TEST DRIVE #13 - Jefferies Tubes and Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

Option 001 - Jefferies Tubes: A ship like the Enterprise requires maintenance and a way to get at things behind the walls. It also, since there are no stairs, needs to have something people can use in case the turbolifts stop working. A cross between air ducts that are so useful for people to crawl through and maintenance shafts, the Jefferies tubes span across the entire ship like a hidden parallel to the normal, everyday corridors. They come in vertical and horizontal versions.

While most people except Engineering aren't supposed to be in them, people have been known to use them for everything from a quiet spot away from everything, vertical exercise, and a place with excellent acoustics for playing music, to the kind of sneaky trails one might use to get to restricted rooms. Just don't get lost.




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

[magneticxman]

"Oh yeah, I don't know anything about you, huh?" Lorna said with a laugh, smiling at him. "Why don't you give me the cliff notes version? We're almost at the bar, if you want to wait until you've got a drink in hand."

[hesnohero]

"Well, I could unravel my weird life, if you like?" Alex didn't mind. Besides, if they talked, maybe he could find out how different she was from his Lorna at core.

"I think a drink in hand is a good idea. Then I can relax and tell you of my life in Orange County, and the story of how it all got twisted, and turned upside down."

[magneticxman]

"Too bad we're not in Bel-Air," Lorna said with a smirk as the door to Ten Forward whooshed open and admitted them. "It only seems fair, and it could be fun. I have to admit that I'd love to hear how your life went without your crazy adoptive parents and your powers ruining your career."

[hesnohero]

"Yeah. Shame, that."

Alex followed her, in, musing that, while she looked subtly different, she shared many of Lorna's characteristics. He nodded. A lot of them.

"It was an interesting life." He looked around at the place he had only seen before in television screens and facepalmed. Now, his life was truly just as odd as his dream counterpart's was.

[magneticxman]

Lorna gently bumped Alex with her shoulder when he facepalmed. "None of that, mister. Do you want a table or to sit at the bar?"

[hesnohero]

Alex chuckled and poked her gently as he shook his head.

"Table, I think." he glanced around. "Too bad the Starjammer isn't here."

[magneticxman]

"Oh I know," Lorna said with a sigh. "I miss the old girl." She grabbed a seat and waved down a waiter. "Did you ever go out in her, or was she only in your dreams?"

[hesnohero]

"Oh yes. we did. We had her on Earth, and took her to battle some bad people, and even used her to stop a nuclear explosion." He smirked. "In the end, we had her retrofitted with transporters and phaser weapons, in an exchange with the Enterprise of the time."

He chuckled.

[magneticxman]

"Really?" Lorna asks, laughing with delight at the idea. "That's incredible!"

She leaned forward, whispering so they wouldn't be overheard. "Which Enterprise? This one?"

[hesnohero]

"Yeah. A weird version of Kirk was there with his Enterprise and his Doctor McCoy." Alex laughed. "It was fun."

It was nice to just talk. "Nope. A weird one."

[magneticxman]

"Weird? Like weirder than tv Kirk?" Lorna asked, laughing a little. "Because that dude's pretty weird."

It felt natural to talk to him like this. She forgot her awkwardness and relaxed, smiling brightly.

[hesnohero]

"Yeah. Wiry, smaller, less humorous and a little more crazy."

He shook his head.

[magneticxman]

"There's a Kirk here, or there was, anyway. I can't keep up. He's pretty," hot "crazy." The waiter finally arrived and Lorna ordered a vodka lemonade and some appetizers for them to share.

[hesnohero]

Alex ordered Oreos and whiskey.

[magneticxman]

"ooh, Oreos. THose are my favorite." Lorna said, once the waitress was gone. "Has anyone shown you the holodecks yet?"

[hesnohero]

Alex nodded, settling back, just clearing his mind and thinking calm thoughts. No reason why this couldn't just be fun, right? God, he hoped so.

"Yes, ah, Emma did."

He smiled a little. "Do you go there often?"

[magneticxman]

"Oh, I already asked that, didn't I?" Lorna said with a laugh. The laugh was a sad, small affair, too airy to be anything but nerves. She wanted so badly for this to go well.

"I do, but it's strange. I can see more colors than most people and the holodeck compensates for it. Everything is beautiful in there."

[hesnohero]

"S'okay. I was feeling wheee, when you asked, so It's good to ask again, sometimes."

He shook his head.

"Sometimes, life is like that. There will be a place you can go where nothing else intrudes."

[magneticxman]

Lorna nodded, sighing softly. "I wish that was the case back home as well." She could have used a little time to clear her head, there. Maybe they all would have made different choices.

"Please, tell me a little about yourself. We're getting off topic and I'm still really interested in hearing about you."

[hesnohero]

Alex smiled sadly. "Your world sucked, if my dreams were right."

Alex settled back and thought. "Hmmm.I left home early and went off to be a marine. Wasn't interested in science at the time. Became a special forces soldier while in the middle east, and led a team of deep insertion specialists, responsible for the acquisition of high profile targets."

He would never reveal his part in the bagging of a certain rogue head of state. That would just be bragging. Besides, few outside of the operation were in the know.

"I wrecked my leg while there, during a mission, and had to be cashiered with honors. On the way out of service, while getting some treatment in Tokyo, I did a tour as a diplomatic attache there, and then headed to Orange County, California to go through surgery and phyusically therapy."

[magneticxman]

Lorna listened with interest, leaning forward to make sure she heard everything he said. As he spoke she studied him, trying to learn more about him from How he talked about his life as well as the story he was telling.

"Orange County is where the craziness came from, right?"

[hesnohero]

"Yes, or so we all assumed. But it never started unless you spent time there." Alex chuckled. "It was after more than a year of living there, being a firefighter, that I started to dream. And met the other you."

He chuckled. "She was a pot store owner, and was my supplier for medical marijuana for awhile."

[magneticxman]

Lorna just laughed at that, shaking her head. "I can only see that going bad places. You're such a nerd when you're-"

She stopped, cringing a little. "I mean, the Alex I knew was a nerd when he was high." This wasn't him. They didn't even look similar. She wished very hard for her drink to arrive because she needed it so much to get through this conversation.

[hesnohero]

Alex chuckled. "I understood what you meant. I do the same thing in my head sometimes." One finger on his hand toyed with the ring on another, something he did without thinking, anymore. He hadn't taken it off. It was his talisman, a denial of the darkness and of the idea he might not get his Lorna back.

"As far as I know, I was mostly just mellow when i was high."

[magneticxman]

She noticed him toying with the ring and it hurt like hell. She wished, for probably the thousandth time, that they'd made it that far.

"That's good. Especially if you're using it for pain management." It was hard for her to focus, but she did her damnedest because she desperately wanted to get along with Alex.