TEST DRIVE #1 - Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

You know how you were standing there, back in your home world, just minding your own business?

Time to forget all about that.

Instead of doing whatever the heck you were just doing, you're standing in the middle of this very stylish, sedate barroom. Happily, you're not alone there - in fact you're surrounded by people who seem to be as confused as you are...and some of them look a little, well unusual

Now would be a great time to do....well, something. Ask some questions of the person nearest you, throw a fit, stage a coup....maybe do a little exploring? No matter what you do, you're going to be here for a very long time.

For others might call it the USS Enterprise, but for the foreseeable future, you'll be calling it home.

[OOC: this test drive's open until the next app period.]

Comments

[punch_it]

Not her Enterprise. Nope. Jane can say that with, oh, 99% certainty. She can also state, for the record, that she is kind of goddamn sick and tired of Enterprise hopping, universe skipping, temporal anomalies.

And she can definitely, oh so definitely, say she needs a drink.

She's a little rude, but sometimes a little rudeness is needed as she elbows in on that little conversation because that isn't panic on baldy's face. That's pure resignation.

"Tell me you've got something stronger than tea on this ship, and then we can talk about this new definition of interesting you're using."

[punch_it]

Jane's been here, what? Five minutes, but in a small space, that's all the time you need to identify Starfleet.

And blinding panic.

She's far too familiar with that kind of panic.

It doesn't help he looks a frightening amount like her mom. If Georgiana had a twin brother, this would be him turned into flesh and made real. Jane shrugs it off and sets a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Hey. It's going to be all right."

[punch_it]

Whoa. Hey. That was a familiar sounding accent. Jane whirls in the direction of the speaker. Who was wearing a gold shirt. She didn't care who the curly haired Russian boy was, but he was Starfleet and had that same startled look Pasha got when stuck in a situation she wasn't sure she knew how to escape.

She goes to the bar and snags some vodka because she knows, man, all right? She knows, and she hands him the glass with a friendly smile.

"Drink. It'll help."

Dr. Lea 'Bones' McCoy | Star Trek AOS (Comics AU)

[dammitjane]

Not her Enterprise, for sure, and honestly, she wasNot pleased by the fact she wasn't where she was supposed to be, namely her medbay.

But it was a Federation ship, and frankly, after meeting the male versions of her crew, she wasn't going to be too surprised by where she was.

[usescontractions]

"Ten Forward. Deck ten, section one of the USS Enterprise. Currently near sector 396. Alpha Quadrant."

Okay, so that last part might not be entirely correct, but that was their location in space the last time she was aware of it. Not that it matters anyway, as there's currently no way off the ship.

"Would you like... a drink?"

Noonien Soong: walking talking tng relaunch/pocket spoilers. sorry!

[postorganic]

Oh, the best laid plans...

It's an instant. One moment, Soong is speeding through space, his sense of urgency in saving his sons renewed, and at the next fraction of a second, he's here. Where is here? He recognizes it fairly quickly from all of the transmissions and logs he's hacked into over the past few years. Not that the hum of the ship itself, and the uniforms didn't give it away. He's on the Enterprise.

Before he can curse his luck, or feel his anxiety for B-4's state rise in his chest, he turns from the rest of the room, facing out one of the large windows. It doesn't seem as if they've noticed him yet. So as quickly and discreetly as he can, he alters his appearance. His skin takes on a darker hue, his brown hair turns a shade or two lighter. The structure of his face changes entirely. A square jaw, wide green eyes. He could be pass for a good-natured ensign, with the right clothes. But for now, the physiology and slight accent of a Centaurian will do. They're close enough to humans to register as one on simple bioscans, and he knows enough about life on Velestus (or Alpha Centauri IV, if you will) to craft a convincing story.

He finally turns from the window, looking nothing like the man who created this ship's second officer. It's time to find out the ship's heading... and plan his escape as soon as possible.

Eeee! Awesome, a Kirk! :D

[i_candozat]

Whoever Pasha was, she must have been a very interesting woman, because Chekov takes the glass from the woman smiling at him, momentarily at a loss for doing anything beyond what basic motor skills necessitated. "Are you sure?" he asks, eyeing the liquid.

It's not that he doesn't drink. It's that he's not very sure if what smells like vodka and looks like vodka is going to taste like vodka, and beyond that if it's going to be good enough to work.

\o/ *dances*

[i_candozat]

"Zat," Pavel says, shaking his head, "I do not know. I do not think anyone does here. Zey all seem as confused to hawe us aboard as ve are to be here."

Which is not in the least comforting, but hey. Bones is here. Between the two of them, they should be able to figure something out. (If Spock were here the Vulcan probably would have done so already. Chekov's not sure whatever he said would be helpful, not really, but he'd have the knowledge anyway.]

[holds_her_own]

The corner of Hill's mouth upticks.

It's not a mean-spirited smirk; she's trying to work out how Rogers will react to what she's about to say.

"Because the Captain Rogers I know has a little less going on up there—"

She nods at Steph's chest, then again in the vicinity of her lap.

"—and a little more happening down there. He also goes by Steve."

Her hand, the one that isn't exposed holding her bottle of beer, grips the seat of her chair.

In 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

I'm filling out an application now. :D

[shut_up_dammit]

"Great. That's reassuring." That wasn't reassuring. Anything but, as a matter of fact. But that didn't matter - they were here. They'd have to find a way out at some point, but that was for later. For now, they needed to find out if there were others from their crew here.

"Does that thing tell you who got pulled into this damn place?"

[stark_spangled]

"Neat trick," Steve says, watching the display change. He doesn't know what she did, but whatever it was obviously worked.

He frowns. He also recognizes the name, but maybe not for the same reasons. "United States Navy? Or whatever constitutes the Navy way out here. It's not an aircraft carrier, that's for sure, but if it answers to our government that's at least some comfort."

It doesn't make Steve any less inclined to wrest some answers out of the people in charge, but at least he has some footing.

[stark_spangled]

A dream, right. He wonders briefly why that hadn't been his first thought. It hadn't even been his second, or third. That's the natural reaction, isn't it? Assume you're dreaming, or...

"Could be a shared hallucination. Somebody hit us with some weaponized agent, a gas maybe, and we're all really in a padded room somewhere while they run tests," he says. There's a beat. When he turns back to her, he's smiling faintly. He's joking. Probably. "Right. Well, I'll leave the 'cute' business up to you, but I think you're onto something."

He starts searching for an officer who isn't occupied with someone else, never afraid to take the initiative when it comes to confronting strangers in a strange situation, when he suddenly looks startled. "I mean. Not that I was saying -- I just think you'd have a better chance pulling off 'cute'. Because you're, uh. You are. But I didn't mean to overstep."

Stop talking, Steve.

[stark_spangled]

Yeah, that was about the shape of it when he first found out where he was. He purses his lips, giving her a few seconds to work through it.

"Well, do you like astronomy?" he asks. "Because there's a pretty great view outside the windows."

Leaving poor bb Chekov alone woulda been a SIN

[punch_it]

"Nope," Jane responds brightly. "But even if it tastes like bathtub gin, it should still have a little kick to it."

Russians and their vodka. Jane crosses her arms and settles into a relaxed pose as she studies him. He's young but no younger than Chekov is and if Starfleet recruited him, and put him on the command track, he had to be smart too. She won't lie and say that won't be useful when trying to work out what the hell happened this time.

[daddy_kirk]

When he's taken someone's attention George has just dropped his arm so he can press his hand to his eyes, failing to find his center as quickly as he would have liked and letting his breath getting a bit heaver. But then the words finally reach his realization and the blond looks up to the other man, blinking.

Are you alright isn't a question that should be difficult to answer, yet here he is debating with himself. Technically? No. But physically?

He starts to nod, a meek smile curving his lips in an unusual way that sends a pang through him. He wasn't okay but, "I'm. I'm fine, yeah." Because looking pale and shaky was definitely classified under 'all right'.

[daddy_kirk]

The call doesn't register to him right away, not until it dawns on him he's likely the odd man out—the one nearly having a panic attack after suddenly appearing in the middle of a room. When he does look over to the woman who called out to him, he tries to give a smile as he holds a trembling hand up.

"I've—" A small, nervous laugh tumbles out of George. "I've had enough of sitting, actually, thank you."

On the other hand, he looks like he's about to keel over.

[daddy_kirk]

Though he barely jumps at the touch, he doesn't get a chance to look at the young lady before he hears it: It's going to be all right.

'Everything's gonna be okay,'he said not minutes ago.

Save for the slight tremble it had, the cockeyed smile was wide and seemingly warm when compared to his squinted, watering blue eyes. The laughter that left him was worse off, sounding more like a breath just on the hinge of being a sob.

"That's— " George huffs out that breath, dropping the arm over his face before freezing, looking to her with a furrowed brow. She looked familiar. Still, he can't place her so he starts to lightly shake his head. "It's not. It can't, because I just—" died, he wants to say. But that scenario doesn't seem likely. "... lost my family."

[punch_it]

Jane winced and her hand dropped from his shoulder after a prolonged squeeze.

What was it Spock said? It always sounded so poetic and perfect in these situations.

"I grieve with thee."

She rubs the back of her neck after a moment and returns his kind smile with a small, uncertain one of her own.

And through it she still couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity that was tugging on her. Like she should know him.

[daddy_kirk]

That was a Vulcan expression in Standard, wasn't it? He knew it was, he'd learned it in the academy once and he could have sworn there was a reply for it, but he feels he can hardly stand. Instead of trying to dredge up something in the name of diplomacy George simply smiles softly back and nods, swallowing nothingness to keep his voice steady: "Thank you."

The words are sincere, evident enough by the added glimmer in his eye. It wasn't often strangers helped someone or bothered to check on them when they were just a few seconds from looking like they were about to lose it.

"I'm sorry," He laughs meekly, shifting away from the wall some so he can offer her a hand in greeting. "My name's George. George Kirk."

[punch_it]

Jane took his hand and froze. Her blue eyes widened in shock and if she whimpered slightly no one could hear it over the confusion and noise permeating the room. The sudden tremble in her steady hands? That George wouldn't miss.

And no matter what she told herself, she couldn't get it to stop. This wasn't her dad, no. Her dad was alive and well and doing who knows what kind of mad engineering on a different ship.

This was Jim's. This was Jane's mother in male form and he'd lost his whole world but knew he would have to grin and bear it because his family might just have made it out safe.

Only he doesn't know that. He has no idea that Jim and his mom made it away from the Narada alive.

And Jane doesn't know how to start convincing him of how she does.

Sammy might have been better at this. She had always been better at dealing with these things. No amount of diplomatic training taught you how to properly react to your dead parent from a different universe coming back to life.

"Jane Kirk," she answered weakly.

[not_annika]

She frowns in confusion. This woman seemed reasonably certain. But the Enterprise was destroyed in 2371. Does she need to concern herself with the temporal prime directive?

"No, thank you," she assured her. "Would you please tell me what year this is?"

[therighttime]

Punching, or getting punched, is definitely more straight-forward than reconnaissance and negotiation. Though, like Kara, Steph would be hard-pressed to admit that outloud.

"The folks who look comfortable are all wearing similar uniforms, different colors," she muses, scanning the crowd again. "I'd like to watch a bit longer. There's plenty of information to be had from someone on kitchen duty but it'd be nice to know who's an officer, too."

[therighttime]

Steph looks up sharply, not immediately comprehending what's being said, but picking up pieces of it. Enough to be concerned about Hill's expression, her tone of voice. Enough to feel her face heat, pink in her cheeks when gestures occur and Steph's mind fills in the blanks.

It all clicks into place fairly quickly, and blush or no, Steph's shortly scowling at a superior officer.

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

You totally just made my day hearing that!

[i_candozat]

"Eh, nyet," he says regretfully, laying it down. "I do not know who else is aboard. Zere are many people here zat do not seem to understand ze vorkings of space trawel."

YES I am glad someone agrees. :)

[i_candozat]

Chekov eyes the glass once more, and tosses it back like a good Russian boy, shaking his head only once as he sets down the glass. "Ay-ie-ie," he murmurs. "Vell, ze wodka is good here."

He straightens, and turns to fully face Jane. "Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreievich, ma'am."