Posted by Lieutenant Daphne Frankenstein (Chief Medical Officer) in Holodeck 2 - McCall of the Wild - All Welcome

Posted by Cadet Alex McCall, MD (Doctor) in Holodeck 2 - McCall of the Wild - All Welcome
Alex stuck his head of his tent and immediately felt the damp chill of a typical Scottish morning, the dew, fog, and light drizzle all combining to soak him pretty much to the skin within seconds. He gazed around the makeshift campsite he had set up the evening before.

“Good, at least the sheep haven’t stolen everything.” He muttered to himself, pulling the rest of his lightly aching body from the tent. He set about getting the camping stove lit so that he could boil water for the all-important ritual of ‘the first cup of tea’. No heathen coffee on this trip!

“Get a hobby, they said… you need some downtime they said…” He muttered to himself, grumbling as he stretched to try and work out the kinks from a couple of days fairly strenuous backpacking and bivouacking through the wilds. In truth ‘they’ were probably right, he had joined Starfleet to get away from his old life but hadn’t stopped to consider that maybe he needed to get a new one too.

As if on cue, the fog parted slightly to show the route ahead for the day, the sharp ridge of Sgùrr Dearg, topped by the final objective, the tall finger of rock known as ‘inaccessible pinnacle’… or the ‘In Pinn’ if you were some sort of hipster climber.

Cadet Alex McCall, MD

OOC: Anyone is welcome to come along on the trip, feel free to pop out of a tent! The theme is retro hiking, so dress code is leather boots, thermal underwear, and woolly jumpers, no modern equipment like GPS, etc.

In life, appearance and confidence made all the difference. If you had no idea what you were doing but looked good doing it, everyone thought you were an expert. Living in the mountains for her entire life, Daphne had the high end boots, coats, gloves, and hats that came with having to stay outside for hours on end working the ski resort. What she didn’t have was the let’s go rough it mentality.
Waking up on the Scottish Highlands, Daphne’s perfect and expensive outfit was no longer providing cover for her less than novice camping and hiking skills. It had sounded easy. Hey let’s go camping for some team-building time. Blake is on liberty so we can take a few days in the holodeck because he can’t kill anyone before we get back. Camping really wasn’t her thing when there were perfectly good beds and hotels all over the galaxy but she hadn’t done it in years so she took the chance. Now she realized why she hadn’t done it in years. The company was always fun but the creature comforts were sorely missed.

Exiting her tent, she took a deep breath of the simulated air and felt a wave of nostalgia before it evaporated as quickly as the fog rolling off the moors. The land was quite beautiful but right now that was the only perk to the morning. Every muscle in Daphne’s body ached. Stretching she let out a small moan as she made her way towards Alex and the campfire. “Mornin’, ” she half mumbled half stumbled to the pot over the open flames. Grabbing a cup, she poured the contents in it knowing a lit bit of Joe was going to make everything better. “How did you sleep? I think I picked the tent over a rock quarry instead of those mossy areas you always see in the landscaped pictures of your Highlands,” she made small talk as she took a large sip of her drink.

Alex bit back a laugh as he watched Daphne stagger stiff-legged towards the fire, moving pretty much like her name sakes’ Monster. In truth, all that was missing were a couple of bolts through the neck to complete the appearance.

“Morning Boss!” He said, a fair bit more brightly than he actually felt, but it was important to keep up appearances.

As soon as the liquid hit her tongue, Daphne’s face screwed up in horror and shock. In the most unladylike gesture possible, Daphne spit the swallow of liquid out in a spray like a garden hose plugged at one end. “What the hell is this,” she looked at Alex with an expression of pure hurt and disbelief.

Alex sidestepped rapidly to avoid the scalding hot stream of amber liquid as it jetted out of Daphne’s mouth.

“It’s what we call ‘Tea’, Big Kahunna,” He said, finally dropping in the amusing nickname that Daphne had been trying to get him to call her since he came aboard. Timing was everything after all.

“Tea,” she looked at him with the sad and disappointed expression of a small child who had just dropped an ice cream cone? “Why..why..why would you bring tea to a camping trip?” Her stammering showed the medical chief’s pure and unadulterated fear surfacing. “I mean you bring booze and coffee. Coffee and booze. You get your water from some damn babbling brook you share with a doe-eyed deer but you bring coffee and booze.” Daphne continued to rant looking around as if they had just hidden a coffee cart behind some tend as a joke.

“I mean packing for a camping trip goes tent, sleeping bag, coffee, and matches so,” she leaned in slightly with a bewildered expression, “You do have coffee though right?”

Lt. Daphne (showing her equivalent of a stake in the heart or torch of fire nemesis) Frankenstein CMO

“Coffee…Coffee…Coffeeeeeee” Said Alex, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket that he worked his way down with a finger tip, as if it was a check list of the equipment and stores they had packed across the hills. In truth it part of the instruction manual for the camping stove, but he was never one to let the facts get in the way of a good joke.

“Nope, sorry, fresh out of that stuff, we only have water or tea I’m afraid. Oh, or some Bovril if you would prefer?”

Cadet Alex McCall, MD