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

[theycallmetodd]

There's a a sound that could be a brief chuckle, and a twist of thin lips that looks something like a smile. "Yes, so I have been told." He wouldn't really know. And, after a night of drinking games that he had been subjected to not too long ago, that had made him reveal too many truths about himself and had left him with a terrible headache the following day, he's stayed away from the more potent drinks found behind the bar.

[1stmacleod]

Despite his overall caution, Connor seems to have no reservations knocking back some scotch. He seems clear-eyed and sober, anyway, and the response he's getting is putting him at least slightly at ease. "Don't tell me you've never had any better? I'll start to feel sorry for you." The accent is impossible to pin down, and the raspy quality of his voice seems to be natural, rather than something a throat-clearing would fix.

[theycallmetodd]

Human accents are lost on the Wraith. Unless very distinct, he can't tell them apart, and even when he can he knows nothing about their point of origin. Tone of voice, however, he does listen to; lilt and pace, the structure of speech. It has a lot to tell.

"My kind does not have a culture of alcoholic beverages." Or any beverages, for that matter. Or food. "The exceedingly rare indulgence, perhaps, when we come across it. But we do not make any of our own."

[1stmacleod]

Accent alone may not be the best indicator, especially in a place where people come from all over, but Connor's speech habits wander, marking him as somebody who's widely traveled himself.

Very briefly, his eyebrows rise, because apparently the idea of no alcohol strikes him as an almost unimaginable scenario. If only he knew he was talking to somebody who doesn't need food or drink at all. "...Remind me not to visit your people. No offense..."

[theycallmetodd]

The fact of the matter is, these days he does need food and drink. Knowing he wouldn't be able to remain undetected for long in a closed environment such as this ship if he started feeding on the inhabitants - especially since there already were those on board that were familiar with his kind - he could chose between risking capture and imprisonment, and perhaps execution, or starvation. Or, finding another alternative. And he had; a gene therapy that reactivated the dormant digestive system that all Wraith have.

Which also made alcohol a whole new experience, since it suddenly had an actual effect.

"Oh, I doubt the opportunity would ever present itself." Which is probably a good thing for the human. "From where do you hail?"

[1stmacleod]

"...Lots of places." The wariness is always there, lurking underneath, even if he is warming up to the strangers just a little. He seems to realize quickly how belligerent and answer that really is, and adds, "Scotland, originally, but I've traveled... a lot." If he were more savvy to just where he is and what variety of people there are, he probably could have gotten away with just saying 'Earth'.

Connor takes another swig that finishes off his glass, all without showing any apparent sign of being affected at all. If the wraith is taking notes, he should probably remember never to get into a drinking contest with this man.