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]

"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?"