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

[always_a_gerbil]

"In that, the two of you are the same." There was more than just that that made the two of them similar but Steve didn't want to think too much on that subject. His Peggy had lived a long life, had done great things and had a family. No matter how much he might hope, they weren't the same person and it was unfair of him to try to see how they were the same. But, fair or not, it was difficult not to want to see some trace of the past that he'd thought was nearly lost.

His lips twitched as he fought back a smile when she laughed at his assessment of being considered an agent. "Everyone underestimating me was always one of our advantages when we worked together. A woman and a scrawny kid that looked like the wind could knock over were never thought of as a danger until it was too late." Even when Steve had been with the Commandos, most of the enemy soldiers - and some from their own side - hadn't believed he was a threat. "Everyone used to wonder why a lady like that would be with someone like me." His smile turned wistful, eyes unfocused for a moment as memory caught up with him. There were so many things that he missed while he spent every day pretending that it didn't bother him that he'd lost everything except Bucky.

"No, Peggy... it wasn't your fault." Catching her hand, he gave her a pleading look. Even during his worst moments, when he raged over what had been lost and struggled with memories of the war, Steve hadn't blamed her or Howard for not finding them. "Don't ever believe that it was your fault. The plane was lost in the ice. It took decades for there to be technology that could find it. You and Howard did everything you could. Even if it'd been found back then, I don't know if they could've drilled through the ice to find us... him."

Gently brushing his thumb over her knuckles, he hoped that she would believe that. It was no one's fault except his own. He'd wanted to protect the world and that meant putting the plane down in the most remote spot possible. "If I'd - he'd - been found sooner, they might not have had the ability to bring him out of the..." That was something he shied away from. The ice still gave him nightmares, still ached in his bones when he thought about it. "Whatever state we were in down there.

"It's probably best that no one recreated it. They might have gotten another Schmidt." He couldn't help thinking of Bruce. "I know they kept trying but the results... Bucky and I were the lucky ones." Even if it wasn't his fault, Steve still felt guilty for all the people who had been hurt by the attempts to replicate the serum. His miracle had destroyed too many lives.

"I can't say what he'd think of all that, but my Peggy had to do the same thing and I was relieved when she told me that she protected the world - protected me - that way. You did the right thing. They would've done terrible things with my blood. I'm sorry you had to go through that but I'm glad it was you because you understood what would happen and what I would've wanted."

It hurt to put that into words even though he knew she needed to hear it. His throat ached as he forced back grief that felt as sharp as it had looked around a busy New York street that seemed like something out of a nightmare and realize he'd lost everything. "I wanted to go home when the war was over. I wanted to go home with you beside me and you gave me that. Thank you."

[peggy_carter]

He forgave her, or more accurately relieved her of self imposed blame. Of course he would, that was Steve, not a man who was naive or dull but a man of a truly good heart. He had sound and logical reasons for how he felt, but logic so very rarely came to comfort for feelings. He might forgive her but she wasn't sure she could ever forgive herself.

She had lived with it every day since he was lost, the void the feeling of something missing. Just being near him, any version of him, was achingly soothing to that void. His touch was as soft and compassionate as always, though she knew he could just as easily handle a heavy weapon or, well the other Steve could have. Perhaps this one had not but he still had the spirit of a fighter.

"It only worked once for us, and I remember saying at the time that Erskine would have been pleased it was you. I hope she let you know that as well." There was no way to tell how divergent their lives had been with the way the project worked for him. But she could bet there were some constants, like her own feelings.

"So you knew her, all those years later? And she told you what had happened?" Would she have the strength to do the same? Could she recount the emotional memory of it to him when he looked so, young? Dear god, she would be a wrinkled old woman by then. Well into the end of her life, well past hope for anything between them. Fresh heartache overtook her for the bitter-sweetness of that reunion. The unfairness of it all was oppressive.

"When I was a little girl we were still recovering from a world war. We never thought such devastation could come again, let alone in our life times. When it did, I knew then that life was not about balance, things didn't just happen to those who deserved them. I lost my faith in so much, I learned life was not fair." Her eyes faded to that distant memory, then a slow smile spread across her lips, rueful and tinged with a bit of sadness, but a smile nonetheless.

"And then I met a skinny, toe-headed man who looked as though he might break in a stiff wind. And he did the one thing I thought was impossible." Her hand turned under his, as if by habit her fingers entwined his own. "He restored my faith. He gave me a reason to fight. And when I'd had a reason to die, he gave me a reason to live." Her gaze returned and leveled on Steve, as he was. Thin, drawn and still determined. He wasn't her Steve, but he was still the man who had changed her life.

[always_a_gerbil]

It couldn't be easy for her. Seeing him like this when there had been another Steve Rogers who had been the hero that everyone had wished for. He had gotten over the disappointment others had felt, mostly because of Erskine's last attempt at showing him his worth and by Peggy's constant encouragement. "She did. So did he. Before he died, he looked proud. I wasn't a disappointment to either one of them. She actually - uh - trained me. Taught me to fight so that I used the advantages I had instead of fighting like someone twice my size."

She wouldn't have taken the time if she hadn't thought of him as someone worthwhile. There were too many important tasks that she could have taken up instead of helping him for that not to be proof of her belief. "Bucky still thinks it's not right that a little guy like me can wipe the floor with him." It wasn't meant to be boastful. It was a hint that things had worked out. Steve Rogers may not have been a super soldier but he had his own type of strength because Peggy Carter had decided he was important.

"And she..." Ducking his head, he couldn't help feeling a little shy about the details of his relationship with his Peggy. The 'modern' world had made him more open on certain subjects but that was something special that he shared with only a few people. "She choose me. She could've had any guy she wanted and..." He still felt a little dazed by that. "And I was the one that got to be her sweetheart."

For a few seconds, Steve almost wanted to tell her, but what good would it do? There was no cure for Alzheimer's. They said there was no way to prevent it. It'd be would be cruel to tell her that part of her future... if it would be part of his Peggy's future. "I do. We talk regularly. I tell her stories about my team and she says I'm too dramatic. I don't think she really believes all of it. Sometimes I don't believe all of it." Gently squeezing her hand, his expression was a mixture of affection and sadness. "She's still the most beautiful woman I've ever met."

As Peggy laced her fingers between his, his chest ached with an old longing. "And he'd given up much hope of anyone seeing who he really was until this whirlwind walked up to the soldier next to him and laid him out flat. Always looking perfect and looking so proud whenever he outsmarted the bigger guys. When she looked at him in that taxi cab, there was no pity. There was faith and the potential for something more. She taught not to let the closed doors stop me when it would've been easy to give up." All because she'd had that faith in him. "It wasn't just the serum that made me who I am. It was her belief in me and I'm sure that your Steve Rogers knows that too."

[peggy_carter]

"Did she? Then you are tougher than you look. I know how I train and I don't believe in pulling punches. Not preparing someone for the reality of what they will face is no way to start them out." She thought about how she would have trained him, how she had begun to train him in another life. Use your weight and size to distract, hide and be the fulcrum to the others mass and speed. Turn their supposed advantages against them and never let up until you were secure.It was how she had survived this long, scarred but alive.

Could she have any man she wanted? No. She was attractive, yes. Intelligent, without question. But after the war there were so many women and so few soldiers who returned whole. "Finding a man isn't the problem." She found herself echoing an earlier statement to Howard. "It's finding the right one." Her perspective on that had changed as well. It was hard to meet the bar when it has been set by Captain America. "I think she counted herself as lucky too." Double edged sword, she had been a bit jealous over him as well, she could hope the other her fared better.


"Your team? The Howling Commandos can't still be operating at their ages." She knew the men well, and liked them all, but they would not be in any shape for much of anything in seventy years. Her curiosity was derailed by his compliment, and for once she was left to stammer a reply. "You are far too kind to old ladies then."

She listened to a past that might have been, a future denied to them both. She listened and closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to build. It wasn't the story she knew, but she could see it so easily, her grip on his hand tightened. "Maybe," She didn't dare open her eyes again, not yet. "Maybe there is a reason we're here, like this. Maybe this is a second chance. Two people who have seen different sides of the same story and know that it could never end up as it should. Until now." Her breath was still, it was a risk being so bold, but with all they had lost maybe it was time for bold actions.

[always_a_gerbil]

"I was always tougher than I looked. She and Erskine knew that when I was in boot camp. The serum worked in its own way. Perfect health and accelerated healing. I was better off than most of the guys that were out there fighting." Pausing, he gave her a wry grin. "She didn't pull her punches but she knew I could take a beating even before the procedure. She knew I'd grown up getting beat up in alleys. Even at her worst she was kinder than the neighborhood bullies."

The smile wavered slightly before he forced aside his reaction to those words. He knew how to hide his feelings. Both Peggy and Natasha had trained him but he'd never been able to keep things from Peggy. Especially when they had dealt with matters of the heart. "The right partner. I hope she believed she was lucky. I put her through so much... she didn't deserve that and neither did you."

At least the team was a safer subject even if some of it would probably shock her. "A new team that Bucky and I lead. We're called the Avengers." Tony's description came to mind and he chuckled softly. "'Earth's mightiest heroes according to Stark but he likes to exaggerate." Realizing that he had surprised her with the compliment, Steve gave her the patient look that he used when training new recruits. "You of all people should know that there's more to someone than how they look."

It was probably lucky for him that she had closed her eyes since he wasn't sure what his expression would have shown her if she watched him. Grief. Hope. Uncertainty mingled with guilt. This wasn't his Peggy. Her Steve had been a different man and it was wrong for her memories of him to be the reason for the chance that Steve had dreamed of for years. "Are you... are you sure? I'm not him."

He knew he didn't see her just as his best girl. She wasn't. That Peggy was back home, decades older than him. The memories of her were something he cherished and would never tarnish. But he also knew that she would be disappointed if she didn't take the chance that was offered. She had always wanted his happiness.

"Peggy, I..." Swallowing hard, he tried to ignore the hope that he'd almost given up on, knowing that he couldn't give in to it immediately. They were each similar to people who had been lost. It wouldn't easy. If she even was suggesting what he assumed and it wasn't wishful thinking on his part. "I would be honored to have a second chance wherever that it might lead."

[peggy_carter]

"Avengers? Well that is a bit dramatic, but it certainly sounds like the sort of flair Howard would have." It was natural to assume any reference to Stark would be to Howard. She had no way of knowing that there would be offspring, nor would she know about the tragic end of her good friend.

So much could be different between their worlds, she feared that difference might have made Steve react badly to her suggestion.It was why her eyes had remained closed, the rejection would be easier to bear if she didn't have to see the guilt in his eyes. He would feel guilty for causing her pain, it was just who he was.

If his senses were keen he could sense the tremor in her hand, fear over a response was no a normal state for her; it could surprise them both. The silence stretched out in a painful eternity, with a simple answer. Her breath released in a rush and her shoulders softened.

Peggy opened her eyes, they were shining and her smile was brilliant. She wrapped her other hand around theirs together. "It is a chance, no one knows what might happen. But I thought I would never get this change again and I am determined not to waste it."

[always_a_gerbil]

"Tony is dramatic but he's a good guy. Even if he pretends he isn't." Or believes that he's not. Eventually they'd get through to him and Tony would realize that he was just as much a hero as the rest of them.

There was no way to know if he was giving her the right answer. It was the kind of situation that he never would have believed possible even after seventy years on ice and an alien invasion. It had to be frightening to make that offer, not knowing how much he really was like her Steve or if he could look past the obvious and see more than just the woman he loved. "I wished for a chance, but I don't want to be selfish."

Truthfully part of him did. Steve wanted to ignore that there had been another Rogers that had loved this Peggy and start something new with someone who would have some understanding of what he had been through. Someone who was as bright and vibrant as his best gal. But he also knew what he'd never forgive himself if he was selfish. "I don't want to lessen his memory. You love him and I would never... I wouldn't ever want you to give that up."

But he still held tightly to her hand, memorizing that smile that made him feel like he had in the taxi, jittery and star struck by the beautiful woman who saw him instead of his differences. He tried to memorize every detail, knowing that there would be a dozen drawings in his sketchbook later so that he never forgot that he had been given this moment with her.. "Maybe we should think of it as a chance for something new that they both would have wanted us to have."

[peggy_carter]

"Tony?" That name was not familiar to her and she didn't know of any relatives of Howard by that name. Not to say it was impossible, the closer she got to Howard the more she realized she didn't know about him. But he was still a dear friend and she was pleased to know he was there for Steve in the future. It might have been bleak to arrive in a world where he didn't have a familiar face.

"You couldn't, you wouldn't. The memories I have of my time with him are precious, and he's one. If he shares anything with you that means he survived into my future and things are as impossible for him as they were for me. I would hope he,and you, would eventually found a way to be at peace and be happy." She was aware it was an impossible contradiction, the Steve before her was acting as though he hadn't found a way to move on, that he still harbored deep feelings for his Peggy. Just as she knew she would always love Steve, even if they had never had the chance to see where things could go with each other. She was practical enough to think that after she had gained some closure she would want companionship for her later years. She would not be alone, but it wouldn't be the love of her life.

"Then we may want to start this out appropriately." Peggy squared her shoulders and shifted her grip to a handshake. "My name is Peggy Carter, I worked for an organization named SHIELD before I came here." She smiled warmly, it was different from the look of admiration and adoration she normally held for Steve, it was simple and honest. "I would very much like to get to know you."

[always_a_gerbil]

"Howard's son." It still felt odd to say that. To wake up to find seventy years had passed and a friend had a child that was older than Steve. "He's a genius. I mean, beyond what Howard was. Things I doubt Howard ever even dreamed of." They took his breath away sometimes. "He created armor to fight in so that he could protect people. The first time we fought together, he took on a suicide mission to save the world. Somehow he managed to make it back."

But Tony still doubted his worth even after all the ways he'd helped others. "He helped all of us try to find a place in the world when we're not... none of us are normal but it all works for us." Most of the time. There were still fights and tension but when they had to, they worked seamlessly as a team.

Which was something both he and Bucky had needed but in some ways it wasn't enough. Steve still struggled while Bucky had embraced the new world. Of course it helped that Buck had found a girl he was head over heels for. "I hope he did. I..." One of the lies he always seemed to keep ready was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't lie to Peggy. "I haven't found that. Not yet. Content, maybe. But it's not the same. It's still... seventy years, Peg." The old nickname slipped out without him noticing. "That's not something you accept quickly no matter how often people say it should be easy."

Slowly the loss slipped away, chuckling at Peggy's proper introduction. "My name is Steve Rogers, part time agent of SHIELD and full time Avenger." It sounded ridiculous but he kept his expression serious despite the hope brightening blue eyes. "I would like that too."

[peggy_carter]

Of course Howard had a family, and a child who would carry on his legacy of brilliance. Why she hadn't had that thought occur to her was shocking. Truth be told with Howard's tendencies there could by any number of children in the world to claim him as a father. She shouldn't even be surprised, but still there was a reminder that life did indeed go on, for everyone involved. "You'd be scandalized by some of the things that Howard has thought of."

But there was no surprise to her that any child of her best friend could save the world in selfless determination. She hoped that the other Peggy had managed to be a part of his life. She'd always wanted to be an aunt, to have family. She wasn't ready to admit the need for her own or the idea of having children of her own because her life had been planned out in dreams and she woke from them to find a necessary piece missing.

Apparently he had felt much the same, she hopped it was possible for him to have found peace but it was a lie to say she was not pleased to have such a hold over his heart. Well that some Peggy did. SO much so that the nickname feel automatically from his lips and she felt that tug at her heart so strong it made her chest heave. "Losing someone you love should never be easy, if it is than it isn't love."

She released his hand to take a more familiar grip, her fingers and his meshing. "Then I think we should talk, I think we have a lot of catching up to do."