This Is Going To Be Wild
Posted on Sat Apr 29th, 2023 @ 9:46pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Tobias Beckett & Lieutenant Commander Rowena McGowen & Ensign Hoa Nhi Nguyen
Edited on on Sat Apr 29th, 2023 @ 10:06pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 14 - The Poseidon Adventure
Location: SCIF - Deck 9 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 1500 hrs
"And what do you think you are doing there?" Rowena's voice was calm, yet had a strict undertone as she spoke. She crossed her arms as she looked at the young security officer, who clearly seemed guilty and caught.
Nhi almost hit her head when she heard the intelligence chief's voice. She dropped her tool tools and looked at Rowena nervous as she laughed. "Well, I may or may not been trying to break in to the SCIF. You guys always lock the interesting places."
"Oh so you tried this before, let me guess, was it the morgue?" Rowena raised an eyebrow.
"H-how did you know? Did the Major talk. I knew I couldn't trust him." Nhi scoffed a little.
Rowena sighed. "No, but I am the Intelligence chief, I know what's going on the ship. I have been tailing you ever since you used Commander Myles's code on the morgue, it wasn't hard to figure out. Also you just tried to get in by using Chief Seva's code. It would have worked if I didn't block it. Also, if all this is to impress Petty Officer Beckett, I think he would be more inclined if you just use the com system." Rowena hit the button and the door opened to the SCIF.
"Where is the fun in that?" Nhi mumbled.
"What was that, Ensign?" Rowena turned around.
"Eh.. nothing." Nhi laughed nervously. "What are you talking about, I am just too curious for my own good, ma'am."
"You really chose the wrong profession, Ensign. Now if you want to stay in the fleet, I suggest you stay out of trouble. I let you of with a warning this time, but next time, I am putting you on report. Oh and Ensign...if you ever get enough of security, come see me, maybe I can put in a good word with the captain." Rowena walked away.
Nhi shrugged. She didn't know if intelligence would be a good fit for her but she was too curious for her own good. She walked on to the intelligence deck. She looked around, still a bit baffled by the conversation she just had. It was quiet on deck, no one around for the petty officer. She dropped herself on a chair and wheeled to him.
"Here you are, I want to say I looked all over for you, but according to the computer, you usually can be found in 3 places, though I probably would have had an easier time hacking your quarters then this place. How is it like having Commander McGowen as a boss?" She grinned.
Becket was up to his eyeballs in reports. The Igion incident created more problems than they fixed. He took it upon himself to solve them if he could. When he heard Nhi talk he turned and his first thought was to call Security, then he saw the gold uniform and realized that she was Security. "Pardon me ma'am but I have to ask who let you in here? Or how did you get in here?" The idea that he had to call an Ensign ma'am or sir still irked him. He had more experience than most of them but he just couldn't bring himself to take the Academy exam. He had entirely too much work to to engage in idle chit chat. If she did not answer his question to his satisfaction he would call for the Marine guard on duty and have her removed.
"You're boss did, I think she also offered me a job, but I am not sure about that one." She giggled. She completely ignored his harsh tone as she continued talking. "I may have tried to break in here, you didn't answer. I was worried something happened to you." She laughed. "Ok, I may have made that last part up. But I was curious. Maybe a little to curious for my own good. But I was lucky your boss didn't report me."
"If the Commander let you in then there is nothing I can do about it. As for why I didn't answer. That is because I am quite busy and there is no reason for anyone who does not work here to be here. So if there is nothing else I will return to my reports if you don't mind." The more she sat here the more he got annoyed. There was a reason he went into data analysis, he was not a people person and did not want to deal with people.
"Yeah, yeah.. work work. Why did you think the commander let me in here, huh? Clearly she thinks you need a little distraction. And I agree." She leaned over in front of him and dangled a holo program chip in front of him. "This was apparently a hype back when I was in the academy. The ultimate intelligence puzzle. Not sure what it is, but my bunk mate was so hyped about it, I didn't know it existed till she send it to me. Also she told me, not to do it alone, so guess what, I picked you to come on this adventure with me. You're an intelligence officer so don't tell me you are not the least bit curious about this."
"I am a data analyst. The James Bond crap is not for me. I know that the real intelligence is in the data. Speaking of which I really have to get back to it." Beckett turned back to the screen in front of him and resumed his work. The idea of the program did intrigue him however, the Commander would have his head if the data from Igion wasn't finished.
Nhi put the chip away and leaned towards the screen, almost blocking Beckett's view. "Hmmm, what's this you're doing?" She read the information on the screen. "What is so important about this?"
Tobias sighed and as he could see that he would not get any work done in the immidiate future, and that she should not be seeing the classified data he was analysing. He did the only thing he could do, quickly put in his code and his screen shifted to the insignia of Starfleet Intelligence. "If you do not know what I am working on then you were not meant to know. Suffice to say I have to get this data done as soon as possible. What is it going to take to get you out of my hair so I can get some work done?"
Nhi's eyes suddenly got a twinkle, and she pulled out the chip. "Well...we could get of here and try this."She waved. "I did reserve a holosuite. Would be a waste if we didn't use it."
Tobias sat there for a full two minutes as he mulled it over. What he really thought about was what he could tell Commander McGowen about why the work was not done. He decided that since Nhi was an officer he would simply say that he was ordered to go. "I doubt you are going to leave if I say no. So lead on." The biggest curiousity that Beckett had in his head was why the woman took a sudden interest in him.
Nhi jumped up and squealed a little. "Great! Let's go!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him along towards the exit and then headed on to the holodeck. "I am so excited to see what this is. My friend had really good things to say about it. but she never really told me about the content, so we have to find out for ourselves."
A few moments later she stopped in front of the holosuite. She then started the console and put the chip in. The doors open to reveal a white bright room with computer screens. A computer voice said, "Welcome to the ultimate intelligence challenge. If you are ready enter the room and the program will start."
Nhi looked over to Beckett, "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." Tobias replied. He wondered if this program was going to be like a game he had heard about that people played centuries ago. They were called escape rooms. The object was to solve clues and get out of the locked room before time ran out. The worry that he would be in trouble was now partially replaced by curiosity of what this program would be. The fact that even she did not know did trouble him slightly.
"Great!" She enthusiastically took his hand again and they walked in to the room. The door closed behind them. A table appeared in the middle with operations tools, tricorders and tactical standard weapons.
The same computer voice spoke again. "Welcome to the ultimate intelligence challenge. Holodeck safeties are on. Should your physical or mental state be in any danger the program will end automatically and sickbay will be alerted if necessary. This program will run the average run time of two hours and will automatically end after two hours. During the two hours you can not call for the exit or the holo suite control panel. This program is an adaptive programming I will answer most question within the parameters of the program which is allowed by the rules of the program. You may now proceed to get your equipment ready and then proceed to the next room. Choose wisely, you will not return to this room. If you feel any discomfort during the program, please state this clearly and the program will pause."
Nhi let go of Beckett's hand and walked to the table. She picked up the hand phaser. "What kind of program is this?"
The computer voice immediately replied, "My programming does not allow to explain the program in full detail. The program is designed to test the strength and abilities of the users."
Beckett looked at the items on the table there was a wide variety of items from weapons to scanning devices. There was a large part of him that just wanted to stand there quietly and wait for the two hours and then go back to work. However, he somehow thought that would not help the situations. It was when he noticed a tricorder on the table that he thought of a question. "Is it safe to say that scanning devices will tell me what things are within the program not what they actually are?" He was not going to take a tricorder if all it wold tell him was that he was surrounded by holograms.
"Affirmative," The computer voice replied. "The scanning devices are part of the program and can therefore only show what things are in the program."
Nhi Shrugged. "It does give a better experience to the program, I imagine." She put a phaser on her uniform belt. "Maybe you should take lead then and I will cover you." She suggested.
Beckett picked up one of the tricorders and a phaser. Whatever this may be I am going to treat it like any standard away mission. he thought. However, whathe refused to admit to himself was that he had not been on many away missions and that fact rather scared him. "I guess..." he said although he did not like this plan. Nhi was the security officer she trained for this sort of thing and she should go first. But Tobias found himself stepping through the door first with his phaser drawn ready for anything.
Nhi walked up behind him. She moved around. The room behind the door was dark. But the tricorder didn't show any life forms. There was a faint light in the middle of the room. There was no threat. She reached out and put her hand on Beckett's arm. "It's ok, stop trembling, there no threat here." She walked up to the light source in the middle of the room. It was an old computer from the 90s. "I have seen one of these before, in a museum."
The screen flickered on. Words appeared on it as if it was being typed on to it. Hello Hoa Nhi. Hello Tobias.
"Look," Nhi squeeled. "It knows our names."
The letters disappeared and it continued. Your objective in this room is to find 5 vhs tapes. And the tape player. The tapes will show you how to get out of this room.
When the text was fully typed out. The lights turned on, revealing the room to be much bigger than they initially thought. The lights revealed rows of bookshelves, as if it was a library of some sort. But at the same time the lights turned on a soft snarl could be heard.
Nhi instinctively moved in front of Beckett holding up her weapon. She turned to Beckett and put her fingers on her lips. "There's something in here." She whispered and then slowly moved towards the bookshelves.
This time it was Beckett who followed Nhi. He scanned with the tricorder as he went and saw that there was no lifeforms. However, at this point he thought that anything could have been possible. "I am not trembling..." Tobias spoke with an indignant tone to his voice. "What in the hell is a VHS tape? This is pointless...Can we just get out here?"
Nhi turned to Beckett when he asked what VHS tapes were. "Oh my God, you don't know much for an intelligence officer. You know who James Bond is, but you don't know what a VHS tape is." She smirked. "My grandfather had tapes like that, they were very old, but he worked really hard to preserve them. They were mostly used in the 20th century people on Earth. They were later made obsolete by DVDs and USB sticks. And even those are no longer used, we use data chips now for everything." She thought a moment and then said, "You know what, why don't you try to hack that old computer over there, while I look for the tapes." She pointed to the old computer. "That thing is so old, I am pretty sure you can hack it in no time."
"Listen, just because I don't know what some outdated viewing device is desn't mean I am bad at my job. I live in the present and use the computer to bring up anything I want or need." Tobias' indignant tone continued. He sat down at the computer and began typing away and in moments had acess to the computer. "Whelp it seems that this is some sort of filing system. But I can't make any sense of it. Seems to be a bunch of numbers with decimal points that correspond to titles."
Nhi giggled softly as she started to look for the tapes. As she came back with the tapes, she dropped them on the desk next to the computer. "Did you say titles?" She pushed him aside a little and looked on the screen. "You know if you interested yourself more in these kinds of things maybe you would be better at your job." She picked up tapes and started to click things on the screen with the mouse. "Cause if you did, you would know the tapes and the titles are connected. They are a code to..." she looked through the bookshelves and as she hit the enter key on the keyboard a door opened on the end. "...open the door."
Tobias had little idea what happened here. However, he knew that if she questioned his ability about his job one more time he would just leave her here. This was getting rediculous and Beckett had about all he could take. He sighed heavily as if it took all his strength to simply follow her through the door.
They walked through the door and came in to a hallway where an alarm was beeping. A computer voice was calling out, "Warning, breach, you have 5 minutes to find the door." The computer kept repeating the same message.
"Ok which door?" Nhi shouted to the computer. "There are like 12 here." Suddenly the computer stopped talking. Nhi looked on her tricorder, but there was nothing that indicated anything dangerous going on. No gas leak, no life signs. The alarm sound was off not too, only the flicking of the red alert.
The room then changed suddenly. They were now standing ankle deep in water. There was a soft white light in the room, and the walls and floors were covered in tiles. Place looked like some sort of swimming pool. The pool went deeper on one side and on the pool side were pool chairs with towels. Behind that were high windows reaching from the floor to the ceiling and sunlight came through.
"Was I supposed to bring my bikini? What is this?" Nhi got out of the pool and looked around. There were no computers. She walked to the windows and looked out side. Outside there was a nice outside, pool chairs, an outside pool. She touched the glass and the glass disappeared and she walked outside. The sun on her face almost felt real.
"Computer? Is this part of the program?" Nhi asked. "What are we supposed to do here?"
The computer immediately answered: "This is the Ultimate Intelligence challenge. Everything you see here is part of the program. The program is designed to test the strength and abilities of the users. Your goal is to survive the program to the end. Everything you need is in the program." Another door opened in the indoor pool and the computer continued, "The program has adapted to your current needs."
"Our current needs? I don't..." she walked to the door that just opened. It looked like some kind of storage room. There were towels on the shelves. And then she noticed the bath robes and swimming wear. "Ok computer, what is going on? What is this?"
"The program has adapted to your current needs." The computer repeated.
"I don't understand," Nhi turned to Beckett. "This is a beautiful place. Nice and peaceful. I don't need a swim right now. I was just curious about this program. I didn't want to embarrass you. I just wanted you to have fun. I wanted me to have fun." She walked back outside and dropped on a chair. "You know we could just wait here till the program is over. I don't know what the program wants." All the enthusiasm was gone from her voice. "You came here for a puzzle. Because I told you it was a puzzle, and now I just feel like a fraud." She stared to the pool. "I am sorry."
All at once Tobias thought he knew what exactly went on here. "Don't be sorry. The puzzle continues. I believe the puzzle may be us. The program is adapting to what we ask for. I asked for a way to decipher the library in the past room and it gave me a computer with a listing. Just now you made a remark about not having your bikini..." For the breifest of moments he paused in his speaking as the idea of her wearing a bikini danced through his head. "...So the program gave you a swimsuit. Perhaps this program is designed to help someone learrn exactly what they would like from life."
He looked around and while he was interested in how this program would proceed. He did feel bad about ruining her enthusiasm. "So what do you say we go get changed." He motioned toward the room where the swimwear was. It now Tobias noticed something and decided to test his theory. "You know that room needs a little privacy." No sooner did the words leave his lips then a barrier went up between to two dressing areas. One side had swimwear for Nhi and the other for Tobias. "See what I mean?"
Nhi had got up when Tobias spoke. She looked at the dressing rooms that had appeared. "So you mean to say the ultimate intelligence challenge?" She walked up to her side of the dressing area. "If you're ok with it, I guess I am. Let's change." She walked inside closed the curtain and looked through the swimming wear. When she had picked a bikini she liked, she got out of her uniform and changed in to it.
Is the human brain... Tobias thought as a continuation to Nhi's statement. Once she was inside her dressing room he entered his. On a bench he found a black pair of board shorts. Green palm leaf patterns were on it. He removed his uniform and placed it in the locker provided, making sure to take his comm badge with him. Once the shorts were on the badge went into the pocket and he stepped out wearing nothing but the bathing suit.
She came out finding Tobias waiting for her. "Sorry to let you wait..." She nervously waved her hands as she turned away. "You look nice." She mumbled.
Beckett blushed sheepishly he thought that she looked stunning. However, he did not have the words to do it justice. He hoped that his face would convey his thoughts. "Thanks... You don't look to bad yourself." He finally blurted. "Now I wonder what we are supposed to do next. Perhaps the better question is what do we want next."
"Well, what do you want?" She said, "So far you wanted different things from me. You don't even want to be here." She pulled her hair loose and it fell around her hips. She pulled the hair behind her pointy Vulcan ears. "And it's not like the program has given you an easy exit for you to leave." She walked outside again and dipped her foot in the water.
She sat down on the edge putting her feet in the water. "So what if the program opened a door." She pointed to the building behind her and the exit appeared. "You could leave now, what would you want to do?" She dropped her arm. She had no idea it could have been that easy, it's never that easy.
Tobias stood there for a long while and stared at the door that she had indicated. It was true that he could just walk right through it and leave. But, was that what he really wanted. His eyes fell on the intruiging and beautiful woman that he was here with. He also wondered if his theory was right. Could this program be that easy? Thus far all of his tests had proven his theory correct. Perhaps all he did want was some time away from the computer and someone to enjoy life with. He sat down next to Nhi and put his feet in the water. "I think I would like to sit right here with you for the time being. That is if you would have me."
"If I..." Nhi sighed. "Toby, I am just going to call you Toby. You gave me a hard time getting you here, but you even got out of your uniform." She moved a bit closer to him. "what do you think?" She leaned against him and smiled. "I am Hoa Nhi, it means Flower Child. Kind of ironic. I am always acting like a child." She lay her head on his shoulder. As she spoke, her tone became softer and less childish. "It is strange, You make me feel so comfortable, so much calmer. No one understand why I act out. I am half Vulcan, I never had the training my sister had. I am always over compensating in my behavior to feel a little in control. Oh sure I meditate. And I look like I could get any guy with the flick of my hair, not to brag, but I never been with anyone, not like this anyways. It feels really nice." She closed her eyes and put her her finger on her lips. "Shhh, Nhi."
Tobias blushed when she called him Toby. In fact no one had ever called him that and hearing it come from her just seemed right. He smiled and stoked her hair softly before he spoke. "I have always been wrapped up in my carreer and my work. In fact despite everything I seem to get no where fast. You know at one time I was the Chief of the Intelligence department on this boat. But bigger missions, larger tasks call for better people. So, I decided to bury myself in my work and prove who I was and that I was better than the sum of my parts. However, sometimes a person like me needs to be reminded to lift his head from the screens once in a while. He needs to be reminded to be childish once in a while." He continued to stroke her hair as he sat in silence for the moment. "Perhaps that is why we are here in this moment. You are here to show me how to be more whimsical, and I in turn to teach you to be a bit more estudious."
Nhi still had her eyes closed, as she listened to him talk. She lift her hand and gently put it on his chest. She then softly whispered, "Can we get more whimsical you first now, and I be more estudious over dinner? We still have some time in this holo suite. And I believe the program is not over yet." She didn't wait for his answer and just slid in the water, going full bother under water. When she came back up, she held up her hands towards him. "Come catch me if you can. The water is nice."
Tobias laughed out loud when she jumped into the water. It seemed that in the short period of tim since arriving in the holosuite he had lost himself and he loved it. "You're on he hollered as he slid into the water after her. As he swam after her he could feel that the chilled water did indeed feel nice. He also could feel a sense of belonging, as if his life finally was going to turn around.
Nhi was a very good swimmer and she could tell he wouldn't catch up ro him. So she slowed down and turn around as he came closer to her. She swam towards him and in to his arms. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
The softness of her touch and the pressure of her lips caught Tobias a bit off guard but he enjoyed it. He returned the kiss in kind as all thoughts of his work faded away. All there was in life was he and her and this glorious moment.
A Joint Post By
Ensign Hoa Nhi Nguyen
Security Officer, USS Pioneer
Petty Officer First Class Tobias Beckett
Data Systems Analyst, USS Pioneer
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