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

[nosmallfry]

He smiled and lifted a piece to his own lips in a more conventional manner. "Well, you thinking is one of the best things about you."

[diplomaticsolutions]

"Ah ha!" Padmé exclaimed, nibbling on a small piece of the pear as she regarded him. "So that is why you leave the thinking to me."

[nosmallfry]

"Hey!" he protested, though he couldn't keep the grin from his lips. "I think too." He considered. "Sometimes," he added as his grin widened.

[diplomaticsolutions]

Her smile was easy and bright, like before the dark times, hearing the indignation in his voice but also seeing the expression on his face. Her heart lurched, her own emotions softening. That was the man she loved. "And the rest of the time, you have me."

[nosmallfry]

"Who is better at it anyway," he said, slicing himself some more fruit, smiling at her. There hadn't been dark times for him, not yet. To him the worst they had was the hiding, the secrecy, and... and the fear he tried to ignore every day that ate at him every night.

Moments like this it was easy, so easy, to be sure. To know he would save her. He did his best to cling to those, to hold them close as a weapon against the fear. He would find a way to protect her. He would.

[diplomaticsolutions]

"I wouldn't sell yourself short. We'll consider it... different approaches to the same problem." Although she would acknowledge that diplomacy had been something that he wasn't quite the best at. A bit too rash at times, a bit too reckless. Yet not everyone could do it.

She did finish off the last piece of her pear before moving to pick up her tea cup. "And? Is the pear to your liking?"

[nosmallfry]

"You are the spoken word, I am the sharp blade?" he asked, smiling softly. He sliced another fruit, this time into several bits, floating half to her her.

"Very much, you?" he asked.

[diplomaticsolutions]

"Diplomatic solutions and aggressive negotiations?" The banter came easily, as did her smile. Again the plucked the piece of fruit from the air, although settled it on the edge of her saucer. "It is, although it could be nostalgia as well."

[nosmallfry]

"Nostalgia does add sweetness, then again, so does pleasant company," he said with a smile as he took a bite of his own. Then he shook his head, bemused. "A room full of people, and not a one of them could care less, and not a one of them save you that I can see."

[diplomaticsolutions]

She had made friends since coming here, strangers until she had taken the time to get to know them. It was how it always was though. But Anakin... Her Anakin, seeing him, talking with him... "It isn't like our galaxy here. They haven't heard of Tatooine, or Naboo, or even Coruscant."

Wow that icon took me by surprise, lol

[nosmallfry]

"We're a ways beyond the outer Rim then, aren't we?" he asked. He had been sweet, and she had jumped to the practical, but he didn't mind. He was happy just to be here with her.

muhahaha

[diplomaticsolutions]

"So far beyond that they don't even know what that means." She glanced back towards the view ports that offered a glance at the sky. "The stars here are stars I've never seen before... The constellations that they have are unknown."

Oh dear gods, if he was in game he would totally try and steal a shuttle craft >.>

[nosmallfry]

"Then we have a new sky to learn?" he asked. He had that every time he visited a new planet on assignment, but he knew she traveled to new places far less often. He smiled at her. For once, he would be the one who could show her new things. He liked that. "We could get a speeder, spend an afternoon on whatever habitable planet happens to be nearest."

no, ani, no

[diplomaticsolutions]

"I don't think they have speeders aboard, and I don't think you can just borrow the shuttles that they do have." Although Padmé also hadn't asked. She had no need for one, and the ship usually was moving. She made do with classes on topics she found interesting, and reading up on the history of the various planets of this galaxy. Needless to say, she had started with the bigger ones, such as Earth, and would move on from there.

[nosmallfry]

"They can't mean to keep us trapped here. There has to be something. Perhaps nothing was offered because you aren't known to them as a capable pilot. Tell me who to speak to, and I'll see to it we have our freedom."

[diplomaticsolutions]

"I believe they continue to search for a way to rectify the situation that Q has done, but until then, we are passengers aboard the ship." Were they kept here? Yes. Yet Padmé could understand their stance. This entity called Q continued to bring people from across time and space, landing them right on their ship. What else were they to do? Gently, softly, "Freedom to do what, Anakin? I don't even know how far we are from our galaxy. No food, no money. This space is different from our own. Their technology, from what I can understands, works differently."

[nosmallfry]

"Freedom to explore. How can we learn their technology if they limit what of it we can use? Freedom to find a space just our own for a short time. Are they the ones who told us about this Q? Perhaps they are lying, how can we tell, penned in like cattle?"

[diplomaticsolutions]

"You can read up about it, Anakin. They don't hide that knowledge." But she shook her head. "At first, it was others who had been taken. Some had heard it second hand, but others have met him. He apparently does show his face from time to time aboard the ship."

[nosmallfry]

"Then we will find him, and we will make him take us home. Together. But reading about technology and handling it are very different." He needed to fly. Telling him he couldn't fly was like telling him he wasn't allowed to stand. Or speak.

[diplomaticsolutions]

"I- I'm not certain if I can return home again, Anakin." It was a heavy statement, and likely one that would need explaining. It wasn't the lack of desire that held her back, but more the physical improbability of it.

[nosmallfry]

"Of course you can," he said softly, anger melting away to calm her. He took her hands and squeezed them. "I'll make sure he sends us together, we'll go together and be a family. You wont go ahead of me and have to wait for my return." He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it lightly.

[diplomaticsolutions]

There was that quick shake of her head as dropped her gaze downward. Even as his lips brushed against her skin, her eyes remained focused on the table. Sucking her lower lip in, she worked at how to tell him, knowing that it wouldn't be easy. "Do you remember the dream you had, Anakin? Or have you had it yet?"

[nosmallfry]

Their hands touching, there was no way she could miss the reaction the words had on him, the way he stiffened and stilled. "No..." he whispered, more afraid of what she's about to say than of anything he had ever been afraid of before. This was the fear that Yoda sensed, this was the potential he had, this was what made him so dangerous. Because whatever she was about to say? He would do anything to keep it from being true. Anything.

[diplomaticsolutions]

She did notice that, and her fingers moved to squeeze on his own. She didn't blame him. She didn't blame Obi-Wan. If anyone were to blame, it would be Palpatine. Yet if that had been her time, then it had been her time. Nothing lasted forever, which was something she accepted more easily than Anakin. It didn't mean that she waited for death, but that she knew one day it would be there.

"It was an accident, Ani."

[nosmallfry]

"No... no. You're here. You can't have.. you're here, I had to have saved you... I will save you. You have to be alive. You have to be," he whispered.