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

[asklepian]

"In your reality, I assume you'd know best. However, this one is completely different. Perhaps divergent, though I don't know exactly where the split occurred." Julian takes a drink of his tea, turning to entirely face the other man.

His uniform is dark, far more military-looking in Julian's opinion than Starfleet's. Which isn't really saying much. Trance had also mentioned his genetic background, and Julian has to say--he can't see too much difference between the Captain and any other human. It's somewhat heartening, really, though he can't say why.

"The United Federation of Planets was founded in 2161, two hundred and five years ago. Starfleet is its exploratory, defense, and humanitarian force, and we are currently on its flagship, the U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The year is 2366. I'm from 2374, myself--I suppose it doesn't make much sense when phrased like that, but the being responsible often doesn't make much sense."

[dreams_dont_die]

Divergent realities.

This might just win the prize for craziest thing to happen to him since the Eureka Maru pulled him out of the black hole.

Dylan rubs a hand across the back of his head.

"A long time ago. The Commonwealth lasted for five and a half thousand years, and the Vedran Empire thousands of years before that," he says, hating that it's so easy now to talk about the Commonwealth in the past tense when once it had been his world.

But he listens, and when his hand drops back to the table, he intertwines his fingers again, a little tighter than really necessary.

Because he can see what Trance meant if she told Lieutenant Bashir that the Federation sounded like the Commonwealth. Because Bashir, talking about the Enterprise, and Starfleet's mission, sounds like nothing so much as what he used to do aboard the Andromeda Ascendant before the black hole tore his world away from him.

"I don't know how much Trance told you about the Andromeda or the Commonwealth," he says, "but your Starfleet sounds like the High Guard."

And he's here and that's now. Dylan has to fight to keep his expression from showing too much, so he smiles, instead. Because that's so much easier.

[asklepian]

"That would be quite a long time indeed." Julian raises his mug again--it's truly an impressive number, thousands of years of peace, despite the not-so-comforting term of empire that preceded it. But if this High Guard indeed shared the same ideals as Starfleet, he didn't think Captain Hunt would have too much trouble adapting to the routine aboard a Federation ship.

"She didn't tell me too much more than that. I would be interested in learning more, though, if you're amenable to the idea."

Talking to someone from so far in the future, from another united front of various planets--millions, Trance had said, as opposed to the hundred-fifty or so in the Federation, which seemed to stretch farther than humanity could have even guessed so much as two or three centuries ago.

"I would certainly be happy to answer any of your questions that I'm able to."

[dreams_dont_die]

To Dylan, of course, there's no point of comparison, not really. Of course, there were worlds and races outside the Commonwealth, but he'd always been immersed in it, because he was from its heart -- Tarn-Vedra, home of the Vedrans, capital of the Commonwealth, home of the High Guard. Tarn-Vedra, the lost planet that now seems little more than a myth to the people of the Long Night. Tarn-Vedra, where the streets were so steeped in the history of the Commonwealth and its peoples that it was impossible not to love that world for the curious, idealistic young Dylan.

The smile he gives Lieutenant Bashir's raised mug is small, sad at the edges, his grief for the loss of the world he'd known haunting his eyes.

"I'd be happy to tell you more, but it doesn't have a happy ending." Not yet. "The Commonwealth fell. It took two years for a civil war to tear it all apart. That was three hundred years ago. My crew and I are trying to rebuild it. And," he continues, his smile wry, "it's quite a mission. So anything about the Federation that could help would be very valuable."

Because here, in another reality, thousands of years ago, there's something like it, something new in comparison, small in comparison.

Something like what Dylan and the Andromeda are trying to build from the ashes of the Commonwealth.

"My ship and I are the only survivors of the High Guard."

[asklepian]

"Trance did mention the war." Julian's voice turns back on itself, unpleasant memories welling up in his head. He doesn't like war very much.

"There are full Federation histories in Enterprise's data banks. I'm not much of a historian, so I could give a basic rundown--about as much as any child learns on Earth--but all the details are a bit beyond me." He smiles, a bit self-deprecatingly. He simply hasn't committed himself to learning history, aside from one very particular area of interest in the Eugenics Wars and the history of Augments.

"You may even be able to find a history program in the Holodeck, view everything as if you were there."

[dreams_dont_die]

Yeah. The war.

The war he missed because he was trapped in a black hole, and the war he couldn't have changed even if he wasn't. He's almost gotten used to trying to feel in his heart what he knows in his head, that even if he and Andromeda had escaped Hephaistos, they wouldn't have changed things. At best they'd have died heroically at Witchhead or one of the other battles.

Now, they can make a difference. But as an officer of the High Guard, it's a hell of a thing to try to really believe that the best thing he could have done for the Commonwealth was to get stuck in that black hole instead of fighting alongside his friends and comrades to try to save civilization.

"I'd love to hear the basics about how it started. Maybe you could give me the basics. The Commonwealth came out of the Vedran Empire, but there's nothing left of it now, and," he shakes his head with a self-deprecating laugh, "I'm the only one with a chance to restore it, but I am no diplomat."