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

[defendergirl]

Andromeda.

Oh.

Oh, wait.

"You were talkin' to your ship just now, weren't you?" And now she wonders whether it answers him back, in full conversation - and how jealous would the Doctor be of that kind of thing? Ha.

But ... they'll get back to that in a bit. For now, she's going to do her best to be an unofficial welcome committee.

"Hello, Dylan.

"Yeah, it's been happenin' for a little while now, far as we can tell. People are getting pulled in from every which way by this bloke called Q of the ... well, Q. You're the most recent arrival, I reckon."

[dreams_dont_die]

"I was," he confirms, looking ruefully at the ceiling as if that would make Andromeda's image appear in front of him and give him the information he so suddenly needs. "I was going to ask her what her sensors saw, but I think I know the answer now."

Dylan, disappearing from a corridor on his way to Command, and reappearing far out of her range. By now, she's almost certainly paged the rest of the crew in alarm and demanded they help find him. He'd like to find himself, because that could really help them out, but knowing that Rommie and the others will be looking for him always a good thing to have in the back of his mind when things get tricky.

"What, there's a person doing this?" he asks. What is going on? Some sort of megalomaniac with a tesseract machine? "What are his intentions?"

Because that sounds very much like being taken captive, and without knowing where he is and how far away he is from his ship, he's got no way of contacting her to tell her.

[defendergirl]

"A sort of person. I think he's more like some kind of alien, really, but no one's really got that much information. At least ... nothin' they're willing to share."

Not that she's the sort of person to just sit around and be okay with that. Her and the Doctor and Jack? Oh, they'll be figuring this one out, and no one's going to stop them.

"A few people have met him though. I mean, I wouldn't mind getting a word in if I can. And as far as anyone knows, he ... sort of does this kind of thing for fun. Like a sort of test."

At least that was what Lt. Barclay told her and the Doctor.

[dreams_dont_die]

"For fun."

For the first time since he'd started speaking with Rose, Dylan's voice is tense, quiet, the sort of quiet anyone who's served under him learns to recognize, because the harsh edges he never quite manages to hide show the anger and tension, far deeper anger than when he's shouting.

"I have had enough tests thrown in front of me without anyone else adding to them for fun."

He's got a civilization to restore, galaxies to try to bring together in time to protect them from the Magog, and one ship and one crew to do it, and instead of on that ship, he's here? Because some power-hungry maniac wants to have fun?

No.

He's not accepting that.

"Just wait until I meet him."

[defendergirl]

Rose knows an angry tone of voice when she hears one, and Dylan isn't exactly being subtle about it.

She clears her throat, straightens a little, and prepares for some serious tension-easing damage control. The last thing anyone needs right now is someone completely losing it. Anger spreads like wildfire, and it easily teams up with fear and chaos.

She isn't sure what Dylan is or isn't capable of, and while he seems like the stable sort she's not exactly willing to take any chances.

"While I'm sure you'd really give him quite the piece of your mind, Dylan, for now ... y'might want to get to know this place a bit first, seein' as it's going to be your temporary pit stop until we all get back to where we came from.

"I've heard the crew and Captain Picard's doing all they can. And my friends and I are planning on doing the same."

In their own way, of course.

[dreams_dont_die]

"A pit stop? I can't have a pit stop. There's too much at stake."

The Andromeda is one ship. One ship trying to negotiate to get fifty worlds to sign the charter for the new Commonwealth. One ship looking after the interests of the worlds that have already signed. One ship, trying to hold the line against the dark for the whole of the High Guard, because it's all there is left.

And he's her captain.

And it's his mission.

He doesn't like the thought of being dependent on anyone to get him out of this except his crew. Who may not even know what's happened to him.

But Rose sounds very confident about her ability to do something about this situation. The sort of confident he might be if, say, Trance were here, Trance, who knows far more about this sort of stuff than she ever lets anyone see except, occasionally, Dylan.

"What makes you think you and your friends can do anything about it?"

[defendergirl]

Rose smiles.

"That's because, Captain, this is just the sort of thing we do."

You don't know who her friends are. Her friend.

The Doctor.

The utmost faith she has in him could move mountains, if it needed to. She's never doubted anything so long as she knew the Doctor was around. Even with the new face, she already trusts him wholeheartedly. If she didn't, she wouldn't even be here right now, but back at home with her mum and Mickey maybe, trying to figure out the next step in her life.

[dreams_dont_die]

It's hard to tell if she believes what she's saying, is pretending she believes what she's saying, or might actually be right.

If it were Trance, he'd believe her. But he's got a year and a half of history with Trance, and he owes his life to Trance and her ability to see futures, to her inscrutable knowledge and the hints of cryptic guidance she gives him when he needs them most.

"Fixing dimensional warps in space is the sort of thing you do."

At any other time, there might be a suggestion of disbelieving teasing in the words, but at the moment, they're flat, uneasy, an echo of Dylan's own discomfort, which isn't something he should be showing her.

But being suddenly taken from his ship and his crew is ... more unsettling than he wants to admit. There's a hell of a lot Dylan can fight off on his own. Magog. Nietzscheans. Ogami. Cyborgs.

Crazy tesseracting? Not so much, unless he can get his hands on whoever's doing it.

This is a thing for Trance and Harper.

[defendergirl]

"Yeah," Rose says.

Well, maybe they haven't done exactly that yet, but she knows the Doctor's capable of it.

(And little does she know that they kind of end up fixing up dimensional gaps and cracks in space ... if at a great price.)

"And things like that. Sometimes we even save the universe."

Yes, she is very confident in the Doctor.

[dreams_dont_die]

"Where were you when we needed you on the Andromeda?"

He doesn't sound impressed.

He's, if not happy, then content, to put up with these sorts of games from Trance, because when he really needs her, she comes through for him. Dylan's inclined to try to believe the best of people, and that's an important skill in the work he's been doing ever since the Maru pulled him from the black hole.

She makes it sound so easy, and he knows it's anything but. If it were that easy, they wouldn't have lost one of their first allies. A friend. To Dylan and to Harper. All they'd been able to do was finish building the thing and then use it, sealing the timeline so that space and time got jumbled all around his ship.

He rubs a hand along one side of his face, forcing a crooked smile. He needs to stop being irritated by her, because if any of what she's saying has any sort of truth to it, then saving the universe is something that he needs to hear a little more about.

"How do you and your friends wind up saving the universe?"

[defendergirl]

"It's not easy," Rose says.

She's certainly not trying to say it is, or that it's even fun. But it is rewarding, in its own way. Well, in a lot of ways, really. Seeing the world restored and its people relieved, seeing the Doctor smile like he's just gone and won the lottery, and turning that smile on her. Knowing that they've done something good, something that allows everyone to carry on for another day.

It's dangerous and she's had a few brushes with death causing her to question her place in life and how she wanted to spend the rest of her short human-life.

Perspective. That's what it is.

It's why she chooses to be calmer than her nature would instinctively act upon. Mum would probably get up in Dylan's face about it, scold him like he's her son or something. But she's not her mum. She almost laughs aloud at the thought.

"A good plan, for a start. Good friends, really good friends, and a whole lot of luck." She pauses, thinking of what the Doctor might say. "A blue box and a sonic screwdriver never hurts either."

[dreams_dont_die]

"It never is."

She'd sounded flippant before. Like this was all some sort of game to her. He's not going to judge her on her apparent age or her small stature or any snap decisions like that. After all, Trance looks young and frail and helpless and she's anything but. But talking about saving the universe in such a cavalier way?

Okay. Maybe it's something he'd do when he's joking around with his crew after a day's good work, but he's under no illusions. The universe is a long way from saved from the chaos it's become, and ... she's right. It's not easy. It's never easy, doing anything important.

But a universe is a big burden for one ship and one captain. And sometimes, he feels that, though he keeps those feelings to himself, because he's the captain.

In truth, if there's anything she can really tell him about what she and her friends have done, he'll listen. So when she answers, he's watching her, blue eyes keen.

Until he lets out a laugh of surprise.

Because what she says sounds so familiar. Good plans, good friends, and a hell of a lot of luck is what's gotten him this far.

(You can never have enough luck, Molly had teased him as she curled up against his side, skin warm against his as she kissed him, and he'd laughed, but he'd believed it, too, with every kiss she gave him.)

"Well that's good. I've got the plan, the friends, and the luck."

His smile now is warm, not forced, softening his eyes and chasing away a few of the shadows that are never too far from them.

"I don't know about the other two, but how do the most powerful starship in three galaxies and a force lance sound?"

[defendergirl]

Saving the world is never a game. She'd been in a place where games were actually made real and as far as she's concerned, it'll be a good day if she never, ever goes back there. Not that she could anyway, she knows, though she's not entirely sure why.

(The memories are incredibly hazy.

But Satellite 5's one of the reasons why the holodeck sort of makes her a bit nervous.)

"That could definitely raise the odds," Rose says, though she's not quite sure just how powerful his starship might be, or what a force lance even is.

She gestures to the empty table she'd been about to sit at, her cup of tea no doubt cooling to a dismal room temperature as they speak.

"D'you want to sit for a bit?" she offers. "Saving the universe is no good if one of their saviours is out of sorts, yeah?"

[dreams_dont_die]

"The Andromeda's good at raising the odds." Of course, she's also good at telling him the odds, but she knows better than to do that most of the time.

It's true, though. When it comes to negotiation, it's a hell of a lot easier to persuade people that you will back up the promises you make with the only Glorious Heritage Class heavy cruiser still operational. That's the thing about the charter signatories. Even aside from the benefits of the Mutual Defense Pact and all the other benefits they'll get when the charter is ratified, they also get the Andromeda Ascendant if they need her.

"We may as well," he says, smiling. "I'd like to hear more."

He gives her drink an apologetic look. "That was hot, wasn't it? Can I get you something to make up for making it go cold?"

[defendergirl]

"S'all right," Rose says with a grin, waving a hand dismissively. "I can easily get another one, no charge. But thanks."

She points to the replicator in Ten Forward, then tilts her head at her lukewarm tea.

"Those things are called 'replicators' and they sort of produce food. Anything you want. None of it is real, it's all what they call 'synthetic'. And it's all free."

She shrugs.

"It all tastes real enough, but soon as I can, I think I'll be glad to have a real cup of tea."

[dreams_dont_die]

"Huh."

That's something to remember.

"Good then. I'd hate to have put you to any trouble."

His smile's grown warm, genuine, and he steps over to the table and holds out one hand towards one of the chairs, waiting for her to sit first.

"Let's sit down then, and you can tell me about saving the universe with a screwdriver and a box."

It doesn't sound serious, not at all.

But she had when she'd said it.

[defendergirl]

"No, no. No trouble at all," she says, raising an eyebrow at his display of chivalry.

Which, okay, is not something Rose is entirely used to. But, hey. She's not going to be one to reject such a gesture, so she obliges best as she can (without having the same sort of mannerism teaching proper ladies might) and settles into her seat.

She smiles.

"When you put it like that, it sounds daft, doesn't it? I used to think so too until I started travelin' around with the Doctor."

And it's hard, really, to put her adventures into words. She's never been one to carry a journal around, or even reflect on previous events in her life ... but sometimes she wishes she did. Her brain's a jumble of sights and sounds, feelings and emotions ... such is life with the Doctor, she supposes.

"He's got this blue box. It's a spaceship, and he explained to me once that it only looks like a police box because it got stuck that way. Some sort of malfunction with the ..." What did the Doctor call it? "... 'chameleon circuit'."

[dreams_dont_die]

Dylan lets out a soft laugh, lifting one hand to scratch at his forehead.

"I'm not gonna be the one to say it."

To be honest, his sense of what sounds in her words, daft, is a little odd. Comes of spending the past year and a half traveling the Three Galaxies explaining that he's the last survivor of the civilization that fell three hundred years ago trying to rebuild it from the ruins. He's been laughed at, mocked, dismissed, called an anachronism, a relic, irrelevant and doomed to failure in a world that's no longer his.

She sounds sincere, and he's not going to judge her until he's heard her out. Not again.

Opposite Rose, Dylan slips into a seat, leaning forward with his forearms on the table and rolling his shoulders back.

(It's good to sit. It's been a hell of a day and ...

Well. He won't admit it to anyone, not even Trance, his medic, or Andromeda when she does the scans for his physicals, but he's not as young as he was. 303 years in a black hole notwithstanding.)

"So," he says, gentle amusement in his voice, "you and this friend of yours, you travel around in a spaceship that's disguised as a box." That much ... is unlike any sort of ship he knows. The closest he can think of is the FMS, but its purpose is to make a ship seem bigger than it is, not the other way around.

He lifts his eyebrows, a little impressed at the technology she's describing.

"That's a pretty impressive bit of circuitry, stuck or not."

[defendergirl]

"It is," Rose says, and she says it with the wonderment and awe of a girl who can't help but still believe in crazy, wonderful miracles like a spaceship that could whisk her away from her drab, unfulfilling life.

Because that's exactly what the Doctor and the TARDIS did.

"It's - she's called the TARDIS. A - um. 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'," she says, reciting the acronym from memory. "And it's much, much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. There are rooms I still haven't discovered yet. M'not even sure the Doctor knows what else the TARDIS might be hiding."

She pauses, another thought suddenly appearing.

"Did you want something to eat or drink, by the way?"