Practice Time Part II
Posted on Mon Jun 19th, 2023 @ 6:27pm by Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren & Lieutenant Ja'sol H'ros & Lieutenant Commander Hermia O'Rourke & Captain Edmund Merrick & Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna & Ensign Connor Turner & Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhara Rynn
Edited on on Tue Jun 20th, 2023 @ 8:23pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 14 - The Poseidon Adventure
Location: After 11 - Deck 11 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD009 1630 hrs
Zhara had been at a side table, waiting for Connor. As she planned to visit the station after, she'd chosen to wear a peasant blouse with a green and gold vest over a black skirt in a modern Gypsy style. When she heard Paisley yell for him to join her, she decided she should be in the group before Connor turned and ran. "Hello, everyone. Ensign Turner, I'm glad you made it."
She knew most of the people in the group. All but the loud one. Zhara turned to her. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Zhara."
Paisley smiled. "I am Ens. Paisley F'rar, Assistant Chief Engineer and Damage Control specialist," she said. It was par for the course, how they all introduced themselves-rank, name, job title. "Who are you?" She looked to Connor, then back to Zhara. She KNEW it; the "girlfriend" thing was a ruse! Why ELSE would he be in the lounge with a strange woman?! He wasn't the type to have female friends. Or any friends at all.
Connor looked at Alyssa and remembered his assignment. Three to six sentences.... "Hello," he told Alyssa, and gave her a shy wave. That was a sentence, wasn't it? He looked at Zhara for some sort of confirmation. He tried very hard not to look at his feet.
Zhara gave him an encouraging smile and nodded.
"What's that about?"Alyssa asked telepathically, not wanting to speak aloud and embarrass Connor.
"Homework. He needs to interact more with people." Zhara replied in kind.
"Hello. How are you doing? Connor, right?" Alyssa replied with a polite smile.
OK! Apparently, that counted! Good news! Just two to five sentences left and I can get out of here. He looked at her and saw the dark pupils. Bugger! Beautiful and Betazoid! How am I going to survive this?! OK, Connor. Think! These are not difficult questions. You can answer, somehow. Connor gulped, tried looking at Alyssa but eventually decided that looking over her head was a better choice. "Um, yes. I'm Connor. I'm, um, well, OK, I think." He looked again at Zhara, his eyes straining to stay level but widening.
"Well and okay. I'm happy to hear it," Alyssa replied, smiling politely. He was clearly nervous and she didn't want to add to it. "Welcome to the Pioneer, Connor. I hope you like it here."
"Poor boy," Alyssa sent telepathically to Zhara. "Ensign F'rar is going to eat him alive."
"Yes. She's terrorizing him. I didn't expect her to be here, but I should have. In spite of that, I think he's doing rather well." Zhara replied.
"I wish you both luck," the scientist replied.
Happier than a normal person might be for such a statement, Connor answered, "I hope so too." Three! That's three! I'm free! "Nice meeting you all," he finally uttered and started walking quickly towards the exit.
Alyssa and Zhara just smiled.
"He did well," Zhara said to Alyssa, pleased.
Edmund arrived, and smiled seeing the gathering in the After 11. "Looks like everyone had the same idea, coming to have a drink on the ship. What is the occasion?" going to get a drink at the bar, a Jameson, then turning around. He was in his civvies, wearing a short sleeved dark green shirt and black pants, and a pair of runners.
Hermia had heard about two women throwing knives in After 11. She changed into civies, grabbed her own throwing knives and headed down.
She saw a little crowd in the corner of the lounge and made her way over. Seeing it was Alyssa and another woman taking turns, she said. "Hey, Alyssa." Then holding up her own knives, she asked. "Anyone mind if I play the winner?"
Alyssa grinned. "Absolutely not. The more the merrier."
"Great." Hermia said with a smile. She laid out her knives, that were a charcoal in colour and possessed runes signifying her family name.
Jayna gave the knives an appreciative once-over. "Those are very nice. Do you want to go first or second?"
"I'll go second." Hermia said.
The Vulcan nodded. She knew Hermia would be good, and looked forward to watching her technique, so going first was fine. She took her knifes to the throw line and threw. Once again, she got three in the center circle, and three in the ring just outside center. It was respectable, but she needed to change her target and practice her aim later. She gathered her knives and moved to the side where she could watch.
"Impressive." Hermia said. She then picked up her knives and stepped to the line.
Taking the blade of her first knife between her finger and thumb, she drew back her arm and let the knife fly just after the apex of her arc of her arm as she brought it forward.
The knife flew, impacting the target just shy of the bullseye.
Adjusting her stance, she threw the other knives in quick succession. Four hit the bullseye, while the last landed almost opposite the first.
"Very impressive," Jayna said, smiling. "You have a good technique. How about one more round and then we'll open it up to others?"
"Sure." Hermia said with a smile.
At that, Paisley turned and went back to her table, sashaying away, and pausing occasionally to say hello to people she knew. Finally, she dropped into her seat-visible to the gathered knife-throwers-and picked up a glass of tea, sipping it as she watched. After a moment, she turned back to her two friends, and went back to her snack and chatter about what her bunkmate had been DOING for three days.
Edmund took in the activity from the others, got his drink and went to sit down to just watch. He found it interesting to see those who were wanting to do knife throwing practice, in the After 11.
A few moments went by then Edmund rose up from his table. He had been asked to find someone who could work on computers. "Say I was wondering would anyone know someone who is really good with computers? " Walking over to where the others were at.
Connor perked up. More than happy to escape all the women, he practically rushed over to Edmund and said, "Um, yes sir. That would be me." That's one more sentence. Did all three to six have to be with the same person? I can't remember. Bugger!
Zhara watched Connor carefully, pleased that he was getting into a conversation about computers. He'd done well for his first foray.
Merrick looked at Connor with a smile. "Okay then, if it is alright with you, I'll send a message to the individual to let them know that you'd be willing to help out," pulling out his padd and sending the message along before he got distracted. He put it away and looked towards the knife throwing bit. "What do you think about what is going on there?"
"I don't know and I don't want to know," Connor admitted. "I would much rather be back in engineering or my quarters."
"Not used to that sort of activity are you. Or even being here." Edmund remarked. " Oh yeah, I'm Captain Edmund Merrick, Marine XO but, you can call me Edmund, or even Ed. What's your name?" then a doh expression crossed his features. "Blast i forgot to put down a name the person was needing and I definitely need your name."
"Ensign Connor Turner, sir. And no, sir, I'm not used to social activities - not like this, anyways. I'm much more comfortable one on one."
Edmund gave a brief nod. "It seems that Zhara has been watching you. Are you on some sort of experiment as to getting to know people?" it may not have been too tactful but from what Connor had said, perhaps this was a lesson of socializing.
"She wants me to learn to be more socially anxious," Connor answered honestly.
Zhara noticed them looking at her and waved. She wasn't going to insert herself in a conversation while Connor seemed to be relaxing--unless she was asked--but she felt it would be rude not to acknowledge them.
Merrick gave an answering nod towards Zhara, then remarked to Connor. "Socially anxious or socially active? Though I can see you are feeling a little bit, edgy?" Edmund thought he could see a sheen of perspiration upon Connor's brow.
"She's trying to help but I have a difficult time with people. Computers are easy. People are hard."
"I suppose people are difficult to understand, for me, I don't know much about computers except for some rudimentary things to do. If someone were to ask me to um reprogram something I would look at them and say, I can't help you on that at all." Edmund commented.
"Yes, well, computers are much more, um, functional," he responded with a shrug. "And, I believe that I should be heading back to working them, so if you will excuse me?" he asked politely.
"Okay and thanks again for speaking up, it's going to help the person a lot." He held out his hand towards Connor to shake his hand. "I'll be seeing you around. And let me know how it went, okay?"
Connor took Edmund's hand and said, "Certainly, sir. Anything to meet a new computer...." With that, he released his grip and hurriedly left After 11. He was going to need a good deal of time in his quarters after this.
Edmund watched Connor leave, a slight smile, then he turned his attention towards the knife throwing, and walking over to join them. "Tell me there was talk of someone being a target or are we just throwing the knives like we do in darts?" he looked at Ja'sol, "What's your skill at it?
Ja'sol looked to Edmund. " I was standing as a target for the ladies for a bit. But as for my skill with throwing knives, I am fair. I am much better with a Vor-shee, A melee weapon from my home world which is a bit more difficult to master and needs more room for a beginner to practice with. " Stated Ja'sol.
"Really!" he exclaimed, "I would love to see your blade, I am familiar with using bladed weapons. However, let's have some fun, and this time no living target."
Jayna and Hermia had just finished their second round. The Vulcan turned to Edmund. "You two are welcome to have a go. Or you can play Hermia."
"Yeah, Edmund, as I recall you are an adequate dancer." Hermia teased. "Let's see if you can throw a knife."
Edmund's mind flashed to the last time Hermia had seen him dance, he laughed good naturedly. " You will see but I want to see how Ja'sol is in that aspect."
Jayna moved to the side to have a better view of the fun. She was curious to see how well Edmund and Ja'sol threw.
Ja'sol stepped next to the table and picked up a knife and checked the balance and then threw the first one followed by the remaining five. He scored three in the bullseye(ten ring) and three in the nine ring in a fairly tight group. " As I said, I am fair with throwing knives, but there is room for improvement. " He said simply.
"Then we may be evenly matched?" Edmund cracking a smile. "Then later on we can talk more about blades." he turned to select some blades noting the different colorations. He noted that Ja'sol selected the silver with the lotus pattern. Which then made for him to make a decision. "May I borrow these?" his hand hovering over the ones who had the IDIC emblem upon them. "I prefer asking." giving a smile
" If you'd like me to bring the Vor-shee out sometime, then I would suggest us meeting in the holodeck for some target practice first. The Vor-shee is a weighted 7.62 diameter ball with four small 12.7 centimeter I guess you could axe blades spaced evenly around the ball and a spike coming up out of the top center of the ball. The bottom of the ball has a handle for close range combat and it also has a seven meter chain attached to the bottom of the handle so it can be used at close distance as well. It was used to grapple other ships on the sea by my people many generations ago. " He stated. " If there is anyone else who would like to give a go sometime, then please let me know. "
"Well most definitely I'm looking forward to seeing your weapons." Edmund picked up the blades took a good look at the placements of where Ja'sol's blades hit. Then he threw his, Three in the nine ring and then three in the ten ring. "I certainly need to improve as well. Looks like we're evenly matched at this point and time. " One set was all that he was going to do. He went to retrieve the knives he had borrowed, and put them back in their place.
"I shall get another drink." Edmund replied. "I'll do another set later on."
Hermia clapped Edmund's effort.
" Thank you for the use of the knives, This has been a most entertaining evening and one I shall not soon forget. " He said with a grin. " Sadly I have work in the morning and I should turn in soon. " He finished his drink and placed the glass upon the bar and walked towards the door. Ja'sol looked back and smiled, He didn't remember the last time that he had enjoyed himself this much.
One more drink and Edmund looked towards the ladies, Hermia and Jayna. "I'm going to head off as well, this was a lot of fun. I'll be seeing you later." He gave a nod towards Zhara, and a smile then with a wave, Edmund left and headed for his quarters.
"So, ladies, another game?" Hermia asked.
"I should go, too," Jayna said, checking the time. "It was nice to practice here with both of you." She picked up the black set of knifes and turned back to Alyssa. "Keep that set. I'll order myself another one."
"Thanks," Alyssa replied.
Jayna bid goodnight to Zhara and left.
"I'm up for another game," Alyssa said. Then she turned to Zhara. "Unless you'd like to try?"
Zhara raised her hands. "No. I'll just watch."
Alyssa nodded. "Okay. I'll go first."
"Okay, loser buys dinner, next time where together." Hermia said.
"Deal." Alyssa wasn't as good as Hermia, but she would try to beat her own score.
After Alyssa had finished her turn, Hermia had hers.
"Dinner's on me," Alyssa said, picking up her new knives. "Thanks for the game!" All in all, it had been a good night.
A Joint Post By:
Ensign Paisley F'rar
Damage Control Specialist, USS Pioneer
Ensign Connor Turner
Computer Systems Specialist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Ja'sol H'ros
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Captain Edmund Merrick
The Cure Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
Intelligence Liaison, The Cure
Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren
Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhara Rynn
Counselor, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Hermia O'Rourke
Chief Medical Officer, USS Pioneer
RSS Feed