TEST DRIVE #10 - Cetacean Pool and Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

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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

[kaylinneya]

Anyone else called her that, they'd be inviting a fist to the face, but a kid? She grinned and tickled his belly with her nose.

Disgusted, the dragon lifted off of her shoulders to hover behind her. "We're going to go over to the medical area, okay? There are lots of doctors here, and if your brother came here too, someone else came here, he would be taken there to be checked out."

"So we'll head there, okay?" she said, bouncing him gently. And maybe someone there would know where they should take him, who could take care of him.

[elephanthead]

He giggled as he nose rubbed against his belly. "Medical!" The frog croaked from atop the tea pot that rested on his head. "Here that Dr. Cucumber! You will be able to operate on surgery! PSH, Paging Dr. Cucumber."

For a moment Greg lost track of his frog only to see the green creature briefly come into view from under the tea pot. "There you are Dr. Cucumber!"

"Will the doctors know where Wirt is? I though doctors cured tummy aches."

[kaylinneya]

"The doctors here can do lots of things," she said, trying to remind herself of all the myriad reasons that a talking frog shouldn't bother her. It shouldn't. She's seen worse. ******, she IS worse.

Still. It was a ******ing talking frog.

She took several deep breaths as she carried the kid, reminded again how carrying a child was like wearing big old blinders. She started to remember... but forced her mind away before she could too clearly picture Severn carrying Catti, dressed only in his tabard, into the halls of law. Before she could see again Severn carrying two other children, so much smaller, yet so much larger all at once.

Her mouth trembled, wanting to say their names.

She locked the pain away inside, to focus on the kid she held. Here. Now. Here she could help someone, take care of a child who needed it, keep him safe. She would not fail. Not again.

"If your brother is here, we'll find him," she assured the child, kissing his forehead, under the teapot, thinking instead of Mayalee, and how much the kid would giggle if Kaylin ever tried to kiss her there, between her amphorae.

"And if he isn't, we'll keep you safe and comfortable until he arrives, or you go back, alright?" she asked.

[elephanthead]

Greg was blissfully unaware of her thoughts. He pursed his lips together and started making airplane noises. When she lightly kissed his forehead he paused looking up at her with wide eyes. Only his mom had ever gave him kisses like that and he looked more than a little surprised that this woman was doing the same.

She must be a mom too!

Greg smiled then ignoring as his frog takes refuge under the teapot on his head. "Alright. Wirt's smart. He'll find me."

The boys confidence was overwhelming and it's apparent that there was no room for doubt in his countenance.

[kaylinneya]

"I'm sure you'll be together again," she said. She couldn't lie to save her skin. But she could dance around the truth. Only dancing she'd ever been good at.

She carried him into the turbolift. "This might feel a bit odd," she said with a smile as she bounced the kid.

[elephanthead]

"Anything is possible if you believe." Greg appeared overly confident about it and completely unconcerned with the possibility that he wouldn't see his brother again. He wiggles in the woman's hold kicking his feet with a wide smile.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" Greg giggled as they moved up and he was bounced in the air. It was like flying!

[kaylinneya]

The turbo lift moved, bringing them to the proper deck for the medical bay. She grinned and bounced the kid some more as she stepped out of the turbo lift.

[elephanthead]

Greg's smile stayed in place until the lift stopped. His expression fell and he froze. "WAIT!" He wiggled free of hold dropping to the ground and then moving into the hall. He stopped at the map display that was just outside the life and pointed up at the blinking lights.

"It's a map! So we can find our way home!"

[kaylinneya]

She followed him out. "Maps are good tools for finding your way home," she agreed. Of course that didn't apply when your home wasn't on the map. Also didn't apply when the adult on the outing was Kaylin Neya. Not that she'd ever admit to her horrible sense of direction.

"We're still going to check sickbay to see if your brother is there. Alright?"