Dream a Little Dream

[1st_starfighter]

Who: Alex Rogan and OTA
What: Thinking, being sociable, and generally being Alex.
Where: Ten Forward
When: Evening
Status: Ongoing
Rating: TBD

Alex Rory Rogan was humming to himself, and enjoying himself. He had been studying, of late, and trying his best to see how close he could come to Starfleet Engineer certified without actually taking the course. The PADD full of old Enterprise data and specs helped, a lot, as did what information was commercially and imperatively available in the Federation. Alex was also starting something new, trading a little bit of time as a speaker on certain forums for some credits, and in turn investing those in a few ideas he had. He knew that likely those would go nowhere, but he had to try.

In the meantime, today, he was not studying. His PADDs, several still active, lay scattered about his table. In the center, the finishing touches being applied by his steady hands, was a scaled-down model of the Enterprise D. It wasn't an exact duplicate of a standard model of the ship, instead incorporating some of what he had learned of the other Enterprise. That made it interesting to wonder what would work and what wouldn't

It rested on a dock which was charging it's batteries as he finished tightening some components. Then, after one more inspection, Alex lifted the control device and pressed the red start button. With a hum, the Enterprise rose from the dock, anti-gravity thrusters propelling it away and into the air.

As he had before with previous models, Alex sent the ship above the crowd of people's heads, well, most of them. He called an apology as he narrowly missed the head of a Edoan, who just grinned, now being used to this. The Enterprise slowly did a urn over his head as he checked the controls, then started forth along the length of the room. Flying stately just under the ceiling, Alex split his attention between watching it directly and watching the PADD screen which showed the views form two mounted cameras on the model. This allowed him to maneuver it as if he was in the cockpit.

He grinned. This was awesome!

Comments

[writes_with_digital_ink]

"And you," she says, shaking his hand. She's got long hands, does Gaila, and her green skin is completely hairless. She smells not unlike crushed leaves, or cut grass.

Not human. Very not human.

"How long have you been working on that little Enterprise?"

[1st_starfighter]

He settled to his seat once they shook, inhaling. The differences from human were remarkable, and he looked at her with wonder, before blushing, and shaking his head. "Sorry! After over ten years in space, the differences in all our races still fills me with wonder." His face showed it too. Despite being older, and having grown a sometimes there mustache and beard, He was very much a babyfaced man, and knew it.

Alex smelled of machines, and of carefully applied, mostly working scent neutralizer.

"Well, I built my first one around six months ago. This is Mark 3, and she was a work of three months, after a minor technology issue led to the short circuiting of Mark 2." He grinned.

The school materials for kids of this time held model designs, and he had managed, while visiting Risa, early on, to get ahold of the schematics for a model Enterprise. "I've been slowly introducing my own design flares and ideas."

[writes_with_digital_ink]

"It's only weird if you make it weird!" Gaila says, cheerfully. "My people have a much better sense of smells than humans."

In other words, she's fine with it. For now.

"She's beautiful," Gaila says, focusing on the model. "And I'm impressed by the speakers and the mic! You were controlling her while watching on the screens?"

[1st_starfighter]

"Very true."

Alex settled back and nodded.

"Thanks." He nodded, leaning forward to tap his tablet, turning it to show her the control interface with the camera visions arrayed to either side of the controls. "Yep. Most of the time. Sometimes, I would look up to check on things, but mostly I used these screens, trying to approximate the view from inside the ship as it was flying."

He was learning, every day, more about this ship, and it's controls and mechanisms. And if she looked close, if she knew, she would realize the controls were close, but not quite like Enterprise's navigational controls. He had never actually seen those.

[writes_with_digital_ink]

"You could tell the most fascinating story, using this," she says, peering close. "The Adventures of the Tiny Enterprise, where everyone and everything are suddenly giants from a different perspective."

[1st_starfighter]

That startled a laugh out of Alex, and he hmmed, tapping fingers on a second PADD. "That might be fun. Send it roaming around the ship from a central location, meeting people and having tiny adventures."

He chuckled. "I bet you could voice sample people's voices for later adding to the stories. Er, with permission of course."

[writes_with_digital_ink]

"Definitely with permission," she says. "But I think that could be really cool. And it might be a nice thing to show people. Way more fun than a monthly newsletter."

[1st_starfighter]

Alex flushed. "I'd have to find someone else to do that part. I can do the engineering parts, but... people... I'm not so good at." He flailed one hand in a flaily manner.