Departing for adventure?

Posted on Wed Feb 13th, 2013 @ 12:28pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant Jonathan "Jack" Mantell & Ensign Soraya Xel

Mission: Funzone
Location: Bridge, USS Arizona
Timeline: MD1 2000 hours

Slipping through folds of space as effortlessly as its occupants took in air, the Sovereign class USS Arizona hummed gently to the rhythm of Warp 7. On the bridge of the starship, the large viewscreen in front illustrated the ship's speed with the trailing lights of the hundreds of stars within this sector of space. The lights of the consoles moved silently, beeping only in response to the commanding taps and selections of the crew that worked on them.

The blond-haired Miran boy was not paying attention to any of this. His seat at the Helm console afforded Jack a good view of his female neighbor at Ops. A very good view. Her pale skin of her face was touched only by the slight redness of her cheeks, was that makeup or just a natural blush? That didn't matter as much as how well it contrasted with her aqua blue eyes. He felt as if he could get lost for hours just looking into those eyes. Framing her eyes were the dozens of dark brown spots rimming the side of her face, trailing down her neck and disappearing under her uniform collar. The spots marked the woman as a Trill, and this particular Trill had the pleasure to be host to a symbiote, whose own life of experiences could mirror the Jack's own.

Jack soon grew aware of a harsh beeping noise, shattering his concentration. He frowned, trying to ignore it, wondering where it was coming from. Shouldn't someone do something about that? The beeping continued, incessant, and quickly becoming irritating. It felt like someone was drilling through his skull, and the boy shut his eyes for a moment as if to shut it out. When he opened them, he found the Trill eyes meeting his.

Soraya looked at the young Lieutenant, then at the console, and then back at him. He was staring at her. She wasn't quite sure how to react to that. "Are you going to get that?" she asked, tipping her head towards his console.

He blinked. No wonder the beeping was loud and constant, it was coming from his console. The boy's cheeks lit up bright red, nearly matching the color of his shirt, as he turned his attention to the conn. He let out a small admission of his mistake, "Oops."

The Arizona was within range of their destination, a pleasure cruiser called the FunZone. Right now, the cruiser was orbiting a bright jewel, an ocean planet, in high orbit. The space around it was empty, as if the approaching starship was the only set of customers at the time. A situation that Jack knew to be false, but a pretense that had to be maintained. Dialing back the warp drive, the boy began to execute the ship's return into normal space.

As the stars blinked back to dots, and the ocean world came into view, it became apparent that something was wrong. Jack tilted his head to look at the design of the FunZone, which, unless he was mistaken, was currently orbiting upside down. A glance at his console told him that, in fact, it was the Arizona that was tilted in respect to the planet's plane of motion. It was always the z-axis that got missed, the boy thought to himself wistfully as he entered in a correction to roll the starship into the right plane of approach. Hopefully the transporter chiefs would appreciate not having to flip their passengers upside down upon materialization.

Spinning around in his chair, the red-shirted Miran flipped past his target once, and then planted his feet on the floor when his chair circled to face the center of the bridge again. In his youthful soprano, the boy chirped, "We're here! Last one to the transporter room's an 'Owon egg!"

"Hold your damn horses, boy, we still have some things to attend to before you go gallivanting off into the wild blue yonder... Ensign, hail that hulk of hedonism for me if you wouldn't mind," Nathan reminded the young seeming Miran before turning to the Trill at the Ops console.

"Aye, sir," Soraya replied, turning back towards her console, tapping a few commands. "Channel open," she stated.

"This is Captain Nathan Cowell to... well... whoever runs the Funzone. We're looking for a place to catch some R&R, can you oblige us?" the old man said aloud to the still unchanged main screen. A few seconds ticked by before the screen blinked black and shifted to an image of what could only be assumed was a crew member that resided on the Funzone.

"I'm happy to welcome you and your crew, Captain Cowell," the lithe looking female of no immediately distinguishable race answered, "How many people will you be sending over?"

"Funny... people normally introduce themselves..." Nathan muttered.

The image on the screen contorted in obvious confusion, "I didn't understand that."

"Just talking to myself, dear. There's about eight hundred or so aboard, all of them will be rotating over at least once before we leave. Can you keep up?" Cowell diverted the conversation back on course.

"It would be our pleasure. You may begin transferring personnel via shuttle immediately. Unfortunately, we currently don't have the means to support mass transporter loads. Please forgive the inconvenience," the female responded. It was now blatantly obvious that Nathan had been talking to a holographic attendant, something he was loathe to do.

"Not a bother... Cowell out," Nathan said abruptly and only resumed speaking once he was sure the communique had been fully terminated.

"Damn machines... I hate talking to them..." Nathan fumed before switching gears, "Alright, Miss... whatever your name is... What is your name, anyway. I don't recall ever meeting you."

"Soraya Xel, sir," she responded, turning her chair back towards the Captain, "I'm new. This is my first shift."

"Xel..." Nathan rolled the name over in his head a few seconds before frowning, "You're not related to that blustering diplomat, are you?"

Before the girl could reply, the old man waved it off, "Doesn't matter... All hands, prepare to disembark for some R&R. Mister Mantell, get those shuttles ready to go. Make it happen, people!"