Day 5 Key/Gijinka (H.B., Lila Brown OC NPC)

a/n: H.B. doesn't like asking for help, and Lila Brown the OC NPC doesn't like giving it. And yet here we are. Oops, all dialogue.

Lila Brown, manager of the West Gate Skell Refueling Station, had been quick to agree to a meeting with H.B. to discuss a private request. For one thing, she wouldn't mind a chance to get off her feet. More honestly, she knew H.B. had been her loyal customer through thick and thin, good times and bad, celebratory BBQs and literal explosions. She owed him the special treatment. He might be infuriating, exacting, and contrary, as well as too full of himself and downright persnickety at times. But he had good qualities, if she could remember them. For example, he had agreed multiple times to test experimental fuel mixes. She wasn't sure how he had pushed his skell to the limits indicated in the logs, but the data had been crucial to developing better products. She might have an uneven history with NLA's most superior Pathfinder, but it was a long one. So when he'd demanded, more than asked, for a moment of her time, she had handed her clipboard to her co-manager and headed into the station office.

She had not offered coffee. A moment later she was doubly glad there were no beverages involved.

"You want me to what?!"

"I'll take you there myself. A moment of your time and someone will fly you back. It will take an hour at the most."

"I don't leave New Los Angeles. I can't," she replied, her lungs betraying her with a little choking noise.

"Thirty seconds in the fresh air won't kill you," H.B. continued.

Lila tightened the muscles in her legs, her shoulders, her jaw, anything to stop the shaking. Then she relaxed and continued the conversation. "H.B., I can't. My mim responds to open spaces like yours responds to lava when you forget your anti-thermal underwear. I shut down faster than I can take a step."

"We just need you to open a door. 10 seconds."

"Great. You can toss my limp, dead body against it and see where that gets you."

H.B. crossed his arms and looked dismissive. He was good at doing that. He didn't even need to slide his wire-rimmed glassed up his perfect nose. "I've seen you walking in the Commercial District."

"Running as fast as I can, my body on auto-pilot. I come to a minute after I reach my destination. After I get inside," she emphasized.

"Then you'll have to teach me how to unlock the panel." H.B. frowned severely. "We both know you managed to get unauthorized access to most parts of engineering during the voyage here. I never caught you, but I know."

"Not just engineering," she said smugly. She sighed, wishing that the Whale was still her home, that they had never been attacked, had never crashed on this planet. But regret was pointless. "Tell me exactly what kind of door you're trying to open."

"An intact section of the Whale was recently found by Reclaimers. This is strictly confidential." His green eyes flashed behind the clear lenses.

"Of course." Lila thought about crossing her fingers but let it be.

"It includes a corridor with a door. We can't risk brute forcing it open. The entry pad won't respond."

"Typical in emergencies for non-critical areas," murmured Lila. "Anyone have the code still on their comm device?"

"No one from that section survived." They both paused a moment, letting the shared grief rise and fall. H.B. continued briskly. "Without codes, cards, or personnel, we have to resort to more illegitimate solutions."

Lila laughed gently. "So you want me to come as your personal key fob. Call me Kagi-chan."

"I will not," snapped H.B.

Lila was still smiling. "I'll let you in on a secret. I usually reconfigured locks from the inside after I got into a room through a vent." Lila watched as H.B. tried not to show his disappointment. "However," she continued, "I think I can still be helpful."

H.B. perked up.

"Just to clarify, we aren't talking the bridge or the Lifehold? Or the armory?"

"None of those. Mixed-use section."

"Good. The mechanisms there aren't all that hardened. You said no damage, but would it be okay to cut a small hole in the outer wall? Gently?"

"We can consider it."

"Cut into the wall below the panel, enough to feed in a wire or two, reroute a little electricity, reset the codes, and you've got VIP access to anywhere you want. I'll send you a diagram, maybe a training video. You could even give me a call once you're on site and I can walk you though it."

"A diagram should suffice." H.B. had reverted to his starchiest, most superior form.

Lila looked at him, her face deeply serious. "Most doors in NLA are original to the Whale. I'm sharing a great and terrible power with you."

"I think I can be trusted."

"You better be." She grinned at him again. "And if all else fails, just wack the panel with a fire extinguisher a few times."

a/n: Someday I will type and edit the story where H.B. uses this skill. Lila vs H.B. on the Whale can be found in Twitchy Tales of the Whale, ch. 2. Lila + fire extinguisher vs a door is in Inktober 2018, chapter 15. (Harm warning for Gino the co-manager, he'll be fine. Eventually.) HB vs literal explosions in The Lily & the BLADE, ch. 17.

Next up: Screenshot redraw/"lovely date under a solar eclipse". Okay. I'll figure something out. OR YOU COULD SEND A SUGGESTION!