ten_fwd_ooc | TEST DRIVE #3 - Alien Bazaar/Ten Forward

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.

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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.

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"But..." He trails off. He doesn't know how he is supposed to react to that. He is already missing his home and he hasn't even been here for five minutes.

"That's not really fair. I get sick real easy. And... and I just started my summer vacation!" Hey, interrupting a child's summer vacation is pretty much a crime. Q should feel very sorry.

Q should feel sorry. He won't, though. The feelings of insignificant lifeforms are not his concern.

"We... we have excellent doctors here," he says.

And he should know. He goes to sickbay regularly. They've yet to find anything wrong with him.

"And it's... like a vacation? You don't have to go to school here. I think."

The problem is they're not his doctor. He likes Doctor Kendall. He might be sort of old but he is also fairly grandfatherly. It's nice given he never got to meet his real grandparents.

"Yes but I don't think they're going to be like Doctor Kendall. He's... nice. Even if he keeps telling me I should eat more," the small boy points out.

He frowns a little more. "I guess. I just wish Bernie was here. I don't.... I don't really have any friends. He's my dog.... And. And."

He looks very uncomfortable. He and Barclay can form the Mutually Uncomfortable society. "What if it takes longer than two and a half months for you to fix this? Someone might make me start school here, I.... don't know how that would work out. This ship seems um. More advanced than stuff back home."

He has to stop himself but he looks like he might be vibrating with nerves.

"We have Dr. Crusher," he says. "She's nice too."

He sees her a lot. He'd only just transferred onto this ship before Q started this whole thing, and he's still very much an outsider, and that's a bit rough on the nerves, isn't it? There's nothing wrong with going to sickbay to get things checked out.

Yeah, there's a whole lot of nerves going on right here and now.

"They think that when people get returned, that--that it'll be right to when they left. You won't miss your vacation. Uh. Do you... do you want anything? There's food and drinks, and..."

He gestures vaguely in the direction of the replicators.

He decides that she must be if Barclay says so. Actually naming her seems to be a pretty big deal.

"Oh good. I was.... I was going to get to see my Mom." He bites his lip nervously. He hadn't seen hr in three years and he had to go and say that in front of a stranger, geezs he must be nervous.

"Do you have chocolate milk?" It's what he prefers to have.

He can't fix his vacation--going to see family, that's a big deal, but there's nothing Barclay can do about that to make it happen sooner.

But the rest is something he can do something about, and that's a start, right?

"We do," he says. "I come in here for a glass of milk every night--it helps me sleep. And... and I don't get chocolate, but I know the replicators can make it."

There are other things that might help. Like being told there are ways for him to get to read lots of books, should Andrew express an interest in reading.

The boy blinks in a puzzled manner. "What's a replicator? I heard.... I heard that they're starting to make something called a 3D printer but I'm pretty sure that's not the same thing." Andrew is trying to connect things together in his head but he doesn't have all the information yet.

Okay, this? This is a change in Barclay--oh, he's still awkward, but he can push past his social discomfort because science.

"These are replicators," he says, heading over to one--the computer panel above, the lit platform underneath, and the empty space between where the food appears.

"A ship like this, it's--well, it's too big to carry all the food for all the crew. Sometimes we're... we're too far away from somewhere that would even have that much food to sell us. So we have replicators. They turn energy into matter. They're programmed. With... not recipes, but the structure of food. Its composition."

Because science is frankly the best reason to get over feeling awkward or at least powering through that feeling.

Andrew follows after Barclay a bit like a duckling. He wants to see how these work. It's a very new thing and he just has to hear about it since it is both interesting and a decent distraction from the situation.

"So like the molecules. Just for\r all the things that would go into what we want." He thinks that is pretty neat. "But... how does it regulate a temperature? That's pretty important for some stuff."

Then again bacteria wouldn't be as big an issue due to how the food is created. It just baffles him that there would be so many people here and how far they would have to go to get food. That was why he asked about temperature as it gave him something to ground his mind with.

"It... it just makes it the temperature it's supposed to be. If you take too long to eat it, hot food cools down and ice cream melts, but since you don't need to cook anything, you replicate something right when you're ready to eat."

It saves a lot of time and effort, trying to make sure the side dishes and main course are ready at the same time. Everything's ready at the same time, if you order it together.

"And if you can't finish something, you just put the dishes back in here, and it turns them into energy again. No washing dishes."

Andrew feels his age suddenly. He wants the one thing Barclay can't seem to give him right now. Why. Why does it work? It just does doesn't really satisfy him but he decides maybe he isn't supposed to know because of his age or because he doesn't really belong here.

"Well as long as it works... and I guess that cuts back on chores too. I have to help with dishes back at my Aunt's house." The boy shrugs. "I guess that means if you have kids on the ship their parents just have different chores for them."

Everyone has chores. That's what Andrew thinks anyways.

"There are kids here," he says.

Not that he knows any personally--well, he doesn't know much of anybody. And there aren't any kids in Engineering, where he spends most of his time. He sees them in the hallways and lifts sometimes, though.

"And they have chores, probably. Take care of pets, if they have any. Clean their rooms, make their beds. Clear the table, and put the dirty dishes in the replicator for disposal."

All the things he had to do as a kid. Normal things, right?

"So... Like how I took care of my dog back home?" He misses Bernie already. Andrew has always been very close to his dog. Bernie is his best friend.

"You mean... you don't keep dishes? But what do you do with left overs?" He sort of likes left over mashed potatoes. They can be tasty.

"We had cats, when I was a kid," he says. "I know some people have them aboard here. I've seen some sneak out into the hallways and then get confused."

It's happened to him twice. Pick the cat up, read its tag, ask the computer where it belongs, take it back to its owners' room. Sneaky little things, but he loves them.

"We don't have leftovers. The replicators just turn whatever's left back into energy. That way we don't have to store any food."

TEST DRIVE #3 - Alien Bazaar/Ten Forward

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