Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kiama Naim ((A) Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim: Blue-shirt Holodeck Hangout

Posted by Ensign Shon Baht (Medical Officer) in Side Sim: Blue-shirt Holodeck Hangout

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kiama Naim ((A) Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim: Blue-shirt Holodeck Hangout
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Following Shon’s gaze, Kiama first frowned as she heard the weird noise and then her eyes went wide. “Uhm....” For a second or two Kiama felt like she frozen, unable to move or think clearly. But then a sudden change came over her, showing Shon a side of her he hadn’t seen before; o at least not to that extend. From one second to the next all joviality and light-heartedness were gone; along with any other display of emotions. She was all focus and seriousness; unaware of the pain in the various parts of her body and the blasting polka music. “We need to get out. Now,” she said in an almost commanding tone while slipping her shoes of her feet. Heels of any kind were not made for running; especially on uneven ground. She wasn’t sure where they should go from here, but an ice cream parlour rapidly filling with ice cream certainly wasn’t a safe place to be. Especially considering that the holodeck safeties were clearly offline.

She only waited long enough for Shon to catch up with her before starting to make her way quickly towards the exit; trying her best not to stumble or slip on the uneven, slippery floor. Yet out of habit she kept an eye on Shon as well, even if it was mostly out of the corner of her eye, while also keeping a close tap on his emotional state. Once again she was grateful that part of her physiology.

Shon eagerly followed Kiama’s lead, not fond of the idea of being swallowed by the ice cream, rather than the other way around. As he moved quickly, his kindly face contorted slightly in slight winces. The adrenaline produced by seeing his friend hurt was wearing off, and his own injuries were starting to make themselves known. Road rash wasn’t necessarily a serious injury, but it was a painful one that slowed him down slightly as his knees screamed. Despite the pain, Shon was determined as ever. Nervous and scared, naturally, but still very much focused on escaping.

Once outside, Kiama took a quick survey of their surroundings. In the short time they had been inside the ice cream parlour things had gone even more haywire. More and ore trees had grown all around them. Trees in all kinds of colours and sizes; from saplings to huge one the sizes of ancient redwood trees. At first Kiama thought it was snowing for it certainly looked like snow. Yet when the first flake landed on her skin, it felt warm and didn’t melt. And at closer inspection the little flakes weren’t exactly white but various shades of very pale pastel colours. And even in the few moments they were just standing outside, things kept changing around them.

While looking around she soon spotted what looked like some kind of shelter. It had three walls and a slanted roof. She doubted that they would find a console there, but it was most likely to be safer there than in the ice cream parlour or here out in the open. At least she hoped that that would be the case. Pointing towards it, Kiama said, “Let’s go there.” Without waiting for a reply, she started to move again, wishing she was better with technology and thus might be able to do something with their communicators so that they could reach the rest of the ship and maybe get help from them.

~Lt.jg. Naim, aCSO

Shon’s eyes widened as they observed the chaotic scene before them, having forgotten just how strange this holographic world was becoming. He blinked at the multicolored soot that fell around them, struck for a moment by its beauty in the midst of the randomness. As Kiama instructed him to go towards the shelter, Shon snapped out of his haze and followed Kiama a couple steps behind.

“I hope the rest of the ship is okay,” Shon called as he staggered and winced in his attempt to catch up. “Maybe the radiation from that anomaly is what’s causing the holodeck to go haywire. But if so, lets hope it’s not having a similar effect on other ship’s systems. I mean my time in the holodeck is up in an hour, so if everyone else is okay we just have to find a way to....” he gulped, “… survive… until then and surely we’ll be discovered. Or maybe they’re working on the problem already!” His speech got progressively faster as his nerves built but he tried to stay positive.

(Ensign Baht, Medical)

It didn’t take long till they arrived at the shelter Kiama had pointed out. It was smaller than she thought it would be, but for now it would have to do. With her head bent, she got inside and st down in a corner. Adrenaline was still rushing through her body and made her hyper-focused. Looking at Shon, she said, “I sure hope you’re right, but I don’t like the idea of just waiting here like sitting ducks.” Looking around, she said, “I’ve never experienced anything like this. Of course I’ve heard of holodecks going haywire before, but this …” She shook her head slightly. “This is insane! Anyway, I’d say there are two or three things we should do. One,” she held up her left index finger, “find a console with the holodeck controls. “Two,” she held up her middle finger as well, “see if we can find a way to protect ourselves from further injury. And three,” she put up her ring finger, “figure out together if we can find a way to contact the rest of the ship. We have our communicators after all. Maybe we can rig one of them somehow?” Looking at Shon, she finished, “What do you think?”

~Lt.jg. Naim, aCSO

Shon nodded along as Kiama numbered their possible plans, his eyes fixated on her fingers as he thought through each option as she listed them. He sat with his chin rested on his knees, in such a way that the scraps on his kneecaps and elbows were all plainly visible due to his shredded clothing. His fingers absent-mindedly probed one of the patches of road burn on his leg, causing him to hiss reflexively.

With concern written plainly all over her face, Kiama looked at Shon and asked, “I hope you didn’t get hurt too much? Do you need anything?” She knew that there was very little she could do, but she hated to see (and feel!) anyone in pain. And not being able to do anything about it left her feeling helpless.

Shon blinked at Kiama’s comment, then glanced down and adjusted his sitting position so that his injuries weren’t so plain to see. “Oh no, I’m fine. They’re just flesh wound. Sure they hurt, but I’ll be okay.” They did indeed hurt, but Shon meant what he said about being alright, considering the circumstances. There was also a twinge of guilt for having sustained less damage than Kiama had.

Sensing his guilt, Kiama locked her eyes with his and said gently, yet firmly, “Stop it. This” she first pointed at herself and then made an encompassing gesture, “is not your fault. So no reason to feel guilty. Let’s just focus on trying to find a way out of her. Okay?”

Shon bit his bottom lip, again reminded of Kiama’s empath abilities. It was easier said than done to stop feeling guilty, but he knew that his feelings weren’t important right now compared to the immediate danger still presented by their surroundings.

“We already tried looking for the control panel,” Shon said after a moment of thought, “And it didn’t seem to be immediately accessible. So we’ve sorta already tried that. I’m not particularly skilled when it comes to engineering… maybe science is a closer academic cousin than medical? If you wanted to try your hand at the communicators, I could look for a way to keep us safe. Some kind of helmet would be the first priority, considering things are falling from the sky and we don’t want head injuries. Or… additional head injuries, I suppose.” Shon took of his comm badge and tossed it to Kiama before peaking out of the shelter. “Sound like a plan?”

(Ensign Baht, Medical)

Catching the combadge with a rather startled expression, Kiama replied something reminiscent of a chuckle, “Sure, but you are aware that my field of science is much closer related to medicine than to engineering, right?” More seriously she added, “But yes, I’ll see what I can do and please be careful, Shon.” A concerned expression played across her face as she looked at him. She intentionally lowered her mental shields a little at the same time, not enough that she would easily hear what he was thinking, but enough that she could keep track of him more easily when left he her side. And who knew, maybe she’d be able to pick up what might be going on and if someone was trying to get them out of here already. Though for that she might have to lower her shields more and she wasn’t sure if that was a good idea right now.

From what Kiama might be able to sense of the ship outside the holodeck, the emotional states of almost everyone else on the ship seemed to be completely normal. Given the lack of stress, it might be reasonable to assume that the radiation associated with the anomaly they were approaching was currently only effecting the holodecks… at least for now.

However, there were other holodecks on the Manhattan. And Kiama could likely sense that the nearby holodecks had other people inside that were in distress. Even if Shon and Kiama could wait out the hour until someone came to check on them, could the other people trapped in holodecks across the ship do the same?

What she sensed was not exactly what anyone would call comforting. Yet it also didn’t seem as bad as she had feared. Hopefully with apparently only the holodecks affected the rest of the crew was able to focus on fixing them. And with not only theirs going haywire, the chances of someone outside noticing what was wrong might be better as well. Though that hope didn’t eliminated her concern for everyone who was currently in a holodeck; including Shon and herself.

Lowering her gaze to the combadge in her hand, Kiama let out a soft sigh as she flipped it over. The one time I’m not wearing bobby pins, I actually could really use one, she thought wistfully while turning the combadge over. She then prised the back of it open and stared at the innards of the little device. “This is most definitely nothing like a brain,” she muttered under her breath while trying to figure out what she could do to enable them to contact the rest of the ship.

~Lt.jg. Naim, aCSO

OOC: Sorry, hit the submit button too soon… ~Silke

Shon scooted to the edge of the shelter, peeking out before gingerly stepping into the open air, which now smelled of oranges. “I don’t know,” Shon called back, “I’ve heard that whole ‘brains are just biological computers’ thing before, so maybe it’ll be more intuitive than you think!” Some of Shon’s natural optimism was starting to come back, which was a good sign. He held a hand up to his brow to block the colorful soot from obscuring his vision as he searched the chaos for suitable protection. The polka music had slowed to a distorted, almost demonic pace and piles of random holodeck-generated items were strewn about the street. A couple dozen yards away, two dozen pillows poofed into existence and fell from the sky to land with a WUMPH on the soot that had started to collect on the ground. Shon started to make his way toward the pile, glancing up every couple seconds for any warning of what might fall from the sky next.

(Ensign Baht, Medical)

“Fair point,” Kiama retorted with the hint of a smile. Though for once it wasn’t reaching her eyes. While keeping taps on her friend, she turned her attention to the small device in her hand. Was there a way to amplify the signal so that they could reach someone outside the holodeck? What had they learned about that at the Academy? Well. what she knew for certain, was that she’d need something smaller than her fingers to manipulate anything insight the combadge. She was wearing neither bobby pins nor earrings nor any other jewlery. And the butterfly hair clip was to big. Maybe… she chewed on her lower lip, while looking around: hoping to find something that might work. If not, she had an idea what might work, but that was more of a last resort kind of thing.

In a classic case of “be careful what you wish for”, Kiama did see something that might work: a needle. Well, less one needle and more like hundreds of needles, flying through the air in a group like a swarm of insects, darting back and forth in the street. Their movements were erratic as they zipped about, each of the differently sized needles spinning end over end and clanging together with an uncomfortable sound of metal scraping on metal.

In the mean time Shon was lucky; relatively speaking. More things kept falling form the sky, but nothing heavier than the pillows. There were down feather falling down. From the pillows maybe? Anyone familiar with fairy tales from Earth might be reminded of the story of “Frau Holle” by the Grimm brothers. Though it wasn’t long till the feathers changed first into liquid gold and then pitch rained down on him. Though weirdly (and thankfully) enough, it didn’t feel hot to the touch. And then all of a sudden the liquid gold turned into gold coins. And was that a little girl in a white (night) dress standing there in the distance catching the coins with her skirt

~Lt.jg. Naim, aCSO

Shon swatted away the down feathers falling around him with one hand as he stooped over to grab an armful of the assorted pillows with the other. He spit out a feather that he had breathed in as he stood up, then gasped in surprise and dropped his quarry when the liquid gold splashed over him. He watched as the beads of precipitation on his arms turned to gold coins, eyes wide with confusion before he looked back at Kiama and finally saw the phantom girl. “Only a computer could think of something this random,” Shon mumbled to himself as he quickly scooped the pillows back up and briskly walked back toward the shelter Kiama was in.

Unfortunately, as Shon moved to rejoin her, the cloud of needles veered toward him. Shon raised the pillows over his face in self-defense and started to back away, but the needles followed him, puncturing the pillows and threatening to surround Shon completely. “Kiama!” he shouted in desperation, hoping she could do something to stop him from undergoing an impromptu acupuncture treatment.

(Ensign Baht, Medical)