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Side Sim: Blue-shirt Holodeck Hangout

Posted May 24, 2020, 5:20 p.m. by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kiama Naim ((A) Chief Science Officer) (Silke Fahl)

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 Ensign Shon Baht (Medical Officer) in Side Sim: Blue-shirt Holodeck Hangout
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

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.

Kiama’s black eyes went wide as she started at the needles. This was certainly not what she had hoped for! Looking around she spotted what looked like some kind of larg metal plate with a handle on it (OOC: the lid of one of those round metal garbage cans). She quickly grabbed it and held it in front of her face. She’d rather not get pierced by needles at all, but if she could pick any body part where the needles could penetrate her skin, her face was definitely the last in line.

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)

Bump

At the sound of Shon’s voice, Kiama peered out behind the metal thing she was holding. Spotting him, she took a deep breath and hurried towards Shon to share her makeshift protection with him. As she reached him she, said, “This is so weird. I had been looking for something like a needle or bobby pin when this happened.” She gestured towards the needles and instantly got hit by a couple of them in the back of her hand. Cursing softly, she quickly pulled her hand back and stared at the needles stuck in her dark skin with a rather unamused expression. Since she was holding the lid with her other hand, there wasn’t really anything she could do about them right now, so instead she simply finished the thought that had just struck her. “What if - and I know this sounds crazy - the holodeck suddenly reacts in part to what we are thinking?” she asked. “Maybe if we concentrate hard enough the needles at least will disappear?” That said, she closed her eyes and imagined the needles gone; all but the ones still sticking in her hand as she might be able to use them to fiddle with the combadge.

~Lt.jg. Naim, aCSO

Shon shot a glance at Kiama as she closed her eyes, his initial thought being “what is she talking about?” But with the onslaught continuing, he decided to swallow his objections and cautiously join her in the exercise. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth repeating a mantra in his head wishing the needles to be gone.

As they did this, the clanging sound of the needles progressively got less and less, until it dissipated altogether and the pressure on the trashcan lid subsided as well. Although, it was not clear if the needles had simply moved on, dematerialized randomly, or if their thought experiment had worked.

Shon bolted for the shelter, scooping up a couple of the pillows as he scrambled. Once they were both back inside, he used the pillows to create a makeshift wall against the randomness outside. He looked back at Kiama. “I don’t know how that worked… your mind must work on a different level than mine,” he said with a hint of exasperation in his voice. Shon slumped over, starting to feel exhausted from the stress of the situation. He checked the manual watch he had worn with his outfit. “Thirty minutes until the hour is up and new people will try to use the holodecks, so we’ll be found then at least. But considering there are flying needle clouds, you think you can get us out of here quicker than that?”

(Ensign Baht, Medical)

Kiama had followed Shon with quick strides into the shelter and flopped down on the “floor”. While pulling out the few needles that were still stuck in the back of her hand, she said, “Well, I am Betazoid, so my brain does work differently than that of non-telepaths. Though, I don’t know, if it was really me who affected what is happening around us.” She shrugged and looked down at the combadge once again. “It’s just an hypothesis and while I’d love to know for certain, I’m not sure trying to proof or disproof it right now would be good idea.” However there was something she should be able to do without potentially risking their safety. So while trying to recall everything she had learned about enhancing combadges, she also focused on radiation calmness and confidence in the hope that Shon would feel a bit better soon. “As for trying to get us out of here faster … I’ll do my very best.”

~Lt.jg. Naim, aCSO


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