Life with Vivien Ch.04

"Why are we stopping here?" asked Josh looking around at the river that now surrounded them.

"Simple," said Vivien, as she took off the headset & sunglasses, and opened the small cockpit door, "I don't know about you, but I really need to stretch my legs." That said, Vivien climbed out onto the float, placed the headset and sunglasses on her seat, then preceded to remove her jeans & T-shirt, to reveal a simple blue bikini. After storing her clothes in one of the floats' storage compartments, Vivien sat down on the edge of the float, and after a minute of enjoying the feel of the cool clear water on her bare legs, she pushed herself forward a little, and slid into the water.

"What happened to going to your cottage?" asked Josh, sticking his head out Viviens' open cockpit door.

"We're almost there," said Vivien, now treading water one body-length away from the float, "We could be there in as little as half an hour, but I just couldn't wait that long." "Now are you going to join me or not?" asked Vivien before diving underwater, reemerging a few seconds later under Joshs' window, "or do I have to make you join me."

"Fine," said Josh in mock-annoyance, before he too opened his cockpit door, climbed out onto a float, put his headset & sunglasses on his chair, took off his shirt, and canon-balled into the water. Josh & Vivien ended up spending just over an hour on the river -- they would have stayed longer but they were hit by a sudden thunderstorm. "Aren't you going to get dressed?" asked Josh, as Vivien -- still in just her bikini -- climbed into the cockpit, closed the door, and put on her headset.

"Nope," said Vivien, as she started the engines, "besides we're almost there." "Unfortunately, this storm means we're going to have to fly a little lower than I would have liked to," added Vivien, looking up at the clouds threw the front window.

After about 45 minutes of flying -- and one close-call with a bolt of lightning -- the Twin Otter reached a large lake, and started it's decent. A few minutes after landing, Vivien steered the aircraft up to a large -- almost warehouse like-- building, that sat near the shore but completely over water, and had four large garage-style doors on the side that faced into the lake. At the press of a button inside the cockpit, the largest of the doors -- which was more than big enough to fit the twin otter inside it -- slid up out of sight, and the Twin Otter practically drifted inside.

Once inside the 'hanger' Vivien pressed the button again, causing the door to slide back into place, said, "we're here," then preceded to open the cockpit door, and climb out. When she'd gotten out of the cockpit, Vivien retrieved her clothing from the floats' storage compartment, and stepped onto the floor of the boathouse/hanger. As soon as Josh & their luggage joined her, Vivien walked over to a nearby control panel, and pressed one of the buttons on it. Seconds later a 'small' crane -- similar those found at shipping docks -- dropped down from the ceiling, picked up the Twin otter, and lifted it until there was a good 8 foot gap between the bottom of the floats & the water.

"Why'd you do that?" asked Josh, looking up at the suspended aircraft.

"Simple, we wont be needing it for quite a while," said Vivien, also looking up at the suspended aircraft, "and this way, it cuts down on the amount of maintenance required once it's back at a crewed hanger."

"What if you want to go flying? Like, for fun?" asked Josh, still looking up at the aircraft.

"Well, that's what this is for," said Vivien, as she walked over to an archway cut into the far wall, and gestured into the next room. When Josh got to where Vivien was standing and looked into the next room, he was mildly surprised to see a DHC-2 (piston) Beaver -- again on amphibious floats -- hanging from a smaller version of the crane that was suspending the Twin Otter. After taking a second to study Joshs' reaction, Vivien walked over to a control panel in this room, pressed a button, and seconds later; the Beaver was lowered into the water, and the crane let go & moved back up to the ceiling. When the crane stopped moving, Vivien went back to the room with the Twin Otter, grabbed her luggage, then she walked up a nearby flight of stairs, threw a door, and left the building.