TEST DRIVE #3 - Alien Bazaar/Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

#1

Option 001. Alien planet, marketplace: So you're new to this whole space travel thing. The ship is cool and all, but there are hundreds of alien worlds out there. You want to explore. To see what the universe REALLY looks like.

Well, here's your chance! Your first stop is this lovely indoor marketplace, which looks kind of like a mall. There are stalls one after the other as far as the eye can see, and they sell all kinds of things: food, clothes, trinkets, animals, fabrics, jewelry, perfumes, books, etc etc. Some things look human, easy to recognize; other things look very alien. There are two levels, and constant chatter as people hawk their wares and discuss prices.

Do you want to explore? Poke at the weird shops? Buy a gift for a new friend? Flirt with someone at the food court? Maybe you see a pickpocket, and must run to the aid of the victim. Maybe there's some other villainy afoot. After all, a crowded marketplace is a good place for villains to lurk, causing trouble. Whether you're a hero or just an unassuming traveler, there proves to be some adventure for you on this planet.


2

Option 002. Aboard the Enterprise, Ten Forward: You have no idea what just happened. One minute you were home, and now you're on a spaceship, in the middle of a crowded room. It looks like a bar. There are people eating and drinking, some in uniform, others not. Some are clearly aliens.

You've managed to land in Ten Forward a long bar with barstools and a bartender, tables sprinkled throughout, and the far wall is nothing but windows out to space. It looks like a nice lounge, low conversation making the room hum.

Better ask some questions and find out where you are, or just tap the closest person on the shoulder and try to make friends. The bar is open.

Comments

002 - Dylan Hunt, Andromeda

[dreams_dont_die]

And suddenly, the Enterprise has another captain aboard. Not that any of the crew will recognize the insignia on his collar or the style of his uniform, because this one is High Guard. He's a tall man, broad-shouldered, dark-haired, and he's striding along a corridor on his ship when very suddenly, he's not.

Dylan stops in mid-stride, senses on sudden alert as he looks around at this place which is entirely new.

"Andromeda?"

But there's no reply from the ship's AI.

Not that it's a particular surprise to him. Because he knows his ship, top to bottom and this bar is not aboard his ship.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[heartofasun]

And then suddenly there's a sun avatar flying in his direction. It wasn't incredibly dignified and was probably a lot more reminiscent of her purple self, but hey, she grew up, not changed completely. At least she didn't jump on him.

"Dylan!"

Trance gave him a hug, wrapping her arms around him and then stepped back.

"You made it. And you're on time too." She looked around and motioned to a table for them to sit down at. "Do you have any questions?" Trance asked, knowing he did. But she wasn't about to volunteer anything. Not just yet anyway. It was still early.

WEIRD THINGS GOING ON? Look for a Trance!

[dreams_dont_die]

Well.

Wherever he is, there's somebody here who knows him, and he knows the voice even before he turns to see her bolting across the room to him, before she wraps herself around him in a quick, tight hug.

"Trance."

Somehow, of all his crew, Trance being around when ... whatever just happened has happened is not a surprise. Trance, who has a way of playing coy when strange things happen that makes him think she has a lot more to do with them than she ever lets on.

Trance, who'll never tell him what she knows and why.

"Funny how I can be on time for somewhere I never meant to go."

But that's Trance for you.

When she motions for him to sit down, he stares, dumbstruck for a moment, then shakes his head, letting out something that's almost but not quite a laugh and entirely unamused.

"Yeah. Just a few. Like where's my ship?"

Re: WEIRD THINGS GOING ON? Look for a Trance!

[heartofasun]

"Probably where you left her. You remember where you left her right?" Remembering was key. Or else, well, what if you remembered wrong and ended up someplace completely different?

"Besides, how can you know for certain you were never meant to be here? Maybe this is exactly where you are supposed to be, and when you are supposed to be." Even if she wasn't behind this, that didn't negate the possibility that it was for a reason. This was no cosmic joke. There was a reason. There were always reasons.

"There is a point to all this. Or you wouldn't be here. Neither would I, or Harper."

Re: WEIRD THINGS GOING ON? Look for a Trance!

[dreams_dont_die]

"I didn't leave her. I was walking along, on my way to Command."

He didn't do a single thing to leave her. He'd been talking to her just a few minutes ago, and now he's here, wherever here is.

"And then I was here."

This is strange. And he knows strange. He's been back in time to a battle that changed the course of history. He's passed three hundred years in the blink of an eye. He's teleported through time to try to save the one person he desperately needed from his past life. But never has he been walking on his ship and suddenly had it disappear from around him.

Logically, of course, it must be that he's disappeared from the ship.

Dylan takes a deep breath and puts his hands on his hips, staring at her.

He hasn't sat down, or moved towards the table she'd gestured to with such nonchalance.

"Trance." His voice has a warning tone in it that doesn't creep in often anymore, because he's learned over the past year how to make allowances for the fact that he's a captain in a military that no longer exists, with a crew that's there because he asked them to be, who he has to bring along with him by making them want to follow him.

But even his patience wears thin sometimes.

"What just happened?"

[asklepian]

Again? Q was really bringing in people from everywhere, it seemed.

"Enterprise, actually, but I wager you weren't expecting to find yourself here." Julian is still wearing his grey-shouldered uniform--he's not quite part of the Enterprise crew and therefore doesn't feel right about wearing the duty uniform. But the trappings are similar enough, the badge and rank pips, and even the teal color of his undershirt is the same shade as the chest of the other science officers in Ten Forward.

"Welcome."

[dreams_dont_die]

"Enterprise?"

He turns to look for the person who'd spoken, and sees a man wearing what is clearly a uniform, but one Dylan has never before seen. Not that he'd expect High Guard uniforms; in fact, most of the encounters they've had with High Guard uniforms have been bad, courtesy of insane AIs or similar.

Why isn't he on his ship anymore?

"I'm Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard starship Andromeda Ascendant." He takes a step forward. "Where's my ship?"

[asklepian]

"Lieutenant Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer of Deep Space 9." There's an open seat next to him, he offers it to the other man.

"Back where you're from. You were brought here separately. I've been talking to Trance quite often, she is one of your crew, isn't she? We've both been helping Doctor Crusher in sickbay."

[dreams_dont_die]

"Trance?"

Of course, if any member of his crew were going to be around when something like ... whatever that was just happened, it'd be Trance. Trance who, in her newest form, just walked straight through time onto his ship for her own inscrutable reasons, to help steer the world towards the future she wanted.

Actually, this sounds exactly like where you'd find Trance. With strange things happening all around her while she protests her ignorance.

"She's my medic and Environmental Systems Officer."

He turns his head, looking around him with suspicion. This room seems to be something akin, perhaps, to the officer's mess on the Andromeda, with bar and dining facilities and a wall covered in windows that opens up onto space like the observation deck.

"What just happened?"

If anything, it reminds him of when that tesseract machine had been bending time and space in knots around the Andromeda. One moment, walking along a corridor on his way to Command, the next somewhere completely different.

He didn't think there was anything worse than the day of the goddamned cut and paste spaceship, suddenly finding himself ten decks away from where he was supposed to be, but apparently, there is.

[defendergirl]

"Are you lookin' for someone?"

Rose - blonde-haired, brown-eyed, dressed in blue jeans and a bright pink hoodie - hasn't yet had the pleasure of someone popping up out of nowhere right in front of her while in Ten Forward.

(Her own 'winking' into this ship had been by way of Blue Box, after all, and it was nothing but storage and cargo bay to greet her.)

She'd literally been about to take a seat with a cup of tea when Dylan appeared.

[dreams_dont_die]

"Yes."

Dylan is standing, still, assessing, bright blue eyes narrowing as he looks around him. But this is definitely no room aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. For one thing, it's full of people, and Dylan has a crew of five on a ship with a complement of four thousand. And it's not some sort of weird time-slip, because these people aren't High Guard. In fact, there are races he doesn't recognize, and people in uniforms that are like nothing he knows.

"But I don't think she's here," he says, turning now to look at the young woman who'd spoken to him. She's a lot smaller than him, shorter even than Harper, and she's holding a mug of something in her hand.

"Because this is not my ship. I'm Captain Dylan Hunt of the Commonwealth starship Andromeda Ascendant. And I ... have no idea where I am."

[defendergirl]

"Well, Captain Dylan Hunt of the Commonwealth ... etcetera, etcetera, you're definitely not on your ship anymore," Rose says, putting her cup of tea down.

It clinks with a very normal, very familiar sound of ceramic hitting table-surface.

She offers the big bloke a smile.

"Hello. I'm Rose Tyler.

"And you're on someone else's ship. A - uh, Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise." She waves a hand. "A whole bunch of us are a bit far from home too."

[dreams_dont_die]

"The Andromeda Ascendant," he repeats, but there's little rancor in it. If anything, Dylan's got a suggestion of a smile on his face as he looks at her. "That would be why she's not talking to me."

Which he'd already worked out, and which is really disconcerting. This is like that time when Harper's tesseract machine was going haywire with time and space around the Andromeda, but that was localized. This is clearly not. There was no ship anywhere near the Andromeda.

"Rose. You can call me Dylan." There aren't all that many situations in which he insists on 'Captain Hunt' since the Maru pulled him out of the black hole. After all, that was one of Beka's rules for joining his crew.

"The USS Enterprise?" he asks, brows drawing together in concentration. It's certainly not the name of any ship he's ever heard of. Of course, there are countless ships out there he doesn't know, but given the lack of operational High Guard ships, there aren't many out there big enough to have a mess of this size on them.

"I don't know it. But what do you mean about people being a bit far from home? You're saying this happens a lot here?"

[spideys]

"Whoa - hey!"

Following the exclamation is the sound of something sloshing (but more or less remaining intact), and the sound of a plate clattering to the floor, and with it synthetic-but-still-(once)-delicious spaghetti and meatballs.

That's ... gonna leave a stain.

Sorry, Ten Forward.

The young man who had very nearly collided into the good captain, and only narrowly missed slamming right into the man's chest because of his innate Spidey sense, glances at him.

Uh - he's tall.

And Peter Parker's not exactly short.

"Man, they really need to figure a better way of getting people onto this ship."

[dreams_dont_die]

The sudden shout makes Dylan lurch, ducking back a little out of the way of the young man who seems to have appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

And that means that the plate of food which had suddenly gone flying mostly misses him and just gets a little bit of the sauce splashed onto the highly-polished surface of Dylan's boots.

Now, this is strange.

He's been walking along corridors on Andromeda before and wound up somewhere completely different, but that was somewhere (or somewhen) on the same ship, at least. There is something very wrong happening here.

"Which ship is this?" Dylan asks, looking up from the floor. "Because I should be on the Andromeda Ascendant."

[spideys]

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, the Enterprise."

Peter crouches down to scoop up as much of the noodle mess as he can with the utensils that he'll obviously not be using after this.

There goes lunch.

(At least until he gets another plate from the replicator.)

"You've got a ship too?" Why is he not surprised? The mutterings of the teenage boy can be heard as Peter says, "How does everyone seem to have a ship in this place?"

[dreams_dont_die]

"I wouldn't be much use as a captain without one," he points out, though he doesn't expect anyone to recognize the insignia on his collar anymore.

"The Enterprise?"

He considers for a few moments, thinking about the name, but as this is clearly not a High Guard ship, it's not really a surprise he doesn't know the name.

Just how far away is he, to have wound up on some other ship when there wasn't one for a long way from Andromeda? And, more pressingly, how in the name of the Empress did he get here?

"I'm not familiar with this ship. Just how did I get here?"

It was really kind of like that tesseracting, but far, far more powerful.

[stark_spangled]

Authority is easy to recognize. It doesn't matter whether it's US Army, S.H.I.E.L.D., Starfleet, or as in this case something else completely. It's not the uniform that matters, it's the way they hold their shoulders back and the look in their eyes; how they appraise a room, and where they plant their feet.

So Steve stands slowly and respectfully, and nods to the officer. He clasps his hands behind his back and stands at ease, giving away his own rank despite being in civvies.

"You lost, sir?" he asks.

[dreams_dont_die]

Since he lost his crew and his civilization and the entire rest of the High Guard, there haven't been very many occasions when he's walked into a room and somebody's called him sir. An occasional person who recognizes his uniform as High Guard will, but to most of their allies he's Captain and to his friends he's Dylan. Tyr's about the only person who calls him "sir" on any sort of a regular basis.

And half the time, he's clearly thinking something else.

So Dylan looks around, and finds the guy easily enough. He's not wearing military clothing, but everything about him is military, the quiet respect in his tone, the easy but alert stance, the steadiness in his gaze.

"A little. What ship is this?"

[stark_spangled]

He nods softly.

"USS Enterprise-D," he answers. "A Galaxy-class starship issued under Starfleet command, in the service of the United Federation of Planets."

The words are to the point and concise, and about all Steve really knows. He makes it a point of knowing where he is, but the Enterprise isn't his home or anything close to it, and if Dylan is looking carefully he'll see hints of Steve's discomfort.

"Anything sound familiar?" he asks, betting that the answer will be 'no'.

[dreams_dont_die]

The young man's polite, respectful, and gives Dylan exactly the report he'd expect if he'd asked a member of his High Guard crew for a report, save the salute and the sir.

Except that nothing in it makes sense.

Not the name of the ship. Not the class. Not the name of the organization he gives, or the Federation he says it serves.

Nothing.

Nothing.

And that chills him.

Because he's had the world change around him in moments before, and it cost him everything he had and knew.

"No. I'm Captain Dylan Hunt of the High Guard, commander of the Glorious Heritage Class starship Andromeda Ascendant. In the service of restoring the Systems Commonwealth."

He's watching the young man for his reaction, to see if the slight hints of tension in his face heighten or lessen, or change in any way of recognition.

"Does that?"

[deus_ex_harper]

"Hey boss." It's just an automatic thing to say as he sees Dylan as he's making his way to the bar for a drink. Wait a moment. "What are you doing here?" He wasn't there a moment ago. Harper was sure of that. Or maybe it was just what he was drinking. He'd not had any of the sparky cola so was making do with the vast number of beers and spirits he could try out.

Honestly, he still missed the sparky cola. He missed Andromeda. Rommie, Beka, Rev and even freaking Tyr. That had to be bad he was missing the crazy uber.

[dreams_dont_die]

"Mr Harper."

He doesn't need to turn to face the voice. He knows it. And if he didn't, the hey boss would be clue enough, because even on his incredibly informal-at-Beka's-insistence crew, there's only one person who says that to him.

And sure enough, when he does turn around, there's Harper.

"You know, I could ask you that."

He crosses his arms across his chest, then lifts one hand to wave at the room around them that's not on his ship.

"Where are we?"

[deus_ex_harper]

"In a bar." Well Dylan did ask him. Harper tried to slip past the Captain so he could find a spot at the aforementioned bar and start drinking. He still had a fair way to go on that list. He stopped. "We're still on a spaceship. From what I can tell so far." No Harper do not go mentioning the chaos caused already. "She's got some engine problems. She's not Andromeda that's for sure but she isn't so bad. Few things could do bring her up to a little more. Give her some proper AI and the body to go with that."

He hopped up onto a stool. "Least let me get you a drink so you can join me." He's happy to see you Dylan. "Oh Trance is here as well."

[dreams_dont_die]

Dylan's eyebrows lift, just slightly, and his chin tilts upwards, the only real sign that he still sometimes finds it irritating trying to get Harper to answer a question that doesn't have to do with fixing his ship (and sometimes, even then). But there are ways of managing Harper, and getting upset with him isn't a good one.

So he lets Harper talk and ... in there, there are a couple of answers.

Admittedly, most of them are about the ship they're on and how Andromeda is better, but that's something Dylan and Harper will always agree on, because he's her captain and Harper's her engineer.

But, as much as he is of the opinion that the Andromeda Ascendant is the best ship out there, that doesn't actually help much.

Still, you've gotta pick your moment with Harper, so he follows him over to the bar and when Harper perches on a stool, Dylan stays standing, leaning one bracer-clad arm against the bar.

"Of course she is," he says, his voice a little amused in spite of himself. Because if anyone was going to be wherever this is with whatever is going on here, it would be Trance.

Especially the new Trance, the one who's come back from a broken future to fix the path of events.

"Harper. How did we get here?"