Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side sim - A Concert for the Ages

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Solal Segal (Oncology and Immunology) in Side sim - A Concert for the Ages

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side sim - A Concert for the Ages
Posted by… suppressed (21) by the Post Ghost! 👻
In some of his spare time, Solal had found himself pressed for something to do. He could’ve sworn his posting before the Ogawa kept him busier than this, but in the future, things would probably become busier. For now, he had found himself back in the holodeck, but not the library. Not today, no… he had done as much reading lately as he could manage. He was confident no one would come here. He had booked time alone in the Holodeck, and he had picked a time when he thought not too many people would be wandering around looking for something to do. The afternoon proved a good time for this, on certain days.

Solal stood in the empty holodeck, staring at the walls of nothingness for several moments before deciding on a setting. “Computer, a concert hall. Not a large one, but optimised for acoustics. Just one chair. And a Cecilio CVN-300 violin, solidwood ebony.” As soon as he finished specifying conditions, the Computer created a gorgeous concert hall, with space for perhaps fifty seats, but the only chair which appeared was in the center of the stage, for Solal. A music stand also appeared in front of him. A music book of intermediate Concierto pieces sat on the stand, which Solal opened to the page for Rieding’s Concertino in D Major, op. 36.

Then, he took a seat, and began playing the violin.

~ Lt. JG Solal, Doctor

As luck would have it, or perhaps misfortune, Solal’s attempt to perform without any unexpected guests ended in abject failure. It was Achilleas’ turn to wander into an occupied holedeck and stumble across a musical performance. He was surprised at first then a little embarrassed with having done this again though with a different person, but once he recognized who it was then he was less embarrassed and more fascinated. So being as quiet as he could to not interrupt the performance or break Solal’s concentration, he took a seat in the audience, listened to the music, and waited for the performance to finish. Once he was sure the song had finished he began to clap.

CSO Petrakos

Solal did not notice Achilleas’ presence as he played. He had not played in quite a few years, but fortunately, he seemed to recall how to do it quite well. Rieding’s Concertino was an intermediate piece, and Solal made a few mistakes throughout the nine-minute song, but overall, it sounded good. No squealing bow, in pitch, just a few missed notes, and a small timing issue. When he finished the song, he began to place the violin by the chair. Then, clapping began from the audience section, and he dropped the violin in surprise, looking up hastily to see who was there. His eyes resembled that of a deer in the headlights.

~ Lt. JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas stood from his seat and walked toward the stage. “Not bad.” He complimented with another round of applause. “Poor instrument discipline dropping it like that but decent performance. The violin huh? That sure brings back some memories. Two of my sisters and a brother play the violin.”

CSO Petrakos

Solal picked up his violin, placing it much more gently into the case. “I booked time when odds were low someone would come blundering in,” he said, a twinge of irritation to his voice. He wanted to say something to… excuse what he was doing in a way, as if he were doing something bad, but he had no idea what to say. So, instead, he asked, “Your siblings play violin?”

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

“All of the children in my family play an instrument and I as the youngest wasn’t spared that particular requirement. Our grandparents insisted we all learned an instrument because it instilled discipline. Some of my siblings learned more than one if they had the interest and the skill. With the thirteen of us we had enough to do some small orchestra performances for my parents and grandparents.” Achilleas said with a smile as he completely ignored Solal’s irritated comment.

CSO Petrakos

“It was required by my boarding school,” Solal said simply. It was true - the school thought similarly to Achilleas’ family, that children should learn an instrument to instill discipline. But four instruments later and the idea had failed to enthrall Solal. He preferred martial arts, usually. Or reading. At least Achilleas thought his performance was ‘decent’, he supposed… but that didn’t help much. “But I never progressed past an intermediary level.”

~ Lt. JG Solal, Doctor

“I mean, it’s not like you ever planned on being a musician right? I only learned two instruments because I had to and I refused to put more time into than my studies. So while I’m not bad at making music, I’m certainly not going to make a career out of it.” Achilleas laughed as he looked at the violin with a sliver of desire. He hadn’t played anything since he entered the academy and his fingers were itching a little.

CSO Petrakos

“Not exactly. I only found myself here because of our little dance class the other day.” Solal replied, catching Achilleas’ glance at the violin. “Help yourself. It’s the same model I used in school.” He gestured to the violin, which hadn’t been damaged by being dropped.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas shook his head. “I’m passable at the violin but it’s not really my instrument of choice. I’m more of a cello player myself.” He thought for a moment before calling out. “Computer, another performers chair and a Stradivarius cello with bow.” As the chair and cello materialized, he took a seat then pulled the cello and bow to his front. He pointed to the chair Solal had been sitting in previously with the bow before swishing it up and holding it lightly against the strings. He ran the fingers of his other hand up the strings in a gentle caress to get a feel for it. He took a deep breath and as he let it out he pulled slow and strong with the bow across the strings to produce a deep tone. This tone resonated for three seconds before his fingering of the strings and bowing shifted to a quick rhythm. He began playing Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in G.

CSO Petrakos

Solal was unfamiliar with the song, so he left the violin where it sat and listened to Achilleas play. He seemed to be better at the cello than Solal was the violin. He waited for Achilleas’ performance to finish, sitting politely in silence.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas did not play the entirety of the suite and stopped after finishing the prelude. Otherwise the performance was going to last a lot longer than a couple of minutes. He had errors and incorrect bowings at moments but at the end of it he was satisfied with his playing. He let at a breath and looked over at Solal with an upturned eyebrow.

CSO Petrakos

“A good performance, though a song I am unfamiliar with,” Solal said. He picked up the violin and its bow, and looked back to Achilleas. “It’s been quite a long time since I’ve played. Years. It’s interesting I remember how as well as I do.” He almost wanted to suggest they play something together, but he refused to be the one to say it.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

“Well what are you familiar with? My cellist spirit is all fired up and it’d probably be better to play a duet then alternate solos. It’s been a couple years since I’ve played and a little practice is good. Might as well make use of this opportunity.” Achilleas said with a laugh.

CSO Petrakos

“Intermediary traditional violin pieces, for the most part,” he said, and he showed Achilleas the book he was working out of. “But this one can be played by both instruments,” he said, flipping to the page of one of the concerto pieces.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

“I’m not familiar with it by heart, so we’ll need another music book and a stand for me.” Achilleas responded as he looked at the song suggested.

CSO Petrakos

Solal made the computer program summon the book and the stand for Achilleas. Then he sat down with his violin. “I’m not overly familiar with this one, either, it’s a little above my level with the violin.”

Lt. JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas shrugged while he read over the first few lines and setup his bow. “Don’t worry about mistakes or sticking strictly to the score. Feel the music and follow my lead. Have fun with it. And one, two, three, four.” He counted the rhythm and started playing his part on the fourth beat.

CSO Petrakos

He started playing at the same time, his fingers moving across the instrument’s neck, his bow flying smoothly across the strings. There were a few off key notes and several missed notes as he tried to play the song, keeping up with Achilleas.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas didn’t slow down or wait for Solal. A few missed notes or off keys wasn’t the end of the world. Juggling the playing with the page turning got to be interesting to pull off but it seemed to be going passably.

CSO Petrakos

Soon the song was over, and Solal rested the violin in his lap. After many years not playing, he found the posture and pose required to be tiring to hold for so long. He turned to Achilleas. “Your playing is very good.” He complimented.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

After he shifted the bow to his hand holding the cello, Achilleas wiped some sweat off of his forehead with his freed up hand. “Thanks. You did a good job keeping up. Especially for a relatively unfamiliar song. If we practiced that one for awhile I think we could pull off an impressive performance.”

CSO Petrakos

“I-I suppose we could…” Solal said uncertainly. “But.. why would we do that?” He asked. To get better at the instrument, he supposed. But he hadn’t yet solved the mystery of why he came here in the first place. Nostalgia? Either way, he wasn’t totally comfortable with the idea of practicing the instrument regularly… especially not with someone else.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas shrugged in response. “To get better at something? Were you satisfied with how you played? I thought we did well but there is room for improvement. We don’t need to play or practice if you don’t want to.” He stretched his shoulders and set the cello on the stand next to him. “Why were you alone playing the violin? Why no orchestra playing with you?”

CSO Petrakos

“My performance was… less than adequate on that song.” He said, placing the violin’s bow on the music stand. His next question was harder to answer. He did not want to call it ‘embarrassment’, because that was… too human. But that seemed the only word that came to mind in response. But he could answer the last part. “I never played in an orchestra. I had private lessons.” He responded with a shrug. “So I am not accustomed to playing with others.”

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor