TEST DRIVE #6 - The Bridge and Ten Forward

[ten_fwd_mods]

Option 01. Ten Forward: The first thing you see is a bar. A large, lively bar filled with many different faces and many different smells, sights and sounds. This is Ten Forward, the Enterprise's off-duty lounge; feel free to get acquainted with your fellow travelers and try to find somebody who's in charge: this is your new home now, after all...





Option 02. The Bridge: Well, aren't you a lucky duck? You've found yourself in hallowed quarters. Wherever you were before, you're not there anymore. Now you're in a room that could be some kind of command center or control room; there's a captain's chair flanked by seats for his chief officers, computer panels and stations at each interior wall, and before you a broad viewscreen that shows the wide expanse of space rushing towards you. Have you ever wanted to be a starship captain for a day? Well, here's your chance. Feel free to roam around, but try not to touch anything shiny.


[OOC: The Bridge isn't usually available for in-game posts, so if you've ever wanted to play there, here's your chance!]

Comments

[truth_is_cold]

His eyes trail up to Harper's face, and down to where his hand is near his pistol. That's enough to get Gaheris to hold the force lance. Not yet aim it, but hold it. He didn't have a deathwish.

Not yet, anyway.

"Who are you?" he asked. He suspected greatly that the security on this vessel wouldn't take kindly to too much aggression, so he merely remained defensive.

"The other one? What does that mean?" He was all flat, concentrated business. These people were all unusual to him, but this one seemed vaguely aware of him in some context and that didn't settle right.

Sometimes you just want to say Harper shut up. He didn't.

[deus_ex_harper]

"Seamus Zelanzy Harper. Chief engineer of the Andromeda Ascendant and the Eureka Maru, proudly from Earth." His hand didn't move from the pistol but he didn't do anything either. After 'accidentally' knocking out the chief security officer with his own force lance he didn't think it was wise. But this Uber didn't need to know that. Harper didn't want to end up in the brig and even less with Dylan shouting at him. Again.

"This is some sort of Nietzschean genetic thing, right I get it. I do. I'm a genius." Harper smirked. "So of course I do. You don't. Huh. That's..." Harper finally moved his hand away from the pistol. It was hard to keep it there when he started talking, bordering on ranting even, he talked with his hands more. "You Über's," He pointed at Gaheris, "Go on all the time about 'when Drago Museveni returns... blah blah blah.' Because you think you're all so special and it's just about genetics. Thinking you're better than us kludges. But you're not, without humans there wouldn't be Nietzscheans." He mutters more under his breath about Earth and the Drago-Kazov pride. For a few moments he was lost to how own world before looking back to Gaheris.

"Telemachus Rhade, he's the other one. You can't be him because you're in uniform." That ridiculousness like Dylan always seemed to wear. Too smart. And stuffy. Not suitable for crawling about in the ducts and access points to fix everything. Nothing like Harper would wear out of choice. Thankfully Dylan didn't even seem to consider making them wear it when they'd signed up for the crazy mission.

[truth_is_cold]

"What are you going on about?" Gaheris asked dryly because a lot of things came out of Harper's face at once, many of them hateful, and "Uber" didn't even exist as a racial insult in his time. All he could tell was this small human didn't like him, that he was the other one, that genetics were involved, and Drago Museveni?

"If I subscribed to the belief that some miraculous prophetic child alone would be born to save my people, then I'd be as delusional as Wayists. Wayists have their place but not among Nietzschean beliefs." He also wouldn't be about to betray the Commonwealth if he thought there was another way to unify his people, separate, and destroy the Magog. He wanted his people to reflect Drago Museveni's teachings but it was going to take far more than genetic reincarnation to bring about the golden age.

So... when he said the other one...

And Harper was from the Andromeda...

Supposedly, but he wasn't in uniform.

This was a confusing and sassmouthed little man. Who claimed to be a genius which is possible, as he seemed as hyper and overly enthusiastic as a neurotic Perseid. Gaheris's brain had to work through a dozen things at once before he could respond, and he picked the most important one first. "Can you get me in contact with the Andromeda?" He asked bluntly.

[deus_ex_harper]

"I know I'm the go to genius for these kinds of things but so far, zip, nada. No such luck. Our beautiful, sweet and gorgeous Rommie is out of reach, as per usual but I digress, no contact from our lovely warship personified. We can't talk to her, she can't talk to us. It's just me, Trance, Dylan, Rock-head and Tyr. Oh and you now." He added quickly.

"Just Beka left with Andromeda." He made a face. "Which isn't fair, if anyone should be left with Rom-doll then it should be me. I know how to look after her. Treat her right. Make sure she's not lonely..." He stopped. "I was talking out loud wasn't I?"

[truth_is_cold]

There was so much information that came out of this man at once. It was extremely hard to follow. His lips formed a small "oh", as Harper was speaking, not so much in understanding of what he was saying but at the realization that he probably wasn't going to understand it yet. Just the part about Dylan.

"Whoever is here, I would like to convene with them. Work on a solid strategy for exit." Strategy was the only way he could think in. "And yes, you said quite a bit out loud." He replaced the force lance in his holster, remotely pacified for the moment- at least to the point that he didn't need to be bearing a weapon.

[deus_ex_harper]

Harper talking was one of those things that became background noise quickly and learning to pick out what was actually necessary. It just sort of happened. One day you just realize you can.

"You know my boss, well both of them really, they say that a lot. Rommie too. Everyone really. That or I'm staring. But I know I'm not doing that." He was doing the talking thing again. "Exit strategy. Right. Yeah, you're on you're own with that one. I'm not sure how I can get off this tin can or if guy in charge will let that happen. Hell, I'm trying to avoid the captain. Between, Beka and Dylan, I got more than enough captains telling this genius what to do."

He looked around quickly. "And after the little incident with the force lance I had I don't want to go meeting the Captain of this ship or particularly his chief of security in a hurry. Again."

[truth_is_cold]

"What force lance incident, and who is the chief of security?" Already Gaheris is slowly keying in on certain words and phrases so that was promising for the prospect of actually coming to understand this giant torrent of babble that spilled out of Harper. There were a million other questions, but he was doing his best to target the ones that could help the situation at hand and not just sate his curiosity.

[deus_ex_harper]

"I tried to get access to their ship. I just wanted a look around. But their security found me, which isn't bad considering this ship, however beautiful she mad be is older tech than we have on the Maru." Somewhere Beka is probably cursing him for that. "So I take a wander around and like I said, alarms and suddenly security. Which I was hoping I could get away from before. So me and Trance are stuck there while, Worf, I think his name is. I wasn't really for remembering names when he's demanding I hand over what I used to hack their system. Of course I'm not going to hand over myself. They might go hack my head off. So I hand over my force lance."

As anyone High Guard would know that force lance is keyed in to the owners DNA and if it's not supposed to be handled by anyone else then it would just happen to give a shock to the person. Only Harper may have tweaked his a little and upped the power...

"I checked he was still breathing then hid."

[truth_is_cold]

He squinted over that, mulling over that knowledge. That he'd mentioned the Maru earlier and now that this ship had 'older tech'. Now that he looked at it, it was very primitive in a sleek way.

"I would compliment your survival strategy. It's cunning. How far in the past are we?" It was a safe conclusion to leap to, even if the symbols were unfamiliar. The PADDs people held were much bigger than flexis. The consoles having graphics that left something to be desired.

[deus_ex_harper]

Well that was different. Harper blinked. Trust a Nietzschean to compliment him on zapping the chief of security. Such a big difference to the way Dylan had reacted to finding out. Harper wasn't sure how he felt about it. Conflicted, to say the very least.

"A couple of thousand years, give or take a decade. So you're not gonna gonna tell me off. Dylan was disappointed."

[truth_is_cold]

"Why should I?" he asked blandly, but genuinely curious. "If you came here as I did, you're in a confusing new place without reason. Dylan thrives off diplomacy, but some do not nor should be expected to react well when pursued by an unfamiliar and potentially hostile person affiliated with another military." Which, as far as he knew, it could be someone's Home Guard here.

Oddly, though, just that mention makes him more inclined to believe Harper because Dylan had the unfortunate habit of being pleased with things he should be disappointed by and vice versa. Maybe then he would be pushing his ship harder. Maybe then he would approve of the Treaty of Antares.

But with so many things uncertain, though... That sort of need for survival in a human High Guard officer. The lack of uniform. The incongruity that this very small person had every bit of the ego of Neitzschean in his approach to technology, the same sort of ambitious lust if towards the ship.

Harper probably wouldn't appreciate that assessment.

"Is there any other crew from the Andromeda here?"