[USS Vanguard] RPG: "So Five Starfleet Officers Walk Into a Bar"
- From: "andywoho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <andywoho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncv80221@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 14:39:07 -0600
Capt. Dominic Santos
Earth - The Fox & Hounds Public House
After Aliyah and Sam's posts
"'Stalking you'?" Santos asked with a smile. "I got here before you did, and
I'm stalking YOU? That would be one hell of a neat trick."
Aliyah Lopez smiled and turned toward the bar.
"What's good?"
"Everything," Santos said. "It depends on what you like."
Santos turned toward the bar.
"Give me a half of cider," he told the barman.
The barman placed the glass in front of him.
"Try that, you might like it," Santos said as he placed the glass in front of
Aliyah and settled with the barman.
They took a seat by the fire as Aliyah peered in the glass.
"What is it?"
Santos shrugged. "It's sweet. And if you've ever had champagne, it'll go to
your head, just like champagne."
Aliyah took a long drink.
"I'm not sure yet if I like it."
Before Santos could say anything else, he heard a commotion at the bar.
Sam McCaw walked in to a hearty welcome from the barman and the other patrons
at the bar.
"Oy, Sam!" they shouted at him.
"Give me the usual, Aaron!" McCaw told the barman. The barman produced two pint
glasses of a dark liquid and handed them to Sam.
Sam went to work on the first glass and had drunk half of one when in walked
Craig Kavan and Ceelak Nostrova.
Craig Kavan looked uncomfortable and licked his lips. Ceelak Nostrova took a
look around the pub and began taking off his/her Starfleet-issued overcoat. By
the time he had hung up his coat on the rack, he had become a woman and was
making her way toward the bar.
"Romulan Ale, please," she told the barman.
"We don't serve that here," he said stonily.
"Then give me the equivalent," she said, unfazed.
The barman pulled a dark drink and placed the glass in front of Ceelak. Ceelak
studied it and sipped it.
"That's very bitter," she said.
"Well, that's good, then, because that's what it is--a bitter."
Craig Kavan nodded to the captain, Aliyah and Sam by the fireplace and mumbled
something to the barman.
Ceelak and Kavan made their way to the others.
"What are you drinking, Mister Kavan?" Santos asked the Chief Petty Officer.
"I wanted a lemonade, but I got something called a 'lemon fizz.'"
"Ah," Santos said.
They sat that way for a while, warming up by the fire and looking at their
drinks.
"Well, if no one else will, I'm going to have supper," Santos said.
"What's good?" Aliyah asked.
"I like the roast beef," Santos said.
"Oh, I second that," McCaw said.
"Then I'll have the same," Aliyah said.
"And me," Ceelak added, her eyes darting around the pub. By the time she had
finished scanning the room, she had become male again. It seemed to happen
without anyone else noticing.
Santos looked at Kavan and raised his eyebrows.
Kavan returned a shake of his head, indicating he did not want supper.
Santos nodded and ordered for everyone.
After the waitress left, he turned and smiled.
"So what will happen next to the Vanguard?" Ceelak asked.
"We don't have our new orders yet," Santos said.
Kavan sat with his hands in front of him, looking at the lemon fizz and nodding
slowly.
"Is your drink all right, Mister Kavan?" Santos asked.
"Oh, fine. It's...fine. I don't...I don't drink."
Santos nodded.
After they ate their suppers, Santos asked to speak with Sam.
"Do you still have those starcharts from Klinzai Observatory?"
"It's been five years, Nick."
Santos chuckled. "I know it's been five years. So where are you keeping them?"
"In our data banks, of course."
On the USS Astoria's first mission, Capt. Lee was ordered to the Klingon moon
Klinzai and to visit the Observatory where they were to be given a great deal
of astrometric data from the Observatory.
As they became involved in an intrigue of a much greater magnitude, the
starcharts were nearly forgotten until near the end of the mission when the
huge volume of data was finally given to Lee. As a parting shot from the
Klingons, all the starcharts were in the original, untranslated Klingon.
Sifting through the data had become Sam's responsibilities after he had become
the stellar cartographer, then later temporarily forgotten as the position
became vacant after Sam became the Chief Engineer/Operations Manager, and now
Nick and Sam were discussing turning the project over to M.J. Valentine.
The expression "Going to Klinzai" had become an expression for perplexing
absences among the Astoria (and now Vanguard) crew, as in, "Where did my last
file transmission go?" "You must have sent it to Klinzai."
"Make sure Mister Valentine gets the Klinzai data," Santos said.
"Right," Sam said. He stepped outside the pub and touched his comm badge.
"Highwaij here," the Communications Officer said.
"It's McCaw. Can you transmit the Klinzai data to M.J. Valentine? Append a note
that if she needs to discuss it, I'll be making a brief stop in Engineering
tomorrow morning."
"Aye, sir," Highwaij said.
"McCaw out." Suddenly realizing how cold it was, Sam ducked back inside the pub.
Meanwhile, on the Vanguard, M.J. Valentine was staring at the ceiling when her
computer rang, indicating a message.
The computer had been set only to alert her in case of an urgent message by an
officer of the Vanguard.
Valentine tried to pull the covers over her head and ignore the incessant
beeping of the computer.
She could have simply ordered the computer off and gone back to bed, but
finally, she threw the covers off her head and sighed loudly.
She stomped out of bed and looked at the computer.
"Computer," she said, and the computer came to life, displaying the Starfleet
insignia, "play back messages, Valentine, Maria-Jana." She gave her security
clearance code.
Not knowing how else to route the message and without further input from Sam,
Highwaij had routed the message urgent.
Valentine frowned at the computer terminal and said, "What the...?"
"Computer, open files," she said.
Almost immediately, a huge volume of data flashed on and off her screen--novas,
distant stars, galaxies, planets she had never seen before, and finally comets,
black holes and other uncommon phenomena.
"Computer, pause playback," she said. The computer froze on the image of a red
planet with a massive impact crater near the northern pole.
"Is that...Ancient Klingon?" she marveled.
Valentine walked to her replicator. "I think I'm going to need a raktajino to
do this."
=================
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