Homeworld

Posted on Sat Jan 12th, 2019 @ 12:53am by Commander Rita Paris
Edited on on Sat Jan 12th, 2019 @ 1:08am

Mission: Section 31-B
Location: USS Hera, Deck 11, Holodeck 7
Timeline: 2396, after 'Sightseeing'
Tags: Holotitan

Making the walk from her quarters down to the holodecks on Deck 11 in her running clothes wasn't such a rare occurrence for the throwback officer- after all, she regularly jogged certain decks just for scenery and evasion. But there were holographic vistas she enjoyed as well, so Commander Rita Paris spent some of her allotted time in the holodeck, pursuing locations other than the corridors of the mighty starship which was her home.

Today she had come for that reason and another- to share with the entity recently discovered to be trapped in the ship's holographic matrix in some fashion that so far their best engineers and scientists couldn't fathom. Magic, Rita Paris was observing, seemed to be genuine Nietzschean will to power. Belief in it made it what it was, and it had sentience and life and power.

The titans might just have operated on a different principle entirely. Whatever their deal was, the friendly first officer was still reasonably convinced that there was an entity in there, and it was a chunk of the storm they'd accidentally taken with them, the end of the tendril of itself it had been using to hunt them with holograms, to pursue the crew of the USS Hera like rats through mazes. It was cut off from all that it knew, could see into their minds, their experiences and emotions, and it wanted to communicate that it wanted to go home.

Having established that theory which seemed to be holding, Rita Paris made another broad assumption based on available data. If it was here, and it was lonely, then if she were to treat it as a friend, she would visit them. As Holodeck 7 had been the one in which she, Dael and Dox had encountered the sentience, she figured she would try it again. For all she knew it might just be restricted to this system. Keying in her code to the archway control panel, the doors slid open on the black room with the yellow grid pattern imprinted upon it.

"Hello! I've come to visit you again- we're still a few days out from our next stop, then we should be able to rendezvous with the storm and return you to where you belong. So, since I know you are here and you are probably homesick, I thought I would share my home with you. I'd like to go for a run today, please. Starfleet Academy nature trail, modern day. Five minutes predawn, please? I need time to stretch. Begin... thank you."

As the base of the nature trail, Rita stretched her legs and her long muscles, limbering up quickly and efficiently. Most of the initial ascent was a one kilometer straightaway followed by a double back of the same distance, as the trail led up in two steppes. Thus the darkness would not hinder her, and she would be facing the horizon to the east, to see the dawn.

Stepping off and pushing into a loping run, Rita Paris spoke to her imaginary friend.

"This is my homeworld, Earth. It's an M-class planet, third rock from the sun in a system of 9, although we keep Pluto as a courtesy because technically it's not a planet. But this is my world, where I was born and raised. This is North America, one of seven continents. This is the west coast, so the sun rises in the east and sets in the west from our perspective according to our clockwise rotation around Sol, our yellow sun as the planet rotates counterclockwise around itself." Running at this speed, the experienced runner could still hold a conversation. She wasn't in a hurry, not today. This run wasn't about a speed trial. It was about education.

"The city nearby- we'll see it soon- is called San Francisco, named for one of the most venerated religious figures from an influential sect from our history. It's the home of Starfleet Command, and the seat of the United Federation of Planets. I grew up here, all my life until I graduated the Academy and shipped out to Mars, the 4th planet in the system." While she had no idea if any of this was relevant, or if she was making a terrible mistake giving secrets to an enemy, Rita didn't know. But she came in peace, and none of what she was explaining was any less than any schoolchild in the Federation knew.

Stepping up the pace, the human girl stopped talking and pushed herself, so that she could see the dawn, the sun breaking the horizon, the start of a new day on Earth, and it filled her with wistfulness. "My people are diurnal- we can see better when there is light, so we are connected to the dawn, and to the day of the planet's cycles, as is most life on planet Earth."

Taking the turn, having greeted the dawn, Paris pushed herself a bit to talk while exerting herself harder for the next 1K distance on the switchback of the trail. "This is my world, this is my home, the town where I grew up. I have not set foot on my world for 131 years, although it has only been three years to me, because of a time travel accident. It looks different than I remember, because cities and civilizations grow and change. The evolution of societies is evident in preserving some of the old while creating anew. I miss my homeworld- the rolling hills, the great seas- my world is 71% water, and we are not amphibian. It has every type of terrain, and it is beautiful to my eye."

Pushing up the hill, her breathing was more labored now, but she was nearly arrived at her destination, the overlook that began the long slow track around the hill which would wrap up the first 5K, giving the runner the opportunity to proceed or take the steps down to opt out of the remainder of the course. When she had time, sometime Rita did wind sprints up and down those steps built into the hill. But not today. Today she wanted to see the city of San Francisco, and to share it with an entity who might or might not even be listening.

But it hurt no one for her to give a travelogue to no one she could perceive as she ran the simulation of the nature trail.

As the time-tossed temptress approached the rise, the lights of the city were still twinkling below, as while the light of the sun had yet to reach it, the city was still slowly awakening. Jogging up to the edge of the hill, with the blend of old and new combining even as worker bees and shuttles darted and swooped about the city, Rita inhaled deeply, a smile settling onto her face.

“This is my home, the city I’ve known for more than half my life. The planet of my birth, so far away and so far removed from the city as I last saw it.” Even as she spoke, the scenery shimmered slightly as many of the buildings changed, the styles of architecture becoming more familiar to her, as did the various craft in the sky. Sitting down on the edge of the trail, Rita Paris crossed her arms on her knees and appreciated the view.

“Yeahhhh… this is the way I remember it, you’re right,” she admitted to the presence that she could not detect, yet was clearly at work since she hadn’t asked for a 2255 version of the skyline as a vista. Yet it was still comforting to her, and she lingered for a bit. “This is what is familiar to me. This is my home, as I remember it. Where I belonged, where I came from."

"But change isn’t all bad," The athletic executive observed. "I've made friends here in the future, good friends. This is a good ship with a good crew, and a good captain. I'm the First Officer- that means I keep the captain aware and keep the crew on task so we can accomplish what the captain needs- that's how starships work. So I have my work and a home, and my t’hy’la is here… my spouse, mate, partner, husband. We are together in exclusive bonded mating, and he is everything to me. In him I see the wonders of the universe, and someone who understands all of that... and me."

"As far as I was flung and lost, still he came for me," serenely sighed the sentimental spacefarer.

"So long as he is beside me, I can be happy. I would have made do without him if I’d had no choice, but there would always have been a part of me that was missing. I guess you understand that pretty well, don’t you?” Pausing to let that sink in, she nodded. "I know how that feels. No matter how different we are, there are always things we'll both understand. That's the theory behind the Federation. It's in finding common ground with one another, celebrating our diversity but unifying behind peaceful principles of mutual cooperation."

"That's a long-winded way to say friends help each other. That's the Federation. We're Starfleet- we're the ones who go out there to find those new friends and offer them a seat at the table and a voice in a greater community." Standing there on the bluff, the sun coming up behind her now, casting the first rays of the dawn across the city as night gave way to shrinking shadows.

"There. There's the UFP headquarters back in my day. What does it look like in the modern day?" Rita asked of the holodeck, and the scene shifted to the modern incarnation. The UFP chambers and hall had taken over much more of the city, even as Starfleet had built upward. But some landmarks remained. The Transamerica Building's trademark spire still thrust into sky, catching the rays of the dawn. The Golden Gate Bridge was still maintained as an historical landmark. Alcatraz still sat out in the bay, although it had long ago been converted to Starfleet Marine Sciences, even in Rita's day.

"They come here, because we're the explorers. We're the ones who went looking for who else was out there and what wonders the universe held. We went out into the universe to make friends. And because it was our idea, we became the center of this great alliance of societies, of worlds coming together in harmony." Standing with her hands on her hips, Rita smiled as she peered back over her shoulder toward the dawn.

"I'm proud of us... of my people. My people explored and sought and boldly went. These are their great grandchildren, and look at how well they have done- not for themselves, but for the universe. That message of peaceful cooperation we took to the stars came home with us, here on planet Earth, and it has enriched us all for the experience. I know it's probably speciesist or just rude, but I am proud of us," the native Earth girl admitted. "For a backwater planet that darn near killed itself for profit, we did all right. I'm very glad that I got to see the future."

"This is what I wanted to share with you. We can't talk about your people and where you come from because you don't seem to communicate that way. Which is okay, because at least we can communicate, and that's a start. So today I just wanted to share my homeworld with you. I miss it, maybe a little like you miss the rest of your... forming celestial presence."

The explorer of another age paused, considering what she'd just said, then shook her head. "Hearing it out loud kinda makes it sound a bit of a reach. But at the very least I came to visit and communicate a bit. So I've probably got enough time left to finish the course. You are welcome to come along?"

No other joggers joined her on the trail, but Rita wasn't alone.

 

Comments (2)