A Swingin' Scene

Posted on Wed Jul 11th, 2018 @ 9:39am by Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Commander Rita Paris
Edited on on Tue Jul 24th, 2018 @ 2:01am

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: Holodeck 7, Deck 11
Timeline: 2395
Tags: GNO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_(dance)

http://www.catscornersf.com/

From Fedepedia, the Federation Encyclopedia:
Swing dance is a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origins of each dance predating the popular "swing era"


The ship was safe once more- well, safe-ish. There seemed to be no imminent danger, and last night Rita Paris had gotten an entire night of sleep. If there were dreams she hadn't remembered them, and those seemed to be the best nights of all anymore. Bridge duty had been served, duty rosters filed, disputes settled, maintenance scheduled, discipline directed and duty discharged. The Hera should survive another day, and it looked like she was going to make it out of the dark matter cloud a day early thanks to her course adjustment, made possible by Vaemyn's real-time mapping telemetry.

The buxom bombshell of a bygone age felt that she deserved a night out. So too did her shipmate, the much harder working Thex sh'Zoarhi, chief engineering officer of the USS Hera. There was the strong temptation to invite her assistant CFO, the colorfully plumed Mona Gonadie. The former chief flight control officer was delighted that not only was someone else was doing the paperwork, but slowly teaching her how in the process.

But this time it would just be the two of them. Rita felt that her instincts had steered her well, and the hardworking dance loving Andorian girl had proven herself to be one hell of a friend. So it behooved the antique Starfleet officer in near mint condition to go out of her way to be a friend as well. Thex clearly loved to dance, and an ex boyfriend had gotten Rita into swing dancing. She didn't have the moves and training to even try some of that complex Orion dance the blue-skinned babe enjoyed.

But a Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing or boogie-woogie and Rita Paris could swing with the best of them. And tonight she was taking her little pal with her. She had a fabulous dress, all the synthehol the starship could replicate, great music and a cool club to visit. One of the many joys she was discovering of life in this fantastic future, was that you could essentially go on shore leave every night, and go wherever you wished. Downtime did not have to be dull if you did not wish for it to be so.



"Tonight is most definitely not going to be dull," Rita promised her reflection as she touched up her lip stain with some gloss. "Now to see if Thex shows up to meet me here in my quarters, or if she ends up standing in front of the holodeck door again..."

Thex had never been swing dancing before, so when her friend had asked her to go, she had had to do a little research about it. Looking up some information on it, she quickly began to understand what she needed. She also looked through the outfits Rita had sent over, and quickly chose one that she liked the look off.



Stepping out of her quarters, Thex quickly made her way down the hall to her friend's quarters, as they were practically neighbors in Officer Country. Pressing the alarm, she waited patiently for it to open. Which it did almost immediately, the doorway filled with her tall and buxom human friend, whose smile was quite wide and cheerful.

"You look amazing, Thex! Great choice, and that dress is perfect for this kind of dancing! C'mon in, I just have to grab my earrings and my shoes," Rita hustled away from the doorway, moving at that high speed that Thex was getting used to now. It seemed Rita was always in a hurry to get most places, and the leggy lieutenant was making no exception tonight as she hustled across her quarters to grab her accessories.

The quarters themselves had changed a bit since last Thex saw them. The walls were a blue-grey, while the carpeting was a subdued dark blue, and a conservative tight knit. The walls were adorned by various images of Rita's past- a very large image of the refit class USS Exeter dominated one wall of the living room, while there were service jacket portraits of a handsome young man in a red uniform from her day, and another of a Vulcan in science blue from the same era. While much of the furniture looked the same, it appeared that Rita had added a few room dividers to break up the large open floorplan, and she had apparently added a dining room with six chairs off her kitchenette.

" I like what you've done with the place. Old friends? " She said looking at the men in a uniform from a more simpler time. She had always like the miniskirt outfit from that time. Before the Borg and the dominion. She did keep looking around the room taking in the decor and the art. Her quarters were far smaller and a larger mess. She really should clean her place up. " I've never been swing dancing before. I hope you go easy on me," the Andorian said as her friend returned.

"Yep, old friends. That's Lieutenant Michael Stuart," Rita indicated the handsome man in red. "In my timeline, he led a successful mutiny against a mad captain and brought the ship home, and was granted promotion and command. Here, he died an engineering lieutenant, but it still looks like a portrait of the man I knew. And of course Sonak, because I figure if I'm gonna moon over someone it helps calm me a little to see him, even as an image. Those and the picture of.... well, the nacelles are actually all wrong and frankly our Exeter looked more like your Ambassador class than your Constitution refit class. But it's.... I don't know, the old call letters make me nostalgic."

There was a moment where Rita got her earrings on and she perched on the edge of the couch, slipping her wedge heels on when her brow furrowed and she paused. Internally she debated- if she brought it up now then it might ruin the evening. But she wasn't sure if she could ignore it all evening because she really wanted to talk to someone about it. Thex was her best friend, and short of running it past her therapist, the best one onboard to talk about the delicate subject. Besides, it potentially affected her too.

"Can we talk for a minute, Thex? There's something on my mind and I really need to talk to somebody about it. So do you mind? Before we go out?" Rita wasn't the happiest about bringing it up now, but she trusted her instincts on this one. Hopping up, she grabbed a bottle of cinnamon whiskey synthehol and a pair of tumblers, and poured two fingers for each of them. Handing one off to Thex, she held her own up for a toast.

" Sure Rita what's on your mind?" The andorian said talking her tumbler and raising it in toast. She knew her friend mind still had a million and a half things to ask and figure out how she had been transported to this strange new time.

"Soooo the captain kinda jokingly came on to me about a three way with her wife," Paris started, and waited for her friend to react to that. "But joking in that 'if you get offended I was joking but if you are down with that I'm serious' sort of way."

" Okay," Thex said calmly not having really expected that as an answer. " Well, I didn't expect that you to say that. Did you say anything about it?" The andorian asked hopefully being polite in this situation. Having a friend ask this was definitely not in her past experiences.

"Yeah, I just kinda laughed it off and changed the subject. But I'm not really sure what I should do... I mean, I've lived my career in a short skirt, I've been hit on plenty of times by lots of people in lots of ways." Rita paused to take a swig of her drink, formulating her thoughts as she spoke. "I did used to sleep with my superior, but that was different- Sonak and I were all business in uniform, and we kept our private lives private. He was a Vulcan, he could do that. This is... a lot different. Plus, I, ah, I mean, I like girls just fine, just... I've never particularly swung that way. Just as, like, an afterthought to the situation."

Eyeing her slender blue friend, the time-tossed temptress flopped down on the couch. "So it's kind of a sticky situation, y'know? I don't want to offend the captain buuuuut I'm a little stuck here, you see what I mean?"

Thex tried to say something but then decided to stare at her drink for a while feeling very awkward at this. This was a situation none of her friends had asked her about before. Settling the thoughts that were standing around in her head feeling rather confused at the whole situation they'd been dropped in, she said to her friend. " Well, I never been asked to sleep with my superiors, let alone have a threesome with their wife. Enalia does like messing with peoples heads, but she'd never force you into anything you didn't want to. No one on the ship would... well except for the ECH and he's a last resort asshole. If she's making you uncomfortable just tell her and I'm sure she'd apologize or if you'd like I could go and tell her. " She said with confidence coming back into her voice.

Well, crapRita thought to herself as she watched her cerulean skinned spacegal pal shift several shades of sapphire. I guess in a world where schoolchildren don’t know what a bully is, it stands to reason sexual harassment isn’t something they understand either. Way to go, Rita, now you’ve just made Thex uncomfortable. Okay, noted- sex is apparently a topic not to bring up to the Andorian who practices dances perfected by harem girls.

“I’m sure you’re right,” Rita lied fluidly. “I'll handle it, have no fear. For now, let’s get going, huh?” With that, Rita downed the rest of her drink and stood, that devil-may-care grin set on her face. “Go do some jitterbugging in a cool club that I dug up in the databanks.”

" Let’s," Thex said smiling as she finished her drink and stood up to follow her friend to the door. " So what’s the name of this club you've found? " she asked her friend.

“It’s a club called Cat’s Corner, in San Francisco. I know, I know, I am boring and I always want to go to my own hometown,” Paris admitted. “But I can imagine it would be hard to find swing clubs anywhere else in the galaxy, and apparently the Swedish American Hall has been hosting these things for longer than both of us have been alive, so I figure they must be doing something right.” Clipping her comm badge discretely amongst the ruffles at the bottom of her dress, Rita checked herself out in the mirror. The club would be filled with holograms who would be as impressed or unimpressed with them as their settings directed, but old habits died hard. She was going to a club, so she had to look her best.

Turning to face her diminutive pal, the leggy blonde flashed a smile. “You ready?”

The andorian nodded and returned her friend’s smile. " Ready!" she said as she followed Rita out into the corridor and down the hall to the holodeck, now fixed up and no longer malfunctioning due to the storm. Her team deserved a medal for their work.

As Rita punched in her code to the holodeck, the program preload she had selected was set so it would be in full swing when the doors opened. And when the doors opened, the hallway was filled suddenly with the lively sounds of jazz, a strong beat thrumming as the urgent driving of the horns took precedence, the heavy bass thrumming. The joint was jumping, as Rita had delineated in her choice, and it was filled with a variety of races, not just a preponderance of humans as one might expect in an earth club, even in the city that was home to Starfleet.

Crossing the floor of the club, Rita did so with much less than her usual highly-efficient long-legged walking speed. Instead, when she walked there was much more sway in her hips, and her eyes were alert and active, scanning the room for the attention she was generating to be received. In so much of her life and in so many of the activities in which she engaged, Rita Paris was over her head or out of her element and making do as best she could. But this was a night out on the town dancing, and for a change, the out of date officer was very much in her element.

Approaching the bar, Rita found an open spot and looked around to make sure Thex had been traveling in her wake. “What can I get you to drink, dancing queen?” the buxom blonde asked with a bit more than her usual enthusiasm.

Thex had been looking around the club with a sense of wonder and homeyness. This place was wonderful,, and she was already moving her hips slightly to the beat of the music. " Whatever you think is best Rita. This place looks amazing, " she said as she joined her human friend at the bar, her head still moving around talking in her surroundings.

“It’s a swingin’ scene, to be sure,” Rita giggled at her own joke before handing Thex first a shot of something amber colored which smelled familiar to what they had been drinking in Rita’s quarters. In addition, the bartender produced a rather large pair of glasses with multi-layered blue liquors flowing serenely together inside the glass.

“First we do the fire,” Rita held up her amber shot glass for a toast, clinked her glass off Thex’s before downing the shot, then she grabbed the taller drinks, setting one in front of the petite Andorian and one in front of herself “Then comes the cool of the Andorian Sunset,” Rita explained as she attached herself to the straw and started draining the colorful drink in record time. It was abundantly clear to Thex where Rita had spent her weekends at the Academy and why she had not graduated at the head of her class.

It seemed Rita knew a thing or two about partying, and school was officially in for Thex.

Thex nodded and followed her human friend's instructions, downing the amber shot glass. The liquid burned her throat as it went down, and the andorian was grateful for the cool blue liquid that bore her homeworld’s name. She enjoyed every drop of the blue liquid which she sucked from the straw, before placing it back down on the bar. She was amazed at how fast her friend had drunk hers. " You've done this before, haven't you?" The andorian asked smiling.

“Well back in my day, when you drank too much, you paid the price. But we didn’t have synthehol,” Rita grinned as she indicated to the bartender to bring another round. “So when we overindulged, we just got drunk and paid for it. But this, where you can shake it off whenever you want with no after effects? That’s just kind of perfect for a night like this.” Having made her proclamation, another shot of Fireball and another cool Andorian Sunrise were parked in front of the party girls, and Rita threw back the second shot and started working on her tall cool and smooth blue drink. “Now we can just pregame like crazy ladies then get to cutting it up on the dance floor!”

" Well, if you want to know how to replicate real alcohol just let me know. I have the codes to do it." Thex replied with a laugh as she took another drink. It went down easier this time but was still as sweet as before.

"You clever little devil, I will bear that in mind for the future. Okay, okay, so- the idea behind swing dancing is that you're dancing with a partner. If you don't have a partner you can just dance to the band, but it's hard to swing alone, because," Rita took the engineer's calloused hand in her own then took one long step away from the bar. Tugging on the lithe and acrobatic engineer, when she came in Rita reversed, and they both moved a bit to the music.

"Swing dancing. Get it?" The blonde bombshell in the tiger striped dress flopped against the bar, clearly already a bit drunk, as she reached for her tall cool drink and slurped it down.

" Yeah, i think I get it. " The andorian replied finishing off her own drink with one long gulp. Dropping her drink back on the bar she and Rita headed onto the dance floor swinging to the beat as they did.

The dark wood floor was already filled with dancers as the band started another lively tune, and it took no time for the two Starfleet officers to find dance partners. Thex was a natural, picking up the dance moves as she moved, and in short order she was doing a Lindy Hop, swinging around her partner, her off hand in the air as the horns had their way with the music. When her partner went to toss her around his back, the acrobatic engineer was ready, and the energetic movements were coming naturally to her.

As for Rita Paris, on the dance floor she came alive. Dynamic and inexhaustible, she was a woman in constant motion, twirling and twisting around her dance partner when not synchronizing her movements to those of her dance aprtner. There were some particularly difficult maneuvers, such as a hold stand and a knee slide and a basket whip. She whipped over her dance partner in a standstill backflip swing lift and hit the ground on her heels, still dancing and grinning ear to ear. It was a rare moment of Rita doing what she loved in a venue in which she knew what she was doing, and it was clear that she was loving it.

As she danced, Thex smiled at her friend, as she seemed to be glowing with happiness. It seemed in all the music and the beat, the woman from the past was able to help escape all the troubles and thoughts that plagued with her. She seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself.

It could be challenging to keep up high-energy dancing like that for long, but Thex and Rita lasted a good half hour on the dance floor before Rita tugged her friend by the hand and dragged her to a couch off to the side where Rita could flop down on the upholstery and sweat as she signaled a waitress for more drinks.

“So, this is my people, this is my culture- well, the parts I get to be proud of, at least,” Rita grinned as she gestured to the dance floor. “You really do have a gift for the dance, Thex. You learned those dances moves as soon as you saw them, and you were cutting a rug to beat the band in no time. I see why you are so fond of your Orion dancing now, you move so fluidly and it comes so naturally to you.”

" I have no idea why, " the andorian said, smiling slightly as she leaned on the bar. " My family banned dancing. Anything that didn't contribute to their frigid regime schedule." She said quietly as she downed her drink in one gulp. " Sorry, I shouldn't have brought them up. I guess it's my Intel chief from my Orion operation to blame. She taught me so much about dancing when I was on that assignment."

“Well, good for her you did. Looks like it really brings you joy,” Rita observed. “As for family, have no fear. Talking bad about my family is why I’m the black sheep- well, and these,” Rita hefted her heavy assets and bobbled them for a bit. “I don’t know about your family, but in mine women were to serve the drinks, stay out of the way and make babies. Clearly I made my family ever so proud.”

" Same with mine, only add in a large amount of xenophobia and andorian supremacy. Rather ironic given our genes. Still, I don't miss them. This fleet is my family now. " The andorian responded, looking around at the holodeck walls that she knew were there.

“Cheers to the fleet as home. Yeah, my father was surprisingly humancentric. Distrusted the Vulcans as much as the Romulans and swore they were trying to keep the human race from exploring the stars. Of course he also had very specific racial insults for Andorians, Tellurites, Klingons…” Rita paused to polish off her drink, smacked her lips then raised her empty glass in a toast. “Here’s to you Clifford, you xenophobic sexist pig. You were right, I was never going to be of any use to the family.”

“How about yours? A whole clan, huh?” Rita asked, trying to draw the little Andorian out. Thex never talked about herself, so perhaps here was part of the reason why.

" No, not a whole clan. Well, not my knowledge. It was just me, my four parents, three sisters and a whole bunch of religious nutters. Well, until that jellyfish pulled me over the wall. I owe Vash my life." She said thinking warmly of that unusual creature who had done so much for her.

“So color me curious. Is it rude of me to ask about that? You never really talk about it, and I have no idea what that’s all about.” Rita paused to retrieve their drinks from the waitress, parking a bright yellow and red version of the Andorian Sunrise in front of Thex as well as a cool blue shot that was clearly refrigerated. “I know you need four Andorians to reproduce and that they tend to be clannish, but I really don’t know any more than I learned in the Academy. I’ve never been to Andor, and you are the first Andorian I’ve ever served with. Plus, I admit, I am crazy curious about the jellyfish…”

" No no no, it's just that I'm rather embarrassed about that topic. I know, a girl who dances like an Orion is embarrassed about sex. Seems rather odd, but that how I am. Let's just say, for the full andorian experience, you need to males and two females. The males provide the secret sauce, one of the females provides the egg and the other is the incubator. I don't know much about clans. I was brought up in a religious cult. As for Vash he's a very long story." The andorian replied gratefully for the drink at hand as she took a few sips.

“Fair point. And we don’t ever have to talk about something that makes you uncomfortable, okay?” Rita leaned in to her friend, her eyes a bit wide and her coordination not all it should be- Rita was well into a drunk and powering ahead for more. “I just ask questions about everything because I don’t know, right? That doesn’t mean you have to answer if you don’t want, or it is too painful or whatever. No means no, okay?” Paris giggled at her own joke, then took a sip off the colorful beverage. “See, this one is a southern California specialty that we call a Tequila Sunrise. Different colors, different flavors- not as smooth and creamy as the Andorian Sunrise.”

Thex gladly took the drink, but before drinking it she looked at her human friend and said, " A few more of these, and I'll tell you anything, Rita. " With that, the andorian began drinking, enjoying the flavours and textures that went down her throat.

Pffft,” Rita waved her hand dismissively. “Synthehol, where you can shake off a buzz instantly. Wonders of the modern century is that people will never make poor choices when drunk, because they can sober up whenever they want.” Pausing for a few seconds to slurp at her drink, Rita amended with a pointed finger. “No, scra5tch that, I’m sure people still do stupid s6tuff when they are drunk, if they choose not to sober up.”

Setting her drink on the bar a bit harder than she intended, Rita Paris shook first her heads then let it spread to her entire body. “Okay, I’m lubed up- let’s dance!”

The andorian nodded as she hurried to finish her drink, before following her friend onto the dance floor. She was getting used to the moves, so it was now easy to get back into the swing of the music.

While they did not dance the night away, Rita had four hours booked in the Holodeck, basically her ration for the month, and they used it all. The athletic human woman danced and shimmied and slid about, letting herself be tossed and thrown with abandon by their holographic dance partners. As for Thex, she not only mastered the moves of three different dances, she also invented a few more as she combined her natural acrobatics talent with her love of the dance. By the time the two women were departing the holodeck, shoes in hand, they were both giddy and drunk and filled with good cheer.

“And that was a holographic simulation of a night out on the town. We can hit the galley for breakfast and drunk talk if you want? Usually we find a greasy spoon somewhere, but since we’re still on a starship in the middle of who knows where, we can make do,” Rita offered, as all that dancing had made her hungry and her stomach was officially growling at her. Whattya say, pal of mine?”

" Some food sounds great right about know. " The blue engineer replied as her own stomach grumbled slightly at the mention of food. The officer's mess and its replicators and fresh food were sounding like a wonderful place to be right now. " Officers mess is looking really good right now. "

"Then let me introduce you to another element of earth girl clubbing, my blue-blooded buddy," Paris grinned far too wide at her own joke and accidentally hit herself in the head with one of the shoes she was carrying. "Snort! I am the soul of grace. Those charm school lessons really paid off, I tellya. Nah nah nah, see, this is the joy of the 1AM breakfast, where we eat a regrettable amount of carbs and protien then go home to pass out for not long enough before we're up at work tomorrow doing it again."

Thex grinned in reply as they made their way to the officer's mess. At least her friend was feeling better even if it was the happy drunk better. Hopefully, her mood would be the same in the morning. Maybe with a full belly and some sleep it would last even longer.