Adventures In Holodeck 7

Posted on Wed May 30th, 2018 @ 12:33pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi
Edited on on Fri Aug 17th, 2018 @ 1:49am

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: Holodeck 7, Deck 11
Timeline: 2395

Crew quarters onboard starships of the Constitution-class were located throughout the vessel's saucer section. On starships of the original configuration such as the Exeter, the officers' quarters featured two areas, separated partly by a wall fragment. One area was allocated as sleeping area, featuring a comfortable bed, and another as work area, providing a desk and computer terminal. Entrance to a bathroom was provided through the quarters' sleeping area. Both areas could be configured to personal preference.

Rita Paris had customized her living space extensively, covering it in shelves lined with books and bricabrac and plastic glow in the dark toys all magnetized to the shelves. Her behavioral psychiatrist bck at Starfleet Medical had explained that by surrounding herself with things, items, and possessions, she reinforced to herself that she existed in the material world. Her quarters were a reflection of her personality; seeming chaos but neat, clean and with an order she understood if no one else did. Much of that order and structure had come from sharing both space and minds with the blue-clad Commander Sonak. He would be the one to pack up and her belongings and remove them from her quarters on the USS Exeter, keeping only a glow in the dark Smurfette figurine as a memento.

Vulcans would call that sentiment. But that was impossible because Sonak was a kolinahr, the last of his kind. He had long ago purged himself of all emotion.

For if he'd borne the capacity for emotions, they surely would have destroyed him.


Most crew quarters on board the USS Hera were located within the ship's saucer section, in order to provide safety during a saucer separation. The accommodations of higher-ranked officers lined the edge of the saucer section, as they were scenic but far more dangerous. They contained a living area, a bedroom and a bathroom area. The living area contained a replicator terminal, thus the space was customizable with a variety of furniture, decoration and configuration. Most of the senior officers' quarters had several vertical windows each, through which one could see the stars or the smear of stars at warp. These windows were set into an angled ceiling.

The living room was twice the size of the Bridge, maybe more. The head alone was half the size of Captain Stuart's ready room. There was large, tasteful and decadently comfortable furniture spread out over what Rita couldn't help but see as an enormous waste of space.



"This is bigger than a stateroom... heck, it's a third the size of the theater. Un-be-lievable."

Wandering around in a daze, Paris was still trying to acclimate that these three conference rooms strung together were her quarters when the comm chirruped, seeming to come from all around her.

having packed away her tools and finished off her shift, Thex had just finished scrubbing herself clean in the sonic shower. Getting out and picking up her combadge, she tapped it and asked for Rita Paris. =^= Hey Rita, it's Thex. You still up for the holodeck?=^= She asked politely as she walked to her dresser.

Instinctively Paris reached behind her for her communicator, then when with practiced ease she had in in hand before her she eyed it dubiously before flipping it open. It might still be the right frequency, but it might just make a comm call to be routed through the communications panel on the bridge, which would likely result in more questions and confusion. So Paris tried something else, instead answering thin air.

"Uh, yes, definitely, I'm still up for it... where do I meet you?" The nubile navigator felt foolish basically talking to herself, but reasoned this must be a function of the comm system onboard. Maybe it was vibrating the localized forcefields to produce the appropriate sounds? There was so much she was going to have to get caught up on, and not even knowing how the comms actually worked in the modern day reinforced that to her. On the bright side, now she might just have a local to ask stupid questions who actually knew how everything worked. Although the ship's computer was being quite forthright about answering her queries, which was a relief.

" I'll meet you at your quarters if that's okay. I can show you a few things that you may want to know. I'll see you in a second," Thex said as she quickly pulled on a white tank top and matching shorts.

"That sounds great, I appreciate it Thex. See you in a few..." Paris replied absently as she continued to marvel at the spacious quarters.

It only took Thex a while to reach her new friend's quarters- after all, they were practically neighbors in officer's country. With a smile on her face, she pressed the button and waited for the door to open.

The chime sounded, shaking Rita Paris from her shock and amazement over the size and luxury of her quarters. If you stacked bunk beds in here, you could house a company of enlisted in this billet. Walking over to the door, there was a simple manual control, but Rita cocked an eyebrow experimentally. The computer was always listening via the sensors, and it seemed intuitive so far.

"Open."

One simple word was not enough to open the door, but then she realized that she hadn't programmed in parameters yet. Fetching the PaDD from where she had set it down on the coffee table, Rita spent a few seconds flipping through menus before remembering that her guest was still outside.

"Computer, open the door of my quarters."

The command was in truth longer than it needed to be, but the computer chirruped and parroted, =^= Opening the door of Lieutenant Paris' quarters =^= The quarters door slid open to reveal the pale blue-skinned engineer, standing casually in her casual clothes.

"It's a little more complex, but I'm getting it..." Paris grinned, then noticed Thex's wardrobe and a somewhat puzzled expression crept over her face. "Oh, you're wearing civvies... on the ship?" The old school Starfleet gal seemed genuinely taken aback by the concept.

"Were you not allowed? " The andorian said, rather puzzled. She had thought it would have been the same even back then. " Still we can walk and talk on the way to the holodeck if your ready?"

"Sure, we dressed that way in quarters sometimes, but not about the ship... should I change?" Paris asked, genuinely clueless about the activity they were planning to embark upon together. "It can't be that hard to get a pair of shorts and a top out of the replicator, right? Just punch in the size, material and color and it just spits it out, doesn't it?"

" Or you can just speak to it and it can replicate your order. The ship's computer is a little more advanced than you're back in the day." The andorian replied with a grin.

Raising both eyebrows, Rita began speaking to thin air. "Computer, replicate one pair of ladies running shorts, size eleven, gold. One pair of white running shoes, size nine and a half narrow. One pair of white cotton ankle socks, one white cotton tank top, size extra large. One extra large sports bra. Now," she offered the petite Andorian a grin, "Let's see if I have a set of civvies waiting for me..."

Thex grinned as the familiar hum from the Paris replicator filled the room. " I think you're order's done. Impressive, isn't it?"

"That is beyond impressive, it's amazing," Paris gasped as she crossed the room to the replicator to find her casual clothes, just as she'd ordered them, waiting in a tidy folded pile in the replicator. "Okay, give me a second to change here and I'll be ready to go." With that, Paris grabbed her pile of clothes with the running shoes on top and hustled into the bedroom that was bigger than the entirety of her quarters used to be on the Exeter.

"So I noticed you don't carry a communicator, what's up with that?" Paris shouted from the other room. "Only on away missions because the ship's computer hears any command? And how does it not misinterpret conversation from commands, by not adding the command word 'computer'?"

" Oh, our communicator is now in the combadges. They can track you and keep in contact with the ship within several thousand miles. The computer can also track your voice patterns to help it identify if you're talking to it. Though it can sometimes mess up and replicate something by accident. Still, you can just simply disassemble it if that's the case." The andorian explained as she waited patiently.

"I have to admit, the fact that the transporters are now the technology used to turn everything into everything else is not reassuring to me, given my experiences," Paris explained as she changed. "I'd hate to step onto the transporter and end up as someone's fresh-pressed uniform and boots." Paris poked her head back into the main living room. "Let me guess- 'we have safety precautions to prevent that', right?"

" Off course we have safety precautions. The tech gone along way since your time." Thex replied calmly.

"I think the reason I never remember civvies on the Exeter, or really any post I had, was because being Starfleet meant that people recognized you, right away. They knew we were the good guys- we wore bright colored uniforms that made us stand out, and that was the point. Plus," Paris stepped out from the open bedroom door pluck at her top a bit, readjusting it. Her abundant curves were evident in the softer fabrics of the workout clothes, but the fit was loose and casual. "Plus I've always been a workaholic, so I'm always on duty. Surprisingly often, catastrophes and crisis begin when I go off-duty."

Of course, Paris had no idea how prophetic those words would be today in particular, because the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

" I know that feeling. You don't know what embarrassment is when you have to help run engineering whilst wearing an orion dancers outfit." the blue girl said grinning to herself as she lead the way to the turbolift.

"You didn't? I mean, girl, that takes a LOT of guts to wear one of those..." Paris observed as she fell in step with her fellow officer.

Thex blushed slightly as they continued walking. " It's actually a hobby of mine. I picked it up after a mission with intel into orion space."

"Whaaaaat, are you serious? You do the whole," Paris undulated her hands a bit in emulation of the famed slave girl dance. "For fun? Learned it for the mission and now you keep it up?"

A grin spread over Thex face as she began moving her hips, belly, feet and hands in the correct manner. It was harder to do with trainers on her feet, but she could still easily do a few moves. " Not bad for an andorian tech girl." She said smiling to herself.

"Are you kidding me? That's genuinely awesome, Thex! Color me jealous- I can't dance two steps," Paris admitted. "It's good to have hobbies, and it sounds like you really enjoy this one. I'm glad you kept with it if it makes you happy- life is about those moments, right?"

" Indeed. " The andorian replied as they arrived outside the holodeck. The doors opened and the andorian allowed her new human friend to step inside. " Welcome to the holodeck, Paris. It may not seem like much, but where would you like to go?" The andorian asked.

Stepping in through the doorway, Paris eyed the black room with the yellow grid pattern overlaid upon it with some dubious apprehension. Her first thought, by instinct, was to reply 'back to the Exeter', but that wasn't an answer, and it was no way to treat a new friend who was helping her by showing her around. "Okay... well, my first thought was a nice sunny beach in California, but I'm guessing that's not exactly your kinda scene, coming from a polar world. Um... do you run? Track or cross country? It always helps me process things, and it clears my head. We can do that in here, right?"

" How about the academy's nature trail. Not sure if it was at Starfleet Academy in your day, but it was always nice when I wanted to run to clear my head. " The andorian suggested.

That brought a smile to the face of the athletic anachronism. “Back in the fifties we did have a nature trail, and while it may have changed since my day, it’s still someplace familiar to me. Thanks, Thex- that’s very considerate of you.” The healthy helmsman nudged the shoulder of the gregarious engineer. “So how does this work? Tell me it doesn’t involve being transported...”

A grin spread across the andorian's face as she spoke simply. " Computer, load latest version, Starfleet Academy program, start of the nature trail." In less than a second, the room changed and was replaced. For Thex the familiar bridge over the creek that lead toward the forest at the back of the academy was a familiar sight. She waited for a moment for Paris to take in the sudden change of scenery.

Breathing in deeply, Paris smelled the air- clean and fresh, with a hint of the sea. She knew this scent well- San Francisco was Rita's home town, where she had been born and spent most of the years of her childhood, with her father The Commander stationed at Starfleet Command. Kneeling on the path, she sorted the dirt between her fingers and watched it fall.

"Incredible... it's a real-life simulation, down to the blades of grass." Plucking one up, she snapped it and sniffed, noting the fresh sent and feeling the slight moisture of the chlorophyll based plant life that was so efficiently being replicated by the holodeck environment. "This is absolutely and utterly fascinating, Thex. How long has this been around? I mean, I realize it is the inheritor of our old holographic theaters, but this... it's Earth natural gravity no less, I can actually feel it! Birds chirping in the distance! I think I hear a shuttle banking off to the northwest over by the campus. All this from holograms and forcefields and replicators?"

Thex smiled at her friends reaction. It was always fun to see people encounter the holodeck for the first time. " They were around since 2330, but they only became widespread since 2360. It's true, this is all holograms and replicators. "

"Remarkable," Paris remarked in awe, taking it in for a moment. "And we're still in that six by six by six meter chamber, but it can simulate anything through technological wizardy and use of the shields and replicators and holograms we never dreamed of. And for... anything. You can do starship design in here, go for a nature run, relive history..." Paris paused at that, made a pained little smile then laid her leg onto a fence rail and began stretching. "We'd better stretch out, eh?"

The andorian nodded and joined the human in using the fence rail to stretch her blue legs.

As they finished their stretches, Rita hiked a thumb up the trail in an unspoken query, and the two women set off, both easily falling into the Starfleet jog together as military personnel tended to do. "Okay, so... short form, I was born in 2233. Daddy 'The Commander' didn't love me so I kept pushing my Starfleet career to impress him, which was never going to happen. He arranged for an accident that resulted in me spending 4 1/2 years of a five year mission as a warp ghost haunting the ship. Couldn't sleep, couldn't affect the real world, couldn't die. They figured it out and put me back together, I spent a few years at Starfleet Psych then then sent me in as part of a fresh sweep restaffing of a ship that had gone rogue, the Exeter. Best career move of my life- I served under Stuart and Sonak, and they were amazing men separately, but together they- we were amazing, and we pulled off unbelievable missions."

Trotting along the path, Paris finished out the confessional of who she was to her new friend. "Sonak was beaming me out- ion storm, solar flares, earthquakes, damaged equipment. The usual, right?" Rita chuckled, suspecting that her alien shipmate knew exactly what she meant.

The andorian had to pause for a second. She had thought her own "fathers" were bad, but they'd never left her as a warp ghost. " The usual everything that can go wrong will go wrong mission." She replied to the human second point.

"Well, we thought we had it under control, but...when he beamed me out, this time it was different. When they beam me.... I can feel it. The psychs tell me that it's all in my head, but I can feel it. I lose a little bit of me every time they beam me. And I'm aware... time slows down." Paris realized how what she was saying might be perceived, and got to the point. "This time it was different, and I was just.... everywhere, then nowhere. I don't know how long I hung out there in space, but I was dissipating until the Hera ran me over or yanked me in passing by, but she snagged me in the warp bubble and... you know the rest of the story.

"Except that this isn't my future," Rita jogged backward over a length of the trail she knew well, where she could pull it off. ". I haven't looked myself up yet, but apparently the Captain's heard of her and is a fan. Whoever she was, she's not me. My history is different from this one... I think the transporter interacted with the ion storm to shuffle me between dimensions. I'm a hundred and twenty-seven years out of time and I'm in the wrong dimension to boot, Thex. I honestly don't think it is possible to get as lost in space as I have become, my friend." At that the even slope ended and a series of steppes had to be run, and without skipping a beat Rita Paris turned back around to charge up the trail.

" Is that even possible? I've never heard of the transporter doing that. True it's had accidents, but never any like that. We'd need to let headquarters know about this and maybe run it with the science boys." Replied the blue engineer as she kept up with her human friend.

"I can't figure out if you've encountered it here- not with what I've read so far," Paris admitted as she kept pace with the cheerful engineer. "We did it by accident back on the Exeter, and we interacted with a dimension where the timeline was similar but not identical- where the Federation were xenophobic humans against the rest of the galaxy. They call themselves the Terran Empire, and they are... well, they are a piece of work. Let's just say it's not a nice place to find yourself if you are a nice Andorian girl. Belly shirts, advancement through assassination and rampant humancentric conquest of the galaxy, all accessible through excessive ionization of a transporter signal. Sonak knew the science- I just got us through the mission so we could get back home."

"So of course I don't know enough about the science to even begin to explain it competently. Although at one point Sonak admitted there might be something about my particular quantum field that invites 'exotic reactions' from the transporters." Paris grunted at that, not even a laugh.

" Sound like a rather unpleasant bunch. The name rings a bell, but I can't remember much. " Thex said before she remembered something. " Hang on, that blocker was placed in the transporters to stop excessive ionizating. We must have had some contact with them."

"Maybe that's how Starfleet deals with them here- take steps to avoid ionization and otherwise quarantine them. That was our answer," Paris admitted with a shrug. "But long and short, Thex, I am marooned, girl. I mean lost on top of lost, so there is absolutely no way I'm getting home. So... aside from bringing me up to date on the latest tenchnologies- look, I'm getting a tan, that's incredible. You mentioned some bad stuff was going on aboard the Hera- fill me in, shipmate. What's going on?"

" Some of the senior staff are infected with a substance known as black blood, after a battle with a creature known as the Master. The black blood causes shadow creatures to appear, and is slowly turning our fellow ship mates into things that many of us have no idea what to call them. We don't know how long it will be until they lose control of themselves and attack the rest of us. Now we're trying to find a cure for them, and the only lead we have is that of an old legend from celtic mythology." The andorian replied keeping pace before pausing in her speech.

" You know, I never thought when I joined the fleet I'd end up fighting the Greek gods. Pity we can't find any of the Andorian gods. I could use some advice from our god of love." She jokingly said as she caught up to her friend.

Slowing her pace a little to let the shorter -legged Andorian catch up, Rita processed all of what the petite engineer had laid out for her. "Okay... so do we know who is infected? We have some lead on a cure but that's then, this is now... shadow creatures appear, shipmates becoming something beyond comprehension... okay, sounds like a Starfleet day at the office. They were right- the more things, change, the more they stay the same. So guessing we have some restricted to quarters or quarantined personnel, and we have to hope nothing goes wrong before we get to our destination, which what are the odds of that?" Partis chuckled, a sound she realized she was making a lot lately rueful little laughs seemed to be her stock in trade in her new life.

Changing the subject, Rita took a bold step. "So what's wrong with your love life, blue? I'm no expert but I've gotten a lot of good advice over the years, maybe I can help. Lay it on me," the golden California girl offered. Thex was unassuming, friendly and was willing to befriend a time-tossed stranger. The least Rita could do was to try to help her with her love life if it were sat all possible, she reasoned.

" Well, I'm an Andorian grease monkey looking to hopefully try and have her own family. For that, I'd need three other andorians of our other genders. Given my species not exactly being that common in Starfleet, finding just one is a nightmare, forget about all three. So I have to look elsewhere. Combined with my species new religious movement that's spreading like a plague, now starfleet andorians are turning into a no-go. So I'm even more out of luck. At least I don't have to worry about my egg reproduction, unlike large numbers of my species." The andorian responded.

"Wow. I've got to admit, Thex, when I offered my help I didn't realize you had problems this serious. You don't need love life advice, you need a Starfleet social dating app," Paris observed. "Does that exist, or do we have to invent it here in the future?"

" It does, but I've had no luck with it." Thex replied grinning.

"So, you said 'look elsewhere'... like what? Do they have robots and cyborgs in this future you can take up with if flesh and blood don't avail? You have holodeck orgies? You thinking interspecies romance? What has 'elsewhere' encompassed, if you don't mind my asking?" Jogging along, chatting with another officer with problems in her personal life, Paris realized she was comfortable for the first time since she'd been reassembled in this reality. This was comforting and familiar to her, and she suspected she and the pale blue-skinned alien woman would spend a lot of time here in this flawless simulation of Rita's home world.

Thex laughed slightly at the human's response. She had so much to catch up to. " Several, but non andorian relationships have gone nowhere. The holodeck can be good for some fun... but it can have complications, and you can't have kids with them."

"You really want that home and hearth, settle down thing over a career amongst the stars, Thex? I mean, you can't bring a family with you in Starfleet, so you'd give up your career just to have kids? I know your people aren't fast at reproducing but it isn't that desperate, is it?" Every word that spilled out of the anachrositc astronaut's mouth showed how very out of touch she was with modern Andorian society. Paris clearly wasn't malicious nor discriminatory in the least, but she had ignorant down to a science.

Thex was about to respond before she realized Rita didn't know about new changes. " Well, you can now have a family onboard ship. Have been able to do that for some time. Also, you wouldn't know about this, but my species is having a population problem. People are looking into fixing it, but sadly we have no luck so far."

"Crap, I'm sorry Thex... I know it isn't a good answer but I didn't know. I guess I should watch what I say in the future since I don't know much about current affairs." Paris ran in silence for a moment before continuing. "You're a nice gal and I'm sure you're a catch, Thex. Some... other three people will come along for you." It sounded just as lame to Paris as it did coming out of her mouth, and that led to a somewhat successful change of subject.

"Families on starships, huh? That's... definitely new... well, to me at least. Not sure how I feel about that. But," she amended quickly, "if it helps your people then I guess some good comes out of it? Just seems like a starship wouldn't be the place for SO's and children underfoot. But maybe I'm just too old-fashioned in my thinking."

" It's okay, Rita. No one expects you to know everything. I've been on a few ships with plenty of kids and we've had no problem. They learn to stay away from area's they shouldn't be in. " The andorian replied as they reached the hilltop. The academy and distance city looked so small from up here. " It's changed since your time, hasn't it?" She said to her friend.

Pausing to take in the vista, Rita looked over the Academy and San Francisco spread out beyond it. One wouldn't expect that much change in a hundred years or so, but there was quite a bit of difference. Rita could identify very few buildings left on campus, and there were only a few elements of the San Francisco skyline that were still landmarks to her. She didn't bother to ask confirmation if this was what it really looked like these days- she'd heard Thex call it up as the modern Academy. This was what her old home town looked like now, and her old alma mater. Not much about them were old, expect the parts that she remembered.

"I'm an antique, Thex. The world I knew was so long ago, and there's so little of it left. One minute I was on the cutting edge of tomorrow, the next minute I'm living in tomorrow, and it really outpaced what we thought it would be. Now I'm a hundred years behind the times... a hundred and twenty-seven, as my conscience keeps reminding me," she chuckled ruefully, shaking her head.

"You know the part that gets me? The uniforms," Paris snapped, suddenly on a tear. "We were Starfleet. We wore bright colors so you could spot us easily. We were there to help, and we wanted to be seen. These days the uniforms are all black with a little dark grey and a subdued hint of color at the neckline, We're not showing up to gather people to us as the helpers, the rescuers, the heroes. We're all in black now, like spies or ninjas or black ops soldiers. Starfleet looks sinister now. What happened to us, Thex?"

" War happened Rita. You haven't seen the body bags coming back from the dominion front. You don't want to know what the borg will do to us." The andorian simply replied. " We had to become soldiers, or else it would have ended all of us. "

"We were always soldiers, Thex," Rita countered. "But we didn't stop being the good guys to overcome what we fought. We were always better than that, setting an example for the galaxy. Is this what war did? Were our enemies so great that we had to abandon our ideals to become them in order to defeat them?"

" No. We didn't become them, Rita. We still are the same Federation. It's just going to take time to heal from the war, and we will always have to watch out for the Borg." Thex replied, though she doubted it herself. Rita had hit upon something that she'd felt herself- something in Starfleet had changed after the war, and everyone knew it.

Shaking her head, Rita argued. "All due respect Thex- I know I literally came along yesterday, but no, I think it isn't the same Federation. Maybe I am jumping to conclusions, but it definitely doesn't seem to be the same Starfleet- not from what I've seen so far. And who are these Borgs everyone keeps going on about? Can you explain them to me so that I can understand why everyone is so afraid of them?"

" Computer, load wolf 359 observation program." Thex said as the holodeck changed. A black map of a star system took its place, along with representations of forty federation starships. Paris looked around in amazement before focusing on the starships and he formations. As they began to form into a battle formation, the map briefly zoomed out. A single object was moving towards the system, followed by the Galaxy-class UUS Enterprise-D. A Klingon battle fleet had moved over the border, and was on a course for earth.

" Imagine a pseudo-species driven by only one purpose. To assimilate all other life in the galaxy. They feel no pain, no emotion and do not fear death. They can adapt to any technological attack we can throw at them within minutes. They are a coordinated hive mind that are bent on one goal- conquest. The assimilation of all life, brought under their mechanical control," The andorian said as the cube arrived in the wolf 359 system.

The battle played out before them as the cube wiped out the fleet in less than a minute, before returning to warp speed.

" They killed or assimilated 11,000 personnel and thirty-nine starships in less than a minute. If not for the crew of the Enterprise, they'd have assimilated Earth and every other planet in the Federation. We now have a whole department trying to figure out a way of stopping them for good." Thex said looking at the battle wreckage that littered the system.

Moving like giants amongst the wreckage of the famous battle which was news to the officer from the era of five-year missions, Paris idly reached out a finger to touch a Constitution-class starship hulk that was floating amongst the debris. A tear welled up in her eye, but the Starfleet officer brushed it aside.



"Have we seen them in person? These 'Borg'?"" Paris asked her guide to the future, trying to grasp what had made Starfleet go so dark in the intervening years. Seeing the carnage and wreckage left in the wake of the square starship, she was beginning to get the idea. It had been the most one-sided interstellar battle Paris had ever seen, and she was no stranger to starship combat.

" Computer, show assimilated drone examples, " Thex ordered as the deck changed again- still jarring to Rita, but she was somewhat getting used to the fact that this room could apparently generate a tangible illusion of anything. It went back to the 'off' setting with its black walls and yellow lines, only it now displayed six borg drones. A collection of human, klingon, andorian, bajoran, Krani and Keni drones appeared, staring blankly at the unlikely duo.

" This is why everyone fears them. They are us. They take our own people, and make them fight us. They take your mind and leave you a husk, bashing on the inside of your head as a monster pilots your body around to help assimilate anyone else they encounter, " Thex explained, looking with undisguised fear at the assimilated andorian.

"Zombies... technological zombies that are made out of the raw materials of our own people and tech... egad, that's absolutely horrifying, Thex. No wonder Starfleet changed so much. This is the boogeyman that scared Starfleet so much that they had to change, huh? I guess they just haven't found the solution yet. But until then Starfleet is running scared of the newest threat." Paris chuckled darkly. This reminds me of the debates about using cloaking devices aboard Starfleet vessels. Some argued that we had to use them snce the Klingons and the Romulans both used them. But the purists argued that we're Starfleet- we don't hide like thieves in the night, we come openly in peace."

Pausing, Paris slid her eyes sideways to eye her petite blue friend. "Let me guess, we cloak now too, don't we?"

" No, we still don't have a cloak. The Romulans gave us a few during the dominion war, but we've returned all of them. I could build one if the captain wants one, provided she could give me a few days and a cargo hold of coffee. " Thex joked. She had actually built a cloak when she'd been on the Orion mission, but that was to help hide the operations computer cores from any Orion spies.

"Hey, that's good news though, Thex! See, we do still come out in the open with the extended hand of peace. That's good, that's still Starfleet and I can.... that makes me feel like I'm still part of the same organization, you know? These things..." Rita eyed the Klingon Borg soldier dubiously. His unblinking eye stared through her, the other some sort of cybernetic eye that probably saw in a hundred spectrum and reported everything he saw. "Zombies enslaved by technology. The greatest threat to Starfleet is literally poetic? Tell me there wasn't a guiding hand to that, my friend."

" It is rather poetic, but I see no guiding hand. The borg are just as flawed as the rest. It's the only reason we can still keep beating them. If not we'd all be doomed." The andorian said still looking at the assimilated andorian. "Shall we try out a diffrent program? This is making me rather depressed."

Realizing that in that catastrophically one-sided battle that they had just borne witness, there were likely few in Starfleet who did not have a comrade, a classmate or a friend on one of those vessels, and in that moment Paris realized how much it had hurt Starfleet, as a whole, by seeing it on the face of her otherwise chipper compasnion. Yeah.... you mentioned explaining advanced warp theory on the holodeck... think we could touch on that? I probably need to know the laws of physics before I go round bending them," Paris joked.

Twenty minutes later, the crash course in Advanced Warp Theory And 127 Years Of Changes In It had been taught and absorbed, and the duo were seated in the cockpit of a holodeck simulated runabout.

"Why a runabout?" Thex asked.

"Because if you can fly a little craft like a starship, a starship flies like a shuttle. Or a, ah, runabout, right?", Paris responded, looking over the interior of the runabout with amazement. "There's a transporter back there. This is a one-woman starship right here. I could live in one of these things."

Realizing that might be a bit odd, Paris dropped into the pilot's seat, forward port. "Okay, we'll need a hazardous terrain- asteroid field, busy space station, civilian traffic- what are you in the mood for, Thex? Let me show you some piloting!" The bravado behind the words was there, at least partially, because it was clear Paris had to prove something to herself. Also to show off that she was good at something to her impressive friend from the very impressive future.

" Try the Varpulis system. A large mess of gravitational pockets, random asteroids and other flying hazards. I remember going there once and we could feel the ship moving even down in engineering," Thex suggested.

"Perfect!," Paris declared as she familiarized herself with the runabout's systems. "Manual override is.... here, navigation control and plotting.. no, I want manual control... no... here? No... wait, here it is, okay. Shields and deflectors... ah, thanks Thex. All right, now for..." Paris looked up. "Computer, simulate the Varpulis system as a flight simulation with this runabout. Use my presets for the runabout.... yes I do know that means autopilot will be disengaged, thank you..."

There was some hubbub setting it all up, and there were still a few mishaps- "Wait, why are the controls only for one plane, and why are they not aligned toward the center of the galaxy?!?" But for the next half hour, the past tense pilot demonstrated to the modern engineer that knowing how to make do with a whole lot less made her quite the pilot in the modern day. Even if she still wasn't completely positive which screen held which menu just yet. But she learned fast, and while they were caught in a gravitational eddy more than once, Rita Paris managed to pull them out by bending gravity back on itself with creative piloting or a whipcrack maneuver or she just plain managed to pilot them to avoid the phenom (along with various asteroids and debris) to bring them in mostly safe and sound. The condition of the hull would definitely need a report filed were it real.

" Well, it looks like you're getting the hang of the future tech. At least the flying part." the andorian said, having been put through a rather wild ride. " If you can fly like that, the Hera should be in good hands."

“I’d like to think so. A few more finesse controls I’m not used to using, a lot of manual overrides to input, but gravity and propulsion and mass and velocity are still constants, so I’m still in business,” Paris offered as she reclined in the pilot’s seat, propping her black knee boots on the holographic flight console.

“Thanks for this, Thex... I need to get up to speed, but I really needed to feel like I'll still be able to make a contribution, you know? If Starfleet is all I have left, then I needed to know that I could still be useful to Starfleet. And now I do,” the sunny California girl grinned, a very self-satisfied expression. “Thanks to you.”

" You did it all by yourself, Rita. I was just here to lend a hand." The andorian responded with her own warm smile. She was happy she'd been able to help this lost traveler from another world.

“Not all by myself, shipmate. I get by with a little help from my friends,” Rita patted the smaller woman on the shoulder. “What do you say, wanna wow me with what the galley can offer for our meal credits and we’ll see if I can’t afford to get you something cold and chocolatey and decadent?”

Thex was about to reply as her combadge went off. =^= Boss, can you come down to engineering? =^= came the familiar sound of one of her officers. " Sorry Rita. Looks like my job's calling me. I'll go and see what they want, and meet you in the officer's mess. " the andorian said before she spoke again. " Computer, replicate Thex standard uniform." She said as her clothes were replaced with her normal engenering catsuit. " I'll see you later." She said as she headed for the exit.

Watching the slender Andorian go, Paris marveled at the ease in which she so casually lived in this high-tech future. Mimicking the command, Paris formulated her request into thin air.

"Computer, please replicate my uniform circa 2268. Command gold, lieutenant commander, size extra large, duty boots size nine narrow and queen sized black hosiery." as the transporter hummed around her, rearranging the molecules of her existing clothing and adding more to replicate her out-of-date uniform, Paris broke out in a cold sweat, but she managed to keep it together. While it had all the earmarks it wasn't actually transporting, so she could contain her anxiety.

For now, she had a few more minutes left on the holodeck before Thex met her up on deck 5. For now, she could still do something constructive.

"Computer, recreate the bridge of the Hera," she ordered as the lights suddenly dimmed and the room returned to its black and yellow default grid pattern.

"This... must be trouble," Paris intoned as she moved to go pry the holodeck doors open.