<USS Avalon> On the Starting Grid (Woodward)
- From: "Jamie Lawson" <ayeshalan@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 13:07:09 -0800
On the Starting Grid
Bobby Woodward (and Friends)
2006:02:23
After disembarking from his transport, Bobby moved quickly to the
cargo desk to claim all his baggage. To his surprise, the entire lot,
complete with antigrav sled, was waiting for him when he arrived. He
had only to affix his thumbprint to the PADD containing the manifest,
and it was his.
The young woman in charge of the counter waved off his thanks. "Don't
mention it, sir," she said. "Your friends there made it easy."
The trio of small robotic beings the cargo clerk waved at immediately
started a barrage of electronic chatter at him from their perches
among the stacked boxes, trunks and crates.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said as he started pulling the sled out of the
cargo dock and onto the Izar port's main passenger concourse. "I can
understand you, but only if you talk one at a time. Hap, you first."
The Exo-Comp which was settled near the bottom of the pile spoke in a
rapid sequence of electronic tones and chirps.
Bobby nodded. "I know, it's not the most fair thing that you all had
to travel as cargo. I understand that you're people. But not
everyone does yet. Besides, it worked out well when it came to
getting all of our stuff out of the hold quicker, right?"
The Comp perched -- a little precariously -- at the top of the stack,
chirped several times.
"Yeah Monad, what'cha got?" It responded with a short query. "We've
got a room in the USO hostel for a few days," Bobby answered, "and
then we should be able to move aboard our new posting."
He smiled, thinking about that. It would be his first posting back on
a Starfleet vessel in quite a few years -- yet, as a civilian working
through the Starfleet USO, he would still be his own boss, to a large
extent.
And it would be the real start of an entirely new career for him -- as
the operator of the new ship's main lounge, he would have the
opportunity to interact with and entertain most of the crew. He would
be able to share his greatest joys -- good food, drink, music and
company -- with an entire ship of people. And explore the farther
reaches of the galaxy to boot. Not a bad deal, by anybody's
reckoning.
Another burst of chatter, from the third of his Exo-Comp companions,
interrupted his musings. "What was that, Geisha?" he asked, pausing
in his walk for a moment. "I missed the first part."
After the Comp had repeated itself, Bobby resumed walking and answered
the question. "Sure. I'm counting on all of you to help me set the
place up and keep it running .... You figured out what the problem was
with the uplink on the trivia board? Good! As soon as we get to our
room we'll unpack it and you can do those fixes."
When they reached the USO hostel a few minutes later, he signed in,
"Robert A. Woodward -- and Friends."
--
"The weather's fine but there may be a meteor shower..."
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