A Familiar Trail

Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2019 @ 12:26am by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Az'Prel

Mission: Detours
Location: USS Hera, Deck 11, Holodeck 3
Timeline: 2396

Thex couldn't help, but walk with a spring in her step and a smile on her face. After the news, she received she couldn't stop smiling at everyone on the ship. Now with the chance to hang out with her best friend who she couldn't wait to tell her the news.

Having allowed her friend to pick the program the andorian was now headed for the holodeck. Turning the corner her smile remained as she saw her friend. " Hello, Rita you're looking incredibly lovely today. What program have you chosen." She asked.

Clad in a grey Starfleet Academy tank top, a pair of science blue running shorts with a strip that went down to the knee. White ankle sock socks blended into white running shoes, and the throwback had on a hairband and a headband, as well as a sweatband on her right wrist. The old school delta was clipped onto her tank top, still in regulation for uniform though clearly she was out of uniform.

"Glad to see you wore your running shoes, Thex. This," Rita laid her hand on the doorway arch of the holodeck wistfully, "This was where you showed me what the future looked like... gave me a real sense of how much the universe had changed... in specific, my old hometown. I come here at least once a week, and I run the nature trail at dawn as a prerecorded holoexperience. Running over the same patch of ground lends a comforting connection to my homeworld, as well as reinforcing patterns of order in my mind. It's... copmforting."

"You gave this to me, and I'll forever be grateful. I have to come up with something like this for Az'Prel... or she could join us? I'd kind of like to show her in hologram what Earth looks like as the Federation and not the Terran Empire. Is this a 'just us' thing or do you mind if I call her?" Rita, going with the flow, saw an opportunity, recognized it and moved to act, but sought communication with the other party all instinctively- truly a wonder of Starfleet.

" Off course my friend you can call her. " Thex said with a smile as she did a few warm-up stretches in the royal blue and green gym wear the replicator had replicated. " Though I have another question I'd like to ask you. How would you like to be a godmother?" She said with the smile plastered all over her face.

The face of the human woman lit up at the news, and she swept the smaller woman into a hug and spun her about. Setting her back down, she held the Andorian engineer at arm's length to see her face. "THEX! Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you! It's started? You've started? Is it at the stage where you do something? Oh who cares, you're... going to have a baby!" In truth, Rita was ignorant of the customs and actual biological procedures involved, but the core concept was that it sounded like the quad had wasted no time in getting down to the business of saving their species.

Thex let out a slight laugh even though the shortage of breath from her friends bear hug. "I went and asked Hera, and she said she couldn't do anything because I was already pregnant. A pair of girls, if you can believe it. Only two weeks old, according to the doctor."

"Wow, that's... that huge, Thex. Your life has really come together in short order, hasn't it? I haven't even been aboard a year, and you went from lonely single to pregnant with an entire family. I'm so happy for you!" Rita swept the smaller blue woman into another hug, squeezed and rocked her slightly then let her go. "Well... This might also be a good time to really introduce you to Az'Prel. Twins! What a day, Thex... what times we live in, eh?"

Tapping her communicator, Rita Paris sighed and shook her head with a wistful smile. "Crazy old universe... Paris to Az'Prel... If you are up for some morning cardio and sightseeing, Lieutenant Commander sh'Zoarhi and I would like to take you sightseeing, if you are interested. Wear running clothes, and meet us on Deck 11, Holodeck 3?"

=/\="I will be there shortly, Commander,"=/\= came the immediate reply from the displaced Vulcan. Indeed, it was only a few short moments before she was stepping out of a nearby turbolift and walking up to join them in a sand colored Vulcan unitard and low profile sneakers. As form fitting as it was, her undergarments barely showed underneath, but it was rather obvious that she was doing her best to compress and hide the true size of her upper assets. "Will this be adequate?"

“That should do quite nicely, I think. Miss Az’Prel, this is Lieutenant Commander Thex sh’Zoarshi, the hera’s chief engineer. Thex, this is Az’prel… she’s a refugee of a universe that was a lot worse off than ours, that no longer exists. Sound familiar?”

Thex smile was still one her face as Rita made the call. Interesting times idea. Thanks to a Greek goddess she was having twins, and now she was going to meet this stranger from another universe. Still, the Vulcan was something when she appeared from the turbolift.

Thex gave her a warm smile as she held out her hand. " Hello, Az'Prel it's nice to finally meet you."

Az'Prel hesitated a moment before returning the handshake. "It is nice to meet you as well."

“So… we were getting ready for a run, and one of my favorite trails is the Starfleet Academy running trail,” Paris explained to the ever-on-edge Vulcan. “As it gives a great view of San Francisco pre-dawn, which really shows off my old home town to a spectacular degree. I thought you might find it interesting to view- holopgraphically and from a distance- what the seat of the federation looks like in the modern day. I think you might find it… enlightening?”

"Well, I hope you like what we have planned to show you. " Thex said as she stepped through the holodeck doors. The program had changed slightly from the last time they'd used it. The dorm rooms near the start had changed slightly looking more organic with the new gardens planted on the roof.

"Starfleet Academy San Francisco," Thex said with happy nostalgia in her voice. "So many happy memories of this place."

"Indeed," the displaced Vulcan woman began with, stepping into the holodeck and surveying her surroundings for possible threats. "We were told that the seat of the Terran Empire was a beautiful and lush jewel of green and chrome with scarlett and gold banners as far as the eye could see and black armored enforcers on every corner. Other than that description, I have nothing to base my expectations on. I foresee this as educational."

" Well earth is beautiful I'll give you that. She's seen better days, but the humans repaired her well after the third world war. " Thex said as she did a few more stretches. " No scarlet and gold banners either unless you include the flag of the academy sports teams." She added. " I wonder if my girls will have such a happy time here."

"I ran this trail before I ever attended Starfleet Academy," Paris nodded wistfully. "I dreamed about going here, and it was an amazing four years. You're looking at my retirement plan, ladies."

Gesturing out to the campus that sprawled away from the already somewhat elevated position at the start of the trail, Paris expounded. "History, I think. Also ethics. I'll need to actually attend the Academy myself- I need the education again. I have no idea how most of this technology actually works save in theoretical practice. So around the turn of the century I'm going to come back to terra firma, mother Earth. Sonak and I will raise a few kids, he'll teach, I'll learn and teach, and we'll stay here for two decades at least. Take our summer vacations on Vulcan, raise our kids to explore the universe."

"Here in my old hometown. C'mon, this is a sight. The first turn in the trail is just shy of half a klik ahead, and the view speaks for itself. Sprint? Race up the hill? Ready, set, go!" With those words, Rita Paris took off running.

Thex gave her friend and the new vulcan a grin before she started sprinting up the hill. "You're on, Rita."

Az'Prel easily kept up with them as they ran up the hill, continuing to survey the area for threats... And finding none. This was unusual in her experience that she wouldn't even be able to find a single threat or even find a decent makeshift weapon. It was both refreshing and strange.

Racing up the hill, Rita Paris was not the first to arrive, but she didn't throw the race, either. But once they had arrived, the race was quickly forgotten as the whole of San Francisco was spread out before them- clean, modern, yet impossibly crowded and diverse, with hundreds of cultures represented in the signage and the home and building design, in the foot and sky traffic. Truly the home of Starfleet Command, and the seat of the Federation itself, was a bustling melting pot of peoples and cultures unparalleled in the experience of the escapee of the Terran Empire.

"This, Miss Az'Prel.... this is what we were building toward in this universe. Bringing peoples and cultures together in peaceful coexistence and harmony. Finding hundreds of worlds and offering them an open hand of friendship, not the iron fist of tyranny. This is what my people have striven for, and this is the culture they have created." Gesturing out to the city below in a grand gesture, Paris smiled proudly. "I brought you here to see this, because while we could just as easily be deceiving you, I think we both know I am not. This was the San Francisco, today, on Earth. This is the dawn that was, that rose and shined on my homeworld. This, Miss Az'Prel, is who we are."

Looking over the city, she saw the simulation in all it's complex glory and realized that there was no way, even in this far flung future, that such a complex scene could be fully created from scratch. This was based on truth and reality, and it made something in her Vulcan heart swell and her breath quicken. This was what the resistance had been reaching for. She counted at least thirty races in the morning light doing business together just in the market areas and riding the hover tram alone. The smells of fresh foods wafted up to greet them enticingly from at least as many worlds, including her own. Looking across the sights and sounds of the city, it was spectacular and like nothing she had ever imagined.

“This, Miss Az’Prel…. This is my homeworld. Well… at least, what mine would have become without interference in the timeline. But this is what the Federation has striven for, and this is what we represent. I thought… I thought it might do you some good to see that it’s not just us, on the Hera. We are just representative of the great combination of cultures that have come together as the United Federation of Planets.” Gently patting the Vulcan woman on the back, Paris sighed, a satisfied sound. “What do you say we go get ourselves a run in and see if we can’t get a little cardio today?”

Thex overlooked the campus/program that had been her second home after the years behind the walls of her family's cult compound. She did miss it sometimes even though she admitted she felt more at home in a starship. "We could stop at the representation of a great little seafood place after? I know it's replicated and not real, but the place has a great view of the bay," she suggested.

“I see no reason not to have some brunch afterward,” Rita agreed as the trio of experienced runners pushed up the hill, enjoying the morning air and the simulated glow of the dawn in the distance. “Assuming you’re up for a little more socializing, Miss Az’Prel?”

"That would be acceptable," the Vulcan replied, tearing herself away from the view to address her two new friends. "I would... Appreciate... The exploration of experiences." Her tendency to use emotional words with a completely straight face like that remained, but in this case there was definitely emotion within her.

Jogging along, all three women were experienced runners and excellent athletes, so it was in no time that they came to the next shift as the path angled back upward to the east, and as the trio crested the rise, Rita Paris paused. "Dawn... dawn is my favorite time of the day. The sun returns as the planet rotates and the shadows are banished, and the night gives way to the day. Darkness driven back by light. I love this view, too."

Pausing to take in the sight of the sun peeking over the valley basin below, Paris sniffed in a lungful of air. "Not exactly the same, but close enough for 18 light years from home."

"The fleet certainly knew the place to pick for the Academy. I wonder if the academy on Alpha Centauri has views as great as this one?" Thex said with a grin on her blue face.

"There's a second Academy?" Rita asked, shaking her head. "Will wonders never cease. For me... this is home. I grew up here, I dreamed of attending, I fought my way in and I fought my way through. And when my time with the Hera is done, I'll return here. Attend, teach... with a little luck I'll move into the Admiralty and someday I'll be out there doing what Commodore Meowlith does for the Hera, with Sonak by my side. That's the Paris 30 year plan, at least- I guess we'll see how it plays out."

"For now, what do you say, ladies? Take in a morning run, get some breakfast and enjoy a simulated trip to my hometown this morning to kick off the day in a future filled with wonders?" Part of why she had wanted to bring Az'Prel was to expose her firsthand to the Holodeck, but part was to show her how Earth had turned out, to help remove some of her lingering doubts about the universe in which she now lived.

Humanity would have to prove itself over and over again to the refugee of the Mirror Universe who had been a slave turned freedom fighter. But Rita Paris was willing to put in the time, and the effort. The Prophets had chosen her for the job, after all. Thus the Lost Navigator was happy to show the Refugee a better life, one day at a time... sometimes by such simple actions as talking her along a familiar trail.