TEST DRIVE #16 - Turbolifts and Ten Forward

[ten_fwd_mods]

Option 001. Trapped in a Turbolift: This space travel thing is new to you, and you're starting to think the ship is purposely out to get you. A turbolift is just a grandiose name for an elevator, which should be the safest way to travel after all! But someone out there is out to get you, you're sure of it. Because the next thing you know, the lights flicker and the lift grinds to a stop. You're trapped, with whomever was unlucky enough to be in the lift with you.

It could be hours before you're rescued. These turbolifts span the entire massive ship, and don't just travel straight up and down. No, they can travel horizontally, vertically, sometimes even diagonally. You could be stuck between any deck now. There is a small access panel on one of the smooth walls, but how good are you with getting these things to work? Let's not forget that sudden stop tossed everyone around a little, and people could be hurt. Time to put your emergency thinking cap on, and make friends with the people beside you fast. You could be the only way back to freedom.

Conversely, you could slide that pack of cards out of your pocket and start a rousing game of gin rummy. Really it's up to you.







Option 002. Ten Forward: You have no idea what just happened. One minute you were home, minding your own business, 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, and some of the food is looking rather strange too.

You've managed to land in Ten Forward. A long bar with barstools and a bartender span one side of the room, with a bank of strange computers on that same wall. It looks like people are ordering food and drinks from them. Tables are sprinkled throughout, and the far wall is nothing but floor to ceiling windows with a view 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

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam raised a hand. "Okay, okay." Yeah, that was gonna be sore tomorrow, too, but he was kind of used to that, by now. "That sounds awful. Um. Broken elevators aside, this seems... preferable. You kind of have the advantage over me, though. I'll forget the nose if you'll tell me your name."

[dust_of_life]

And he was still adorably charming. This got better and better.

Fatima nodded slightly, trying to relax against the side of the lift. "Fatima," she said. She used the most Americanized pronunciation of it. "Fatima Merali. Originally from LA. Haven't been there in two years."

Two years. Wow. She hadn't said that out loud before, but it was kind of shocking.

[iwatchtjhooker]

"That's a long time to be away from home," Sam said. Not that he really knew that feeling, but it was one he'd always kind of wondered if he missed. Like, was it good to have a home to miss? Or did moving all the time shield you from that kind of annoyance?

Well. If it wasn't awkward enough, being trapped in an elevator with a stranger, it was with someone for whom he wasn't entirely one, and in a way Sam hadn't yet been able to figure out, given her behavior.

Wait.

"'A sweet puppy-boy in an emo-hoodie who likes to suck my toes'?" Sam said after a moment, forehead furrowing dramatically.

[dust_of_life]

Crap.

Somehow, Fatima had hoped he'd overlooked that. But, of course not. He was Sam Winchester. More attention to details than Martha Stewart and a memory like...

Well, memory wasn't the best thing to think about right now.

"Um..." How to even begin to approach this one? "Well..."

[iwatchtjhooker]

Then Sam's brain flipped back over what he'd just repeated her saying and a flush crept across his cheeks. His face fell into his palm.

"Oh my god," he mumbled. "I walked straight into that. We... don't have to talk about it, if you...unless you... uh."

Yeah, the etiquette for this sort of situation was not something he'd ever studied.

[dust_of_life]

There really was no etiquette for this kind of thing. And Fatima desperately wished she hadn't blurted out the toes thing.

But what was it Auntie Diana said? The world only spun forward.

She ran a hand through her hair, biting down on the inside of her cheek for a second. "Unless I what? I can't exactly take it back."

[iwatchtjhooker]

"Want to," Sam said, forcing himself to look up so he wasn't talking into his hand. "Talk about it. Like, if you needed to, because that would make it less weird. I don't know. Or I can shut up."

He winced. And felt simultaneously somewhat violated and very curious. There was a whole relationship he didn't know about. In some kind of hell dimension.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima let her head drop back against the wall of the lift. Just say yes, she told herself. Just go back on everything that you said and everything that you were with Sam Winchester. Except that she couldn't. Not at all. He was too important to her. And not just because of the sex stuff.

She wasn't the same person she'd been when she arrived in Zelien. She'd changed so much and mostly for the better.

A the biggest part of that was because of Sam.

But he didn't remember. And he'd never be able to remember. So wasn't she just setting herself up for hurt?

It was all a little too confusing.

"First of all," she said, "I will never tell you to shut up. Unless you start rambling about serial killers or jogging routines."

[iwatchtjhooker]

Okay maybe there was a "less weird" this could be, and in Sam's experience there was always a whole lot more weird something could be, but this was... really, really weird. Like, did he respectfully disengage, for both their sakes? Or did he in some weird cosmic way owe her some kind of, he didn't know, closure for the unpleasant reunion?

"I don't ramble about serial killers," he insisted a little too forcefully. "I mean, that's just normal, human curiosity. It's not like an obsession or anything."

[dust_of_life]

For, perhaps, the first time, Fatima cracked a smile. It was incredibly fond and...well...honestly loving. She couldn't help that, really. He'd said the exact same thing--she was pretty sure--to her before. Possibly word-for-word.

He was Sam. Always and forever. The guy she fallen for completely.

"It's weird, Winchester," she said teasingly. "Just like the clown thing."

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam held up a hand. "Again," he said. "Not weird. Anyone not afraid of clowns is just not paying attention."

He stopped short, shaking his head and laughing softly to himself. It was a little like that time in the elevator with Dean, when they'd been Smith and Wesson, just that feeling of familiarity only this made if anything less sense.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima laughed too. Same defensive Sam. Humor was always her best defense. She made inappropriate jokes. She teased and weedled. And she felt so strangely proud of herself, every time she managed to get him to smile or laugh. Like she'd accomplished the impossible.

Which was only a step away from the truth, really.

"Okay," she said, "I'll give you the clowns. Especially after running into some seriously nasty vampire clowns. That was fun. Except for the part where it was the opposite."

[iwatchtjhooker]

"Ugh." Sam shuddered. Because that sounded like literally the worst. But it just made his shoulder hurt again, and he winced and rubbed it, unthinking. "So um... I guess you got pulled into the hunter thing."

He kind of wanted to apologize again but it would probably get him hit.

[dust_of_life]

She caught the wince and immediately felt guilty. She shouldn't have gone off half-cocked, but her instincts just had a way of taking over where Winchesters were concerned. She'd probably do the same and worse if she ever saw Dean's stupid face again.

That was a score that still needed to be settled.

Dropping her messenger bag, she leaned over it, pulling out the first aid kit Beverly had put together for her. She didn't know how to work half of the stuff in it, but she figured it would be polite to offer.

"Well, I didn't grow up in the backseat of a '67 Impala," she said, popping the case open to look for something vaguely familiar, "but I was born in the life. Like you."

[iwatchtjhooker]

"Huh." He wondered what it would be like, meeting someone around his age, attractive, eligible, who'd actually been there. It sort of... made sense. "And hey, it'll be fine--hot shower once we get out of here and I'll be fine."

He hadn't really been thinking about getting out since she'd noticed him--first because of the attack, and after that, the distraction of the bizarre revelations.

[dust_of_life]

The words 'hot shower' raised her eyes for a fraction of a second, but then she covered, locating a bottle of pills that Beverly guaranteed her could take care of minor stuff like that. Wordlessly, in spite of his protestations, she handed it over.

"Getting out of here sounds...shouldn't the security guards be here already? Isn't everything automated on this stupid Hilton?"

Her mind had decidedly been elsewhere, but now she started to scan the lift, looking for some kind of emergency button or something. She briefly contemplated the doors, but decided they were too heavy to pry open. And then her gaze lifted and she noticed the emergency hatch on the roof.

[iwatchtjhooker]

Oh, yeah. Still weird. Still, this awkwardness was preferable to the whole attack thing, so he was kind of preferring it.

"Apparently they've solved hunger and world peace, but elevators are another thing altogether."

He glanced at the hatch, then back at Fatima. "I could lift you up there."

[dust_of_life]

She frowned thoughtfully, biting the inside of her cheek. There was no way to know where they were. Nor how far they could fall. Which was poetic. Also a little terrifying. Still. She didn't want to wait for eternity in this awkward predicament. Fatima liked action. And she was going to have to prove her mettle to Sam all over again.

Shit.

"Lemme see if I can open it," she said, biting down hard enough to draw blood.

Concentrating, she focused solely on the hatch. Three seconds and an Aramaic chant in her head and it swung open.

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam watched her for a long moment, not comprehending what was going on or what she meant until a sound from above drew his attention. His gaze darted to the door, then back to her.

"How did you...?"

[dust_of_life]

"How did I..."

And then it hit her. She let out a few choice words in Hindi. Directed mostly at her own carelessness than at Sam. This was the point of awkward. It was a reminder that she needed to tread carefully.

Sighing, she shook her head and started taking off her boots, hoping to pass it off as 'nothing serious.' "I have incredibly messed up blood," she said lightly. "It's a long story and we really shouldn't get into it while trapped in an elevator."

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam nodded, exhaling sharply. "Yeah. Okay." He wonders what she knows about him. Shit. If all this is true, she might know a future version of him. "I know a little about... messed up blood."

Swallowing, he peered up at the opening, and joined his hands in a stirrup for her to step up on.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima slipped out of her boots. And her toes were, indeed, quite suckable. Whorehouse red nails, a gold toe ring, and a bracelet around her ankle with a charm shaped like a devil's trap. She'd taught the replicator how to make that.

With an athletic bounce, she hopped up into the foothold. They made such a weirdly efficient team.

They would again. She would see to it.

"And up we go."

[iwatchtjhooker]

Of course, his eyes were drawn to her feet, but he shoved the thought down. It wouldn't do for him to make thing more weird. He hoisted her up, one fluid motion between the two of them.

"See anything?" he called up.

[dust_of_life]

Gracefully, she pulled her legs up onto the top of the lift. It was only after she was out of his grip that it occurred to her that they'd actually been touching. She'd been too distracted to notice the electricity but now...

No. Priorities, Merali.

Looking up at the metal tube, she was suddenly, painfully aware of the scale and size of the ship. It was way more than a floating Hilton. It was enormous and from the looks of things...

"We're on Deck 36," she called back. "Actually, kind of halfway between 36 and 37 and..."

Her eyes fell on a beam that was connecting the lift to the wall. A very, very broken beam.

"...and we have a problem."

[iwatchtjhooker]

Jesus. How big was this thing? A thought, unrelated, wormed its way around in the back of his mind: how did you get trapped on an elevator on a spaceship in what was probably an alternate future with a girl you apparently dated in yet another alternate world?

Was he sure this wasn't angels, or demons, or some thing he'd yet to hear about? Because it wasn't, shouldn't be, possible.

"You mean, beyond being stuck," he prompted. "What is it?"