Posted by Lieutenant Commander Jessica Vaughn (XO) in Holodeck - Taming the Beast

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Jessica Vaughn (XO) in Holodeck - Taming the Beast Duncan grinned now, walking around the car and waving Smithers away who had been walking behind them in case he was needed. “The Rhodes learned long ago Miss Vaughn that the women that affiliated themselves with this family were strong and independent. They made formidable mothers, aunts, grandmothers, partners and friends but over all of that they were still women, feminine and took pride in looking after their menfolk. I note you made no effort to shy away from taking the basket” Duncan looked at her and actually winked, “and I know you Miss Vaughn, looking after your friends ranks highly on your list, especially if it comes to feeding them and making sure they are satisfied, if you had let me take the basket I would of been surprised, and probably concerned you weren’t enjoying yourself.” Duncan shifted the car to make sure it was ready to start and then looked back at her, “There are times to be a gentleman” Duncan offered cryptically, “And times to know when to accept that sometimes being a gentleman isn’t what is required or wanted.” : : : : : : “Touche Mr. Rhodes,” Jessica said reclining the seat some and pulling her aviator sunglasses down from the spot she had perched them on the top of her head. Propping her feet up on the dash, Jessica turned her face towards the warm sunlight. This was a simple pleasure she missed so much being in Starfleet. Jessica loved the sun and the feel of it on her skin. “Now take the long way around,” she kept her face pointed at the holographic sun but let a smirk cover her face. : : : : : : : : He turned the key in the car and the big engine immediately growled into life. It wasn’t as smooth or quiet as the more “modern” vehicles people often collected, this was a pure piece of engineering glory. Open topped so their hair blew in the breeze, the car was spacious and immaculate. The engine hummed with power that could be felt through the very seats but at the same time was smooth enough to let the driver know that it would respond in an instant. This vehicle was built for the experience, and was an exact match for the one Duncan owned at his real estate. Duncan looked at Jessica and smiled, smoothly shifting into gear and the big car moved ahead, turning on the gravel to point out of the estate driveway and towards the fields. Duncan didn’t drive fast yet but the car was obviously being held back, the air was crisp enough to let them both know that if it wasn’t for the old aviation suits they were wearing which kept them very snug, they would by now be shivering despite the clear sky and sun. : : : : : : : : “So you have never really flown before” Duncan asked her, “What do you expect it will be like? Are you afraid of heights?” : : : : : : : : Lt Rhodes : : : : CSO : : : : : : Jessica let out a long laugh before removing her feet from the dash and tucking them up under her. Turning to face Duncan in the seat she pushed back the sunglasses to keep the hair off her face as the car whipped it about. “You are looking at Miss Crop Duster 2384,” she said spreading her hands out and giving a stiff pageant wave to the crowd before turning a bit more serious and pointing her finger at the CSO. “If you tell anyone that I will kill you in your sleep or make you out to be a pathological liar. We all have a few skeleton’s in our closet and my race and victory at the small festival outside Dallas is my crowning glory of skeletons. I mean I have no idea why I wanted it so bad,” Jessica leaned back in her seat laughing hard remembering her past. She did know the reason and it was a pathetic as any for a teenager in high school. : : : : “That sounds like you know exactly why you wanted it so bad” Duncan said, smiling and glancing at her as the car wove it’s way down the quiet country lane, large and ancient tree’s lining the side of the road and away to either side rolled gentle hills and farms. “Tell me” he told her, “What happens in the holodeck stays in the holodeck.” : : : : : : “Alright but you have to promise me you will not laugh,” she threatened knowing that only a Vulcan would not see the humor in it. “Okay so there was this guy named Robert Rex,” she already started smirking. “He was the hottest guy in school and every girl wanted to be on his arm. He loved rodeos and was on my high schools bull dogger team.” : : : : “Robert Rex” Duncan repeated, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “That’s an unfortunate name, but carry on, whats a bull dogger? That sounds like what Starfleet Cadets do when they are betting who can score the oldest woman in the clubs on Risa.” : : : : : : “A bull dogger is an event in rodeos where a cowboy wrestles a steer to the ground as fast at they can. Usually they just charge each other, the cowboy grabs the steer’s horns, and then gets him to the ground. Robert was the best. He held the high school title for best hooey all four years. A hooey is the knot that a cowboy uses to tie a calf’s legs together after you catch him. Anyway, Robert was on every girls target but he had a thing for the delicate beauty queen types so I decided to give it a whirl. I signed up and won the pageant that year. My talent was playing the kazoo. We were crowned together on the second day of the week long festival and I thought I had won the lotto. The only problem was that as Miss Crop Duster, I was supposed to get into the archaic plane and wave as they wrote a message above the fields. The pilot looked about 90 and took forty minutes to get into the plane because his knees and back were shot. Then he fell asleep. It did not instill a lot of confidence in me so I refused to go up and lost not only my title to the runner up but also Robert Rex,” Jessica faked a sad pout. : : : : Chuckling a little, Duncan gave her a sympathetic look. “That is a sad story” he said to her, “Who would of thought Bull Dogging, tying knots in rope, sleeping beauty and the popular guy and miss congeniality would end up being a sad tale of lost love?” : : : : : : “Any who it was for the best. Marjorie Millings and Robert Rex spent my dream week doing things that they aught not be doing and 9 months later....let’s just say they now are divorced, Robert is balding and working as a rodeo clown. Marjorie is a hairdresser and I am a Starfleet executive officer. Funny how life works out huh,” she shrugged. “So to answer your question, yes I have flown but not in the open cockpit stuff and no I am not scared of heights. I am just scared of falling.” : : : : : : Lt. Commander Jessica Vaughn, XO : : : : Duncan looked at her again, this time his grin was wide. “Falling? Oh we won’t be falling, don’t worry about that. You’ll have a seat belt.” : : “Well what is the fun in that,” she tilted her sunglasses down and looked down her nose at him. “I mean if you dont get the old kicker going and the blood pumping what is the point.” : : : The big car turned and moved into a smaller road through a gate, over the hills the sun had begun to rise above the hills properly and bathe the land in a golden light, in lower lying area’s light mist was visible, giving much of the countryside an eerie look under the golden glow. : : “God it is beautiful here,” Jessica said lowering her sunglasses to get a real view of the surrounding area that was not filtered but the dark lenses. “I think I could live here and never tire of this view,” she sighed heavily. : : : : The field they passed was surrounded by a low fence on three sides, and the far end spread out until eventually a small forest began to cover the hillside in the distance. Duncan turned again and this time ahead of them loomed a low lying area that was covered in mist like most of the other areas at the bottom of the hills, but out of the mist here loomed a large building, looking very much like a barn, and in the distance an even bigger barn-like building. “Here we are” he told Jessica, “Rhodes Airfield, this is where we begin our little adventure.” : : : : The large car pulled up next to the barn, the loud and powerful sound of the engine coughing once or twice as Duncan turned off the key, and then died into silence. Around them, after the sound of the roaring engine, was silence that was broken here and there by a bird call and the sound of the wind rushing through the grass and nearby tree or two. Opening his door, Duncan stepped out and then walked around to Jessica’s side of the car, opening her door for her and bowing slightly, offering his hand to help her out. “Lady Vaughn” he said, using his best Smithers impersonation, “I think you may just enjoy this.” From the barn next to them came the sound of music, very old and sounding like it was being played from some kind of mechanical machine that had a sound quite unlike anything that was normally heard on a starship. The words and tune was not familiar, but it seemed to fit in with a history of Earth long since past. “We will head around the front, the ground crew will have the machine ready to go in just a few moments, we will need to help them get her out of the hangar.” : : : : Lieutenant Rhodes : : CSO : : Jessica walked next to Duncan and tried to keep her excitement to a dull bounce. Never had she flew a plane like this one before. The crunch of the gravel below her feet sounded like a metronome that kept her pace steady. Without it, she probably would have broken out into a sprint to see the plane. Rounding the corner of the building she spied the army green open cockpit and then looked back at him. “Okay maybe seat belts would not be the worst thing,” she teased. Rubbing her hands together, Jessica took a deep breath. “So you really know how to fly this thing?” “Of course” Duncan said with a smile that looked for all the world like it was supposed to be reassuring. “I spent hours flying her when I was young, she’s a Bristol F2b Fighter, a relic of Earths First World War from 1914 to 1918. She has a 275 horsepower engine and can achieve a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour, quite the racehorse in her day. She is fully aerobatic and quite responsive. I told you I would show you what real flying was about.” : : “And the safety control for the holodeck is on correct,” she said feeling a flip-flop in her tummy. Jessica would not admit it but the closer she got to leaving the ground, the more concerned she became. : : Lt. Commander Jessica Vaughn, XO “And the safety control for the Holodeck is on, yes” Duncan echoed, and even gave her gave her a slight eye roll. “Come on, lets help the ground crew, let them do most of the work though, they are holograms.” He grinned and moved towards the ancient aeroplane, the large nose and four bladed propeller sticking out in front of the fuselage that seemed to be suspended between two very large and long pairs of wings, all braced together with wires and wooden struts. Both of the cockpits were open, this aeroplane having replaced the observers position which normally held a machine gun facing backwards with another open cockpit that mirrored the pilots front cockpit, including controls. Shortly, the big plane was pushed into position and Duncan stood back, handing the bags to the ground crew who stowed them away in one of the storage compartments behind the cockpits. “Well, duchess, what do you think?” Duncan asked her, as he adjusted his flying jacket and gloves, and tucked his silk scarf into his tunic snugly against the cold of the air that they would meet as they flew higher. “Are you ready to experience real flight? Feel the vibration of a real engine through the seat of your pants and what it is like to actually be in control of a machine that almost becomes part of you, like an intimate partner that you have to trust completely?” Lt Rhodes CSO

“Well, I can say I have never had an intimate partner require complete trust of my life. My digestion track or my sanity yes but my life,” she let her words trail off slightly. “That so far has only been required of the people I am on an away team with or those college buddies you brought home for a weekend liberty and had to spend it with your family or,” she began to ramble. This was a red flag to anyone that knew her. When Jessica rambled like this it was because she was avoiding a topic or avoiding an activity. As much as Jessica wanted to learn to fly, the idea of not using modern methods was a bit daunting. Jessica was under the impression she and Duncan would be using a plane that didn’t sport the age old adage of a wing and a prayer. While history stated people used planes like this, relics this old were suspended from a museum roof or a footnote in an engineering textbook. Jessica would not admit she was scared but if she could stall for a bit, that might not be a bad thing. Stalling presented the options of an attack on the Outpost or bout of ebola running rampant she could use to slip away and more importantly remain alive.

“I remember bringing home a classmate once that had this allergic reaction to pork. As you know us Texans do love us some barbeque. It was not pretty. Oh,” she said brightly. “We should have that for lunch. Barbeque I mean. I programed the replicator with my great great grandaddy’s recipe. You will love it,” she said with a smile.

Lt. Commander Jessica Vaughn, XO

“Yes, I like that idea” Duncan said as he moved to the side of the Bristol Fighter, “We will just need to find somewhere to land to have that picnic, a few hours of flying should get your appetite up” his grin flashed wide. “How unfortunate to have an allergic reaction to pork, that person is really missing out on the real thing, replicated pork just isn’t quite the same. Here you go, put your feet here and here, hand holds here, and pull yourself up and over the side, swing your legs over her like a horse and settle in. Remember the seat straps.”

Being rather familiar with Jessica by now Duncan had learned a long time ago what to look out for, and when the rambling started, it was either just let her ramble or give her something to focus on, coffee normally worked wonders but having coffee in an aeroplane travelling at 4,000 feet above sea level was both an art and a skill, and Duncan thought it far wiser for now to let her get the hang of handling the stick before she moved onto those more advanced maneuvers.

Lt Rhodes
CSO