<USS Atlantis> "On the Rocks"

From: "Brad Ruder" <GroundZero@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ussatlantis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 22:57:56 -0800

?On the Rocks?
by Lieutenant Major Adam Drake
& Ensign Jack Leirone

It had been such a long time since Adam was able to sit down and have an intellectual conversation with someone that he wasn't sure if he remembered how to carry on one. Fabrizio Axelrod, who was a capable officer in more ways than one, always seemed to be standing in a corner or keeping to himself. It wasn't that Adam didn't want to go over and extend his hand and chat with him, no, it always appeared like the young lieutenant didn't want anything to do with anyone else.

Adam slid into a booth and waited as Jack followed suit. Now that Adam thought about it, it had been awhile since he'd had the time to sit down and enjoy a drink. "What'll it be, Jack?" Adam asked with a smile as the waitress walked up to the duo with a grin, "now don't try and avoid it - I know that a man can be literally described simply by the choice of a drink."

"Root beer...the real stuff, the stuff, not that sugary imitation," Jack replied, now looking at Adam's oculars. There seemed to be a little surprise, a grown man easily six or seven years older him ordering such a juvenile sounding beverage. This is when Jack wished he would have stayed behind where he could order such a thing without there being an iota of a second of hesitation.

He nodded, slightly surprised, but it wasn't the first time that he had heard of someone ordering something so ancient. "Samaritan Sunset, please, and if you could add a bit more Kwalan Nectar?" The waitress tapped her PADD for a bit more, nodding as she went, and then disappeared into the bar from whence she came. "So, Mr. Leirone, what made you decide to join Starfleet? My cousin took almost twenty years to join. He was an ensign at forty-three."

Jack readjusted his shoulders, right shoulder back, left shoulder forward, quickly stretching them. He subsequently leaned in towards Adam and spoke quietly. "A chance to get away. Speaking of getting away," Jack continued. He said, "does this ship happen to have holodecks? The only time I've ever been in one was for a training exercise and I've never been in one leisurely." Why was he talking so much? Didn't he just say he came here to get away? To find a path in his life? To stop doing what he did for a living? Of course he did. But his initial goal was to remain silent until spoken to.

"Do we have holodecks? Did you standard starship configurations at the academy? Did you not read the specifications pamphlet you received prior to coming aboard?" Adam smiled as he sipped the drink recently placed on the table in front of him. "Of course we have holodecks. Would you like to visit one? I don't think that many people would be involved with them right now." This man was intriguing. He was aggressive, from his apparently actions and demeanor in Engineering earlier, but he was also timid and almost childish.

Drake had the overwhelming desire to open his mind and match that of his new friend, but he'd been caught and embarrassed so many times before trying to pull thoughts from other people's heads just to find out more about them. Adam let it go and pulled his thoughts back before he matched the man's.

Well he didn't have to say it like that, Leirone said to himself in his brain. It was known to him that there holodecks, it's just his excitement forced him to ask. At least he got his confirmation. "Yeah. I would."

"All right, then," Adam said, downing his drink and placing the empty glass on the table for retrieval, "it's a couple of decks down, but it shouldn't take us that long. Any particular programs that you'd like to explore? Sports? Ancient novels? Future worlds? The holodecks are an endless supply of wealth and information."

There were many answers and Jack intended to have them all, but his first one needed to be a first one. The first book by an author you read, the first song you listen to in the morning, the first kiss...oh nevermind. "I want to see my home."

"Where would home be for you, Ensign?" Adam smirked a bit as they left the lounge and the chaos that had ensued slowly diminished into nothingness, "I'm not a mind reader..." His voice trailed off as he gazed down the corridor, casually clasping his hands behind his back.

"Twenty-two, Marissa Lane, Boulder, Colorado."

"That may take the computer a bit to compile information and such, but I'm sure that there isn't any harm in it. I've got time, and that's all that matters." They entered the turbolift after being welcomed by the familiar hiss that the decompression of air makes. The duo stepped in and the doors closed, "Deck Fifteen, holodeck three. So, you said earlier about wanting to get away. What did you mean? Everyone wants to leave it all, but what's your story?"

"That's unimportant."

Adam turned his head slightly, "It was important enough for you to join Starfleet."

"I know."

Shrugging Adam stepped out onto the deck, nodding respectively to a passing Lieutenant and then around a corner to two large durasteel doors. The panel on the bulkhead was flashing that it was ready to receive commands. Adam tapped it gingerly, accessing all sorts of subroutines and diagnostics. "Computer, activate program sequencers. Load information from geographical coordinates. Twenty-two, Marissa Lane, Boulder, Colorado, Earth. Compile status of area based on information from Starfleet Earth Monitoring Network and uplink with McKinley Station."

The computer chirped its response in the dull and monotone voice it always did, "Acknowledged, processing."

Mechanical doors in a mechanical world opened up into a flourishing meadow with a hill and a cabin-like house off to the side. Surrounding the hill were daisies. Jack entered the holodeck and positioned his arms to announce he was going in alone. The doors shut and the entire meadow was smeared with sunlight.

Adam looked at the lone figure depart from his view. He tilted his head trying to read the aged ensign through the doors but was unable to ascertain much of anything. The engineer shrugged and left the man to pursue whatever it was he wanted to pursue.

<USS Atlantis> "On the Rocks"

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