https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/outpost42/notes/48363/ Original thread

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“There are no.... you know what, fire,” Duncan said, changing tack completely realizing they were only going to invent more dangers of the wilds. “We are going to build our tents, then build a huge, roaring fire. Fire scares away all wild animals, whether they are on the ground or in the sky, and we have a portable loo so nobody has to walk into the bushes, we aren’t barbarians, Tim.”

Duncan took a few paces and looked around, then kicked a bunch of sticks into place. “That’s where we will build the fire and cook marshmallows, pair up with your partner we selected before we left, and put up your tents. First pair to have your tent up doesn’t have to wash dishes tonight! Go!” Duncan clapped his hands and then looked at Lily. “So, Miss Locksley, fancy pairing up for the night?”

Lt Rhodes, CSO

“You didn’t quite answer the Jicamas Henels question,” Lily tried not to make it obvious she was scanning the skies. “You like completely blew,” she hopped over a log making her way to Duncan’s side-stepping gingerly as if crossing a bed of lava, “off that reply. You went on and on about the Stareados Rainy thing but the Jim wokcus Hen you said bupkus, nada, no explano,” she moved in close to him. “Level with me Rhodes,” she looked at him with a serious expression. “How much money do you have?” She let the question fill the space between them. It was hard to breath normal this close to Duncan. The man was the epitome of sex and charm. When his blue eyes looked at you they actually looked through you. It felt as if he could read every inner thought she had and every fear she buried deep.

“You ask me that now?” Duncan asked her surprised, then narrowed his eyes. “Hold on, did you take out some kind of life insurance policy on me or something? Why does it matter how much money I have, you never asked me that before.” Despite how serious he sounded, he smiled. It was a question he had expected at some point, it always got asked. Normally it was five minutes after the Galactic Wrestling Federation episode had ended and they were resting before the next match but Lily had never before asked him that or seemed interested in it. That it came up now was unexpected.

“Because if it does come down to sacrifice the slow fat one I am not sure we should go back to the Outpost and tell Bradley’s mother she should have concentrated more on calisthenics than the oboe. Either way if we need to make a quick escape to OED or some other place I got the connections if you have the credits.” A soft smile spread across Lily’s face as she looked at the handsome Science officer. Never had she thought about settling down in one spot however she had never thought she would meet one man whose boxes were all able to be ticked off and she had the list. Once she had met a man named Max. Her vehicle had broken down and he was nice enough to fix it. When she offered him a ride to the local transporter facility but took the wrong road in Hudson Wyoming and spent a glorious weekend with the man. He had potential but the man had an actual checklist. It was the first and last time she decided to date a Mintaran. There was also the bounty hunter on OED V named Atticus Wolf. He had the charisma but still probably needed time from when she started answering his comm calls and that group of ships showed up Lily thought were coming for his surprise birthday party. It turned out to be a surprise but not his birthday.

Lily Locksley.

“Oh, right, got you.” Duncan laughed, “Well, I think we will be okay in that respect, their actually aren’t any Henels here. If there were they wouldn’t be able to lift Bradley anyway and they like a low fat diet. Besides, I’m right when I say Trico will look out for us, okay. Trust me, she knows the planet, can sense the dangers and knows how we do things. You might be surprised at just how intelligent she is Lily.

Turning to a large sack behind him, Duncan reached down and picked it up. “Now, Miss Locksley. Shall we put up our tent so we aren’t last on the list and forced to wash the dishes?”

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

“Who does dishes,” she looked at Duncan. “You burn it all every night. I made sure it was all paper or flammable or flammable paper. People just don’t get the value of a good fire nowadays. If you haven’t guessed I am kinda a firebug,” she laughed wrapping her arms around his waist. “I set my parents carpet on fire once. I was watching one of those nature shows that taught you to make one. So I got all this paper and some sticks from outside. Set it up just like the show told me too and then lit it. Viola. I had fire,” she let out a full-bodied laugh. “We put it out but there was this huge hole in the middle of the living room. My mom covered it with a circular throw rug,” she explained the story. “So the moral of the story is tv is bad for kids.

Lily locksley

“Uh, really?” Duncan asked, and then tilted Lily’s face so that she was looking up at him. “You know Ms Locksley, you are sweet but psycho.” He punctuated that statement with a quick kiss on the forehead. It would have been longer, but he looked up quickly and shouted out a warning.

“Torf! Put Bradley down! He is not kindling for the bonfire and no, you cannot use him as bait in a noose trap for any Jicamas Henels!”

“Oh oh wait. No keep doing that just away from the fire,” Lily added digging through a pouch on her belt. “That is a perfect overhand knot. If you can show me a chain hitch and a marlinspike hitch I have a....badge…for that. Ah ha,” Lily squealed out pulling a round fabric disc from her bag. “Frontier Folk Do Knot Doubt Our Strength badge,” she held it up or Duncan to inspect. “Get it..knot with a k because we are tying knots,” she spelled it out for the science chief.

“Can I do the hangman’s noose,” Torf yelled out excitedly and began to start looping thread.

“Mr. Rhodes,” Bradley yelped out starting to roll around like a worm on the ground trying to inch away from Torf who was wearing a maniacal smile.

“Yes but let’s call it a running knot,” Lily suggested pulling a mini padd from her back pocket. “That sounds so much better than hangman’s noose knot,” she spoke softly as she began to read up on the various ways to twist twine into intricate patterns for the badge. “Oh oh oh there is a second way to make a noose. You make a simple hitch knot but round the standing part of the rope so we can cinch is closed by pulling on the knot side,” Lily explained.

“Mr. Rhodes,” Bradly whined out as Torf pulled up one of his feet an began to practice the knot Lily suggested.

“Sit still Bradley. I am just practicing so that when we drop these knots from the trees they will work to snag a Jimels leg. You know like they do in the movies where someone steps into it and we find him hanging like a pinata upside down by an ankle.

“What,” Lily held the PaDD out to the side as if this would keep it away from Duncan. They had said no electronic devices in any form. She knew from the look on Duncan’s face he was about to remind her of this fact.

“Wait,” Lily began to wave the device like a two-year-old with a cookie an adult was trying to liberate from them. “These are vital skills to learn and who actually knows how to set a snare trap like Ric Erins,” Lily put her arms around Duncan’s waist to move the PaDD farther out of his reach. “Besides it doesn’t hurt to set up a defensive perimeter does it,” she look up at Rhodes with an innocent expression.

Muttering under his breath he unwrapped Lily’s arms from his waist and looked at her. “You know I completely blame that show you love so much, Man vs Universe. How do they expect to catch a flying dinosaur creature in a noose trap when they never land on the ground? It is completely fake and staged. Did you ever notice how his hair was always perfect after a week in a tropical jungle with cannibals and man eating kittens and he never had a sweat patch on his shirt? I mean modern fabric is amazing but come on, that is ridiculous. Bradley! That is not food! My god you only ate breakfast an hour ago.”

Duncan continued his rant as he began to walk to where the children were, looking back at Lily and giving her a quick grin and a wink.

Lt Rhodes, CSO

“Then show us how to catch someone like they do in the movies,” Torf groaned seeing Rhodes approach as he held Bradley’s leg in the air with the rope around his ankle.

“We don’t want to hurt it so what if we use this extra blanket,” Margo tossed Torf a soft blanket that was not hers. Upon closer inspection, Duncan would see it was actually his bedding the kids were now tying the ends to rope to create a hobo type sack if there were ever able to get it off the ground and strung to a few trees. “It is super soft and that way no one gets hurt when they step into it.”

“Live catch,” Torf nodded with a deep growl of happiness. “You have the mind of a Klingon Warrior,” he proclaimed proudly.

Lily

“The mind of a Klingon Warrior but the brains of a Ferengi,” Duncan told the children and his tone wasn’t at all friendly. It was the tone that he normally reserved for junior officers that had done something or were about to do something stupid that they should have known better about. “You want to take a Live Catch now, really? After all that ruckus about being eaten by something now you want to set a trap to catch something or someone alive?” He paused and looked at each of them in turn, staring at Torf until the boy lowered Bradley to the ground.

“It would assure us of an A-plus if we discovered a rare species,” Margo said. “Besides we picked fairly. We did the one potato two potato thing and then he did agree.”

“Because they said I could have their desserts the entire trip Mr. Rhodes,” Bradley smiled. “Since you said nothing will hurt us I thought why not get double dessert. I do still get the double desserts right,” he looked at Duncan pleadingly.

As he turned from Bradley he looked at the device they had been building and noted the quality and style of the sheets and it took him a moment to realize where they had come from. A small twitch might have been noted in his temple if one was close enough to view it, but otherwise his face didn’t seem to change. “Put that thing away before someone gets hurt, I want the tents up in fifteen minutes. After that I am going to inspect each tent for correct pitching and tidiness, the team that loses gets to wash everyone’s dishes tonight in the river. The cold river. You all want to act like Frontier Folk, lets act like Frontier Folk. Move it!” His last words were spoken as more of a bark that sounded very much like the sound an instructor at a military school would use, and as he watched the class move to their tents he put his hands on his hips, tapped his booted foot on the ground with his English legs sticking out of his shorts and adjusted the neckerchief around his neck.

Lt Rhodes, CSO

All the kids immediately jumped to action. Torf let go of the rope making Bradley’s slow descent to the ground more rapid and abrupt. Kids scattered about like there was strafing fire or a Jicamas Henels swooping down to carry them off.

“Does your voice get deeper the more little circles you get around your neck or is this command Duncan,” Lily slid in front of Duncan wrapping her arms around him. Looking up however she began to squint and had to turn her face. Ever the problem solver, Lily began to sidestep taking Duncan with her in a circle. Anyone witnessing this would grab the image of two middle schoolers learning to slow dance. The movement was awkward but served a purpose. After doing a 180 degree turn, Lily looked up again. “Sun was in my eyes,” she announced smiling. “Now you have blocked it and it is creating this really weird halo-like shadow over you. It makes you look like a superhero. Duncan Rhodes,” she took on a deep voice like she was a narrator, “by day he is a humble man of Starfleet studying the art of biology, chemistry and physics but when dangers lurks he becomes Duncan Rhodes Mr. Science Code,” she started to laugh hysterically. Laying her head on his chest, Lily held onto him still laughing at what she thought was so funny. “Rhodes is rather hard to rhyme. We can go with the British Botanist or the Masked Mathematician,” she suggested.

“What about the Curious Chemist,” Margo suggested chewing on the end of her pig tail.

“Thats stupid,” Torf announced immediately. “Mr Duncan needs something to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. Something like the Death Dealer,” he said proudly.

“He is not out to kill things but study them. What about the English Ecologist,” Bradley offered holding up the tent post as Torf began to knot rope and string it through.

“I like Dreamy Duncan,” Sabrina offered. She was the shiest student but looking at the way she was smiling at Duncan, you could tell she was having a school girl crush on the handsome CSO.

“I think Devastatingly Dashing Duncan in better but maybe that is my secret name for you,” Lily offered squeezing him tighter around the middle.

Lily