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.


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

[diamonds_are_forever]

"About a week. It's been rather dull, truthfully. No world threatening crises or racist bigots. Just boring bureaucracy and replicators." Emma shrugged, then brushed a hand over her ear, tucking her hair behind it. "Would you like me to show you to your temporary quarters?"

[evolutionaryman]

"I'm sorry you're bored. Could be worse?" Scott felt a little dizzy, from arrival, information lack and overload both, and the surprise of her, and the child, which was not his, but was the child of a version of his, if he was reading this right. Oi. What even was his life? When had it become this confusing? Oh, wait, right. When Henry McCoy the elder had brought them to the future. Damn him any way.

With a sigh, Scott nodded. "Yes, please. And if you could tell me a bit more about this place? Whatever you know might be helpful." Because of course, his mind was already working on the angles, and a plan. No information yet,but a plan nonetheless.

[diamonds_are_forever]

Emma frowned at some of his thoughts, but didn't comment. Instead she held out her hand to him. Just because she didn't love his older self anymore didn't mean that she wanted to be cruel to this version. "I can give you a telepathic package of what I've learned so far, if you like. It might be easier to unpack at your leisure."

[evolutionaryman]

Scott met her hand and shook it. Then he paused, and grinned. "You'd do that? Awesome!" he was used to Xavier doing that and if she could too, that was great! He started ordering his mind, letting it fall into the right pattern to accept and assimilate new information, then nodded to her.

"I'm ready."

He had always liked this, even if most did not. He liked having the new information slide into niches in his brain to be examined and be pulled apart and integrated. He had a mental faculty for assimilating information and data, or so Xavier had always told him.

[diamonds_are_forever]

As always Emma was fascinated by Scott's brain. She moved gently, revernetly. This young man deserved her respect. He'd recieved precious little of it at any point in his life so far. She wasn't sure he'd ever recieved it in adequate quantities.

The package contained all the gross information about the Enterprise, as well as her interactions with her Scott. It was more efficient that way.

[evolutionaryman]

Scott let the package settle and begin to spread, slowly sinking into the right places in his mind. "Hmmm, that was smoothly done. Thanks!" He grinned at her warmly, then closed his eyes. A few minutes later, he sighed and opened them.

"So, once again, we're somewhere we don't know how to escape, with situations we can't control, and having to learn to handle a whole new way of life." He snickered a little, feeling half hysterical and half-resigned. "This is seriously just like the rest of our lives, huh?"

[diamonds_are_forever]

"I used that method to teach Faith English so I got used to being gentle. Beside, I have no reason to hurt any version of you, annoying as one particular version may be." Despite it all she did still love her husband. She just couldn't mourn their separation fully. Too much time apart had given her ample opportunity to get used to being without him.

Scott's second statement drew a laugh out of Emma. "It was a soft laugh, more ironic than real. "Being in space doesn't change our luck. May I ask about you, since I told you some things about myself?"

[evolutionaryman]

Scott nodded, listening. She had a good talent with the telepathy, for sure, and as he absorbed what she had given him, he saw that she had given him a lot.

Scott nodded again, speaking quietly as they walked. "Well, in my universe, Henry McCoy went a little crazy when he was dying, and went back in time to my time, and brought me and the other four original X-men to the present, er, his time. And then we evaded a lot of people trying to capture us, I faced my slightly crazy older self, and we even saved Jean from being executed by the Shi'ar for the crimes her future self did."

He shook his head. "And I went off to space to be with my father, who everyone had thought was dead, but wasn't."

He rubbed his face, chuckling. "I think I'm less serious than I was, and making my own decisions, which I never really had a chance to do before, so I might not be anything like my old self anymore."

[diamonds_are_forever]

Emma considered that, giving Scott a sympathetic look. "I suppose that happens after my time or in some other universe. I don't remember you being brought forward in time, though Henry certainly had the capability and lack of foresight to do it in the world I dreamt about."

She led the way to the turbolift and requested the level with the temporary quarters. "I'm glad you became more independent, and I do hope Corsair is alive. As much as Scott and I have problems I still wish him, and you, the best."