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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Trance couldn't help but getting out of her seat and reaching over, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "But that's why we keep Harper around. To fix little problems like that. Although we might want to consider buying stock in Sparky Cola when we get back. Speaking of Sparky cola--did you know there's none here?" Harper was going to have such withdrawal. "The Doctor looked at me funny when I asked for it." Probably because it was a narcotic.

Trance's eye flashed a little and in that instance instead humanoid eyes, there was a planet orbiting a star. And then she blinked. "Haven't we done that before?" Trance asked, smiling, waiting for him to put the pieces together.

"I think the more we learn about the Federation, their history, negotiating tactics, how they choose planets for entry, the better off we will be. This is an opportunity, no matter if it the reason we are here,or not.

"Harper doesn't have such a great record taking on Andromeda," he points out, reasonable, but the joking fades away as she leans across to kiss him. He tries not to smile, but doesn't quite succeed.

"I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing, except from Harper's point of view."

He makes that sound perfectly logical, too, and this time, it's because it is. That stuff is foul.

But then something happens, a strange flash in Trance's eyes that it's hard to be sure he sees, and as he narrows his eyes at her. Going back in time? Yes. They have. And not just Dylan teleporting, but the whole ship.

Back in time on a day he wishes he'd never seen. A day that chills him to his soul to remember.

A day when she'd been flying. When she'd fled Command when he'd stormed in to find out who'd been doing what to his ship.

They'd written it off as an accident.

But this is Trance.

"You did that on purpose."

Even he's surprised by how cold his voice is, haunted by a hundred thousand deaths.

"Yes."

One word. One simple word. Honestly she was surprised he hadn't figured it out before now. On his own. Maybe she had done a better job than she thought she had. But Trance knew from the face Dylan now wore that he didn't understand the reason behind it. Instead, he was just angry. And it was a quiet angry.Sometimes, despite everything she'd tried to teach him, guide him with, Dylan still thought with his heart. That was his strong point, but at the moment, it was also a weakness. He couldn't step back and see why she had done it. Why it had to be done. It wasn't just him. Everyone played an important role that day.

Maybe she should have ordered Dylan some alcohol instead.

He's on his feet before he's even thought about it, like a reflex in a futile attempt to vent the wash of anger and self-loathing that swells, threatening to overcome him.

Nietzschean legends call him the Angel of Death for what he did that day. For what she made him do. Oh, she didn't tell him. They'd worked it all out themselves. What happened if those ships stayed in the skies. What happened if the helped the Commonwealth. Which way the Long Night could get even worse. The hard mathematics of how many people he had to kill to stop a Nietzschean Empire or a total overrunning of the galaxies with Magog.

He leans forward, his hands on the table, barely controlling his anger enough to keep his voice level, though it's still just as full of cold fury as it was.

"There were a hundred thousand people on those ships."

Edited 2014-07-04 19:26 (UTC)

"Yes, there were. In order for our timeline to continue they had to die."

She gave him a slight smile. Not a happy smile, but a smile.

"But that's not the point. Dylan. Focus."

Trust Dylan to dwell on that. That was why he was Dylan, but, at the moment, it was hindering their conversation. He could yell at her later, once he understood all the components. But now was not that time.

"Remember where you are."

"And I had to do it."

That day tore him apart.

He hates the Nietzscheans for what they did. Hates them for Gaheris Rhade. For the Commonwealth. For the enslaving of so many worlds in such brutality. Whatever Rev Bem might say about him being proof that there can be good in a race that brings so much evil.

But never. Never would he have committed that slaughter for anything less than the stakes that situation stuck him with. Hell, he didn't even do it when it would have saved the whole Commonwealth.

(Sometimes, something dark inside him regrets that.)

"And just what do you want me to focus on, Trance?"

"Think about it. That day we tore through reality and time itself. We need to do so again. However there are forces preventing me. Preventing us. In order to fix this, we need to make alliances. And these people, they've had their fare share of Nietzschens too, or something similar. I think you'll find their sentiments very familiar, on many levels. It's time to learn from them, and to hopefully have them learn from us. We have nearly three thousand years on them. Think of what that means. In a sense, their Federation is still in infancy. It hasn't stood for the thousands of years that the Commonwealth had."

Trance looked at him, hoping to see a glimpse that he was understanding what she was trying to tell him.

"Do you understand?"

"I try not to," he says, his voice tetchy, because that was a day he'd rather not have to remember, even if remembering is what guides him into the future.

He's spent a lot of time since that day trying not to think about it. Trying to avoid the crushing feeling of knowing what he did, of standing on the Andromeda Ascendant's bridge as Harper's weapon tore through a thousand Nietzschean ships.

"So we have to be ambassadors for the Commonwealth." He gives her a half-smile, not entirely genuine. "It's not exactly like that's unfamiliar to me, Trance. I've lived and breathed the Commonwealth. I'm from Tarn-Vedra. I knew the history and the story of the Commonwealth from the time I was a child."

TEST DRIVE #3 - Alien Bazaar/Ten Forward

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

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

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

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