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

[southernreaper]

His hands curl into fists in his pockets. He wants to reach out and touch. He wants to... He forces his back against the window behind him, barely managing to not thunk his head backwards in defeat.

It helps when the guards ease back. His eyes immediately find Miss Frost. He knows what she's capable of and what she's probably done. He appreciates it... to a point. He knows how dangerous he is, and doesn't need to be reminded of it.

"A starship? Who is it? Shi'ar? Skrulls?" Who else is there? He's not even sure any more.

[diamonds_are_forever]

If Emma notices his glance or deduction she doesn't show it. "None of those, from what I can tell. The ship does have alien passengers and crew but it's an Earth ship. I'm going to come closer to you, but I know not to touch you." They're just far enough apart that she has to raise he voice a little to talk and that's certainly not helping the situation.

She motions to a table that's adjacent. "Please have a seat. We have a lot to discuss. The rules are different here. There are no X-men, no factions." It's strange to say. Probably one or two people would balk at being grouped in with Emma and Magneto, but with so few mutants any detractors are outliers rather than enemies.

[southernreaper]

He drags a chair around so that his back is to the window. It's the safest thing to have at his back right now. Kevin doesn't know if anyone around here is a hair ruffler or not, but he's not taking the chance.

He settles himself into a seat once she's seated. He can't help that. Ingrained manners stay with him, no matter how he feels. It's why there's nothing he can really say against Emma Frost. Even though she dragged him back to the Institute.

"The rules are different? How?" Because he wants to know if he's going to end up in jail because of someone else's mistake or not. And if she tells him it's safe, he'll laugh. The Institute was supposed to be safe too.

[diamonds_are_forever]

"Rule number one is that we comply with the authorities unless we're given a sufficiently good reason not to. While I generally leave that up to individual judgement I want to stress that our survival depends on secrecy right now." She spoke calmly, stressing the word 'survival' so he would understand what was at stake. She crossed her legs out of habit and sat up straight, looking Kevin directly in the eyes. It wasn't hard at all to fall back on her teacher personna. It was actually fairly welcome as a change from when she'd been flailing around to find all this information herself.

"You've been taken by an entity known as Q. You're in the future in another universe. The governing body of this vessel is called the Federation. It's a multi-species co-operative but they're not ready for us." Not from what she could tell so far, anyway.

[southernreaper]

Kevin takes a pointed look at his clothing and then at her. "I can't hide my mutation." He points out. The minute someone asks why he's always covered and shies away from physical contact, they're going to figure it out. And he's not going to lie. What's the point of lying about it?

Plus, there's the whole "dissolves organic material" thing that he has to deal with on a daily basis. He can't even wear the same clothing as everyone else.

"So, I was dragged to another universe by an entity, from a jail cell?" He wants to be sure that he's got it right. Because it seems a little far fetched, even though he knows some of the things that the senior X-Men have been through.

[diamonds_are_forever]

"I know. That's something we'll need to figure out and rather soon." She sighed and considered options for a moment, but nothing was ideal. "You don't have to handle it alone, anyway." That was something she knew for sure.

His summary of the situation was more or less accurate. She nodded and waved for a waiter. "You do remember you're an X-man, right? Would you like something to drink or eat? This is more or less a normal Thursday except nothing's tried to kill me yet." It felt a little unreal, even though she wasn't from a dangerous universe like 616. Orange County had its own dangers.

[southernreaper]

He stiffens. He's not an X-Man; he's a felon. And they let him become one. He isn't sure he trusts her just yet. Honestly, he's not sure he'll ever trust her again. Not after what happened.

"I ain't an X-Man." He says it softly, but there's conviction behind it. He had left the Institute once on his own and once in cuffs. Neither time they'd tried to stop him. He's never felt like one of them.

He glances at the waiter and tucks his hands away. "I'm fine." He doesn't want his odd eating habits to become common knowledge just yet.

[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.

[southernreaper]

She gives a pretty speech. She always has. It's how she got him to go back to the Institute in the first place. Does she remember that? Did it even happen in her universe?

He looks away from her, because she reminds him of what could be, what might have been. And that hurts, as much as he hates to admit it.

"Are there any others here?" Because he wants to know. They all let him be taken to the FBI. He needs to know who to avoid.

[diamonds_are_forever]

When he looks away Emma knows she's lost. It's a bitter feeling, just as it was when Laura left their conversation. So many lost children and none of them can accept help from her. She cursed her other self for neither the first nor last time.

"There are. Mostly we seem to get along just fine. Mutants are likely not the strangest passengers on the ship. There are even native telepaths. It seems likely that my worried are simply paranoia, but-" she pauses, lifting her hands as she shrugs. "I have learned that discretion is better than discrimination. I think that you can get along well here, even with your powers. Almost everything is synthetic."