Kate Newton - The Holodeck

[from_the_outside]

The really amazing thing about the Holodeck isn't how real it looks -- Sharon's seen plenty of special effects that mimic reality just fine -- but how real it feels. It's like a life-model decoy of the real world, assuring her brain and senses that she really is in Yellowstone National Park, staring at the entrance to a trail that will lead her, somehow, up an incline.

She wonders if this fake climb can give her the same workout a real one would, but it's not really an question up for consideration: she's been avoiding the gym except for the treadmills and the machines, and she can't even request a training program in here, in case Rogers or someone else who only knows her as Kate Newton, the harmless nurse next door, walks in.

But a hike should be safe. If nothing else, it'll give her a minute to organize her thoughts and plans, before she has to get back on duty.

Holodeckin': Making Laps

[electro_kinetic]

There's a Noriko in the holodeck; she's wearing just a simple--but eye-searing--yellow hoodie and shorts, but she's making good time running laps around a replica of the school. The basketball court, the gardens, the cemetery, even the big mansion house they all live in makes for a good infield, in a manner of speaking, and about a mile and a half circuit.

She's already breaking a sweat, but ignoring both that and the time in favor of the pounding music drumming in her ears.

Feel free to interrupt or run with her.

Hallway of Broken Dreams

[not_gaheris]

 Rhade was confused to say the least. Maybe it was all the alcohol. His memory of events was a bit blurry. He remembered hauling ungrateful evacuees into the Maru. That was fun. Who tries to cut in line during an evacuation? It was simply stupidly suicidal. That's why you're not supposed to run en mass during a fire. Panic was bad. Combine panic with inbred, stupid crazy people and it was a shit storm waiting to happen. But that was why he was there. That and to protect Beka, even against her wishes if necessary.  But, no matter. That he remembered. He even remembered going into the bar on Seefra 1 and helping himself to a bottle or two. Or three. Harper had tried to talk him out of it. It was the thought that counts, misguided as it was. 

What did Harper know about loss? About a loss so deep that it would shatter a Nietzschean's soul. The loss of his wife, his children. Probably his pride, the Commonwealth. They were all dead. Weren't they? He didn't know for sure, but what other result could there be. The World Ship was coming. He'd been on Seefra for 9 months. The Known Worlds were gone. Everything he loved and fought for was gone. Everything except the liquor and this hell hole of a system. No, not a system. The universes largest fly trap. You can come in, but never come out again. 

What he definitely remembered was Harper trying to hit him with a bar stool. Then things went fuzzy and Harper really was hitting him with a bar stool. Telemachus remembered being on Andromeda, Rommie mentioning casually that his blood alcohol level was, well, rather high. And then? What he didn't remember was how he got here. 

In this bar. With air conditioning and good food and ice. Lots of drinks with lots of ice. It was clean too. Unlike him. 

"You know what?" Rhade looked around. "It doesn't even matter anymore." Seefra? This place? He wasn't home. It didn't matter where he was anymore. He was lost, and all that was left was to bury the broken pieces of his soul. 

"Whatever. Someone get me a drink." 

A Meeting with Q | The Bridge [Closed]

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

The last few solar days have been filled with activity. Though nothing has changed for the Enterprise crew, their efforts to get things back on-line have doubled in a conspicuous way. It is Picard's desire to draw Q out, as he has been satisfied to lurk and observe for far too long.

It is while he is on the bridge, bridge crew hurriedly following order after hopeless order, that Q deigns to show himself at last.

"Really, Jean-Luc? You can be so stubborn. Do you honestly believe anything you try could have escaped my attention?"

"It is your attention, Q, that I am after," Picard says. "I wish to speak with you."

"Ooh!" Q says, straightening. "Then we can have our tea at last?"

Before Picard can answer, Q snaps his fingers. The bridge and all her crew disappear, replaced instead by a fine Victorian parlor overlooking a vineyard and rolling hills. Picard is seated at a table opposite Q, both dressed in gentleman's clothing, while a maid pushes over a tea tray.

Q reclines, irrepressibly smug. "This is lovely, Jean-Luc, really we should do it more often."


[OOC: This post is locked for plot reasons, sorry! Picard will be in with an open post in a few days. ^__^

ETA: As of this post, engines are back on-line! Feel free to have your characters react. The ship is relatively quiet and a smooth ride, so it should not be a terribly big adjustment, but enough of one for them to notice. Now stars can be seen streaking by outside the windows.]