the garage-

Following Dr. Hanlon into the garage, Victoria found the DH-40 Centaur almost exactly where it had been left during her last visit. Standing beside it was a blonde-haired young woman about Victoria's height who wore a pink outfit and a white labcoat over it. In her left hand was a cup of coffee and in her right hand was a clipboard. Victoria had not seen the blonde before today. Who was she?

"Victoria, meet Dr. Loretta Reid. She's a new collaborator of mine ever since Ms. Barnsworth has been busy. She's a mechanical expert who studied at Motor City Institute of Technology." Dr. Hanlon introduced the brunette to the blonde. Dr. Reid balanced the clipboard in the Centaur's seat before walking over to Victoria and offering her left hand for a handshake.

"Dr. Hanlon told me about how you risked your life to help him stop those rogue robots of his several months ago. He's got a lot of faith in your abilities." Dr. Reid informed Victoria. The pair shook hands and exchanged pleasantries as Dr. Hanlon looked on. As soon as the exchange was over the trio looked at the Centaur, which was the reason they were all here to begin with.

"We should get going to the test track. It's time to see what the Centaur can do." Dr. Hanlon announced to the pair.

"Ready when you guys are." Victoria asserted to the two doctors. Today was the day that the brunette got to feel the wind in her hair as she tested the Centaur, Dr. Hanlon's latest creation. She only hoped that the Centaur came with some safety features in case the test drive did not quite go as planned.

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-At the Motor City Test Track-

Having stayed with the DH-40 Centaur in the back of the enclosed trailer used to haul it so that no one got any bright ideas to try and steal Dr. Hanlon's work, Victoria walked out of it once the door was lowered. It had been a brief and uneventful ride occupied by thoughts of something very important. Something that she had forgotten to tell the good doctor and his blonde colleague before volunteering to test the Centaur.

Victoria had no idea how to ride a motorcycle, let alone a hovercycle!

However, it was too late to back out now. She had already committed to testing the prototype hovercycle and she was going to make good on her word even if it caused her to get hurt. It was a good think that she knew healing magic that could keep her alive if the worst happened. Perhaps she should have brought the Crown of Persephone to boost the power of her healing magic, but the brunette had an unfortunate tendency to not plan ahead except when it came to combat. Oh well... there was nothing she could do about it now.

Victoria joined Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid at the wall of the empty test track, which was a standard oval setup with piles of tires around the inside of the track that were intended to cushion out-of-control vehicles and be a more forgiving surface than the walls. The brunette hoped that she would not find out whether they were any good or not. She stood alongside Dr. Reid and watched Dr. Hanlon "wheel" out the Centaur by engaging its special hover field and backing it out of the trailer with precision and care. The Centaur was an impressive piece of technology with many months and an unknown number of Jewels invested in its creation, but how would it work once the rubber met the road?

Victoria would find out soon enough.

Dr. Hanlon got on board and slowly maneuvered it to the entrance of the track, then hopped off and motioned for Victoria to get on. Dr. Reid walked back to the truck that Dr. Hanlon had driven to get them here and retrieved a blue helmet that had a headset with a microphone protruding at mouth level. Victoria obliged Dr. Hanlon and got onto the Centaur, then received the helmet from the blonde doctor standing just to her right. Dr. Reid walked off to a portable radio that she had set up on the back of the truck that had hauled the trailer in.

"The operation of the DH-40 Centaur's quite simple, Miss Sheridan. To speed up twist forward on the handlebars. To slow down twist backwards. To maneuver left and right, well... you know." He gave her a brief rundown of how to drive the Centaur. Even thought Victoria had never ridden anything like it before, it seemed simple enough. Dr. Hanlon's left hand pointed down towards a glowing display just behind the small windshield.

"On the left you'll see a speedometer that gives you a numerical readout that tells you how fast you're going. You'll also see a horizontal meter that tells you the charge status of the onboard weapon, which has been disabled for today's purposes. We don't want another incident like what happened with the robots." He pointed out the features on the display. Victoria nodded. Even someone like her could understand what each gauge meant thanks to how simple the display was.

"COMMS CHECK! VICTORIA, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Dr. Reid shouted into the helmet, momentarily deafening and startling the brunette. Dr. Hanlon gave a pained smile as Victoria waited for her hearing to come back.

"I can hear you... I think. Yeah." Victoria replied.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Dr. Reid repeated the question. Victoria's ears were blasted again and she clenched her teeth in pain.

"YES, I CAN HEAR YOU!" Victoria shouted back.

"Oh, OK. Sorry about that, Victoria. The volume knob was set to LOW." Dr. Reid apologized to Victoria for almost destroying her ears with shouting. The brunette sighed. Hopefully the test drive would go better than the comms check.

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After the brief tutorial of how to drive the hovercycle and what each gauge on the display meant followed by a painful comms check courtesy of Dr. Reid, Victoria sat on the DH-40 Centaur and waited for Dr. Hanlon to give the signal to go. Victoria reviewed the gauges and looked towards the empty track, then looked towards the doctor. Dr. Hanlon smiled at her and gave a thumbs-up while Dr. Reid walked over to the man and gave him a wireless headset. The brunette flinched... her ears were about to come under a sonic assault for the third time in almost as many minutes. He walked away from her and towards the truck parked 200 meters away; he stopped at the passenger side door and spoke into the microphone.

"Comms check. Victoria, can you hear me?" Dr. Hanlon asked. To her surprise and relief the volume was set at a level that did not hurt her ears.

"Loud and clear, Doctor." Victoria replied in the affirmative.

"Excellent. You may proceed with the DH-40 Centaur test drive when you are ready." He informed her. Victoria gave a thumbs-up with her left hand, then put both hands on the grips and slowly twisted them forward. The Centaur lurched forward because she had applied too much throttle from a dead stop. The brunette quickly twisted the grips backwards and almost threw herself off when it jolted to a stop. Victoria calmed down and took a deep breath, then slowly and steadily applied throttle.

This time the Centaur moved smoothly forward onto the track. This was it. She was about to see what Dr. Hanlon's project could do.

-On the test track-

Victoria rode in the middle of the track at speeds of approximately 15 MPH as she tried to get used to the handling of the hovercycle. She was approaching the first turn when she increased the speed to about 25 MPH. She turned left and the vehicle responded without any trouble... in fact it turned so smoothly that she started to head towards the tire wall before changing course and carefully steering back right. Once Victoria had righted herself she continued on course to the second turn.

"Try going at 50 MPH." Dr. Hanlon instructed. Victoria obliged and increased speed until she was at the target speed, then maintained it going into the third turn. The key to staying in control of the Centaur was smoothly accelerating or braking with gentle twists of the grips, not sharp and sudden adjustments. Victoria approached the fourth turn and easily completed the lap without any problems.

"First lap complete. So far, so good." Victoria reported to the doctors.

"What do you think of the Centaur, Miss Sheridan?" Dr. Hanlon asked.

"It's a lot more stable than a motorcycle and somewhat more maneuverable. It's also user-friendly. However, you have to be gentle with the speed controls or you'll throw yourself off of it. It's the same way with turning... go easy while turning or you'll snatch yourself into an obstacle." Victoria replied with a summary of its performance up to this point as she made the first turn. Aside from the rough start while learning to control the throttle, Victoria had been in no danger of falling off due to instability. The brunette liked that about the Centaur.

"Yes, Victoria's right, Dr. Hanlon. I'm reading the performance statistics on the laptop and analysis of the Centaur's aerodynamic profile..." Dr. Reid chimed in with a whole bunch of technical jargon the brunette did not comprehend. Victoria kept her eyes on the track and spared a glance at the gauges on the display. Everything was in the green, so she would keep motoring around until the doctors told her to stop.

Feeling that she understood how to control it now, Victoria slowly accelerated to 60 MPH and approached the second turn, going through it with ease. She maintained 60 MPH and completed the lap before receiving a new set of instructions.

"Accelerate to maximum speed." Dr. Hanlon instructed. The rider obliged and throttled up to 100 MPH, which was the maximum it could go. Victoria blazed through the first and second turns with no trouble but on the way to the third turn noticed that the Centaur started to heat up to an uncomfortable extent. A temperature gauge popped up to the right of the speedometer and listed the engine temperature as 260 degrees Fahrenheit and rising. Her backside and thighs were starting to feel the burn... literally.

"Uh, Doctor... I don't think the Centaur's supposed to get this hot at full speed... is it?" Victoria asked with concern.

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"NO! THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!" Dr. Hanlon answered in an audible panic. Having to stand up to avoid burning her backside and thighs from the sudden spike in temperature, Victoria made the third turn and slowed down while approaching the same gate she had entered the track through. Her goal was to get the Centaur to the doctors so that they could cool it down and take it back to the lab for repairs.

"Dr. Hanlon, the coolant supply to the engine's cut off! Temperature's continuing to rise!" Dr. Reid reported to her older colleague. Victoria could hear language best described as "angrish", which was a language someone used when they got so angry that their words were virtually incomprehensible. The doctor was beside himself with anger and despair.

"NO! MY PROJECT! ALL THESE MONTHS OF WORK!" Dr. Hanlon muttered in despair.

"ABORT THE TEST, NOW!" Dr. Reid ordered.

"On the way back in. You two'd better clear the way for me 'cause this thing's coming in fast!" Victoria replied, slowing down gradually from 100 MPH to 80 MPH. She needed to slow down faster, but suddenly decelerating would throw her over the handlebars and leave her at risk of getting run over by the vehicle. She continued to gradually decelerate until it was running 50 MPH. The temperature gauge flickered and started to decrease as the speed decreased.

"Almost there... I'm at 35 MPH and dropping." Victoria reported. She eased off of the brakes and let it coast through the gate at 25 MPH. After a few more seconds of coasting she applied the brakes and held them until the Centaur shuddered to a halt and the speedometer read 0 MPH. Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid rushed over to her with fire extinguishers in hand in case the Centaur burst into flame. Upon seeing that the brunette hopped off the vehicle and put some distance between her and it before stopping.

"No no no no NO! Don't do this to me!" Dr. Hanlon pleaded with his project. Dr. Reid approached Victoria, whose backside and thighs were more than a little warm even after getting off of the Centaur. She was glad to have made it off the track without incident.

"We're going to have to call it a day, Victoria. We'll head back to the lab as soon as the Centaur's cooled down." Dr. Reid informed Victoria. Victoria watched Dr. Hanlon inspect the vehicle while on the brink of tears. At least no one else was around to see what had happened today.

-Back at Dr. Hanlon's Laboratory, 45 minutes later-

"I'm sorry for what happened, Victoria. It seems that the Centaur needs a lot of work before another test drive." Dr. Hanlon apologized to the brunette.

"It's OK. Hopefully you guys got some data that you can use to improve your project." Victoria said hopefully, taking what had happened in stride. After considering all the possible things that could have happened while testing the Centaur, she considered herself lucky to get away with minor burns to the backside and thighs.

"We gleaned quite a bit of data from the test drive, actually. We need to work on the coolant system, the engine, the HUD, the throttle controls, the air intake..." Dr. Reid rattled off more jargon that Victoria did not understand. While the blonde doctor continued to list the numerous systems that needed work Dr. Hanlon fished a bag of Jewels out of the pocket of his lab coat and handed them to the mage. Victoria gratefully accepted them.

"It'll take a fairly long time before we're ready to test the Centaur again. Thanks again for taking it on a test drive and discovering these problems before someone really got hurt. We appreciate it." Dr. Hanlon thanked her warmly.

"No problem, Doctor." Victoria assured him. Testing the vehicle was more than a little fun and was a welcome break from shooting and killing things. The Centaur had a lot of potential... it just needed to have the bugs worked out before it was released for the public.

Victoria turned around and left for Sabertooth Guild Hall. She had done all she could do here. She left the doctors to do their work in peace and improve the DH-40 Centaur so that one day it could be mass-produced and sold. Dr. Hanlon's dream was not finished, but only sidetracked by technical difficulties.

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