TEST DRIVE MEME #4 - The Arboretum/Ten Forward

[ten_fwd_mods]

Option 01: Aboard the Enterprise, The Arboretum: In exploring the Enterprise, you end up on Deck 17, section 21 alpha: the arboretum. Instantly upon entering you can tell this room is different from all the others. For one thing, you're now standing on grass. It's no illusion, no simulation; it's real grass, leading up to a small pond in the center of the room. All around you grows a variety of plant life, trees and bushes and hanging plants, flowers and herbs and even what one might consider weeds. The arboretum is, for all intents and purposes, a botanic garden, used both recreationally for passengers to relax and enjoy, and scientifically for research and study. After all, the scope of alien plant life is impressive, from the Cyprion cacti down to the Earth variety roses.

The room is well lit and large, with benches to rest on and small walking paths. Children are grouped off in one corner working on botany projects, while some passengers are seen kneeling in the dirt carefully tending to their garden patches. There are even windows along one wall, allowing for a view of space while the room itself gives the illusion of daylight. It's the perfect spot to relax, read a book, or grab a spare spade and dig in the dirt. Or perhaps you've been looking for the right moment to say hello to the passenger standing off by the venus flytraps.





Option 02: Aboard the Enterprise, Ten Forward: Or maybe not. You've just arrived, and you have no idea what just happened. One minute you were somewhere else, and now you're in what looks like a spacious, well-appointed bar. The hum of the crowd is inviting, and the drinks look invigorating. There are people eating and drinking, some in uniform, others not. Some are clearly aliens.

Try to find out why you're here, or catch a drink at the bar; there's always something happening here.

Comments

[sf_girl_friday]

Janice had been warned that some people might suddenly appear on the ship, but she hadn't really expected it to happen before her eyes. For a moment, she simply stared, then she gave herself a mental shake, reassuring everyone around her that everything was fine before moving toward the man.

"Hello." As she spoke, she gave him a reassuring smile while trying to gauge if he had been hurt when he'd run into the wall. "Are you all right?"

[age_of_the_geek]

"Yeah, lady, I was just in my apartment and now I'm standing in what looks like some kind of bad replica of a sci-fi show, and now I think I got orange soda all over me and...I'm confused as hell right now."

Hardison shakes his head, as if trying to shake some cobwebs out. He clearly walked into a wall and knocked himself out and now he's in shiny-weird-not-Quite Star-Trek place.

"Look, have you seen a blond woman walking around. Pony tail, tends to prefer black clothes, kinda crazy, really cute, responds to Parker?"

Note: In Leverage Star Trek exists but Word of God says that it shares only superficial things in common. The character names and the show name is the same, nothing else is.

[sf_girl_friday]

A bad replica? The Enterprise was the height of shipbuilding. Did that mean that he was from a time more advanced than this one or from an era that had no space travel? Either one could be possible and both needed to be dealt with delicately. "I'll try to help you with the confusion." Or find someone who was better trained at explaining these situations than Jan was.

"I haven't seen anyone that fits that description. You were the only one to appear, but I can check our records and see if anyone else has been found."

[age_of_the_geek]

"Records? What do you mean records? As in this shit has happened before? Random people just popping up in...whatever the hell this place is?"

Hardison give the area a look around, trying to place this location with ones that he knows and getting nothing. There is an annoyed huff from the man before he turns back to the woman he was talking with.

"So where the hell am I, then?"

[sf_girl_friday]

"It isn't a common occurrence but it does happen from time to time." More often than it should but that was something that none of them could control. It probably wasn't the best idea to tell him now but he might become violent if she didn't offer some information.

When he turned around, she typed a quick message into her PADD, just in case the situation turned out worse than she hoped. "This may sound strange, but you're on a space ship." Which might not seem that believable considering the garden setting except for the view of the stars. "The Enterprise. I don't know if your friend is here, but I'll check everything I can access to see if she arrived with you."

[age_of_the_geek]

"A space ship."

Hardison gives the woman a look. A look that asks "what the hell are you on?".

"A space ship. C'mon, if this is some prank from the team, you gotta do better than that."

[sf_girl_friday]

"Yes, a space ship." As she spoke, her gaze momentarily drifted toward the view of the stars. "Does your reality have space travel?"

Jan hoped that it did because she really wasn't up to describing the hows or whys of a space ship. At least not in the detail that might be needed to reassure someone that the Enterprise was safe.

"I know this sounds unbelievable." It had taken a bit for Jan to deal with the situation before she'd decided to treat this as another assignment that was farther than home than she'd first assumed. "But could your team be able to recreate a ship, uniforms, and a crew out of thin air?"

[age_of_the_geek]

"Well, not out of thin air, but they were able to pull of the ungriftable grift, I wouldn't put it outside of their capability. Bu...nah, they wouldn't do that to me. I mean, if they did, they would totally have gotten this right. The color scheme and the uniforms are off if they wanted to get the show I *think* they wanted to get."

Hardison is now looking out at everything. He brought it up, but...with the White Rabbit, nothing here should be here. And he ran into that wall. So he reaches out and touches it again.

It's solid. That's...reassuring, in a strange kind of way.

[sf_girl_friday]

"The ungriftable grift?" The words sound strange, like they should be another language but Janice knows that isn't true. She knows the words, or one of them at least, but she isn't sure of the meaning in that particular context. But that isn't quite as confusing as the idea that his friends could create a fake spaceship down in detail and provide a crew that would be as realistic as the Enterprise. "Would they really be able to do something so elaborate?"

As he reaches out and touches the wall, Jan remembers how unsettling all this had been when she'd arrived. "It's all real." Her tone is gentle, steady as she speaks. "I ended up here in a similar way that you have. It's strange and confusing but this isn't some sort of joke your friends thought up."

[age_of_the_geek]

"Strange and confusing? Woman, you have no idea how true those words are. I was about to sit down with my girlfriend, plan how to rob rich ass people for trying to be untouchable, and now I'm in some bad Star Trek ripoff bullshit," Hardison, the aggrivation obvious in his voice.

"Look, can you just show me who's in charge so that I can just get the hell home?"

[sf_girl_friday]

"Actually, I do. The same thing happened to me." The words are accompanied by a wry smile that barely falters when Jan realizes what he had said about robbing people. Somehow a criminal had been brought onto the ship?

How that would be dealt with complicated things beyond the usual greetings and reassurances. "I can send a message to the captain." She would have anyway with a possible thief on the sip. Typing a pair of carefully worded messages on her PADD, she quickly sends one that will make its way to the Captain and another to Security. "But he may not be available right now. As for going home. That may be more complicated."