R&R

Posted on 02 Jul 2014 @ 3:19pm by Lieutenant JG Ivan Dash & Emily Carter

2,482 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Pursuit
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: February 1, 2388 || 2000 hours

Ensign Ivan Dash made his way through the ship's hallways. He was not dressing in his uniform but in a pair of shorts and a tank top. He had a thick belt around his waist that had loops on the bottom of it for his legs to slip through. The belt clicked as he walked, metal loops hung off the sides of the belt. Ivan stopped at the door to the holo deck and he stuck a data stick into the access port.

“Dash program 483, Half Dome” he said to the computer when it beeped that it had recognized the data on the stick. Ivan stood there for a moment waiting. A couple of ensigns walked by and looked him up and down with an odd expression. Ivan just nodded at them and put a pair of sunglasses on his face.

“Dash program 483, Half Dome, is loaded. Please enter when ready.” Chimed the Computer and Ivan took a step to the door. It opened for him, and sunlight flooded the hall way, blinding the two ensigns. Dash smirked at them and stepped in. The doors shut behind him and vanished. Ivan was standing in a clearing in Yosemite National Park facing down the shear side of the famous Half Dome. He begins hiking into the forest straight towards the mountain.

[a few minutes later]

Thelin th'Zarath approached the holodeck entrance. It was the third time he had gotten this close before turning around and heading back to his quarters. "I look absolutely ridiculous in this outfit." he mumbled outside the door to holodeck 3. His blue legs seemed to glow beneath the shorts. He wore a tan short sleeved tunic, and had a satchel slung tightly over his shoulder. His antennae drooped to each side. "If I am to acclimate to this crew I must socialize with them during off times." Thelin sighed as he punched in the entrance code that Ensign Dash had given to him when invited. "I guess this is a better option than he received from Ensign Travor.

The entrance door slid open quickly with its familiar woosh and hum. "Ensign Dash?! Are you here yet? I believe I wish to try this exercise you mentioned. HELLO? ENSIGN DASH?" Thelin walked in more, thus triggering the close of the door, as he continued to call our for Dash. "I truly hope I did not get the time incorrect." ...

"Over here!" Ivan shouted out threw the brush. He was not sure who had joined him yet. Ivan stood in a clearing coiling a length of rope that had been provided by the computer.

Thelin makes his way towards the sound. "Ensign Dash, It is Lt th'Zarath, I mean Thelin. I decided to take you up on your offer of some physical exercise. " Thelin's left antennae curving forward, as if curious. "What are you doing there?"

Dash looked up and grinned "Thelin! Glad you joined me. Call me Ivan!" Ivan held out his hand to Thelin.

"This rope is what catches us if we fall off the mountain. I have safety protocols in place so the if you fell it will not kill you, but its not going to feel great." Ivan winked and clipped the coil of rope to his belt and started coiling another length of rope.

Thelin took the rope and gear and tried to mimic what Ivan was doing. He had to start over a few times after Ivan pointed out how things were not fastened properly. It took a few tries until he finally got it when Yeoman Carter arrived.

.........

Yeoman Carter approached the holodeck, hoping to program a jungle hike. The Holodecks had been booked constantly for the last two weeks, and even though she was the Yeoman, the Operations Department handled all reservations, regardless of rank and position. She'd thought a couple times of reserving time under the Captain's name, but never really wanting to do so in fear of repercussions. With her duty hours always in a state of flux, always being on-call for Commander Geisler, it was even harder to reserve Holodeck time. Now with Commander Kos on board, it would be easier for her to step away.

Alas, to her dismay, the Holodeck was yet again booked. She frowned and sighed, frustrated at the situation. Emily looked at the display, seeing Ensign Dash's name listed as the person who reserved it. She recognized the name, that of the new helmsman. She also saw another name on the list, not the rank or position, as well as the program that was loaded. Maybe she could trade the jungle hike for whatever they were up to. A little R and R for her needed to go a long way, no matter what form it came in.

Emily entered the Holodeck, not noticing anyone immediately. She walked around for a bit, finally coming up on Ensign Dash's location. "Oh," she said, spotting the Andorian she recognized as the ACS/TO, Lieutenant th'Thelin.

"I'm sorry," she said, beginning to turn away. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

Ivan glanced over at Emily "Your not interrupting anything...want to go rock climbing?" He clipped the next coil of rope to his belt and started in on the next coil.

"Yes Yeoman Carter, you should join us. The exercise should prove quit pleasant. Just be cautious on how you fasten your harness, it is apparently very vital you not cross certain straps or you may fall out of the safety apparatus."

"C-Climbing?" Emily stuttered, her thick British accent unable to conceal her surprise. It was then she noticed how the men were harnessed and the mountain behind them. Another rope was available, and she knew she wasn't ready for this. Holodecks were amazing, but not perfect. She could go for a walk, but as the men climbed, she knew the computer wouldn't be able to handle her hike.

This would be interesting. She needed to become familiar with the new members of the Black Hawk's Senior and Junior Staff, now that she'd be working with them daily. There would be no better opportunity.

"Computer," she requested, "one harness." The computer beeped in reply, materializing a harness fit for her on the ground. Emily picked it up, and struggled to put it on. "A little help, please?" Emily asked, looking at Ivan with a gentle look of confusion in her eyes.

Ivan dropped his coil of rope and moved over to Emily to help her put on the climbing harness. "First, put your legs through these..." Ivan showed her the leg straps. " By the way, you can call me Ivan when we are not being formal."

"Emily," she replied with a smile, putting her legs through the leg straps. She balanced the harness, intuitively noticing the different locations to tighten and secure the harness to her waist and legs. She wasn't quite sure if she was to secure those yet, however. "What's next, Ivan?"

"Tighten here and here but not to tight, you don't want it to start pinching you or cut of blood flow to your legs." Ivan picked up a length of rope and started tying it onto a loop of metal in the front of Emily's belt. "Your accent, you sound like your from earth. Across the pond?"

"The pond?" Emily replied, not catching the reference. "I actually grew up near the Badlands, a small colony from a deep-space colonization project led by several Britons. Seems we kept the accent in the migration."

Ivan chuckled "Across the pond is earth slang for across the ocean. Its a British thing." Ivan changed the subject " How long have you been on the Black Hawk?"

"A little more than a month." Emily finished tightening the rest of the harness. "Ever since I enlisted, I've been serving in the Gamma Quadrant. Like most of the current crew, I was reassigned near the end of last year to fill one of the hundreds of open positions on this ship."

The comm system immediately chimed, summoning Thelin to the security office.

Emily, after watching Thelin leave, looked back to Ensign Dash. She wasn't nervous about being left alone with an officer, especially a senior officer. She'd have to be careful with her actions, knowing Captain Geisler would frown on the fraternization if it happened.

She looked up at the mountain, a little nervous about the daunting task she was about to take on. "So... how exactly does this work?"

Ivan watched her body stiffen nervously as Thelin left them, and saw it again as Emily's eye drifted up the side of the mountain. He finished off the knot on her belt and began lashing the other end to his belt. " You look worried, I have safety protocols in place. No amount of falling will kill you, it will bang you up a little though. I feel taking away all the risk of falling takes away from the challenge. The most important rule to remember is the 3 points of contact rule. Always keep two feet and one hand or both hands and a foot on the wall at all times. Other then that just climb up behind me. Watch where I put my feet and hand and try and do the same. Easy right?"

Emily watched as Ivan began to scale the wall. "Looks simple enough," she commented, watching him for another moment. Finally, she stepped up to the wall herself. She reached up and grabbed the next-to-highest handholds and began to climb up, making sure her boots were solidly planted on whatever she could to push herself upward.

Ivan stopped and began placing an anchor into a small crack in the rock face. "So Emily..." he spoke as he was working, " what brings you into the Holodeck today?"

"Working for the Captain keeps me busy," she replied, still slowly climbing the wall. "We didn't have an XO for a while, so I had to help keep up with the paperwork. Now that Commander Kos is here, I get some free time back. The holodecks have been booked solid for the last couple of weeks, and I was looking to do a hike. I guess this works just as well."

Her foot slipped on a rock. She gasped, but fortunately her hands and other foot were securely planted. Her foot flailed for a bit before finding a new rock to settle on. "Well, maybe I still prefer the hike." Looking over to Ivan, she asked, "What about you? What brings you to the Hawk?"

Ivan was looping the rope threw the anchor when Emily slipped. His hand went to the wall as he braced for the pull of her falling, but it never came. She held fast and found her footing again. Ivan grinned down at her. "You ok? Very impressive that you recovered so well. Most first timers would be dangling from the end of to rope." Once he saw she was ok he began slowly picking his way up rocks again. "I transferred here for two reasons. First, it was a promotion. Im head of helm here. On the Excalibur I was just another helms man. Second, there is a bit more action out here then in the alpha quadrant. We were on a diplomatic assignment, so we spent most our time flying around ambassadors. In the short time I have been on this ship I have seen more action then in the whole of the rest of my career."

"Don't get your hopes up too high," Emily commented, still climbing. She knew Ivan was moving ahead of her. Emily had no intention of catching up, but she wanted to keep a good pace behind him. "We've been out here for a little more than a month and today's action has been pretty much all we've seen. It's quiet out here on the fringe. Too quiet if you ask me."

Ivan shrugged a little as Emily spoke " I guess we will see. I, of course don't want to see any harm come to the ship or crew." Ivan looked down the rock face to Emily and grinned at her "I'm really liking the crew so far."

She glanced up at Ivan for a moment, then looked down, realizing the view he had from above. Emily chose to ignore this for now, relishing in the fact that she was being noticed, even if possibly for the wrong reasons for the moment. "Good to hear," she said, continuing to climb. "I suppose we'll get the chance to know each other well, seeing I'm the Yeoman and you're on the Senior Staff."

"Senior Staff..." Ivan said out loud to himself more then to Emily. "I'm not sure Ill ever get use to being called that, especially as an ensign." Almost at the exact same time as he spoke, the rock he was holding on to broke free. He grasped at the wall but fell away to fast to get his grip back. Lucky for Ivan he only fells a few feet down before the anchor he had just placed stopped the fall. He jerked to a sudden stop literally right at Emily's eye level with a loud grunt. He swung back and forth, and his eyes lock onto Emily's "Well that was exciting!"

Emily smiled. "Is it considered back luck to fall this close from reaching the top?" she asked, pointing at the roughly fifteen to twenty feet they had yet to climb.

"I think falling is always bad luck." Ivan responded while pulling himself back to the wall of rock. "Looks like your in the lead now, Ill follow you."

Emily resumed her climb. Amazingly, the last few feet was easily traversed, save a small misstep or two. She reached the top first, and as soon as she could, Emily squatted, secured her position and turned to give Ivan a hand to climb onto the clearing.

Ivan took Emily's hand and used her help to be pulled onto the ledge. He brushed his hands off and turned to look out over the Yosemite valley under the setting sun. "You have to admit, the view is nice from up here huh?" Ivan stated " You would have never gotten to see this from a hike." He said gesturing out in front of him.

Emily smiled, looking out towards the sunset. "Quite fitting," she remarked. "One day ends and soon the next begins."

Ivan took a deep breath and slowly let it out, then spoke up "Computer, end program." The program was stopped and the room returned to normal. Ivan then turned to Emily, "Next time I'll hike with you...assuming you want to do something together again." He looked at her hopefully.

Emily fought the instinct to stagger backwards, disoriented by the change in her surroundings. For a brief while, she had forgotten she was on a starship. "Anytime," she said, giving Ivan a smile.

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