Posted by Captain Molly Holloway (Commanding Officer) in Holodeck 5, Tag Captain Holloway

Posted by Ensign Clinton Reed (Operations Officer) in Holodeck 5, Tag Captain Holloway

Posted by Captain Molly Holloway (Commanding Officer) in Holodeck 5, Tag Captain Holloway
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
Stores thoughts reeled back to the mess he was when the Vigilance rescued him from what was left of the Tortuga. Three days in his own filth, struggling to keep the life support going in his suit, three days in a dead ship surrounded buy blood droplets and stumbling in to the bodies of his family. All the wile listening as those who had made it to the pods were hunted down, even his sister and the other children he got off, at the last.

It wasn’t pretty, but this woman has spirit, and if the scuttlebutt was true he damn sure knew what the boss saw in her.

Pulling himself back to the present Stores started to look around, So this is the home world. He had seen it from orbit, but even when he worked at Io he had had no desire to ship down. * What is that gods rotted noise? Sounds like a bad spot on a bearing race.* Stores thought as he looked around.

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo

“Great!” Molly said enthusiastically. “Come with me, then.” Reed’s wry smile completely missing the mark.

Without missing a beat, Holloway started to walk, first to the campus entrance, past the transporter pads, and then in the direction of the street that had welcomed her for so many years.

“So tell me.” Molly started as they were past the campus entrance and down one of the many busy San Francisco streets. “Have you ever been curious about Earth? If you don’t mind me asking. I mean… you are human, so you must have at least heard from it, if you have never been planetside.” Holloway’s cheerfulness was disconcerting. Anyone who knew her, or really, any of the members of the crew, would generally portray her as a stern, cold, and mostly introverted, person. “Do you have any idea where your family comes from?”

Capt. Holloway, CIO

“Hard to say, M’am. As a kid I imagine I was, but even when I worked at Io, I never came
Planet side.” The bottom of a gravity well just didn’t hold any appeal to Stores, untie being posted to the Dresden.

Taking the oddity of ‘buildings’ that simply ended instead of reaching the overhead and still queasy from a horizon bent the wrong way around, Stores answered “ We have been spacers since pre contact, the Tortuga was a converted pre warp inter system hauler dating back to the augment wars. As to parentage, most of us only new one parent, as it was normal to bring in outside genetic material on port calls.”

“As for the Reed’s” Stores continued” they were members of the original 12 families, and had been captaining the Tortuga for a few centuries.” Looking around like a wide eyed child” Mom was captain at the end, but I had grown up under my grandfathers command.”

Stores memory unreeled the argument with his grandfather that lead to his leaving the ship and going to work with his uncle at Io. There was still a great sense of regret of not being there when he was committed to the void.

“Earth smells funny, Captain” Stores blurted our, breaking his descent into the past.

Clinton”Stores”Reed Supercargo

OC, spell check bit me. Committed became vomited.

OOC: I mean… “There was still a great sense of regret of not being there when he was vomited to the void.” is a great sentence though. :P – Joana

IC:
“Wow!” Molly’s expression would tell Reed that she didn’t exactly like the idea of growing up in space with one single parent. “Were you never curious about your other parent? That must have been hard…” She knew how hard it was to grow up with only one parent. However, for six years of her life, she had had the two. Depending on Reed’s upbringing that might make the difference.

Holloway chuckled at the smell comment. “It’s probably the hovercars… or the ocean… or the atmosphere… or all of it together. The smell of humanity, I guess. Don’t know if that’s a good thing.” Molly shrugged. “Most of us can’t even feel it anymore. Which makes it even better when you walk in front of a restaurant or of a cafe, and you can smell the cooked food from inside. Have you ever tried cooked food before? Did you have any on board the Tortuga?” The thought had just made its way into her mind.

Capt. Holloway, CIO

OOC,
wow, two posts in one day, your fired up!
“vomited into the void” is more Korak than Stores, ;-)

IC,
Hearing the surprise in the young captain’s voice and seeing the unease in her face when she glanced back, Stores chuckled. Just keeping pace with her was keeping his mind of the sky.

“Never really thought about who my doner was. We were raised communally, and no one else new who their’s was either” A smile creeping across his face at the happier memories of growing up in the nursery with his cousins; but it faded as that lead to memories of his sister.

Doner. The word didn’t settle well with Molly. For a moment she felt a pang of sadness for Reed.

Shaking himself loose from those memories, Stores mind turned back to the question of food, “ some of my aunts and uncles claimed to know how to cook, and they brought on fresh foods, otherwise it was vegetables from the agroponics bay, spirea chips, resequenced protein and occasionally fish.” Stores laughed as he realized that’s exactly what he had taken back on for this evenings dinner. “The food wasn’t bad, really but like all young men I wanted something more, and have been collecting and writing replicator patterns for food ever sense. “

Seeing the 180 degree swing in Holloway’s demeanor, It was easy to Decide to take the bait, “This is your field trip, so why don’t you introduce me to some of your favorites?” But never one to leave well enough alone “When you start taking along on away missions I imagine I’ll be exposed to all kinds of exotic food” the pressure was starting to lift some, and Stores mischievous side was reassuring it’s self. I do believe I may get to like her for a drill instructor Stores thought But somehow, skydiving might be the easy part

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo

“Well…” Molly paused to ponder on how to phrase her thoughts. “Away missions don’t usually involve food, although some might, but it’s not the rule. My dad used to cook all the time.” A wistful smile crept up into her lips. “Once you taste actually cooked food you won’t want your replicator recipes anymore, that I can assure you. It’s a shame that even here tonight, all you will get to try are the computer’s best attempts at replicating non replicated foods!” Holloway chuckled at the irony.

“Vegetables, spirea chips, protein, and fish…” Molly mindlessly repeated what Reed had just told her. “From that and from what you have tried away from the Tortuga, do you have any favorite dish?”

Capt. Holloway, CIO

“The truth, “Stores began wile absently looking around, “ Is I haven’t really found anything I didn’t like.” Looking back at the intelligence officer. “Why don’t you chose, perhaps you’ll introduce me to a new favorite.”

The pleasant banter as well as the more enclosed space of the building lined street were both acting to reduce Stores a anxiety. * This might just work* the thought came unbidden the truth was Captain Holloway rather reminded him of his mother. At least when he was a kid. He was rather beginning to enjoy her company.

Clinton” Stores”Reed, Supercargo

“Well… here you won’t find so much as dishes but more as casual sandwiches, if that makes any sense to you…” Molly replied.

With a last turn, the pair was faced with a street lined up with small stalls selling anything one might imagine. The smell coming from each of the stalls made Molly’s mouth water as she scanned the street for Mr. Wilkins’s bread stall where she had once worked. People gathered around each of the stalls merrily chatting as they ate, standing around with the plates in their hands.

With a smile, Molly turned back to Reed. “Well… maybe I asked you the wrong question then. Is there anything you would like to try that you might not have had the chance yet? Or just anything you’re curious about?”

Capt. Holloway, CIO

“Thats the rub, Captain.” Stores said, as he looked around. “You really don’t know what you want to try until you try it” Port side, on a hundred stations looks much like this, he thought.

He was starting to relax, now that he had a familiar anchor. “Show me your favorite, that’s why you would do with any other non Terrestrial, Isn’t it?” One would think that all humans were the same, sharing one homogenous culture, but I was far from true. Human culture evolved as we reached for the stars, and sometimes those paths struggled to reconcile with higher warp speeds and unlimited energy and resources.

Clinton” Stores”Reed.

“I guess you have a point, Mr. Reed.” Molly smiled before silently scanning the premises with her brow furrowed, clearly pondering where to go. “You know what…” She looked at the distance and then back at Reed. “Why don’t you find us a table over there…” She pointed in the direction of a group of high tables – the kind where you eat standing – clumped together, each of them with its own parasol. “… and I’ll go and find us something to eat?”

And with that, Molly disappeared in the crowd, seemingly blinking out of existence.

Capt. Holloway, CIO

Shaking his head and chuckling Spook has skills then tuning to secure a table.

He hadn’t forgotten about the sky, nor the smell and the noise. Not that the last two were unpleasant, just different. As he stood at the tables mulling over his current situation it came to him that it was a combination of the three that gave him the he-be jibes. The sky was just the most obvious, but for one to whom air was a comodity one couldn’t live more than a few minutes without, one became keenly aware of the ozone scent of a properly functioning life-support system, any strong smell was a warning of something amiss. As to the sound, the blade less fan technology made a sound in the ducts not unlike wind over the needles of a conifer or saguaro, but their was also the sub sonic vibrations of the other ship systems as well, you could feel the structural integrity field, deflector fields, and warp fields. Not to mention the plasma conduits and the fusion generators. As a life long spacer, there was a lot of ‘feel’ that went with life. Often he felt something amiss well before the threshold was reached that triggers an alarm. It wasn’t magic, or any super power, it was just an adaption to the same cues that told an Eather a storm was coming, or a predator was on the prowl.

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo

Contrarily to Reed, Molly was in her home turf. Taking in the wonderful smell of cooked food as she moved between the stalls, she basked in the sun coming from one of the clearest blue skies she had seen in a long time. She didn’t really pay any attention to underlying sounds that might be sipping through from the Dresden. She could feel the soft rumble of the warp core beneath her feet but that was about it. The holodeck did a good job at masking the rest, at least for her. She was sure that many Engineers would probably argue otherwise.

Molly was a food snob. She had grown up in San Francisco and worked in one of the largest ‘real produce’ farmers markets in the Bay Area. There was no replicator in her adoptive father’s house, and he usually cooked every meal. So no matter how much people had tried to convince her that replicated food tasted the same there were always differences she would spot.

Of all the stalls, Holloway had a clear favorite: Mr. Enzo’s Italian place. He sold the best bruschettas in town and just the thought of it made Molly walk a little faster. The quality of the simulation making her forget for a moment that she would not be getting the real thing.

She could see the familiar bread stall as she moved by it, but no one that worked there was a familiar face. The simulation was accurate for the most part, but if there was something the computer couldn’t know unless told, were the people that manned the place. And whoever had programmed the setting might not even know anyone enough to insert them in it.

Holloway sighed, realizing that it probably wouldn’t matter if she just asked the computer to replicate whatever she wanted right there. But something made her keep moving, as her nose guided her to another stall she hadn’t thought about.

It didn’t take long for Molly to be back at the tables area, trying to balance four different paper plates on her hands and barely managing it. By the looks of it, if Reed had chosen a table that was one length away, one of the plates would have ended on the floor.

Seeing how precariously balanced the plates were, Stores resisted the urge to help for feed of upsetting things.

Placing the paper plates on the surface, she settled next to the Reed. “Alright, so… this one is a Mozzarella cheese, tomato, and pesto bruschetta…” She said pointing to one of the plates. “This one is a Philly Cheesesteak, and this one is a pulled pork sandwich with onions and apple sauce.” Holloway seemed tired. “Finally, I got a Cheesesteak for me too. I thought we could share the others. It seems to me that may be a little too much for one man only, but I won’t judge you if you have stomach for all of it. However, I won’t share my cheesesteak.” She chuckled.

Capt. Holloway, CIO

Looking over the provender, Stores shook his head. “If it was a challenge I think I could eat it all, but I would seriously regret it.”. The cheese and bred reminded him of what his grandfather called ‘pizza’, to certainly more appetizing that his version. The cheesesteak he was familiar with, but again a less impressive product, and it was perhaps the safest choice, put the pulled pork peaked his interest, as the apple sauce and onions sounded interesting.

“ I wouldn’t be foolish enough to come between a woman and her food,” Stores chuckled.
Perhaps I will start with the pulled pork.”

Molly chuckled as she took her sandwich to her mouth and took a large bite, visibly hungry.

It may have been the 24 century but had been raised with an archaic sense of chivalry, waiting for the Captain to pick up her sandwich before reaching for half of his intended target. “Wow” it was a surprise, who knew that apples and onions were a pigs best friend? “That is surprisingly good, Captain. Thank you.

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo

“You can definitely find a few surprises around this market.” Molly reaching to a pile of paper napkins she had brought in for the table and wiping her lips. “Although I really hope you get to see the real one some day.”

She took another bite of her sandwich and chewed for a moment before continuing. “I haven’t had dinner yet, and I figured we would better stock up before we get to other… less easy environments to deal with. How are you coping with the sky?”

Capt. Holloway, CIO

“Better” struggling to keep the apple sauce from dripping off his chin. Holding up his index finger, wile wiping his chin and chewing.

“Now that you have me thinking about it as a problem it’s not as overwhelming. I see that it’s actually just one facet of the problem, Ma’m.” Not sure how to make it a clear and concise report he just dove in.

“It seams that each one of my senses are triggering separate warnings. My eyes see the alien geometry and lack of a ceiling. I smell things that the life support filters should have cleared up, and I don’t smell things that you expect from a functioning system. I don’t feel the ship, or actually it’s muted buy the holo-deck. lastly I don’t hear the ship, and what I do hear sounds dangerous.” After letting it out in a jumbled rush Stores looked some what embarrassed.

. “It’s just such an alien environment, Ma’m. All the more so when you put people and common technology in the scene.”

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo

Molly allowed herself a few seconds to ponder on Reed’s reply while she chewed. “So…” she finally said as she rearranged her grip on her half eaten sandwich. “What you’re saying is that you’re just visiting a different culture. You know…” Holloway took another bite of her cheesesteak. “There’s really nothing we do at the Academy to prepare us for what we like to call ‘culture shock’. Things are different in different places, even within our own homeworld. I never had the luck of travelling a lot growing up. Although to be fair it was more because I didn’t want to rather than a matter of opportunity…” Her mind went back to the fateful trip to Houston many years back. “… but many people at the Academy used to compare going to a new planet with going into the outer reaches of planet Earth. Every culture is different, and all you can do to get used to what you find foreign about them is studying where you’re going and diving right in.”

“I was thinking that the next obvious step from an open sky would be to expose you to rain? You mentioned you had dealt with it in the past, but I don’t know how used you are to it?”

Capt. Holloway, CIO

“Yes m’am, the atmospheric test chamber at Io is big enough to generat it’s own weather. But I wasn’t around for any of the actual weather simulations. Just helped spot as we moved hulls in and out for testing.”

Taking another bite, Stores pondered her last statement. “ I think I see what your getting at, combining preparation, a mission objective and desensitization should work with me as it works with cadets in training.” Wiping his chin again, “Sounds like a plan.”

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo

Molly nodded, her mouth full with the last bite of her cheesesteak. She took a look around as she waiting to make sure she wasn’t speaking with her mouth full. One thing was certain, though, it wasn’t until that very moment that she realized that she actually missed home.

“I’m glad you agree.” She said cheerfully, but her eyes were still on the stalls around them. “In a certain way, you are very much like a cadet in training.” Molly smiled. “But given your… different… background, I just want to make sure there’s nothing in that ‘training’ that might trigger undesirable reactions that may make it more difficult for you to get used to each of the environments we will be going through.”

Capt. Holloway, CIO

“Most everything good or bad has happens to me in space, I would doubt that my past, other than the novelty of the environments would effect our training sessions.”

Stores polished of the sandwich. But he never quite relaxed. It was obvious that he was hyper vigilant, not only did he track movements out of the corner of his eyes, but he also tracked them in defective surfaces. All the wile maintaining unnerving eye contact as the Captain spoke. His curiosity about the Captain was growing, scuttle but had her Peter as the ice queen, but their was more humanity than they gave her credit.

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo