TEST DRIVE #10 - Cetacean Pool and Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

#1

Option 001. Cetacean Pool/Aquatics Lab: Of all the places in the world, you open your eyes and you find yourself in a medium-sized aquatics laboratory, filled with various living specimens along with various science officers bustling about trying to maintain order. There's much to explore here (and hopefully, in the crew's opinion, not break), but the main attraction is the large pool at the far end of the lab; enormous but tanklike in appearance, it contains several dolphins happily swimming about, seemingly without a care in the world.


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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

[peggy_carter]

It was not Steve's size which had made him Captain America, sure that had helped him be stronger; but was his heart that that made him the super soldier. She had believed that from the day she met him. Erskine's faith was well put, and her own had soon followed.

"Marriage." The word was almost a whisper, it had been something she'd never even had the time to consider. Missions and briefings and so much work to be done. And then Steve was gone and all she had was time to think. What might have been, for him it was even more of a loss because he'd been closer to it. She felt greedy for her own heartache when he was greater. "I'm sure she would have said yes."

The stammering was what broke her, it was something Steve had when he spoke with her. Never in the field or with the men, but when he was being honest and emotional with her his tongue betrayed him every time. That hesitation drew the tear from the corner of her eye and a sad smile. "I was lucky for knowing him, we all were."

"It's alright, neither of us was quite what the other might have expected. Even so, I'm glad you're here. Because you may not be the Steve I knew, but you are still Steve Rogers. Knowing that he lives somewhere, that means a great deal to me."

[always_a_gerbil]

"I don't know if she would have but it helped. Something to hope for when there was so much horror around us." Something to dream about. 'When the war is over...' Like the letters from home the other guys had received. Something to believe in when he'd almost forgot why they were fighting. "She was kind of married to her work." And marriage would have compromised that since everyone would have expected her to settle down.

Seeing her heartache, he reached across the table to take her hand, smiling at how normal it felt. "I'm sorry. I don't know what happened between the two of you but I never wanted to hurt her. Or you. If I'd known, I wouldn't have said anything to you."

Maybe that would be best. Being glad that a Steve Rogers was alive didn't mean she would want to see him again. The ship was huge, or had seemed that way on the schematics he'd been allowed to look over. He could stay out of sight if that was what she wanted. "And I'm glad to see you like this. Means I'll have a bright memory to help keep the others alive."

Considering what she had said before about Project Rebirth, he smiled sheepishly, realizing that Steve probably looked completely different than him. "Too bad I don't live up to what you were expecting."

[theycallmetodd]

There are no visible weapons on the creature, but the heavy claws that tips his long fingers, and the sharp teeth glinting beneath his lips suggests that he may not need them. Even sitting and not moving, there is something of a predator about him.

He calmly meets the gaze of the stranger, and if he thinks anything about the weight of it, he doesn't show it. Just meets it, yellow eyes studying this new arrival. "For me, certainly not." Even with its alien qualities, his tone is perfectly polite. "And not likely for anyone else on board. For you? Only you can say."

[fuckyoudracula]

Typical, that a furball would find its way on board. But, Spike had to admit when looking over, it was a pretty furball. At least in this time of the lunar cycle. Hmm, how did that work all the way out here in space?

"See that door over there, love?" He gave a nod, hinting at the door leading to and from the lounge. "I did the strangest thing, you see. I walked through it."

[peggy_carter]

"And you still don't know a bloody thing about women." The laugh felt good, it was bitter sweet but still good. Steve, completely without guile about emotions. Could he really have doubted it? "I think I can speak with some authority on what she may have felt." His hand felt, smaller but warm and comforting on hers. It was roughened and calloused in a way she'd come to know from hard work he'd done. "Her work was your work and you would have done it together. I doubt it would have ever been conventional, but I think it would have been enough."

There was no other way for it, she would not have given up her work and he would never have asked her to. Sure she could be int he field and pregnant, but there were ways to ensure that was not a risk to be taken if it were even possible. That wasn't a given either since Rebirth changed him so dramatically. It would have taken some arranging and opening some minds but she felt sure in her world at least, that is how it would have worked.

"Steve was driven, especially after he rescued Barnes; the two were practically inseparable. They were part of an advance team to a remote Hydra base in the Alps, Barnes was lost in a fight before they arrived. I think Steve took that harder than anything and it made him determined to make Hydra pay. When he got his chance to stop a massive weapon and Schmidt at the same time, well there was no turning back. In the end he managed to eliminate
Schmidt, stop the weapon and took Hydra's worst into the ocean. He went down with it." He was never found, they looked for months. He was gone.

"The last thing he said to me," she coughed out a short dark laugh, "he was rescheduling our date and talking about dancing. I never said anything, we never," She swallowed and looked away again. "Even in the last moments we lied to each other and I've never forgiven myself for that. So please understand what seeing you means, and why I can never be sorry for it. I hope you won't be either."

It let her know that somewhere they had gotten it at least a little right and that was good. But she frowned with his last and her hand gripped his firmly. "You do, he always did. It didn't matter what his body was, everything Steve Rogers was and did came from his heart. I knew that from almost the moment I met him, it's what I loved most."

And that was saying too much, Peggy withdrew her hands and felt her cheeks darken for having stepped over the line.

[always_a_gerbil]

That comment was enough to cause him to grin. Whether she was his Peggy or another Steve's, it was so similar that he couldn't help being pleased to hear it again. "She used to say that to me all the time. Still don't most of the time." But he seemed to be holding his own today. "Thank you, for that. I know she lived a full life after... I don't think she ever knew I was going to ask." She probably did. Peggy usually could anticipate his plans but he'd never known for certain or what her answer might have been. "Nothing about us was conventional."

Which was why it had worked. No one expected much of a frail looking soldier or a woman. It was something that was frustrating and wrong but the two of them had used those assumptions to their advantage during the war.

"We rescued Bucky. I couldn't leave him behind and she wouldn't let me go alone. Stark flew us in and we took care of the rest." They almost hadn't survived but somehow they'd managed. "We became a team. They dressed Bucky up like something out of the comic books and we became the Howling Commandos. They didn't care what size the guy doing the planning was if the plans worked." And they had right up to the end.

"Bucky..." Wait. Lost? "Bucky died?" No... that's not how it happened. That Steve had lost... The thought made Steve sick. What would it have been like to lose his best friend, his brother...

"The rest sounds about the same." Except Bucky hadn't survived to see the end of it. Hadn't been there during the crash. "Right down to the date except Bucky was with me."

Shaking off the empathy he felt for the other Steve, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "You might have lied to each other, but he knew how you felt. If he didn't he was an idiot." Which was probably rude except he was Steve, or a version of him. "And he wasn't. We might not have know a thing about dames but he would've known the truth. And that call... that promise." Swallowing hard, he ignored the lingering memories that still twisted him even years later. "It's what made it bearable."

For a second, he envied the other Steve. He might not have had the life with Peggy he'd had, but it was obvious how much she loved him. His Peggy had loved him too but he couldn't help wishing he could hear her say those things about him. "That's why I fell head over heals for her. She was one of the first people who looked past it all and realized who I was."

Carefully ignoring her blush, he waited for her to compose herself. "I'm sure that's why he loved you and you can't tell me I'm wrong. If you're an expert on Peggy Carters then I'm an expert in Steve Rogers."

[peggy_carter]

If she closed her eyes she could almost imagine it was the Steve she knew. If that was wrong she didn't care, she took that moment, it helped with the closure she'd been trying to get for years.

"I can't speak for what the Peggy you knew did, but I stayed with the S.S.R. till the end of the war. I transferred into the New York branch and was put to work code breaking while we tried to hunt down the last of Hydra. It wasn't ideal, I faced a lot of men who would rather I not have been there. I wasn't given field ops, I was even asked to fetch coffee." It had been insulting and demeaning but she'd stuck it through knowing they would have to let her do what she did best eventually.

"Howard got into some trouble, not the social kind this time, and was branded a traitor. He came to me for help and I knew it could not be true. I made it my night job to help him and find out what was really happening. So, let's see..disarm a bomb, save New York, earn the gratitude of one of the countries richest men and then back to serving coffee." It had been a thrill to be back in the field but her brief foray hadn't ended well.

"Oh yes, and then I was arrested for treason, completely false of course. Uncovered a program to raise and train young assassins in Russia, and got back to be treated like the office secretary and nearly fired." But that wouldn't have been so bad all things considered, she had more to offer than they were willing to use clearly so it was time to move on. "And that was when Howard called me about a job. New organization he was getting off the ground, and he wanted me to head it up." Her, not some man, but Peggy Carter, founder of SHIELD.

"We were just getting things started when I ended up here." Life had an odd way about it.


So much the same and so vastly different at the same time. His plane had crashed but at least he wasn't alone at the end, that was good..wait.. "If your plane went down, how are you here? What happened?"

[southernreaper]

He's too eager. He wants the gloves desperately and that means that his power is eager too. It wants to touch, to feed...

He grabs the gloves out of the air and it happens. That slight pull, that gentle brush against the back of his mind that gives him the rush and makes it feel like it'll be okay.

Before he knows it, ash is sifting through his fingers, falling to the floor. Kevin stares at it, almost fascinated. "They need to be inorganic." His voice is rough and harsh. He looks up at the woman who brought him here. "The gloves. They need to be inorganic."

[midnighthour]

Her fingers itched as the bartender set down another drink. She wasn't even sure what it was and at this point she didn't really care. It wasn't as if she could get drunk, by normal means anyway.

Kitty leaned forward trying to force herself to small and looked relaxed. It wasn't working. "Yeah? Tell me about it." Her tone was flat but curious. They weren't trying to start a collection of strange people here were they?

Her eyes trained on the cold space that Spike sat and she had to wonder what sort of stories he could tell. She didn't like Vampires and she's had more than one bad experience with them but that didn't mean she still hadn't wanted to get one on her show.

[diamonds_are_forever]

Emma shrugged and ordered a water, waving the waiter away when she was done. That wasn't an unexpected attitude, really. "Fine, but neither am I. I'm not from the same universe as you. I have a daughter and I had, until rather recently, a family and a future. That family is gone now, and I must learn new ways to deal with that. The same holds true for your baggage. We can choose to cling to our pasts or we can rise above them. I hope that what you choose is what you really want."

It didn't take a telepath to see that he didn't regard her the same way her other students did. It made sense, of course, but it was frustrating because she still felt that she was the best person to talk sense into him. All of Emma's memories with very little of the damage that had defined the White Queen.

Ah, but maybe there was just enough ice in her veins to make a clean break with her other self impossible. Kevin was a test as well as a student in need. She'd failed with Laura, it was time to have a win.

[fuckyoudracula]

"No-one told me this was supposed to be some sort of story-time," he snorted, taking a deep swallow of beer. "Misadventures in space and what-not. How to get yourself stuck in bleedin' science fiction show."

He fished in his coat pocket, taking out a rather crumpled pack of cigarettes, popping one between his lips. However, the glare of the man behind the bar stopped him from lighting it, and with a suffering sigh he put it back.

[midnighthour]

Her eyes narrowed slight and then she laughed. I mean, how could you not? "Science fiction?" The last two years of her life had felt like fiction to her and now she was in space. It wasn't as if things could really get even more weird.

"Can't you just.." She waved a hand. "Find your way home? It's not as if you don't have the time?"

Kitty knew she was talking to him a bit to casually but she didn't care. She was frustrated, on edge and her wolf wasn't settling down despite her best efforts. It had to be that damn vampire. With him here she couldn't really relax. She downed her drink and then slid it away so that bartender wouldn't refill it.

[professorhotpants]

Augustine nodded and took a deep breath. "What are the creatures in the pool? They don't say their name."

[liamjones]

"Among... pirates...?" he asked slowly. He trusted his brother, of course he did, but he did not know which strained credibility further, that his brother, little Killian, had become a pirate... or the claim that they had honor.

"The same thieves that besieged us whenever we sailed for a port too far outside official waters?"

[seekingcrocodile]

"Liam." It's not about that. It was never about that. "A king will tell you that he's looking for a plant that will cure any ailment or injury, and what a wonderful thing that is. No more sailors dying at sea. Then it turns out that what the king is really looking for is a poison, which he can use to defeat any enemy without giving them a fair chance at a fight." Which is bad form. "A pirate will tell you he's looking for poison. You know what you're getting with him."

[fuckyoudracula]

He flashed a grin, turning on his stool to gesture at the lounge. The lounge of the bloody Starship Enterprise. "I'm just waiting for C3PO and R2D2 to come around the corner."

Turning back to his beer, he shook his head. "Oh yeah, I'd love to wait around for a century or two until we get close enough that I could swim home," he muttered, sarcasm dripping of every word.

[kaylinneya]

She blinked, staring at that for a moment before swearing up a blue streak. She glared at the bracer she wore, as if it had offended her. It lay there inert on her wrist, she scowled and looked up at him, swearing again.

"That's...not magic?" she asked, to be sure.

[liamjones]

"That may well be, brother, but a pirate will also take that which he has not worked for, has not earned, from those who can ill afford to spare it. A pirate has little care for those he hurts along his way. This... is not a life I can see you in, truly, my brother."

[seekingcrocodile]

"What makes you think I took from those who could ill afford it? It was the king with whom I had my quarrel." Of all the people he would have expected to realize that he could be a pirate and a good person at the same time, Liam was at the top of that list.

[liamjones]

And he will come to that in time, because of his brother. "And you found a pirate crew willing to accept that as the only target? And what of those who lost their pay or worse because they could not fend off the attack?" he asked carefully, concern for his brother in his eyes.

He reached out and put his hand over Killian's. He gave it a warm squeeze. "We were once those men, knowing little of the King's betrayal."

[midnighthour]

"Shouldn't we be worried about Darth Vader first?" She chuckled softly. Sarcasm was good. She could get through any situation with sarcasm. Her eyes flicked over towards the windows and the unfamiliar stars outside. She missed her sky, her forest, her friend but he wasn't coming back.

Kitty sighed turning to face the Vampire fully. "So what's your name?" He was strange compared to the vampires she has met but then that was perhaps a different situation. She knew he would latch onto his secrets. That was a theme of most vampires but he was still different and she wanted to know why.

[seekingcrocodile]

"I know we were. When it's a matter of survival, you take what's available."

He knows it's a hollow excuse, but it made sense at the time, and he doesn't regret it. He hadn't lost who he was during those initial years. It was only later, after other losses, that he forgot a few things.

"It was the same crew, Liam. They'd had their captain die same as I had. I told them of my intention to turn pirate and that anyone who did not wish to join me was free to leave. To a man, they stood by me and my decision."

[liamjones]

He sat back, a bit stunned. It was... odd... to be touched by a show of loyalty through utter and complete disloyalty, but.. touched he was. Killian was one thing, they were brothers, and if he had died...

Well... he couldn't imagine what he would have done had he lost Killian, really. But the crew.. there were no blood ties there, and while he would have given his life for each and every one of them, this confirmation that his trust was well placed, that his people thought of him so well...

He nodded, listening. "Go on," he said, still a little sunshocked from this.

[fuckyoudracula]

"Vader? Naah, he's a pussy cat, that one. Besides, the dark side has cookies. Haven't you heard?" Cookies would be good, especially since the beer on this ship sucked.

"The name's Spike," he answered, having decided to play nice. Or nice-ish, anyway. "And I would assume you'd preferred it if I didn't call you Fido." He would, even if she told him her name.

[1stmacleod]

That's not a fighting answer, and that's enough to satisfy him for the moment. Connor's not really trying to be unfriendly, he's just not sure where he stands, here, and that puts him very much on edge. Still, he answers this time with the briefest flash of a smile, and a marginally less wary tone. "I don't know yet." After a pause, he adds, "The whiskey could be better." There's a wry twist to his lips. not quite a smile, but the possibility of one. He's testing the ground, half predator and half prey himself.