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Side Sim - You've Never Seen A Dance Like This (Tag CSO)

Posted July 29, 2020, 5:04 a.m. by Lieutenant Toveka Brine (Chief Science Officer) (Melissa Aragon)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Charles Tenkiller (Chief of Security) in Side Sim - You’ve Never Seen A Dance Like This (Tag CSO)

Posted by Lieutenant Toveka Brine (Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim - You’ve Never Seen A Dance Like This (Tag CSO)

<snip>

He looked at her with a confused expression of his own. “Huh? How who is what?” and he walked over to see what she was looking at. “Oh, that. That’s me, goof-ball.” and he laughed. He pointed to the picture and each individual person. “That’s my older sister Abigail. And that’s -” and he pointed to her mystery figure, “- is my older brother Oswego. Those are Lily and Gideon, the twins. And the baby is Mary.” Tenkiller looked at the picture and smiled. “Abigail lives in Denver now, she’s a doctor. Mary just went to the Academy a year ago. Doing pretty good so far.”

Tenkiller, CoS

She pointed to his brother. “Ten, he was there. He stopped the kids and ran them off when they…” she shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Anyway he said to tell you hi. Why would he say that? You were right there.” The was an edge of confusion to her words.

Toveka
CSO

Tenkiller looked at her confused and said “Huh? What are you talking about? Toveka… Oswego, Lily, and Gideon… Hun, they’re dead. They died my senior year of high school. Streptococcus… bad strain. Killed a few dozen folks in Pawhuska before anyone took note, really.”

Tenkiller, CoS

She’s shook her head. “One of the boys asked,” she took a breath, “asked if my planet blew up. He came over and scattered the kids. That’s why they had gone running, suddenly. He then apologized. He said you’d specifically told the kids not to ask and then said to tell you hi. His hair was in a long, single braid.” She described him in every detail as he heart started racing.

“Maybe it was someone else?” She moved to the other pictures to look again. Surely it wasn’t a dead man who had spoken to her.

She glanced at the pictures but kept coming back to the same one. “That’s him… but…” she friend and concentrated. “No, wait… one of the other kids scolded the boy who asked. They all ran off and he was left standing there. I just figured he had shooed the kids away.”

She moved to the counter across from the picture and leaned on it. “He apologized saying even if Mr. Tenkiller told them not to ask.” She looked at him. “Then he said to tell Mr. Tenkiller he said hi.” She looked at him with a touch of fear. “No… it had to have been someone else. It couldn’t have been him. An uncle, or cousin, perhaps? Right?” She was pulling back inon herself. Science and reason wrapping around her like a blanket. There was an explanation. If his brother was dead then obviously it wasn’t his brother.

Toveka
CSO

Tenkiller looked at her with a slightly concerned expression. “Naw… he was pretty unique. Dont know of anybody who really resembles him. Tov… are you sure that’s who you saw? I mean… are you certain?” he asked.

Tenkiller, CoS

She glanced from one photo to the next hoping there was someone else. Finally she shook her head. “It was him, Ten. I’m telling you. We should go to the replay. Surely he’ll be there. Then I can show you and you can tell me. How’s that?” She knew she had seen what she’d seen. But as he mentioned the man being dead, she grew hesitant at her resolve. “No… it was him. I’m positive,” she said once more as she glanced at all the pictures to no avail.

Toveka
CSO

Tenkiller looked at her, heard the conviction in her voice. “Well… okay. Let’s go. But you’re buying dinner after. I’m starving.” He was trying to keep it light, but there was a part of him that was confused. How could she have seen Oswego?

Tenkiller, CoS

She laughed, though it was a bit uneasy. “Fair enough. I’ll even do dishes.”

A few minutes later they were back on the holodeck. She keyed in the recording of the get together to begin just as she joined the kids.

Stepping in, she moved to stand beside him just behind herself in the recording.

Within a couple minutes, the second barrage of questions piped up and one of the kids asked about her planet. Toveka shivered again despite being prepared for it this time. Some chastised the boy and the group of children scattered.

She glanced up, then and pointed. “Ok he’s right they’re beside the table when I look up…”

But noone was there. “No… he was… right there,” she frowned, confused. “Right here… computer, freeze program!”

She shook her head and started scanning the crowd. “He was right here. He said they shouldn’t have said that if you’d told them not to. And said to tell you hi. I’m not making it up.” She stood there with utter loss and confusion. She knew she hadn’t hallucinated him. Why would she?

Toveka

Tenkiller looked around them, but saw nothing. “Well… that’s weird.” and he looked at her. “So put on your Scientist hat. What could explain that, the lack of the image?”

Tenkiller, CoS

Toveka looked at him and shook her head. “Science doesn’t wear ‘hats’. But I get your meaning.”

She paused a moment and looked around. “Computer, end program,” she called and watched the scenery disappear to be replaced by the typical empty holo grid. “Something to do with the transmitters,” she began to muse out loud. “Though if that were the case, everything else in that area would have been ‘missing’ on the replay as well. So that means there was an anomaly in the program.” She looked at him. “Perhaps a Sim you run with your brother in it from the past. Something crossed with this program, I think and piggy backed on the projectors…” She left the thought had hanging as she glanced at him to see if that was possible.

Toveka
CSO

He shook his head. “Nope. No such program. I mean, you are welcome to look through my Holodeck programs if you want. But I don’t have anything with Oswego in it.” He thought for a moment and then said =^= Computer. Play back program, 30 seconds before time stamp of last pause. =^= The Holodeck filled with people moving and the kids looking at Toveka and then getting up and running away. =^= Computer pause. =^= and the scene froze. Tenkiller stood in the spot where Toveka said she saw the figure. “He was here, yeah? Right here?” and he looked around at the motionless youth. “T… no one is looking at him. There is no one even looking near him.”

Tenkiller, CoS

Tenkiller, CoS

She shook her head, her frown increasing as he stated there was no one even looking in that direction. “He was there! Why would I make up something like this?” She was frustrated. She knew she wasn’t hallucinating. She had seen his family portraits beforehand, but not enough to even tell his mother and father when they had approached. Why would she claimed to have seen his brother, if she hadn’t?

She turned to head for the door, but before she turned, there was a slight flash of panic on her face. Something was wrong and now she was like a dog on a bone. She would figure it out. “I need to run a diagnostic, and check the program recording, and then see if someone on the other end had any programming issues,” she started to rattle things off she needed to do to prove she wasn’t wrong.

What she wasn’t thinking of was the lateness of the hour or that she hadn’t eaten in some time.

Toveka
CSO


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